Itachi isn't a top tiered S-Class nin.

Top should be Minato, Nagato/Pain, Madara, and Hiruzen (with the possibility of Hashirama).
2nd tier would include Naruto, Kisame, Itachi, Kira, Jiraiya and whoever else.

The top tier are the once in a generation ninja, ninjas that have the possibility of receiving the SS class ranking that Minato received in the war with Iwa. Out of everyone still alive in the manga now (regardless of author prerogative) I think Naruto is the only that could move up into the top tier.

 

I would say Jiraiya would be the once in a generation ninja of his generation. And Kakashi or Itachi would be for theirs. Im going with the idea that although Kakashi is a few years older they would be the same generation.

Itachi kicked the ass of anyone stupid enough to mess with him until Sasuke and then he more or less let Sasuke kill him. Not to mention the fact that he was slowly dying during all this.

 

Sakumo Hatake needs to be added, top tier. He was strong enough to be one of Hiruzen's most trusted advisors, as well as being strong enough to take on all three Sannin at once when they were younger. He created Kakashi's chakra-saber (which I want to see used, dammit) and is probably at least partly the reason why the Leaf won the Second Shinobi War.

 

And the Sage of the Six Paths is above everyone. He singlehandedly defeated the Ten Tails, which is a being thewith sum of all of the chakra of the 9 and possessed the Sharingan with all of the Hax powers that implies, and sealed it inside of him. He invented the hand seals for ninjutsu apparently from nothing. He made the fucking moon and on his death bed,when he was at his weakest, managed to split up the ten tails into 9 distinct personas of incredible power.

The guy is on a tier all by himself and the next two tiers are vacant because he was that badass.

 

Chime?? I don't know how to do the ABC instead of 123 thing. If you could tell me, or direct me to a place in which I could research the codes this forums use, i'd probably rearrange the list to be more convenient.

P.S. You all suck, I went through the effort to mess with the list and no one is even using it. Bastards.

 

Actually, he couldn't defeat it that's why he had to seal it; he didn't have the sharingan, it was the rinnegan. I think the only reason he could divide its power was because of the rinnegan's ability by the way.

 

The ten tails had the sharingan, you do know how clauses work don't you? I consider sealing it, defeating it. Although that post did make it look like I thought the two separate things.

 

My mistake then, by it did look like you were severely overestimating him.

 

Madara says otherwise.

Naruto is strong, but to say that he can beat Pein without the haxxes he used, not including sage mode, though I really should? If Pein wanted to kill him he would have done when he had him before Hinata interrupted and Naruto went Kyuubi.

 

2. Killer Bee is the manliest man in the universe. Even nasty, pointy, gluttonous implements of death are putty in his hands.

 

Sandaime died, Orochimaru didn't. I think that makes it clear who won. And Shodai and Nidaime were not at their full strength because they didn't instantly slaughter Sandaime. Remember, Shodai defeated Madara and was the strongest shinobi of his time.

 

Yet despite trying to win, Pain is dead and Naruto is not only still kicking but kicking harder than ever.

 

"Of his time" being the operative phrase. He also died rather young, according to Tsunade.

And let's try to remember that, while Madara and Hashirama were the strongest ninja in the world "of their time," Madara was crippled in their fight and Hashirama passed away. The manga shows us that there are many ninja that would have been capable of beating "prime" Madara or "prime" Hashirama.

The difference is that Madara survived to create and master some seriously nasty space/time jutsu that make him a slippery bastard. He's admitted that his fighting strength is not currently that great, however.

If you're looking for a list of strongest characters mentioned in the manga, then any list that didn't start:

1. Rikudou Sennin
2. Nagato

Would be patently incorrect.


Having said that, I agree that zombie!Shodai and zombie!Nidaime were in no way as dangerous as they were in life. They mostly responded to Orochimaru's commands in his fight against Sarutobi, and acted as his puppets. Stripped of their intellect and creativity, all they could do was use a few powerful jutsu and throw a few fists. It was hardly an impressive showing.

 

Hzzh, who the fuck are you to rain on my Naruto!fem!Kyuubi parade? Seriously, that pairing is made of win. So is Naruto sexing up an Oiroke Kage Bunshin. Chakra matrixes for the win, eh? ...for pointless smut.

Trying to compare who's stronger than who is kinda stupid in Naruto. You can do it in DB and 'power level' animes like Bleach, but in Naruto, pretty much everyone has their relatively unique combat style and techniques. That, and they're all mortal, fragile humans, a kunai to the throat (if it hits) will kill most people.

About annoying cliches - I've come to utterly despise the phrase 'Will of Fire'. It's being shoved down my throat so much it makes me want to cry.

 

If we're going to go with power levels, I'd probably lay them out something like this:

Top Tier: Rikudou Sennin, Nagato, Naruto, Minato, Sasuke (after his next inevitable power-up), Jiraiya.
Second Tier: Sarutobi Hiruzen, Orochimaru, Tsunade, Itachi, Kisame, Killer Bee, Sasuke (currently), Mizu/Tsuchi/Raikages.
Third Tier: Madara, Gaara, Shodai/Nidaime Hokages, Kakashi, Danzou, (Sharingan hax), the rest of Akatsuki (possibly excluding Konan).

The problem with Madara isn't that he's especially strong, it's that he's almost impossible to land a hit on, though if he became the Jyuubi Jinchuuriki he'd more than likely be unstoppable. Hell, that's the whole point of his Eye of the Moon plan; for him to become more than the 'shade of what he once was'. That, and to make everyone like him .

 

Orochimaru won a three on one fight, and barely at that. One on one, he would have gotten raped. Same with his battle against the Yondaime Kazekage. (added to the list)

... Everyone has haxxes in Narutoverse. You're not a ninja if you don't have something special up your sleeve. As for Pein versus Naruto, I said he preformed admirably, I didn't say he would have beaten him.

Edit:

Anybody I miss?

 

No, it was one on one. The two Kages were just Orochimaru's jutsu. Not much different from ordinary Summon. Or are you saying that Naruto didn't defeat Nagato because he used Toads?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Naruto never defeated Pein. Sure, he gave some major ass kicking to each of his six paths, but you gotta remember that while Naruto was giving all he had to destroy him, Pein was trying to capture him to extract the Kyuubi.

Plus, Nagato had enough juice left to cast Resurrecting AoE +19 on Konoha even as fucked up as he seemed to be. Don't tell me he wouldn't be able to blow Naruto up while they talked if he wanted to.

 

This. Also, Shodai and Nidaime don't count as summons. Furthermore, it's pretty likely that Orochimaru didn't have full control while they fought. He probably had to focus most, if not all, of his attention on Sarutobi. This would mean that Orochimaru"s seal makes the sealed body recognise him as an ally, and anybody fighting him an enemy. Also, Sarutobi isn't called the God of Shinobi for nothing.

 

Only Orochimaru called him that, and he was patronizing him.

I don't think that this is the right thread for Powah Levelz! discussion, but since I don't like it and it's already been sidetracked, I'll say that those of you who put Sarutobi in the "top tier" are probably wrong. All of his hype is by word of mouth, and very little of it is objective.

He's called the "Greatest Hokage" by a chuunin who didn't know any of the others. He's called the "God of Shinobi" by Orochimaru while he was being mocked. He's called the "Strongest Kage" by Kabuto, who not only doesn't know any better but is likely not taking his age into account properly.

On the other hand, we have no feats that he's actually accomplished. We never hear the he defeated X or conquered Y. In fact, aside from fighting a few big wars that apparently all ended in stalemate, the only feather in his cap is being a badass teacher.

Now take a look at a guy like Pain, before we saw him fight. He was all hype too, but he had actual feats to his name. He killed Hanzou, who defeated all of the Sannin at once. He conquered an entire nation on his own without a whisper of his existence getting out to other countries.

That's real hype that can be used to rank a guy, if you're so inclined.

Even Hashirama was explicitly said to be the strongest ninja in the world in his day by his greatest enemy, and given that he captured all or most of the bijuu and founded the first ninja village, I'm inclined to accept that as the truth. Again, Hashirama has actual feats to his name.

Sarutobi was very, very powerful and was likely once the strongest or one of the strongest ninja in the world, but please don't ever rank him past a guy like Minato - who we know surpassed him in power and in skill with ninjutsu - based simply on hearsay. Considering his fighting style, I'd say that there are a few Akatsuki who could have defeated him in his younger days.