5. Madara Uchiha (Living)

Madara is on this list because he has both extreme offense and extreme defense. His Perfect Susanoo gives him defense on a level that many cannot penetrate, as well as the size to combat nearly any opponent in the Naruto Universe. Also, within his Perfect Susanoo is his greatest weapon: the sword. The Perfect Susanoo sword showed great offensive capability as it was used to cleave a mountain in half from miles away. Combine these two with the sharingan (which lets him see in slow motion and has pseudo precognition) and Madara is nothing to sneeze at.

4. Hashirama Senju

Hashirama is on this list because not only has he defeated the #5 Madara nearly every time they’ve fought (and handily at that), but because of the large scale of his ninjutsu. Hashirama’s wood jutsu is so powerful and large that he created a village with it! In addition, it’s been shown that he can restrain giant tailed beasts and can summon a giant statue, using his Sage Art: True Several Thousand Hands Jutsu, that can battle not only Madara and his Perfect Susanoo, but also his pet fox (the Kyuubi of all things) even when clad in Susanoo.

In addition to his wood jutsu, Hashirama is said to be as good a medic as his granddaughter Tsunade, who is nigh immortal due to her skill in medical jutsu. He also has shown Sage Mode, which is known to significantly boost speed, strength, sensing and more. Add in that his wood jutsu absorbs chakra (allowing him to counter the Rinnegan’s Hungry Ghost Realm) and helps to seal things, and it’s easy to see why he’s in the top 5.

3. Nagato Uzumaki (presumably)

Nagato is this high up for simple reasons. He can absorb seemingly any amount of chakra at once, rendering 99.9% of people and their offenses moot. He can steal souls, allowing him to insta-kill anyone he has a hold on for long enough. He can use powerful gravity that can level a village, and most of all, he can use said gravity to create a powerful singularity that is very hard to destroy (and kills and seals all who are caught inside of it).

While speed was the key to beating the Paths of Pain, Nagato has no such problems with speed. This was seen when he easily kept up with and caught both Killerbee and Kyuubi Mode Naruto’s attacks, nearly soul ripping Naruto. Add in his summons (that include a dog who who constantly duplicates when hit, a chameleon that is invisible, and the Rhino and Bear that have a powerful offense and defense) and the fact that his cooldown timer (5 seconds with the Paths of Pain) looks to be much, much shorter if not nonexistent, and Nagato earns his #3 spot.

2. Kabuto Yakushi

Kabuto is at the #2 spot for his incredible versatility and power that he gained late in the manga when he gained Sage Mode and the abilities of the Sound 5 among others. Discounting Edo Tensei (which may or may not put him at #1), Kabuto has a slew of jutsu that seem almost impossible to counter. His White Rage jutsu blinds, stuns, and nearly paralyzes all who are hit, leaving them open for an easy kill. His Sage Enhanced sound genjutsu hits an area of people all at once and even caught genjutsu extraordinaire Itachi Uchiha in its clutches. His Bone Forest, in theory, would be a much larger and more powerful version of Kimimaro’s (whose Bone Forest covered an entire field with sharp, protruding bones) and allow him to skewer almost any opponent.

Also, his Sage Mode gives him impressive speed as he easily dodged Sasuke’s Susanoo Arrows that even Kakashi said were impossible for him to dodge. It also gave him the usual strength and durability that sage mode provides, as well as the ability to see with his ears instead of his eyes, giving him immunity to most genjutsu.

He also gave himself genes from Juugo’s clan which gives him infinite Sage Mode, as well as genes from both Suigetsu and Karin to give him the ability to liquefy himself to take little to no damage (Suigetsu himself was able to take a Bijuu Bomb, a mountain destroying blast, head on this way), and to give himself a faster healing factor. Assuming he ALSO gets Kimimaro’s bones (bones that Gaara’s “steel sand” couldn’t crush and couldn’t bury under 200m of said sand) only enhanced, there are very little ways to hurt Kabuto, if any at all.

1. Itachi Uchiha

Yes, Itachi is #1. Why? Because nearly his entire way of fighting, both offense and defense, cannot be easily countered and DOES in turn counter most others in the Naruto Universe, if not all.

Itachi has speed, speed on the level of the fastest of ninja, able to keep up with Kyuubi Mode Naruto, Killerbee, and more importantly, Kabuto. Backing that speed up is seriously good taijutsu skill that never fails him and the sharingan, giving him limited precognition and the ability to see in slow motion. He is among the fastest in the Naruto Universe. And his speed isn’t limited to just his feet either, as his hand seals are so fast that even people with the sharingan can’t see them.

Itachi also possesses a repertoire of powerful ninjutsu in his large fireball jutsu, his water fangs, his exploding and his normal shadow clone jutsu, and of course, Amaterasu and Susanoo. Exploding clones are perfect for fooling and promptly damaging (if not killing) an opponent, Amaterasu is very fast (near impossible to dodge) and will burn an opponent to cinders in seconds, and Susanoo is the ultimate defense.

Not only is Susanoo an ultimate defense, blocking Kirin (a mountain destroying lightning attack) at less than full power, but it’s fast as it was activated before said lightning bolt struck. Even more, Itachi’s Susanoo has even GREATER ultimate defense in the form of the Yata Mirror, an artifact that is stated to block and reflect any attack by changing its properties.

In addition to the defense, Itachi’s Susanoo has high level (perhaps the highest level) offense in his Sword of Totsuka and his Yasaka Magatama. The Sword of Totsuka is also an artifact in the form of a giant sword (ethereal and yet made of sake) that seals anything it pierces into an infinite genjutsu. It has proven to be powerful when used to cut, as it cut off the 8 heads from Orochimaru’s tailed beast sized form and has been shown to be very fast as it was able to stab Orochimaru mid-sentence and even blitz Nagato before he could react (and we’ve already covered Nagato’s speed and reaction time).

Now beyond even his ultimate defense, beyond his powerful ninjutsu, and beyond his speed, Itachi’s biggest strength is his genjutsu. Genjutsu are illusions, activated via a medium that seems to be very hard to counter in this series. No one has broken Itachi’s genjutsu so far besides his brother Sasuke in a fight that Itachi planned to lose. A mere point of his finger was shown to incapacitate Naruto to the point that he needed two people to break him out of it, and his genjutsu has also worked on people like Orochimaru, who in the databook has a 5/5 in genjutsu. Even when fighting the genjutsu mistress herself Kurenai, Itachi easily reversed her own genjutsu onto herself, showing his defense to be as good as his offense.

His ultimate Genjutsu, Tsukuyomi, is nearly impossible to counter because it distorts time and gives Itachi full control over the world you are put in. It can inflict enough mental pain to kill you (as noted by Kakashi), can’t really be countered by even the sharingan, and it all happens in only a second or so in real time, adding to the difficulty of countering it.

In theory even a perfect Jinchuuriki or tailed beast host wouldn’t be broken out of it by their beast, as the beast would have to recognize that they are in a genjutsu and use chakra to break them out in less than a second. And with how lethal it can be, that puts Tsukuyomi a step above other genjutsu.

And to top it off Itachi is intelligent, making strategies in the midst of battle, and has access to forbidden techniques such as Izanami and (possibly) Izanagi. Izanami allows him to trap someone in an infinite loop of a genjutsu until they meet a requirement set by him, though it costs Itachi one of his eyes. To initiate it Itachi merely needs to repeat an action in the battle, sacrifice the light in one of his eyes, and then it happens. Add this to Izanagi, which allows him to essentially achieve respawn and immortality for 5 minutes or so, also at the cost of one of his eyes and he becomes nearly unbeatable.

So Itachi has not only powerful ninjutsu, but he’s super fast,good at close combat, intelligent, has very powerful and versatile genjutsu, has an ultimate defense and offense combo in Susanoo and the artifacts, and can sacrifice his eyes for a second and maybe third life. Combine this with the fact that his ultimate defense and offense both activate fast, the fact that no one has shown great genjutsu defense, and the fact that he can also trap people in an infinite loop at the snap of a finger (or two), and you get the picture as to why Itachi is number 1 on this list.

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