I don't think I have given Kishimoto enough credit; I tend to see the flaws more. The man is a genius! The colourful Ninjutsu lore, Akatsuki and their background, the political skirmishes between villages, the sordid corruption festering within villages and their agenda to use terrorism on their own countries for military funds was beyond brilliant.
Till the Pain arc, the manga was fantastic. I would even throw in the Kage meeting and that Kabuto, Obito and Sasuke thread only, as it had strong merits to take this Manga to new heights. But, it's just a fact that Naruto ruined Naruto itself. The fact that Kishomoto chose such a weak, wishy-washy and poorly written character and his ludicrous, messiah-complex ideology to helm the plot pacing was the worst decision this man could have made. No man over the age of 10 would take this plot seriously beyond that.
He kept upping Naruto's power scaling so that other characters would lose or provide some kind of antagonism to his laughable mind-set. In that regard, the characters accompanying or challenging him were painted with the same brush; their clownish display of pomp kept getting filled to the brim till power was shining and oozing out of their every orifice until they could hold no more of it. Not only that, he deliberately marred his own established plot consistency, abused Deux Ex Machina and used whichever means necessary so that Naruto's ideology and life would sail through the refuse unhindered.
If that is not the frame-work for the worst plot in history, then I don't know what is. Kishimoto should have chosen Sasuke to lead the plot, as he's the primary catalyst and the only character to whom all plot threads link, and chosen a different genre to lead the fantastic story he created. The bijuu should only have been displayed as some auras with physical manifestations and their gigantic size could have been down-graded considerably. I didn't even like the boss summons in part one. Anything larger than Sasuke's Hawk looks laughable in this manga.
It's the power-scaling and Naruto's holy sphincter (where the plot snugly remains wedged) in which all characters were intended to bask for all eternity brought this plot down to its knees, urination ensued and then it was thrown in the gutter. Naruto's annoying fans can ***** and whine all they want, but no sane man would deny this that Naruto wrecked havoc on Naruto. No wonder all decent plot threads were forgotten when Nagato decided to forget the brutal murder of his parents over a literary abortion that came from an equally terrible character.
I really hope he learns from his past mistakes to make something. He has the potential. Just not the sense to take it in the right direction. His editor guided him properly. It isn't a surprise what befell this manga once he left; a couple of petty wrestlers as strong supporting cast. It was bound to meet its own ruin, kiss it and bed it thoroughly.