How would he have fared against Sasuke at the Valley Of The End, in part one?
Sasuke in this scenario has no curse-mark.
And Naruto has no access to any Nine-Tails chakra at all.
In my opinion, I found him lacking at the beginning of the fight when he wasn't using Nine-Tails chakra, all of his attacks were read through and countered by Sasuke and his only chance at winning was through Rasengan or Shadow-clone spam. Despite the fact that he initiated the fight, he had to tap into a foreign source twice in order to come close to winning.
And don't say Naruto was "holding back", if his only way to bring Sasuke back was through using so much power that he would end up killing Sasuke, then he's not really all that strong on his own merit is he?
Sasuke in this scenario has no curse-mark.
And Naruto has no access to any Nine-Tails chakra at all.
In my opinion, I found him lacking at the beginning of the fight when he wasn't using Nine-Tails chakra, all of his attacks were read through and countered by Sasuke and his only chance at winning was through Rasengan or Shadow-clone spam. Despite the fact that he initiated the fight, he had to tap into a foreign source twice in order to come close to winning.
And don't say Naruto was "holding back", if his only way to bring Sasuke back was through using so much power that he would end up killing Sasuke, then he's not really all that strong on his own merit is he?