A second that. This chapter was completely awesome!! Looks like the series is recasting its spell on me. There's been a shitload of flashbacks in the recent eps, but these were juussst perfect. A testament to how flashbacks should always be (Knives said it first). "How are we friends?!" How indeed... I guess the rasengan vs. chidori question is pretty much answered. In a head on collision, what happens is what was shown to happen, stalemate. I guess the difference is in what happens when the techniques connect. Of course, we can't be sure blah blah, so on and so forth, but we've been given an answer even if it's not the final one.

I speculate that Naruto will not be critically hit by the chidori, and a demonstration of power is going to happen in the next chapter. However, if I'm interpreting the "How are we friends?!" question and the expression on Naruto's face correctly, I'm hard pressed to figure out who's going to win. Seems like Naruto might be willing to leave the stupid "I'll knock some sense into you" plan and go straight to "I'll kill you". If that's the case, then Naruto might just be able to beat Sasuke. But that would still suck for the story. There should be a dramatic fight that looks like it can go either way, with Sasuke winning it, and then leaving. Naruto has to survive in a believable manner. Example of what's NOT believable: "Sasuke uses to chidori to decimate Naruto's colon, but Naruto immediately regenerates thanks to the demon chakra!"

All I know is that this is the single most anticipated point in the series, and they better not fuck it up.