[Hunter]

Originally Posted by Ero-Senn1n

While i agree with 99% of what you say, i can't agree in the end because of that 1%. That 1% of the story which as i wrote makes it a huge contradiction. Some examples that come to my mind:
- reads Jiraiya's book and gets the message
- outsmarts Kakuzu
- despite having only kage bunshin and rasengan he regularly finds new ways to use these and trick his enemies who have at least 10 times more jutsu to use
- finds out immediately that Sakura's confession is fake
- very smart people believe in him (Jiraiya, Minato, Shikamaru and his father, Kakashi, etc.)

• So? Are you implying Jiriaya's book was some kind of subtle allegory instead of the main character shouting cheesy lines leaving no room for interpretation? You think Naruto is smart because he has 2nd or 3rd grader reading comprehension?
• There was nothing smart about it (in fact it had the opposite effect of making Kakuzu looks dumb) Naruto did what he always does, he used slight variations of KB + Rasengan until one connected. That's Naruto's bread and butter.
• No he doesn't, not since his fight with Neji. Every combat he fought since then has been a slight variation of KB feint + Swirling Ball of death#875 + sometime the trick he used against Zabuza.
• Duh? I said he's dumb not a vegetable.
• -This has nothing to do with his intelligence and everything to do with plot charisma and in the case of his father blind faith.

- steals the secret scroll of elite forbidden jutsu and learns the kage bunshin from a book in a few hours (not by practice but from a book)

I kept the first for last because it's the only one with value although you're wrong Naruto had trained all night so much he had hurt himself to get the hang of it. But again it's not an indication that he's a brainiac, it's just goes with the territory in the genre. You could have made the same argument for all his training session without exception.

But when we look it that way then we realize that most of the other characters also do dumb things on a regular basis. Just a few examples that come to my mind now: Jiraiya going to the akatsuki lair alone instead of organizing a squad of konoha or even from the 5 countries, keeping Naruto in Konoha so that the enemy who already almost destroyed the sand ninja village with a huge bomb when coming for Gaara would do the same with Konoha, etc.)

Sorry but no, those two examples don't even make the top 100 stupid things in the story and they most certainely don't come to within a light years of most of Naruto feats in the dumbastic department. There are others character who proved themselves dumb at time, sometime not in purpose but none so systematically and comprehensively as Naruto.

That's why I don't get why you refuse to acknowledge Naruto's stupidity. It's not a case of a character being stupid despite the author efforts, it's a clear cut case of an author shouting it in your hears over and over and inventing more stupid things for his character to say all the time so nobody forget that he's dumb as a brick.