Amegakure no sato have always been there (also remembers those guys with the masks and oil bunshins in the chuunin exams). Only reason why we have never got it in NA as a village (though I have role played some bad guys from there as NPCs), is because all jutsus we came up with for them were too similar to kirigakures. Same goes for the hidden waterfall village.
Oh, and it sucked that Naruto got so badly owned by a mere bunshin, though it was okay that he was actually thinking. I also liked that it was the first time we saw Itachi smile (I'm still sure he is a good guy undercover!).
As for Sasuke vs. Itachi, I would say that Sasuke is defeated, since he is still wounded by the fight with Deidara, and he had to use his secret card (Manda) to survive. But the next chapters can be really interesting!