Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-27717552-20160513151229/@comment-26773508-20160514184211

Rachin123 wrote: Thekillman wrote: Raikiri is pretty much an instant kill, whereas Rasengan is designed to be an incapacitating jutsu'. That is a lie. The Rasengan is just as deadly as the Raikiri. In terms of a single hit, a Raikiri is the lethal one. But if one looks at a shinobi battle as a whole, then the Rasengan is indeed far more effective than the Raikiri, even for Kakashi. Reasons being:

1) Kakashi needs the sharingan to perform Raikiri. The very usage of the sharingan consumes a huge chunk of Kakashi's chakra. So Kakashi gambles a huge amount of chakra when using the Raikiri. And if he misses, then he's fucked.

2) The Raikiri itself seems far more chakra-taxing than the Rasengan. So Kakashi has a double drain of chakra: first from the sharingan, then from the Raikiri itself.

3) A Rasengan may not be able to kill an opponent, but one hit can easily incapacitate most shinobis and cause internal injury. It's eminently more sensible to incapacitate an enemy with a Rasengan first, and then quickly stab him/her with a kunai to finish him/her off.