No ninja rank promotions based on merit?

[Char Aznable]

It is in fact one of the most vital category for promoting genins to higher ranks. As chunin, they are expected to lead missions. Considering his attitude is what makes him a leeroy jenkins, he has no chance whatsoever to pass as a chunin. But as YV said, he's gonna be hokage anyway so why bother? Genin>hokage is cooler than chunin>hokage and he's got Sakura to whip him into good behavior and Shikamaru as his secondary brain.

No chance compared to whom? Wet behind the ears genin who provide no challenge to Naruto in either the survival trial or the 2 physical demonstrations of there skills? That always bugged me that the final decision to be made chunin was to be decided by a one on one match in a ring with spectators. This isn't dragon ball at the budokai. One would think that the survival test would be the final place to judge whether a genin is worthy of chunin. Because that is where intelligence, tactics, observation team work and physical dexterity are most used by ninja in the field.

Shikamaru got promoted after quitting a battle he could've won. Yet the examiners saw him as a success for planning his moves. If it was a mission he would've failed.

Sakumo Hatake quit his mission to save his whole squad, and he was ostracized and considered persona non grata by the villagers and his own team mates for his decision. Sakumo failed his mission and was condemned for it.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is no consistency in how success and failure of a ninja's decisions are measured. Shikamaru was lazy with test scores as bad as Naruto's. He quits and gets promoted. Naruto is driven, didn't yield to Neji when everyone in the audience counted him out before the fight even started and after Neji hit his 64 chakra points. Naruto also planned his moves and used subterfuge and trickery to catch Neji off guard and win the bout. Naruto isn't promoted because he didn't quit while he was ahead like Shikamaru? If Naruto was in charge of a squad you could be certain Naruto would complete it since he's not a quitter.