Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-36512555-20200202084241/@comment-9782468-20200207132429

He never questioned it but he knows they're going after the 9 tails so who cares?

Itachi didn't lie.

Kisame does indeed doubt him, which makes lying in this fashion useless for Itachi.

Isn't that a separate conversation? And besides, he could have literally said this in the first place. But he notes Jiraiya's prowess. Like I said, he literally never gives anyone more praise than they're due, but it's in his nature to praise people when they deserve it. It's part of his character.

More likely Itachi is saying that even with back up, a battle of their calibre would only involve the two of them. Sort of like how Kakashi didn't think the Genin would really make a difference in his fight against Zabuza so told them to stay out of the way.

Kisame's opinions of Itachi's abilities do not supersede his own knowledge of his own abilities.

Like I keep saying, there's no reason at all to lie here. You keep saying he's lying to... actually I'm not exactly sure why. To keep suspicion off him? Well that failed. To get Kisame to leave without a fuss? Well, Kisame did leave, but Itachi could have kept suspicion off him completely if he just said from the start what he said in your third image; "There's no reason to rush, absolutely none." Or "A fight with him would draw too much attention, and that's not the Akatsuki's goal." which worked when they were fighting the Jonin. Or again the whole reiteration of why they don't need Naruto. Like, why even bother going after him? They'd have to waste manpower to keep him captive and also worry about attempts of rescue until they got the rest of the TBS.

There's literally no reason to cast suspicion onto himself if he was lying about his abilities.