Well, it's not "totally" filler. It's technically part of the storyline but they are drawing it out a tad bit. Only a tad bit though. I think it's OK for them to draw it out a little though.
I'm looking at the gap between the anime story and the manga story and it's gotten quite large. Sooo many things have happened

What that means is that if they keep this part of the storyline slow, they won't have to slow down the storyline once the REAL action begins
