Which is kind of my point. The manga just sort of skips to the next event, without mentioning the time between event A and B. Only a few times, such as the tsunade arc, chunin exam arc, timeskip, etc, does it mention how many days/months have passed between events.
That he just turned 17 on the last day of the war is also the first statement on his age in a long time. Five years or so have passed from the start of the series till now, which is actually more then I expected. I figured he was closer to 16 now, then 17.
The downside is well, it means he didn't advance all that much as a ninja in a surprising amount of time, right up until the last few months it seems, and especially the last few weeks. It seems like hes long, LONG overdue for a promotion by now as well.
Well the bell exercise rematch between sakura/naruto and kakashi in the start of part 2 was clearly supposed to demonstrate that sakura and naruto had advanced a ton.
The problem is that during the sasuke retrieval arc, Neji, Kiba, Rock Lee, Shikamaru, and Choji all fight individuals that were demonstrated to be at least jonin-level in strength, and naruto and sasuke have their even crazier and more over-the-top valley of the end fight. We've clearly have an inkling that these genin (or in Shikamaru's case, Chuunin on his first mission) are much, MUCH stronger than their ranks and ages indicate, but the only fights between Jonin (or better) we've seen so far have been Kakashi vs Zabuza and Orochimaru vs Hiruzen, and these four are elite ninja that are famed throughout the ninja world. We've been led to believe that there's a huge power gap between ninja of different ranks, but it's really ended up being more of a gap in leadership ability/maturity, in hindsight from 2014.
So pre-timeskip, we have the konoha 12 at jonin level skill, but haven't really been told things like a single elite jonin like Minato could easily take out 1000 jonin from the stone. We have no idea of the ridiculous amount of power gaps between ninja, no perspective on how unusual the konoha 12 are, and no understanding of how weak a jonin can be.
So with such feats accomplished, after 2 years, it's time to see an all out battle between naruto, sakura, and kakashi, right?
No. It seems like Naruto and sakura are the same, it's just that they're not quite as easily flustered mentally or intimidated by Kakashi's presense, and their strength is demonstrated not by their actions, but by Kakashi having a monologue about how much easier it used to be for him.
It feels like Kakashi and the rest of the jonin got weaker, not that Naruto, Sakura, and everyone else got stronger.
Apparently everyone in the ninja world is a one-trick/jutsu pony save for like Hiruzen, Kakashi, and Orochimaru
