What even Meihui did not know was that, while he had assumed Nagato and Konan would leave the Akatsuki after he let them go, they had instead gone straight to confront Obito.
Most of Nagato's puppets had been destroyed in his battle with Meihui and the others. He no longer wanted to use Yahiko's corpse, either, so he had found some corpses somewhere and turned them into new puppets.
But since they were newly made, neither their strength nor his proficiency in controlling them matched the originals.
As for Konan, things were just as Meihui had guessed. Since Nagato had not died, she had not had time to prepare a huge stockpile of Explosive Tags, though their numbers were still terrifying.
Perhaps even Konan had not expected Nagato to fight Obito outright.
Relying on his intangibility, Obito tried to close in on Nagato's real body and take out the enemy commander directly, but Konan stepped in and stopped his attack.
The operation to capture the Nine-Tails had left Nagato far weaker than before. Even if Meihui did not kill him, he did not have long to live.
"Maybe I've done a lot of things wrong, but let me do one thing right now."
The look in Nagato's eyes changed as he stared at Obito. He was prepared to face death. Konan understood his intentions, too. She knew that once he made up his mind, he would never change it, so all she could do was quietly support him.
"Konan, hold him off with Explosive Tags. I'm going to use that technique."
Tears filled Konan's eyes when she heard this. She knew Nagato might die as soon as he finished using this ninjutsu, but she still chose to support him.
"Dance of the Shikigami."
Obito had not even noticed that the