Quote Originally Posted by XanBcoo
improvement in this series can only come in the form of "my attack is more powerful than your attack".
Not necessarily. I can picture the clever ones like Shikamaru or Neji exploiting elemental weaknesses in some way: During the fight, if they figure out their opponent's affinity, they could then use a jutsu that has a natural advantage against that elemental type. This makes me cringe a little bit, because it reminds me of how the types worked in Pokemon.

Now, if you meant that this is just the case for Naruto's attacks, then yeah I agree with you it's all about overpowering. The rationale seems to be that since Naruto has been taught under a very reputable and powerful sensei, Jiraiya, that the expectation is for him to use humongous nuclear warhead jutsus. As far as midrange, low cost/benefit attacks, how about learning to use a chakra weapon? Another thing I'm curious about would be: If Naruto uses mass kage bunshins combined with a chakra weapon, do the clones get the weapon and benefit from extra cutting power, or does only the original?