I believe there's definitely gonna be a trading of smackdown between Naruto and Sasuke, the buildup to the last panel of 224 is just basically saying this.

But I also believe that there's gonna be outside interference at some point. The consequences of what might happen otherwise may just be too great...Sasuke losing and just returning? That'd be lame. Worse would be Naruto dying. I think Sasuke might come close to killing Naruto but because he sees others heading his way and doesn't want to fight/doesn't have enough chakra left to fight, he just escapes and leaves Naruto for later.

I do think Itachi's gonna appear soon though. I thought he'd appear when it was actually Rock Lee...it's really quite an opportune time for him to just come up and grab Naruto for the Akatsuki. What might be even more interesting is if it comes down to Sasuke being just about to kill Naruto and Itachi appears, does Itachi let Sasuke kill him and get the Mangekyou Sharingan so that he has someone to test himself against? Or is the Akatsuki so friggin scary that he knocks Sasuke out and takes Naruto, delaying his personal "dream" so to speak.