Paradise Life on a Boat

The Adventures at Sea Arc is the fifth filler arc from Part II of the series, and spans from episodes 223 to the current of the Naruto: Shippūden anime. This arc shows Naruto and his team on their journey to the Land of Lightning by sea, to confine him from Akatsuki during the Fourth Shinobi World War, as well as Konoha's preparations for the war. Throughout the arc, small hints are given of what is to come in the anime such as a mention of a ninja clan talented in fūinjutsu. The arc also expands on the character Aoba Yamashiro who will have a somewhat more prominent role in the upcoming arc.

The Young Man And The Sea
A team consisting of Yamato, Aoba, and Might Guy and three other unknown shinobi, set off with Naruto to the Land of Lightning, to confine him in an isolated location from Akatsuki in preparation for the Fourth Shinobi World War. The team travels to a harbour in the Land of Fire to travel by sea. Tsunade ordered them to take the long way so Akatsuki wouldn't attempt to capture Naruto. The boat the team takes is rather small one, so they won't get noticed. Some fellow Konoha ninja warn them about a sea monster that attacks any ship that goes into open water. Guy decides to sail out with Aoba to the water to fight the monster. Suddenly, the monster attacks Guy and Aoba, and they learn that it is a Giant Marlin summon from the Third Shinobi World War, roaming around the waters of the Land of Fire. As the marlin swims towards Guy, a fisherman named Yūsuke, tries to capture it. The fish destroys Yūsuke's boat and the fisherman is saved by Naruto. Holding Yūsuke prevents Naruto from performing any techniques and is left open. Yamato shields Naruto and Aoba distracts the marlin with the Scattering Thousand Crows Technique while they all escape. At Yūsuke's hut, the Konoha ninja try to figure out why the marlin did not return home after the war. Yūsuke tells them to not interfere as he wants to capture the fish himself, to avenge his father who died trying to capture it. As the team is about to depart, Naruto wants to help Yūsuke avenge his father to which everyone agrees. The next day, Yūsuke comes out to see a new boat and fishing rod made by Yamato. The team sails out with Yūsuke to search for the marlin. The marlin appears and Guy opens the second of his Eight Gates to keep up with the fish's speed. Yūsuke uses a large fishing lure resembling Naruto to catch the marlin. The fish eventually gets exhausted from pulling on the lure and Yūsuke finally captures the marlin. Afterwards, Naruto notices a fūma shuriken on the marlin's forehead and pulls it out. The marlin returns home shortly after and the Konoha sail on a new boat, waving goodbye to Yūsuke.

The Ninja of Benisu
While on the way to the Land of Lightning, Naruto and his bodyguards stop off at a nearby island, due to all his bodyguards becoming seasick, Guy in particular. While there, they see Sakura, Ino and Chōji picking up medicinal herbs on the orders of Tsunade and Naruto decides to help them, although he does not fare well, from eating poisonous herbs to being paralysed on a bridge. As Chōji spots one of the medicinal herbs, some ninja from the Benisu Island appear and make the Konoha ninja waste their time, while collecting the exact same herbs. However, they have a change of heart and give Sakura, Ino and Chōji all the herbs they picked up, as Naruto saved them from a monster protecting the Elixir Mud. With Guy feeling better, they head off towards the Land of Lightning and Tsunade's team back to Konoha.

The Cursed Ghost Ship
As they continue their voyage towards the Land of Lightning, Naruto, Aoba, Guy and Yamato sail through a thick fog. Yamato tells Aoba and Naruto about the "Ghost Ship" to pass the time. Suddenly, they met another ship, very much same to Yamato's description of the said ship. They come to the ship to investigate, and meet Hishaku, who is revealed to be a "soul" who cannot rest because of the guilt when the ship was attacked by the Giant Corpse Crab. Naruto and the others help him revenge the said crab, and later was revealed all his co-sailors and the captain cannot also rest. After defeating it, Naruto continued sailing, as well the ship set free.

Battleship Island
While sailing to the Land of Lightning, Naruto Uzumaki and the others are attacked by pirates who wanted to sink their ship and loot the wreckage.

Thanks to some fast thinking on Yamato's part and the early warning by one of the sensor-type shinobi however, the ship is saved and they dock in an underground cavern. There they find a burial ground and a journal telling of the plight of the native islanders at the hand of the wicked Gataro and his men. Hearing this, Naruto vows revenge for the deceased and comes up with an ingenious strategy on how to escape the giant geyser that they were trapped in. Using Naruto's strategy the Konoha shinobi and crew were able to escape the island and put Gataro and his men out of commission.

The Forgotten Island
While on their voyage to the Land of Lightning, a giant bird swoops down and kidnaps Guy. The team pursues the bird and are lead to a volcanic island. Upon arrival, Aoba spots a mysterious girl watching them and decides to pursue her while Yamato and Naruto search for Guy. During their search, Naruto and Yamato encounter many giant creatures, including the bird that kidnapped Guy. They eventually locate the bird's nest where they find Guy, who was actually kidnapped to babysit the bird's chicks. Meanwhile, as Aoba pursues the girl, he discoverers the animals on the island are actually bred to be used by shinobi as summons, as well as a research dedicated to developing the ultimate summon. He continues to follow her, and he is lead inside the volcano and finds a huge monster asleep inside an abandoned research lab. Using a mind reading technique, he discovers the monster was too powerful to be contained and had devoured many of the islands summons, as well as the researchers, before going to sleep.

The bird takes Yamato Guy and Naruto to the volcano where they then encounter Aoba, and the beast suddenly awakens, going on a rampage. The monster is powerful and uses genjutsu as well as Lightning Release. Naruto has to enter Sage Mode while Yamato protects him as Guy and Aoba fight the beast in order to buy some time. Guy manages to knock the beast into the heart of the volcano, but the monster can also fly. The bird which kidnapped Guy comes down and attacks the monster along with the other summons. The girl, actually the spirit of the girl who the researchers used to restrain the beast until it grew too strong, appears and manages to immobilise the beast, with Naruto finishing it off with Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.

Visualising Training
Lee arrives at a temple on top of a mountain to see Guy chained up. Madara Uchiha appears, having used Guy as bait to lure Lee to his lair. Lee consumes Guy's "secret medicine" to use the Drunken Fist. Lee gets the upper hand until all the sake is gone. Madara takes that chance to make move and Lee wakes up, realising it was all a dream. To prepare for war, Lee is determined to become stronger than Naruto.

The Mushrooms of Hell
The group stops for supplies and prepare to enter an area devoid of fish of the sea and wind that takes two weeks to be crossed. In the hold, a mushroom purchased by Naruto begins to multiply and to absorb the chakra of Yamato. After resisting for a long time without food, Naruto and Guy taste the mushrooms and it poisons them and push them to act in a violent manner. Without alternatives, Naruto calls Gamatatsu and asks him to bring him Shima's food, composed of insects. All aboard eat and regain strength, even managing to defeat the pirates who sold them the mushroom when they come to look for valuable cargo.

Revenge of the Shadow Clones
After having braved a storm, four of Naruto's shadow clones rebel against him, taking him hostage, forcing the crew to stop in an island. Naruto's clones were going to kill him, but he wakes up and realises it was all just a dream of one of his clones. So, when the clone was extinguished his memories got transferred to the real Naruto.

The Closed Route
Shikamaru begins to feel the pressure of shouldering the lives of his friends in the upcoming Fourth Shinobi World War. To help ease his mind, Shikaku sends his son along with Tenten on a mission to Mokuzu Island to replenish supplies. On the island, Shikamaru meets up with Naruto's group. Soon after they set sail, the fog around the area gets thicker and they encounter reef systems, a huge rock and a whirlpools again and again. Shikamaru figures that their ship is sailing through the bay in circles and tells Naruto and the others to sail straight for it and get swallowed up. The Mokuzu Criminal on seeing the ship wrecked arrives at the spot with his gang to loot the wreckage. Having stored the ship in Tenten's scroll, they proceed to defeat the criminals.

The Girls' Get-Together
After a brief training session where she meets Tenten at a training ground, Hinata leaves for a meeting of the Hyūga clan. At the meeting Hiashi informs everyone of the impending war and the fact that the clan who would play an important role in it, would have to be unified under a leader. Given the fact that he was assigned to the rear guard of the battlefield and Hanabi was too young for war, Hiashi delegated the duty of leading the Hyūga during the war to Neji which shocked some of the members because Neji is from the branch house while Hinata was from the main. Hiashi would however later explain to Kō that he did not choose Hinata because he thought she was weak, but because she did not have the disposition to lead people during a war. Overhearing this Neji remembers his time with Hinata after she asked to train with him noting that Hinata had in fact grown a great deal. Meanwhile Hinata had already left to see her sensei Kurenai. After a brief conversation, Shikamaru arrives and tells Hinata that he and quite a few of the other members of the Konoha 11 had seen Naruto since he left the village and that Tsunade was looking for her.

Hopeful that Tsunade had in fact requested her to go on a mission so she could see Naruto she heads straight to her office, only to find Shizune hard at work. Shizune sends her to where Tsunade would be next but Hinata is once again unsuccessful. This continues as Tsunade who was locked in a meeting with her war council was nowhere to be found by Hinata. After finally finding her, Tsunade tells Hinata that she had heard what Hiashi had said at their clan meeting and tells Hinata not to take any of it to heart. Somewhat disappointed, she is then invited by Tenten to a girls' night out at Yakiniku Q. Somewhat saddened that he wasn't invited, Chōji comes up with his own guys night out at the same place. The two groups talk about Naruto and the past, reminiscing about the first Chūnin Exams. The girls are later joined by Shizune and a slightly intoxicated Tsunade. Tsunade attempts to apologise for how she dismissed Hinata earlier but Hinata tells her it was fine as she knew what she had to do.

Later when she is walking home with Neji, she tells him that she wanted to get stronger for the sake of protecting Naruto during the impending war because of how much he helped her. Neji echoes her sentiments stating that he too owed Naruto a great deal. The next day as the two train Neji states that she should be leading the clan on the battlefield but Hinata tells him that she bore no ill will towards him for her father's decision and that he was the right person for the job.

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