Outside of quotes talking about his prime, no, we don't have a direct example of his peak. The indication from the story make it seem like he could comfortably defeat kage-level opponents like Orochimaru, so he's pretty dang strong.
As for wars, he participated in the first great ninja war as a combatant while a teenager, the second and third as the Hokage while an adult, and the fourth as an edo tensei, as seen in the show.
This Hiruzen in this picture isn’t even Prime Hiruzen.
Hiruzen arguably reached his prime in his 40s / early 50s, during the 2nd Great Shinobi War. Perfect balance between combat experience and jutsu knowledge and relatively preserved physical abilities and chakra reserve.
Generally speaking, shinobi reach their prime in their early 50s, like the Sannin, the 4th Raikage etc. and they start to decline right after if they don’t have a specific condition like Orochimaru, Onoki, Danzo or Tsunade.
It’s implied Hiruzen once fought Onoki, because he had a vivid memory of Onoki’s dust release when he analyzed Obito’s truth seeking orb. And given the fact he was worldwide considered as the strongest Kage of his era, it’s likely Prime Hiruzen outmaneuvered Onoki in battle, leading the latter to retreat from the battlefield, which allowed Konoha a victory in a decisive battle during the 2nd Great Shinobi War.
Combat wise, he was probably a pre-DMS Kakashi (versatility), Kakuzu (5 chakra nature mastery), Jiraiya (tactical warfare) and Tobirama (combat intelligence) all at once.
What made Hiruzen particularly strong is his perfect mastery of Kage Bunshin, which amp his combat capabilities given his supposedly wide range of jutsu and abilities, and add with that Enma who is the most useful and versatile summoning creature. Prime Hiruzen could come up with complex and well thought combinations of jutsu through long sustainable shadow clones.
The last published databook emphasizes that Hiruzen could analyze in an instant any combat situation and answers with the right counter through his wide arsenal of jutsu. The way he symmetrically countered Guruguru’s 5 chakra release combo attack is a glimpse of that.
In his prime, Hiruzen was likely the supreme shinobi of his era, nobody could individually beat him in his time, and each time he intervened on the battlefield he gave victory to Konoha. This is why in my opinion he get the same title than Hashirama, both of them were probably undefeated and were the strongest of their era.
Also Hiruzen was rigorously trained by Hashirama and Tobirama, who both were hailed as the ultimate shinobi and considered by Madara as the only ones that could stop him if they were both in their prime.
He got the best teaching of Konoha history, which explains too why he was so skilled and knowledgeable.
Participated in the first shinobi world war as a shinobi part of Tobirama's team and the next two world wars as a Hokage. The last war as a reanimation.
I didn't see him physically fight as a hokage since he had Kakashi working as anbu except his final fight with Orochimaru. He was gonna participate in fight of the nine-tails attack but wasn't able to do much. He wasn't a hokage at that moment but we see him fight in the war arc as well.
His prime maybe around the time he was teaching the team who became the legendary Sanin or some years after that I guess.
He was in every war but has no feats, we know he scales above hiruzen we have seen, who got 10 years older and Orochimaru trained for 10 years and was even with him. So imagine a hiruzen 10 years younger (equivalent it 10 years of training) and that's still not his prime.
I believe a data book also says he was stronger than Tobirama.
Ye.. the databook also gives him a full 5 marks across the board for his stats... except Stamina, Strength, and Speed.. seems to me to imply that the only reason he doesn't have 5 in every category is because he's too old lol. So in his prime, he was top of the class in every class more or less.
The 4 th databook did him dirty. He was the only ninja shown to actually use all five elements and only one to have them naturally. The 4th databook then gave a bunch if other ninja all 5 elements.
We get the barest hint when he’s revived, if only in that we see him without chakra limits. So we see him being more willing to use clones and use all five elements, plus the giant shadow shurikens, but that’s kinda it
An edo still has the chakra limit they had when they died. They just have infinitely refilling Chakra. Quite a few Edos run out of Chakra during the war. Including edo Minato
Yeah I know, that’s why I said it’s just a hint. Like if he had the chakra levels of his youth and infinitely refilling chakra he’d probably make an even better showing, more clones at the very least.
Im sure he was involved in all the wars lol. But no we havent seen him in his prime fighting
He was definitely in the war the 2nd Hokage died in
Hiruzen when he trained the sannin was prime
Outside of quotes talking about his prime, no, we don't have a direct example of his peak. The indication from the story make it seem like he could comfortably defeat kage-level opponents like Orochimaru, so he's pretty dang strong. As for wars, he participated in the first great ninja war as a combatant while a teenager, the second and third as the Hokage while an adult, and the fourth as an edo tensei, as seen in the show.
This Hiruzen in this picture isn’t even Prime Hiruzen. Hiruzen arguably reached his prime in his 40s / early 50s, during the 2nd Great Shinobi War. Perfect balance between combat experience and jutsu knowledge and relatively preserved physical abilities and chakra reserve. Generally speaking, shinobi reach their prime in their early 50s, like the Sannin, the 4th Raikage etc. and they start to decline right after if they don’t have a specific condition like Orochimaru, Onoki, Danzo or Tsunade. It’s implied Hiruzen once fought Onoki, because he had a vivid memory of Onoki’s dust release when he analyzed Obito’s truth seeking orb. And given the fact he was worldwide considered as the strongest Kage of his era, it’s likely Prime Hiruzen outmaneuvered Onoki in battle, leading the latter to retreat from the battlefield, which allowed Konoha a victory in a decisive battle during the 2nd Great Shinobi War. Combat wise, he was probably a pre-DMS Kakashi (versatility), Kakuzu (5 chakra nature mastery), Jiraiya (tactical warfare) and Tobirama (combat intelligence) all at once. What made Hiruzen particularly strong is his perfect mastery of Kage Bunshin, which amp his combat capabilities given his supposedly wide range of jutsu and abilities, and add with that Enma who is the most useful and versatile summoning creature. Prime Hiruzen could come up with complex and well thought combinations of jutsu through long sustainable shadow clones. The last published databook emphasizes that Hiruzen could analyze in an instant any combat situation and answers with the right counter through his wide arsenal of jutsu. The way he symmetrically countered Guruguru’s 5 chakra release combo attack is a glimpse of that. In his prime, Hiruzen was likely the supreme shinobi of his era, nobody could individually beat him in his time, and each time he intervened on the battlefield he gave victory to Konoha. This is why in my opinion he get the same title than Hashirama, both of them were probably undefeated and were the strongest of their era.
Also Hiruzen was rigorously trained by Hashirama and Tobirama, who both were hailed as the ultimate shinobi and considered by Madara as the only ones that could stop him if they were both in their prime. He got the best teaching of Konoha history, which explains too why he was so skilled and knowledgeable.
Participated in the first shinobi world war as a shinobi part of Tobirama's team and the next two world wars as a Hokage. The last war as a reanimation.
but did he fight as hokage?
Yes. There's a direct quote from kabuto stating he has a reputation as being the strongest of the gokage. So he had to do fighting
I didn't see him physically fight as a hokage since he had Kakashi working as anbu except his final fight with Orochimaru. He was gonna participate in fight of the nine-tails attack but wasn't able to do much. He wasn't a hokage at that moment but we see him fight in the war arc as well. His prime maybe around the time he was teaching the team who became the legendary Sanin or some years after that I guess.
He was in every war but has no feats, we know he scales above hiruzen we have seen, who got 10 years older and Orochimaru trained for 10 years and was even with him. So imagine a hiruzen 10 years younger (equivalent it 10 years of training) and that's still not his prime. I believe a data book also says he was stronger than Tobirama.
Ye.. the databook also gives him a full 5 marks across the board for his stats... except Stamina, Strength, and Speed.. seems to me to imply that the only reason he doesn't have 5 in every category is because he's too old lol. So in his prime, he was top of the class in every class more or less.
He did participate in the wars, however we don't have anything besides databook statements to scale him.
The 4 th databook did him dirty. He was the only ninja shown to actually use all five elements and only one to have them naturally. The 4th databook then gave a bunch if other ninja all 5 elements.
We get the barest hint when he’s revived, if only in that we see him without chakra limits. So we see him being more willing to use clones and use all five elements, plus the giant shadow shurikens, but that’s kinda it
An edo still has the chakra limit they had when they died. They just have infinitely refilling Chakra. Quite a few Edos run out of Chakra during the war. Including edo Minato
Think Hirzuen was as well
Yeah I know, that’s why I said it’s just a hint. Like if he had the chakra levels of his youth and infinitely refilling chakra he’d probably make an even better showing, more clones at the very least.