They woke up at dawn the next day. As soon as she saw that everyone was more or less conscious, she took out a bento and started explaining her plan while they ate.
"We have a couple of hours before departure, so here's what we'll do. Shino, Naruto, you two will find Isaribi and follow her. If we're right and she is the sea monster, I want you to capture her," she ordered. Both nodded with serious expressions. "Sasuke and I will go to the port and try to talk to the locals to find out more about the disappearances the man mentioned yesterday."
"You plan to investigate the connection between the monster, Isaribi, and the disappearances," Shino thought aloud.
"Exactly. After yesterday's confrontation between those ninjas and Isaribi, I have serious doubts that she's robbing and attacking the ships of her own free will. If that's the case, these ninjas who are using Isaribi must have a base somewhere."
"And what about Orochimaru?"
"We don't know if he's here or not, but let's assume he is and be careful. If he's somewhere, it must be where the disappearances occurred. Another reason to find out where that base is."
"Yosh! Let's go as soon as possible!"
"Eat your food first, dobe," Sasuke rolled his eyes.
They ate quickly, full of energy and eager to leave the inn. Naruto and Shino said goodbye and left to find Isaribi while Sasuke and she headed to the port. There were quite a few people for the hour, considering that most were terrified to go out fishing.
"Who should we ask?"
"Mmm... Maybe a fisherman?"
"Excuse me," Sasuke called to the first fisherman they found. "Do you know anything about the disappearances everyone talks about?"
"Why do you ask?" he replied suspiciously. Then he saw their ninja headbands. "Ah, ninjas. I don't want to talk about that."
"Could you at least tell us when the disappearances started and when the problems with the sea monster began?" she asked.
"...Ten years ago," the man muttered, picking up the net from the ground. "A couple of years later, the sea monster appeared, and the rest is history."
They walked away, seeing he didn't want to talk anymore. Sasuke glanced at her.
"Why didn't you ask him about Isaribi?"
"Because if he suspects we're interested in her, he might conclude that Isaribi is the monster and take matters into his own hands, complicating the mission. Besides, there are many people here to ask. We can intersperse questions so no one suspects what we're trying to corroborate."
And so, they asked a few people who were willing to talk. Fear made people very reluctant to speak up. At least until they found out their mission was to get rid of the thing they were so afraid of. It wasn't until half an hour before departure that they got lucky. They met a woman accompanied by her elderly mother.
"There was a time when we ran out of fish, so we tried our luck on Kikai Island. Legend says that island is full of demons and that everyone who goes near it disappears."
She explained how she and her husband tried their luck at the island's reef. Apparently, she returned home with a haul, but without her husband. The interesting part was that this happened ten years ago, exactly what the first fisherman had said. According to several people, Isaribi had returned to the village between one and two years after her disappearance.
"It's clear there's a connection."
"Nee-chan!" Naruto shouted at that moment. "It was her!"
"Did you capture her?"
"That Yoroi guy took her away," her brother growled.
"Come here. There's no point in chasing after her," she ordered. She turned to Sasuke. "Let's find Hitode's boat."
They headed to the boat. Seina discreetly summoned a few birds for aerial surveillance to avoid surprises. Thanks to a conjured seagull, she saw Naruto and Shino running towards the port. When they were all together, Naruto caught his breath and explained and showed what had happened.
"What do we do now?" her brother asked.
"Now that we know it's connected, they'll probably attack the boat," Shino nodded.
"Not only that. Orochimaru is definitely involved in all this."
"But we have a lead," Sasuke reminded her, nudging her. "The disappearances happened around Kikai Island. That's probably where the base is."
"Possibly. What matters now is protecting the ships," she reminded them. "I think I know how to make it so they can't attack the ship. All I need to do is make them unnoticed."
"Genjutsu?" Shino asked.
"Let's say yes..."
What she planned to do was to get the entire crew on their boats and then use a spell to divert attention. They were quite easy to use. In fact, she was an expert at using them due to her former and unwanted fame. Once they reached their destination and could complete the contract, they wouldn't have to worry about the boats or Hitode and they could go after Isaribi and the others.
"Let's go. I'll explain my plan to Hitode."
She had everyone board the ships and then cast the spell on each of them. She quickly saw how the people on land started looking away, unable to see what was right in front of them. She jumped onto the ship and signaled Hitode that they could set sail. The journey, thanks to her spell, passed quite quickly. She saw with her seagulls and other birds how Isaribi appeared transformed in the middle of the sea, confused by the lack of ships. Then, Yoroi appeared as well, along with a guy wearing a white doctor's coat. Then, to everyone's surprise, he transformed into another sea monster.
"Look!" said a sailor, pointing at the water. "It's the monster!"
"No! There are two monsters! Over there!"
She was grateful she had also silenced the ships, rolling her eyes discreetly. Didn't they know that yelling only drew attention?
"Now is the perfect time!" urged another sailor.
"No. We know where their base is. Our mission now is to protect the ship and facilitate the payment to the Land of Water," she refused. "We'll deal with them later."
She saw some of them open their mouths to complain and order her around, with arrogant expressions. She felt a tic in her eyebrow as she realized they were underestimating her because she was young and, on top of that, a woman. To dissuade them, she let out a slight killing intent. Everyone paled and shut their mouths immediately. When she noticed the trembling and how one man seemed about to wet himself, she relented.
"We know exactly what our mission is," Seina said in a silky voice, looking over her shoulder. "As I said, we'll deal with them later, once Hitode-san has paid Kirigakure. Until then, let's continue the journey without drawing too much attention."
The sailors returned to work in silence, avoiding her and her teammates. She saw how Sasuke had shot them piercing glances, as had Naruto, and how Shino stood as straight as a statue with the sun shining on his dark glasses. Seina leaned against the ship's forecastle, half-ignoring them.
"What are we going to do with their base once the payment is made?" Sasuke asked.
"We need to capture at least Isaribi, or our mission won't be complete. Besides, it seems there's another person with the same transformation," she sighed, remembering.
"I'm sure Isaribi is just a victim in all this!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Lower your voice, dobe," Sasuke hissed, giving him a smack. "Do you want the whole ship to know we know who the monster is? What do you think they'd do if they knew, huh?"
"Sasuke is right. The villagers clearly resent her," Shino nodded. "If you really want to save her, it's best no one knows the truth."
"Alright. Here's what we'll do. We'll capture Isaribi, and we'll also try to capture the other transformed guy. Orochimaru's minions, Yoroi, and the other guy, we'll eliminate or capture them. If all goes well, we'll enter their base to see if there's anyone else alive besides Isaribi."
"Do you think that's possible?"
"It's been ten years, but you never know," she shrugged. "Besides, we'll try to take all the documentation possible if it exists. Finally, we'll destroy the base so it can't be used again."
"Great. We have a plan," Sasuke stretched, seeing the coast approach.
"I'm going to talk to Hitode. He's the one carrying the money, so we'll have to protect him until he delivers it. They might be waiting for us on land."
Seina approached the man. She explained what was going to happen: how she would put him under a "genjutsu" so no one would see him, how she would personally accompany him to deliver the payment while her team watched the ships, and how their part of the mission would end at that moment. Once Hitode paid the fee to the Land of Water, his protection would no longer be her team's responsibility but that of the Kirigakure ninjas.
Minutes later, Seina and her client, both under the enchantment, disembarked discreetly, surrounded by the others. She stayed at his back, watching with her birds and the vision provided by Sasuke and Naruto through their mental connection. Even so, nothing happened. As soon as they reached the meeting point, she deactivated the spell and followed him inside.
"Good morning!" the client greeted cheerfully. "I'm Hitode, in charge of the payments."
"I see you made it," said a Kirigakure ninja, with some sarcasm. Interestingly, he didn't look down on her because of her age, but because she was from Konoha. Incredible.
He wore the typical Kiri uniform, with matching dark gray armor and protections, and a sweater and pants of the same color, though a couple of shades darker. He had black hair and gray eyes. There was practically nothing special about him, except for his serious and slightly malicious expression. His team accompanied him. A boy looking disinterestedly out the window and another shy-looking boy with glasses and white hair. She saw his gaze divert, somewhat blushing, when she gave them the customary once-over.
"Here you go."
Seina paid close attention to how he counted the money and the postures of the Kiri ninjas. It wasn't that they had an open war, but they weren't friends either. Though they weren't enemies either. She observed the sword covered in bandages on the shy boy's back and suddenly thought of Zabuza and Raiga. She avoided showing curiosity, standing silently next to the client. Once the jonin gave the go-ahead and pocketed the money, Hitode turned to her.
"Thank you very much for your work, Seina-san."
She nodded her head, accepting the gratitude.
"From now on, we will take over your protection," the jonin informed, his eyes fixed on her. "If the Konoha team can deal with the threat, of course."
She smiled, unable to resist the jonin's childish provocations. Despite being only 12 years old, newly turned, it didn't mean she was a child. She stifled a laugh to reply.
"Thank you for worrying about us," she said, amused. Then she winked. "I know you won't sleep a wink tonight."
Hitode stifled a chuckle that everyone heard. She refrained from saying aloud that at least they weren't as incompetent. She gave Hitode a slight bow and left in a whirl of leaves. She preferred not to turn her back on them if she could help it. She appeared next to Naruto and the others, who were waiting bored for her arrival. As soon as they saw her, without the spell, they straightened up.
"All set. It's up to them now."
She lifted the spell from the ships, ignoring the confused faces of some, who looked at the boats wondering how they hadn't seen them arrive. Luckily, the spell didn't work like invisibility, so it wasn't as jarring as her bracelet.
"I'm starving!" Naruto complained.
"Let's go eat at a restaurant. Then we'll have to continue the mission."
They ate fish, of course. They avoided talking about the mission, aware that they weren't the only ninjas in Haha, so they ate in silence. A while later, still in broad daylight, they went out in search of a place to talk alone. They ended up on the other side of the port, away from Hitode's ships where the Kirigakure ninjas would be. She used a couple of spells to prevent eavesdropping and they sat down to talk.
"Alright. It's time to complete this mission. We'll go straight to Kikai Island. If it's the base, as we think, we'll infiltrate it. It makes sense that Yoroi, the other guy in the lab coat, and Isaribi will be there, so it'll be easier to go straight to the source than to hunt them down one by one."
"How are we going to get to the island?" Shino asked.
"I'll have one of my summons fly over the area and drop a sealed stone. Then I'll transport us there using the hiraishin," she informed them. "Since I have another seal at the first port, once we complete the mission, we can easily return with the prisoners."
"Sounds good," Sasuke nodded.
"Once we're on Kikai Island, here's what we'll do. I'll send some summons along with Shino's kikaichu to detect traps and sketch a map of the entrances to the base. We'll also check if our enemies are inside. Once my summon find a hidden spot, I'll transport us inside."
"When do we start?" her brother asked eagerly.
"Right now. Kuchiyose no jutsu."
Her trusty seagull appeared, perched on a rock. She handed it a stone with the hiraishin seal and sent it flying towards Kikai Island, the farthest one. They waited a while for her summon to complete its task, with her partially observing its progress whenever she focused. Half an hour later, the seagull reached the island. She guided it to drop the stone in a small clearing surrounded by dense trees. She let it stay there, observing the enemy base.
"Let's go," she stood up.
"Finally!"
She undid the spells and let them take her hands and arm. A second later, they appeared on Kikai Island. She grabbed Shino's arm, supporting him when she saw him wobble from experiencing the teleportation jutsu for the first time. They quickly surveyed the area where they had landed, but there was nothing special. She used a stick and a spell to locate the entrance to the base, much to Shino's silent amazement.
"There it is," she indicated. As soon as they descended to the rocks, they saw the entrance to a cave. "Shino."
"Hai."
She sent a couple of insects to accompany Shino. They observed, from the branches of a tree facing the cave entrance, the tunnels dug inside the mountain.
"…do! You said the ship was leaving today!" a voice shouted.
Seina had her summon move closer to spy more comfortably. She opened the connection so Naruto and Sasuke could see what was happening. Shino must have been listening to everything, like her, thanks to his kikaichu.
"I saw the messenger with the money! The ships were supposed to sail today! I swear, I saw it!" Isaribi cried, on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry, but you didn't fulfill our agreement."
"But you promised to return me to normal! I've given you everything you asked for!"
"But not those ships. We've lost part of our funding because of you. Still, you'll have more opportunities to make it right."
"Then you'll return my old body?"
"Sure. Do it right, and I'll think about it in a few weeks."
Seina watched the three people in the middle of the hallway. They were Yoroi's companion and the guy in the white coat, along with Isaribi. It was clear they were manipulating her, using her to do the dirty work in exchange for "returning" her to normal. Pure blackmail. From the way the doctor talked, they had no intention of letting her go, nor helping her. Still, now it was clear that Isaribi was a victim, so they would capture her without harming her. The guy in the coat should also be captured since he seemed to know or be responsible for Isaribi's transformation. He likely had information about Orochimaru's experiments. As for the other two… they were expendable, but she would try to capture them if possible.
"I'm going to use the hiraishin," she informed them, seeing another summon had reached what seemed to be a laboratory.
She took her team and reappeared inside the base. They silently observed the transformed, unrecognizable corpses of the missing people inside vertical glass tanks filled with liquid. Shortly after, she heard the barefoot steps of what seemed to be Isaribi, behind them. She gestured for them to hide on either side of the entrance. The door opened, and they saw her enter, looking side to side. Had she detected them? She hadn't used any spell or her bracelet, so it was possible.
She threw a sealed kunai on the ground, drawing Isaribi's attention to the other side. She snapped her fingers to make her turn back to her, with a surprised and fearful expression. Just as Isaribi reached for a rope beside the door, Seina used the hiraishin, appearing at the marked kunai behind her, and knocked her out. She caught her before she hit the ground. She knew she wouldn't wake up for at least six hours. After the last time, she made sure her enemies were truly unconscious with the stupefy.
"We've got one," she whispered. "It's clear she's not a ninja nor trained to use her powers."
"What do we do with her?" Shino asked.
"She won't wake up for several hours, so I'm going to hide her at the port. I'll use the hiraishin to go and come back in less than a second. Be right back."
As said, she appeared on the outskirts of the first village, where her bird had dropped another sealed stone, and tied, silenced, and hid Isaribi under spells so no one could find her. She reappeared at her kunai in the laboratory. She saw Shino and Sasuke observing a slab on the floor with interest while Naruto watched near the door.
"My kikaichu found an entrance. I can feel the air current."
"Let's go down!" Naruto silently exclaimed.
"Do you really want us to split up?" she rolled her eyes. "Well, we'll waste less time that way. Naruto and Shino, you two together. If something happens, you know what to do."
"Pull that rope, nee-chan," Naruto asked. "I want to see what she was going to do."
She pulled both ropes, knowing she might regret it. One opened the hatch they were studying while the other lifted the wall. As soon as she did, she began to hear the growls and roars of some animals that she couldn't hear before due to the natural soundproofing of the rock. She squinted, realizing her spying spell had been somewhat limited, so she used the aura spell to see through the walls.
"See you soon!" Naruto said and jumped into the hole, followed by Shino.
"He's such an idiot," Sasuke sighed.
Seina send three killing curses on what seemed to be huge lions, or something similar, and saw them fall lifelessly. A bit anticlimactic. She used the spell to camouflage them and divert attention, and they returned to the tunnel. They walked in silence, heading towards her summons, which had followed the doctor to another room. The door was ajar when they arrived, but Seina grabbed Sasuke's arm and used the seal on her summon to teleport. They immediately saw him turn around, trying to focus on where they had appeared. She mentally noted that this spell wasn't entirely effective against ninjas. Maybe because it didn't hide chakra or scent, it simply tricked the brain into thinking they weren't interesting. Apparently, not enough.
"I know you're there… You must be those Konoha brats," the man snorted with a laugh.
She rolled her eyes and removed the spell.
"Oh, very interesting," the man muttered, staring intently at Sasuke. "You're the one he talked about."
"You mean Orochimaru?" Sasuke asked with a disgusted look. "Is he here?"
"Here? Of course not, but he did visit us two weeks ago. He was quite angry that you ruined his plans," the doctor smiled with a slightly insane gleam in his eyes. "He planned to take your body, but he didn't have time. He had to use another body, so now he'll have to wait three years, coveting you, before he can use you."
"I'm afraid Orochimaru will have to wait," she said. "He didn't get Sasuke before, and he won't get him in the future."
"You don't know the power he has, little girl," he hissed. "He'll reward me greatly if I bring him his new body."
"I think you misunderstood," she sighed. "The only one who's going to be captured today is you."
The guy smiled, probably thinking he was effectively distracting them. She, who had seen another person approaching with her spell, rolled her eyes. She saw him doing something on the other side of the nearest wall to them. Judging by his movements, he was placing an explosive tag and intended to detonate it to knock them out.
She grabbed Sasuke and teleported to the other side just as the stone exploded where they had been standing.
The medic turned instantly, sensing their presence, with his hands ready in a seal formation. She recognized the last three seals as a water jutsu she used frequently, so Sasuke, with his Sharingan activated for a while, molded chakra for a lightning jutsu while she brandished her wakizashi to fend off the elongated arms of the other attacker. The water jet shot towards them, but due to the lightning's superior speed, Sasuke managed to strike first.
Seina saw out of the corner of her eye how the medic fell to the ground, convulsing as he was electrocuted from the collision of his water jutsu with Sasuke's lightning jutsu. She jumped over his back, protecting his side from an attack. A couple of seals later, Sasuke used the first genjutsu created by her, and both ninjas fell to the ground, seconds later, vomiting. Seina kicked the medic, turning him on his side so he wouldn't choke on his vomit, then cast a couple of stupefy spells on both of them.
"Great. That went better than I expected," she said while ensuring they wouldn't go anywhere. "I'll send them to Isaribi."
She sent both ninjas to their other prisoner. Since she had already enchanted the hideout earlier, she didn't need to take them personally. She smiled, realizing how useful the jutsu was. Sasuke nodded as he saw them disappear.
"Let's g—"
A loud explosion silenced him. They turned toward the sound and exchanged glances. She connected with her brother as they started running.
"That damned Yoroi activated some kind of trap before getting knocked out!"
"It's not a trap, Naruto! The building is collapsing!" she shouted, dodging a falling rock from the ceiling. "Grab the prisoner and Shino."
"I got them!"
Seina grabbed Sasuke and then reappeared beside Naruto, next to the summon she had left with him. She undid all the summons in a second and teleported everyone to the port with hiraishin just as the ceiling vault completely gave way above their heads. They fell to the ground, accidentally stepping on the prisoners she had left there earlier. She got up, apologizing to Sasuke for crushing him, and cast another stupefy on Yoroi.
"Look!" Naruto shouted from the tree's top. "You can see the smoke from here!"
They jumped to his side to observe the destruction of the island. Seina sighed, realizing she hadn't been able to grab any valuable documents.
"Well, at least we didn't have to destroy it ourselves," she stretched, hearing her back crack with some relief. "We've captured them all, so the sea monster is gone for good."
"What if they ask for proof?" Sasuke asked.
"Leave that to me," she smiled. "Let's go find Hitode, he's probably back from his trip by now."
She let Naruto and Shino go ahead while she took out her suitcase and put the prisoners in the cells she had built for just that. Then she transformed some stones into the heads of the sea monsters and put them in a sack.
"With this, we can reassure the villagers and avoid questions," she sighed. "I'll leave a couple of clones here just in case."
Sasuke and Seina exited the suitcase. She stored it and they went down to the port. Unfortunately, Hitode hadn't arrived yet, so they awaited news of him while assuring everyone who asked that the problem had been resolved. The heads of both monsters were examined and insulted from afar, still somewhat fearful of the damage they had caused. When their client arrived at the port, everyone knew the monsters were dead.
"I can hardly believe it," said Hitode, looking at the heads with a pale face. "Thank you very much for helping us. We are truly grateful. Come, we invite you to dinner."
"We don't want to take advantage of your kindness. Besides, we should head back to Konoha while it's still daytime," she declined, "but thank you for the offer."
They burned the heads by general consensus. As they left the port, they gave one last look at the sea before starting to run.
"That wasn't bad," said Naruto with a smile. "I hope Tsunade-sama and you can help Isaribi return to normal."