The Akatsuki changed what it meant to be dangerous in Naruto. For much of the series, the group seemed almost impossible to defeat. Its members hunted jinchuriki, infiltrated hidden villages and wielded techniques that could overwhelm even the most experienced shinobi. In an interesting twist, however, the Akatsuki’s reign also set the stage for its own eclipse.
The Fourth Great Ninja War introduced a different scale of power. Legendary shinobi returned to the battlefield, while Naruto and Sasuke received extraordinary abilities. Enemies even emerged whose strength exceeded anything the organization had demonstrated during its tailed-beast hunt. The fighters who once seemed untouchable were surpassed by fighters capable of reshaping battlefields and challenging the very origins of chakra.
Hashirama Is One of the Most Powerful Shinobi to Ever Exist
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Image via Studio Pierrot -
Image via Studio Pierrot -
Image via Studio Pierrot
Hashirama’s reputation as the God of Shinobi is supported by a battle that places him comfortably above everyone who fought under the Akatsuki’s banner. At the Valley of the End, he defeated Madara Uchiha despite the latter combining his Susanoo with the Nine-Tails. Hashirama has enormous chakra reserves and the defensive strength to survive catastrophic attacks.
Sage Mode raised his capabilities even further. His gigantic wooden constructs could contest tailed-beast power directly, and this feat matters when comparing him with Pain. Destroying Konoha was a frightening demonstration of the Rinnegan’s power, but Hashirama had already fought battles involving comparable devastation while sustaining his own offensive pressure.
Obito’s Kamui presents a more complicated problem. Nevertheless, Hashirama’s endurance and ability to control the battlefield would give him the resources to contest Obito’s attack windows. Hashirama’s strength extends across too many areas for the Akatsuki’s specialists to match him.
Sasuke’s Six Paths Abilities Exceed the Uchiha Power the Akatsuki Knew
Sasuke’s connection with the Akatsuki makes his eventual rise particularly striking. By the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War, Hagoromo’s power gave him a Rinnegan, and his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan provided the foundation for a complete Susanoo. His space-swapping technique, Amenotejikara, added an immediate tactical threat.
Those abilities allowed Sasuke to heavily participate in battles against Six Paths Madara and Kaguya. His perception and reactions were at a level far beyond his earlier encounters with Itachi or the Kage. His control over the tailed beasts later demonstrated another substantial difference. He could place them under genjutsu and imprison them with Chibaku Tensei.
Itachi would still be a tough opponent to face, but understanding Sasuke’s abilities would not eliminate the gap in speed and reserves. Sasuke’s end-of-series form also avoids relying on absorbing chakra from the captured tailed beasts. Even before that amplification, his Six Paths powers placed him above the organization’s individual fighters.
Six Paths Naruto Outgrew the Organization That Spent Years Hunting Him
Naruto’s victory over Pain was a major breakthrough, but it did not establish that he had surpassed every Akatsuki member. His Six Paths transformation removes that uncertainty. After receiving Hagoromo’s power, Naruto could participate directly in battles against enemies whose capabilities exceeded the organization’s earlier threats.
Six Paths Sage Mode, combined with Kurama’s chakra and contributions from the other tailed beasts, gave him extraordinary speed, sensory perception and offensive variety. His shadow clones also became a far more serious problem. Rather than simply creating distractions, he could field additional combatants powerful enough to engage threats.
His reaction speed allowed him to survive encounters where hesitation would have been fatal. Pain’s destructive abilities and Itachi’s dangerous ocular techniques would still be annoying to deal with, and Obito’s intangibility would need to be understood. However, they wouldn’t be enough to stop Naruto in his Six Paths form.
Two Mangekyo Sharingan Briefly Put Kakashi Among Naruto’s Strongest Fighters
Regular Kakashi is certainly not more powerful than every Akatsuki member. The Kakashi temporarily empowered by Obito’s chakra during the battle against Kaguya is a different version entirely. With two Mangekyo Sharingan and the benefit of Six Paths chakra, Kakashi gained access to a complete Susanoo and an extraordinary combination of Kamui abilities.
He could attack at a great distance, defend through intangibility and incorporate space-time manipulation into techniques already refined through years of combat. His Kamui Shuriken were especially dangerous because toughness offered little reassurance against their warping effect. The strongest evidence of Kakashi’s strength is his contribution against Kaguya.
Kakashi reacted to threats and created openings against an opponent operating far beyond the level of anybody he had ever fought before. That sharply separates him from the Kakashi who needed assistance against Pain or struggled with the demands of a single transplanted Sharingan.
Madara Was Already Above Akatsuki Level Before Becoming the Ten-Tails’ Host
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Image via Studio Pierrot -
Image via Studio Pierrot -
Image via Studio Pierrot
Madara’s return during the Fourth Great Ninja War immediately changes the audience’s understanding of legendary strength. His battle against the Allied Shinobi Forces demonstrates a combination of physical skill, ocular power and overwhelming ninjutsu that few contemporary fighters could reasonably challenge. His confrontation with the Five Kage is even more decisive.
Techniques that had defined the limits of earlier battles became parts of a much larger arsenal. This culminated in a complete Susanoo whose scale makes resistance seem hopeless. That version of Madara already has a strong claim to superiority over the Akatsuki’s members. Becoming the Ten-Tails’ jinchuriki makes the power gap much wider.
The difference is visible in his fight with Might Guy. An attack that catastrophically damages his body still does not finish him. Six Paths abilities, extraordinary regeneration and Limbo clones make him dangerous in ways that most members of the Akatsuki lack the perception or power to address.
- Release Date
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2002 – 2007-00-00
- Showrunner
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Masashi Kishimoto
- Directors
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Hayato Date
- Writers
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Masashi Kishimoto
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