Chapter 66: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape
Cold. Trembling.
When Kosuke Maruboshi opened his eyes, he found himself hanging suspended from the ceiling by thick chains.
Within mere seconds, the elderly genin regained his composure. Rather than panicking or struggling, he immediately refrained from any movement and calmly surveyed his surroundings.
A basement resembling a prison cell stretched out before him—filled with various rusted torture instruments, all of them stained with bright red blood that clearly indicated recent use.
The metallic scent of fresh blood hung heavy in the stale air.
"No one's around. Seems safe for now," Kosuke murmured to himself after confirming his immediate situation.
With that assessment complete, he prepared to break free from his restraints.
Although bound to the ceiling and shackled with heavy iron handcuffs and leg irons, the perpetual genin showed absolutely no panic or distress.
As a qualified ninja—even one who'd remained at genin rank for decades—Kosuke possessed far more skills than just ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. There were many other essential abilities taught at the Academy, such as the fundamentals of escape artistry and lock-picking.
"Ugh, I'm an old man, and they're still making me participate in bullying these youngsters," Kosuke muttered with a slight grimace, thinking back to the Third Hokage's specific instructions.
"What did Lord Hokage mean by 'letting ninja from other villages see how powerful Konoha's genin are'? They're not stupid—it'll be a miracle if they actually believe that cover story."
Although Kosuke was famously known throughout the village as the "Eternal Genin," he certainly wasn't stupid, nor did he possess any particular weaknesses in his abilities.
If anything, he had already long since met the technical standards of a jōnin. The only reason he remained at genin rank was entirely due to a psychological oath he'd taken decades ago after a mission failure.
Click!
Almost effortlessly, Kosuke slipped free of his shackles with practiced ease.
And to avoid alerting any potential enemies lurking nearby, he didn't make even the slightest sound throughout the entire process.
Kosuke landed silently on the ground like a cat, his movements fluid and controlled despite his age. He flexed his wrists experimentally, his weathered brow furrowing in concentration.
"What happened? How did I end up here?"
He tried hard to recall recent events, but his memory seemed shrouded in a thin, impenetrable mist. He couldn't retrieve any useful information about how he'd been captured or transported to this location.
"Have my memories been tampered with?"
Kosuke's expression darkened considerably as he immediately realized something was fundamentally wrong. His hand instinctively moved to check his ninja tool pouch.
"I need to find the others as soon as possible. Only after we reunite can we figure out what actually happened here."
Without any further hesitation, he moved silently toward the heavy wooden door.
Extracting a thin piece of wire from his remaining tools, Kosuke skillfully inserted it into the lock mechanism and began working it with expert precision.
Click—
Although he tried his absolute best to suppress any sound, the lock's disengagement was still clearly audible in the oppressively quiet room.
After waiting several tense seconds with his ear pressed to the door, Kosuke didn't immediately rush out into the unknown. Instead, he slowly crouched down low, slipped his hand carefully through the narrow crack beneath the door, and felt around methodically.
His fingers encountered an extremely thin wire stretched across the doorway at ankle height.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he muttered to himself with grim satisfaction:
"Just as I suspected. There's an alarm tripwire set up outside."
If it had been any inexperienced genin attempting this escape, they would have immediately triggered the alarm and alerted their captors.
Kosuke became even more vigilant. With careful, deliberate movements, he deactivated the alarm mechanism, then cautiously slipped through the doorway.
The moment he was clear, he moved with surprising speed—darting out like a startled rabbit before immediately concealing himself in a shadowy corner. From this hidden vantage point, he carefully surveyed his new surroundings.
The terrain was extremely complex—a labyrinthine network of numerous rooms, all interconnected by narrow passageways and corridors.
The ground was littered with dismembered limbs in various states of decay. Dark brown stains of congealed blood covered large sections of the floor, concrete proof that many people had died here recently.
Kosuke carefully examined each visible room and the passageways connecting them, his frown deepening with each new observation.
This place was designed like a spider's intricate web—complex, confusing, deliberately meant to disorient and trap.
"AAAAHHH!"
Just then, a terrified scream echoed from the northern passage.
Immediately following the scream, a man in a distinctive green bodysuit came sprinting around the corner at incredible speed, his legs pumping frantically.
"Might Dai?!"
Kosuke was genuinely stunned, clearly not expecting to encounter Might Dai in this hellish place.
"RUN! JUST RUN!" Might Dai shouted desperately, his eyes wide with panic as he urged Kosuke to flee. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!"
"...?"
A question mark had barely formed in Kosuke's experienced mind.
What could possibly have happened to make the usually hot-blooded, fearless Might Dai—the man famous for never backing down from any challenge—so completely panicked?
Very soon, he saw the answer for himself.
A massive figure suddenly emerged from the dark tunnel behind Might Dai.
The creature wore a filthy, tattered leather apron. It carried a rust-covered, serrated cleaver that looked capable of cutting through bone. A blood-soaked burlap mask covered its face, and its tall, imposing form nearly reached the ceiling of the tunnel itself.
WHOOSH!
The Butcher, wielding that massive cleaver single-handedly, swung it in a brutal horizontal arc.
The heavy blade carried immense kinetic force, creating a sharp, whistling sound as it cut through the air. If Might Dai were struck by that swing, he would almost certainly be cleaved completely in half at the waist.
"So he's the culprit behind all this."
Kosuke's eyes narrowed in assessment. In a fraction of a second, he evaluated the tactical situation and reacted with the speed of a veteran shinobi.
He immediately drew and threw multiple shuriken while simultaneously forming rapid hand seals. His voice rang out clearly:
"Dai! Drop down NOW! Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
POOF! POOF! POOF!
In an instant, each of the original shuriken multiplied into hundreds of copies—thousands of spinning projectiles filling the corridor like a metallic storm, all shooting directly toward the Butcher with devastating force.
Might Dai, hearing Kosuke's warning just in time, dropped into a sliding crouch. He barely managed to dodge beneath the massive wave of shuriken flying overhead and simultaneously avoided the cleaver sweeping murderously from behind.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each shadow clone shuriken carried tremendous penetrating power, striking the Butcher's body with impacts like explosive tags detonating.
The countless projectiles rained down in an overwhelming torrent, creating a devastating barrage. The Butcher's flesh was torn open in dozens of places, blood spraying everywhere. The sheer force of the assault drove him staggering backward several steps.
"That should be one enemy down!"
Confidence radiated from Kosuke's weathered features. His Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was a jutsu personally taught to him by the Third Hokage himself—its destructive power was certainly not to be underestimated.
No one could survive that level of assault.
"Don't just stand there celebrating! RUN! WE NEED TO RUN NOW!"
However, Might Dai—far from looking relieved—seemed to have anticipated this exact outcome. He rushed over and grabbed Kosuke's arm, desperately trying to drag him away.
"Wait, I've already neutralized the—"
Kosuke's words died in his throat as his eyes widened in complete disbelief.
The Butcher—whose body had just been absolutely shredded by the shadow clone barrage—was somehow standing up again. Moving as if nothing whatsoever had happened, the monster resumed its relentless charge toward them, cleaver raised high.
"This is impossible!" Kosuke's pupils dilated in shock, his expression shifting to one of genuine astonishment.
"Stop saying 'impossible'!" Might Dai complained bitterly as they began running. "That thing is literally unkillable! I've tried everything—EVERYTHING! Even when I managed to completely twist its head off, the damn thing just grew back! Let's stop wasting time trying to kill it and focus on figuring out how to escape!"
"???"
Kosuke was completely bewildered by this revelation.
Twist off its head and it grows back?! What kind of monster IS this thing?!
Although he desperately wanted to stop and test whether this was actually true, seeing the silent Butcher steadily approaching with that blood-soaked cleaver, Kosuke's rational mind overruled his curiosity. He turned and ran alongside Might Dai without further argument.
The only remotely good news was that the monster wasn't particularly fast relative to their shinobi-enhanced speed.
Moreover, the underground environment was extremely complex and maze-like, so the two veterans quickly managed to lose their pursuer in the twisting corridors.
"Finally... finally shook him off!"
Might Dai stopped to catch his breath, one hand patting his chest. He still looked shaken. "Thank the heavens I'm fast. If I'd been even a second slower, I would've ended up like those Iwagakure ninja—chopped into tiny pieces by that monster."
"Iwagakure?"
Kosuke's expression changed noticeably. He lowered his voice and asked with increased urgency:
"Dai, besides us Konoha shinobi, who else was captured and brought to this place?"
"I don't know all the specifics," Might Dai admitted, scratching his head thoughtfully. "I only encountered two Iwagakure ninja during my escape. I managed to kill one of them in combat, and the other one fled deeper into the complex."
"I see..."
After receiving this information, Kosuke fell silent for a moment, processing the implications.
"So then, after brief analysis, there are clearly more people than just us who were captured and brought here. There should be others—possibly from multiple villages—trapped in this underground facility."
"Uh... okay? And then what?"
Might Dai looked at him with innocent confusion, clearly not following Kosuke's tactical reasoning.
"We need to find the other captives who are still alive," Kosuke explained, his eyes narrowing with determination as he began drawing something on the dusty ground with his finger—sketching out a rough map.
"We collect information about the layout, locate the other prisoners, form a coordinated team, and then execute a group breakout. That's our best chance of survival."
Meanwhile, in the Real World
Central Tower Observation Room
"It seems Kosuke has identified the key strategic element," Yamanaka Inoichi observed, wearing a specialized sensory device that allowed him to monitor the genjutsu's progress. He formed a quick hand seal and smiled with satisfaction.
"He should pass this particular test scenario fairly soon."
"That's not particularly surprising," Uchiha Kazuki replied with a slight smile of his own. "Although Kosuke maintains genin rank, he's extremely experienced—a true veteran with decades of field missions. This level of challenge won't stop someone of his caliber."
"However, I am curious about something."
Yamanaka Inoichi's expression shifted to one of genuine puzzlement. "Why did you specifically design an unkillable enemy for this scenario? While I understand we're intentionally increasing the difficulty level, isn't this perhaps a bit too extreme? How are they supposed to defeat something that literally cannot die?"
"Mr. Inoichi, do you know the three fundamental definitions of terror?" Uchiha Kazuki asked rather than answering the question directly.
"Not off the top of my head, no," Yamanaka Inoichi admitted, shaking his head.
"First," Kazuki began, raising one finger, "monsters cannot communicate or be reasoned with through normal means."
"Second," he raised another finger, "monsters must be of completely unknown origin, with unknowable weaknesses."
"Third," he raised a third finger with a slight smile, "if a monster isn't functionally immortal or unkillable, then it ceases to be truly terrifying."
Uchiha Kazuki paused deliberately, adjusted his glasses with one hand, and his eyes gleamed with intellectual satisfaction behind the lenses. He revealed a gentle, almost professorial smile:
"Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape—these are the core training principles that any qualified Chūnin needs to master. These four elements are precisely what our examination is designed to test and evaluate."
"Survival... evasion... resistance... and escape..."
Yamanaka Inoichi repeated the words slowly, turning the concept over in his mind. His eyes suddenly lit up with understanding and appreciation:
"You're absolutely right! Those four principles perfectly encapsulate what we need from field operatives! That's brilliant!"
Shinobi needed to face various life-threatening challenges around the clock during field operations.
And the four key concepts proposed by Uchiha Kazuki corresponded perfectly to the necessary conditions and psychological qualities required of any qualified ninja—especially those who would operate independently as Chūnin-rank field agents.
It wasn't about raw power or being able to defeat any enemy.
It was about adaptability, tactical thinking, and the wisdom to know when to fight and when to flee.
[End of Chapter 66]
Author's Note:
Finally, we get a different perspective on the Chūnin Exam horror show! Instead of watching genin psychologically break down, we see how an experienced veteran like Kosuke handles the exact same scenario.
The contrast is fascinating:
Where young genin panic and make mistakes, Kosuke calmly assesses and adapts
He immediately recognizes traps and alarm systems
He thinks tactically about gathering allies rather than trying to solo everything
Even faced with an "unkillable" monster, he focuses on escape rather than futile combat
Kazuki's explanation of "Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape" (SERE) is actually based on real-world military training principles. It's a legitimate framework for teaching soldiers and operatives how to survive hostile situations.
The three definitions of horror he provides are also genuinely insightful:
Cannot be reasoned with (no diplomacy option)
Unknown origin (no intel advantage)
Cannot be killed (no combat solution)
This forces examinees to think creatively and prioritize survival over victory—which is arguably MORE important for real field operations than raw combat power.
Discussion Questions:
How will other experienced ninja like Kakashi handle this scenario?
Is this training method actually effective, or just cruel?
What happens when examinees realize it's genjutsu?
Will the psychological damage be permanent?
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