<div class="quote"><i> <p>GreatestSin wrote: 1. black zetsu: yes, i vote for him, he was the on who practically caused the entire plot to actually happen </p> </i></div>
<p>Most of it was going to happen anyway. Kaguya caused merely a momentary pause in the war before, and Hagoromo tried but failed to bring peace. Ashura failed to convince his brother, showing failure too. As Naruto said, Black Zetsu didn't make history, shinobi did. Black zetsu only machinated the Fourth War, and even that was pretty much inevitable without him too. </p> <div class="quote"><i> <p>Ninja Of War wrote: Jiraiya </p> </i></div>
<p>Agreed. The ability to acknowledge one's own weakness and deal with it shows his intellect, perhaps more than any other character. Most others only retrospected after their deaths, e.g Minato, Itachi. </p>

<p>Biggest information junkie: Orochimaru </p><p>Most analytical: Shikamaru </p><p>Most wise: Jiraiya </p><p>Most manipulative: Black Zetsu </p><p>Most competent: Itachi </p><p>- Kabuto and Kakashi both tie for combination of the five intelligence components. </p> <div class="quote"><i> <p>Dapoculos13 </p> </i></div>
<p>Sasuke had decent smarts, taking on Danzo was his best feat of intelligence. And he did manage to kill three Akatsuki members (albeit these were overwhelmingly circumstantial kills), but was totally incompetent as an Akatsuki member himself, as he was absolutely wrecked by B. </p>

<div class="quote"><i> <p>Slaphappyjoy wrote: Sasuke [..] was totally incompetent as an Akatsuki member himself, as he was absolutely wrecked by B. </p> </i></div>
<p>It was mostly just poor planning. Sasuke's style makes him much more fit to take on people that rely on outsmarting rather than outpowering their opponents. He was simply a poor choice to deal with Bee. Not to mention that bee's wildly unpredictable (which too doesn't really fit Sasuke's analytical style). </p>

<div class="quote"><i> <p>Thekillman wrote: It was mostly just poor planning. Sasuke's style makes him much more fit to take on people that rely on outsmarting rather than outpowering their opponents. He was simply a poor choice to deal with Bee. Not to mention that bee's wildly unpredictable (which too doesn't really fit Sasuke's analytical style). </p> </i></div>
<p>It proved a poor match up altogether, even if he led a four man cell. </p><p>- [1]. Say no more Sasuke, that's a great plan! </p><p>- [2]. Oh, nevermind. </p><p>They were starting to retreat, almost futily, when Sasuke took a huge risk performing Amaterasu without knowing the extent to which he could control it. As you say, it definitely was poor planning. Although, B did commend Sasuke for getting that far. Imo, Tobi sent Hebi to their certain doom, so that Sasuke wouldn't eventually come after him as well. </p>

<p>The smartest character would have to go to black zetsu. Not only has he had 1000 years to acquire knowledge, he is an espionage/ information type, is caniving as he tempted indira and also guided madara along a path to revive his mother kaguya. Behind him I would have to give it to tobirama senju, as it was his intelligence and deep understanding of jutsu that allowed him to survive the harsh war environment he grow up in and invent most of the advanced jutsu that became problematic in the series, such as edo tensi, shadow clones, flying rajin. </p><p>
</p><p>Madara is smart for his manipulation of obito, but black zetsu implied he was behind that too so.. madara didn't outsmart anyone in battle, if perfect susanno spam is evidence of battlefield intelligence, then im not impressed </p><p>Shikamaru is very smart but his intelligence isnt alwsys immediate, he often needs to prep outside of battle. His father was confirmed to be better than him in chess. </p><p>Sasuke isnt smart at all, he got lucky because his chidori happened to diffuse the bombs, he himself admitted everything else was just attributed to his sharingan being sble to see chakra. Being able to see chakra doesnt make you smart. His big kirin strategy took an amazing 3 years to prep, and it still failed. Sasuke vs danzo was the biggest plot armor ive ever seen, sasuskes big plot of tricking him with genjutsu made 0 sense when it was confirmed in that same battle he could easily see through his genjustu. Danzo should have ended him multiple times. </p><p>Itachi has to be up there as well, as well as kakashi, hiruzen, gaara, orochimaru, naruto, kabuto, and minato. </p>

<p>Black Zetsu, the mastermind of literally everything minus Orochimaru. </p>

You could say Black Zetsu since he literally caused most of Shinobi history. But I really want to say Kabuto because he surpassed Orochimaru and was able to complete some of his theories and experiments. The Edo Tensei being one. Also that if Kabuto was aware of the full Sage of Six Paths story I think he would have been able to rival being as much of a master mind as black zetsu. Hell the guy even made counters to fighting Itachi one of the most well balanced characters who was a master in genjutsu and extremely proficient in ninjutsu and taijustu. Easily considered a tier 2 kage level ninja.

<p>A thread about smart shinobis but almost no mention of Tobirama? Really? Here's my list though, in no particular order: Black Zetsu, Tobirama, Madara, Itachi, Kakashi, Shikaku, Shikamaru. </p>

<p>@BakumatsuWarrior, Yeah, I forgot about him lol. Which is unfair because he is way up there in terms of intelligence. </p>

<p>Just as a reminder to everyone, if I didn't pick a certain character, then it's because I don't know enough about that character to put them on this list, and I will not take the wiki page on that character as definitive proof. I would prefer to see it in action in the anime, and I only watch the dub, because I can't understand Japanese and the latter's voice actors have zero talent in any show ever. </p>