Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-26388300-20160524034125/@comment-26704954-20160524062218

I think Minato has a place on the list; it's become weirdly in vogue to support the notion that Minato's power is over-exaggerated. But his talent and power have been praised throughout the series (Jiraiya in particular seemed to think Minato was one of the best), and the notion that Minato isn't good with Sage Mode has been soundly refuted too many times by now; he isn't "bad" with it -- if anything, he is noted for achieving perfect Sage Mode, as opposed to an incomplete one -- it's just time consuming to bring about, whereas his core strategy is no-hand-seal-attacks and quick movements. And come on... coupling Kyuubi-Mode with Sage Mode, almost any character would make this list with that combo. Hell, Naruto fought Juubi-Jin Obito with it.

Also, I think it's worthy to mention that nearly every single character was horribly nerfed in favor of Naruto and Sasuke for most of the Fourth Shinobi World War; as a result, I have a hard time looking to exploits during that time period as a detriment to Minato or anyone else.

And also: Nagato being solidly above Jiraiya?? Jiraiya knew nothing of how the Rinnigan worked; Nagato knew everything of how Jiraiya worked. That's a massive... massive... massive factor in their battle. Real world battles are won on intelligence, and Nagato had it all in that battle. He admitted -- it's canon -- that had Jiraiya known of the Rinnegan beforehand he'd have won the fight. Jiraiya is better.

1. Hashirama 2. Madara 3. Mu 4. Minato 5. Nagato