The Ambition of Oda Nobuna

Yoshiharu Sagara finds himself in the Sengoku era and his life saved by the sacrifice of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. When he saves a teenage girl from enemy soldiers, he is surprised to discover that the girl is a female Nobunaga Oda named Nobuna Oda, the Daimyo of Owari. Furthermore, he also discovers some of the historical warlords of this era are female as well. As a reward of saving her life, Nobuna makes Yoshiharu her retainer but she, including her other servants Katsuie Shibata, Nagahide Niwa and Inuchiyo Maeda, are skeptical of his claims that he is from the future. Nevertheless, he vows to take over Hideyoshi's role in helping Nobuna. Meanwhile, the Daimyo of Mino, Dōsan Saitō, calls for a meeting with Nobuna over an alliance. Dōsan's servant Mitsuhide Akechi attempts an ambush on the Oda delegation but her plans are thwarted by Yoshiharu who convinces Nobuna to have her troops prepare their rifles.

Yoshiharu gets into trouble after he hits Nobukatsu Oda, Nobuna's younger brother after the latter insulted his sister. Nobukatsu demands his head as punishment but Nobuna can save Yoshiharu's life if she makes him a general but he must first prove his worth by assigning him to gather 8,000 koku of rice in a week. Using his marketing strategy of buying low and selling high, Yoshiharu manages to gather enough gold to buy the rice four times more than he was tasked in a week thanks to his ninja servant Goemon Hachisuka and Inuchiyo's help. However, Nobukatsu launches a rebellion after being convinced by his advisers that his sister is not fit to rule the clan. But Nobukatsu's rebellion is quickly and peacefully stopped after Nobuna's forces surround Nobukatsu's castle where Yoshiharu and the soldiers shout rally cries that scares Nobukatsu into submission.

Dōsan's son Yoshitatsu launches a coup d'état against his father for allying with Nobuna. Despite Nobuna's wish to send reinforcements, everyone knows they cannot do it for it will allow the Daimyo of Suruga, Yoshimoto Imagawa, the opportunity to invade Owari. Meanwhile, the Daimyo of Oumi, Nagamasa Asai meets with Nobuna to propose an alliance between their clans which will allow her armies to help Dōsan while his armies protect her borders against the Imagawa clan in exchange she marries him. However, Yoshiharu and the others loathes Nagamasa as he threatens to ally with the Imagawas if Nobuna refuses and he does not care about her feelings and is only interested with the benefits he gains as her husband. Yoshiharu, Katsuie, Nagahide and Inuchiyo convinces Nobuna to decline his offer. Not soon after that, Mitsuhide arrives with Dōsan's daughter Kichō, who Dōsan's entrusts her well being and his dreams to Nobuna as he prepares for a last stand near a river.

Nobuna fires Yoshiharu, blaming his actions that gave the Imagawas the chance to invade Owari. Yoshiharu becomes depress but Dōsan reveals to him the reason Nobuna fired him was because the people she cared had die and doesn't want the same fate happening to him. Encouraged by Dōsan to continue helping Nobuna, Yoshiharu heads out with his men, Goemon, Inuchiyo, Nobusumi and his female bodyguards to find Okehazama, where Yoshimoto's camp is located and where Nobunaga defeated the Imagawas in his timeline. After finding the camp, Nobusumi and his bodyguards distract Yoshimoto's men so that Yoshiharu can give the camp's location to his sister. However, Yoshiharu's entourage are confronted by ninjas lead by Hanzō Hattori. Despite the others holding them off, Hanzō captures Yoshiharu but the latter manages to convinces Hanzō to let him go as if Yoshimoto's is defeated, his master, Motoyasu Matsudaira, will no longer be a vassal of the Imagawa clan.

After forming an alliance with Motoyasu, the Oda army begin their attack to reclaim Mino from Yoshitatsu. However, their attempts are repeatedly thwarted by Hanbē Takenaka, an Onmyōji and Mino's secret tactician. Dōsan's tells Yoshiharu, Mitsuhide, Goemon and Inuchiyo where they can find Hanbē and convince Hanbē to join the Oda army. Upon reaching Hanbē's home, they soon discover Nagamasa is there as well to convince Hanbē to join his side, hoping to use this to make Nobuna marry him. Yoshiharu and Nagamasa are greeted by a man claiming to be Hanbē who has them take a test that will convince him who's side he will join. However, the test is a ruse as the man claiming to be Hanbē is Hanbē's Shikigami familiar and the real Hanbē is a shy, young girl who hates violence.

Nobuna plans to build a castle at Sunomata near Nagara River which would allow her to conquer Mino. Despite Yoshiharu wishes to lead the task, Nobuna refuses and assign it to her other Generals as not to be seen playing favorites. However, Sunomata is near Inabayama castle and their attempts to build are repelled by Yoshitatsu's forces. Reluctantly giving the task to Yoshiharu, Nobuna and Katsuie leads most of the Oda army to Kisogawa to divert Yoshitatsu's attention while Yoshiharu, Hanbē, Mitsuhide, Goemon and Inuchiyo leads a small force to secretly a build a castle at Sunomata during the night. Meanwhile, Yoshitatsu's Generals Inaba and Ujiie are starting to question their lord's leadership after Hanbē's defection. Yoshitatsu sends Inaba and Ujiie to lure Nobuna's forces at an abandoned gold mine in a valley. Unknown to everyone, Yoshitatsu real plan is to kill everyone there by trapping them in the valley after setting it on fire.

Kyoto, the capital city of the Ashikaga shoguns, is attacked by a group of conspirators called The Miyoshi Three; Sakihisa Konoe, Soukyuu Tsuda and Gousei Shoukakuin. Yoshiharu is stumped when he learns, unlike his timeline's history, Shogun Yoshiteru Ashikaga survived the attack at Kyoto and has fled Japan with Yoshiaki, his youngest sibling who is a girl in this timeline. Without an Ashikaga clan member, Nobuna cannot legitimately claim Kyoto but Mitsuhide suggests they make Yoshimoto the new Shogun as she is a relative of the Ashikagas. Nagamasa returns to Owari, begging Nobuna to marry him since he cannot return home until he does. After promising an alliance with no strings attached, Nobuna gives away her sister "Oichi" to be Nagamasa's bride except "Oichi" is Nobusumi who is forced to dress up as a girl.

Sakihisa demands 120,000 kan from Nobuna or the imperial court will not recognize Yoshimoto as the new Shogun so Nobuna and Yoshiharu heads off to the neutral merchant city of Sakai. While the Oda army defends Kyoto from Danjyou and Yoshitatsu's forces, Nobuna meets with Soukyuu Imai, the leader of the Egoushuu, the merchants who control Sakai. Imai agrees to help her but the rest of the Egoushuu particularly Soukyuu Tsuda, won't since they don't like him for having a monopoly on the city's takoyaki stands. After having a meeting with Tsuda and the Egoushuu, Tsuda will help pay Nobuna's debt to Sakihisa for a part of the takoyaki market. To make things more interesting, a cooking contest will be held between Yoshiharu and Jubei where they will both cook takoyaki for Tsuda to buy, which no matter who wins, Nobuna still gets her money. Also, Imai and Tsuda are also betting on both cooks respectively which if Jubei wins, Tsuda gets an important position within the Egoushuu.

As the Oda faction prepares Yoshimoto as the new Shogun, Yoshiharu ask the others to forgive Jubei, fearing the worsening relationship between her and Nobuna will lead to the Honnō-ji incident. Meanwhile, Jubei apologies to Imai over the contest but doesn't understand why Nobuna is angry at her. Imai explains that Nobuna treats her retainers like her family because she has a poor relationship with her mother and seeing Jubei's horrible attitude on the others reminded her of that. Later, the Oda faction learns the Takeda and Uesugi clans have made peace and probably planning to attack Owari and Mino from the east. Not expecting this, Yoshiharu asks Nobuna not to send all of their forces to deal with the Takeda/Uesugi alliance when Yoshimoto is about to become Shogun but she refuses to listen as she's worried about her mother and Dōsan's safety. Nagahide and Katsuie lead the Oda army back to the east, unaware it's a ruse by the Miyoshi Three to allow them to kill Yoshimoto and Nobuna.

While many clans have accepted Yoshimoto as the new Shogun, there are still some who refuses to acknowledge her, particular those allied with the Miyoshi Three. Despite having Danjyou as their ally, they don't have enough proof to arrest the ringleaders of the Miyoshi Three. Because the Asai and Asakura clans are allies, Nobuna decides to attack Wakasa rather than Echizen to scare the Asakuras rather than risk provoking the Asais. Meanwhile in Ōmi, Nobusumi discovers that Nagamasa is a woman, having forced to hide her gender because her father Hisamasa refuses to accept a woman as a Daimyo. Nobusumi comforts Nagamasa that she can act like a woman when she's with him since he's her husband. As the Oda army and their allies crosses Ōmi to attack Wakasa, Yoshiharu stays in Kyoto to care a sick Hanbē.

As the Asai/Asakura armies continue to chase after the remnants of Yoshiharu's forces, he mourns for the men who died for his sake but is convinced by Hanzō and Zenki to continue living. As he is cornered by Yoshitatsu near a cliff, Yoshiharu begs him to spare his men in exchange for his life which the former agrees. As Yoshitatsu is about to shoot him with his cannon, Jubei, Inuchiyo and Motoyasu arrive to save him only for Hanzō to blow up Yoshiharu with a bomb to save him the humiliation of being killed by the enemy. Angered by Yoshiharu's death, Jubei attacks but is blow off the cliff by Yoshitatsu's cannon. Meanwhile, Nobuna survived her assassination thanks to Yoshiharu's phone which stopped the bullet but remains unconscious while she dreams worrying about Yoshiharu. In order for Nobuna to live and wake up, she must accept Yoshiharu's death which Danjyou gives her a potion.

As the Oda forces attack Hiei, Nobuna charges in to kill Sakihisa. As Imai, Louis and Inuchiyo explains everything to Hanbē since she was sick, she realizes Yoshiharu is still alive thanks to Hanzō and Zenki faking his death. While Dōsan and Motoyasu men searches for Yoshiharu, Jubei, who survived her fall, finds the injured Yoshiharu and mend his wounds. Much to Gousei's horror, Sakihisa has ordered explosions detonated around Hiei to not only trap Nobuna in the fire but to blame the incident on Nobuna to make the people turn against her. After being knocked out by one of the explosions, Nobuna remembers her promise to Yoshiharu to never become a ruthless leader and vows to not let her desire for revenge control her. With the mountain on fire and Sakihisa having betrayed them, Tsuda and Gousei reveals everything to Hanbē while the Asakura army abandons Sakihisa. Nagahide, Danjyou and Katsuie holds off Yoshitatsu to allow Nobuna to face off against Sakihisa.