Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20160126181655/@comment-26773508-20160318072242

@MIGshinobi: You don't like the blitzing argument because you know Itachi will be slaughtered if he doesn't use Susanoo. Give us one good reason why the Raikage can't blitz Itachi without Susanoo. The Raikages are masters at blitzing and fighting at superhuman speeds. The 4th Raikage fought with Minato, a master of FTG, quite a number of times. And he was able to keep up and survive against an FTG master. Do you really think Itachi can defeat the Raikage without Susanoo? Itachi will evade with his smoke bombs and exploding bombs for a few minutes. And then he gets slaughtered if he doesn't use Susanoo. Small-time genjutsus will work only if the Raikage is made immobile, which would buy Itachi some time to use Amaterasu. If the Raikage keeps running around even in genjutsu then Itachi will have a difficult time to one-shot the Raikage. And sooner or later, the Raikage will realise he's in a genjutsu and act accordingly.

Also your assertions about the Raikage's lack of intellect holds no water whatsoever. You judge the 3rd Raikage's intelligence based on his son. That's the same as arguing that Minato is DUMB because NARUTO is dumb. Do you see how ridiculous your argument is?

3rd Ay was fully controlled by Kabuto during his fight with KCM Naruto. He had no need to use his intellect against Gaara and Ohnoki's division of shinobi fodders because of his overwhelming strength. So your assertion that Itachi outclasses the Raikage in other skillsets such as intelligence and planning is heavily unfounded.

And I say again, the Exploding Clones and the smoke bombs aren't going to disorient the Raikage even the slightest bit. He's moving too fast for the smoke or explosion debris to latch on to his eyes. And neither is the shockwave from the exploding clones isn't going to affect the Raikage in the least bit.

And you talk about the Raikage needing to change directions as a liability. How is that a liability when Itachi won't be able to counteract quickly enough after his smoke bomb/exploding clone feint? You talk as though those distractions are going to give Itachi enough time to effectively trap the Raikage into something bad, like some genjutsu or amaterasu or whatever is in your mind. It's NOT. That guy dodged KCM's Rasenshuriken twice in succession, once in point blank range. Do you really think someone like that is going to fall for Itachi's traps that easily? With the Raikage's speed and blitzing abilities, it's gonna take a longass time and a lot of hit and miss strategies to fully trap him. But the Raikage's relentless attacks and his overwhelming strength means that Itachi will be forced to use Susanoo if he wants to stay alive.

So let me remind you. Itachi is fast, but he's NOT THAT FAST either. He's gonna need quite some time to trap the Raikage. Small-time finger genjutsus aren't enough to do anything against the Raikage, unless Itachi already has his Susanoo ready in order to quickly finish him off with the Totsuka Blade. And I'm not in the slightest bit convinced that Itachi can pull that off simultaneously. Either he traps the Raikage in some small genjutsu, then spends a few seconds after that to manifest his Susanoo and then the Totsuka Blade, which gives the Raikage enough time to realise he's in a genjutsu; or he uses his Susanoo full-time to withstand the Raikage's relentless attack while simultaneously trying to hit him with the Totsuka Blade, which the Raikage will evade with ease.

And we all know what the Susanoo does to an MS user, so let's not jump into Uchiha-wankery here. Itachi isn't going to use Armoured Susanoo and the finger genjutsu at the same time, at least not easily. Itachi will need intense focus and concentration to point the finger at the right direction for a super-fast Raikage. That will distract him from maintaining his Susanoo, which is already producing intense pain in each and every cell of his body (not to forget making him progressively blinder).

Also, you over-estimate Prime Itachi. Like I said, if someone with Indra's chakra had such a hard time maintaining Susanoo, then it's foolish to expect Itachi to perform better. And I repeat again, the Raikage doesn't need to pierce Itachi's Armoured Susanoo. All he needs is to pressurise Itachi long enough to maintain his armoured Susanoo. Within a max time of half an hour of maintaining Susanoo, Itachi will be on his knees spitting buckets of blood out of his mouth.

You've countered this argument by saying that a sick Itachi covered a mountain with Amaterasu after using MS jutsus a couple of times, along with some taijutsu and Katon jutsus before using Susanoo. Let me remind you that while Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi does produce great pain to the MS user, it does not produce nearly enough pain as an MS Susanoo. Itachi used Susanoo in his last fight against Sasuke for only a couple of minutes. Sasuke, with his Indra chakra, used Susanoo quite a lot against the Five Kage. THAT is the benchmark with which to compare and contrast Prime Itachi's hypothetical ability to maintain the Susanoo, NOT Itachi covering a mountain with Amaterasu.

And based on Sasuke's performance, it is really naive to believe that Prime Itachi will be able to maintain the Susanoo long enough to defeat the Raikage.