Seven days later.
January 1st.
Eastern Kikyo Mountain encampment.
The sky had yet to fully brighten when Guy woke up.
His leg had completely healed two days ago.
But Choza absolutely refused to let Guy go out, insisting that he rest for two more days.
Unable to argue him down, he could only unwillingly spend another two days as a "patient."
Guy sat up and stretched his right leg.
"No, no matter what, I'm going on a mission today! If I keep lying around, my body's going to rust!"
Just as he was thinking that, the tent flap was lifted.
Ebisu poked half his head in and froze when he saw Guy sitting up.
"You're awake?"
"Yeah."
"Don't come out. Wait there!"
His head withdrew, and the flap fell shut.
Guy blinked.
Before long, the flap was lifted again.
Ebisu and Genma squeezed inside.
Ebisu was carrying something in his hands.
Something a little bigger than a fist, yellowish, and covered in uneven bumps... dough?
Genma followed behind him, clutching three sharpened twigs.
Guy stared at the yellowish thing and blinked.
"What's that?"
Ebisu set it on the table and puffed out his chest.
"A cake!"
Guy looked at it again.
It was certainly yellow, but its shape was crooked, and several dark spots covered the surface.
"...That's a cake?"
"I borrowed the flour from the logistics guys and traded the Cooking Squad for the eggs."
Ebisu's voice grew quieter as he spoke.
"I couldn't find any sugar, so I crushed up Soldier Pills as a substitute. As for the color... I might not have gotten the heat right."
Guy stared at the "cake" for three seconds.
"You made it?"
"I did."
Ebisu raised his chin.
"What? Not satisfied?"
Guy broke into a grin.
"No."
He reached out, broke off a piece, and stuffed it into his mouth.
He chewed twice.
It was actually pretty sweet.
The sweetness of a Soldier Pill, mixed with the bitterness of overbaked flour.
Together, it was hard to describe.
But it really was sweet.
"It's good."
Guy said.
Ebisu froze for a moment.
Then he turned his head away.
"Hmph. Of course it is. How could something I made not taste good?"
Genma stuck the three sharpened twigs into it.
They stood crookedly, like three wooden stakes driven into mud.
"We don't have candles, so make do," he said.
Ebisu pulled a box of matches from his clothes.
He struck one and lit the tips of the twigs.
"Make a wish," Ebisu said. "You have to make a wish on your birthday."
Guy looked at the three tiny flames.
The wind blew outside the tent, making the flames tremble as though they might go out at any moment.
He closed his eyes.
A few seconds later, he opened them.
Then he blew.
Of the three twigs, two went out.
The third flickered once before finally dying.
Ebisu's mouth twitched.
"You're no good at blowing out candles either."
Guy ignored him and broke off another piece of cake, stuffing it into his mouth.
The flap lifted, and Choza ducked into the tent.
He carried a long cloth bundle, more than a meter long and wrapped in several layers of old fabric.
"Captain, what's that?" Ebisu leaned closer.
Choza ignored him and placed the bundle on Guy's bed.
"Open it and see."
Guy tore away the cloth strips in a few quick motions, and his eyes lit up.
It was a sword!
The sheath was made of black wood, without any decoration.
The hilt was wrapped in black cord, making it easy to grip without slipping.
Guy drew the blade.
The edge gleamed with a dim light.
The blade was narrower than his previous greatsword, but just as long.
It weighed about the same, but felt more stable in his hand.
Guy swung it once.
The whistle of the wind was faint, and the sword felt exceptionally natural in his hand.
"Good sword." Guy's face filled with delight.
Choza grinned.
"I had someone forge it over the past two days. Your old one shattered, so you needed a replacement."
Guy looked up at him and finally understood why Choza had insisted he rest another two days.
It was because of this sword!
Choza said no more and pointed to the base of the blade.
Two words were engraved there.
[Youth]
Guy froze.
"Hehe, do you like it?"
Choza beamed.
Guy immediately gave him a thumbs-up, flashing a mouthful of white teeth.
"Thank you for the captain's Youth!"
"Hahaha, glad you like it. Hurry up and eat your cake. After that, there's still a missi—"
"Wheeeeeee!"
Before Choza could finish, a sharp whistle suddenly exploded from outside the tent.
It was not an ordinary assembly whistle.
It was an emergency assembly.
Three long blasts and one short blast, repeated three times.
Choza's expression changed drastically, and he immediately rushed out of the tent.
"Follow me!"
The other three forgot all about the birthday and quickly followed him.
Ebisu and Genma reacted at once, taking the toothpicks from their mouths.
The four ran out of the tent, only to find chaos already unfolding outside.
People were everywhere.
Some crawled out of tents, some ran over from the mess hall, and some sprinted back from the training grounds.
All of them were rushing toward the central clearing.
No one was shouting, but the air was stretched taut.
In that brief moment, the central clearing had already filled with people.
Formation after formation stood packed together in dense rows.
A total of fifteen hundred people.
Every ninja in the camp had arrived.
Guy stood in Team 9's position and looked around.
Team 3 stood to his left, while Team 5 stood to his right.
The captains were ahead of them, and the wounded were behind.
Even those in the medical tents who could still move had come out on crutches.
No one spoke.
Fifteen hundred people stood in the clearing, and the silence was so complete that only the wind and heavy breathing could be heard.
A man stood on the raised platform at the very front.
He was in his forties, thin, with little flesh on his face and narrow eyes.
His hair was tied in a bun, secured with a hairpin.
He wore the traditional green vest of the Nara Clan, with the clan crest embroidered on the collar.
Nara Shikaku.
The overall commander of the eastern Kikyo Mountain encampment.
He was a generation senior to Akimichi Choza.
Guy had seen him twice.
Once when he first arrived at the camp to report in, and once during last month's camp-wide assembly.
Seeing the grave look on the man's face, Guy's heart tightened.
"An emergency assembly at a time like this... could Sunagakure have begun a surprise attack?"
"But! The timing is wrong!"
Guy quickly sorted through the timeline.
The only thing this situation brought to mind was the Battle of Kikyo Mountain, when Sunagakure launched a surprise attack against Konoha.
Yet it did not match the timing he remembered.
Guy's expression shifted uncertainly.
Nara Shikaku still did not speak.
He stood on the platform with nothing in his hands.
Simply standing there.
Gradually.
They waited until everyone had taken their positions.
Until the flags snapped sharply in the wind.
Until the tension in the air reached its limit.
Then, at last, he spoke.
"Two thousand Iwagakure shinobi are advancing toward our border."
His voice was not loud.
Yet every word reached everyone's ears with perfect clarity.
"Iwagakure's vanguard has already reached a point fifty li away."
The area beneath the platform grew even quieter.
"Konoha's mobile squadron reinforcements are on their way here."
"But even at their fastest, they will not arrive until dawn tomorrow."
Shikaku's gaze swept across everyone below the platform.
"Before then—"
He paused.
"We must hold this place!!"