NOTE: I'm reviving THIS thread because it's the best place for me to say what I want to say.
Naruto without Kurama would, in my honest opinion, be so much more badass / cooler. Though this is only if he looses Kurama now; not if he never had him (because if he never had him, he would just be another jounin-class ninja, IMO).
Why? Well, because then, we would get to see the Naruto we all know is there - the one who is a tactical genius and has Sage Mode, rasengan, and shadow clones - not the one who is continuously using Kurama's chakra in a fight to win.
Without Kurama, Naruto would have more confidence in his own abilities (not to say he doesn't right now) and he would still be better than Minato and Jiraiya.
I'm still hoping that he loses Kurama in this war, experiences a near-death situation, gets healed, and then wins this war with his own abilities, like he did at the end of the Pain arc (even though he still used Kurama to weaken Pain).