Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-890307-20161205161301/@comment-30426414-20161220230533

Ravenlot 27 wrote: Well, it's not like all the shinobi of the previous generations weren't surpassed. For example, Tobirama technically was surpassed by Minato, at least in terms of speed and FTG in particular. Almost all the shinobi reanimated by Kabuto were defeated by the new generation, and Third Raikage was completely sure it'd happen that way. Hashi was an exceptional shinobi during his era, it was natural that normal shinobi weren't able to surpass him untill equally exceptional shinobi (I mean Naruto) appeared in shinobi world. The same story is with Madara, even Oro admitted that Sasuke is able to surpass him. And the generations of Hagoromo and Kaguya were rather too exceptional to surpass, as the wielders of the entire pieces of power that was subsequently scattered throughout the shinobi world in lesser forms.

Kakashi's words were that "the next generation will always surpass the previous one" therefore even if one generation deviates from that rule, it means that it doesn't always stand. The next generation after tobirama's wasn't minato's. Moreover, the shinobi that were resurrected during the war were nerfed, such as sasori. He had none of his trump cards and was easily dispatched by kankuro. The other reanimated shinobi that were defeated were tagged teamed against so thats kind of an unfair comparison.