Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28581957-20170402195036/@comment-25319479-20170619171908

Starscream1998 wrote: He was still there per the Akatsuki's orders, he still has to follow orders despite personal goals.

To my knowledge the manga never said that Pain tasked Itachi to capture the Nine-Tails then and there. The only source of information regarding the matter is from the anime. Pain intended to have someone go investigate Orochimaru as his whereabouts was unknown after killing the 3rd, so Itachi volunteered, to which Pain also tasked him to check on the status of Konoha's jinchuriki.