Something had changed in Itachi, his mother concluded. She didn't know what happened, but he suddenly got a lot more solemn and was training like a maniac.
He had started with martial arts when he was 5, but it wasn't only martial arts anymore. She had seen him trying to wield a plethora of weapons until he settled on a staff and throwing-needles. (She had asked once and he called them Senbon.)
When his obsession with training didn't go away after a few months, she questioned him. His answer terrified her a bit.
"I realised that, if I don't want my and your life dependent on the competence of the "Heroes", I have to become stronger and need a license to use my Sharingan in public. The easiest way to such a license is to become a "Hero" myself."
It was said with finality.
She never had been extremely close to her son, so the protectiveness surprised her. What didn't surprise her, was him being invited to the Yuuei Entrance Exams only a year later. He was a genius after all.
(Though sometimes his intellect scared her. What kind of eleven-year old boy was able to see through the identities of Underground Heroes and Villains alike and then did nothing about it?).