You're saying Naruto's not cliché? in actuality, Naruto's very cliché, in the sense he's a happy-go-lucky, goody-two-shoes, always wanting to help anyone he can whatever he can type character, which has been done to death. Honestly, Naruto's the chosen one, he's never worked hard for his power. He was given everything via a silver spoon. He got huge chakra reserves because he's had Kurama sealed into him since birth, long life-span because he's an Uzumaki, and not to mention his dad is a famous ninja.
Seriously, Hard-working Naruto gets less impressive when you discover he has some of the finest genes. He may as well be classed in the same category as Neji and Sasuke, minus the bloodline, but Kurama makes that a moot point anyway.
Remember, hard-work means nothing in Naruto. If it did, Lee would be a top class ninja... but no, no matter hard the poor kid works, he can never catch up to Naruto and Sasuke, because he doesn't have the talent. It's all about the talent in Naruto, if you've got no talent you can't do shit. Like how the Buu saga in DBZ turned out. If you're not a super saiyan you're useless.
Oh? Lee is weak? Is that what you were thinking when he blitzed Madara and kicked his ass in half? He was buffed up by the Kyuubi chakra but besides that Lee is probably the best Taijutsu user besides Gai and maybe Raikage. In 7 or 8 gates he could probably produce similar speed and power.
While I agree with you during the war arc characters have gotten quite overpowered, a lot of ninja are still useful in their own way, for things like tracking, sensing, healing, ect.
They all have specialties and become useful in some way. The OP ones right now are Naruto, Madara, Obito, Sasuke, and Hashirama. From the beginning this was pretty much obvious it was going to happen eventually though.
As far as Naruto not having to work hard, that's like half true. He was given the kyuubi at birth, and is from a clan that is known for having very powerful chakra. However, besides this, from the beginning he was a reject, and in part 1 he had little talent as a ninja. Kyuubi chakra saved his ass, but by part 2 the seal began to weaken and he couldn't even control the power anymore.
He did learn sage mode on his own, which is powerful in his own rite. He spent countless hours training to perfect his rasengan, and then developing the rasenshuriken. Throughout the series his theme has been he never gives up, even if others don't think he's capable of achieving something and is useless. He beat the odds and is now recognized by the village
...him being a kind hearted hero is cliche it's a cliche that is almost always there in stories like this. There's always the anti-hero like Sasuke and the pure hearted hero like Naruto. I like the story. If you dislike his character and the story so much I don't know why you're wasting your time on Narutobase talking about it.
A lot of different character archetypes are used in stories like this. What makes them good is making them at least somewhat unique and interesting. Good character development is crucial for making an audience actually care about what happens to the protagonist(s)
His dad was a famous ninja but he didnt even know about it until his teens, and was ostrasized by the village, who's members also for the most part didn't know he was the son of the 4th hokage. He still got some preferential treatment, having been trained by one of the sannin but besides that not really.
Naruto isn't perfect but I enjoy the series and will continue to read it.
