There really was no need for you to make another thread, you could have simply posted in the Naruto is an idiot thread. There was no need for that other thread either since it would've been more productive for that point to be discussed within each individual chapter's thread, but since its there you really should have posted in there since you are talking about the same thing.

First off no one is saying that Naruto is stupid the argument was whether Naruto is an idiot or not. The examples you gave really don't make any sense because him being an idiot or not won't affect the outcome of his battles since he is the protagonist anyway. Secondly none of those examples proved anything because some of the most idiotic people I know are the best fighters I know. I think its insulting that you compared Naruto to Shikamaru because there really is no comparison. Naruto is not Shikamaru, Shikamaru is intelligent Naruto isn't.

Another thing that bothers me about your examples is because you seem to think that someone doing something "smart" means that they aren't dumb. Naruto’s battle sense, is all about instincts. He is very emotional and he goes with whatever his instincts tell him to do whether it is the right decision are not, it really doesn't have much to do with strategy.

Resourcefulness does not equal intelligence and it is far more likely that someone who relies on instincts like Naruto would end up doing some seemingly intelligent than it is for someone like Shikamaru to do something stupid.

The biggest differences between Naruto and Skimaru are planning, observation skills, acquiring and processing information, taking calculated risks and correctly assessing situations and opponents and being able to predict foreseeable outcomes. Naruto has none of these abilities like I said he runs on instincts, which is why he needs protecting. Instincts are great and all but every one has them and when you rely on them too much you have a tendency to fall for simple tactics and taunting which Naruto does consistently.

Anyway I've lost my train of thought and this post seems far more malevolent than I intended. Anyway my point was that the outcome of those battles doesn't really say much as to whether Naruto is an idiot or not. Goku was an idiot and that didn't stop him. I haven't seen anything thus far that suggests that Naruto possesses any exceptional talent. Sure he has a lot of chakra but he is not responsible for that and if he hadn't accidentally learned the shadow clone he would've been completely useless. Naruto has no talent in ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu and he doesn't have any strategic skills to overcome his lack of talent.