I'm not arguing with you by any means. I completely understand where you're coming from. It's Kishi that's the problem. And you say the story would be dumb if Naruto didn't become the strongest..well, news flash, the story is already dumb, lol. Sasuke should have been dead 600x over, Kakashi keeps getting called this fantastic, extremely feared, kage level ninja and the only true one on one fight we've ever really seen him in is vs Zabuza.He said hiruzen and minato are basically a tie. Hiruzen in his prime was said to be the strongest shinobi ever(iruka said this) hiruzen said that minato was the strongest hokage. And if madara wouldnt have fled from the fight with minato I'm pretty sure minato would have finished him off seeing that he had the upper hand AND that he placed his seal on madara. Idk dude I'm going off what kishi said. I mean why wouldn't the main characters dad be the strongest,,, so the son can surpass his dad and be the strongest. If hashirama was stronger than minato the story would be dumb when people are telling naruto he is the only one that can surpass minato but when he surpasses him he still isnt stronger than hashirama because hashirama is stronger than minato. Get what I'm saying? sorry it's so long
Itachi pulled some more hacks out of his ass and is somehow alive. For whatever reason, Kabuto, even though he's considered a genius, completely missed the whole "well, these guys under edo tensei will have a mind of their own and will help the alliance beat them". Pain killed every main character short of Naruto and then OMGZ LETS BRING DEM BAK 2 LIFE.
And the list goes on, and on and on and on, lol. This manga used to have so much promise when it first started, but somewhere along the line Kishi seemed to forget what happened in part 1 and completely ignored it, creating such huge pot holes you could run a mac truck through them.
But, for whatever reason, I remain addicted to it and will stick with it til it's over, lol.