When I first saw the female character running away at the end of the episode, I let out a big "god damnit" cause I figured it was the start of a new filler arc heh.

Seems with this filler arc they just copied the basic happenings of the older attack on Konoha story. This is probably why this has been one of the best filler stories we've seen cause they just took everything that was good from previous stories. So many similarities it's a joke and they are doing it to Bleach aswell right now.