Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26958911-20151010214426/@comment-26636534-20160115111154

When Hanzo was reanimated he was already really old and it was even stated that his abilities had waned over the years until he was killed by pein. So Hanzo was far from his prime when he was reanimated, he was much closer to his prime when he fought the Sannin. In any case his feats are similar to the third Hokage in the sense that he was stated to be extremely powerful in his prime, but isn't anymore. Keeping that in mind, saying Itachi could beat Hanzo is not really something we can discuss, because there is not much to go on.

Also, Naruto is not a universe where: B > C and A > B so it must be that A > C. Characters in the series get stronger and weaker as the story progresses for various reasons and have their primes at different stages.

P.S. Hanzo didn't actually defeat the Sannin, he was impressed that they managed to survive his attacks for so long, ended their battle and awarded them the title of Sannin.