Elder Keimei rose to report the intelligence he had gathered. Facing the center of the round table, he formed Hand Seals.
"Sealing Scroll: Release!"
During a minor clash between the Uzumaki Clan and Kirigakure, our Uzushio Ninja of the Land of Whirlpools had been ambushed because of our ignorance of the sea and the terrain. We paid for it in blood.
The First Uzukage had immediately taken the matter seriously. What he brought out now was a summary of the Land of Whirlpools' geography, compiled from his own research and the model he had made.
He had fashioned an intricate battlefield model out of clay. The sea, Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools, the shortcut routes, and Kirigakure in the Land of Water across the ocean were all represented in different colors.
He had also fired clay into little figures of all kinds to represent prominent members of both sides. Among them was a small figurine of Uzumaki Shori.
"Second Uzukage, this model shows that the Land of Whirlpools is surrounded by water on all sides. Kirigakure has gathered at the Land of Water's border and prepared ten large sailing ships. They have deployed over four thousand ninja, and the forces across the water should finish assembling in about four days."
"The Uzumaki Clan can only field eight hundred ninja. We have no large sailing ships, and the Land of Whirlpools is quite close to the Land of Fire."
"Our small fishing boats are perfectly adequate for our daily travel. But because the Land of Whirlpools is an island nation and we've had repeated minor clashes with Kirigakure, we also have three hundred medium-sized fishing boats. Each can carry fifty people if they're packed in tightly."
Uzumaki Shori studied the terrain model, never having expected his father to draw up such a decisive tool. The Uzumaki Clan in the Land of Whirlpools could field eight hundred ninja.
The Land of Fire lay to the west of the Land of Whirlpools, close by. To the east was the Uzumaki Clan's enemy, Kirigakure, a great distance away. It took a day to sail from the Land of Water's border to the Land of Whirlpools.
There were countless islands, reefs, and undercurrents, and the terrain was complicated, with vast distances between them. We absolutely couldn't let the war reach land. The Land of Whirlpools was flat as a board; if Kirigakure managed to land, we'd lose.
We had so many fishing boats. We could only say the heavens were helping us. The terrain model was detailed enough to be worth a thousand ninja, but we still had two thousand two hundred ninja to deal with. He closed his eyes and pondered, trying to spark a brainstorm.
"Elder Keimei, aside from the ninja, how many people can the Uzumaki Clan mobilize? This is the time for the whole clan to work together."
Uzumaki Shiro looked grave. Killing intent radiated from him as he clenched his fist.
"Second Uzukage Shori, I disagree with sending people without chakra to the battlefield. Before an opponent's chakra runs out, ordinary people have no way to fight back against a Genin. They can only be used as target practice."
The atmosphere in the main hall of Uzukage Hall grew tense as well. Uzumaki Shori gestured for everyone to calm down, then confidently began demonstrating Sealing Jutsu to the captains and elders.
"Sealing Scroll: Chakra Capacitor."
By using a Sealing Scroll to store chakra, Uzumaki Shori could easily create technology from a later era by combining the knowledge in his mind with the Sealing Jutsu level he had just gained.
The Chakra Capacitor could store a ninja's jutsu in a scroll. Once stored, it could reproduce the power of the original user's jutsu.
When they needed to attack, they only had to touch the sealing formula. They could release the jutsu without using their own chakra.
Of course, Uzumaki Shori's Sealing Jutsu level wasn't high enough yet to store jutsu. For now, he could only store chakra with a specific nature.
Uzumaki Sasuke, the captain of the Sixth Guard, was passionate about Sealing Jutsu. The First Uzukage had entrusted him with all of the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu to study.
He hoped to develop a ninjutsu on the same level as the Reaper Death Seal, one that wouldn't require the caster to sacrifice his life to the Death God.
Watching Second Uzukage Uzumaki Shori perform the Sealing Jutsu left him stunned. The Uzumaki Clan had never used a Sealing Jutsu like this before. His scalp prickled, and his whole body trembled. Uzumaki Sasuke took a deep breath to steady himself.
"Second Uzukage, please entrust this Sealing Jutsu to me. I'll surely develop even more powerful Sealing Jutsu from it."
Uzumaki Shiro watched the Second Uzukage's Sealing Jutsu, unable to see what it had to do with the Uzumaki Clan. Ordinary people only had a small amount of chakra in their bodies.
As for the scroll, which could only store chakra with a specific nature for now, its existence made no difference to them. He hesitated, unsure whether he should say so.
"Our Uzumaki Clan has twenty-one thousand people, including two thousand eight hundred elderly people and three thousand five hundred children."
"We can gather a force of fourteen thousand. It may look like more than Kirigakure has, but we're no match for them in combat strength."
At that moment, after creating the Chakra Capacitor, Uzumaki Shori's thoughts were entirely different from everyone else's. In this world of ninja,
everyone treated chakra as a means of using jutsu. I came from Blue Star, so I could combine technology with chakra.
In my view, it worked on the same principle as an Explosive Tag. We could make a launcher and use Earth Release: Hardening Technique to harden it. We'd also need to make combat headgear packed with gunpowder and metal fragments.
We could fit a Sealing Scroll inside the launcher, pack it with gunpowder, and secure it in place. Ordinary people would only need to make the launcher, gunpowder, and metal fragments. The ninja could handle sealing and assembly.
The fuse would transmit chakra, drawing out the fire-nature chakra from the scroll to detonate the gunpowder inside the launcher in stages. The projectile would strike the launcher's inner string, causing the fire-nature chakra inside the Rocket to amplify the gunpowder's power, which would then ignite the enhanced gunpowder and turn it into kinetic energy.
The Rocket Launcher would rise into the air, and the second-stage explosion would begin, accelerating it forward to blast along a designated route.
We would mount the Rocket Launchers on our fishing boats. Each launcher would use twenty-four I-Beam Launch Rails, arranged in two staggered rows of twelve.
I'd name it the "Katyusha Rocket Launcher" of the sea.
"Let me finish first," Uzumaki Shori replied.
As he spoke, Uzumaki Shori drew up plans for everyone and explained how to connect the launch tubes in parallel.
"Everyone, this is a secret of the Uzumaki Clan. We'll have to rely on this secret weapon in the naval battle."
"Now, recruit the whole clan to manufacture the launchers. The ninja can use jutsu to speed up production. The enemy needs four days to assemble, and we'll ambush them among the islands along the way. We only have three days: half a day to set out, and half a day to prepare the ambush."
Elder Keimei watched everyone present, all full of excitement, but he himself wasn't very happy.
Yes, it was worth celebrating that the launcher could defeat the enemy with long-range fire. But how many could they make in just three days?
They might barely make enough to deal with the Chunin and Genin, and inflict some damage on the enemy's numbers of higher-ranking ninja. But it would be useless against the top fighters.
Kirigakure had more ninja than they did, and the launchers only helped make up for the gap among the lower ranks of the pyramid.
How were they supposed to deal with the Mizukage, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the Yuki Clan leader, and the Kaguya Clan leader—all top fighters?
They couldn't afford to undermine morale any further.
Before you continue