You just lost all credibility the moment you stated you didn't think age was a factor. Kid Obito was on par with Minato and did not fear him. Adult Obito w/ more experience didn't dare complete any of his plans just due to Itachi's existence. Itachi activated his susanno in 1/1000 of a second. He let Sasuke give his little speech and didn't activate it until Sasuke ordered it to strike. Go back and look at the manga. Obito says otherwise. He was cautious around Itachi, he didn't complete any of his plans with Itachi existing & if he could have killed Itachi so easily w/ kamui, why didn't he? Itachi didn't benefit Akatsuki at all, he was assigned to capture Naruto but he purposely didn't and gave Hiruzen info. Obito was aware of this and yet still let him in. Why? The funny thing is that Obito still didn't complete his plans when 90% of the time, Itachi wouldn't be around him. Itachi was in Akatsuki for 7 years. It was stated in pt1, that the Akatsuki did not assemble all together for several years, since Oro left and he left when Itachi joined at the age of 14. So for the first 3 of those 7 years, Itachi didn't have a chance to take Obito out. Then we have the latter 4 years. The majority of the time, it was stated that the Akatsuki only traveled in pairs and were not all together, they just met through holograms. Itachi didn't really have any chance to take out Obito and go on a 1v1 against him. However, even though Itachi was rarely in Obito's presence, Obito still did not continue his plans due to Itachi being alive. Obito was afraid of Itachi, while Itachi didn't care. The sad thing is that Itachi nearly took Obito out from beyond the grave and made him use izanagi in order to get rid of the amaterasu activation. By your logic, I should say that Minato cannot deflect kirin, because he's never done it before. But I know he has the capablility to. Every Akatsuki member had the ability to deal with a TBB, whether that includes avoiding or deflecting. They were assigned to capture tailed beasts and that was their only mission. Yata mirror is stated to deflect all attacks, therefore it can deflect a TBB, I dont need to see it just as I don't need to see Minato use a s/t barrier to deflect kirin. Actually, Hiruzen pushed Kurama out of the village. Then Minato sent away the TBB and rasengan'd Obito, then Obito ran away, then Kushina held down Kurama so Minato could seal him. It was a group effort. He could barely control the Hachibi arm and couldn't even go full form at that point, he was inexperienced compared to what he is now. At that point, both Minato and Bee were even, they both had kunais at each other. That's what happened during that fight, then they respected each other and moved on. No Minato cannot kill off a clan faster than Itachi can. He can eliminate an army while Itachi cannot yes, but a clan no. Why am I saying this? Because the Uchiha would notice his kunais littering their district and they know his jutsu due to it being widely known...he's their hokage. Also, it's not a wide flat area, there are many buildings, etc. Itachi didn't want to kill his clan, he wanted to protect Konoha which he did and saved his clan from getting eliminated painfully by other Konoha shinobi who would rip them apart. You know that.