The ships that were attacked always had one of two things that were of value, the first was money or anything that could earn money. This made it rather obvious that someone had some desire to get some monetary gain for some purpose that was obviously illegal, and since Isaribi lived in a shack Naruto knew it was not her. The second thing that gave ships a high probability of attack was based off of the amount of people on board, the more people who were on the ship the more likely said ship was to be attacked. It seemed that whoever wanted to attack the ships wanted one of those two things, the first was easily understandable. However the second was harder unless one was able to look deeper into several other factors.
Factors he had discovered when he had done his own investigations, when Naruto had contacted Jiraiya's informant he had found out some rather interesting and disturbing information. The first was that about eighteen years ago, one Orochimaru of the Sennin had passed through here with Anko. Apparently Anko had been found in a shack on one of the islands located off the coast, with no memory of what happened here. The fact that Orochimaru had come here was cause for concern, and what had led him to the current conclusion on what was happening here. One of Orochimaru's laboratories was still here, and someone was using it. Naruto did not believe it was the snake Sennin himself, the man had not been seen in this country for over ten years so that ruled out the possibility of it being him. However it could easily be one of the man's subordinates, someone who despite Orochimaru cutting off all ties with them had continued the work anyways.
All they would need to do now was follow Isaribi and apprehend the person responsible.
He was just about to get into bed when a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in!" Naruto called out, already knowing who it was thanks to his enhanced senses. "What can I do for you Anko-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing just figured I'd let you know that I was unable to find anything else, except that another ship is departing tomorrow," Anko said as she rubbed her seal again.
"Has it been acting up?" Naruto asked in a soft voice, startling Anko.
Said woman narrowed her eyes as she realized what he was talking about, "how do you know about that?"
Naruto snorted, "Anko everyone knows who your sensei is, it's impossible not to know with the jutsu you use. Anyways I also remember that Sasuke used it during our fight before he went to go play hide the snake in the trousers with Orochi-teme."
Anko snickered a bit at his name before letting out a sigh, deciding that she had nothing to lose in telling him, "yeah it has been acting up recently."
"How long ago did this start?" asked Naruto.
Anko moved over to sit on the couch, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around them as she spoke. "It started around the time we got into Umi No Kuni, I… I don't know why but I think it has something to do with some of the memories that have been resurfacing…"
"What kind of memories?" Naruto asked as he moved over to sit next to the woman, in case she needed to be comforted.
"There not much really, just flashes," Anko said as her eyes glazed over slightly. "Most of what I saw were the Silhouettes of people, however I do remember being in pain…" Naruto rubbed the woman's back in a soothing manner as she continued to speak, "other than that I just remember seeing the teme in the dreams, he was telling me something but I could never hear what it was."
"I see…" Naruto trailed off for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "it probably has to do with the fact that Orochimaru most has a base stationed here, or former base anyway. Since it does not seem to be acting up seriously, that probably means that the man himself is not here and it's just reacting to remnants of his presence in this land. If you'd like when we get back to Konoha I can take a look at the seal and see if I can't do something about it."
Anko's head twisted to look at him, moving so fast Naruto was surprised the woman did not break her neck. "What do mean do something about it?" she asked in a voice that was mixed between hopeful and guarded.
"I mean I could look at the seal, while a part of Orochimaru's jutsu is considered a Juinjutsu it is also part fuiinjutsu. That means that there may be a way to get rid of the seal, or at the very least counter its affects so that it seems negligible," Naruto explained.
"So you can get rid of the teme's seal?" Anko asked as she brought her hand back to her curse mark. She had always hated this thing, and not just because of how it acted up sometimes. She had always felt tainted by it, like Orochimaru still owned her because of it.
"To be honest I'm not one hundred percent sure," Naruto said with a shrug. "However I am positive that if given enough time I can work something out, I know I can at least make a better seal then the one you have." Naruto was silent for a moment before sitting up and stretching, "anyways it's getting pretty late. We should get some rest since we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Naruto moved over to his bed, "Good night Anko."
Anko stood up, "good night gaki, and thanks." Anko walked out of Naruto's room and moved into her own, lying down on the bed she let sleep claim her.
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The next morning the four had gotten up bright and early, and had made their way over to the shack where Isaribi lived. Naruto made sure that they stayed within the tree line just off the beach, so that the girl would not see them as she left. Because of how early they had gotten there it was a several hour wait until the girl finally made her appearance. She walked out of her shack and went over to the ocean, which was when Naruto and the others got to see her transformation.
She looked like a cross between a human and a fish, in many ways she reminded Naruto of Kisame Hoashigaki. She had light blue scales all over her body, which Naruto saw had spread out from her bandaged areas. Her ears looked like small fins; they had small spikes at the end and looked webbed. Likewise her hands and feet had the same webbed look. Her hair was like a giant fin that spread back, looking similar to hair but scaly and webbed. She looked every part the sea monster, with the sole exception of her eyes.
Once the girl jumped into the water Naruto and his team shot off, following the girl. Naruto using his advanced senses and water affinity to feel the current the girl was making while she swam, allowing him to track her to a string of islands. Eventually they got to one of the islands and the blond shinobi could no longer pick up the currents, he assumed she had gone through an underwater entrance of some kind. He turned to his team to give out orders.
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