Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-37265641-20181022021850/@comment-34194151-20181031025808

number 1 spot could go either between Kisame+Itachi or obito +zetsu. Obito is a character that fluctuates heavily in strength and arsenal so you are gonna need to be more specific on which obito.

but, disregard any claims you see that itachi would have killed obito if he could, as that is just a distorted view of the manga. Obito was careful of itachi. If worse comes to worse, obito could bring nagato/pain and even other akatsuki members as backup, and itachi can't take them all on, and itachi was aware of that. But obito also knew just the same that itachi was a wildcard, which is why he waited for itachi to die before making his big moves. that's why itachi prepared two contingencies that obito couldn't see coming ahead of time. Obito clearly took konan lightly, as he went to fight her without any backup and even admitted he underestimated her. not only that, konan was fully prepped, had full intel, and environmental advantage, and still didn't have a backup plan and failed to account for the technique costing all her chakra. when obito got serious, he blitzed the living hell out of konan and that was that. If the obito you are talking about is simply one ms orange mask obito, then itachi and kisame take the number one spot without any question. Kisame complements itachi's weakness perfectly.

Pain and konan take the place after that. Pain isn't reacting to the totsuka blade when prime Edo nagato who was juiced up on killer bee's chakra couldn't. Nagato was even looking right up at the susano'o gourd and the the susano'o upper body and couldn't register a mental reaction to the blade. Pain also isn't reacting to itachi teleporting a clone behind naraka path. itachi has shown the ability to spawn clones behind his opponent at will, such as in his fight with kakashi or even how he was getting behind a perfect sage with ease, and he is better at taijutsu than pain is. Furthermore, the pains use a T- formation when they fight, where 3 pains stand one behind the other. that means the inotial totsuka blade blitz is killing 3 pains off the bat Adding in kisame is just spite at that point, because he can help itachi keep up the yata mirror longer, which deflects any shinra tensei pain tries to use. it goes without saying that konan isn't even a threat to itachi either without a ridiculous amount of prep time. hell, I don't see how konan is even a match for kisame. kisame and itachi are two beasts out of her league.

For the lower tiered pairs now:

I'll have to think more about sasori+ deidara/orochimaru vs immortal duo. Hidan while great suffers from his severly limited arsenal. just a scythe and kenjutsu doesn't really cut the mustard too much against most of the akatsuki members. But that's where kakazu's firepower comes in. kakazu is also highly experienced. orochimaru would be a problem because kakazu and hidan can't put him down, but I can see hidan and kakazu holding their own against deidara and sasori.