i guess you're right... both kakashi and jiraya were impresed how quickly naruto gets a grip on how a technic must be done ( yamato and ebisu to) so he definetly is pretty smart but he never had the support...
than again, his experience enables him to understand other people problems and...
i hate to say this even more, but it might so be that naruto will die in order to save sasuke...and than sasuke would understand how strong their bond actually was...and give up on his idea of vengance...
but that can't happen!!!!! xd