[Kayess]

Originally Posted by knubbe

Well if we consider everything that has happened so far, it's not hard to conclude that Itachi is the strongest ninja we've seen. Orochimaru's fear of him is reason enough to make that assumption. Then again, we've seen very little of Itachi in action compared to Orochimaru, so it's still up in the air. Matchup-wise though, I can't picture anyone beating him right now. You can't look at his face otherwise you automatically lose basically, and the only person who has a practical way around it is Gai. Looking at someone's feet during battle as opposed to the rest of their body is a mild disadvantage at best, and even if Gai could get around that, we don't know very much about Itachi's ninjutsu and taijutsu skills, but they've been hinted at being very good (breaking Sasuke's arm when Sasuke tried to Chidori him, and his ridiculously fast hand seal speed)

I suggest you put that last section in spoiler tags as it has not been revealed in the anime yet.