@sanji499:
How would you made Naruto part 2 as good or better than part 1 (its not hard but it seems fun) ?
-Sakura's development actually shine through.
-Naruto's Jinchuuriki reveal actually have some tension to it.
-Getting the elemental circle of strengths and weaknesses earlier (seriously, shouldn't they have learned that in school?)
-None of that bullhonkey with Sasuke's merry band of morons.
-Better parent reveal (also the 4th Hokage not being related to him, or just his uncle at most).
-(If they had to be relevant, then better development and Karin's being an Uzumaki being more than just a throwaway thing.) (She'd need a complete personality overhaul too.)
-Earlier plot points not being forgotten or retconned.
-Faster-paced war with better execution.
-Better foreshadowing and less new people who suddenly show up that we're supposed to care about.
-Better development all around, really. There's a whole laundry list of problems.
-However, most of the problems with it can be, to put it bluntly, traced to Kishi blowing his load way too early with the chuunin exams.
I don't think anyone here will disagree with me when I say the first 4 volumes (the story up through the Zabuza arc) were awesome. They were great! We had our cheeky underdog hero and his teammates with flaws that could be confronted and dealt with as the story went on (Sasuke was a prodigy, but emo and not wanting to trust and work with others; Sakura was the smartest out of all of them (intellectually), but weak and had no jutsus), along with their mysterious and badass teacher who somehow has the bloodline jutsu of a clan that's almost completely extinct (without even being a part of it).
We had an exciting arc with them having to confront a dangerous missingnin and his sidekick. There were plently of creative jutsus, along with us getting to see how the Kyuubi could have an effect on Naruto's abilities (one of my favorite scenes in manga in general, tbh). It also hit home how shitty the Narutoverse could be outside of peaceful little Konoha (a plotpoint that was sadly discarded later on). The manga was riding high and we couldn't wait to see what happened next!
Then came the chuunin exams.
I won't lie, I loved it the first time around. We got a bunch of new unique and interesting characters, one of which had a demon inside him just like Naruto. We were also introduced to villains like Kabuto and Orochimaru. Sasuke got that curse mark (which was chock full of potential). We got to see lots of fights, and got to see how crafty Naruto could be. We also met the Sannin and Naruto learned to walk on water and summon toads (which made the final fight with Gaara really cool). Character development galore! (I know there's a lot more good stuff, but these are the highlights for me that I can remember off the top of my head.)
However, looking back, it signaled the downfall of the series itself.
With all these new characters, a lot of them didn't get them didn't get the development they should have (especially the ones that tended to stay in the background, like Shino and Ten Ten). Because of this, a lot of the impact scenes could have had (like Neji vs. Hinata, Gaara vs. Lee, or Sakura vs. Ino for example) was lost. Sakura, one of the main characters, didn't even have any jutsu of her own by then, and didn't get any until after the time skip. We had no true insight of the tension between all the villages, since the only real world expansion we got was to the Land of Waves (which just showed of some poverty and how much of a shithole Kirigakure used to be), and we didn't get to see any jinchuuriki in their natural habitat (so we didn't get to see any others not being, you know, straight up murder machines until the kidnappings started started).
Even the act of Sasuke himself leaving after and becoming a missing nin itself didn't have much impact by itself. Where was the emotion of having to leave all his friends and trusted companions? Oh right, there was none because he didn't have any. He didn't care about anyone but himself, and didn't care about anything besides killing his brother. He just left, Sakura halfheartedly tried to stop him (why was she stalking him tho), but somehow no one else noticed him leaving until the next day(???). Even with the curse seal driving him, it's dumb that he didn't even have second thoughts or even any emotional conflict over it.
Supposedly important people (like the Sannin and the Akatsuki) were met from then on on a need-to-know basis. There was hardly any foreshadowing to us meeting them (even names being thrown around in coversation would've been fine), so instead of being excited for getting to finally see someone in the story, it's just like "EENTRODOOSING DA NEW FREND KILLER BEE!!!!111one" and us being like "ok".
Entire plot points were forgotten later on or retconned (likely because Kishi just didn't care anymore). Kakashi's 1000 jutsu? Haha no. Kabuto lookin' monsterous and more than he appears (even beyond being Orochimaru's apprentice)? Hurr hurr wut. Sharingan being an offshoot of the Byakugan? Looooooooool.
The best thing Kishi could've done to prevent any of this is have a few more arcs before the chuunin exams, along with a few more after.
If we had been acquainted with the rest of the Konoha 11 in those few other arcs beforehand, there'd be more time for character development, and stronger bonds could be formed which woule make all the events in the chuunin exams would have had that much more impact (imagine seeing the contempt Neji had for Hinata before he beat the stuffing out of her, or knowing about the collapse of Ino and Sakura's friendship, or the fact that Naruto had some fellow losers that he could hang out with (even though they weren't very close)). There's be more time to get more jutsu (so Naruto wouldn't have to spam shadow clones everywhere and Sakura wouldn't have to be useless), and even characters like Kiba and Ino would have time to learn jutsus outside their clan jutsus (since, after all, using nothing but variations of the same jutsu DOES get boring after awhile). (On a side note, it's dumb that Ino's so useless given that she only ranked second behind Sasuke in the academy).
More arcs would mean more missions which would mean more chances for world expansion too. We know Kirigakure used to suck and kids had to kill each other just to become genin, but what's it like now? We know Gaara, Naruto, and Killer Bee had it rough as jinchuuriki, but what about the rest? Assuming the rest would've had Bee-level or better discrimination against them, it would've made Gaara that much more shocking. It would've let Naruto see that in fact there were other people like him (for better or worse), and even have someone to relate to on that level. Even with just throwaway lines early on, scenes (like meeting Jiraya for example) could've gone from from okay ("Who's that pervert? Oh, he's one of the strongest ninja out there? Cool.") to awesome ("Wait- that's Jiraya? YOOOOOOOOOO.")
Bleh, there's more, but it's almost 3 in the morning so that's it (it's also why it's so all over the place).