I think he was low Kage level because he did found the Akatsuki. He was trained by Jiraiya and Jiraiya did help produce Nagato, Naruto and Minato so Yahiko was probably very powerful as well. They did earn a reputation of being powerful in Amekagure and even Jiraiya heard about how strong they were, and I don't think that Nagato did all the work. Kishi is kidna misogny and it seems whenever there is a team, there is two males and a female and the two males are much more powerful than the female (Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura / Neji, Rock Lee and Tenten / Kakashi, Obito and Rin etc.) and Konan was very powerful. With prep time she almost beat Tobi and should have won had it not been for Izangi. I think that Yahiko was probably one of the best Water Release ninjas ever, probably second only to Tobirama. (Why aren't that many powerful water release shinobi anyways?)
What do you think?
What do you think?