Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20150704102606/@comment-26704954-20150721082432

This is a hard one to speculate on. We've only ever truly seen Hiruzen fight twice... resurrected during the Fourth Shinobi World War, in which he was near complete power but not quite there, and before his death when Orochimaru invaded Konoha. Each time Sarutobi was older. As a result, when it comes to considering how he would fight in his younger years, all we can do is guess.

We've witnessed that he is wise; we've witnessed that he is talented, considering that he has learned to use each chakra nature; we've witnessed that he has excellent battle instincts; we've witnessed that he is advanced in taijutsu, is a master of ninjutsu, and... though I despise ever referencing the databooks... is said to be gifted in genjutsu as well.

And you know what? All of those things... all of them... could be said of Kakashi as well. Let's be honest: we've never seen Sarutobi do something that the eventual Kakashi -- the one we're debating over, the one from years later following the War, in the Hokage seat -- would be incapable of pulling off himself. We've seen Kakashi use genjutsu... even battling Madara-trained Obito in genjutsu to a draw. We've seen him skillfully use taijutsu. And we've seen him use masterful ninjutsu many times, each of the elements represented.

The way I see it, the only way one could estimate Sarutobi's victory would be to assume things about his prime that we simply don't know anything about. For, insofar as I can see, Kakashi and Sarutobi look fairly evenly matched on paper. I think this fight could go either way, depending on what each shinobi perhaps had for breakfast that morning.