My .02-

I think the debate over the length/challange of the gara/deidra fight is pointless- just like the gara smiling thing. If he's smiling, we'll find out. But i seriously doubt he is. Its a crack in his armor- go look at the chaptersfrom the chunin exam fight with lee or the fight with naruto at the end of the arc. The artist makes no attempt at being consistant in how he draws the cracks in the armor- aside from being a real pain to try to keep track of and draw, it has no bearing on the story- if the cracks were important, we would know because they would be highlighted or shown in detail.

The fight was good- it ran about how I expected it to go. I think gara actually did alot better than I expcected- his main weekness was that he was acting like a kage, not as the living weapon he was earlier in the series. At first everyone was saying "theres no way gara can/should win" to "i cant believe he lost that quick!". They have gone out of their way several times to specificaly emphasive the fact that the atsuki members are incredably strong- sanin strong, kage strong, or better. Why? no one knows, but they are the strongest guys introduced so far, unless you think jirai, kakashi, oro, itachi, and others are somewhow lying about their strength.

On the scorpion guy, aside from the name, I don't think he's very scorpion like. The "tail" he has is either a puppet like sidne said above, or my take on it is that it is a multi-sectional sword that can be used like a whip or tentacle- see the blades from tenjo tenge or bleach and you'll see what I mean (the mangas, not the animes).

Anyway, I really looking forward to the nest story arc- I'm sure we'll get to see the new team kakashi realy cut loose. I have a suspicion that kakashi has been holding back on his abilities when he was training them, and now that they are "equals" on the team, we'll see much more of what he can really do. As long as atsuki doesnt get their hands on the next "come come" chapters. .