Quote Originally Posted by DarthEnder View Post
I think he's just not admitting anything out of a sense of pride. He's a member of Akatsuki in all but name. He keeps accepting Madara's help even though he claims he doesn't want it. He just doesn't want to admit he's basically another one of Madara's stooges at the moment. And Madara is totally fine letting him have his semantic distinctions.
Even if it is out of pride, or rather out of prideful necessity since he can't beat all of Konoha by himself, it doesn't really mean he would consistently act like Madara's underling, or a member of Akatsuki, especially since Akatsuki is all but destroyed already. So far only fighting Eight tails has been completely unrelated to his mission against Konoha. From a practical point of view it certainly won't hurt his cause if he accepts help in defeating Konoha. But it doesn't mean he will anymore willingly drop it to perform random missions for Madara.

Quote Originally Posted by DarthEnder View Post
I just didn't see any scene between Naruto and Yamato, or any scene with Sasuke facing off against Kakashi, or Sakura revealing her master plan.
Then don't stop watching the episode before the end. Kakashi facing Sasuke would be only one possibility at the moment, you know, a prediction of very uncertain odds, depending on the plot. What comes to Sakura... If you are expecting her to have anything worth revealing in the first place, I don't know what you could be possibly thinking of her character.