[DracoBattousai]

Originally Posted by Crimson

Its interesting how you place Jiraiya at the buttom when Itachi is scared to fight him. and you even put Itachi before the 4th... Do you know how strong the 4th actually was? wow!

Itachi did a few tricks with his eyeballs and all of a sudden he's being ranked higher than the Hokages >_<...

My list would be something like this

1)3rd Hokage when he's young (He was able to take on Orochimaru who is alot younger so i'm sure he would have been ALOT more powerfull when he was in his prime days)

2)Jiraiya (I place him second mainly because Itachi is scared to fight him, and he's the teacher of the 4th Hokage

3)Orochimaru/Itachi

Spoiler:

I'd just like to point out that it never mentioned Itachi was afraid to fight Jaraiya, he just didn't want to, not a single mention of fear. He left simply because there was no need to take Naruto right now, and he was already waring himself out by using his eye so many times as Kisame said. He just felt it was an unnessecary fight and so he avoided it. He didn't run in fear as you so put it.

Anyways I'm gonna go with Sarutobi, he was considered the best by everyone during his prime, and could still kick some ass even when he was old. He gets my vote.