The most major change to him will be that Itachi's desire for peace and to avoid conflict will no longer be filtered through societal pressure to take up a life of violence. He'll definitely push for non-violent resolutions to conflicts and will avoid battle whenever possible. If pressed, he will strike to disable rather than to kill, and will disengage as soon as he can. However, the potential for him to decide that violence justifies a greater end will always be there. It's just that as long as he's without the memories that nurtured that trait in him in the first place, it's going to take a while to get Itachi to the point where he'll make that call for himself without significant external pressure. When that happens, I expect some of his ruthlessness to surface as well, in the sense of making whatever it is end as fast as possible in order to avoid protracted bloodshed. He won't be happy about it, though, and it's going to cause him a lot of turmoil, maybe even when he does get the requisite memories back.
In that vein, if Itachi regains memories of the violent acts he's committed sans contexts, he's going to be really shaken up. What kind of person was he? What kind of person will he become if he keeps regaining memories? …Does he want to keep regaining memories and become that person? What could have possibly turned him into the kind of person that's done the things he's done? Those are the questions he'll be dealing with. He'll be afraid of knowing, afraid that he's a danger to people around him, and until he knows why it's going shake his sense of self to the core.
Writing Sample: The blank woke with a feeling of peace. He tried to think of where this peaceful feeling came from, only to find that he couldn't find any cause—couldn't find any reason for not knowing the cause. Couldn’t find any memories at all. The shock jolted him awake, and he found himself in a nondescript rock-cut room, lying in a bed. He had no point of comparison, yet he couldn't shake the sense that something was not right about the scene. As he moved out from under the blankets, a metal object heaved into view. The blank snatched it up before it could fall to the floor, pausing to study the brass tube. He noted that it had been blocked on either end by glass, and he couldn't see what was inside. After a moment of consideration, he peered down the tube's narrow end.
Inside he saw a stranger, a young man with red eyes and long black hair, looking haggard and worn. He wore a nondescript navy shirt and a headband bearing an unfamiliar symbol. "Your -------'s life and sanity are at stake," the stranger said. Despite the small image, his eyes were focused and intent. His voice took on a harder edge as he continued, "Win. I do this willingly."
The blank lifted his head from the tube. "I do this willingly," he said aloud, idly, thinking over the stranger's conviction in those cryptic words. He was jolted by how familiar the voice sounded. Acting on suspicion, he tried looking at the tube's polished side, which threw back a distorted reflection—enough, still, to see that he had the same long dark hair as the stranger.
"Your… blank's life and sanity are at stake," the blank said experimentally, trying to match the inflection of the stranger in the tube. "Win. I do this willingly." The resemblance was eerie enough that he surprised himself. Was the stranger himself, then? Without a better reflection, he couldn't tell for sure.
Life and sanity… the stranger's message certainly sounded dire, whatever that garbled thing was that led the blank to do this willingly. And instructions for winning were meaningless without any indication of what he was supposed to win. On the whole, he thought, not entirely helpful. Or trustworthy, without his memories to verify what the stranger was saying.
Itachi 3/?
The most major change to him will be that Itachi's desire for peace and to avoid conflict will no longer be filtered through societal pressure to take up a life of violence. He'll definitely push for non-violent resolutions to conflicts and will avoid battle whenever possible. If pressed, he will strike to disable rather than to kill, and will disengage as soon as he can. However, the potential for him to decide that violence justifies a greater end will always be there. It's just that as long as he's without the memories that nurtured that trait in him in the first place, it's going to take a while to get Itachi to the point where he'll make that call for himself without significant external pressure. When that happens, I expect some of his ruthlessness to surface as well, in the sense of making whatever it is end as fast as possible in order to avoid protracted bloodshed. He won't be happy about it, though, and it's going to cause him a lot of turmoil, maybe even when he does get the requisite memories back.
In that vein, if Itachi regains memories of the violent acts he's committed sans contexts, he's going to be really shaken up. What kind of person was he? What kind of person will he become if he keeps regaining memories? …Does he want to keep regaining memories and become that person? What could have possibly turned him into the kind of person that's done the things he's done? Those are the questions he'll be dealing with. He'll be afraid of knowing, afraid that he's a danger to people around him, and until he knows why it's going shake his sense of self to the core.
Writing Sample:
The blank woke with a feeling of peace. He tried to think of where this peaceful feeling came from, only to find that he couldn't find any cause—couldn't find any reason for not knowing the cause. Couldn’t find any memories at all. The shock jolted him awake, and he found himself in a nondescript rock-cut room, lying in a bed. He had no point of comparison, yet he couldn't shake the sense that something was not right about the scene. As he moved out from under the blankets, a metal object heaved into view. The blank snatched it up before it could fall to the floor, pausing to study the brass tube. He noted that it had been blocked on either end by glass, and he couldn't see what was inside. After a moment of consideration, he peered down the tube's narrow end.
Inside he saw a stranger, a young man with red eyes and long black hair, looking haggard and worn. He wore a nondescript navy shirt and a headband bearing an unfamiliar symbol. "Your -------'s life and sanity are at stake," the stranger said. Despite the small image, his eyes were focused and intent. His voice took on a harder edge as he continued, "Win. I do this willingly."
The blank lifted his head from the tube. "I do this willingly," he said aloud, idly, thinking over the stranger's conviction in those cryptic words. He was jolted by how familiar the voice sounded. Acting on suspicion, he tried looking at the tube's polished side, which threw back a distorted reflection—enough, still, to see that he had the same long dark hair as the stranger.
"Your… blank's life and sanity are at stake," the blank said experimentally, trying to match the inflection of the stranger in the tube. "Win. I do this willingly." The resemblance was eerie enough that he surprised himself. Was the stranger himself, then? Without a better reflection, he couldn't tell for sure.
Life and sanity… the stranger's message certainly sounded dire, whatever that garbled thing was that led the blank to do this willingly. And instructions for winning were meaningless without any indication of what he was supposed to win. On the whole, he thought, not entirely helpful. Or trustworthy, without his memories to verify what the stranger was saying.