There is little more room for speculation of Itachi's motives than there was at that point. Jiraiya told Kakashi long before that Itachi was part of the group called the Akatsuki and that they went around in pairs collecting power, Naruto being a prime target. Kakashi's regurgitation of this conversation to Itachi leads to a confrontation between Jiraiya and Itachi in which Itachi confirms Jiraiya's information.

I realize as I read back that we sounded very rude. For that I apologize. What my friend and I intended was, if any response, discussion on this topic. I admit that when I saw that the username at the top was crossed out I thought that we would be grumbling to ourselves or just someone defending the pairing and the wording tended to lead to personal insult rather than argument. I'm a moron :( Sorry