Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-28136690-20160523192347/@comment-734582-20160601101659

Actionmanrandell wrote: on top of that the bijuu are not created equal They are equal, actually. The lowest tails have the most abilities. The highest tails have the most chakra. There's almost a neat linear correlation between this.

But even so, it was the biju that served as deterrents. Attacking each other may be even less preferable (since you need a Biju to fight a Biju, opening up yourself to counterattacks) since there are more Kage, more villages and thus more possible conflicts. It would mean war would be fought in other ways. Which was exactly the situation in Naruto.

Konoha, by the way, is a strong village but it's strength is not so far out of bounds that it can take on two other villages. A collaboration between the Sand and Sound was enough to topple that strength, and the Sound is a minor village. Even with a 9-kage system, this wouldn't change: Konoha formed between the two strongest clans. The strongest village doesn't necessarily have the strongest biju (since the Uzumaki had a tiny village, yet bound the Shinigami and supplied the seals and humans for Kurama, not Konoha).