I have read all of Naruto. I won't spoil major plot points. However, I will be talking about characters and certain events that will spoil some moments.

First up: Naruto seemed promising. A likable cast, interesting concepts, general good shounen-ey stuff. I was reading non-stop all the way through the first part of Naruto, before the timeskip. I was really liking most of the character development, like Sakura cutting her hair, Hinata and Neji, other aspects of teamwork and good fun integrated in. Although I did notice that Naruto loses a bit of his relatability early on. He goes from having no friends, no mentor, hating life, to suddenly a guy with multiple friends and a hidden power within him. Typical shounen, I know, but still. Kishimoto tried to play the relatability even when the loneliness was long over. But overall, I give the pre-time skip part a solid 7.5/10.

Then there was the time skip. I was excited to see the changes in characters. Then I realized that Naruto had only gotten marginally stronger over two long ass years. Then within a relatively short period, he gets a tactical nuke which may have to do with a certain spinny chakra ball. And then there the annoying abuse of a certain training technique that only Naruto can use because hidden power plot armor reasons.

Then came the killers; the double S. That's right. Sasuke and Sakura.

I'll deal with Sasuke first. He was good pre time skip. Internal struggle, curse mark thing, flip floppering, good stuff. Then he became Bitch-suke and shunned everyone, tried to kill some of the main cast, flip flopped ideals a few times, more power up shit. But I did appreciate the Sasuke and Itachi fight, especially because I have a brother and we have problems.

And then came the last 1.5 arcs. At this point, this series was a solid 5.5/10. Then the final series of events dropped it to a 2/10.
The thing about Naruto accepting himself never really hit home because he was a really linear and flat character. Sure, he thought about "what if I was bad", and things like that. This could seen as part of character, but that's a fallacy. He only talks about his feelings when the plot dictates, and he always has a stupid Hokage ass smile. Then he got literal cancer powerups. The Raikage moving at light speed? Come on. I know this is shounen, but the fact that Naruto dodges light speed stuff means he would literally be going back in time. And the Wage wof the wix waths. Kill me, this was so stupid. Madara was an exceedingly fleshed out character who brought a lot of power back to the series, bringing it back to a 7/10 for me. Then he was swapped for another ho for no reason other than the fate of the earth and and because it sets up a need for more powerups, and oh yeah, Sasuke, who also changes dreams. Again.

And finally. The moment of truth. Sakura. The worst god damn part of this series. She went from hair-cutting character development to having the stupidest inferiority complex in history. She knew she was weak, but she never did anything to really change the fact or develop her character more thoroughly. Sasuke's gone? I bet my good slav- I mean friend Naruto will help me get him back. Right? Because I'm too damn weak to do anything so instead I'm just gonna cry about it? Exactly. And this stupid crap is repeated, all the way through the time skip. She acts resolute to stand side by side with the literally the two most powerful characters in the series, and then thinks she's weak, when she's literally above Tsunade. Okay. That makes so much sense it makes my brain hurt.

I liked the first part. I really did, but Naruto crashed and burned pathetically later on. Sure, its popular, but popularity does not always equate to quality. There are people who rave about how good SAO is, but SAO is even worse than Naruto, and everyone has heard of SAO. That pretty sums it up, all of the power-ups, "development", and "deep struggle". Honestly, the fact that it is so popular just contributes to how NOT good it is. I see people cry tears of joy about the fantastic character development, when literally other manga have ten times the character development for one person compared to almost the entire cast of Naruto. cough cough Kaneki cough cough

But I will up the series to a 3 for Rock Lee, Gaara and Neji. They were undoubtedly the best characters in the series, plus madara without his demise.