Naruto without Kurama vs Sasuke without Rinnegan: Who would win?

Naruto and Sasuke have always been compared ever since the series aired its first few episodes. They are some of the strongest characters in the series and have influenced the plot on numerous occasions. Moreover, there have been multiple verse battles between these two at different stages of the show.

At each stage, their power levels continue to vary. Therefore, the comparison between the two characters takes place even to this day. Currently, Naruto doesn’t have Kurama, and Sasuke doesn’t have the Rinnegan. This sparked another set of debates attempting to determine the winner of this hypothetical battle.

Let’s take a look at their skills and power levels to understand who the winner of this battle would be.

Disclaimer: Sportskeeda claims no ownership of the media used in this article unless otherwise stated.

---

Comparing Sasuke and Naruto’s abilities without Rinnegan and Kurama

One point that every fan brings up is their chakra levels. While Naruto might have lost Kurama, he still has higher chakra levels compared to Sasuke. The reason is that he is an Uzumaki, and the people of this clan have strong life forces and high chakra levels. One of the reasons why the Uzumakis were good jinchurikis is due to their high chakra levels. The Seventh Hokage also has superior regenerative abilities compared to Sasuke, which means he can afford to take more damage in a fight without risking his life.

Sasuke might have lost his Rinnegan, but there is a possibility that he might be able to utilize some of its abilities. Fans saw Madara utilize Rinnegan's abilities despite not having the eye. Having said that, Sasuke will not most likely not be able to use all of the Rinnegan abilities, and effectiveness will certainly take a hit as well. This means that some of the advanced space-time jutsus might not be accessible to Sasuke after the loss of his Rinnegan. Since that’s the case, Naruto’s ridiculously high speed is incomparable, if not greater, than Sasuke’s speed, owing to the former’s ability to enhance physical abilities through Sage Mode. However, Sasuke still retains his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan abilities, which are quite strong.

The Naruto series is infamous for plot holes and techniques being unjustified. There’s still some confusion regarding some of Sasuke’s abilities, but fans believe that he is capable of using the Susnaoo and Amaterasu. The Seventh Hokage is capable of using Sage Mode, which dramatically enhanced his physical abilities. While Six Paths Sage Mode was used with Kurama’s chakra, fans have reason to believe that Naruto is capable of doing so even without Kurama’s chakra. He also has a portion of the other eight Tailed Beasts’ chakras and kekkei genkai, allowing him to utilize that in his Rasengan.

One thing that we need to remember is that shonen anime series tend to make things quite ambiguous once main characters are nerfed for various reasons. That is why we haven’t seen Naruto or Sasuke use their abilities after the loss of Kurama and Rinnegan. While the fight might be quite close, there is a chance that the Seventh Hokage could emerge victorious in this hypothetical fight. The presence of other Tailed Beasts’ chakra, Sage Mode, Sage of Six Paths’ powers, and high chakra levels might give him the edge.

There are too many unknown variables at the moment because the show didn't really explore how Rinnegan works. This leads to fans making numerous assumptions based on how these verse battles take place. At best, Sasuke might be slightly stronger than Naruto without Kurama. However, in the worst case scenario, he might be substantially weaker than the Seventh Hokage.

A fair comparison can only be made once both these characters display their true strength after the loss of Kurama and Rinnegan in the Boruto series.