Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-33202319-20150622205123/@comment-26275777-20150701003514

You cited him combining it with the bijuu dama and destroying mountains with it, which is why I said those things are irrelevant because that was like a once-in-a-lifetime usable scenario. And the small, elegant rasengans...don't do much of anything (I can't think of a single person except maybe Kabuto that a small rasengan has seriously injured let alone killed).

With the current power creep, the rasengan has to be powered up with senjutsu or bijuu chakra to inflict respectable damage. How is that any different from chidori needing a sharingan or senjutsu to be used over an extended period? At least chidori is almost always fatal once it connects. Plus you just threw in another requirement - perfect shape control, which not everyone has either. Yet somehow rasengan is the more learnable and versatile jutsu?

Also, you can't just shape a rasengan any way you want. It literally means "spiralling sphere". The blades of the rasenshuriken are added to the, you guessed it, spiralling sphere. A stream would neither be a sphere nor spiralling, and hence would not be a rasengan or its variant.

And it's Sasuke that has all the elements, through his Rinnegan. Naruto doesn't necessarily have all the elements - he got those through the tailed beasts and possibly the Six Paths, and since he doesn't seem to have either anymore, that's the end of that (just like, incidentally, he could only create the nine giant rasenshuriken variants with the beasts' help). Of course, he could have trained in them like the other Hokage did, but there's no indication of that - call me when he uses even a fire jutsu. (Also, what wind wave are you talking about?)

Edit: In any case the point is that rasengan is only great and versatile for people who are named Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails and Ashura transmigrant. Chidori on the other hand is something a reasonably talented genin could use to great effect - you don't need sensory abilities for it if you're up against one or two people.