Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20140830021423/@comment-25349026-20140831050615

For those saying that Naruto is the worst.

Super saiya-nin powers aside I think Naruto made out with some of the best and traditionally though of abilities in Ninja mythos.

Naruto was a MASTER at transformation, to the point of making his clones weapons at times in the FIRST FREAKING ARC! This is the most useful skill a ninja can have as it allows him to deceive his enemy. Of all the Shinobi in the series, Naruto actually more frequently acted like a ninja than others by means of deception. He could make clones which is also big in ninja-mahou-jutsu lore. He also used 'traditional' Doton no jutsu by attacking from underground which he used to beat someone clearly better than him.

All these things happened in the first few arcs when this was a manga about an actual 'shinobi' world before it became some shinto-buddhist-hindi war of ideals between Ashuras and Devas.

Granted as a character in personality, Naruto was the most annoying character I've probably seen in a series. I don't read other shounen titles though, and didn't think this would originally be one when I started back in 2002.