[Akashin]

right on. i consider this part of the person/character though. like how shikamaru prepares for battle. its strategy and doesn't detract from someone's power level. though i think we're on the same page anyway

Pretty much. And in the same way that Shikamaru wouldn't perform as well without his battle planning, Naruto wouldn't have done as well without preparing those clones to recharge his Sage Chakra.

Originally Posted by itachi-san314

yea, I would be on the fence with this one. i see what you're saying and planning certainly helped naruto a lot, enough to have a major character die for the cause, but what would happen when the fox cloak came out? i wouldn't be so quick to say naruto would lose to anyone. its naruto we're talking about here afterall

Who knows? We know for a fact that with no pre-planning Naruto is screwed, since his Sage Mode simply doesn't last long enough to endure the entire fight, much less endure the time it would take to figure out Pain's abilities (which took Jiraiya his entire battle, to say nothing of Naruto). Bringing in the cloak blurs that a little since Six-Tailed is pretty much stronger than probably any Path except Deva, but that would depend upon Naruto being angry enough to enter that state and lasting long enough to get there in the first place.

Personally, I don't think the difference in power between Naruto and the Six Paths is nearly as drastic as some have said (and Sage Mode does indeed make Naruto a relatively fair match for Pain, for as long as it lasts), but I would put Pain above Naruto in overall power.

i don't see the difference if "actions performed by one consciousness shouldn't be used to judge the power of the other" as you say. 8tails is a different consciousness. samehada as well, etc... so theoretically you shouldnt count them towards those characters' power levels. I would though

Both the Eight-Tails and Samehada are things controlled by Killer Bee himself though. As is Juugo's power. The Kyuubi's power, beyond the Three-Tailed stage, is not controlled by Naruto, but the Kyuubi itself. To come back to the Six-Tailed example, I feel that that power should only be qualified is Naruto's in a mystical world where he can control it.

This is getting redundant though, given that we've already agreed to disagree on the issue of control being a deal breaker, so I'll drop it.