I wonder if our current dissatisfaction of this arc is primarily because we've read ahead in the manga and know what is going on, and we also know how much the pacing is killing us? When i first watched Naruto, i watched it as an anime, with zero manga experience, and i really enjoyed it. It is rather unfortunate I was unable to test this theory since I gave up after that Team Gai vs Clone episode (having read up to the rescue gaara arc when shipuuden began) and read ahead. But a lot of ppl i know as non-manga readers have been telling me they're enjoying Shipuuden so far.