(Edit: My definition of battle smart: The ability to analyze and think of a counter or solution against the enemy on the spot. )
In my opinion, Naruto shows the most intelligence in terms of battle smart.
[Naruto]
Vs. Zabuza: Henge'd into a weapon and caught the high-ranked missing-nin by surprise from behind.
Vs. Kiba: Henge'd to Kiba, confusing both Kiba and Akamaru.
Vs. Neji: Digged a hole while tricking Neji to believe that he was defeated and attacked Neji from below.
Vs. Pein: Henge'd into multiple rocks and deceiving a S-ranked shinobi.
Vs. Third Kazekage: Noticed the contradiction of the having the strongest pike and shield at the same time. (Oh btw, in Japanese the word contradiction is written as 矛盾. 矛 means pike, and 盾 means shield. The word "contradiction" was probably derived from the Western countries.) Used his rasengan to direct Third Kazekage's attack and destroy either his offensive strike or his defensive body.
Vs. Obito: Realized that only Senjutsu are effective and attacked Obito from the back.
Regarding other characters....
2. [Sasuke]
Vs. Sound Three: Hid his weapons in his fire attacks.
Vs. Deidara: Figured out he was a rock type by analyzing the mines after hitting them with a chidori senbon. Used his sword as a footing on the spot so he won't get blasted. Tricked Deidara into believing he died.
Vs. Obito and Madara: Continuously analyzing the attacks and relaying information to Naruto.
However, compared to Naruto, many of his battle victories could be attributed to skills instead of intelligence and trickery.
3. [Sakura]
Vs. Sound Ninja: Tricking the sound ninja into believing she was a kawarimi
Vs. Sasori: Showed that she collapsed only to destroy the Kazekage puppet, Dodging Sasori's moves by analyzing his finger patterns
Vs. Zetsu: Exposed him
Vs. Kiba, Rock Lee, Sai: Made them believe she was going to fight, only to bring them down by
smoke bombs.
Not ranked in top three
[Shikamaru]
For all the praise there is on Shikamaru, when you compare how his intelligence contributed in this war with Naruto and Sasuke, I have to say I'm not impressed. He wants to be Naruto's strategist, but he is still standing on the same spot for 70+ chapters, with no solution on how to defeat the enemy so far. During this time, Naruto has figured out that only a Senjutsu-based attack will work on Obito, and Sasuke has analyzed how Obito and Madara's attacks work.
Shikamaru has proven his street smart in part 1 but I have yet to see it in part 2.
(Edit:I didn't include his fight with Hidan because he had a lot of prep time, and it doesn't fit my definition of battle smart above. )
So, what do you think of this list? Do you agree with Naruto being the smartest character?
Remember, I'm not talking about academically smart.
Edited by ramenanmitsu, 09 May 2014 - 05:06 PM.