Chapter 48: What Style of Coffin Do You Like?
Obito clearly didn’t want Sasuke to die here, but the reason Sasuke was in this state wasn’t due to severe injuries—it was severe overexertion of his ocular power and life force.
Sasuke lay on the ground, letting out heavy, ragged breaths. Every cell in his body was in excruciating pain, as if his body could tear itself apart at any moment, with something threatening to burst forth from within.
What was about to break out wasn’t anything else—it was the purified Hashirama cells.
“You don’t seem to understand what’s happening.”
Su Xiao spoke. Obito indeed had Hashirama cells in his body, but he didn’t fully grasp their nature.
Under normal circumstances, if Sasuke had retreated within two hours, the Hashirama cells in his body would have rapidly decayed and eventually been expelled through his metabolism.
Although this would still have severely drained Sasuke’s ocular power, it would have been no worse than overusing his Sharingan, leading to decreased vision, with blindness being the worst-case scenario.
The purified Hashirama cells weren’t squeezing out Sasuke’s potential—they were accelerating his energy recovery, greatly enhancing the regeneration speed of his chakra and ocular power. That was how Sasuke managed to maintain Susanoo for two hours. It wasn’t exploitation; it was boosting recovery.
The current situation was that Sasuke, whether because he got carried away in battle or lost track of time, had been fighting with Susanoo for two and a half hours.
Two hours was a critical threshold. If Sasuke stopped outputting energy within that timeframe, the energy in his body would quickly saturate, the purified Hashirama cells would cease their recovery function, and after maintaining this process for 2 to 5 minutes, the cells would rapidly decay.
What would happen if Sasuke didn’t stop his energy output? The answer was that the Hashirama cells wouldn’t stop recovering energy—meaning they wouldn’t decay at the two-hour mark.
This might seem harmless, allowing Sasuke to fight longer with the cells, but that wasn’t the case. Once past the two-hour point, those purified Hashirama cells would transition from the “sprouting stage” to the “maturation stage.”
What Danzo and others had transplanted into their bodies were Hashirama cells in the maturation stage. This stage was highly unstable. If the host was too weak, these cells would begin to devour the host, eventually leading to tree-like transformation.
Sasuke’s current situation was far more severe than Danzo’s. The Hashirama cells in his body were almost a completely different substance from those in Danzo.
Danzo had low-activity Hashirama cells—extracted after Hashirama Senju’s death. What Su Xiao possessed were original Hashirama cells, taken from Hashirama while he was still alive. Their activity and danger levels were incomparable.
There was a famous ninja in Konoha named Yamato. As a child, he was an experiment of Orochimaru’s, implanted with Hashirama cells. As a result, he could use “Wood Release” after becoming a ninja.
To be precise, the jutsu Yamato used couldn’t truly be called Wood Release. It was more like taking the dregs and discarding the essence—better termed “Lumber Release.” Yamato could only create dead, withered wood with his chakra.
The reason for this was the Hashirama cells in his body—cells from a dead Hashirama, lifeless and inert. How could they produce the vibrant, living Wood Release?
Now, Sasuke was enduring the erosion of original Hashirama cells. The erosion level was around 20% to 30%. Once it exceeded 60%, Sasuke would undergo tree-like transformation, turning into a “vegetable”—no, more accurately, a genuine plant-person.
Su Xiao briefly explained Sasuke’s condition to Obito. Due to Su Xiao’s habit of using some technical terms, Obito, Karin, and the others were a bit confused.
“So, you’re saying Sasuke is about 20% eroded by Hashirama cells? If it goes over 60%, he’ll turn into a tree?”
Obito grasped the general idea.
“No. His cells are already over 30% eroded.”
Su Xiao pointed to Sasuke’s cheek. Sasuke’s skin was noticeably paler than before.
“I… can’t… die yet.”
Despite enduring unimaginable pain, Sasuke had roughly understood Su Xiao’s meaning.
“This isn’t about whether you can die or not. Tell me…”
Su Xiao crouched down. Sasuke struggled to lift his head.
“Tell you… what?”
“Tell me, what style of coffin do you like?”
Su Xiao’s words struck Sasuke like a heavy hammer to the crown of his head. Sasuke’s pupils began to contract.
“Take me… to find the others. I don’t believe… I’ll die here like this.”
Sasuke grabbed Obito’s pant leg.
“Don’t waste your effort. Bai Ye can’t save you, and the others have even less hope.”
Obito’s voice was calm, because he interpreted a different meaning from Su Xiao’s words.
“Dust Release. Interested?”
Obito’s remark was somewhat puzzling.
“Not interested.”
Su Xiao didn’t believe Obito possessed Dust Release, a secret technique unique to the Hidden Stone Village. As for the two of them going to steal it together—don’t be ridiculous. Were they supposed to kidnap old man Onoki?
Setting aside the old man’s flight ability, just his Dust Release was enough to make anyone wary. Its attack power was absurdly overpowered. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say Onoki was the strongest among the Five Kage.
However, stealing Dust Release from the Hidden Stone Village was completely unrealistic. Dust Release could be considered the highest-level secret technique of the village, even surpassing tailed beast sealing formulas.
For a technique of that level, even leveling the Hidden Stone Village might not guarantee obtaining it.
Moreover, the Hidden Stone Village was one of the five great ninja villages. Even if the entire Akatsuki organization pooled its current combat strength, breaching the village was possible, but leveling it was pure fantasy.
Most importantly, Su Xiao couldn’t master Dust Release at all. Not only did it require chakra to use, but the talent needed for Dust Release alone would eliminate 99.99% of ninjas in the ninja world.
“If you have something to say, just say it.”
Su Xiao sensed that Obito was hinting at something.
“Deidara was captured alive by the Third Tsuchikage.”
Although Obito’s voice was calm, he himself found this news hard to believe.
“Captured alive? Deidara?”
Su Xiao looked at Obito in surprise.
“White Zetsu witnessed it personally.”
“That guy got captured alive?”
Su Xiao had been on the same team as Deidara before. He knew very well how low the probability was of Deidara being taken alive.
“Apparently, the Tsuchikage’s guards used a special scroll technique to counter Deidara’s Explosion Release. It was a Lightning Release, which prevented Deidara from successfully self-destructing.”
Hearing this, Su Xiao nodded. Lightning Release did counter Explosion Release, but the fact that Deidara couldn’t even use his self-destruction suggested there was more to the story.
A syringe slid out from Su Xiao’s sleeve and pierced directly into Sasuke’s arm.
A yellow medicinal liquid was injected into Sasuke’s body. The previously agonized Sasuke went limp, no longer writhing in pain.
“Deidara is currently being held near the Hidden Stone Village. We’ll need to wait for White Zetsu’s information on the exact location. It should be found soon. We’re in urgent need of combat power, so it’s necessary to rescue Deidara.”
“Then let’s go rescue him.”
Regarding the rescue of Deidara, Su Xiao would go along. He had fought alongside Deidara multiple times, and they had a good personal relationship.
“But this matter doesn’t seem to concern him. If we delay any longer, the risk of tree-like transformation will keep increasing.”
Su Xiao looked at the Second Pillar lying on the ground. This was a good opportunity. Obito wanted the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and Su Xiao wanted to complete the hunt mission. The two weren’t exactly in perfect agreement, but as long as negotiations didn’t break down, it should work out.