Before pein arc, he still had shadow clones, rangesan and stamina which made him a difficult opponent. the kazekage lost to a new recuirt akatsuki member whilst naruto and kakashi had no difficult against him. Naruto ability to be able to fight for extend time periods and take lots of damage makes him stronger than gaara, mei, old Kage guy, and tsunade. He might find the raikage hard to beat but could still win. also those are op techniques that naruto has its just over exposure why you think those moves aren't special or formidable against high class ninjas. When naruto got sage mode that put him mid tier Kage with the likes of mu, jiraya 3rd raikage, ms sasuke and hanzo. Who naruto could probably beat all of them as well with sm though. if naruto was guarding the Kage summit sasuke wouldn't have been able to cause as much trouble and disgrace Kages like mei who was beaten low diff against sasuke who already fought 2 Kages before. Naruto without sage is still more powerful that current time Kages with sm puts him with the strongest Kages in other villages and he still could probably beat them
Pre SM Naruto was NOT Kage level. He had the potential to rank among the Kages, but he needed to polish his skills and learn further techniques to expand his arsenal of jutsus to come to that level, like Minato did by learning seals and S rank techniques, FTG (Non SM Minato was Kage level). Being an Uzumaki, he had the best innate potential among all shinobis to compete with the Kages (if Uchihas are excluded). But the way he was at that time, that absolutely wasn't Kage level. He couldn't even use Rasenshuriken without destructing his arm, or Rasengan without a clone.
Diedara defeated the Kazekage, and could've given Naruto and Kakashi a really tough time if he actually went for it. Diedara was doing absolutely nothing against Kakashi and Naruto, yet they didn't accomplish anything. And Diedara also said that Kakashi was the real problem, Naruto wasn't even worth it.
Pre SM Naruto does not stand a chance against the Raikage. Even 3T Sasuke who's clearly stronger than Pre SM Naruto would've died against Raikage without MS powers.
If Pre SM Naruto was guarding the Kage Summit, he'd get wrecked. The Raikage who's way stronger had a tough time beating Sasuke.
Also MS Sasuke (maxed out) > SM Naruto. Naruto can do absolutely nothing against the offense and defense of Susanoo. He cannot dodge the Susanoo arrow which is fast and powerful, while Susanoo could tank Rasenshuriken (because it can tank Kirin which is stronger). And no way Naruto can evade or tank Kirin, it would incinerate Naruto. He can evade Amaterasu, but if he gets hit by chance, he's done for it. If Sasuke puts Amaterasu shield, Naruto cannot touch Sasuke.
