@Nierre
Attempt #2
So.... in my personal opinion (
I'm not looking to change whatever the consensus is on the wiki), "No". I do not scale the 5 Kage to Momo & Kin. This is because in my mind, it makes absolutely no sense. Let me break it down...
- In Shippuden, SPC was the difference between God Tier and High Tier, with EMPHASIS!
Madara & Hashirama were viewed as the pinnacle of what a shinobi could achieve without extenuating factors (Biju Chakra, Six Paths Chakra, Etc.) and it wasn't "
solely" based on them being Reincarnates as other Shinobi like Itachi & Minato, for example, were already scratching at the door to their level of power before reaching their primes before they got sick and/or died, and Characters like Naruto, despite being a Reincarnate, wasn't comparable in strength w/o the strongest Biju's Chakra being amped by NE, and their power still was viewed as a myth. This level of power is completely eclipsed by the advent of SPC. Even "
Mindless" Juubito, w/o full control of that chakra
CASUALLY eclipsed Edo SM Hashirama. That level only
CONTINUED to grow (
Mindless Juubito w/o full Control < Juubito w/ Full Control < Six Paths Madara Chakra Strength < Kaguya's Chakra Strength, etc). The difference in power between those with SPC and any other Chakra was staggering, and it took Naruto & Sasuke gaining SPC from the So6P just to be comparable and have a fighting chance against Otsutsuki level foes, and I don't subscribe to the notion the average character in Naruto with regular chakra and expert level CC, as most Kage's are, can make that jump in power w/o, again, extenuating factors. Yes, consider me incredulous here.
This is where I begin to focus on Gaara primarily in relation to the Six Paths/Otsutsuki tier (the others will obviously fall below him). First, let me start with Naruto & Sasuke. The
ONLY reason I believe Naruto & Sasuke are stronger than the War Arc is because in "The Last" (Movie) & "Boruto Era" (Manga), they showcased New Jutsu and Mastery over their Abilities/Doujutsu that they didn't have before, which
OBVIOUSLY implies training occurred, which means they can be assumed to have gotten stronger (
NOTE: I do not personally take "The Last" Novelization over the movie, which is the primary canon. And if you want to bring up the Shueisha "timelines", they are all contradictory in some form, IN THAT, you have one with the Novelization and not the Movie, and one without it but the Movie is listed, One that canonizes the Boruto Movie, etc etc. For me, and speaking only for me, that shows a lack of consistency. The only "Naruto Canon" I adhere to is: Minato & Kushina OS, Chapters 1-700, Blank Period Novels / The Last movie, Mitsuki OS, Boruto Academy Arcs / Sarada Chapters / Retsudan Novels, Boruto Manga & "Character Characterization" Post- Academy Arcs, not "events").
- Momoshiki & Kinshiki conundrum.
So, here we have characters who are "
supposedly" stronger than Kaguya in the form of Momoshiki & Kinshiki (
I say that because, again, speaking strictly from my own personal pov, they aren't stronger than Kaguya. Based on what we know now, Kaguya, being the Kinshiki of her team with Isshiki, was never supposed to eat CF's. Only the leaders of the Duo's get to eat CF's, thus, being as Momoshiki is the one who eats the CF's and not all CF's are equal in power as they are based on the populace of X Planet, and they had no idea what was going on with each other over the 1000+ years, Kaguya being "frightened" of Momoshiki & Kinshiki showing up is warranted because she has no idea how strong he may be after 1000+ years of CF hunting. And even if you disagree with my stance on this, you have to concede at least it's not a "baseless" assertion, but rather reasonable. Luckily though, i'm not arguing it here on the wiki...). Imo, it is illogical for Gaara to be scaling anywhere near this level and that's because: (1) We are told that Naruto, after becoming Kage for many years became stagnant & rusty due to the mostly "Peaceful" era post 4thGSW, meaning he had not progressed from the level he achieved prior to becoming Kage. (2) To assert Gaara, while an active Kage under the same conditions that Naruto became stagnant & rusty under, ascended from being a plaything for Edo Madara to Stronger than Kaguya, with 0 justification given, which would be a far larger jump in power than even Naruto & Sasuke got from training post 4thGSW. (3) Unlike Naruto & Sasuke, whom actually had time to train because neither had any real responsibilities (Tsunade and Kakashi were Kage, Shikamaru was the Kage assistant handling things), Gaara was an active Kage at this time leading Suna's recovery after the war.
So when we say Gaara, whom had less time to train post-war than Naruto & Sasuke, due to being an active Kage with significant responsibilities, as well as still being an Active Kage under the same conditions that Naruto became Stagnant & Rusty under when he became Kage, somehow grew his power to over Kaguya (as the Wiki Accepts Momoshiki > Kaguya), without ANY sort of reasoning, is simply absurd to me.
(1) Chojuro dodges Kinshiki's flight speed, gets his guard broken easily, injured and about to be killed by Kinshiki in 3 moves, only stopping when Chojuro retorts.
(2) Kurotsuchi surprises Kinshiki by popping out of the mound he was already confused by, delivering a punch that did absolutely no damage, only pushing him back.
(3) Chojuro stabs Kinshiki with Chakra Needles after he was pointblank hit by Sasuke's Chidori (Note: Chojuro's Jutsu disrupts the Chakra pathway system, ala, Gentle Fist).
(4) Kurotsuchi physically restrains him with a sealing jutsu while he's being nerfed by Chojuro's ability.
(5) Gaara makes sand platforms for Darui to chase Momoshiki's flight speed. Darui swings on Momoshiki, who blocks.
(6) Momoshiki transforms and goes on a Blitz & One Shot spree with Gaara reacting and blocking one punch with his Sand before getting one tapped too.
This is my Issue... Base Momoshiki is shown surprising and drawing blood from Base Naruto
with a Kick (And it's true that Naruto still did "react" to Momoshiki there mind you and the look on his face "wasn't" that of surprise). And given base Naruto vs FM, I don't see how it's logical that any of the Kage's there were a threat to Base Momoshiki "Physically", which was their goal in the first place bc he can absorb ninjutsu. If we refuse to take Momoshiki's feat into account, I don't see why the Kage's feat should be taken into account. If Momoshiki is > Kaguya, it makes sense that he can physically damage Base Naruto. At least there is enough evidence/explanation there supporting that stance. There is nothing supporting Gaara being able to block that strike. the only way it makes sense given everything above is if it's an EXTREMELY casual Momoshiki (Which funny enough, "
this" is also an example of this same principle imo (KCM Naruto tanks a casual MJBTO palm that shatters Sasuke's Susanoo Ribs)).
Otherwise, it just makes no sense, and I don't see enough evidence to support any of them scaling and without so much as an explanation, unless I missed something critical, this entire ordeal outside of Sasuke & Naruto's own strength, is PIS. I personally would think it's reasonable if Gaara was >= Madara after all these years, given where he was in the 4thGSW, as there some evidence that regular ninja "can" approach that level of power before reaching their prime age, but even then I need an explanation or consistency (One Battle with 1 instance isn't consistency), w/o an explanation, even if it was a BS one, I can't get myself over those hurdles. So no, I don't personally scale the 5 Kage to Momo & Kin. It's PIS & Outliers w/o Support.
And some of you will disagree, and that's fine. as I said, I'm not looking to change this on the wiki and unless anyone can show solid proof of consistency or an explanation, you likely won't change my mind, not that it matters though.