I still can't stand it if someone says Naruto won feat-wise, which is simply not the case. In a fair 1on1, he would've lost so many times.. and when I compare characters, I do it only in a fair 1on1.
Naruto had the frogs that fought the summons, he had Jiraiya's intel in form of Fukasaku, he had a piece of Katsuyu for healing and intel, as well as Kurama and Minato of course. His advantage in this fight was enormous.
Yeah but if you think that way then you're missing the story's entire premise. It's not about taking everything on all on your own, it's about fighting together. If you go into this series thinking that fights should be won based on skill and individual ability then you'll lose every time. Itachi being the perfect example for this (overlooked every time because people are immature and worship him).
Itachi never won any of his battles if you think about it in a more broader context. You need to ask yourself what defines a winner. Itachi took on the burden of murdering his entire clan and branding himself a criminal for the sake of the village. True in the sense that it prevented civil war BUT at the cost of human lives? Is that not the premise of war? The very thing Itachi was trying to prevent?
People on this forum will look at this comment and condemn me for saying this but its true. The butterfly effect of this was that the massacre would inevitable drive his own brother down a path of vengeance and that's a lonely road. No one should ever have to be an avenger for anything because the sure outcome of that is war.
You look at Naruto's life and you can see the immediate contrast in both character and strength. That's why people hate him, because when they make a comparison thats usually based off a selfish premise.