The Uchiha clan is one of the most prestigious and most highly respected clans in the naruto verse. They are often respected for their incredible skill, precision in shadow shuriken justu, intense fire style techniques, and lastly, the Uchiha”s most ultimate weapon the copy wheel eye (popularly referred to as the Sharingan). One of the more popular Uchiha”s and most recognized for his amazing mastery over the ninja battle techniques, is the first son of Fugaku Uchiha (the head of the entire Uchiha clan when they existed)Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi Uchiha is mostly feared for his visual process ,but can be somewhat underestimated when it comes to his superior mastery in hand to hand combat ,a very useful amount of offensive and defensive jutsu from basic shadow clones ,explosive shadow clones,fire and water style techniques,crow transformation jutsu ,shadow shuriken ,etc…Granted itachi has the basic skill of a superior ninja but his abilities with his mastered base tamoe sharingan and mangekyo sharingan are truly ground shaking.With both variances of the sharingan he possesses he can cast illusionary control over the five basic senses of his opponents.The illusions aren’t real but that isn’t the case for the opponents he casts it over ,the illusions feel 100% real and whatever damage taken in the illusionary jutsu is inflicted on his opponents real body.Some of his favorite genjutsu are the time manipulating Tsukuyomi ,Basic sharingan genjutsu ,The torturing experience of “Demonic Illusion:Shackling Stakes”.The only requirement he needs to cast one of these deadly illusionary techniques is simply eye contact ,his opponent looks at the ring on his finger ,or his opponent looks at the eyes of his crows.These tactics are especially tricky to get around if never fought itachi a day in your life such crash bandicoot or sonic the hedgehog.Lol ,yes obviously they never crossed paths with a naruto character so they would have no way of knowing itachi”s abilities.Itachi has the advantage on a decent amount of characters ,from the simple fact of them not knowing how to avoid his genjutsu ,including everyone in the espada.But granted espada members have some advantages as well that i will get to right this second.
“What is a heart ?”
“If I open your chest would i see it ?”
“If i crack open your skull will i find it there ?”
-Ulquorra Cifer
Aizen”s most powerful aroncar”s are no joke to say the least.They are organized through numbers 1 through 10 (10 being the lowest and 1 being the highest and most powerful).For a general basis for right now before i get more in depth ,these guys carry enough power to rival the captains of the 13 gotei in the Soul Society.Formerly enough power and speed to compete with mountain busting opponents and even the top espada”s can even scale to island level attack potency and sub relativistic speeds.They all have elite techniques such as The Gran Rey Cero ,Transformation states ,and their own individual abilities.For sure elite soldiers who at face value are stronger than or equal to Itachi in skill ,but i haven’t spoke of Itachi”s strongest abilities yet.
Before getting into how the battles will play out i must talk about Itachi”s big offensive and defensive abilities.First ,The Amaterasu that lives in Itachi”s mangekyo sharingan is a black flame that as hot as the inner core of the sun and ignites on eye contact with whoever itachi wants to burn.This technique is further evolved and made more useful for offensive and defensive combat by his brother Sasuke Uchiha ,but Itachi is still very proficient with the black flames.Lastly ,Itachi”s triumph card is the Susanoo.Itachi”s susanoo is a orange avatar that wields The Totsuka Blade and the Yata Mirrior.The Totsuka Blade eternally seals anything it touches and can be swung effortlessly by itachi”s susanoo.Lastly ,the Yata Mirrior nullifies anything that touches its shield as long it is made up of one of the five nature elements.These techniques will be Itachi”s crunch time maneuvers and will help him compete with the Espada ,since His Susanoo and it’s abilities are immeasurable and can’t be scaled by how much it can destroy.
Breakdown Of The Battles
I will be going over the battles individually ,as well as fallacies that are present within arguing these topics.I will start with the lowest number of the espada Yammy versus alive and surpressed (sick)Itachi.First off Itachi has far more battle iq and better chances of slipping off of yammy”s attacks.Yammy is very upfront and aggressive ,he doesn’t use his brain in battle all that much and has been shown getting outmaneuvered and outsmarted by foes far less skilled and intelligent than Itachi.Such as being outmaneuvered by Uryū Ishida and a middle of the series Ichigo Kurosaki.For speed , the advantage should go to Itachi pretty much since Yammy was blitzed by bankai Ichigo.Bankai Ichigo was able to match Byakuya Kuchiki in speed during the save rukia arc ,but later on ichigo after releasing bankai didn’t really stand much of a chance speed wise against base Grimmjow ,the 6th Espada.Meaning by default Yammy should be slower than bankai ichigo who is most likely the speed of sound by scaling to Byakuya.I have seen fallacious arguments of lieutenant shinigami being scaled to relativistic speeds through them dodging the light from the Garganta ,but this is shot down easily by inconsistent feats and being inconsistent to the lore of bleach ,if lieutenants being the speed of light or relativistic was true this would mean all the captains are arguably light speed from the beginning of the series/manga ? and that the high tiers towards the end such as Aizen ,Yamamoto ,Ichigo,and evening Yhwach are all massively ftl and competing with dragon ball z characters in speed ? That can get very shaky for very obvious reasons.So Itachi should have the speed advantage combat speed wise and advantage reaction speed wise.In all honesty i can’t see Itachi losing to Yammy in any way.If Yammy gets caught in genjutsu which it’s very high possibility he would since he would not know not to look in Itachi”s eyes ,ring,or crows eyes ,he will pretty much be immobilized in the real world at eye contact and demolished in a illusion world.Some may argue genjutsu can’t work in bleach because genjutsu effects the chakra flow and bleach characters have reiatsu ,but reiatsu and chakra should be fairly similar.Reiatsu is described throughout out the series as basically raw spiritual energy while chakra has been explained to be spiritual energy as well ,gained through training by shinobi.So this also ties into the next argument of Yammy sucking away Itachi”s soul ,and it’s like Itachi”s chakra is pretty weak due to being ate away by disease but Itachi has ways to defend this such getting away with crow transformation ,already having Yammy in genjustu prior to the attack ,or basic substitution justu.Lastly ,Gran Rey Cero was never used by Yammy but even if he does use it he will more than likely have to make eye contact on Itachi to be able to track and actually hit him with it ,plus it’s very stupid to argue that Yammy wouldn’t make eye contact with Itachi at least once during a one on one battle.If Yammy made it far enough in the battle to transform ,Itachi can just match him with susanoo and pretty much one shot him with Totsuka Blade.I didn’t state this earlier but arguably Amaterasu can even put Yammy down for the count since Yammy has has been put down momentarily by Uryu”s arrows which shouldn’t be any more painful than amaterasu which is as hot as the inner core of the sun.Also Yammy have never been shown to have any type of Fire immunity so that’s that.If Alive Itachi should be able to defeat Yammy ,Edo itachi stomps.
As for Arronirro ,this when should be a no brainer.Arronirro lost to base Rukia and she is inferior to Itachi in every way.So if Rukia can do it ,beating Arronirro 1v1 would basically be a walk in park for Itachi.Alive Itachi stomps this ,so would Edo.
Now as for Granz who is into more hax abilities like Itachi.I mean Granz should be slower than itachi ,Granz shouldn’t be too more faster if any faster than renji and uryuu who both should be the speed of sound while Itachi is easily a lighting timer from scaling to hebi Sasuke ,deidara ,kakashi,etc…Granz is confirmed the weakest of the espada combat wise ,and would be at a huge disadvantage in that department.Eye contact would happen somewhere in the fight more than likely ,Granz is pretty cunning so if Itachi was to put up his ring finger at Granz i’m sure he would look (he would have no reason not to) he also would have no reason to avoid looking at his opponents eyes.Granz was almost blown to bits by uryuu”s Sprenger and Sprenger is a mere small explosion and definitely is nowhere near as hot as the core of the sun ,so ultimately amaterasu would one shot easily.Granz somehow getting Itachi to meet the conditions for his voodoo deal hax just isn’t convincing to the slightest.His wings must grab Itachi for the ability to activate ,but Itachi has far higher battle iq than Granz and shouldn’t ever be backed into a corner by him to ever be caught by the ability.Itachi can turn into crows at any time and avoid getting caught ,also the fight would most likely be over by genjutsu or amaterasu far before granz transforms.So once again alive itachi should win and edo is stronger so he would win as an edo as well.
So Zommari should be a bit faster than anyone we’ve talked about so far ,But ultimately he should the speed of sound or a bit faster.Byakuya should not be much faster between the time of the Save Rukia Arc and The end of the Huecho Mundo arc when he fought Zommari ,and they were on par in speed.Byakuya wasn’t indicated to do any training between that time so we should assume he would be just as fast as he was during the time he fought Ichigo ,So speed advantage goes to Itachi.This fight is hilariously bad for Zommari since he literally needs to look at Itachi to activate his own ability ,and little do he know looking at itachi isn’t in his best interest since he would be pretty much due to be caught up in genjutsu.But let’s just say Zommari transforms and does catch Itachi with his ability before being caught in genjutsu or one shotted by amaterasu ,The Espada are quite talkative about their abilities so i’m sure Zommari would explain it to Itachi.Itachi is well qualified to make the same judgment call that Byakuya made to sacrifice whatever part of the body Zommari targets.But it’s not a very high chance Zommari would stick around in the fight long enough to get to his transformation state since Itachi has two easy and fast ways to win the fight very quick ,eye contact or amaterasu.Also ,the discuss the fact that amaterasu has been shown to be dodged ,Hebi Sasuke should be faster than everyone i’ve talked about so far and around Itachi”s speed ,and even he was caught by amaterasu.Also Sasuke blitzed beginning of Time Skip Naruto and arguing any one i’ve talked about on the Espada”s side should be faster than a Naruto who can battle and keep up with Kakashi during a intense training exercise ,in which Kakashi has been a lighting timer since being a teenager is just flat out a bad argument to make.
Grimmjow is the first tricky matchup we’ve ran into for Itachi and his edo form may be needed to match up with him.Base to Base Grimmjow and Itachi should be similar in speed ,both lighting timers.Combat wise Grimmjow is strong enough to match Ichigo on multiple occasions ,so Grimmjow should have zero problems ultimately fighting Itachi.Genjutsu is always a liability ,and could pretty much win the fight for Itachi through eye contact ,so keep that in mind.Grimmjow is the only Espada who was shown to actually use Gran Rey Cero in battle ,so it’s most consistent to say he would against Itachi.Gran Rey Cero”s strength depends on the unknown size of Huecho Mundo ,since the Cero was explained to be so powerful it can potentially destroy it.The assumptions for the size of Huecho Mundo is up for the debate so i’m not going to give my opinion on it ,i’ll leave it up to your interpretation of it.So Gran Rey Cero may be powerful enough to kill Itachi if it’s hits him or even maybe destroy Yata Mirrior since it can possibly be a lot stronger than Karin and Karin was able to crack the mirrior.As for Grimmjow”s Transformation state that scales past alive Itachi entirely ,yes if Grimmjow transforms from the start or at all i’m positive he will beat alive Itachi.But if they are in character and not blood lusted ,in which that’s how i’m objectively discussing this battle.Grimmjow would fight in his base for awhile because he has a high confidence complexity and wouldn’t go all out from the start.This would open up to Itachi most likely getting Grimmjow in genjutsu far before he transforms.So Grimmjow can beat alive Itachi if he transforms in time before getting stuck in genjutsu or depending on the strength of Gran Rey Cero and if it would actually hit Itachi ,but more consistently Itachi should be able to win through genjutsu.This implies for Edo Itachi as well and Edo Itachi should have a way better chance of matching Grimmjow”s transformation in combat if it ever came down to it due to matching nagato and kcm naruto ,guys who should be no weaker than grimmjow in his transformation state.Also ,Izanami (A genjutsu of infinite loops that manipulates negative energy , Itachi can use this as an Edo ,he can use it while alive as well but he’s reluctant to due so probably because of low chakra reserves)would be up the air and Grimmjow has plenty of negative energy to manipulate.
Now i will discus Nnoitra who has impressive combat feats ,being able to match Kenpachi for a considerable amount of time and surviving attacks from Nelliel.Nnoitra should be a lighting timer and can fight Itachi to a decent battle ,but Totsuka Blade would pretty much put him away for good.Nnoitra is very aggressive and one dimensional ,too easy for a intellectual genius like Itachi to pick apart in battle and gain advantages.
Next ,is the emotionless nightmare himself ,Ulquorra.Alive Itachi is inferior to Ulquorra ,Even Susanoo would probably be devoured and crushed by the overwhelming strength of his second form and third form.Itachi shouldn’t be any faster than Ulquorra in base ,He gets even quicker through transformations and continuously blitzed hollow mask ichigo ,a guy who should be a lighting timer as well as Itachi ,meaning Itachi would get blitzed as well.Genjutsu is relevant but through the simple fact that Ulquorra can regenerate all damage besides damage to the internal organs and brain ,he would survive the illusionary torture of tsukuyomi or any genjutsu for that matter once he gets back to the real world.As long as Itachi doesn’t attack his brain or internal organs of course.But more consistently Ulquorra scales past Alive and Edo Itachi with his transformations and more consistently beats Itachi.
Harribel isn’t very impressive feat wise ,she’s a strategic fighter so she should be a match for Itachi.But i don’t see her withstanding the offensive power of susanoo.
Arguably Barragan doesn’t necessarily have eye balls because he’s a skeleton so genjutsu would be out of the question as long as barragan is in his skeleton form.But susanoo should ultimately be far stronger than he is simply because he’s another espada who isn’t impressive feat wise.Respira is pretty obvious and out in the open i’m sure Itachi would just simply avoid the smoke once he sees it.Bala would simply just get dodged by Itachi ,Ichigo in base has been able to dodge one of Ulquorra”s ceros and balas are twenty time slower than ceros.Also ,in the naruto verse it’s consistently shown that Itachi just counters people”s illusionary tactics that they use on him when their illusions are just flat out inferior to his.For example ,the time he reversed kurenai”s genjutsu or reversed sasuke”s genjutsu attempts many times.So what i’m getting at is Itachi has far superior time manipulation than Barragan with the Tsukuyomi and can simply reverse Barragan”s illusionary tactics.But that’s arguable and i don’t wanna get into individual verse hax systems ,Itachi shouldn’t be caught by respira in the first place.Im aware Barragan is faster than alive Itachi though and that can play into his advantage ,so more consistently Barragan would beat alive Itachi but would lose to Edo Itachi who is arguably faster than he is and through feats much stronger.
Lastly ,Number One of the bunch Coyote Starkk.Starkk is interesting because he never went all out ,but even suppressed he should be much faster ,equally as intelligent in battle ,and should have a greater attack potency.So if genjutsu doesn’t ever land throughout the battle ,Starkk would more consistently beat alive Itachi.Edo Itachi would be more interesting but it’s still iffy.Susanoo may not be able to withstand Starkk”s Los Lobos techniques ,1000 ceros being fired at the susanoo may a bit much to withstand.Starkk would most likely still be faster and would be even more stronger than Itachi ,also izanami probably wouldn’t work because even though Starkk is considered a villain he doesn’t have much negative intentions inside of him.So more consistently Starkk would win.
I hope you all enjoyed my analysis on how i believe Itachi would stand up against each member of the Espada in both of his forms.Im sure it’s some points i missed and didn’t discuss so leave it down in the comments.
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