I really don't care too much about the others (except Rock Lee), except that it adds diversity to the series. Ever since Jiraiya and Naruto took off to look for Tsunade, the series has felt very claustrophobic. Especially after having spent almost 60 episodes with ALL these other characters around. The world got bigger and then sort of imploded on itself again. I think that's why I've becom less enthused about the show recently. They even removed the whole team thing, which makes it seem even smaller. Let's see what Neji's done with his life since the exam. Let's see what Hinata's done. Let's see how everyone else is doing and what they're doing after the attack on Konoha, even if it's all condensed into one filler episode, it'll lift the constrained feeling that the series has picked up here these last almost 10 episodes. Granted, the series is still great, and my favorite out of all the newer (currently airing new episodes in Japan) anime, but it's just not as exciting as it was for almost 2/3 of the series now that they're only focusing on so few characters.