I'm guessing that Kishimoto was so pissed at the way the fillers were going he just one day went "Jesus! It really isn't that hard, asshats!" and whipped up a script for a filler plot arc in around twenty second, and that is what they're going with now.
About damn time. XD i actually enjoyed this ep somewhat, the quality has improved to say the least., maybe ill start watching Naruto again. lol.