we really need to get the akatsuki thing sorted out.. mainly, we need to know the connection of Payne and Madare (tobi\obito\mizukage, whatever name you like), we also need to see whether Zetsu is working for Payne or for Madare, but that's not as important...

[rant about akatsuki]
all the dead ones (plus kisama, minus Itachi) were grunts, they didn't know what they were working for, and merely followed orders (I could complain that we should have seen a backstory for why such fugitive ninjas were working for someone else, but that's beating a dead horse). Itachi probably had suspicions about Madare's plans, but he didn't know all of them, and I don't think he knew much about Payne's plans (he was paired with Kisame, after all).

Orochimaru is a wild card, I find it hard to believe that he knew about Itachi, but not about Madare, though, it's possible that madare had Itachi expel Orochimaru in order to keep their dirty secret safe, and If Payne did beat Salamander, I think that Orochimaru knew about it...
Kabuto also might hold some answers, he was supposedly a spy for Sasori (while being a spy for orochimaru inside the village), but that would imply a prior connection with Sasori (the rest of his spies were sand ninjas), and that might mean he was 'given' to Sasori by another member. So basically, Kabutoro might know something.

key question is what's going on between Madare and Payne.
Payne is recognized as the leader by the grunts, but he seems to be getting orders by Madare, which doesn't fit with his personality. so it's either that he believes in the filthy Uchiha's goals, or that he tries to manipulate Madare into doing something for him (which will of course not work, since madare is a betraying uchiha).

on to the bijuus....
- Madare said he'll give Sasuke a bijuu.
- until now, all the bijuus who have been extracted were taken into the stone statue.

at first, we had nine akatsuki, and nine bijuus, so we thought the akatsuki are just power hungry and want to take a bijuu and double their strength..., we still have nine akatsuki, but now, the plan seems to be failing a bit (the newcomer gets the 2nd strongest demon? what kind of loot dividing is this?), also, the rest of the hawk team don't look much like akatsuki material (not that Sasuke is, but still).
more than that, if they don't care who gets which beast, it means that the past few years were a waste of time for everybody involved, if payne\madare just wanted to power themselves up with a bijuu, then gathering them all would be pretty tiresome opposed to simply grabbing the beast you want and taking it by force. why bother all the buildup?

[/rants about crap, for now]

we need to see more of the akatsuki, let naruto train off-screen for a while, and show us some evil cult plotting