WARNING. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Depending on how far you are in the
anime.
The Rasengan is a techinque used by Naruto Uzumaki, Jarayia the toad
sage (Also known as Pervy
sage), and Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village.
The techinque was first created by the fourth hokage, but he wasn't able to fully devolop it before his death. When Jarayia taught
Naruto the move, he was able to fully devolop it, and make many more techinque varitions from it, such as the Giant Rasengan, and the Wind-Rasenshuriken.
The Rasengan is a
ball of pure swirling chakra, condensed down to the perferred size, and held in ones hand. Jarayia could form it with one hand, however in
Naruto's case, he still has to make a shadow clone to form the Rasengan.
Unlike the Chidori, (Lightening
blade, or one thousand chirping birds) which uses massive amounts of chakra, and requires some level of Lightening style attack training, the Rasengan can be used several times in a battle, and would only require an above-
average, if not
basic level of chakra-control.
With devastating power, the Rasengan is also believed to be more powerful than the Chidori, it also doesn't require any hand signs, so it can be used at a moments notice. All this makes the Rasengan the ultimate weapon.
Example:
Random mofo: Its over now, kid!
Naruto: *Makes a shadow clone, and busts out the Rasengan*
Random mofo: Oh, crap! Its that kid from the leaf village! Run for your lives!
Naruto: Yeah! That'll teach you to mess with me!
And thats how I'd picture how some of his battles go.
