I really liked this chapter, despite the lack of fighting, so here's my 2 cents;
- Props to Naruto, from his comments towards the end, and the looks Sakura gives him, it's apparent that the poison kunai is doing it's work, but he hasn't even lost enough strenght yet for his clones to go puff. Must take a lot of stamina and will.
- I liked the answer, though I wonder if he means that they will actually kill each other, or that if that's what it takes to stop sasuke from hurting their friends, Sasuke's friends too, still on some level, that's what he's willing to do.
- And I really liked Sasuke in this chapter! His one-track-mind tends to get on my nerves, totally oblivious to any other reasoning or opinion, but we actually saw a reaction akin to surprise across his face when Naruto told him that he's doing this because they're friends! I think Naruto's managing to work some of his trademark magic on Sasuke here, by planting a seed of doubt into Sasuke's mind, which will slowly grow until they meet again.
- HOPEFUL PREDICTION: It would be cool to see the manga turn into a true tragedy by that bit of doubt planted by Naruto causing Sasuke to open his eyes at the final confrontation; he understands the path he's treading down, feels no hate against his friends in leaf, understands Naruto to be his oldest, closest friend... yet sadly admits that he's so far down the path that there's no other way open to him. Until the very end, when all seems lost for the leaf and Naruto, and he makes a final decision to step out of the darkness in an act of self sacrifice.
- ps. a lot of homophobes on these forums, it seems. Seems any attempt made by kishi at character development, tragedy and drama is tragically interpreted as 'gay'... Basically everything that stops the manga from degenerating into, as someone aptly put it, a Dragonball-esque yawnfest-2000.