I think Pain above Itachi does at least deserve an explanation tho?

Just for clarity, I’m taking about the 6 Paths of Pain vs Alive Itachi, not their strongest forms

Itachi doesn’t seem to really have any moves that are good for fighting multiple enemies, and his best attacks are all chakra, which Pain can absorb. Even Susano’o should technically be absorbable since it’s made entirely of chakra. Plus he doesn’t really have a counter for the Deva Path’s abilities.

Add that to stamina being Itachi’s worst stat, plus his sickness, and I just don’t see him having much of a chance against all 6 at once.

We can’t even say Totsuka Blade and Yata Mirror would let him win, since Totsuka Blade has only hit Orochimaru (a large stationary target) and Edo Nagato (a stationary target who couldn’t see it coming), and is presumably rather slow, given the size and weight.

And Yata Mirror just never really canonically did anything, so we don’t know what “reflects all attacks” actually means. It didn’t reflect Kirin, so is it just any attack that hits it? Could it block Shinra Tensei?

Assuming it functions as a shield normally would, only blocking attacks that hit it, I don’t think it’ll be very useful given that attacks would be coming from all directions with the 6 Paths plus all the summons.

I really just see no way for Itachi to win that matchup, Pain specializes in everything Itachi’s weak at

I mean, the title implies it isn't really about who counters who but who is stronger overall. Like, doing something to cover all match ups possible. scaling

Also Itachi said he’d tie with Jiraiya, and Pain killed Jiraiya.

Honestly, the Deva Path alone is as threatening as Itachi

Not to mention Pain is inherently far more versatile since there’s six of them, all with unique powers, whereas Itachi really just has genjutsu and Susano’o

True