He's the strongest of the
current or
newest generation, which is why he's getting this attention now, having cemented it beating up No. 6. She's probably an elite from the previous gen, so she's still stronger for now. Given she's a little obsessed with him she may also be aware of his weaknesses, and/or used psychological tactics,but I also think it might be a slightly poor matchup
as well as that she's legit just better at the moment.
In uh, like Naruto terms, I guess it's like he's the strongest of the Konoha Rookies, or Gaara lol, while she's already a Jonin like Kakashi or Guy. That said with the way their squads are set up, it's a little intereasting. Squad 1 seems to have extra prestige so I can assume they're meant to be best of the best, but the rest might just be equal ranking, so it's tiered rather than numerically sequential.
Like yeah, Neji and Sasuke were geniuses and extremely strong, but they'd still get dumpstered by Kakashi pre-timeskip.
The most important aspect to Yodaka at the moment is his growth potential. He's a completely unpolished diamond, an utter physical
monster that has only just started to receive high level training and has seemingly been neglected for most of his career. If he'd been born into a clan with the same talent he'd probably already be at or only a step away from the pinnacle.
I'm really interested in his backstory because it kinda seems like he just happened to end up as a ninja coincidentally because he was bad at interacting with people. He might not have even been involved in this world at all for more than a couple years.
Also the fact he doesn't have a kekkei, I wonder if he'll continue to lack one as part of his unique high level identity ('he doesn't have one how tf is he so strong') or if he'll get one awakened by the heroine.