Since people are so likely to believe in crazed theories in this topic, here's one; Itachi didn't want to fight him because he knew Jiraiya was a valuable asset to the Leaf, and wanted him to take care of Naruto or something.

And I would consider the best of the best to be the top half of the top tier. So if you have 20 ninja in the top tier, maybe it's time you cut your list shorter
Naruto
Minato
Hashirama
Madara
Sasuke
Jiraiya/Itachi tie
Nagato
3rd
Orochimaru
Hanzo (I think it's stupid how the stupid samurai beat him)

There's mine. As much as I HATE putting Sasuke above Jiraiya/Itachi, I know he'll probably have to come out of his bandages on par with Naruto.

my version of your list would be a bit different

3rd
1st
madara/4th (ties)
jiraiya
itachi
nagato(prime)
naruto
sasuke

orochimaru n hanzo dont fit on the list because orochimaru got raped by sasuke and theres plenty ninja that were stronger than sasuke at that time, and hanzo is boring

in regards to this list and the one prior to it...

imo orochi belongs on the list. he was definitely adept at killing people, and he was damn difficult to kill. he also had a shit ton of aces up his sleeve. Hanzo can only be considered strong since he pretty much defeated the sanin, but as far as i can tell the sanin werent anything close to the strength they gained as the got older so imo he is usless. i also wish we could get some back story on just how strong the 3rd was b/c we know he was brutal and i think it would be interesting.


im convinced i dont have enough info on 1 any one of these guys to try and compare them to each other and make a list....i dont even think i can make a list of favorites anymore.

i kinda think kabuto should be considered to the list as well. taking the edo tensei or w/e its called out of the equation, he has gained much of orochimaru's powers (iirc) and he was already a difficult opponent before that. i kinda remember hearing at one point he was on kakashi's level and kakashi is a beast. now add the edo tensei on top of that (b/c it can be considered a jutsu/ninja tool just like a sharingan or any special ability) and you have a monster

The reasoning for my list is something like this. I believe Naruto is the most powerful in the series. If not now, he most certainly will be. Minato gets the #2 spot because of the way everyone has talked about him and how much he seems to have surpassed everyone. I still stand by my theory that Minato could beat Madara 1v1, and I don't see anything wrong with it. Hashirama seems the same way. He's talked about as if he was a completely unstoppable force, and he was able to defeat and permanently damage Madara despite EMS and the 9 tails. Madara gets the #4 spot because he's just such a handful right now. EMS, Rinnegan, etc. He'll definitely be a bitch for Naruto to kill. Sasuke makes top 5 for my reasons stated in my post. IMO, if Hashirama was able to beat the shit out of Madara, he'd do even worse to Sasuke, which is why Sasuke isn't right next to Naruto. Jiraiya and Itachi tie right below that. It's been stated that the best they could do against each other was end in a draw. Kisame said that Itachi would be able to take on Jiraiya 1v1 though. It's been stated that Nagato is beatable by a few people. As people mentioned before, he said himself Jiraiya probably would have beaten him if it weren't for his element of surprise. Itachi figured it out and beat him, and we all know Naruto had the power, just not the smarts. I don't know much about the 3rd in his prime, but I personally think Jiraiya is more powerful than the 3rd ever was. Orochimaru was extremely good at ninjutsu, particularly those that involved defense/keeping him alive. He's proven to be outstandingly deadly/skillful. Hanzo makes my list because of the way he was regarded. Although, the 3rd Tsuchikage might be a better choice. You can't argue with that Dust Release.

I'm not going to say who's on my top 5, but I believe that if you're a jinchuuriki, you're cheating
Jiraya, Minato,former Kage's can easily take the top 5 spot, maybe Itachi, but only because he's smart and planned ahead knowing it will be useful even after he's dead.
I have more respect to Orochimaru than kabuto to be honest.
I bet Oro already collected most of the bodies before he died and Kabuto just tracked down a few afterwards.

experience, pure skills, technique and brain > no experience + power, that's like face rolling a console game on tekken.

Just because a character looks powerful, doesn't mean he's on the top.

and I bet none of you even thought of the 2nd Hokage or the Whitefang, who both have some good and bad reputations on other countries but also very limited information about it.

The thing I like about Naruto is that it doesn't just focus on one chracter, place, event. It includes everyone on the story, even the past events.

okay so for my top 5 it would be.. (this is excluding naruto + sasuke cause we dont know their true strength is yet)
3rd (he as considered a god to ninja's when he was at his prime.. how do you top that?)
1st (stronger then madara founder of the village, must their be more?)
Madara at his prime (obviously lol)
jiraiya (stop underestimating him, it was obviously stated that itachi and kisame, if they were lucky would kill each other and jiraiya, he is obviously the strongest sannin' after he is in sage mode)
itachi before his sickness (i mean, did you see him fuck nagato up? nothing more needs to be said)

now that i've said that, their a lot of other top tier ninjas that could put up a good fight with 5 i said earlier, and if they ever needed to run i think they could. also their are a lot of ninjas that are very capable of being in the top 5, and their skill level and strength is comparable to those on the top 5 list, the only reason they arn't there is because we don't have anything definitive to say they are as strong. Orochi, the 4th, kakashi, white fang, naruto, sasuke, the 4th raikage, kabuto almost made 5th for my list, but itachi's ass kicking was to good. i dont want to finish the list cause there is a HUGE amount of ninjas that could be considered top tier.

A lot of you are underestimating Itachi. Big time. Oro is not on the same level as Itachi. It was proven when Itachi attempted to capture Itachi and failed hard. Knowing that, Jiraiya Is not close to Itachi either because of Jiraiya's failure in defeating oro.. Here's my list.

#1 Madara
#2 Itachi/Minato
#3 Naruto/Sasuke
#4 Zetsu


Kabuto may hold a lot of cards but as the chapters pass he seems to be losing more and more of his pawns and hes a chump.

What? are you serious? The only reason jiraiya couldn't beat orochi was because he had kabuto it was 2v2 and he didn't have time for sage mode cause he was also protecting naruto and tsunade
you are seriously underestimating jiraiya, his sage mode facepalmed 3 of the paths of pain without a scratch on him, if he knew the trick to the pains he woulda ROFLstomped nagato.
but good point on zetsu forgot about him

also: madara at #1 yet 1st hokage rofl stomped him

This post was edited by OsD on Aug 27 2011 01:28pm

madara i beleive is a lot tougher than he was back then know considering he has izanagi and rinnegan

also orochimaru had no arms at that point but jiriya was alos weakend by sumtin i forget wat it was they wer both being held back but in all reality i believe jiriya toughest sannin

cuz itachi slaped ochi pain could slap itachi 1v1 im going with pain sorry i just think hed win it was 3v1 last time they fought and jiriya slaped 3 pains without info

This post was edited by mcbatch on Aug 27 2011 02:01pm

:/ I was going by tools at their disposal currently or at the time of their death. Currently Madara is stronger then 1st hokage.

Remember Oro stood face to face with Naruto in fox mode with how many tails? 4 If I remember correctly. Didn't Jiraiya almost die because he did the same thing? (without sagemode and frogs for help) Regardless..

The point I was trying to make is Orochimaru and Jiraiya are =. They were the rivals of their generation. Genius vs Heart and Power. In a real 1v1 Im sure its 50/50
Itach > them both.

Look at it this way. The rinnengan has 6 fields of view right? All 6 paths share the same sight. Itachi has the strongest genjutsu and would only need to catch one path. Game over for all 6..... We all know Pain is weak against genjutsu. Jiriya caught him in one. Just imagine what Itachi could do.

I doubt Jiryiah could have killed pain as easy as you claim. Naruto Knew the trick behind pain and still barely won.