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Parentification is generally defined as when children are forced to assume the inappropriate role(s) of their parents or guardians, taking on the adult responsibilities. They become the pseudo-parent of the household, which does not just effect the parentified child, but the surrounding members as well, namely siblings.

There are different classes of parentification (these are not mutually exclusive), as well as different roles depending. Emotional parentification & instrumental parentification are both prevalent in Itachi & Sasuke's stories. Itachi can be considered a case of sibling-focused parentification, in which he assumes the roles of (in this case, both) his parents to care for his younger brother. Fugaku is the more glaring example, though there are a few things to be said regarding Mikoto's role, which i will delve into as well.

Let's start with emotional parentification. The name itself is fairly self-explanatory. Emotional parentification occurs when a child takes on a chronic positional reversal due to the parent's inability to care for own and child's emotional needs, leading to severe insufficient care. Parentification can be adaptive for the child if in a time-limited manner, and although this is not the case with Itachi, it does force him into learning how to be independent, amongst other things, such as political skills.

This class of parentification is where you see adults saying things like, "you're so mature for your age," or "you're so responsible, an old soul."

We see this very plainly with Itachi, who's told that at age seven, he's got the mind of the Hokage. The teachers at the academy don't really *need* to take care of him, he does it himself. Fugaku considers him the backbone of their family and tries to force him into the position that he sees fit. He's entrusted with high-level ANBU missions, the village secrets, everything. This of course, stems from him being an prodigy, and more importantly, Fugaku's refusal to see him as a child. Although not explicitly manga canon iirc (show-canon & light novels afaik), Fugaku takes Itachi to a battlefield at the tender age of four to show him the dark realities of war. The first few years of his life are marked with violence, he's raised amidst the third shinobi war, he's even given the name "Itachi".

^ I could discuss further the meaning of Itachi's name, but this is not too important and others have done it before me, so I will be brief. His name translates to "weasel" which is seen as a bad omen/curse. However, historically, especially in times of war and unrest, Japanese parents would give their children purposefully bad names to trick spirits into thinking that their child was worthless. This is specifically a practice of the indigenous Ainu culture, but I believe the idea has occurred over many cultures throughout history.

Anyways, his upbringing is not a kind one. He never is afforded the option to be a child. Crises & war are known as a source of parentification. He does not come out unscathed, instead insurmountably traumatized, and reacts to what he sees by deciding to become a strong ninja, to prevent wars. This is the base of everything, war is one of his greatest fears, and is what drives his nature to protect. Fugaku has failed to protect Itachi, instead directly exposing him, so Itachi takes it upon himself to push Sasuke away, and protect him from the horrors that lie within the truth.

Ultimately, Sasuke is what is important to Itachi. His hope for their clan is completely lost when he realizes that a bad outcome is imminent, and peace is no longer an option. It’s an ultimatum. When Sasuke intervenes, childishly and out of confusion for his brother’s actions, Itachi finally stops, formally apologizing for his actions. He didn’t care about the threats of being arrested, of embarrassing his father and the Uchiha clan, of anything but Sasuke. This is Fugaku’s biggest shortcoming in Itachi’s eyes.

Fugaku goes on to excuse his son's actions, and claims to look after his son with "full authority". But where is that? He cannot arrest him as he's ANBU, he even admits this. He cannot pull the cards or do anything to stop Itachi from doing what he's going to do. His excuses for his son are among the lines that he's overwhelmed with the ANBU, he's tired and he's just not thinking straight. He's showing clear signs of the negative results of parentification: aggressive behavior, depression, stress, etc. Brain development is negatively effected by these things, which isn't to say that Itachi isn't smart or a genius; he is, he's just also a cornered child, used as a weapon. Fugaku does not offer support for these problems, instead commanding him into the house, choosing to accept these seemingly failures as terms to the Uchiha cause.

It’s Itachi that threatens his father’s position as head of the house/clan by making him rightfully aware of his responsibilities and failures as a father. Sasuke is a naive child who wants to make his father proud, no matter how hard it is for him to achieve, no matter what he has to do. He loves his family, there's no doubt about that. But because of his naivety, he doesn't realize that the cracks are there and have been there since before his birth. This could not be more obvious, when they're walking outside of the police HQ, Sasuke quite literally does not comment on how dilapidated the exterior is, instead focusing on how great Fugaku is. He's excited for his father to watch him grow into the man that'll achieve his dreams.

Sasuke's dream is to become a strong shinobi, one even stronger than Itachi. He'll join the police force and be an honorable and proud Uchiha. This is something that was born from Fugaku's comparisons of the two. He needs to be better than Itachi, he needs to be his father's boy, his father's son. (Sasuke admits to himself that this bred contempt between the two.)

When they return to the Uchiha compound, Fugaku doesn't understand where they've been and why they're late. This is what defines Fugaku's character for me & is a really telling, short scene. He loves his children, but he simply doesn’t understand them (even if he says he does, like, cmon. he understands that they make choices and are their own people, but he absolutely does not understand them on a deeper level). Regardless of what Fugaku feels, we know that he never says it. Mikoto tells him that Fugaku only talks to her about Sasuke, but to be honest, this is pretty vague and although it provides comfort for Sasuke, we don't really know much else. This failure drives a rift in the family dynamic. A quick look would tell you that they were out together, spending time with one another, whether they were training or not. That itself is enough reason to be late. They're children, the responsibilities of missions and politics shouldn't be placed upon their shoulders.

Fugaku's language here is important. He starts with praise, using the phrase "That's my boy", the phrase that Sasuke has been longing to hear for ages, directly in front of him.

Fugaku is so focused on his son being a spy for the Uchiha and using him for greater means, even going so far as to threaten him with the sharingan, he in turn neglects Sasuke, causing Itachi to be the one to have to step up. He notices Sasuke's expectant looks, he hears Sasuke's plea for their father to not forget him.

Itachi threatens Fugaku with going to Sasuke’s graduation in his stead, forcing him to choose between fulfilling his position as a father, or risking his son’s position as a puppet for the Uchiha in the ANBU. This then would allow for Itachi to take control, and it’s only then that he concedes. He has to be forced into a corner by his thirteen year old son to show up for Sasuke.

This forcing of an ultimatum gives to the way Fugaku raised them, he's doing Fugaku what Fugaku has done onto them. He sees these things as necessities, he has to carry out the coup, he has to use his prodigal son as leverage. Sasuke's emotional needs are always secondary.

Every moment he's around Fugaku, he's being compared to his brother. This causes Sasuke to train harder and harder, until he's isolating himself from the other children at the academy, forced out of his own childhood in Itachi's image. Socialization, play, and other activities with other children are majorly important milestones, that Sasuke has completely missed out on due to this. It's no wonder that he's so isolated when he meets Team 7, why he's so inexplicably... weird around other children, for lack of better term. (Yes, the massacre is to blame, but his de-socialization began before.) It's partially why he searches out Orochimaru (which i could do a whole other post on...). It's harder for parentified children (and although I am mainly discussing Itachi as the parentified child, these effects 100% ripple onto Sasuke) to form relationships, especially those that come with intimacy. This is very obvious in his relationship with Naruto & Sakura, but alas this post is already extremely long. Maybe next time.

We see this isolation with Itachi too.

To put it plainly, Sasuke feels that it isn't fair. Itachi gets his father's love and praise, he gets to be in the ANBU, he gets to be strong and do whatever he wants. All while he's still stuck at the Academy, lagging behind the prodigal son. It's not that he's worthless, he's right on track for his age, but Itachi's outpaced him and set the curve.

There are more panels I could put here, but at that point, I'd just be putting the entirety of chapters 220-223. Moving on!

Self-sacrifice is a huge part of the Uchiha's upbringing. To them, its strength, a final act of love, suffering for the betterment of society even if it doesn't work/isn't beneficial.

Pushing Sasuke away so adamantly is emotional self-sacrifice. This is another big indicator in parentification too, wherein the parentified child will downplay or ignore problems that arise within the family to save the parents and/or siblings from stress or worry. Itachi will take every action he can to shield Sasuke against the horrors he endured that Fugaku did not protect him from, even if it means hurting him further.

This brings us into instrumental parentification. Instrumental parentification is when the parentified child is forced into responsibilities that revolve around the household, such as child care, finances, etc. I already have discussed a little bit about this (as i mentioned before, they are not mutually exclusive and often happen together), but Itachi's physical care for Sasuke, as well as being the "backbone of the family" (being in the ANBU, serving as the Uchiha spy, Itachi is to be head of the clan after Fugaku, etc) are examples of this.

When Itachi is five years old and Sasuke is three-months old (three months?? wtf), Fugaku and Mikoto leave Sasuke alone in his care. It's important to note that this is before the nine-tails attacks. A few chapters later, we get the scene of Iruka's parents death. Here, Iruka's father says: "parents are supposed to protect their children". Even with how nationalist Konoha is, you know with their child-soldiers and what not, parents know their duties.

It's not unreasonable to believe that this isn't a one off occurrence. After all, Itachi is the prodigy, he successfully protected him from the attack. Itachi says himself that he "doesn't have time to look after Sasuke." When he injures himself while training, it's Itachi that asks after him even if it might seem scolding, specifically in front of Fugaku.

It's important to note that Mikoto does worry for Sasuke's physical being. Itachi does not completely take her place as a mother role as he does with their father, though this does not mean he is not parentified. We see that she does agree with Fugaku, at least to some extent, so we can assume that she is at least partially to blame as well considering that Itachi does not view her as an innocent (though not nearly as egregious as Fugaku. This is almost definitely due to Kishimoto's refusal to write women as people). There is a lot of filler and anime-canon only episodes that demonstrate their relationship as such, which is interesting. I personally don't find these fillers to be that out of character for Itachi, and they seem to be popular among the fandom (Itachi cooking for Sasuke in an apron from the Sunny Side! OVA, etc.), so I think there is something worth noting there as well.

As previously discussed, it’s Itachi that trains with Sasuke. We don't see him train with his father, and when Itachi suggests that he does, he refuses and claims that Itachi is better. Where Fugaku is failing emotionally, Sasuke is filling in with Itachi (at least temporarily). Fugaku is generally unaware of his children’s abilities and progress as people outside of their status as Uchiha & ANBU. He doesn’t know what Itachi is really up to outside of his own narrow view.

The only time we see him spend time with Sasuke, who’s desperate for the attention that he believes is being used on Itachi, is to check his progress as an "adult Uchiha" even though he's only seven. Uchiha’s are seemingly only considered "true" members when they’ve mastered the fire jutsu. This alienates Sasuke even further. His brother had mastered it before his age (in turn, become an adult in the eyes of their father). What can he do? He's a child, this is his family, and his father is standing here telling him that he's not ready to wear his crest. So, he does what's been seared into him; overwork, overwork, overwork, until he can force himself into that role.

I think Fugaku is aware of his failures as well. He's awkward around his children, and his demeanor screams it. When Itachi commits the massacre, his final wish is for him to take care of Sasuke. It's the final mission that Itachi needs to execute. So he does, in his own way at least. He was doing it already, but the stakes are higher now. There will be no extra support, he's on his own. Fugaku's prepped him for this, albeit partially accidentally.

The Uchiha are a deeply prideful clan, which is exactly what Itachi rejects. He became a spy, pretending to be everything he hates for Sasuke’s sake. He goes from a child soldier, serving a nationalist system, to concealing himself so deeply in the mask of a ruthless, cold killer, forcing Sasuke to believe it, that he's never had the chance to just be himself.

Both of the Uchiha brothers lacked the freedom that someone like Naruto wraps himself in. They bottle it up, let their fears and insecurities run rampant, ruminate on it, twist it, pick at their wounds until they've destroyed something larger.