Chapter 66 : Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape!!

Cold and shivering, Kosuke opened his eyes and found himself suspended from the ceiling.

He quickly regained his composure. Instead of panicking, he took a moment to assess his surroundings. He was in a basement that looked like a dungeon, filled with various torture instruments. 

The fresh bloodstains on the tools suggested they had been used recently.

"There's no one nearby. It seems safe for now," he thought. With that in mind, Kosuke began to work on freeing himself from the restraints. Despite being shackled with heavy chains, he remained calm.

Being a trained ninja, Kosuke had mastered not only ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu but also basic escape techniques. He knew how to slip out of bindings without making a sound.

"Old man, why did you ask me to deal with these rookies?" Kosuke muttered, recalling the instructions from the Third Hokage. "What does showing off Konoha's genin strength to outsiders even mean? Does he really think I'm that naive?"

Kosuke's nickname, the "eternal genin," had nothing to do with incompetence or lack of skill. In fact, he was more than capable of becoming a Jonin. His low rank was due to personal reasons, not a lack of talent or ability.

Click! 

With a gentle snap, Kosuke freed himself from the shackles without making a sound. He landed softly on the ground like a cat and rubbed his wrists, puzzled. "How did I end up here?" he wondered.

Kosuke tried to remember what had happened before, but his mind was like a foggy landscape. He couldn't find anything useful.

"Have my memories been tampered with?" Kosuke's expression darkened, realizing something was wrong. "I need to find the others quickly. Only by meeting up can I understand what's happening."

Following his instincts, he moved cautiously toward the door.

With a piece of iron wire, he deftly picked the lock.

Click~

Despite his efforts to minimize the noise, the click echoed in the quiet room.

Kosuke paused for a few seconds, not rushing out. Instead, he crouched down and slid his hand through the crack under the door. He felt around slowly, then his fingers brushed against a thin silk thread. His eyes narrowed. "Of course, there's a tripwire alarm."

If a less experienced Genin had been in his place, they'd have triggered it for sure.

Kosuke immediately became alert. After disarming the warning device, he slipped out of the room bit by bit. Once he was clear, he darted like a rabbit to a hidden corner where he could assess his surroundings.

The area was complex, with many interconnected rooms.

All around, there were severed limbs and dark brown stains, remnants of coagulated blood. This place had seen a lot of death.

Kosuke examined each room and the passageways connecting them, his brow furrowing as he realized the place was like a spider's web, intricate and sprawling.

Suddenly, a scream rang out from the north corridor.

A man in green tights came sprinting toward him at an astonishing speed.

"Guy?" Kosuke was taken aback for a moment, not expecting to encounter Might Guy here.

"Run, run, run!" Guy shouted as he barreled past.

"?!" 

Kosuke was bewildered. What had happened to the brave, fearless Guy? Why was he suddenly panicking?

He soon got his answer.

A towering figure burst out from the tunnel behind Guy. The man wore a grimy leather skirt and a rusty, serrated cleaver in one hand. His helmet, smeared with dried blood, added to his menacing appearance. The hulking figure nearly brushed the tunnel's ceiling.

Swish! 

The butcher swung his massive cleaver in a wide arc, creating a gust of wind with its sheer force. If it struck, Guy would likely be split in two.

"Is this the enemy?" Kosuke's eyes narrowed as he assessed the situation, reacting instantly.

He threw a shuriken, forming hand seals with practiced speed. He shouted to Guy, "Duck! Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The shuriken multiplied into hundreds in an instant, flying at the butcher like a barrage from a machine gun.

Thanks to the warning, Guy ducked just in time, sliding under the barrage of shurikens and the butcher's sweeping cleaver.

Boom, boom, boom!

The shurikens struck with immense force, hitting the butcher like cannonballs. It was a torrential downpour of steel, each impact driving the butcher backward as flesh and skin ripped apart.

"That's one down!" Kosuke grinned with confidence. His Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, taught by the Third Hokage himself, was not to be taken lightly.

"Don't just stand there! Run, run!" he shouted, knowing the danger wasn't over yet.

Might Guy seemed prepared for this turn of events. He quickly grabbed Kosuke and started to run.

"Hold on, I already killed him!" Kosuke exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief.

It turned out the butcher, whom his shadow clone shuriken jutsu had struck with a shuriken, got back up as if nothing had happened, charging at them with a cleaver.

"This is impossible!" Kosuke stammered, eyes trembling with shock.

"It's impossible!" Might Guy retorted bitterly, "That guy can't be killed! I've tried over and over. Even if you twist off his head, he just grows another one. Let's not get caught up in a losing battle. We need to escape!"

"??"

Kosuke looked puzzled, his brow furrowing.

Twist off his head, and it grows back? What kind of monster is this? Although he was curious to see if what Might Guy said was true, he saw the silent butcher advancing and decided it was best to run, following Might Guy.

The good news was the butcher's speed was slower than theirs, and the underground tunnels were complex. They managed to lose him quickly.

"Finally, we lost him," Might Guy said, patting his chest in relief. "Good thing we ran quickly. If we had been slower, that guy would have chopped us to bits, like he did with that Iwa ninja."

"Iwagakure?" Kosuke asked quietly, his expression serious. "Guy, weren't we the only ones captured?"

"I'm not sure," Might Guy said, scratching his head. "I ran into two Iwa ninjas. One got killed, the other escaped."

"Okay, so..." Kosuke paused, analyzing the situation. "We're not the only ones who got caught. There must be others."

"Huh? What?" Might Guy asked innocently.

"We need to find the others who are trapped here," Kosuke said.

Kosuke's eyes narrowed as he drew patterns on the ground with his fingers. "While we map the area, let's also look for others, gather together, and make a break for it!"

"It looks like Kosuke has found the key to passing," Yamanaka Inoichi remarked.

Yamanaka Inoichi, wearing a specialized device, opened his eyes and smiled. "He shouldn't take long to clear the exam."

"Not surprising," another examiner replied with a faint smile. "Even though Kosuke's a genin, he's got a ton of experience. This won't stop him."

"But I find it curious," Yamanaka Inoichi mused. "Why did we create an enemy that's unbeatable? If the goal was to increase the difficulty, don't you think we might've overdone it?"

Uchiha Sogetsu didn't answer Inoichi's question directly; instead, he posed one of his own. "Mr. Inoichi, do you know the three defining traits of fear?"

Inoichi shook his head. "No, I don't."

"First, monsters that are beyond communication," Sogetsu said. "Second, monsters must come from an unknown origin. Third, if monsters aren't immortal, they're just not terrifying enough."

Sogetsu paused, adjusted his glasses, and his eyes twinkled behind the lenses as he smiled gently. 

"Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. This is the trait of chunin-level ninja. Our test standards are based on these concepts."

"Survival, evasion, resistance, and escape."

Yamanaka Inoichi pondered these words for a moment, his eyes lighting up as he nodded. "Yes, you're right. This is what every Chunin must focus on to be effective."

Ninjas are constantly on call, always facing new challenges. The four traits outlined by Uchiha Sogetsu precisely represent the essential skills and qualities needed for a ninja to succeed.

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