Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26005711-20150516202714/@comment-26127155-20150520111254

Originally I was going to say that Hashirama, Madara, and Shisui should win the battle fairly comfortably but after thinking about it for a bit, I realized the Akatsuki have some combinations which would give them greater odds in defeating this outstanding team.

1. Orochimaru's Edo tensei would be the key advantage for the Akatsuki's efforts of defeating team Hashi, as this would prevent both Shisui and Madara from landing a 'finishing' blow on any of the members. I believe only Madara's TSB is truly capable of completely eliminating any of the members (Madara may have another Jutsu I have forgotten but I am fairly sure that Shisui and Hashirama have never shown any sealing techniques). Edo Tensei could also be used to summon other nin that Orochimaru has 'obtained' as well as reviving members of team Hashi in order to have more quantity.

2. Obito (Juubito) Uchiha is the Akatsuki's best bet at taking down Madara Uchiha. His main goal would be to use his Kamui in order to remove Madara's TSB far enough to be out of range an thus causing the Akatsuki's main weak point to be removed. His SOSP chakra should allow him to see/detect limbo and his TSB should allow him to sufficiently damage any of team Hashi's members. Kamui is also useful for separating team Hashi away from each other as well as dodging the attacks from team Hashi.

3. Pain's rinnegan (hax machine) is able to counter most of team Hashi's abilities. Preta path is useful for absorbing most of team Hashi's large scale moves (as long as he avoids senjutsu), while his human path is dangerous as he can take their soul. The Animal path is useful for increasing the numbers amount the Akatsuki as well as providing a useful distraction. Deva path is able to repel most attacks while the Naraka path is able to revive any of the other paths of pain who 'die'.

4. Itachi Uchiha can land the final blow against members of team Hashi, using his Totsuka blade. The other akatsuki members would mainly serve as distractions while Itachi and the previously mentioned members land decisive blows against team Hashi (only 3 required). Itachi's crow is able to cancel out Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, which is his main ability.

5. The number of opponent's just stack up against team Hashi. All three members are very powerful shinobi but they have to fight 11 very high level shinobi. Shisui would struggle to fight more than one akatsuki member at a time (from what we have seen), which Hashirama and Madara would have to fight 4-5 Akatsuki members each. Madara is the only member who is able to completely finish any Akatsuki member (due to edo tensei), which would allow the akatsuki to mainly focus on him and disable his TSB. Black Zetsu could apparently kill full power Madara with a sneaky back stab.

Hashirama and Madara are two top tier characters in Naruto and could nearly beat anyone who is not a ninja jesus by the end of the series, but the numbers and the combinations between the akatsuki members trumps the quality of team Hashirama.