The episode was ok. There wasn't that many new ideas, and some of things did not make complete sense, but it was ok. I agree that sending a couple of 1st year Genins on B-Rank missions without Kakashi doesn't make sense, but I'll that's the way they want it.

Oh yeah, with all the talk about Lee, what's going on with him? Tsunade finally raises her percentage to cure him at 58%, and then suddenly they stop? Is she like, "let's let Lee suffer for bit in agony and pain even though I can probably cure him right now, and Gai also agreed that Lee should do the surgery"? It is kind of weird that Naruto and co. are doing all these missions and extending Lee's pain.