Nagato now faced two choices.
First, he could immediately destroy his own eyes so Uchiha Madara could never reclaim the Rinnegan. But without their power, Nagato's fighting strength would drop to that of a Jonin.
One Jonin plus Konan against Uchiha Madara and Orochimaru was no different from waiting to die. An enraged Madara might very well destroy them both, along with the whole of Amegakure.
Second, he could use the Rinnegan to fight Madara to the death and gamble on that sliver of hope.
Of the two, the second was clearly the smarter choice. Destroying his eyes would mean handing the initiative to the enemy.
It was an open trap. Nagato had no choice.
Just as he resolved to resist to the death, before he could make his move, Nagato saw Madara suddenly clap his hands together. A sea of chakra surged out of him.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
With a fierce shout, Madara unleashed the large-scale battlefield-clearing ninjutsu Hashirama had so often used in the past.
After transplanting a piece of Hashirama's flesh into himself, Madara had awakened the Rinnegan and acquired the Kekkei Genkai of Wood Release.
Madara already possessed enormous chakra reserves, shared a common bloodline origin with the Senju, and was the reincarnation of Indra chakra. He was therefore exceptionally compatible with that piece of flesh, which contained the power of Wood Release and the sage body.
As a result, his Wood Release was the closest to the original in both scale and power.
He had not used it during his earlier fight with Uchiha Mai only because his old, frail body lacked the chakra to sustain its consumption.
Now that his body had recovered somewhat and his chakra reserves had increased severalfold, using Deep Forest Emergence was no longer a problem.
At the