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Overall impression:
Naruto and I have a history. It was the first manga I ever began reading seriously and for the last 9 years, I've never missed a release. And as much as I love the series and how it ended, I truly cannot give it more than an 8/10. Overall, the manga was fun. It had it's flaws, yes. But at the same time, I feel that for 10 things that annoyed me, the 1 single moment of brilliance was enough to make up for it.
Quality of Kishimoto's drawings and character designs:
Looking through Part I and II you can tell how much his work had evolved. In the beginning, a lot of his work looked rough (harsh edges and so on) but come Part II, suddenly everyone looks more "rounded" and easier on the eye. The backgrounds in particular were spectacular. While Part I's buildings looked pretty bland and just blended together, Part II had things like Pain's Tower with all the faces sticking their tongues out while even regular homes started getting more detail in them.
Character-design wise, the man's brilliant. All the metric ton of characters he's drawn over the years and I can STILL name all of them as soon as you show me their picture. The Tailed Beasts were my absolute favorites as each of them was so intricately mixed with aspects of various creatures to create their signature look. Oh how about the Susano-O, which is different for every Uchiha that uses it? The man certainly has a knack for distinguishing even the side characters who you'd most likely forget about after a while.
Story, writing and plot devices:
Now, this is the one area where Kishimoto falters. There are several inconsistencies later in Part II that contradict Part I. A big one being "lose all your chakra and you die". Part I made losing your chakra supply a very serious threat for any badass ninja and they showed clear signs of fatigue settling in when they began to run low. And unless you're someone like Naruto with an integrated chakra battery, you were most likely in trouble if a battle dragged on too long.
Another fault here is the (IMO) underutilized potential. For instance, we had 9 jinchuuriki. Each one could have easily been a great way to showcase just how much they all differ yet their circumstances are almost always the same. An arc focusing on 1 or 2 of them could have also expanded the manga's world and introduce the later characters (like the Stone Village residents) much more easily and carefully. Yet most were killed off-panel. Or how about the Hyuuga being a major clan and one of the strongest? Not much of a showcase there.
Speaking of characters, while Kishimoto can make them distinct, he seems to have trouble developing them in-depth. Look at Mei Terumi (the Mizukage). Her character can be summed up as "Forever Alone". And sometimes I catch myself asking "Why? Why do you not use her to enrich your story?" She has 2 Kekkei Genkai and has shown to be a formidable fighter. Furthermore, because she has those Kekkei Genkai when we were previously told that the Mist Village loathes them, it is a sign that the village itself is changing. Yet we get no interactions of her and how she runs it. Or why it is that the villagers respect her. Nope, we're stuck with "Forever alone girl seeks man".
As others have mentioned, the war was mishandled. While Part II was still "ninja-like", it eventually all came down to "who can summon the bigger fish to fight the enemy big fish" around the time Naruto sprouted the 6th and 8th tails during the Pain fight. The use of mass resurrected zombies because nauseating and was all over the place so despite being shown the 7 Swordsmen, we barely knew anything about them except they were all uber killer ninja.
But as I said earlier, for every fault, I cannot rightly hate the manga enough for it to be detrimental. The moments when the manga truly shines, counter-balances so much of the wrong for me. I groaned at the mass revival at the end of the Pain Invasion, but then Jiraiya and Neji both got shocking but incredibly meaningful deaths. Characters get introduced left and right only to disappear soon after, but Naruto, Killer B and Kurama remain no less entertaining regardless of what they do. In a way it all balances out.
Lastly I will mention the ending. I loved it. It symbolized an end to a long journey and letting in a new era. I loved that Hinata and Sakura both got the one guy they wanted since their introductions. I love the fact that Naruto surpassed all the other Hokage like he said he would. I love that Sasuke, after I had spent almost a decade spitting and hating on, developed in such a way that I wanted to give him an applause for finally coming to terms. A bumpy road it was and a long one at that, but it was worth it.
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