Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-25498052-20141004162612/@comment-142748-20141013214006

The manga has made it quite clear that in the latter half of part II, Naruto's always had the advantage over Sasuke. He battles stronger opponents than Sasuke and wins. He's compared to Hashirama. He's survived battles against the Ten-Tails and lead the victory against Juubi Jin Obito. Even Sasuke realized how far Naruto has gotten ahead of him during the Obito battle.

And even with their latest power ups, Naruto was shown to be superior to Sasuke given he went one on one with Kaguya without being overwhelmed, damaged her, and turned her into a practical pinball while simultaneously nearly extracting all nine Biju from her. And in their final fight...Sasuke even realizes Naruto is holding back and berates him for it and Naruto retorts, and I quote 'I don't want to kill you.' Mirroring the battle between Hashirama and Madara.