Tsunade turns to shukaku for advice, he is basically the consigliere of the village and shikamaru is his young shadow(no pun intended) meaning with out them this war would have been lost long ago.
Are we talking about the same arc where naruto showed up at the last minute after coming from mount....whatever its called? Dude a leader shouldn't be all brawn, but brains and reason. Naruto is a brute fighter, he doesn't even use finesse his move are very predictable. Only in anime can somebody like this actually be a leader of an entire village of ninja. Shikamru would never allow his best warriors to leave the village unattended do you think the president does this? No, they have there best soldiers on watch duty(anbu) and if I were shikimaru I would make Naruto my bodyguard and sasuke anbu leader(new danzo). This would lead to a perfect and impenetrable Konoha.
