i think people misunderstand iruka's statements and a few others.
firstly
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hiruzen scolds iruka for using past tense. meaning hes no longer strongest. of the shinobi who are famous and powerful at the same time, id say this means hiruzen considers himself surpassed by minato, further evidenced here
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anko wishes the 4th was still alive since he'd own oro in a flash. me, an oro fanboy, is admitting that much.
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here hiruzen fears fighting minato so badly that he tries to stop him being summoned. but its proof hashirama has long been surpassed because hiruzen blew his leg off without too much trouble despite hashirama being a mindless killing machine. if it had been a real battle, no doubt hashi would be reluctant to battle against his own student.
as for hiruzen being miserable compared to his prime, i dont think that was ever said. pathetic? yes.
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but only because he couldnt kill oro before.
raikage in the VIZ translation called minato finest shinobi ever and fastest shinobi in the world. mangareader says
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there was never a man that surpassed him. that would include sarutobi then. but theres no doubt sarutobis second best.
jiraiya says everyone paled in comparison with minato.
that would include himself, Orochimaru, hanzo and itachi who jiraiya also knew about.
now some of you are saying "well raikage didnt see hashirama fight". tobi did. and he still said minato was worthy of his hype. jiraiya saw the third in his prime yet he said 4th was unparalleled, suggesting jiraiya himself wouldnt want to fight against minato.
and unlike hashirama and hanzo, minato proved his hype.
he beat someone who could do thishttp://manga.animea.net/naruto-chapter-501-page-8.html
as seen here.
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(the flee on sight order)
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(hiruzen's wondering where minato is, implying he needs his help)
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(teleports a huge beast like kyuubi away)
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(is able to seal others chakra as well as an entire tailed beast inside a baby)
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makes a barrier that neither sarutobi nor kyuubi could penetrate.
one thing i found interesting was he said it wasnt possible to seal all of kyuubi chakra. yet mito uzumaki did it. what does that say about her powers?
of all the people we see fight on panel and get extraordinary hype, minatos unmatched. but granted, not alot of these people talking about him knew about the likes of nagato, tobi and danzos powers since they were secretive.
and theres some hype thats just not believable like fukasaku saying sm naruto had surpassed minato. wut? no he hasn't you dumbass frog.
many get called invincible (tobi, itachi, pain) but imo minato beats them all in raw power and intellect.