If we are talking about the post-time skip:
Spoiler for manga related:
All of Naruto's genin classmates have become either chuunin or jounin. And, except maybe for Neji, those people were/are/will be far away from Shikamaru in intelligence. That will not change. Still, they became chuunin, just like all the low-class chuunin you see everywhere.
Naruto is hot-headed but not stupid. (I am remembering lines from Prince of Tennis regarding Momoshiro.) His strength and his character make him act this way. Even before the time skip, he showed that he can analyze the situation and act accordingly - at a reasonable level, not high but still reasonable. But, those were all regarding his one-to-one fighting skills. In terms of the basic definition of leadership, he will never be as good as Shikamaru, but he will still do well, mainly because he has the body-strength for that unlike Shikamaru, to compensate for his lack of skills at the mind level.
So, yes, he deserves to be a chuunin.
If we talk about pre-time skip, the answer is "close, for me not yet, but in general it can go either way".