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 Hideyoshis role in helping Nobuna. Meanwhile, the Daimyo of Mino, Dōsan Saitō, calls for a meeting with Nobuna over an alliance. Dōsans 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. During the meeting, Nobuna reveals to Dōsan of her dreams for Japan and Yoshiharu reveals to him how will history view him in the future if he accept the alliance. Impressed by Yoshiharus speech, he agrees to ally with the Oda clan by making Nobuna his heir.

Dōsans son Yoshitatsu launches a coup détat against his father for allying with Nobuna. Despite Nobunas 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 Dōsans daughter Kichō, who Dōsans entrusts her well being and his dreams to Nobuna as he prepares for a last stand near a river. Katsuie is forced to knockout Nobuna to prevent her from doing anything rash. Not wishing to see Nobuna sad over Dōsans death, Yoshiharu, Goemon and a small group rescues Dōsan and his men as they escape to Owari from Yoshitatsus forces through the river. Despite Yoshitatsu attempts to kill them, they are force to retreat when the Oda army saves Yoshiharus group. As Nobuna berates Yoshiharu for his foolishness, everyone is soon informed that Yoshimoto and her army have invaded into Owari.

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 Minos secret tactician. Dōsans tells Yoshiharu, Mitsuhide, Goemon and Inuchiyo where they can find Hanbē and convince Hanbē to join the Oda army. Upon reaching Hanbēs 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 whos side he will join. However, the test is a ruse as the man claiming to be Hanbē is Hanbēs Shikigami familiar and the real Hanbē is a shy, young girl who hates violence. Meanwhile, Hanbēs uncle is arrested by Yoshitatsu as he is suspicious on Hanbē refusal to come and swear loyalty in front of him and using battle strategies with the least amount of bloodshed and orders Hanbē to come to Inabayama castle or her uncle will be killed. Having a plan to save her uncle, Yoshiharu and Nagamasa accompany Hanbē to meet Yoshitatsu while Mitsuhide, Goemon and Inuchiyo rescue her uncle. Despite her pleas she will never betray him, Yoshitatsu refuses to believe Hanbē as he sees her strategies of sparing her enemies lives as treason. As Yoshiharu calls out Yoshitatsu for treating Hanbē horribly, his allies manage to rescue Hanbēs uncle and attempt to escape. However, Yoshitatsu has taken Hanbē hostage which the frighten girl summons her familiars which defeat Yoshitatsu and his men. After finally escaping, Hanbē swears her loyalty to Yoshiharu after being touched by his kindness and his loyalty to achieve Nobunas dream.

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 timelines 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 Nagamasas bride except "Oichi" is Nobusumi who is forced to dress up as a girl. As the Oda army and their allies marches west to Kyoto, defeating rival clans who opposed them, Yoshiharu, Hanbē, Goemon and Inuchiyo scout ahead to Kyoto to find Himiko, the Empress of Japan. With Kyoto in a state of lawlessness, Yoshiharu and Inuchiyo saves a young girl being kidnapped by bandits, who unknown to them is actually Himiko. Meanwhile, the Miyoshi Three are trying to find Himiko and stopping the Oda threat by sending Hisahide "Danjyou" Matsunaga to find Himiko and Yoshikage Asakura, the Daimyo of Echizen to deal with the Oda army with their new ally. As Himiko, Yoshiharu and Inuchiyo sees the death and suffering of the people in the city, they help Portuguese missionary Louis Frois and her bodyguard Bontenmaru from bandits. Learning from Louis who wishes to have permission to travel the country to help the suffering, Himiko, who has psychic powers and knows that Yoshiharu is from the future, asks him if the country will get better which he assures her it will and Nobuna will be the one to save it. Yoshiharu and Inuchiyo are stunned by a magic spell by Danjyou but Himiko saves their lives after promising Danjyou she will return to the royal palace. After reuniting with Hanbē and Goemon, Yoshiharu sends Himiko back to her home but not before he realizes who she is. Nobunas army finally arrives to Kyoto, restoring order to the city.

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 doesnt 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 Jubeis 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 shes worried about her mother and Dōsans safety. Nagahide and Katsuie lead the Oda army back to the east, unaware its a ruse by the Miyoshi Three to allow them to kill Yoshimoto and Nobuna. Nobuna decides to follow Yoshiharus advice and tasks Jubei and her army to protect Yoshimoto in Kyoto. But Nobuna soon learns from Hanbē, Goemon and Inuchiyo that Yoshiharu has been kidnapped by Zenjuurou, who is using Yoshiharu as bait to kill Nobuna by sniping her. When Nagahide and Katsuie learns from Hanzō they have been tricked, Danjyous forces have attack Kyoto and Danjyou confronts Jubei who is protecting Yoshimoto. As Danjyou uses Jubeis insecurities to put her under a spell, it is broken by Nobuna and the others, who escape Zenjuurou shot thanks to Yoshiharu. Unfazed, Danjyou has her men surround Nobuna and her allies but help arrives when Bontemaru, Louis and the Christian Daimyos come to save them. Shocked that even the persecuted Christians are willing to help Nobuna, Danjyou surrenders. With Yoshimoto as Shogun, Himiko has Nobuna at her court, telling her that she will be a great leader after reading Yoshiharus mind and his loyalty to her.

As the Asai/Asakura armies continue to chase after the remnants of Yoshiharus 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 Yoshiharus death, Jubei attacks but is blow off the cliff by Yoshitatsus cannon. Meanwhile, Nobuna survived her assassination thanks to Yoshiharus 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 Yoshiharus death which Danjyou gives her a potion. In her dreams, Nobuna is marrying Yoshiharu with her friends and family attending only for it to end on his funeral which wakes her up. Upon learning about Yoshiharus and Jubeis death and her armies are facing the Asai army outside Kyoto, she is convinced by Danjyou to live to avenge Yoshiharu and Jubei which Nobuna vows the Miyoshi Three and their allies will die much to Nagahides shock. As a ruthless Nobuna and her armies forces the scared Asai army to retreat, she has Tennōji burned down to forced out the leaders of the Miyoshi Three which shocks Imai and Louis. With the Miyoshi Three and Asakura army hold up in Hiei temple, Nobuna plans to burn the area down but Nagahide and Katsuie are against it as Hiei is a religious area and burning it will turn the people against them. Tsuda is sent by Sakihisa with a message for Nobuna which he insults her over Yoshiharus death and tells her go home or she and her retainers will die. Angered by Sakihisas message, Nobuna orders her forces to attack which a reluctant Nagahide and Katsuie comply.