Obito clearly does not want Sasuke to die here, however, the reason Sasuke is in this state is not due to severe injuries, but because he’s severely overdrawn his pupil power and life energy.

Sasuke lies on the ground, emitting heavy panting sounds from his mouth, now his entire body’s cells are in intense pain, as if his body might be torn apart at any moment, something might burst out at any time.

It’s not something else that might burst out, but those refined Hashirama cells.

"You don’t seem to understand what’s happening."

Su Xiao spoke, Obito indeed has Hashirama cells within him, but he hasn’t really understood them.

If under normal circumstances, Sasuke retreats within two hours, the Hashirama cells within his body would rapidly decay, and eventually be excreted through metabolism.

Though this would still largely deplete Sasuke’s pupil power, at most it would result in overuse of the Sharingan leading to decreased vision, in the worst case blindness.

The refined Hashirama cells aren’t squeezing Sasuke’s potential, but rather accelerating his recovery of energy, greatly enhancing the recovery speed of Chakra and pupil power, which is why Sasuke could activate Susanoo for two hours. This isn’t exhausting but improving recovery.

Now the situation is that Sasuke either got too involved in fighting, or forgot the time and fought with Susanoo for two and a half hours.

Two hours is a node, if within two hours Sasuke stops outputting energy externally, the energy within his body would quickly saturate, the refined Hashirama cells would then stop recovering Sasuke’s energy, maintain this process for 2-5 minutes, and the Hashirama cells would quickly decay within him.

If Sasuke doesn’t stop outputting energy, what will happen? The answer is the Hashirama cells won’t stop recovering energy, meaning they won’t decay at the two-hour point.

Seemingly fine, Sasuke can still use Hashirama cells to fight longer, but actually, once he passes the two-hour point, those refined Hashirama cells would progress from the ’germination stage’ to the ’mature stage’.

The Hashirama cells transplanted into Danzo and others’ bodies are mature-stage Hashirama cells, and this stage is very unstable. If the host is too weak, these Hashirama cells will start to devour the host and eventually treeify.

Sasuke’s situation isn’t as simple as Danzo’s; the Hashirama cells within him are entirely different from those in Danzo.

Danzo contains low-activity Hashirama cells, cells extracted from Hashirama after his death, while Su Xiao controls the original Hashirama cells, cells from Hashirama’s body before his death. The levels of activity and danger are not the same.

A well-known ninja from Konoha named Yamato was an experimental subject for Orochimaru in his childhood, implanted with Hashirama cells, thus enabling them to perform ’Wood Jutsu’ after becoming a ninja.

Strictly speaking, the ninjutsu used by Yamato cannot be called Wood Jutsu; it’s more like extracting the dregs and leaving the essence, calling it wood-escape would be more apt. Yamato can only use Chakra to create withered wood.

This situation is caused by the Hashirama cells in him, those are cells after Hashirama’s death, lifeless, how can they be used to produce vibrant Wood Jutsu.

Now, Sasuke is enduring the erosion of the original Hashirama cells, the level of erosion at around 20%-30%. Once it exceeds 60%, Sasuke would be treeified, turning into a ’vegetable’, no, to be precise, a genuine plant person.

Su Xiao briefly explained Sasuke’s current situation to Obito, since Su Xiao habitually uses some professional terms, leaving Obito and Shinfuru a bit confused.

"So you’re saying Sasuke is eroded by the Hashirama cells by about 20% now? He’ll treeify if it exceeds 60%?"

Obito grasped the general idea.

"No, the cells inside him are already eroded by more than 30%."

Su Xiao pointed to Sasuke’s cheeks, whose skin tone was visibly paler than before.

"I...can’t...die yet."

Though Sasuke is suffering unimaginable pain, he somewhat understood Su Xiao’s meaning.

"It’s not about whether you can die now, tell me..."

Su Xiao crouched down, and Sasuke struggled to lift his head.

"Tell you...what?"

"Tell me, what style of coffin do you like."

Su Xiao’s words struck Sasuke’s heavenly spirit cover like a heavy hammer, causing his pupils to constrict sharply.

"Take me...to find the others, I don’t believe...I’ll die like this."

Sasuke grabbed Obito’s pants leg.

"Stop wasting effort; Bai Ye can’t save you, and the others have even less hope."

Obito’s voice was calm because he understood a different meaning within Su Xiao’s words.

"Dust Release, interested?"

Obito’s words were a bit puzzling.

"Not interested."

Su Xiao didn’t believe Obito had Dust Release, a secret technique unique to Iwagakure Village, as for the two of them snatching it, don’t joke, are they going to kidnap Ohnoki, the old man?

Not to mention the old man’s flying ability, just the Dust Release alone is enough to deter anyone, the attack power of Dust Release is too abnormal, it’s not an exaggeration to say Ohnoki is the strongest among the Five Shadows.

However, trying to seize Dust Release from Iwagakure Village is utterly unrealistic; Dust Release can be considered the highest-level secret technique of Iwagakure, its level even surpassing Beasts Sealing Jutsu.

This level of secret technique can’t be acquired even by flattening Iwagakure Village.

Furthermore, Iwagakure is one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, even if the whole strength of Akatsuki Organization was gathered, breaking Iwagakure might be possible, but flattening it is wishful thinking.

Most importantly, Su Xiao simply couldn’t master Dust Release, not to mention Dust Release requires Chakra to use, the talent needed for Dust Release is enough to filter out 99.99% of ninjas in the Ninja World.

"Speak directly if you have something to say."

Su Xiao heard the hidden message within Obito’s words.

"Deidara was captured alive by the Third Tsuchikage."

Despite Obito’s calm voice, he himself found this news somewhat unbelievable.

"Captured alive? Deidara?"

Su Xiao looked at Obito in surprise.

"Bai Jue witnessed it personally."

"That guy could be captured alive?"

Su Xiao and Deidara used to be on the same team, he knows how unlikely it is for Deidara to be captured alive.

"It’s said the Tsuchikage’s guards used a type of secret technique scroll to counter Deidara’s Explosion Release, it was a Thunder Jutsu, preventing Deidara from successfully self-destructing."

Hearing Obito’s words, Su Xiao nodded, indeed Thunder Jutsu counters Explosion Release, but Deidara couldn’t even self-destruct successfully, there must be some hidden factors.

The interior of Su Xiao’s sleeve slid out a syringe, directly piercing it into Sasuke’s arm.

A kind of yellow medicinal liquid was injected into Sasuke, his body, which was previously in extreme pain, softened, no longer struggling in agony.

"Deidara is now imprisoned near Iwagakure Village, the exact location still needs Bai Jue’s info, should be found soon, we urgently need combat power now, hence it’s necessary to rescue Deidara."

"Then let’s go rescue."

Regarding the mission to rescue Deidara, Su Xiao would go along, he has fought in combination with Deidara several times, they have a good personal connection.

"But this matter seems unrelated to him, the risk of treeification will increase the longer it drags on."

Su Xiao glanced at Er Zhuzi lying on the ground, this was a good opportunity, Obito wants the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and Su Xiao wants to complete the hunting mission, the two are not entirely in agreement, but as long as things don’t fall apart, it should be fine.