Did making the Naruto chars older hurt the series?

[Abdula]

He seemed to be doing a pretty good job with his jutsus since the start of shippuuden.
You are just too ridiculously biased against Naruto.

I'm not biased, I'm fair. I agree with you that he has been using the shadow clones better since shippuden started the thing is before then the shadow clones were for the most part just a weapon of mass distraction albeit a good one.

Besides I doubt a justu like shadow clones would simply just be used to distract and enemy or provide the extra hands he needs to use the rasengan. Kisame and Zabuza utilized their water clones well and we all saw what the third did with his, although that is an unfair comparison but he was the one that was always going on about wanting to be hokage.

I suppose Naruto's misuse of the shadow clones may be a result of his lack of supplemental jutsu but that is a horrible excuse and really would only make him a failure of a ninja. Jiraiya did tell him to not conserve chakra so properly utilizing the clone is probably far from his mind but against Akatsuki level opponents on has to be more cautious. He can't just rely on rasengans and a large number of shadow clones to win all his battles. I would think that properly utilizing a few clones would be better than trying to defeat them with just sheer numbers especially because ninjas are supposed to be elite and by now everyone knows about his rasengan.

The problem is that Naruto didn't read the scroll, he merely read the first jutsu he saw in there.

Still if all he needed to unseal the Kyuubi was a scroll that a genin, wait he didn't even graduate the academy when that happened so if all he needed to release the Kyuubi was a scroll that an academy level ninja was able to steal, read and decipher then what the hell did the fourth waste his life for.

Wait so not only is Naruto still a genin but he didn't even graduate the academy Iruka just gave him a pass.

Oh and the shadow clone technique isn't forbidden, forbidden means that the ninja that uses the jutsu would be putting his life at risk or that the jutsu requires the sacrifice of a life and there would be some kind of punishment if one was a known user of the technique. The curse seal, Oro's reincarnation jutsu, Chiyo's jutsu and Sasori's human puppet jutsu are perfect examples.