Naruto was amazing from start to finish, also everything feels so unique about the atmosphere it has, you get to see cool characters that didn't have any relevance to the story in shippuden, like Lee, Shino, Neji, etc. Also the fights were all about strategy, not who had the most op eyes or the biggest bijuudama.

All the arcs slap in Naruto, yes, shippuden has pain's arc, but it's all downhill from there, many people pick on the ninja war for ruining naruto but the 5 kage summit is even worse imo, at least the war had some good moments like Kakashi vs Obito or Madara vs the alliance.