The comparison between Sasuke and Itachi and Naruto and the Fourth are just fine. Sasuke making a protective cloak out of Amaterasu is something that apparently Itachi was never able to accomplish. Or never tried. Either way, that's an accomplishment and display of ability that Sasuke has shown, but that Itachi has not. It's the same concept when we compare Naruto's wind Rasengan to what the fourth was able to accomplish in his lifetime.Originally Posted by The Chancellor
If it's overall strength you're looking to compare, then that's doable too. Sasuke mastered his sharingan when he was 12, just two years after Itachi. Besides those two, we really don't know what the "normal" age for mastering the sharingan is, or how long it takes or whatever, so the age at which they mastered the ability doesn't serve well for a strength comparison. What we do know, is that they have similar skills in taijutsu, similar speed, and they're both pretty crafty.The had their little genjutsu match, they had their little taijutsu match, and then the techniques came in, and we now know Itachi could've taken Sasuke out with those techniques if it was his goal to (based on Madara's speech anyway).At the time they fought, Itachi trumped Sasuke in techniques he had available. For the most part, that's it.
The comparison between Naruto and the fourth is a more difficult one. We know few of the techniques the fouth had: The death god seal, the frog summons, the rasengan, and the body flicker. We don't know much about the characteristic fighting attributes of the fourth. Was he above all else, fast, or maybe clever, or maybe stealthy, etc. Naruto on the other hand, we have a good understanding of. We know his primary attributes are his cleverness and his ability to output massive amounts of chakra, which determines to a large extent which jutsu are best for him. We know he has kage bunshin, the rasengan, the wind rasengan, the frog summons, and sage mode, not to mention the kyubi. Too little is know about the fourth to make an overall strength comparison here. The fourth being a ninja to which a "run away on sight" order had been issued doesn't serve the purpose. We don't know what criteria they used to determine that the fourth was just that unbeatable, and thus we can't properly evaluate Naruto in that sense to see if they'd issue the same order.