Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-25319479-20170531105724/@comment-2112031-20170606210855

Starscream1998 wrote: What ticks me off is this filler could easily work post-movie timeline. If they're going to bore me with this half-assed excuse for an 'original story' they could have at least have it set after the movie thus making it seem like new material. The problem with it being set before the film means that we know how it'll end because we know the future events (unless they dramatically diverge from the movie's events which we all know they don't have the scruples to do) and thus it's not interesting. Even the 'filler' characters who likely won't last long in terms of plot involvement are relatively bland with only a few unique aesthetic points for their designs. To be fair, the main reason the anime is set during this time period is in order to avoid catching up to the manga too soon.

I personally would have liked for them to have adapted all of the Naruto Hiden novels, instead of only adapting Shikamaru Hiden, Konoha Hiden and Sasuke Shinden. It would have allowed them to buy more time for the manga that way as well.

I suppose it's still possible for them to do that in a later arc. For example, Sarada could ask Sakura about what she kind of things she did shortly after the war, thus triggering a flashback to the events of Sakura Hiden.