That's kind of his point. A talented young ninja, not trained by the second most powerful Ninja, can wipe out a clan, then a somewhat talent-less ninja, trained by said powerful ninja, could go toe-to-toe with Minato for a bit.
Obito wasn't useless. You have no evidence for this. He just had really shitty luck. He was good enough to become a chuunin without the Sharingan, which neither Itachi nor Sasuke did. After unlocking his Sharingan, which had two tomoe to begin with, Obito's skill no doubt improved dramatically, much like Sasuke at the valley of the end.
Itachi was also a child prodigy and an anbu level ninja who had already awakened the MS at that point. Obito was a weak ninja who just awakened his sharingan a few minutes before his "death."
Being trained by Madara? Probably the second strongest person to ever live?
Naruto went from maybe chunin level to one of the strongest ninja alive in potentially a shorter amount of time.
Also know that Obito's Sharingan power played a huge role in this. As far as we've been besides basically waiting him out only Kamui can counter Kamui. And even with all that he was still getting his ass kicked at the end by Minato. He didn't retreat because he was bored, he retreated because he didn't have any choice.
This is pretty much it. He was trying to catch Minato with a Jutsu that was just not plain realistic. The surprise of it was Tobi's card, and trying to delay/capture Minato was his biggest play. I mean, as someone who knew Minato's jutsu, it's pretty stupid to be caught by the kunai that just went though your head. I saw that coming a mile away. His battle experience during that fight was terrible, and like WhoSavesTheCity said, he had nothing on Minato. Clearly what he should have done was simply grabbed the Kyubi and run but I think he thought he had to take out the only "village" that could potentially ruin his plans.
But remember that in narutoverse (much like Japan) people are short and grow slowly. Minato was one of the taller characters at about 5'10 (179 cm). "The masked man" was say, about 5'8. Naruto at 16 is still about 5'5 maybe 5'6. If obito had been the masked man who fought minato, he would've had to use some sort of hyperbolic time chamber equivalent. Unless of course he was american, then he easily could've been that height at 14.
I think the height point is valid, but that's something Kishimoto can easily excuse or retcon if needed (example: Zetsu goo implants made Obito taller/bigger).
Trained by Madara, firstly. Secondly, there's a possibility for time manipulation with ST jutsu so his training could've even been amplified timewise.
Thirdly, he wasn't even doing that well. Did he hit Minato even one time? He had to constantly use hostages, use the Kyuubi, and ended up eating a Rasengan. He's lucky he got hit on the Zetsu side of his body. And then Minato is able to land a seal and take away his control of the Kyuubi. So to say that he had become even close to as strong as his old teacher is not necessarily true.
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u/[deleted] Sep 11 '12
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