24 *Sighs* Women...

"Hey there, sweetheart. You and I are gonna have a little chat, so get cozy," I warned the girl in a deadly serious voice as she tilted her head.

I waited for a moment and realized that she wasn't going to be speaking any time soon.

"You know... the longer you wait, the hotter that fire jutsu is going to make the metal wires and the more permanently damaged your spine will become."

It seems that my threat worked this time as she turned her head to me and sighed gruffly.

"This is a pretty nice trap for a kid..." She praised in a divergent manner as I narrowed my eyes in question.

For a kid? So she isn't as old as her body would tell me, huh?

Actually, speaking of bodies, now that I'm looking back at mine, it looks way less defined. Of course, it could just be my clothes.

"You're not a little girl, are you? Are you a part of the group that tried to kidnap me a few days ago? What about the girl back there? Is she also a pretender?" I asked forcefully as she hummed.

"Nice to meet you, Akuto. My name's Ema by the way," She greeted kindly yet dismissively.

And she knows my name. There's no question about it, they're the same group.

"That's not what I asked. Don't avoid the question."

"Oh, I would never think of doing such a thing!"

"Then answer, bitch."

"What course language for a little boy. Your mama should be disappointed."

I rolled my eyes and rested my hand on top of one of the metal wires as a pulse of yellow electricity sparked up.

"Keep up with the bullshit and I'll fry you."

"You're so sassy! That's adora--"

*CRACKLE*

A jolt of high-voltage electricity escaped from my hands and travelled through the metal wires, electrocuting the girl inside.

"Aaargh!" The girl restrained her scream of pain but the combined force of the sharp wires, the blindness, the injured spine, the burning fire, and the electricity, made her shout.

I didn't stop and suddenly increased the voltage of the electricity, causing the girl's muscles to lock up, preventing her from screaming even if she wanted to.

Fun fact, when someone wishes for nothing more than to scream in order to relieve themselves of stress or pain and they are unable to do so...

The pain and stress are usually magnified.

I weaved the hand signs for Flame Capture once more and wrapped the flaming rope right around her neck.

I didn't put much chakra into the jutsu so it wouldn't instantly kill her but would instead continuously burn her throat in an agonizing manner.

"Wrong answer, wrong answer. Tell me the truth!" I taunted, running a hand through my hair.

Huh? My hair feels shorter than before for some reason.

"Agh... Ack! Fu... ck... You-gh!" She coughed out through the burning rope around her neck as I dismissed the jutsu and walked right up to her.

As soon as I walked up to her restrained body, I placed my hand inside her mouth and slowly began pulling down.

"Huh? Whad awe you jouing?" She spoke through the fingers in her mouth before her eyes widened in shock.

The pressure of my pulling was gradually increasing as the pain in her jaw also increased drastically.

"Hey, shtap! Shtop!" She attempted to speak through the pain only to gasp as her mouth was fully forced open.

She assumed that to be the end but was horrified to realize that the strength of my pulling was only getting stronger.

"Waid--!"

*Crack*

"Rugh! Ahg! Id hursh...!" The girl moaned in agony, her dislocated jaw preventing her from speaking too fluently.

"You want me to keep pulling?" I inquired with a blank face as she shook her head in resistance.

"Then answer already, dude," I rolled my eyes, pulling my hand out and uppercutting her in the jaw, effectively resetting it back in place.

Well, kinda.

She sucked in a pained breath as she wiggled her jaw to try and feel anything and panted angrily.

"Why don't you go fu--" She attempted to speak only to be interrupted by a finger held up to her lips.

"Before you speak. Remember that I can always put it back..." I warned, "Now give your answer honestly."

"Go. Fuck. Yourself. Fucking cunt," She spat the blood in her mouth onto my face and chuckled.

I stared at her in disbelief at her stubbornness before sighing and walking up to her with curiosity evident in my eyes.

"Alright, I'll bite. Why are you so determined to stay loyal to your little group?" I inquired, tapping her rhythmically on the forehead.

"No reason. I'm just loyal is all..." She coughed out as I shrugged my shoulders and dismissed the Flame Capture Jutsu.

"Huh? Why'd... you stop?" She muttered in a confused voice between deep breaths as I tilted my head curiously.

"Now I'll ask again. I promise not to kill you if you tell me everything. Why exactly am I so darn important to you guys?"

"You are a man, the son of the Hokage, who is somehow quickly gaining strength. Of course, we want you..." She spoke as I stared unblinkingly at her.

For a few moments, I simply stared into her soul, analyzing every little thing that she just said, every expression, every chakra fluctuation.

And then I smiled as I came to a simple realization.

"No, that's not it. I'm important. You guys need something from me specifically. You guys want Akuto Uzumaki not just some random strong man. And you know that I suspected that you're a part of the same organization as those women from the forest, which also means... You normally wouldn't be so open about getting captured or so not-sneaky as you were."

"And unlike those other girls, you seem to have a lot of mental fortitude and resilience, not to mention how I just noticed that your chakra had never fluctuated even though you were apparently in a lot of pain."

"You aren't the hunter nor the main enemy... You didn't accidentally get trapped by me... You're keeping me distracted," I spoke in realization as the girl froze.

However, despite my apparent success, I still felt that something was just the slightest bit off the entire time.

Even though I figured it out, I was still confused as to what she was distracting me from.

We're both in the den and I have no attachment to anyone here except for Boruto who I could care less about, so what does she intend?

I'm beginning to feel uneasy about this. As though there were some other present danger I was unaware of.

I don't know what it was exactly. My senses weren't warning me of anything, I couldn't feel anything too wrong about the environment and everything was normal.

But it was simply just a physical feeling of uneasiness like this whole situation was faulty.

"Just what are you doing?" I asked the girl in front of me as she remained silent.

I stood still for a moment before focusing on my hearing and gasping as I realized that she had stopped breathing.

Running up to her body, I checked her vitals and was shocked to feel absolutely nothing.

"What the hell...?" I muttered to myself as I jumped back and began scanning the area with my eyes.

Suddenly, a small leaf flew right into my face.

I grabbed the leaf and then looked up only to see trees lined with this kind of leaf.

That leaf... It's familiar...

The identical leaves...

Covering my body...

A sudden death...

Unmoving chakra...

Uneasy feelings...

Shorter hair...

Less defined physique...

Dormant Spider-Sense...

The leaf.

The fucking leaves!

"Shit! It's a genjutsu!"

[Skill [Adaptation] has detected a threat...]

I quickly activated my Byakugan/Jougan and watched as dozens of cracks suddenly became visible to the eye.

Now with my eyes activated along with my mind finally finding the flaws in this illusion, I could see the cracks.

Even if I had activated the Byakugan I probably wouldn't have noticed anything if not for my mind finding the weaknesses.

And I couldn't use Dark Determination lest I waste away all my chakra and don't have enough to break open the jutsu.

The nature around me lacked any life chakra, the mini waterfall flowed downward only to not make a single noise when hitting the water, the chakra within the girl's body being nothing more than a small ember of the genjutsu user's, explaining its lack of movement.

She had only seen me before doing my stat upgrades so this entire genjutsu world within my mind was a direct recreation of that time.

And that means that she had snuck near the den and managed to almost perfectly replicate my den from memory.

Which was also why my body was less defined and had shorter hair. Cause she only saw my pre-upgrade appearance.

And that also means that this genjutsu caster has to be that girl from before!

From the very beginning of the fight, it was some kind of illusion.

[Skill [Adaptation] is adapting...]

No. This was less of a physical illusion and more of a mind jutsu. A mind jutsu that was activated by those leaves.

With every single realization and flaw I discovered of the illusion, more and more cracks appeared around the area.

I concentrated the chakra within my eyes, the Jougan shining brightly for a moment as I tried to break out of the illusion.

I can't break this genjutsu like a normal one by fluctuating my inner chakra. No, I had to force it into my brain.

And then break myself out.

The space all around me warped and flashed between different images, this entire reality crashing and glitching as I flooded my neurons and eyes with chakra.

[Skill: [Genjutsu Resistance] acquired]

Suddenly, the pain within my mind suddenly stopped and the entire genjutsu world collapsed.

I felt my Jougan eye sting for a moment and then my mind all of a sudden pass out.

...

...

...

*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

The muted sound of footsteps rang through my ears as the disturbing sound spurred my mind awake.

'Am I awake...?' I thought to myself as I put all my mental effort into keeping myself perfectly still and keeping my chakra unmoving.

Why do I feel so weak...? Was I drugged? Fucking hell, I can't feel a single thing... Not even pain.

Suddenly, my mind was assaulted by a barrage of warning rings and a piercing noise that seemed to be alerting me of something.

My Spider-Sense woke up and was alerting me of danger.

Took you long enough. It's great how you fucking fall asleep inside the middle of a genjutsu.

But I guess it did make sense. My Spider-Sense was a part of my brain and if my mind was under a genjutsu to think that there was no danger, my SS wouldn't activate.

Ugh, I don't know why it's ringing so goddamn much though...

I don't wanna check on the danger... I'm too tired and sleepy...

Hehehehehe... This is nice...

[Skill [Adaptation] has detected a threat...]

'Wait! No, no, no! It's the drugs... Uhh, fuck... Damnit,' I thought drowsily to myself as the numbness in my body slightly eased up.

Now that the numbness had slightly worn off, I could feel my back burning as I felt myself be dragged across the ground.

I slowly cracked open a single eyelid and, due to the drugs, was barely surprised by the sight of a long brown-haired girl.

I fucking knew it. It was the same bitch who I thought saw me back then.

Now that I finally opened an eye, I could see what exactly was happening to me.

It would seem that she was using my own arm to drag me across the ground to god-knows-where.

The arm appeared to be wrapped up in a tough chain. It looked like I wouldn't be getting my arm back any time soon.

'Alright. So I got out of the genjutsu... But how the hell do I get out of this?'

"So you're awake..." The girl commented without worry as my opened eye widened in surprise.

I suppose it would've been stupid to assume she wouldn't notice me escape the genjutsu.

"Oh well, you were going to awaken eventually anyways. That's why I drugged you..." She muttered distractedly as I finally managed to move my mouth.

"H... Ho-- Wha... What... Genjutsu how...?" I questioned drowsily as she hummed in consideration.

These drugs were real friggin strong duuude. I can barely formulate more than like 4 coherent thoughts at a time.

[Skill [Adaptation] is adapting...]

"Fuinjutsu covered leaves to start. Genjutsu to incapacitate you. Drugs to keep you down..." She stated dully.

What the fuck? Genjutsu initiated via sealing jutsu, I had no clue that was even possible at all.

'I have to get out of here. I gotta push through the drugs!' I thought to myself as I attempted to pull my arm out of the chains only to feel them press harder against my arm.

"That's also fuinjutsu, so don't even try it. Keep pulling and it'll only hurt and spread more~" She warned cheekily as I internally groaned.

Haaahhh, fuckin' women, dude.

Fuck. How do I get out of this mess?

There has to be some way to get through the drugs or escape from these chains.

With all my mental strength, I managed to barely lift my head up for both my eyes to see the chains and narrowed my eyes.

'In... spect...'

[Ping!]

------------------

[Fuinjutsu: Corrupting Chains]

[Details: a sealing chain that corrupts the part it's wrapped around until said part becomes unusable. The more resistance present, the tighter and more corrupted it gets. If left wrapped long enough, the chains will spread through the body.]

-[Requires vast amount of chakra and blood sacrifice]

-[Stays active until the target is destroyed. Otherwise, it's permanent]

------------------

Holy hell, it actually worked.

But despite it actually working, I think my despair just multiplied all of a sudden.

So this thing would absolutely destroy my arm and then move on to other body parts!? Is she trying to kill me?

Probably not. I doubt she'd let me die but she'd for sure let me feel the dreaded pain.

Thankfully though, the drugs were basically muting the pain at the moment but they were unfortunately wearing off strangely quickly.

However, that was the least of my worries. If I don't escape, my body will be destroyed and I'll be captured.

I can't allow that to fucking happen yet. I have so much to live for, so many breasts to fondle, so many women to fuck, and so many places to conquer.

But the only feasible thing that I can even do right now is to escape, but, again, that's impossible with this chain around my arm--

My arm.

The only way to get out of this dreaded trap is to lop off my own arm, but even then, I'd need to get through the drugs to even move.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, this really went to shit, didn't it... I need to get u--!

[Skill: [Drug Resistance] acquired]

...Well I'll be damned.

Time to escape.