Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-25531508-20140923043228/@comment-26302001-20140924010609

He didn't change his mind. He always had it set that Hiruzen, Hashirama and Madara were the strongest. 3 databooks in a row and in the manga for a very long time he had Hiruzen praised the same exact way.

At the very least, Prime Hiruzen ties with Hashirama and that means something for someone without a kekkei genkei, senjutsu, or a tailed beast. and yes Tobirama did not contest Hiruzen saying he was the strongest, instead he agreed pretty much and made him Hokage. Danzo had KotoAmatsukami, Izanagi and Wood Release and yet he never even tried to mess with Hiruzen one on one no matter how badly he wanted to be Hokage instead of Hiruzen.. Orochimaru waited until Hiruzen was OLD before he even tried to mess with him.. hell Danzo could have teamed up with Hanzo to try Hiruzen.. but he didn't even do that because he knew better.

I think it's more along the fact that a lot of YOU all underestimate Hiruzen simply because we never saw his prime ability's. Hell even the Akatsuki didn't want to eff with Hiruzen. They could have came in and took the 9 tails at any time if they thought they could, but they knew better.