Massacres.

[chambers]

effort isnt a factor when using the word massacre and neither is genocide.
massacre is not an attempt to wipe out a certain kind of people or amount. massacre simply means a lot.

i see wher eyou are coming from but they are only related by the fact that they are both about killing (often) a lot of people.

[Garlannd]

This should clear it up.

Main Entry: 1mas·sa·cre
Pronunciation: 'ma-si-k&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French
1 : the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
2 : a cruel or wanton murder
3 : a wholesale slaughter of animals
4 : an act of complete destruction <the author's massacre of traditional federalist presuppositions -- R. G. McCloskey>
Taken from Websters.
*Edit*
Helpless seems to say little or no effort to me. Also my persnal opinion of when itachi wanted to know what he was capable of is that he wanted to know if he could be a horrible monster and kill all those he loved.

[chambers]

yes like i said, it has very little to do with the word genocide. and efforless and helpless are two diffrent things also. for example you could have great rouble cutting the head off of a helpless dog.

[?igma]

I doubt the pronounciation is quite correct[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

[chambers]

actually i think it is you know, i think its a french word?

[Outtawack311]

thats not a massacre. a massacre involves large numbers of kills. it gets to a point where killing is no longer murdering but a statistic, thats a massacre, like itachi massacred his clan. zabuza massacred his whole year i think.

It doesnt necessarily have to involve really large numbers like you think chambers. The boston massacre that helped kick off the american revolutionary war only killed 5 people. Yet it was considered a massacre mostly because they were innocent people that had nothing to do with the inherent situation. So Kabuto killing the anbu can be considered a massacre.

[thebaze]

massacre has slightly different meanings based on the situation

if soccer team A beat soccer team B by a score of 4-0, that can be considered a massacre

it basically means you kicked someone or another groups arse badly.

I bet Itachi just wanted to see if he was capable (from a moral perspective) of killing all his own people when he was on his way out of konoha. It obviously gave him a badass reputation and that might have been part of what he was going for. I think in Japanese culture there's a lot of emphasis on the "village/group" working together and that the people put the better of their peoples ahead of themselves - unlike americans [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img] So, him killing his clan is even more horrific in Japanese culture. Maybe? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img])

[r3n]

massacre is killing a lot of ppl, not 1 peson outtawack311. maybe the boston massacre wasnt aptly named.