#1-Itachi.
Madara never went through with any of the hard laid out plans until Itachi was killed, Madara himself said "so much for not touching Konoha" at Itachis dead body, suggesting quite strongly he did not want to get on the wrong side of Itachi.
Madara uses suggestion and manipulation. He knew Itachi loved Sasuke so used that against him so that Itachi would die willingly to his brother.
Can release full susanou, where it has been proved that even Kage level ninjas cant even break through a partially formed susanou from sasuke.
#2-Nagato
Massive chakra reserves, can take out hundreds of ninjas within a matter of a minute, and can also bring people back to life-quite a guy.
Managed to capture Kyuubi in 8tails mode and was ready to go even further once it broke free.
Killed a Sannin without really trying hard, he didn't even bother using 6 bodies until the end, and even then there was no strategy, pain simply overwhelmed him purely by number.
#3-Kisame
Kisame is sarcastic, the latest chapters are kishi beginning to develop Kisame more into the series.
He has made jibes at akatsuki members in sarcastic tones etc before, and we havent actually seen him use any trump cards.
In fact, quite the opposite, every jutsu he has used we have seen other ninja use before, and still he manages to out compete others.
People continue to say he has reserves 2nd to Naruto, which isnt nessecarily true or false, its difficult to say, as theyre both powerhouses, but Kisame is a tailed beast himself as Kishi writes, we have to remember naruto has 2 chakras, and we cant count the 2nd 9tail chakra as his, for this reason i believe Kisame has more chakra.
In fact i believe this is why he is shark like, he has so much chakra it begun taking physical form of a tailed beast without a tail.
I love kisames "whoever killed orochimaru must be very skilled"
Haha
#4-Sasori.
Sasori is extremely under-rated in my opinion.
He died against a questionably newbie jounin level sakura (high chuunin, low jounin) and grandma chiyo who is definitely S rank even at her age.
The thing is, grandma chiyo knew 90% of his moves, and at the end chiyo said he saw her attack but didnt dodge anyway.
If it was Sasori vs whoever without granny chiyo, Sasori would own, even Orochimaru cant survive poisons on the battlefield without kabuto to fix him up with antidotes.
Dodging Sasories techs is almost impossible unless you have seen them before, which is impossible because theyd hit you the first time lol.
#5-Orochimaru.
Errr...Its orochimaru...enough said.
Onwards is a cluster of similarly skilled people
#6/#7-Kakuzu/Deidara
Very skilled but simply too basic.
However it must be said that Kakashi lasted longer against pains 2 bodies than he lasted against kakuzu.
Deidaras great but he has one massive weakness as sasuke pointed out, he uses rock element therefore electricity owns it, anyone who is electrically dispositioned can laugh off any of his attacks, apart from the suicide one.
#8/#9zetsu/konan/
#10 Hidan
#11 Tobi
Tobi is last because it is now pretty evident he has no ability to attack, he appears to be able to have things go through him, and sure, he cant actually be killed therefore nobody can beat him, but he cant actually attack anyone.
We havent seen him attack anyone, and again, his master plan is simply mind manipulation on a global scale, which he needs a tailed beast for-not his own power.
Until we see him actually fight for real he is going to stay at the bottom.
People keep saying because zetsu and konan havent fought much theyre at the bottom.
Tobi hasnt fought at all, yet hes at the top for these people, contradict much?
Yeah he's running the show but it was mainly through manipulation of Nagato and akatsuki obeying pain.
It must be remembered only zetsu and pain knew of tobis real existence, Itachi as well.
Until he fights, he's staying at the bottom.
& he skills does not compare to Gaara he in another league to be honest I dont lik puppet jutsu but Sasori doing it jus looks cool rip Sasori