Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-44437908-20200507051002/@comment-44142243-20200510165606

Well Naruto never won a fight without kurama, but he is a jinchuriki which means kurama comes under his powers and abilities list. Moreover sage mode Naruto is easier low-mid kage class. Naruto isn't very intelligent or tactical and doesn't have many abilities except rasengan variants. But he makes it up with his out of the box thinking, high chakra and strong will to protect his friends. The story showed how he went from a zero to a hero, gaining allies and respect.

But in a way, yeah, the author gave an amazing character development for Naruto, but it's a fact that Naruto is very powerful because of being the decendant of ashura and won all of his fights due to kurama's help. The author could have put more focus on naruto's creative tactics and could have given sage mode more screen time. But in the later chapters, Naruto's go-to power was kurama and rasengan.