This anime has everything.
Plot:
The story is absolutely beautiful. You have epic fights combined with deep emotions and unpredictable story changes that will blow your mind. The only critique I could find about the story is that in the anime some parts are described in very simple pictures, f.e. after a character pulled a very cunning move within combat, in order to let the younger audience understand what has happened. But then again I wouldn't want them to miss out on this anime just because they feel it is too complex, so I guess one can overlook this. (It doesn't happen too often to be really bothering anyways.)
Everything that happens also fits really well into the universe of Naruto, meaning that within this world's reality everything that happens makes sense.
It is also amazing to see the different characters evolve and grow both in maturity as well as in strength. I have even caught myself cheering like a total nerd when a character has learned a new move or went over his own boundaries. However, I feel that the side characters are being neglected in terms of development, since they really can't compete with the main character's strength at all after a certain point.
Character design:
Marvellous. There are dozens of different characters and everyone is unique. Even the side characters have distinguishable features, and the main characters show a character depth that many Hollywood movies could learn from nowadays.
Let's take the villain Orochimaru for example. He is easily the most well-designed antagonist I have seen in any motion picture, even in all the books I read I can't find a character like him. Pure evil. Cunning, bizarre and frightening. On top of his unpredictable actions and twisted motives, the music appearing together with him just rounds up the presentation of this character, and to me, makes it unforgettable.
Music:
It's pretty simple: The music in Naruto is incredible. When I showed some of the tracks to a friend who doesn't watch it, even she was amazed. If you don't believe me go to youtube and check some of them out, but be careful, it might lead to you watching the whole series if you haven't already!
Animation:
They did an amazing job animating Naruto. It's really beautiful to see how everything comes to life after reading the manga in black and white, and the animation of Naruto can compete with most recent animated movies. Many scenes are animated so well that you just want to watch them over and over again, especially some of the fights where the graphics and "camera angles" really come to shine.
All together, I would give it a 10/10 currently, as the overall experience with this show has simply blown me away and I can't really find anything really bad to say about it.