Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-26388300-20150611222229/@comment-26275777-20150701223012

No no no, every kage that loses a battle isn't fit to be kage. Great to know Tobirama, Hiruzen, Minato, heck possibly even Hashirama can have their kage cards taken away now! And Gaara too, and A the Third as well /s

The entire point of stopping Pain was to save the villagers' lives. It's not a tournament or a wrestling match. There's no point in winning if the population you're supposed to lead and protect is wiped out. Sure, she could have saved her chakra and taken a path or several out while Pain was weakened from using the big Shinra Tensei, but then what? What would be the point?

She made a sacrifice. Just like Tobirama sacrificed himself so his young team could live: even though the seven of them together could likely have taken on the twenty jounin, more of them would likely have died in the process. Just like Gaara sacrificing his own safety so that he could shield Sunagakure from Deidara's explosions: even though he would likely have killed Deidara if he was going all-out, who knows how many of his villagers would have died. It's literally the same thing Tsunade did a couple hundred chapters later. Yet somehow it's only a sign of failure and weakness when it's Tsunade, I guess.