Maybe it was because he needs to do that to control a huge amount of sand. Or then it's just completely random.

Perhaps it's just me, but the animation is really subpar. Recently I've been watching Haruhi, Kino, NHK and really amazing storyline animes that all were more fluid. I really miss that about Naruto right now, it's like I'm viewing life at 20 fps. :/ I know it's acon and ninjas and special styles and shit, but that's no excuse when things actually wind up looking poor.

Yeah, when I said the animation could have been better, I meant that it wasn't very fluid. And not only that but some of the shots were completely pointless and were only there to slow it down as much as possible. Like when Deidara was about to use the explosives, we saw Deidara flying towards Gaara for like 20 seconds.

To be fair, he didn't show anything else in manga either so it was pretty obvious he wouldn't show anything in anime. I think canon and filler combined is fine but they are taking it to extremes. There was a fair amount of filler during part 1 as well (before the filler fest) but not nearly this much. They should go with 1½-2 chapters per episode instead of one. In fact, episode 4 covered less than one chapter and it's ridiculous because the manga is 100 chapters ahead and there is absolutely no need to do that.

And Naruto still does Rasengan with a clone, it has nothing to do with filler. It's simply his style to use Rasengan. I might be wrong but I think he uses it without a clone once during part 2 but that part wasn't very clear in manga so I'm not too sure. Anyway, he usually uses a clone for Rasengan and it has nothing to do with him being weak whatsoever. Like Jeff said, it's a jutsu only a few people have been able to master. Besides, going by my logic, Naruto could create it without a clone using two hands. The reason why Naruto used a clone in the first place is because he couldn't land a hit on Kabuto.

I rather have a bit faster pace with some fillers here and there..... that's how it should be done.

It is. No episode this week.

This week - no episode
Next week - episode
Next next week - no episode
Next next next week - 1 hour special

By chance I visited this naruto site to see whether the "grown-up"-part has started yet. And it has gone 4 episodes already!! 
I used to watch this ages ago, but stopped after few fillers. I did read some manga but quit that too. Oh and about rasengan, I think it's either some filler crap or Naruto just holding up and not showing all his potential. I think he actually does one handed super rasengan (don't remember the exact name) in a fight against Orochimaru later on..

Manga spoilers:

He doesn't do Rasengan against Orochimaru. It's just highly compressed chakra. He uses a new version of Rasengan in the Itachi fight but he uses it with a clone. And he doesn't simply use clone to form it, he hits the thing with a clone, using two hands. And he uses a clone for normal Rasengan in part 2. Again, he probably could do it without a clone (especially if he uses both of his hands) but it's his style. It also has something to do with a jutsu he invents later on in part 2.

I don't remember seeing Naruto doing rasengan at all during part 2, except for oodama rasengan, so I think him using a clone to use it was filler.