Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-34194151-20180107091407/@comment-25643824-20180115202905

@CombatIQmatters I agree with you in that naruto is a lot more intelligent than people give him credit for, naruto’s “dumbness” was more of a social and educational deficiency. That being said hokages in addition to being a strong ninja are also essentially the president/military heads of their respective villages/countries they would be required to at least have a certain base level of knowledge and intelligence and experience this is further confirmed by how much naruto had to study. IMO opinion Hiruzen was referring to itachi’s maturity in thinking, now that is not say that itachi could not have been hokage at a young age like for instance Gaara. But that in no way shape or form means he was more intelligent than all Kages.