Minato has shown literally nothing other than his fight with Obito, which the latter lost because of his hastiness as he materialized to attack Minato. His hilarious suicide over a would-be prophecy should hammer his repute down if anything else, not raise it up to high heaven. This base. He clearly doesn't belong here.
Battle Feats:
- Sasuke and Madara - The former has shown quick silver thinking on several instances such as when he had literally a second or two to live during his fight with Deidara, twice. His amazing feats to break own his opponents tactics layer by layer is unmatched through out the manga. He has shown this ability consistently. Not to mention someone like Shikamaru looked up to him for his intelligence.
Madara should be up there by hype as he was a war Veteran and defeated several skilled Shinobi through his strategic mind at a very young age. Later on, he led Uchiha clan as a mercenary faction and never lost a battle. If he shouldn't be up there, no one should be. In fact, I would place him above Sasuke in this regard.
- Kakashi and Shikamaru- He seems very good in terms of overall preparation and coming up with a battle strategy, laying traps, and tracking. He is a balanced ninja. His battle feats in terms of extremely quick approach aren't up there with Sasuke and Madara, but he definitely makes up for it else where.
Shikamaru doesn't seem to extend his brilliance to quick wits. He would get slaughtered if put under immense pressure and with just a second or two to think his way out of death. Only Sasuke - and Madara by hype - has displayed that. He is more of a brilliant analyzer and coming up with move-by-move strategies.
- Itachi - He seems to be a long term planner, albeit his glaring failures in this department, his battle strategies are quite brilliant.
Honorable mention: Obito is an excellent manipulater. His cunning - when he was Tobi anyway - was amazing. He fooled everyone, including his akatsuki members, which means Itachi as well. He was such a favourite of mine, until Obito happened. Regardless, his deduction skills as to how he is to proceed with his plans are amazing. Far above Itachi's.
Ocochimaru and Kabuto - Both of them are extremely brilliant in regards to medical tinkering and analyzing data. Orochimaru is the only prodigy that has created so many Jutsus on his own, and Kabuto had surpassed Tsunade in his medical skills when she was at her peak.
That is just about it.
so by default.
