The Legendary Sannin were some of the strongest characters in the Naruto series. They included legendary Konoha Shinobi in Jiraiya, Tsunade Senju, and Orochimaru, who were all trained by the Third Hokage himself. The "Legendary Sannin" title was given to them by another legend, Hanzo of the Salamander, during the Second Great Ninja War for putting up an impressive fight against him.
Together, their strength was considered to be incredible as all of them were Kage-level ninja. Despite their terrific strength, however, they aren't the strongest shinobi in the series. In fact, there exist some characters whose strength far surpasses theirs.
10 STRONGER: Naruto Uzumaki With The Power of The Nine-Tails & Six Paths
Naruto Uzumaki is the Seventh Hokage of Konohagakure and a tremendously powerful shinobi. Although the start of his ninja life was quite bumpy, he managed to become the strongest by the end of the series.
With the power of the Nine-Tails and Six Paths chakra at his disposal, Naruto became several times stronger than any other shinobi. In fact, his power surpasses that of the Five Kage from Naruto, which is proof enough that he is stronger than the Sannin as well.
9 WEAKER: Kakashi Hatake Having Lost His Sharingan
The Sixth Hokage of Konoha, Kakashi was quite a formidable shinobi during his days as a Jonin. Thanks to Obito's Sharingan, he was a threat for anyone to deal with, however, he ended up losing that power during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Kakashi's strength pales in comparison to the Sannin put together. That's not to say that he isn't strong as even after losing his eye, he was worthy of being made the Hokage of the village after Tsunade Senju, until Naruto was ready.
8 STRONGER: Sasuke Uchiha With Both Sharingan & Rinnegan
Sasuke Uchiha is the shinobi known to be closest to Naruto Uzumaki in terms of power and just like him, he was gifted Six Paths powers as well. Thanks to his new-found abilities, he became powerful enough to fight against some of the strongest characters in the series, such as Madara Uchiha and even Kaguya to some extent.
Sasuke's skill is vastly superior to that of the Legendary Sannin, as evident from the fact that he could match the Gods of the Narutoverse.
7 WEAKER: Fourth Raikage With His Limited Power
Ay, also known as the Fourth Raikage, was once the leader of Kumogakure and an extremely powerful shinobi. He led his village into the Fourth Great Ninja War, where he proved that he was an amazing fighter.
Strong as he was, however, the Fourth Raikage certainly had his limits and he could not even match Madara Uchiha with the help of the other Kage. He was, more or less, around as strong as Tsunade and definitely weaker than the Sannin combined.
6 STRONGER: Hashirama Senju Who Is Known To Be The Strongest Ninja
The God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju was the man who founded Konohagakure along with Madara. He became the First Hokage of the village, all thanks to his incredible strength and compassion.
During his era, Hashirama Senju was known to be the strongest shinobi alive. He was even stronger than Madara, someone who defeated the Five Kage and even the Tailed Beasts with minimal effort.
5 WEAKER: Sakura Haruno Who Trained Under Tsunade
A member of Team 7, Sakura Haruno used to serve as a medical ninja of the group back in the day. Being an apprentice of Tsunade, she learned the art of healing and fighting from her and eventually surpassed her during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
While strong, Sakura certainly has her limits. Unlike Naruto and Sasuke, she isn't written to be someone capable of fighting the godly Otsutsuki, and she is also much weaker than the Sannin's combined power.
4 STRONGER: Madara Uchiha Who Took On The Entire Shinobi Alliance
Madara Uchiha was the rival of Hashirama Senju and someone known to be nearly as strong as him. After his revival during the Fourth Great Ninja War, Madara surpassed Hashirama by quite a margin by becoming the Jinchūriki of the Ten-tails.
His powers were greater than the entire shinobi alliance put together and that is enough proof that he was more than capable of taking on and defeating the Legendary Sannin in battle.
3 WEAKER: Tobirama Senju Who Lost To A Weaker Pair Of Shinobi
Hashirama's younger brother, Tobirama was quite a skillful shinobi and someone known as the Inventor. He had an incredible knowledge of Jutsu and had created tonnes of techniques throughout his life.
In terms of power, however, Tobirama was weaker than his brother. In his prime, he was defeated by Kinkaku and Ginkaku, which just goes to show that he wouldn't have been able to defeat the Legendary Sannin by himself.
2 STRONGER: Hagoromo Otsutsuki With Godly Powers
Hagoromo Otsutsuki was the son of Kaguya and the man who was revered as the Sage of Six Paths. He was known to be someone capable of doing godly things and his skills were far superior to that of humans.
Hagoromo didn't need food or water to survive, neither did he tire even when fighting for months. He was a monstrously powerful character who played a role in defeating Kaguya and it goes without saying that he was stronger than the Sannin.
1 WEAKER: Onoki Due To Old Age
Known as the Fence Sitter, Onoki was the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure and a legendary figure in the Naruto world. He was the only known user of Kekkei Tota in the series and using his powers, he could dismantle anything on a molecular level.
Onoki was quite strong but during his younger days, he lost to Madara even though he had Mu's help. Alone, he would stand no chance against the Sannin.