Quote Originally Posted by Super5
Gai is an elite jounin (he beat the 30% Kisame clone after all) so I don't know why you're hating on him. It was basically 1 on 1 in his fight with Kisame, since his entire team was incapacitated. I think he would have had an even chance against Kisame, even at full strength. He presented a formidable challenge to the Akatsuki group and Itachi knew it. Which is one of the reasons why Itachi retreated after he joined the fight (the other being the reinforcements that were coming).

He did attack Kakashi with the water technique right after Kakashi joined the fight. That seemed pretty aggressive to me; he could have just stood there waiting to counter their next move. If Itachi really wanted to avoid their fight, he and Kisame could have just run away right at the beginning. They did it easily enough later. My guess is that Asuma and Kurenai pissed him off, and he was going to kill them for interfering with him. I still maintain that Itachi is absolutely evil, but we'll see.
Whats the use of running if they are going to keep chasing you anyway?


I think Itachi retreated that time because:
1) He just used the MS, so he wasnt fully 100% anymore
2) He did not want to create a scene, being a former Konoha ninja, he must have known that eventually the ANBU and other skilled ninjas apart from Gai / Kakashi team will join the fight.


I really doubt that Gai could have taken on Itachi but we havent seen much from both of them so I'll keep my opinion to myself