Quote Originally Posted by Kraco
Still, their mission is to rescue Gaara, not actually defeat all of Akatsuki, so in that sense it's not quite as bad. And also it doesn't look like Akatsuki would like to sacrifice its (core) members like was demonstrated by that meat puppet technique. So, they won't fight to their utmost potential.

And for all we know, Jiraiya could still suddenly show up at the critical moment to save the day!
yeah, I don't think they know against how much akatsuki they're against. It's not, let's kill al the akatsuki's we meet, it's save Gaara and get the hell out of there.

There're at least 3 of the akatsuki in the area, Deidara, Sasori and Zetsu who we've seen scouting. Itachi and Kisame don't have to be in the neighbourhood. At first I thought they were, but didn't expect the meat puppet no jutsu.