It’s been interesting watching Naruto: Shippuden lately as it works the backstory for Obito as you kind of expected this time of the year to be another filler period rather than story material. That’s actually going to happen soon as February’s episodes are going to be all about an original arc called “Kakashi Shadow of the ANBU Black Ops’ piece. With the early information out there, the series director Hayato Date answered a fan question on Twitter about the arc and the director indicated that their plan is that after this arc is over, they’re going back to the source material and then hope to run with direct adaptations for the rest of the year.
With original creator Masashi Kishimoto indicating recently that he’s getting closer to the end, that could play well into tying all things together with only a bit of padding out. At the moment, the manga is about fifty-six chapters ahead of the anime, so it definitely gives them room to work with.
[Source: Crunchyroll]
i SERIOUSLY hate all the fillers in naruto….. it ruins the story, bores me to tears, and no it is no longer funny or interesting to give us unnecessary background or details on EVERY single character, even the side characters… having such a huge gap from the manga does not mean you have room to work with… seriously, you RUIN IT. i dont take naruto seriously any more…. i am SHOCKED when the episode is not a filler and i skip episodes ALL the time. This USED to be my favorite anime… EXTREMELY DISSAPOINTED….