Does the Akatsuki's plan remind anyone here of Metal Gear Solid, seriously when I have more time I'm going to go track down the old game script and post here to illistrate my point.
My guess is the reason why kishi hasn't produced more then 16-17 chapters a week is because he's been doing a marathon session of all the MGS games. My guess is he's probably stuck on the MGS 3 on the boss battle against the old guy and his parrot.