First of all, in the Naruto world, illness and disease are quite rare, especially among the main characters. Most of the characters perish in battle or make personal sacrifices. Yet Uchiha Itachi suffered from an incurable disease that caused his health to weaken.

Up to now, Itachi’s illness has always been one of the biggest mysteries of the Naruto series that makes many people curious. It is still unclear what disease Itachi has, making the story of this character’s life even more tormenting. Perhaps all the stress, anxiety, and repression Itachi had endured for so long had made his illness worse.

Itachi had to alone take on responsibilities and burdens that ordinary people do not want to face. He is both a devoted older brother, a loyal ninja, a trusted spy, but also a traitor and martyr. After all that happened, he always put the interests of others above his own needs.

Itachi tried to save his younger brother and the entire village on his own, without expecting any recognition or reward. How Itachi sacrificed himself to protect those he loved made his story even more profound and heartbreaking for Naruto fans.

Taking on so much heavy responsibility without asking others for help inevitably led to stress and anxiety building up, eventually affecting Itachi’s health. This may have been one of the factors that led to his terminal illness.

Even when Itachi was revived during the Fourth Great Ninja War, he warned Naruto about the dangers of trying to do things alone. He advises Naruto not to try to carry it all on his own but to remember his friends, because loneliness can be very harmful. From his own experience, Itachi knew that taking on too much responsibility and lacking emotional support could have serious consequences.

So what is Itachi’s illness?

For most of his short life, Itachi acted as a double agent, working as a spy for Konoha, while also secretly spying for the Uchiha clan. Itachi also had to pretend to be a traitor to his homeland when he joined Akatsuki. He plays a ruthless assassin who murdered his own family, while loving them dearly.

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Constantly having to hide his true self caused great stress for Itachi. He always had to suppress his emotions, never expressing his stress, anxiety and inner turmoil openly.

The mental pain of having to personally kill his family, hurt Sasuke, and hide his true self made Itachi only able to release it, manifesting it in the form of an illness, slowly corroding his body until until death. All the emotions he wanted to express but couldn’t, turned into a cancer that brought the genius teenager’s life to an end.

During the Fourth Great Ninja War, Itachi revealed that he considered his entire life a failure, admitting that not being honest with Sasuke about the Uchiha clan massacre was a mistake. He believes that if he had shared his burdens with others, instead of carrying them alone, things might have turned out differently.