Naruto Uzumaki's Deception and Strategy

NARUTO'S DECEPTION AND STRATEGIC ABILITIES
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Although Naruto's intelligence is greatly downplayed for most of the series, his skills in
deception and strategy are actually extremely high, allowing him to defeat even S-Class
ninja such as Kakuzu and Pain. He also possesses the ability to formulate complex plans
in the midst of battle. Naruto's strategies typically involve shadow clones; either
directing his opponent's attentions towards one of his clones to disguise his own
movements, or transforming them into various shapes (such as shuriken) to allow for surprise attacks. His deceptive skills were first best displayed in Team 7's first battle
against Zabuza; he came up with the strategy to disguise himself as the fūma shuriken in order to free Kakashi from Zabuza's water prison. His skills in deception were shown

to have grown exponentially during his battle with Pain, allowing him to prevail
through an elaborate and highly unpredictable array of back-up plans, such as
transforming his clones to mimic the environment. He also used the Shadow Shuriken Technique and the Transformation Technique to turn himself into a Rasenshuriken to temporarily neutralize the Preta Path while his real Rasenshuriken went to attack the Deva Path, while a clone attacked the Naraka Path from above with a Rasenrengan. When Naruto caught his second wind against the Nine-Tails to bypass its hatred
completely, he systematically used the Sage Art: Super Great Ball Rasen Tarengan, Wind Release: Rasenshuriken and his mother's Chakra Chains to push the Nine-Tails' chakra out of its body from a safe distance to absorb it into his own body.

Naruto can also be quite innovative, using his clones to master advanced techniques.
Examples of this include a two-man Rasengan, three-man Rasenshuriken, using clones
to perform senjutsu and using chakra arms to perform the Tailed Beast Rasengan.