my main reason for watching the anime at the moment is the hokage battle, in terms of action and storyline the manga is greater at the moment

mainly the chuunin exam got rid of the sense of epicness in the series (hate those consequetive battles that mean nothing more then win because its a test)

the next few eps will revitilize the anime (even if they're a tad slow but i like this part of the arc so it wont really phrase me if it goes for awhile, as long as Gaara vs Naruto isnt focused on more then 3rd vs Orochimaru)