Not a bad arc overall. Sure, there was the usual filler stupidity. Like a force of ninjas being twarted by a ten foot wall when they can jump over 10 trees at once normally. Or having someone sacrifice themself to set off bombs when you have a guy that can make clones of himself standing right next to you.

But still, the plot was far from the worst one, it was good that it was somewhat tied into previous episodes. And having the usual filler character naruto's age that he makes friends with actually die for once was a refreshing change of pace.