Naruto S-rank List

[Knyght]

So I tried to compile a list of all the shinobi that are or believed to be kage-level or beyond, excluding those from ancient history:

Konoha

First Hokage (Senju Hashirama)
Second Hokage (Senju Tobirama)
Third Hokage (Sarutobi Hiruzen)
Fourth Hokage (Namikaze Minato)
Fifth Hokage (Tsunade)
Uchiha Madara
Shimura Danzo
Jiraiya
Orochimaru
Hatake Sakumo
Hatake Kakashi - Possibly downgraded upon losing his Sharingan.
Maito Gai - Possibly downgraded as a cripple.
Uchiha Obito
Uchiha Shisui
Yakushi Kabuto - Post-Orochimaru.
Uchiha Itachi
Haruno Sakura - Once her Strength of a Hundred Seal was filled.
Uchiha Sasuke
Uzumaki Naruto

Suna

First Kazekage
Second Kazekage
Third Kazekage
Fourth Kazekage
Fifth Kazekage (Gaara)
Chiyo
Sasori

Kumo

First Raikage
Second Raikage
Third Raikage
Fourth Raikage (A)
Ginkaku and Kinkaku
Killer B

Kiri

First Mizukage
Second Mizukage
Third Mizukage
Fourth Mizukage (Yagura)
Fifth Mizukage (Terumii Mei)
Hoshigaki Kisame

Iwa

First Tsuchikage
Second Tsuchikage (Mu)
Third Tsuchikage (Onoki)
Deidara

Other Villages

Nagato
Konan
Hanzo
Hidan
Kakuzu

Potential Candidates

Uzumaki Kushina - Jinchuuriki, chakra chains, fuuinjutsu master, famous and implied to have fought as Minato's partner.

Maito Dai - A loser genin but able to open all Eight Gates

Rock Lee - Six Gates

Hoozuki Mangetsu - Mastered all seven swords.

Kato Dan - Aspired to be Hokage and has one hell of a killer jutsu.

Darui - Raikage's right-hand man and learned Black Lightning from his predecessor.

Dodai - Experienced, a major help against the Third Raikage and damn handy with Lava Release.

Nii Yugito - Could transform into the Two Tails and wreck shit.

Ebizou - One of the Honored Siblings.

Kankuro - Best puppetmaster in Suna (now) and overcame Sasori, but nowhere near at his best.

Temari - Best wind user in the Shinobi Alliance apparently.

Pakura/Gari - Killed some bitches.

Kitsuchi - Makes a big ass mountain and is Second Division Commander of the Shinobi Alliance. Probably Onoki's son.

Mifune - Not a ninja but he fought Hanzo.

Zetsu - what is this guy i don't even

 

[Ashaman]

Uzumaki Kushina - Jinchuuriki, chakra chains, fuuinjutsu master, famous and implied to have fought as Minato's partner.

Probably was.

Maito Dai - A loser genin but able to open all Eight Gates

Rock Lee - Six Gates

Yes to the first (but only then).

I have... doubts about Lee

Hoozuki Mangetsu - Mastered all seven swords.

Most likely.

Kato Dan - Aspired to be Hokage and has one hell of a killer jutsu.

Darui - Raikage's right-hand man and learned Black Lightning from his predecessor.

Dodai - Experienced, a major help against the Third Raikage and damn handy with Lava Release.

Doubt, doubt and doubt.

None of these have shown the skill or power I associate with S-Rank.

A-Rank, yes. Maybe even A+. But not S-Rank.

Nii Yugito - Could transform into the Two Tails and wreck shit.

Probably, yeah.

Ebizou - One of the Honored Siblings.

Kankuro - Best puppetmaster in Suna (now) and overcame Sasori, but nowhere near at his best.

Temari - Best wind user in the Shinobi Alliance apparently.

Pakura/Gari - Killed some bitches.

Most likely (but I can only base this off of association)

Doubt and doubt (for the same reason as above)

Probably and probably.

Kitsuchi - Makes a big ass mountain and is Second Division Commander of the Shinobi Alliance. Probably Onoki's son.

Mifune - Not a ninja but he fought Hanzo.

Tentative yes and a probable yes.

Zetsu - what is this guy i don't even

Depends. Which Zetsu are you talking about?

Fodder Zetsu (No!) White Zetsu (Prob not) Black Zetsu (maybe) or Swirl Zetsu (Gonna have to give him a yes)

 

[Altered Nova]

Uchiha Shisui was almost certainly S-rank. Even excluding his absurdly overpowered Mangekyou Sharingan jutsu he was talked up quite a bit and the video games even give him Susanoo.

Akimichi Chouza might qualify, dude blocked a tail swipe from Kinkaku's version 2 jinchuuriki cloak and could match the Gedo Mazo in size and power.

Shikaku and Inoichi might also qualify, they are old badasses but they were too valuable at HQ working intelligence so we never got to see them really cut loose.

The elite task force from Kumogakure, the Kinkaku Force, probably had a few S-ranks in their ranks. They did successfully assassinate Tobirama after all.

The Fire Monk Chiriku may have been S-rank. Dude had one hell of a bounty on his head.

[edit] I have my doubts about Kushina. Her seal doesn't seem to have been designed to give her access to any of Kurama's power, and every appearance she has ever made beyond an academy flashback where she was a damsel in distress that had to be rescued (not exactly evidence of badassitude) depicts her as a domestic housewife and non-combatant. She did have some badass sealing jutsu but we've never seen any offensive jutsu from her. Also, was she really famous? I don't recall anyone but Jiraiya and Tsunade ever mentioning her (not counting Minato telling Naruto about her) and Jiraiya didn't even remember her name at first.

 

[Masterly]

I don't think you can really call characters who are only conditionally powerful, S-rank ninja. Sakura, Lee, and Dai have no place even being considered.

 

[Knyght]

Which Zetsu are you talking about?

Exactly.

There's also the original Black/White Zetsu.

The elite task force from Kumogakure, the Kinkaku Force, probably had a few S-ranks in their ranks. They did successfully assassinate Tobirama after all.

I think they were more like elite jounin, unless one or both of the Gold and Silver Brothers was there. A team of twenty elite jounin against a less-than-his-best Tobirama who was commited to sacrificing his life for his team makes his death seem like a reasonable outcome.

The Fire Monk Chiriku may have been S-rank. Dude had one hell of a bounty on his head.

5 million ryo less than Asuma though and I wouldn't call him S-rank.

[edit] I have my doubts about Kushina. Her seal doesn't seem to have been designed to give her access to any of Kurama's power, and every appearance she has ever made beyond an academy flashback where she was a damsel in distress that had to be rescued (not exactly evidence of badassitude) depicts her as a domestic housewife and non-combatant. She did have some badass sealing jutsu but we've never seen any offensive jutsu from her. Also, was she really famous? I don't recall anyone but Jiraiya and Tsunade ever mentioning her (not counting Minato telling Naruto about her) and Jiraiya didn't even remember her name at first.

The databook spins it as "even the Sannin have heard of her prowess". The wiki just said she was famous which was misleading.

Considering what a loser like Karin could do with those chains, whatever Kushina could do should trump that significantly. Minato's feeling like he was with Kushina again when he fought alongside Naruto felt like a point in her favour too, but that's a vague one. She was said to have particularly strong chakra on several occasions, and being able to restrain the Kyuubi and set up an imprenetrable barrier at the same time whilst dying was impressive too.

I think her depiction in-story is a result of her chosen role as Naruto's mother. Her significance to the plot comes from her acts of motherhood towards Naruto on the day he was born and when he met her chakra ghost, rather than her actual abilities. If we hadn't seen Kurenai in Part 1, for instance, we'd probably think that she was a civilian mother because her entire role was embodiment the next generation after Naruto's. Kushina felt like another version of that.

Welp, that's why she's just a potential candidate anyway. They're the guys I'm just not sure about.

I don't think you can really call characters who are only conditionally powerful, S-rank ninja. Sakura, Lee, and Dai have no place even being considered.

Doesn't the same apply to Gai then? When fighting alone, he needed the Fifth Gate to defeat Kisame the first time and used the Sixth Gate the second time. Without the Gates, he's a powerful jounin rather than kage-level it seems.

And the way I understood Sakura's abilities was that she had mastered the Strength of a Hundred Seal the moment it had appeared and is now a permanent addition to her strength.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

S-rank means be a MONSTER all the time.

 

[Stormfury]

S-rank means "this guy isn't worth you fighting unless you are also S-rank. Just run away."

 

[TC_Hazard]

S-rank means "this guy isn't worth you fighting unless you are also S-rank. Just run away."

Pretty much.

I mean, Hidan is an S class.

Bottom of the ladder but S class all the same and his only trick is immortality (granted, that's combined with physical stats that allow him to toy with Asuma, but that's still not saying much compared to someone like, say, Deidara or even Sasori).

 

[DhampyrX2]

No consideration for Hiashi? I mean he was casually taking out groups of 20+ by himself all the way back to the Sound invasion.

 

[Altered Nova]

Hiashi's badassitude seems to have vanished in the current war though.

Do you think Shino has upgraded to S-rank yet? His newest trick with the destruction bugs growing inside his enemy and eating their way out was pretty fucking terrifying. His father Shibi is probably even more powerful as the second databook labeled him "The Pride of the Aburame Clan."

 

[KurokamiDG]

Shino may be awesome, but at most he would be a bit better than the average A rank since he's still more of a support type of ninja.

What about Darui? Black lightning AND Storm release, as well as a skilled kenjutsu practitioner.

 

[Knyght]

Hiashi, Shibi, the Ino-Shika-Chou...none of these guys strike me as S-Class. Just skilled jounin.

Not Shino, either. I'd consider that Torune guy a bigger threat than him. Hell, Kiba was kicking way more ass than him in that same scene.

 

[Stormfury]

I think...

If someone is an S-ranked ninja, by this point we would KNOW.

They would have done something S-ranked.


There may be all sorts of awesome clan ninja who have their awesome tricks who could theoretically be awesome... But by now, when the world has essentially ended then been saved then ended again then been saved AGAIN then ended AGAIN and saved AGAIN only for Sasuke to bitch out?

If you deserved to be S-ranked, we would know it.

Characters that were summoned by Kabuto? Those fuckers unless otherwise noted are all A-ranked. And I can't really think of any that were noted other then the Kinkaku Force.

If youre in S-rank, you aren't just strong... everyone fucking knows it.

 

[Altered Nova]

The problem with that is that lots of badass stuff happens offscreen in this manga. Like the captures of most of the jinchuuriki. Or the rematch between Zombie!Kimimaro and Naruto. For all we know Pakura and Gari could have been slaughtering dudes by the hundreds and being nigh unstoppable S-rank monsters and we just never saw their battles.

Which reminds me, Kimimaro was definitely S-rank. His databook stats are almost as good as Hidan's, he's almost as invulnerable considering he survived a Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral without a scratch, and then he's still got the cursed seal and he can create a forest sized field of bone spikes. And he did all that while on the brink of death from a convenient fatal case of plotitis disease.

Honestly I'm still pissed off that we didn't get to see what Kimimaro was capable of at 100% and with infinite chakra. Dude must have been terrifying.

 

[Knyght]

Even the guys we know are S-rank weren't that impressive in thewar. If we had to judge Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori only by their performance in this arc, it would be hard to justify that any of them are on par with a Kage. Man, even Hanzo was just alright instead of "wow, I can see how he bitchslapped the Sannin."

 

[Masterly]

And the way I understood Sakura's abilities was that she had mastered the Strength of a Hundred Seal the moment it had appeared and is now a permanent addition to her strength.

Doesn't she have to gather up chakra in the seal over time and then unleash it? And even then, her destructive power isn't quite on the same scale as the other bruisers we've seen in the setting. Her medical ninjutsu notwithstanding, she's got one extremely powerful skill that can still be avoided or more or less mitigated with similar or lesser techniques. She'll probably get to S-rank eventually but saying she's S-rank as of now is a bit much.

Also, Gai's ability to open the gates counts is part of his regular skillset, as in the one that doesn't kill him if he decides to use them. They'll damage his body and he'll be stuck recovering for a while afterward but the option is always available if he needs to pull out a trump card and after that, he can live to fight another day if he manages to overcome his enemy. That he can fight evenly and even beat Kisame with the "only" the 5th Gate speaks highly of his power. It seems to be a very rare skill/technique within the setting and his mastery of it augments his natural ability and talents, rather than rely entirely on it.

Dai's strength however, was entirely conditional on hitting that last gate and he died shortly after delaying the Seven Swordsmen. He was portrayed as a very unskilled ninja who relied on a force multiplier (though admittedly, quite a large multiplier) he could use only once in his life. Even with the other gates he could presumably open, I doubt he would be much stronger than a rank and file chuunin/jounin. That's not S-rank.

Spoiler

Dai at the 5th Gate would probably die against Kisame.

 

[Knyght]

The way I understood Sakura's seal - which I did find confusing, I'll admit - was that she essentially spent the last three years doing the equivalent of learning the three steps of the Rasengan over three years. Constantly supplying the seal with chakra for three years with perfect control was the what was required to complete/master the seal. And now that she's done it, she doesn't have to do step one and two and can go straight back to three.

Basically, if she uses up all of the chakra in the seal (as long as that seems to takes) she only needs to add enough chakra to switch it back on rather than fill it back up, and that might even be automatic. Tsunade's reactivated whilst she in a coma (or as soon as she woke up) for instance.

And from what we've seen, she's the equivalent of Tsunade herself at this point. Implied to have more physical strength and less chakra wasted because of her age, in exchange for being less experienced and probably less skilled in taijutsu.

Fair point on Dai though.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

Basically, she went 3 years with only, like, 25% of her chakra, as the remaining 75% was loaded in the seal.
Now the seal is complete, and she can use her full-power. Which appears to be at least as strong as Five Gates Guy... except it's her BASE power.
She can augment it with the power stored in the seal(though as of now she used the seal only for summoning Katsuyu and mass healing)

I don't think she's S-rank, yet. But she's pushing the upper limits of A-rank.

 

[KurokamiDG]

So it's mostly because of her ridiculously efficient chakra control that she was able to function with so little chakra and still capable of matching up with some of the big shots?

Damn.

 

[Stormfury]

More like she matters so little that Kishimoto didn't even give a fuck about the logic behind her, he just came up with an idea, had her not die, and ran with it.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

So it's mostly because of her ridiculously efficient chakra control that she was able to function with so little chakra and still capable of matching up with some of the big shots?

Damn.

Yep. It really changes how you see her previous fights.

 

[Masterly]

So it's mostly because of her ridiculously efficient chakra control that she was able to function with so little chakra and still capable of matching up with some of the big shots?

I'm pretty sure it's less that and more this:

More like she matters so little that Kishimoto didn't even give a fuck about the logic behind her, he just came up with an idea, had her not die, and ran with it.

She's just been kind of 'there' for the past hundred chapters or so and stopped being relevant after the first year or two of Shippuden.