To add to this, one of the major themes of Naruto, initially, was that of hard work vs inherent talent, and of chosen path vs imposed genetic fate. Naruto --poor, stupid, ward of the state, was representative of the former two, respectively; Sasuke --rich, genius, heir to a famous and powerful family, was representative of the latter two, respectively. (Incidentally, Sasuke, pardon my French, got his shit rocked by Rock Lee, a character who is explicitly stated to have no innate talents in the context of this world, upon which, in an oft forgotten, but pivotal scene, Naruto remarks something like: "look at his hands" emphasizing how torn and bandaged they are from untold hours of individual training up until this point)
This resonated with a lot of fans, minority groups, and even other artists, as can be seen by the use of very similar character types to create the same juxtaposition in other works, such as Black Star, who is a very naruto-like character in Soul Eater, or Hinata, who is a naruto-like character in Haikyuu.
We watch Naruto, through hard work, dedication, and the continued support of a few good people who love him, become an instrumental figure of inspiration in the lives of the people he interacts with. Through his refusal to give up in the face of hardship, much of which has been forced upon him (aside from the cruelty of being ostracized, the demon fox interferes with his chakra control, which is why he did so poorly in school), he masters arts that most people in this world could only dream of. It is implied that he accomplishes these things because his personality and force of will is similar to that of the people who were successful before him, and that, with the support he consistently wins from others, he can succeed where they failed.
... And then Kishimoto throws all of that in the garbage by not only explicitly stating, over and over, that the reason for Naruto's abilities is a direct result of his genetics (explicitly making him the biological son of the former ninja president, and another extremely powerful person), he actually undid everything by explicitly making Naruto and Sasuke the fucking, reincarnations of the founding deities of the ninja world.
(he also reduced Rock Lee to a minor side character and gave all the plot points that should have been his to his teacher, even though it had been heavily implied that the jonin of the former generation had more or less reached the peak of their abilities and that it wasn't enough to combat the stronger enemies they face at the non-filler end of the first series and Shippuden fiaAND a third major theme in the original series was the concept of handing down ideals from the older to younger generations with the hope that they would succeed where the former had failed.
AlsoresurectionjutsuwentfrombeinganinterestingshowcaseinhowunethicalOrochimaruhadbecomeasaresultofthemilitaryindustrialcomplexfailingasittaughthimtoseizepowerattheexpenseofallelsetobeingahackneyedplotdevicetomakedeathmeaninglesssinceallthecharacterswhodiedwithunfinishedbusinessandsomanywordsunspokenjustcamebackandwereabletosayallthosewordsandfinishthatbusinessitSSUCHSLOPPYWRITING. but that's a whole other can of worms.)
And yeah, most of those changes happened after 2005. Like, gee, I wonder what could have influenced the introduction of a "blood and genetics are super important, actually" theme during this time.
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