Kakashi kind of lost his mystique once it was seen he was just an uptight brat when younger. He's still pretty awesome when it comes to fighting, but he said it himself... he's lost presence now that the kids have grown. A little.

Wow, seems all of the Akatsuki members are going to be bishounen! Except Kisame.
Maybe the Akatsuki is in fact a bunch of guys who want to remain young forever and that shit and they need the monsters' chakra for that... I mean, at least Orochimaru seemed to be interested in that, and now Sasori has managed to look like a kid for how long? Oh, and he also killed his parents and other people who loved him. Another requirement I guess.

And yes, the black stuff is called "Iron Sand"... seems it's a special jutsu designed by the Third Kazekage on his own. Sasori is the only one who can create "Human Puppets", which are puppets which have the original Human's jutsus... his father and mother were the first he created but Chiyo has upgraded them a little (she created a chakra shield to defend herself from the Iron Sand, for instance). Sasori still doesn't seem very impressed and at the end attacks both Chiyo and Sakura - Chiyo will either defend Sakura or defend herself, so "one will have to die". Yeah right. Sakura wont die and Chiyo was just introduced so no...

I'd like to see Sakura doing something again. C'mon Kishimoto, you can say she doesn't have battle experience and whatever, but she would have at least sparred agains Tsunade and Shizune, right? And her body is techically smaller, so she could at least, I dunno, dodge?
Bah. She's still the master of injuring herself and talking a lot.