Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-33308438-20180614101055/@comment-34194151-20180702030632

This is a bad matchup. Minato's modus operandi is to create a flying rajin safe haven(s) for himself, and then if he takes the initiative he either charges his opponent head on or throws a kunai at them and teleports to the kunai to close the distance between his opponent, where he goes for taijutsu or a rasengan blow to get started. If his initial attack fails he does have a very good analytical mind and is smart enough to try and avoid a fatal counter attack and teleport to his safe haven, and then develop a strategy on the fly to tag his opponent with flying rajin level 2 rasengan. If he doesn't take the initiative, he has defensive techniques such as the FTG barrier to defend himself. However, the issue is minato's first move. Because of minato's speed, if he uses shunshin to close the distance by stealing initiative, while he is running at top speed that is still enough time for itachi's sharingan to track him because minato is moving in a straight line and isn't able to change direction quickly, by the time minato closes the distance, he would either have been hit by amaterasu or pierced by the totsuka blade, thanks to itachi's precognition, insane reflexes (he reacted to lightning!) and his insane jutsu speed. If minato opts to throw a kunai at itachi's feet first and then teleport to it like he did against Juubi Madara, itachi stills know the game and the instant he perceives minato teleporting he will have the totsuka blade waiting at his kunai, and minato simply teleports himself into the blade and gets sealed. So basically, the problem is minato is an aggressive and head on fighter, his first move is an aggressive blitz to force his opponent into taijutsu where he can tag them, but in this case he is up against an opponent who can still react to his blitzes, knows what minato's MO is, and he has the perfect counter moves to end the fight as quickly as possible. If minato didn't always blitz right off the back he would be better off against this type of opponent. And if minato doesn't take the initiative, he still loses as well because he will fall prey to any number of itachi's genjutsu which will just be the first fake-out itachi uses while he sets up his combo / finishing move. ( such as genjutsu as a distraction and totsuka blade as the finisher.