The Nine-Tails.
Or rather, the Nine Tailed Beasts.
They had once been nothing more than possessions in Hashirama and Madara's hands. Decades ago, in order to balance the powers of the Shinobi World—or, one could even say, to bring peace to the world—Hashirama had personally captured the nine Tailed Beasts and divided them up to distribute that power. Don't be fooled by Hashirama's solemn words: "Nine-Tails, your power is too great. You could bring disaster to the Shinobi World." In truth, all it took was the Bringer of Darkness and the Wood Dragon Technique. Hashirama had captured the Nine-Tails with ease, without expending much strength at all. By the usual standards for judging a ninja's power, the Nine-Tails was already at Super Kage Level, yet it was that fragile in Hashirama's hands. Madara could suppress the Nine-Tails just as easily. The Eternal Eye could greatly restrict it, and Madara also knew a special method of using a contract to control it. As a result, even the strongest of the Tailed Beasts was little more than a pet to Hashirama and Madara. The other eight were even less worth mentioning.
This alone was enough to prove it.
Hashirama and Madara had reached the very peak of Super Kage Level.
One could even put it this way:
Below the Six Paths,
the two of them stood supreme!
The two men occupied a level of their own between Super Kage Level and the Six Paths. Madara had become a little stronger after transplanting Hashirama's cells in his later years and awakening the Rinnegan. That was why Naruto had been so wary of them.
His power was indeed enough to suppress the two.
But he couldn't simply crush them with one hand, as if he could do whatever he pleased.
He had plotted step