So, it's going on a year since THAT chapter of Naruto, and I think it's time to take a look back at the series as a whole.
Everything started off just fine in Naruto. The world was established OK, Naruto was introduced and developed just fine and then we were introduced to Team 7. In hindsight, if Kishi had planned on Hinata being "the one" from the beginning, I think that there should have been four-person teams with Naruto, Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke. Make it so that Hinata has just as much screen time so the romantic tension is actually felt by the audience.
With that said, though, the waves arc went pretty good. We learn about both Naruto and Sasuke and they both develop and create bonds with Kakashi and Sakura. Overall, it was a good way to kick things off.
Then we get to the Chuunin exams, which when looking back may have been the best section of Naruto. Another tailed beast was introduced, the villain Orochimaru was brought up and the series really seemed to get into "the thick of things" with this arc. On top of that, Sakura had great development, not only with her drive to be a better ninja, but also her continued warming up to Naruto (supporting him in the forest, rooting for him in the tournament section).
With that praise said, I think Kishi made a huge mistake. That mistake is not showing the friendship between Naruto and Sasuke. Think back on the Naruto and Sasuke friendship, and there wasn't much there. Naruto and Sasuke saw each other once and smiled as kids, they trained together, but we didn't see them as friends.
As soon as the Land of Waves arc finished, Naruto and Sasuke should have looked like the best tag team ever. They should have been best friends, they should have been super close, thaqt fact should have been clear. I'll get more into why in a bit.
So Naruto goes on to fight Gaara at the end of the Chuunin Exam arc, and it still is one of the best battles in the whole series. That was on top of the great fight with Neji, which includes another major thing that will be brought up later.
Naruto's underdog persona was on display during the Chuunin Exams and that continued with the Tsunade section, which was done at a good pace. Unfortunately, from what we found out, I think this is where Naruto peaked.
So we get to the part where Sasuke leaves, and unfortunately, it didn't leave as much of an impact. As I said earlier, it would have been great if Sasuke and Naruto would have been shown to be best friends, like Yusuke and Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho. That way, Sasuke's leaving would have been so much more emotional for the rest of the manga. It would have made Sasuke's absence actually heart wrenching.
Ultimately, I never felt terrible about Sasuke leaving. I never felt the tragedy the way I should have.
So we get to part two, and honestly, for the first bit, I was underwhelmed. Naruto comes back from two years of training, and what did he learn? A bigger Rasengan, that was it. Remember the excitement? The wonder? What will he have learned in two and a half years of training, more control over Kyuubi? Other types of Jutsu? Nope. It was the same as always. The first couple arcs were OK, though and I warmed up to Sai pretty quickly. Plus, we saw the continued development of NaruSaku with Sakura seeing Naruto as a valued friend and important person in her life.
After some more battles, we get to the Pein saga, and I think this was the last high point of Naruto. Finally, Naruto gets sage mode, he's stronger and he finds a way to fix the situation with Pein. With the strong points of the action, though, there were some issues, too. Hinata had her confession in that moment vs Pein would have been fine if Hinata had more moments with Naruto and if her character would have had some personality it could have been a great scene. There was none of that. The whole Pein arc, with Naruto at his lowest moment after Jiraiya died, could have been a good moment for Hinata to come in and comfort Naruto, I mean that's the canon pairing, right? Where were her moments.
Following that, I think everything was sort of like a blur. Sasuke killed Itachi, got his revenge, but still vowed to destroy Konoha.
Fortunately, one of the best parts of the manga/anime came up there. Naruto meeting his mother and the flashbacks to how he was born and the night his parents died. In my view, this was the last great part of writing as a whole.
What came after, was probably the most disappointing part of the manga, with all kinds of asspulls and random things out of nowhere from Kishi.
First and foremost the whole war arc was pretty pathetic. A bunch of cannon fodder ninjas against a bunch of cannon fodder zombies. We never got to see destruction of villages, no real loss. It made the early stages of the war kind of boring. I was already wondering about Kishi as a writer, and this point really started setting off the alarms.
But then, after so much time waiting, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were reunited. Team 7 was back together. It would have been great if not for the other random stuff going on. Such as, the other Kages coming back to life, which just seemed like a way to prolong things and the discovery about the Uchihas, which said that they basically just had a mental illness making them evil.
None of it was as bad, though as finding out that Obito was still alive and had become a bad guy. I instantly knew, as soon as he was revealed, that we would see a lame redemption story. Sure enough, that's what happened. A rushed back story of how Obito became bad was given, but then he turned good again. It was all handled poorly.
Then all of a sudden Madara turned into the mother of all chakra or something? At that point, I thought Kishi had lost his mind.
After a battle, that was honestly anti-climactic, we got to the very end of Naruto. And what a cluster f it was. After it came to an end, Sasuke just got to leave with no reprucussions for what he did, Sakura still wants to devote herself to him and Naruto somehow eventually became Hokage.
In the end, no one really changed, except Naruto. Sasuke remained a closed in individual with not much care for friends and family, Sakura remained a Sasuke fan girl who devoted her life to him. The only one who changed was Naruto, who became a less energetic individual who lost his underdog charm that made him such a great character in the beginning.
And of course we had the pairing NaruHina, which ultimately hurt Hinata's character. Like Sakura, Hinata never advanced. Like Sakura, she remained just a fan girl that got hitched. In the last panels, we don't even get to see her leading the Hyuuga Clan. It's bad enough that Neji had to die and didn't get to lead the Hyuuga clan to a new era, but then we didn't get to see Hinata do it either.
Ultimately, I think Naruto started off really well. It was an underdog story, a classic tale like Rocky or the like. But it started spiraling in part two and because of sloppy writing completely crashed in part 3.
Start to Timeskip - 4/5
Timeskip to Pein arc - 3/5
Pein Arc to War arc - 2/5
End of series 1/5
I had to get that off my chest. 
Persona 5 hype 
