Well I'm up to date on the Naruto manga now, pretty much burned through them on the train (delays...). Some of the chapters were great but it got to a point where Kishi clearly started to drag chapters out.
I mean it was a similar pattern. Flashback, Talk No Jutsu, everyone's pumped and ready to fight at the end of the chapter. Start of the next chapter there's little to no action and the same process begins again.