>>280718459
Sort of. He was set up as being incredibly skilled, prodigiously so, and he managed to pull one over on Kakashi and get away from a situation that would have killed most. He downplays his own skill constantly and mostly only does as much as is needed for his mission, but the rare couple times he loses himself to sadism he botches it. He could have killed Naruto easily if he took him seriously, but then he whipped out the Rasengan and that shit is a one-hit K.O. against 99% of people if it lands.
It feels like Kishimoto originally planned to make him more of a nemesis/rival with how much interaction he had with Naruto during the chunin exams and their later confrontation, but he faded into obscurity until it was time for him to become snakeman himself, at which point he became Sasuke's enemy for some reason instead. He did give Itachi and Sasuke a rough fight and he was a thorn in everyone's side by essentially making the 4th ninja war an actual war with a legion of undead, but he's hugely wasted potential all the same.
