yeah, they also gimped stuff up like having lee go through the surgery before everyone left to retrieve sasuke. It made it far less believable that he rehabilitated than if they just didnt say anything at all about the surgery until his return debut against kimimaro.

also the part where shika and his dad come across naruto and tsunade at the hokage building was the part where shikamaru was supposed to be announced chuunin, and for some reason they decided to take jiraiya out of that part too, because when naruto says to shikamaru "ive got a new jutsu i need to show you later," Jiraiya hits him on the head and tells him not to go showing off moves.