#the dilemma is real

[moonlight-hwa]

Mother is mothering once again….and I am utterly living for it.

[the-kneecap-god]

yes im mature why do you ask?

[widevibratobitch]

god i missed having long nails haha click click motherfucker

[lossie92]

Question: I'll be practicing expressions later this week. Who should I draw? 🤔

Also I'm bored and trying to kill time while waiting for meds to kick in. Hit me with some asks. It's open asks hours weee~

[catb-fics]

It’s actually ridiculous how h*rny Van makes me it’s RIDICULOUS because I can’t do anything about it bc he’s not here smh

[chalkxtabletxtowers]

Liking some really cute Gorillaz art

Realising it's 2Nu

[bacchuschucklefuck]

truly this one's just for me. I can do what I want foreverrr

[hinamie]

get these boys summer uniforms and cold beverages Stat

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

best BEAST!!

[justafriendofxanders]

call buffyverse the bermuda triangle because no ship made it out of that shit alive. no marriage finale, no kids, no epilogue. the ideal ending for me where it's just a whole bunch of exes and dead exes in a world where people are constantly coming back to life. multidimensional divorce FOREVER.

[benevolenterrancy]

I'm reading bk6 and have just met ghostfire!Hua Cheng. i am enamoured...

feng xin and mu qing are trying to be supportive of xie lian's bizarre new castle but they're drawing the line at the evil little fire demon that seems to hate absolutely everyone except xie lian

[rennyrose]

Wanted to mess around with expressions again today- and another age joke

[clumsiestgiantess]

Oh the irony of finally becoming a giant only to take a look at how far away the ground seems from your perspective and immediately feel sick with vertigo. You can’t stand it, but you’ve been wanting this for forever!

Or…

Oh the irony of finally becoming a tiny only to realize being picked up and carried causes you to get extremely motion sick. You hate it, but you’ve been daydreaming about it being the best thing ever!

[midnight-mismanagement]

No one:

Zero Escape character during a high-stress situation: Let us take this opportunity to ponder at length a logic paradox as we contemplate our imminent doom.

[deathgamegirl]

akane must have felt trapped by her visions of the future. the personal reasons she had as to why she set up the second nonary game and the AB project- to save herself, or the world, or for revenge, or for forgiveness- those certainly were factors, but they all pale in comparison to the biggest reason of all- because she had to. if she didn't recreate the future, then the past would be lost. and in that way, her life was never truly her own. she's always been a puppet of destiny, caged in by the paradox of her own existence. she must have accepted this fact long ago, likely during or right after the first nonary game- she would have been twelve. she was just a kid when her autonomy and future was ripped out of her hands and predetermined for her. she's so determined to make her visions come true because she has to. because if she doesn't, then who will?

[comikadraws]

Itachi's Age

Itachi's age in canon is quite a weird topic. Mostly because Kishimoto messed up the timeline completely with contradictory information scattered literally everywhere. And also because the anime changed him to resemble an adult. Depending on the source, Itachi could've been anywhere from 11 to 13 years old during the massacre. Now let's take a closer look.

The exact sources (as well as elaborations) are in the image descriptions. Pluses between panels mean that the panels do not belong next to each other. Slight edits here and there!

Follow-Up Post with a Timeline for Itachi's Life

Sasuke's age during the massacre

First of all, since many people seem to get this one wrong, Sasuke's age during the massacre is confirmed to be 7 years old. This is the only information we have for placing the night of the massacre on the timeline.

Databooks

The databooks will consistently put Sasuke and Itachi at a 5-year gap. Itachi is born on June 9th and Sasuke is born on July 23rd. Using this information, Itachi would have been 12-13 years old during the massacre.

Kakashi's Statement

Next up is Kakashi. He states that Itachi was 13 years old when he became a squad captain at ANBU. This information matches the one from the databooks and implies that Itachi got promoted in the short timespan of less than two months between his own birthday and the Uchiha massacre.

Sasuke's Memories

Now, looking at the manga, things are getting a little more tricky.

First of all, since this is very important for pinpointing the characters' ages, Japanese schools start the school year in April. The children who start school are aged 6. While this is not stated outright by the manga, it matches fairly well with later established information from the manga.

The Waves Arc takes place during Spring. So Genin must graduate/start in Spring as well (further elaboration in the image description).

And we know that Itachi began the Academy at age 6. So it is probably the starting age for all children in Konoha.

But now we run into our first issue just by puzzling together the timeline utilizing chapters 220-224. As explained in Sasuke's flashbacks, Itachi became Chunin at age 10. At some point, 6 months after that, he joins ANBU - which coincides with Sasuke's first day at the Academy which is most likely in April.

The problem here is the characters' birthdays.

6 months before April was October. Since Itachi's birthday is in June, he could not have turned 11 in that time frame. In other words, Itachi is still 10 years old when he joins ANBU. And since Sasuke is still 6 years old at that point in time, that puts Itachi and Sasuke at an age gap of 4 years as opposed to 5. Consequently, during the massacre (when Sasuke was 7) Itachi would have been 11-12 years old.

This would also be a much better match for Sasuke's depiction in chapter 402. Here, an Academy-aged Itachi (6-7 years old) is playing with his brother. Sasuke would be 2-3 years old rather than 1-2.

We now know that the databook information does not match Sasuke's flashbacks on multiple accounts and it's either because of their alleged ages, their birthdays, or both.

But Now Which One Is Correct?

The answer to that one is: We don't know. Kishimoto didn't pay a lot of attention to his timeline and Itachi is the biggest victim of that. But we can guess.

Right now, the databooks are contradicting the manga. One solution to this problem can be found in the novels. In "Itachi Shinden: Book of Dark Night" (chapter 6, part 2) in a conversation between Danzo and Hiruzen, we learn that Itachi was aged up on paper to lead an ANBU squad.

While the timelines are not a perfect match (for example, the novels state Itachi to be 11 years old during his promotion to ANBU), this is a plausible explanation for the discrepancy: The databooks might just reflect the information considered "official" or "known" in-universe.

The databooks would remain (mostly) accurate in this regard. It would explain the 4-year gap between Sasuke and Itachi from the manga. It would explain the memory from chapter 402. It would explain why Kakashi thinks that Itachi was 13 during his promotion. It would even explain height inconsistencies between manga Itachi and databook Itachi, knowing the data was messed with.

In conclusion: Itachi was likely 11-12 years old during the massacre. Furthermore, this means he was 16-17 during part 1 of Naruto and 20 at the time of his death.

If you're interested in a visualization of Itachi's life in a timeline, check out my follow-up post.