Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-25449165-20161013231440/@comment-3261234-20161015112254

To be honest, I think Naruto becoming Hokage without ever climbing up in the ranks before fits his character and the show perfectly. There was this whole narrative throughout the first half of the series of him feeling inferior to his peers and Sasuke in particular, but somewhere along the road, he realised that ranks don't really mean anything without them having any meaning to you and your way of living (or ninja way...). Naruto wanted to become Hokage because at first, he just wanted to be recognized by the people - after a while though, he learned that he wanted to become Hokage to help the entire village and its inhabitants and realised that he doesn't need to be a jonin for that. No wonder he never actively worked towards becoming a chunin again after his return to the village, because getting stronger to help Gaara, Sasuke and all the others was much more important to him. And while I don't think he would've denied becoming chunin or jonin if offered the promotion, he didn't care enough to get that done by himself. Otherwise, he surely could've become at least chunin in the two years after the war (not counting the anime-only offer, just judging from the canon perspective).

Also, to reach the highest position from the lowest in one swoop just fits the exuberant Naruto perfectly, I think. Really shows you that he won't be stopped by regularity, just as always.