As you all know itachi is the best prodigy the village of konoha produced, unfortunately he was born into a cruel world, which forced him to take some decision, some of which i will count as good decision others i'll count otherwise, his family background is a common knowledge being born into the uchiha bloodline. At the age of 7 he mastered the great uchiha blaze release technique which is a great feat to behold. He graduated form the academy at the age of 8 became a chunin at the age of 10. From where he hence became a captain in the ambu corp. Which you all know is very well above some jonin ranked shinobi. He also unlocked the ms, Before his time the only person known to have accomplished such height amongst the uchihas was madara and his brother izuna. But not only did itachi unluck the ms he also created a blaze release that is deemed as the greatest blaze release which we all know "the amateratsu" putting aside this he also mastered the tsukiyomi a genjustu that his also rated very high he also discovered the great sealing sword orochimaru laboured for years to get, he also mastered the izanami which is the greatest of all genjustus although it is tagged forbidden. Enough of his abilities, now moving no to his deeds itachi sacrificed his life and that of the his clan to protect his village and his little brother thereby appearing to be bad not only to the people he sacrificed everything for but to his brother too. Thereby being tagged an s ranked nin. Now comparing him to other notable shinobi. (1) the fourth hokage: taking the fact that he sealed the 9 tails and saving the village, itachi would have done it in a more palatable way, that didn't require any form of self sacrifice or whatever don't get me wrong i'm a minato fan but you just have to give honor to whom honor his due. Itachi would have just placed the 9 tails inside a genjustu just like madara did when initiating the attack on konoha. It wasn't as if madara (tobi) was there to guide the tailed beast's attack he was busy plotting how to kidnap baby naruto.... And tobi clearly said it that if he had known prior to minato's attack that minato could teleport to a moving kunai their fight wouldn't have gone in the favour of minato. And from what we know tobi clearly fears itachi... So with this i rest my case