Now I feel like Wave Country arc was the best part of Naruto. Kakashi showed proper strength as jounin, Naruto learned the dark side of the shinobi system, Sasuke began to develop new relationship, and Sakura learned the cruelty of reality. These are cliche but at least they are decent like normal shonen manga.
Codeprovider has the same opinion, but he excluded chuunin exams from his consideration cos Kishi copied HxH. But if you overlook the fact Kishimoto heavily borrowed from another series, I still think Chuunin exams is better. It expands on the shinobi system, the politics and economics. It introduces new characters, new jutsu, new threats, it sets up the plot of the next arcs. It has both minor fights like the skirmish in the forest, and also major one on one set piece in the finals. It’s just structurally ambitious in a way we don’t ever see again in this series.
Codeprovider was one of those very very rare early naruto uzumaki fans who understood naruto’s realization he’s part of a system that treats him as a tool is the most intriguing part of his character, and in hindsight the highest point of his character in the whole series. 99.9% of naruto stans here on tumblr just see him as a poor orphan self insert so that they can use him as a fodder to make up 1000 “lonely childhood” headcanons and go all weepy about them.
