There exists a difference between independence and being a loner. I'll give you an example using Naruto's father, Minato who has the same beliefs. Minato learnt techniques and became powerful with the help of friends, he wasn't a loner, what he was, was an independent learner. Nobody told him to create rasengan.
How? Madara needed Edo Tensho to be relevant.
Minato and Naruto are not the same type of characters nor are they both based on the same character. This is not a excuse this is how he is portrayed in the manga. Naruto is based on Ashura who needed help to get stronger.
His thing was being able to use the jutsus more creatively than anyone else could imagine ("creativity of a prankster"). That's what gave him the upper hand in fights. Sasuke's thing was being a genius at finding new ways to control his own inner powers, but he mainly relied on using the jutsus straightforwardly (new ways to make powerful direct attacks).
Lol sit down, my thread is based around their power levels at that particular time. Naruto wasn't a match for Sasuke at that point time and those are facts but sure Naruto caught up chapters later, who's denying that?
Yes but the point here is his early post time skip performance, which many agree was abysmal. Where was his creativity then? Even if he isn't a character meant to learn many jutsu he could have refined his existing skills with independent learning which he didn't do.
Guess his genjutsu was too strong because in the beginning of shippuden he was trying to break Itachi's genjutsu but was too weak at it. Well, he's 2.6 for a reason.
If Naruto's training of 2 years was piss poor why are people not complaining about how easily Naruto caught up to Sasuke when Sasuke was clearly two years ahead of him?
