The writers pull abilities out of nowhere and then spend the episode explaining them! Seriously the characters stare at each other and monologue about tactics for episodes at a time. For a compounding effect its impossible to actually understand what technique or tactic is better. Even if you try to follow who is winning the fight the writers will pull a twist. Then again the outcomes of most fights are obvious from the beginning often counter to any sense or purpose except how awesome the main characters are. Ninjas never run away or even seem to plan on it.
Naruto and co go out on life threatening missions, never die, never talk or act like they may die, do better than people three times their age and don't get hazard pay. Over the course of the show they have probably killed a couple thousand mook ninjas.
On the plus side later shippuden episodes addresses a few of these issue only to turn out boring in a harder to pin down way. Btw i actually like naruto the character so long as he isn't fighting anyone.
The first review is best:
anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=animeatt&aid=239