The Interception Begins!

"System."

With nothing much going on for the moment, Xun Uzumaki called out inwardly. His attribute panel immediately appeared before him. There was still no change, except his Reputation had reached 150,000. Just as expected...

War was the best time to farm Reputation.

"Are there no missions?" Xun Uzumaki asked doubtfully.

"Beep. Generating mission."

Mission One: Achieve victory.

Win the war.

Reward: 10 Attribute Points.

Why so little? What about equipment? Draws? Why was there nothing at all?

"This system is the Harmonious Society System, not a war system. Therefore, rewards for war missions are very limited."

"..."

It was not like he had started the war! He also wanted to develop the Land of Whirlpools peacefully, but people had invaded them. What else could he do? He could only look at Mission Two.

Mission Two: Capture Tailed Beasts.

Tailed Beasts are an introduced species. There are only nine in the entire Shinobi World, making them extremely rare and precious creatures. The host must capture Tailed Beasts and establish a Tailed Beast zoo, leading humans and Tailed Beasts toward harmonious coexistence.

Reward: 100,000 Reputation.

20 Attribute Points.

Any S-rank Forbidden Jutsu (daily life).

One Earth technology related to production or daily life.

Note: Rewards can stack. For every additional Tailed Beast, rewards will double.

"..."

This mission was not something he could handle right now either! What were Tailed Beasts? Could a protagonist who did not even have a Jonin handle them?

Xun Uzumaki casually glanced at the mission before closing it. He was exhausted. There was no point talking about this! He would do the first mission even without being told, while the second mission...

He simply could not afford to do it! This system was practically useless. Other than adding points and exchanging for some Earth technology, it had no use at all.

Besides, he had no strength to talk to Tailed Beasts about life, ideals, the future, peace... If he ran up to a Tailed Beast and said, "I uphold the ideals of the Sage of Six Paths and hope humans and all of you can coexist peacefully."

The Tailed Beast would probably say, Who the hell is this weakling? Then nod and answer, "Sure," before giving him a Tailed Beast Ball to celebrate peaceful coexistence between humans and Tailed Beasts.

He was not Prince Naruto. His talk-no-jutsu was not MAXed out!!!

Without strength, talking about anything was impossible.

Unless he had the ability to grind the Tailed Beasts into the ground and beat them until they called him daddy. Then, with a sigh and a melancholy expression, he could say that he did not want this either. He was doing it for peace between humans and Tailed Beasts, to inherit the ideals left behind by the Sage of Six Paths, and to shine for peace in the Shinobi World. They had to believe him.

Only then might those Tailed Beasts believe him, because they could not beat him! If they did not listen to him, who else could they listen to?

For now, he should complete the war mission and farm enough Reputation first. War was the best opportunity to farm Reputation! If not through war, what else was he supposed to do—become a celebrity?

What a joke. This was the Harmonious Society Construction System, not a celebrity training system!!

"This system also has an entertainment module!"

"..."

Forget it, forget it. He would not talk about this anymore.

Xun Uzumaki picked up his telescope and looked toward the Mist Ninja encampment. Then he turned it toward the direction where the Clan Head and the others had set out. Though the Land of Whirlpools was small, it had few people! Most of it remained undeveloped, covered in trees and forests.

So they still had an advantage fighting on home ground!

"There are still too few people," Xun Uzumaki muttered. The First Great Ninja War would definitely create many orphans. There were even several famous orphans in Naruto. If they won, he would definitely have to make a trip to Konoha and see whether he could pick up some people along the way. He could play Orochimaru for once and expand the Land of Whirlpools' population. There were too few people here, and most were from the Uzumaki Clan. That was not conducive to the Land of Whirlpools' development.

"Looks like the Clan Head and the others have made their move." He saw Chakra fluctuations in the distance, especially the crackling sounds of ninjutsu and the dust kicked up by the fighting. It was far too obvious. Besides, he had specifically instructed them to target teams far away. Once Mist Ninja reinforcements came, they had to retreat immediately no matter what.

Twenty Jonin attacking together against a four-man squad should not be a problem. The Land of Whirlpools simply had too few Jonin right now—only around five hundred. Most were old men in their seventies or eighties. It was only because the Uzumaki Clan possessed such formidable life force that they could still swing the clubs in their hands. Otherwise, the number of Jonin would have been cut in half. But even three or four hundred people were still far too few compared to Kirigakure's two or three thousand Jonin. So they had to take things slowly!!

They needed to wear down half their Jonin. Only then would the Land of Whirlpools have a voice.

However...

The group of Mist Ninja who had encountered the Clan Head had no idea what to say.

They only had four Jonin, while the other side had twenty!

The squad captain felt a surge of despair. It seemed they would be left here today. They were done for, completely done for. Even if the other side was a bunch of old men, they were still Jonin! What kind of grudge did they have to target their squad specifically? Was it because they had set out first?

"Be careful. Hold on," the squad captain said solemnly to his teammates. "If anything goes wrong here, the others will definitely come back to support us."

Yet his teammates all wore expressions that screamed, What the hell? There were twenty of them! How long could they hold out? Each person had to face five opponents. They were not Quasi-Kage! The Uzumaki Clan was not playing by the rules at all! Wasn't this kind of interception mission supposed to involve a few Jonin leading some Genin? You sent out nothing but Jonin? Were you not going to train children anymore? What would happen when the older generation died and there was no one to succeed them? They had actually sent a bunch of old Jonin to intercept them.

"Move." The Great Elder and the others exchanged glances, then shouted. Following Little Xun's arrangement, they had no time to play around with them. After dealing with this squad, they needed to deal with another.

These twenty people were practically the strongest fighters in the Land of Whirlpools.

The other Mist Ninja squads likewise encountered obstruction from the Uzumaki Clan.

"Move," the Uzumaki Ninja shouted in low voices. Their primary task was to stop them. If they could eliminate them, they would. If not, they would not force it. Their main purpose was to intercept them and prevent them from going to reinforce the others.

Meanwhile, the other Mist Ninja squads...

"Uzumaki Ninja?!" The Mist Ninja squad captain frowned at the ten Uzumaki Ninja before him. There were three Jonin, two Chunin, and five Genin. Not bad. Their four Jonin could not take them out, but they could hold them back.

Mist Ninja reinforcements would come eventually anyway.

But they did not know...

The other squads were thinking the same thing...

"Ebisu, be ready to retreat." The vanguard captain stared gravely at the Uzumaki Ninja surrounding them, standing back-to-back with his teammates. "Do not get drawn into battle."

"Captain..." Ebisu opened his mouth, about to say something, but the captain cut him off.

"Don't wait for reinforcements." The captain swept his grave gaze over the Uzumaki Ninja. Three Jonin, with the rest being Chunin and Genin. It might not have been a problem if another squad had encountered this team, but if his squad encountered them, they were finished. Their squad only had two Jonin and two Chunin. They could not fight them head-on at all! "The others are probably in the same situation as us."

They had all fallen into the Uzumaki Ninja's interception.

Yet the Uzumaki Ninja were equally dumbfounded. Why was this squad so weak? They had thought they were all Jonin. It seemed the first kill would not go to the Clan Head's team, but to them...

"Move," the Uzumaki Ninja shouted.

Dayou no longer dared to throw a tantrum. Damn it, if this kept up, he would probably lose his life here. War was truly awful. He had decided that once this mission was over, he would resign. He was done. Too many people had died. Too, too many.

The moment the Uzumaki Ninja clashed with the vanguard captain, his expression froze. "It's you!" He remembered. This Mist Ninja was from the vanguard. "With strength like this, you cannot be a nobody. Who exactly are you?"

This was definitely elite Jonin-level strength.

"Captain of the Mist Ninja Vanguard, Takeo Horiguchi."

Second update. There will be another chapter later to make up for yesterday!