This is a manga that extended over 15 years, and ended as a very different animal of how it began.

A very worse animal.

You can see how Kishimoto's art evolved. At first, the art was crude, but full of life. After it became refined without losing in quality. Then, Kishimoto's drawings began to resemble the pitiful animated adaptation. It's final artstyle isn't bad per se, but it pales in comparison with, let's say, end of Part I.

The story? Well, the story began well. Naruto isn't exactly the most interest...No, write it off, he's not interesting. The supporting cast makes Naruto. Or break it.

And god, it broke. Hard.

Mind you, the first two third of the series were good, sometimes excellent, sometimes mediocre, sometimes so bad you wanted to hit your head in the wall. But then, after 95% of antagonists are killed, we spend the rest of the series fighting two,three guys, with an army of mooks who can't even compare to the other guys, even with the other guys being part of it!

It is a long, endless conflict, that keeps dragging on, and on, and on, with "twists" that barely will make raise your eyebrow, our heroes don't even blinking at a suggestion of brainwashing, and the most stupid Deus and Diabolus Ex Machinas so our heroes and villains can keep fighting and feeding Kishimoto and Shueisha money.

Also, gotta sell that Naruto/Sasuke rivalry. Because that's what I came for in Naruto: Naruto and his Bishonen Rival. And not only that, oh no! If you didnt like that only Naruto/Sasuke exist, we have made xerox copies of their rivalry all around! Hell, let's finish this manga with Naruto fighting one Evil Counterpart after another! And by finishing, I mean one third of it!

My god, someone knows nothing.

I'm not exaggerating. This series would deserve a 1 for the Final Third, we should rename "The Thing That Never Ends when it could". I saw bad mangas before, but I never saw the same writer go from somewhat good like Kishimoto to utterly catastrophic.

And the end? The end don't matters really. It just a poorly disguised pilot for a Naruto GT. It's not even a real conclusion. Hell, they already released the sequel, why care about a well-made ending? Hell, why we should expect it after such a poorly made final arc?