heh... it was a joke, considering how we haven't seen him for something like 20 or 30 episodes now.
There were a lot of cooler things they could have done with various characters. Hinata got a little extra exposure in the beginning, but that was about it. Some of the longer side stories I didn't mind so much, but a lot of it has been lame stuff like the Curry of Life. It just feels like the main writers pretty much left the guys on the TV show on their own.