Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-995176-20170115224006/@comment-734582-20170117135443

QuakingStar wrote: Itachi was never going to kill Sasuke. Sasuke was his atonement plan. Precisely, to close the hatred cycle that he started with the clan assassination. Sasuke lives, the clan can be remade and nobody will try to avenge the Uchiha anymore, and nobody from the Uchiha can avenge Itachi.

Of course, Itachi thought little of things like death as he was willing to die for the clan, and clearly had very different ideas of things like killing people that poorly translated to Sasuke. Because Itachi's ideas are nice and all, but it only takes the slightest hint of wrong intentions to go onto the deep end. Which is exactly what happened.