On the other side, Guy was sprinting forward with all his strength.
The Muscle-Tendon Change Classic circulated at maximum speed throughout his body while the first of the Eight Gates remained fully open, causing his legs to move like twin engines propelling him forward.
The road beneath his feet flashed by rapidly.
Ten kilometers.
Under normal circumstances, that distance would already be astonishingly fast for a Ninja to cover within only a few minutes.
But to Guy, it still felt too slow.
Far too slow.
Three thousand Sunagakure Ninja were already advancing.
Pakura might already be chasing after him.
And behind her stood Rasa himself.
Every second delayed meant more lives lost.
Soon, torchlight appeared ahead in the darkness.
Five figures were running directly toward him.
Guy instantly recognized them.
It was the camp patrol squad led by the scar-faced Chunin from Team 3.
The scar-faced Chunin spotted Guy too and immediately raised a hand while shouting loudly:
"Guy!"
Guy rushed straight past them without slowing down even slightly.
As he passed by, he threw out a sentence over his shoulder:
"Sunagakure is attacking! At least three thousand troops! Rasa is leading them! Retreat immediately and fire the signal flares!"
The scar-faced Chunin froze.
The four people beside him also froze instantly.
Sunagakure?
Three thousand people?
Rasa personally leading them?
"Wait!"
The scar-faced Chunin snapped out of it and hurriedly chased after Guy for several steps while shouting:
"Did you see clearly?! Was it really Sunagakure?! Three thousand people?!"
Guy had already sprinted more than ten meters away.
He suddenly turned his head and roared back:
"If I had enough time to count them carefully, would I still be alive standing here right now?!"
The scar-faced Chunin's footsteps faltered.
Guy was right.
He had been guarding the Mountain Ridge alone all this time.
The fact that he managed to survive and return alive was already a miracle.
How could he possibly have calmly counted the exact number of enemies?
But...
The number three thousand was simply too horrifying.
What if Guy had seen incorrectly?
What if it was merely a small scouting force instead?
Once signal flares were launched, the entire camp would instantly enter combat alert status.
Everyone would be dragged awake in the middle of the night.
Ninja tools would need to be distributed.
Defensive formations established.
Combat squads reorganized.
If it turned out to be a false alarm, the scar-faced Chunin could not bear responsibility for it.
He hesitated.
But at that exact moment, someone beside him had already pulled out a signal flare.
The scar-faced Chunin turned his head sharply.
It was Nakano, the younger brother of the Medical Corps female Ninja whom Guy had once saved.
Normally, he was an extremely quiet Genin.
"What are you doing?!" the scar-faced Chunin shouted while reaching out to stop him.
But Nakano had already pulled the trigger.
Swoosh!
A red flare instantly shot high into the sky before exploding brilliantly overhead.
The scar-faced Chunin's expression changed drastically.
"Are you insane?! What if he saw wrong?! What ifβ"
Nakano casually tossed the empty flare tube aside before calmly asking in return:
"What if he didn't see wrong?"
The scar-faced Chunin opened his mouth but failed to say anything.
Nakano continued speaking clearly, one word at a time.
"Guy guarded the Mountain Ridge for sixty-eight straight days. We all saw the Iwagakure corpses he killed. He would never lie about something like this."
The scar-faced Chunin fell silent again.
Nakano glanced behind himself.
"If Guy is wrong, then he's the one who gets punished. Not us."
He paused briefly before continuing:
"But... what if he's right?"
The scar-faced Chunin's expression changed completely.
The other three people beside them simultaneously pulled out their own signal flares.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three more red lights shot into the night sky one after another, exploding brilliantly in the darkness and dyeing half the sky crimson.
The scar-faced Chunin finally gritted his teeth and pulled out his own flare.
The fifth red signal light rose into the air.
He turned around and looked toward the direction Guy had disappeared into, but Guy was already long gone.
"Move out!"
The scar-faced Chunin waved his arm sharply.
"Follow him!"
The five immediately began sprinting forward.
But before they had even run one hundred meters, the scar-faced Chunin realized something terrifying.
Guy's figure ahead was getting farther and farther away.
No matter how hard they chased, the distance only continued increasing.
"That guy... he's running way too fast..." someone beside him gasped out while panting heavily.
The scar-faced Chunin did not respond.
He merely lowered his head and continued running desperately.
He already knew they could not catch up.
But they still had to try.
Because Guy's words continued hammering against his chest.
Sunagakure is coming.
Three thousand troops.
Rasa is leading them personally.
Every sentence felt like a giant hammer smashing into his heart.
There were only five of them here.
If they were even slightly too slow...
They would all die.
Meanwhile, back at the camp, Guy could already see the lights from afar.
It was not merely a few torches.
The entire camp had already lit up brightly.
Figures rushed back and forth between tents while some people shouted anxiously and others hurriedly strapped on Ninja tool pouches.
The signal flares had clearly worked.
Everyone was moving.
But everything was chaotic.
Some ran east.
Others ran west.
Some simply stood there completely lost, not knowing what to do at all.
There was no command structure.
No organized assembly.
The entire camp looked like a disturbed ant nest.
Guy gritted his teeth fiercely and accelerated once more.
"Eight Gates!"
"Second Gate, Gate of Healing!"
"Open!"
Green steam exploded outward from his body.
The ground beneath his feet burst apart into two craters as he shot forward like a streak of green lightning directly into the camp.
"Move aside!!"
People standing near the outskirts heard the violent noise and instinctively turned around, only to see a green blur flash past them while the powerful wind pressure stung against their faces.
Guy did not stop for even a moment.
He tore through the first row of tents, leaped over the second row, and squeezed through two stunned Chunin standing ahead.
Directly in front of him was the central open area of the camp.
The place where the largest number of people had gathered.
Guy inhaled deeply and stomped down with all his strength.
Boom!
The ground exploded beneath him.
His body soared into the air, passing over the heads of the crowd before crashing down directly into the center of the clearing.
He landed on one knee while thrusting the Youth Blade into the ground to stabilize himself.
Everyone nearby was startled violently by his arrival.
Those close to him instinctively stepped backward while those farther away rose onto their toes to look.
Guy slowly stood up.
Then he turned toward the crowd and roared with all his strength:
"Sunagakure is launching a surprise attack! Three thousand troops! Rasa himself is leading them!!"
The entire clearing instantly fell silent.
Everyone stared at him wide-eyed.
A surprise attack?
Three thousand people?
Rasa personally leading them?
Those words struck the crowd like giant stones smashing into water.
For several seconds, nobody spoke at all.
Then
"Hah."
A completely undisguised sneer sounded out.
It came from the direction of the high platform.
Sarutobi Sosuke stood outside his tent with a coat draped loosely over his shoulders while his hair remained messy from sleep.
He looked toward Guy with mockery openly visible on his face.
"Rasa?"
Sarutobi Sosuke slowly stepped forward while looking Guy up and down.
"You saw him personally?"
"I did."
"Sunagakure's elite Jonin? The man already considered the next Kazekage? That Rasa?"
"Yes."
"And after seeing him, you still managed to return alive?"
Sarutobi Sosuke's gaze carefully swept over Guy's body.
His clothes were torn.
One sleeve was ripped apart.
There was dirt, mud, and scratches from branches all over him.
But No blood.
No serious wounds.
Not even one proper injury.
The mocking smile on Sarutobi Sosuke's face widened further.
His voice also deliberately became louder.
"Completely unharmed?"
"A nine-year-old Genin escaped alive from Rasa's hands without suffering even a single injury?"
Whispers instantly began spreading throughout the crowd.
"That's true... someone at Rasa's level..."
"Did Guy maybe see wrong?"
"Three thousand people... how could he count all that alone?"
The whispers were not loud.
But every single word drilled painfully into Guy's ears.
His grip around the sword hilt tightened until his knuckles turned white.
Sarutobi Sosuke stood atop the high platform looking down at him.
His voice was loud enough for everyone to hear clearly.
"Might Guy, I understand you want recognition. I understand guarding the Mountain Ridge alone for two months was difficult."
He paused briefly.
"But you cannot... report false intelligence."
The moment those words left his mouth, the whispers throughout the clearing grew even louder.
Some people began looking toward Guy suspiciously.
Others lowered their heads uncertainly, not knowing whom to believe.
Some even quietly stepped backward as though distancing themselves from Guy would somehow distance themselves from this entire situation.
Guy stood silently in the middle of the clearing while looking at all those gazes around him.
Many of them were exactly the same as two months ago.
He said Sunagakure was coming.
Three thousand troops.
Rasa personally leading them.
Yet nobody believed him.
Because he had no wounds.
Because he escaped from Rasa.
Because he was only nine years old.
Because he was merely a Genin.
Because he was the so-called coward who once wrote a letter asking for help.
Guy slowly inhaled deeply.
Then
He drew his blade.
The blade reflected brilliantly beneath the torchlight while everyone clearly saw the arc of the swing.
But this strike was not aimed toward an enemy.
It was aimed directly toward the high platform.
Directly toward Sarutobi Sosuke.
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