I don't understand all the complaints about Naruto being stupid, it is quite clear that Kishimoto will not change the recipe of success in shonen manga. Naruto has to stay Naruto until the end, his basic personality and character will not change. Just like Jiraiya didn't change that much, even when he was fighting Pain and he soon had to die still Kishimoto made his final funny moments when he tries to look cool but the 2 elder toads kick him in the face
We are buying this manga because we expect Naruto to be like that, and Sakura to belike that, etc. For 10 years it worked very well, so it won't be changed suddenly.
BTW it seems that Naruto is evolving quite simlarily to DB/DBZ:
- the kage level now is becoming basic level, like SSJ level became basic in DBZ
- more and more people are being somehow resurrected from the dead, even if Kishimoto will not make this thing free as it was in DB
- more and more fighters can fly now, even Sasuke got his bird summon, so i wonder if Naruto will soon be able to fly
- seems like the old characters of part one are being completely left behind in power level, here it's the former genins like in DB were Krillin, Chaozu, etc.
- Madara is becoming quite simlar to Cell, the way he is being engineered from the cells of Shodaime, using Nagato for the eyes, the countless Uchiha sharingan eyes being used, just like Cell was constructed from the collected cells of the strongest fighters