The Ambush Begins!

"System," Uzumaki Ryuto called out in his mind, taking advantage of the lull in activity. He immediately saw his status screen, with no changes except that his reputation had reached 150,000. As expected...

War is the best opportunity to grind reputation.

"Mission?" Ryuto asked.

[Beep]

the electronic system voice responded.

[Short Term Mission: Achieve Victory.

Win the war.

Reward: 10 attribute points.]

[Long Term Mission : Capture the Tailed Beasts.

Tailed Beasts are foreign species, with only nine throughout the entire Ninja World - extremely rare and precious creatures. The host must capture the Tailed Beasts and establish a Tailed Beast Zoo to lead humans and Tailed Beasts to live in harmony.

Reward: 100,000 reputation

20 attribute points

Any S-rank Forbidden Technique (related to life)

One Earth Technology (production or living)

Note: Rewards can stack. For each additional Tailed Beast captured, the rewards double.]

"..." This mission was beyond Ryuto's current capabilities! Did the system expect him, not even a Jonin, to handle Tailed Beasts?

Ryuto casually glanced at the missions and closed the interface, feeling drained. The first mission was one he intended to do anyway, but the second... It was undoable! This system had some uses, like adding points and exchanging Earth technologies, but not much else.

And right now, he had no means to reason with Tailed Beasts about life, ideals, the future, and peace. If he went up to them claiming to uphold the Six Paths Sage's philosophy of human-Tailed Beast harmony, they'd probably curse at him as a naive rookie before blasting him with a Tailed Beast Ball as a "celebration" of their newfound "peace."

He wasn't Naruto, a smooth-talker capable of resolving any situation with words. Without strength, talk was meaningless.

Unless he could pin the Tailed Beasts down and make them call him "dad," sigh wearily, and say he wanted peace to honor the Six Paths' legacy and bring light to the Ninja World - only then might the Tailed Beasts believe him, having been thoroughly beaten into submission. 

.....

Ryuto gazed through his binoculars at the Kiri shinobi's camp, then turned towards the direction the Whirlpool elders had departed. The Land of Whirlpools might be small in territory, but its population was tiny - most areas remained undeveloped wilderness of trees and mountains.

So there was an advantage to fighting on home turf!

"Still, we lack manpower," Ryuto muttered. This war would undoubtedly create many orphans. Some famous orphans appeared in the story , so if victorious, he would journey to Konoha to potentially "adopt" and bolster the Whirlpool's population, like a Ninja World Orochimaru. Otherwise, relying solely on the Uzumaki clan was unsuitable for the nation's growth.

"It seems the elders have engaged." Observing the distant chakra fluctuations, explosions of ninjutsu, and rising dust clouds, the signs were unmistakable. He had specifically instructed them to target squads further away and immediately retreat if reinforcements arrived.

Twenty Jonin attacking a four-man squad should be manageable, a necessity given the Whirlpool's shortage of top shinobi. They only had around 500 Jonin, mostly 70-80 year old elders who could still swing their staffs thanks to the Uzumaki's powerful life force. Otherwise, that number would halve. Compared to Kiri's 2,000-3,000 Jonin, it was still far too few. They would need to steadily reduce the enemy's strength by half for the Whirlpool to gain leverage.

However, the elders' opponents, unaware of their predicament, were likely cursing them out right now.

Those four Jonin only faced twenty enemies!

The Kiri squad leader's heart sank, realizing they were likely trapped here - doomed, totally doomed. Even if their foes were elders, they were still Jonin! What grave offense had they committed to warrant such an onslaught? Was it because they moved out first? 

"Stay alert and hold your ground," the grim squad leader told his team. "If anything seems off, reinforcements will definitely come to our aid."

But his teammates looked equally dismayed. Twenty enemies? Could they really last long enough, being outnumbered five-to-one? The leader wasn't on the kage's level. The Whirlpool sure didn't play by the rules - an ambush mission should involve a few Jonin leading some Chunin, not deploying a horde of veteran Jonin! Were they not raising the next generation? What would they do when the elders passed away with no successors? To dispatch their strongest against a mere scouting squad...

"Engage," the Whirlpool elders nodded at each other, following Ryuto's plan. They had no time to dawdle - after finishing this squad, they had to intercept the next.

These twenty were essentially the Whirlpool's greatest military strength.

...

The other Kiri squads encountered similar obstructions from the Uzumaki clan.

"Engage," the Whirlpool shinobi ordered in low voices. Their main objective was interception - defeat the enemy if possible, but at minimum, stall them from providing reinforcements.

Meanwhile, with the other Kiri squads:

"Whirlpool ninja?!" The Kiri squad leader frowned at the ten Whirlpool shinobi facing them - three Jonin, two Chunin, and five Genin. Not bad, his four Jonin may not defeat them, but could at least delay them.

Reinforcements would arrive eventually.

Little did they know...

The other squads assumed the same...

"Ebby, be ready to retreat," the vanguard squad leader told his subordinate sternly, eyeing the surrounding Whirlpool ninja. "Don't engage recklessly."

"But Captain..." Ebby started to protest before being cut off.

"Don't count on reinforcements," the captain said gravely, surveying the three Jonin and remaining Chunin and Genin encircling them. While other squads might handle this, his team of two Jonin and two Chunin would struggle. "The others are likely in similar situations."

However, the Whirlpool ninja were equally dumbfounded - this vanguard squad seemed unusually weak, not at all the full Jonin team they expected. It seemed they would claim the first victory here, not the elders' squad.

War was truly abhorrent. The vanguard captain had decided - after this mission, he would resign. Too many lives had already been lost, far too many.

As the Whirlpool Jonin engaged the vanguard captain, his expression froze. "It's you!" He recognized this Kiri shinobi as part of the vanguard unit, no mere nobody. "With that level of ability, you cannot be unknown. Who are you?"

His prowess was undoubtedly elite Jonin caliber.

"Kiri Vanguard Squad Captain, Horikoku Takeshi."

(End of Chapter)