i'm wondering if his break is more of a breather than anything else as some have suggested..

lookig back on the last month of manga.. there's been a lot of good stuff, but also A LOT of rehashing/retelling of events.. kishimoto's probably been approaching empty for awhile now (especially with the redundancy of the sound-nin four fights.. never want to see the formula of: fight -> curse level 1 -> fight curse level 2 -> fight -> victory through deus ex machina again)

though he will be very smart to use the break as a timejump or other plot device.. it might be a smart way out of the huge hype about the sasuke/naruto fight to not show it at all and just show it in bits and pieces through flashback over time... hmmmm.