I think it would be easier to fit within the limit if you spent less time discussing the concept, which takes up over half your review. A single paragraph that covered more of the plot would be better, such as the following
"Naruto is the story of a boy growing up in a village of ninjas, where he is an outcast because he has the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of him, and seeks to be acknowledged by the village by becoming its leader. He is put on a team with his crush Sakura and rival Sasuke, and they must learn to work together in order to accomplish their missions and reach their goals."
Interestingly enough, Naruto seems somewhat annoyed by Sakura crushing on Sasuke, but this has more to do with his envying Sasuke's "popular kid" status than romantic jealousy, and later complains about Ino having the same trait.
As for the characters, someone once made an interesting point about Naruto on the Flat Character page once; many of the minor characters who would otherwise be devoid of any personality have considerably more personality than their equivalents in other series, and the problem is that people complain that they don't have more screentime. Notably, when the rest of the Rookie Nine come in, Naruto introduces each one of them and what he finds annoying about them, but over time, they're revealed as having Hidden Depths that make them more likable to the reader and to Naruto (after Hinata's fight with Neji, Naruto notes that he had always thought she was shy and timid, but notes that he actually likes people like her).
I actually think the story gets better and more original as it goes on.
While you make pretty speeches, I'm being cut to shreds.
No, he's right, Kishimoto is a hack. He uses all sorts of cliches and tricks to make people stay and read the story. I doubt he even knows the craft in making a story, maybe he doesn't even have a writing plan at all. But I hope that I am wrong and that it's just some Corrupt Corporate Executive forcing him to continue. It would make sense as the beginnings was better rather than later arcs, suggesting that he simply just gave up and force to do cliched story.
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A series for beginners to Manga, but unfulfilling to those who continue.
Naruto can be best described as something that started with a decent premise, but only entertaining for those who don't know or care about how a good story should be written.
To be blunt, I consider Masashi Kishimoto, or "Clishi" as I call him, a hack when it comes to storytelling. So much I swear that he consults the "Dummies guide to Storytelling" to see what to do next.
So is it bad? Well, I can't give a full review of the bad within the limit, but I'll try.
Naruto is the story of the title character, a kid who lives in a ninja village where the military force consists of, you guessed it, Ninja. Now Naruto is shunned from the community ever since he was a boy and big surprise, you figure it out before the story even starts, he contains a demon known as the Nine-Tailed Fox. But Naruto dreams to change this outlook from the villagers by trying to become the Hokage, the most respected Ninja and leader of the village. Except he's a loser.
Within the third chapter, we're introduced to Sasuke, the resident genius, and Sakura, Naruto's crush. Both of whom are assigned to Naruto's rookie ninja team with the older Kakashi as their squad leader.
The group's dynamics are based on this: Naruto likes Sakura, Sakura herself crushes on Sasuke, and Sasuke sees the other two as useless weight dragging him down from acheiving his goal. This team is unbalanced, that's obvious. But Naruto took both the fact Sakura crushed on Sasuke and that Sasuke is better than him, and applied it to better himself and forming a rivalry with Sasuke. Sasuke, not wanting to be outdone by the loser Naruto takes up Naruto on his rivalry and uses it to better himself. Thus a rivalry was born.
This was the concept, and for the first arc, it was decent.
Then... Chuunin Exams...
The concept was lost for what would be considered a subpar storyline. We're introduced to a number of flat characters who have personalities that would fit better in a High School Manga, from Lazy Genius Shikamaru to Shrinking Violet Hinata. Even more so with the females, who are written only as shallow love interests, void of any real personality, from Main Character Sakura to Fan-favorite Hinata.
And then everything just gets worse from there...
In Short: You'll like the start, but you're better off moving on to a better story.