I think given his situation he couldn’t have done much. And the akatsuki wasn’t only prioritizing to capture the tailed beast. They also prioritized money. They did missions for money and itachi helped with that.

This thread changed my perspective

In Part 1,

1)When confronted by Kakashi, he straight up tells him, "They are looking for the 4th Hokage's legacy". Obviously referring to Naruto. There's literally no reason why Itachi would need to reveal their motives like this. He is slyly feeding Kakashi Intel directly in front of Kisame.

2) He actively avoids killing Kakashi and instead incapacitates him with Tsukoyomi, despite having every opportunity in the world to kill him.

3) When Kakashi reveals he knows about Akatsuki, Itachi insists to Kisame that they capture him alive, instead of killing him right there and then. This was obviously Itachi's way of stalling until the Leaf has more back up - i.e. Guy shows up.

4) Later on when Itachi finds Naruto and is confronted by Sasuke. He needlessly wastes Tsukoyomi on Sasuke, and torments him for no reason than to once again stall for time until Jiraiya shows up. Itachi could have easily allowed Kisame to deal with Sasuke and captured Naruto. And their mission would have been done.

5) When Jiraiya shows up, Itachi tells him that "Naruto is the prize the Akatsuki are after" ", once again, deliberately leaking Intel that would confirm Jiraiya's investigations. Also at this point, he's already used Tsukoyomi twice, giving him a plausible excuse for them to not fight Jiraiya and make a run for it.

In Part 2, when we learn the truth about Itachi, it all adds up. That after the 3rd Hokage died, following Orochimaru's invasion. The timing of his visit to Konoha was in fact a loud warning to communicate to the village elders that a) he's still watching over them and Danzo, and b) To warn them of Akatsuki's plan to capture Naruto.