His knowledge of the shinobi world doesn't compare with people like Madara, he didn't have fully definitive information about a great deal of shinobi techniques outside his own - to the point where he thought there was a possibility that you could break Susano'o with a kunai. This discredits his battle intelligence; along with his inability to judge a difficult situation correctly—despite having accumulated a great deal of battle experience. He always showed himself to be pretty slow on the uptake. Final thing to note in the intelligence department is his lack of emotional intelligence; to the point where he was completely stoic and possessed a misplaced arrogant.I see your reasoning for handseals being slightly high, because someone else told me the same and I somewhat agree, I based it on the fact that he was able to do his Futon jutsu with no handseals, whilst Mokuton with none, though I didn't account his speed in doing so. But not the intelligence, I still consider him to be the most intelligent characters in the series. Care to expand?
I will credit his ability to use subterfuge though; many people were taken in by the "I want to protect the village" act.
Concerning the Mokuton; he was actually just unsuppressing the DNA and letting it's power loose and not using a technique per se.
As for handseals, he was rather slow and the only techniques that he could use without hand seals were ones derived from previously activated techniques.
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