Even if they were alive here, or versions of them were alive here, Itachi felt the need to honor the clansmen he was ordered to kill.

He held their memories, their deaths, their sins and their choices so close to his heart for so long. How heavy of a weight it had been. How incredible of a burden he carried. But while he felt the heat of the many little flames and caught the scent of the smoke as it rose around him, he felt strangely at peace.

It was perhaps the first time Itachi had ever simply let them go.