Another thing i liked about the filler arcs was the mission naruto was haning out with team 9 (Neji, Lee and TenTen) felt like he was a fourth honorary member.
Thats true. The only filler episodes i remember were the comedy ones. The one were Ino has to pretend being some chick so she can lose wight or Naruto and Shido not allowed to laugh to help a guy get his inheritance.
The comedic ones we're cringe, ones with cool concepts like the ghost girl, the chakra meteor, the entire Kurama clan, etc. should have been canon as those actually propose interesting concepts that could flesh out the worldbuilding, who the fuck cares about the overdone Kakashi's mask jokes.
My understanding is that it was the plan but he got convinced to not kill them by editors since they were popular in the western market. They clearly forgot to wrangle him to actually keep them relevant.
Oda will always be superior, Fishman Island is still superior to Kaguya Strikes, and that's supposed to be the finale of the fucking SERIES.
Kishi has the tendency to forget characters he really should not. I doubt he needed help to keep characters around. He is like a kid that is getting new toys/characters but not doing anything with them after a while. Rock Lee is a popular character and he represents one of the main themes of the manga? Forget to do anything with him beyond the original anime. Hinata also represents that main theme and is the person the main characters ends up with? Forget to do anything meaningful with her after the Pain fight.
He's like the worst aspects of Araki and Oda combined.
Naruto was originally meant to end with the Chuunin exams with Orochimaru being the main antagonist. That's why they thought they could get away with introducing so many charcters. When the franchise ended up becoming bigger than they could've predicted, they ended up with a bunch of characters that weren't meant to have any significance outside of the Chuunin arc. The result was those characters got sidelined hard.
Part of what makes a good author is being able to make use out of the elements (characters, set pieces, history, locations etc etc) over and over again. Being able to use and re-use elements, mix them with new elements, change up the recipe to create a new flavour with a different approach. All that is important. Yes, you might have been forced to lengthen your story but it is still the same elements you made, you should still know how to work with them.
What happened to Hinata sucked. I was all for the pairing, but as you say, it didn't do anything with her. The Neji and Pain beatdowns showed Hinata isn't some delicate flower, she can bleed and fight like a ninja when she has to. She wasn't just a shy nothing love interest built to squee. Although she doesn't win them, Hinata's fights are not cringey because she's trying to emulate Naruto, whom she loves and respects. I never questioned Hinata's love for Naruto, but I also never questioned Naruto's love for Sakura.... I may have shipped Naruto and Hinata, but I never expected them to actually get together. You'd think Naruto would finally get it during the pain arc, but he doesn't really get there, like at all.
Honestly, the best thing that Kishi had done would be have Naruto give one last chance to himself to get with Sakura before growing out of it. Before the Pain arc that is. That would have made Hinata's confession hit harder for me. It would have given him time to think about it and would be a good start to the relationship. Sad thing is that Kishi made so that, even in the war arc, Naruto pines for Sakura. All that time was wasted. He knew he wanted Naruto and Hinata together but he did not bother to have them interact and develop chemistry.
The Last had the same problems the rest of the series had: I understand where it is going but it can do better. Hinata could have been written as a second love. She could have developed the courage to just tell Naruto she is in love with him since he is written to be thick. Too much time was wasted. And I do think that Orihime was better in the regard she was allowed to interact with her love interest more. Even when Ichigo liked to pretend he did not have feelings for her due to dealing with his own issues and shyness. Chemistry was still there.
Kishimoto should have made Karin the mom and Sakura a cuck like it seemed like he was going for.
Kishimoto was never going to have Karin end up with Sasuke. Sasuke does not have women who he did not treat like a battered housewife with the exception of those he did not interact with much. I know this is a joke but, while we are talking about Naruto's relationships, we have to address Sasuke's. He is someone who could only ever interact with women when he had something to gain. It is fairly normal to assume that he was (unironically) gay or from a species that does not reproduce sexually. I mean that. They way he was written he is either gay, asexual, getting so much pussy that he barely has the time to think a sexual thought, thinks it is too awkward to have sex with Karin while with the rest of his team or so focused on revenge that it has consumed his brain even as a hormonal teenager (maybe that is why he is so moody). I know we are meant to see him as the latter but if you take how he is around women all the time, it really makes you think. He ought to have more chemistry with women.
And he does so with a growing eye condition. Or so I heard.
A dead fish has more personality.
And more sex.
The "is Sakura a cuck?" Was definitely another peak Naruto moment. That it was considered plausible that yes, Sasuke fucked Karin to death, she shat out Sarada and then proceeded to dump her on Sakura while he lived like a murder hobo as far away as possible from both really made that arc extra special.