Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-30323490-20180607192958/@comment-34194151-20180725212534

I think the issue is timing and the flow of battle. Just because a character has certain abilities doesn't mean they will be able to get to use them all in time. Casting a jutsu requires focus/concentration/time, so there is an opportunity cost. Depending on the flow of the battle, a character can force another character to be on the defensive. A good example was Dediara vs Gaara, after Deidara slipped explosives into Gaara's protective sand. Gaara had no time to mount an counter attack, after A: protecting village from C3, then a blindside c1 attack from deidara, forcing his sandshield to defend, and then finally the explosiion of the clay sneaked into his sand. Minato has shown to be a shrewd fighter on the level of people like Deidara, and ITachi, using their strategic minds to control the flow of the battle. He outclasses Nagato in this department.

Chibaku tensei requires a hand sign unlike the other Deva abilities, and it has been shown to have a small charge up. Minato is fast enough to blitz and at minimum disrupt his concentration. He is faster, quicker, and more reflexive than Nagato. Again, if Mifune is fast enough to disrupt people's hand seals, so is Minato, he can practically instantly get into taijutsu range, even with just Shunshin. Nagato can of course react to him, but imo outside of Ashura PAth enhancments, Minato beats him in CQC. This CQC advantage imo is why he can beat Nagato, but not the likes of Madara or Hashirama.

I think Nagato will be forced to use Shinra Tensei if Minato comes in for Taijutsu, and unfortunately, Nagato's abilities are about distance control, but skillful use of FTG counters distance control. After he gets pushed back by Nagato, Minato can throw a kunai back to Nagato's location during the cool down and teleport back. if Nagato tries to hide in his chameleon, Minato can use Sage Mode to sense it out like the Sage frogs did, he can enter sage mode practically instantly apparently.

Again, we have seen that Nagato's first move is typically summoning jutsu. While he is concentrating on his summoning jutsu, what is stopping the quicker Minato from throwing at least 6 kunai behind Nagato during that instance of time? Remember Nagato doesn't have knowledge of FTG in this battle. minato can use his shunshin to close the distance next, with a kunai in one hand and a rasengan that could be of various sizes in the other. Nagato, even with Ashura path enhancments can't stand up to that CQC assualt, and I think without knowledge his wisest move will be to Shinra tensei to create distance, as he will immediately tell he is dealing with a speedster, and will need considerable space to set up his moves. But since he doesn't know about FTG, he won't be expecting Minato to teleport to the kunai he placed behind Nagato after the push, now that Nagato is on 5 second cooldown. Minato blitzes again, and Nagato is forced to use Preta Path. This will certaintly catch minato off guard. And Nagato can use his Ashura enhancements to grab Minato, and he can definitely kill Minato here, because even with Minato's reflexes, he will still be surprised (something along the lines of :What he can absorb an entire ninjutsu???) and the extra limbs will be surprising too, as well as the hidden weapons. But I think 5 times out of 10, his superior reflexes can let him tag and escape. So if Minato survives the initial scuffle, he will go on to analyze and win. '

@LegionZero, do you have any proof that FTG barrier is short range? because wiki says all ranges and seems to get its info from databooks. He should be able to open the barrier anywhere in space (that he can see). Also, why would the gravity crush him if it didn't crush itachi or bee? Pein arc naruto was only trapped in chibaku tensei because in v2 mode he is mostly instinct and fury, not strategic, and also Pain created the space necessary to let the chibaku tensei build up. Minato is calm and analytical he will be able to FTG the core long before it becomes a big threat.