Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20150704102606/@comment-734582-20150704140735

JOA20 wrote: Hiruzen the strongest Hokage in history? Hashirama is laughing so hard at this statement. We never really got to see Hiruzen in his prime. During the 4th war he seemed to be pretty close to his old Part I self. Even then, during the war he mostly was busy offscreen helping people. He got almost no chance to do anything major. The entire Obito/Madara/Kaguya fight was essentially a First/Second/Fourth spotlight. Hiruzen was indeed touted God of Shinobi and said to be stronger than the First. He could go toe-to-toe with a Sennin and two Edo Tensei when he was barely capable of holding two Shadowclones. (something a Genin like Naruto beat him at). He effortlessly stopped five high-power elemental attacks during the 4Th war, which in itself is quite impressive. It would be a whole lot more impressive if it wasn't drowned in Tobi and Hashirama standing on giant wooden structure while madara runs around in Perfect Susanoo and Obito is growing giant trees. Essentially, Hiruzen was ignored. I don't remember the specifics, but wasn't it said that Hiruzen learned all the jutsu of the Forbidden scroll (which contains the village's Kinjutsu)? Hence why he knew thinks like Kage Bunshin (kinjutsu) or Reaper Death Seal. Still, i think Hiruzen was definitely close to Hashirama in power, closer to Hashirama than a "regular" Kage. I won't believe for a second that the Third was believed to be powerful just because they forgot Hashirama kept their cartographers busy with every fight. Hell, the most famous battle in history, the Valley of the End, was created by said battle. If they said the Third was greater than that, his power must indeed been great. But i guess we'll never know *How* great exactly.

As to Young hiruzen, how young are we talking? Prime Hiruzen would kick Kakashi's ass. Yet, we don't know how powerful Hiruzen was at what ages. Go back far enough and eventually Kakashi beats "young" hiruzen.