Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20150512133037/@comment-26773508-20150722150600

Yep Minato's greatest drawback as a character was his way-too-early death. I'd ascribe the relative inferiority Minato displayed against Tobirama during the War to his lack of experience. It's true Minato had war experience during WW III, but Tobirama was fighting the Uchihas right from childhood. So he had more than a decade of continuous war experience. Not only that, Tobirama's war experience extends to WW I, where both Hashirama and Tobirama died. Simply put, Tobirama's war experience is vastly superior to Minato's, which is probably why he couldn't act as quickly, decisively and effectively as Tobirama against Juubito. He had so much potential but died too early, thus never reaching his Prime, as Jiraiya admitted to Tsunade in Part I.

However, the available evidence we have does point in the direction that Tobirama may indeed be Minato's intellectual superior. As Whitequeen666 pointed out, it takes an Einstein-level intellect to figure out how to: 1) Create a clone body that can perform, in principle, all the jutsus that the original user knows (as long as the clone has enough chakra). Not only that, Tobirama's Shadow Clone Jutsu returns all the experience and intel the clone possessed back to the original after the Jutsu is dispelled. That's some serious badassery there. 2) Invent the Flying-Raijin technique. Tobirama is virtually the Naruto version of Newton/Einstein as he figured out how to manipulate space-time (or just space, more accurately). In our real world it was Newton, and then Einstein, who revolutionalised our understanding of space-time, and they are given almost god-like respect by everyone around the world. I'd say that Tobirama deserves the same within the Narutoverse. 3) Edo Tensei: It was probably common knowledge in the Narutoverse that there is indeed life after death, given the fact that the Uzumaki clan had seals that could summon the Death God. But figuring out how to bring dead souls back to life (through the use of DNA) takes quite a lot of brain power. In this regard too, Tobirama must be considered an unparalleled genius.

Minato couldn't display the same intellectual feat because of his early death. The only shinobi whose intellect can measure up to Tobirama's would be Orochimaru. I think these two are the bosses when it comes to ingenuity and inventiveness. And they accomplished mind-boggling feats with no kekkei genkai or help from bijuus