The Nine-Tails Rebellion in Konoha had already become a thing of the past.
Night fell, and Konan stared absently at the rain beyond the tower.
Nagato was still awake. Walking among the tower's carvings, he asked, "Is something troubling you, Konan?"
"Yes." Konan had grown used to speaking plainly before Nagato instead of beating around the bush. Through repeatedly reading Icha Icha Paradise, she had drawn an insight from the heroine's experiences...
Many times, the more one acted on the premise of considering others and not causing them trouble, the more likely their presumptuous words and actions, which failed to convey their true meaning, would become the source of trouble instead.
In dramatic conflict, such things were necessary.
Konan greatly enjoyed the push and pull between the male and female leads in the book, but she herself did not want to become such a troublesome woman.
So... she had secretly made a resolution. If Nagato asked, she would answer. If he had not noticed something, that was one thing, but if he had noticed it, she would speak the truth.
She knew that Nagato and Obito were bound to have a final reckoning in a great battle, just as she sensed that the thin barrier between herself and Nagato was about to be pierced.
"Yes. I'm worried about Uchiha Obito. If, as you and Orochimaru predicted, he truly obtains power comparable to the First Hokage's, we will be at an overwhelming disadvantage..."
"There are still two months until the agreed meeting date. But now that we've torn off all pretenses, that one-year agreement is probably meaningless."
"Whenever I think that he could come attacking at any moment, I can neither eat nor rest, though I don't sleep to begin with."
"I want to ease Nagato's burden, but my Night Netherworld