Most were pretty entertaining other than ones like 214 and 220. Whoever wrote that enjoys mentioning pedophilia.

I'm up to chapter 285 in the manga. I'm curious to know, does Shino fight at all after the 2.5 year period? I'm curious as to what new skills he has, since he is one of my favorite characters.

Shino doesn't fight at all. You'll end up seeing him after the Sasuke/Failure Arc. He's older and looks like a drug dealer which is awesome ;p. No secret moves from him have been unleashed as the current arc is Akatsuki

I do agree that Naruto+Hinata make a better pair than Naruto+Sakura. In fact, here's a small breakdown of what I had predicted:
Naruto + Hinata
Sasuke + Sakura
Ino + Choji
As weird as it sounds, I can sort of see that last one since I vaguely remember Ino complimenting him when he was thin (after the failed Sasuke Retrieval mission). It seems like one of those times when two people that don't seem to get along very well or match up in the begining of the series seem to make an outstanding change somewhere toward the end.

The American dub didn't do so bad, actually. They got most of the translations done well. The voices seem to be generally decent, except I don't like Gai's voice much and Naruto's "Believe it!" is really annoying, along with the voice itself not being too good. But again on the positive note, they didn't edit out much. I know they edited out Naruto and Sasuke's kiss, but they later showed it in a flashback. They also left in blood and stuff, so they didn't screw it up much. Basically, I can understand how people can "stand" to watch it. It has done pretty well for a dub. As for the voices, they seem like a decent Japanese equivilant (meaning we hear the voices as to how the Japanese hears the voies in the Japanese version... understand?)
Lastly, you want a horrifyingly bad dub? Look at One Piece. Horrible voices. Heavy editing. Skipping of WHOLE ARCS and writing around it.
An example of the editing: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...t_OnePiece.jpg A gun was supposed to be there, but I don't know what the hell they replaced that with.
I only feel bad for the US for when it hits the dubbed episodes. The show itself might be cancelled in the US before it reaches any of the good stuff. Heck, even the Japanese version of the Anime is overdoing it.

MORE FILLER! JESUS CHRIST! Hidan and Kakuzu saved the chapter. I can't describe how stupid this chapter is. Kishi can't drag this on forever.

Naruto cut the waterfall and he is hungry. Asuma and co enter the temple, meet some leftover monks and they figured that Akatsuki + Chiriku's body would be at a bounty station, so they are going to try one of them. Two noobs were at the ramen bar because the girl was on a trip and they wasted _4_ pages on them fucking up Naruto's order (in a totally cliché fashion). Hidan and Kakuzu delivered the body behind a men restroom (the bounty station). It was some sort of morgue and Hidan said it stunk, so he would wait outside while Kakuzu counted the money. The chapter ends with Kakashi telling Naruto that he has to show him something interesting.

"Naruto I have something to show you." Oh wow, I really am wondering what it is. >.> I am guessing Naruto runs away from Kakashi, before he has a chance to show him.

Agree with Tae, but I think it's more likely they'll get interrupted by news of Shikamaru/Asuma getting owned. Can Kishi drop any more hints on Asumas death. As if we cared what his bounty was.

Another explanation chapter. This one was about chakra form manipulation. Lots of text everywhere. Kakashi can also do the Rasengan, surprisingly. Akatsuki talk was shortened to ONE page and Hidan's not even in it, but it's funny that Kakuzu blatantly told the baldy that he would go to Konoha to capture the Jinchuuriki. Perhaps the baldy already was familiar with Akatsuki. At the end of the chapter were two boring pages with Asuma talking to the rest. Nothing interesting was revealed; he stopped smoking temporarily and told the rest that he was buddies with Chiriku.

Team Asuma and Akatsuki MUST meet in the next chapter, because I fear that it might take a long while before Naruto further develops a jutsu by himself like Kakashi told him.

Didn't expect a member of Akasuki to be defeated that fast. Man, this rasengan thing is milking all the way.

Obviously he's not defeated, do you think Kishimoto would let that crap happen. They hinted at it in almost all his chapters how he could die or some crap, and then just come back.

That is true... In the previous chapters, we've seen him stab himself with a lance or something in order to purge himself of his sins or what not... Even then his Akatsuki partner reveals his decision in pairing with him...

He cannot die (yadi yada about pseudo-immortality whateva).

Wind Rasengan will save the world!!

Hidan turns into Skullomania/Witch Doctor and probably prepares to go VooDoo style on Asuma. Also, lol at Kakuzu walking outside to see 4 Konoha nin, Hidan with large kunai in him and going "........".

wind element rasengan.. that shit isn't a new jutsu.
shooting a tornado out of his butt, now that's a new jutsu.
... anyway, there better be good results of this "kaze-rasengan". We all already saw a chidori vs rasengan. A repeat of that would be extremely boring.