Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-26636534-20171019193715/@comment-734582-20180109194712

Justin Holland wrote: Stupid then, especially from be Sakura? Eccentric, more like. In Part 1 he mostly suffered from lack of education. It took Jiraiya 3 years of one-on-one teaching to learn him basic tactics. In part 2 pre-pain he mostly suffered from lack of composure, acting too quickly and recklessly. In the Pain-Prewar period he seems balanced and composed, though still nowhere near Kage-level in his knowledge and analysis (Mostly because post-timeskip he caught up, he still wasn't where he should've been).

In the 4th war, Naruto displayed all the marks of a professional ninja. He sometimes barely keeps up with the power unlocked to him and the enemies he faces (e.g. Pain is like the 6th or 7th exceptional enemy in the span of a few hours). in the Juubi arc, rare and unique powers come by at breakneck speed and the Alliance is only hanging on by the skin of it's teeth, so most of the time he forgets things because he's juggling far more information than at any previous point in his career. Hell, against Juubito i think he was holding more target information than in the entirety of part1.

Sure he's unorthodox and eccentric, and as Hagoromo described it a "bit stupid", but he's hardly retarded. It's no surprise that a hated orphan had such a setback at school, and i know plenty of people who sucked in school and went on to be successful in professional life.