LogFAQs > #976327574

St0rmFury posted...

Iirc from a recent CE topic, chidori is a more flexible version of raikiri.

No, Chidori and Raikiri are basically the same technique. Kakashi only uses it in his hand for ambushing and direct attacks, but Sasuke morphed Chidori into different shapes instead of refining its piercing power.

Kakashi does roughly the same shape changing as Sasuke, but Kakashi does it with his basic lightning chakra. We see this when he uses things like lightning clones and fuses his kunai with lightning. Same concept, but he doesn't associate it with Chidori the way Sasuke does.

Point being, Chidori is mostly a less-refined version of Raikiri, but Sasuke made Chidori his own by adding shape changes into the technique for chidori senbon, stream, etc. Chidori isn't inherently more flexible, that's just how Sasuke opts to use its energy.

As for why Itachi wanted Sasuke to get stronger, he wanted Sasuke to eventually hunt him down and kill him. Itachi did this so Sasuke could not only receive Itachi's eyes (and thus EMS) but also so Sasuke could have some closure on the death of the clan and everything that happened. What Itachi didn't count on was Obito showing up and telling the whole story and revealing the secrets behind why the massacre happened.

Itachi fully expected Sasuke to return to the village as a hero immediately after carrying out vengeance. Failing that, he also rigged Naruto with the Kotoamatuskami Crow as a failsafe to convince Sasuke to protect the village if he didn't decide it on his own.