Masashi Kishimoto is known as a master crafter of characters, and deservedly so. Naruto is not only famous for its battles and jutsus but also for its beautiful character development arcs. Kishimoto believes in giving every character a twist, and he has done the same with characters like Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha.
But you would be shocked to know how indecisive the mangaka actually was. He did not have a solidified plan for the manga and even the most important characters were being built per chapter rather than being planned from the beginning.
Masashi Kishimoto Never Planned Sasuke’s Family Until Much Later in Naruto
In an interview, Masashi Kishimoto admitted that back when he had begun Naruto, he had not planned too far ahead. In fact, he was creating things as he went. And this also applies to the backstories of some major characters.
Sasuke is one of the main characters of Naruto, along with the titular protagonist and Sakura. However, even his background was not planned from the very beginning of Naruto.
According to the author, planning was extremely hazy by that point. In fact, there were many other elements in Naruto that were ill-thought-out and introduced just for the thrill of it. The author claimed that he was just ‘bluffing’ with a lot of powers and characters that he had introduced at the beginning of Naruto.
Itachi Was Just Someone Who Had Committed Something Bad
Itachi is another character who had a major impact on Naruto‘s plot. One might think that such a major character must have been planned from the very beginning of the manga, or at least by the time Sasuke was introduced. Despite the Wave Arc being a formative stage of the series, the author was still going back and forth with all his plans. It was only after the Wave arc that his plans with Naruto had started to solidify.
Unfortunately, Masashi Kishimoto never came up with Itachi’s backstory until the character himself had debuted.
All that had been thought out was that Sasuke had an elder brother who had done something bad, and that was it.
By the time Itachi was introduced, all that the author had planned was that he would be a good guy who was forced to commit horrible deeds. Kishimoto knew that he did not want Itachi to look like a completely rotten character, but the details were never clear in his mind.
Naruto viewers saw the first glimpse of Itachi in the Search for Tsunade arc of the anime. More specifically, he debuted in chapter 139 and episode 80 of the franchise. However, fans did not receive many details about him till the Itachi Shinden arc, which consisted of episodes 451-458 of the anime.
You can read Naruto on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
