Half the Shinobi Alliance was killed, but not a single named character on their side died? Man, Masashi Kishimoto really can't bring himself to kill any of his precious children, can he? *Sigh*
Hmm, with Shikamaru's comments, it seems like Gedo Mezo might actually be the Ten-Tailed Beast. That would certainly make sense.
If he did I'd imagine many of his readers would be upset. Granted, it's not realistic, but when you're writing about these kind of themes for kids, they can take it badly when a character they like is killed
Watsuki ran into this problem during the jinchu arc too,
when he supposedly killed Kaoru, a lot of readers were upset with him, and after revealing she was alive, he apologized profusely for that.
Besides, killing a named character doesn't necessarily make a better story. Except for Obi-Wan, none of the named protagonists died. Nor did anyone in Avatar the Last Airbender. Going by Lord of the Rings movies, only one member of the fellowship was killed, and early at that.
Right now, the thrill is more coming from how the shinobi alliance and Naruto will stop Madara as opposed to who will die.
Granted, this has come a bit of a surprise as to how quickly Madara is advancing, but considering Naruto is on the move, not surprising. At least Kishimoto is not dragging the war on as it is; Bleach took a dive for me when Kubo decided "I have to make every single shinigami and arrancar fight to the death!" What should have taken 6 months to write was extended by two years.