Zabuza ground his teeth, seething. The urge to beat the truth out of the scoundrel clawed at him, his grip tightening on the fool's collar. Zabuza shoved the thief against the wall and he groaned, making a show of sliding down the wall in pain until he sat with his bound beside his beaten cohorts. But Zabuza saw the smirk that twitched at his busted lip, he thought he'd gotten away with it, like he had so many other crimes.
"Don't let your eyes off them, we'll be right back." The Hozuki Princess ordered the dock security, retired Genin at most, academy dropouts at worst. Not the best security but they'd have to do.
Chaos reigned at the docks, a pillar of smoke rising not too far from where they'd left Utakata, "Zabuza, let's get going. Now."
His eyes lingered on the trio, fist balled, "They know. If you'd just let me-"
"Beat an answer out of them? It won't be the truth, we can't waste time on pointless violence, Zabuza. Utakata needs us." The Princess insisted, already turned away and sprinting towards the explosion.
The road was fairly clear now as many had instinctively and wisely run for their lives. Zabuza caught up to her, still dissatisfied, "Utakata can take care of himself, he's a Chuunin."
"And he's a Jinchuriki, what if he's the target of this attack?"
Zabuza scoffed, "Those pitiful fools would never be hired for something that important."
Rina threw him a questioning look over her shoulder but didn't deign to respond. She cut through a crowd of murmuring onlookers, falling into a hastened jog with Zabuza close behind as they arrived on the scene— the harbor master's office was partly blown up, one of its walls taken out entirely and now only held up by the foundations of its other sides. About a dozen civilians, dock workers, children and even some security were encased in hovering bubbles with Utakata at the centre of them, soot covered his consterned face.
Zabuza eyed the pipe in the Jinchuriki's hands, curious about the technique as he and Rina approached in haste. He followed the boy's eyes past the smouldering office, little more than steam rose from the rubble of the explosion— He responded in time, saved these people but…
"Did you see who did this?" Rina asked, putting voice to his thoughts.
Shaking his head, Utakata said, "No, but Ao-taicho arrived right before the explosion, he's managed to minimise the impact. But…" the sound of disappointment in his voice doubled as his eyes landed on the fragmented pieces of the unfortunate few that were blown up along with the building.
With the number of body parts scattered and the few intact but shrapnell'd corpses lying around, Zabuza could count at least eight people killed in the explosion. Rina patted his back, "It's okay, you did what you could, saved far more than either of us."
Zabuza rolled his eyes but held his tongue. If the Hozuki Princess was so sensitive about prying valuable information out of those thieves then she surely wouldn't appreciate the reminder that the mission was not about saving lives, but catching spies.
Still, he stepped forward, moving through the steamed wreck of the office now blown open. Crates of goods and food spilled out alongside the gore of the bodies, water leaked out from beneath his feet— the foundation of the dock rocked enough by the explosion that the seawater underneath soaked the hot concrete rubble.
As he approached the destroyed wall his eyes caught something among its wreck as well as the adjacent walls. He froze, turned around and found Rina behind him, her eyes tracking the same thing.
"This was—"
"Packaged paper bombs." Zabuza said, crouching to carefully dig out the undetonated box of explosives. "Between the Funato and Hozuki, someone knew where and when these explosives would be moved, where they'd be stored and how to reactivate them."
He attempted to hand the box, brimming with wads of ink'd, explosive paper to the likely owner but she just stared, muttering under her breath, "What the hell are the ANBU doing?"
Utakata released the civilians from his bubble, crowd controlling to his best despite the active sneers he got— even from the people he saved— in the end, he flipped through a series of hand signs that immediately had several of the otherwise stubborn onlookers flee and the more stubborn ones back away gesticulating rudely. He channeled chakra precisely as he blew up a large bubble in their faces and around the debris area until they were cut off from the site and Team 3 was locked in.
Even then, the raves for answers, justice and cries of pain and swears to the Mizukage didn't end. But no civilian would be able to puncture his bubble without Utakata suddenly being even more incompetent and soft than Zabuza thought.
At least I don't have to break a leg to make a point. As Utakata came by, Zabuza answered the Princess's question, "They probably weren't even here to begin with. I haven't seen a single one since the first day patrolling here."
The Jinchuriki answered before Rina could, "If you can spot an ANBU then it means they want you to or being discreet isn't their mission. They were here."
"So why...why let this happen?" Rina bemoaned, her face scrunched up in disgust at the toasted intestines sprawled out on the ground. As neither Zabuza nor Utakata had an answer for that she pushed on her earpiece and called out through the static void, "Ao-taicho…Ao-taicho!"
Nothing came through for a moment and Zabuza found himself a natural pile of bloodstained rubble to relax on, twirling a kunai and weathering another judgmental look from Utakata. He smirked at the boy.
"Team 3!" Came Ao's voice on their comms, cracked by severe static— he wasn't anywhere close by.
""Sir!"" the trio answered.
"I have the culprit in custody now. Yuuta Kenshin, Genin, no clan relations." All three shared a look as they listened, "I am en route to I&C with him now so you three are on your own. Do not slack off, this may not be the only attack planned today or for the docks. Keep a lookout. Radio silence until I contact you."
Before his opportunity to speak could slip away Zabuza jumped on the comms, "Sir, we apprehended three of his co-conspirators, criminals I know personally for their reputation and specialty in manufacturing convenient distractions for larger scale crimes only to be bailed out afterwards. Sir, may I—"
"Those three are already being transported to our custody, Zabuza, they'll be confessing everything they know before long. Don't worry about them, remember your mission, stay vigilant and clear the scene of any remaining volatile materials. Keep civilians safe, away and ignorant. Is that understood?"
""Sir!""
"Good. Rina, you're in command until I return, don't let anything slip by you."
The Hozuki Princess tensed, her back straightening unconsciously as the mantle of leadership once again fell on her shoulders, "Yes sir, you can—"
Static was their only answer as Ao disconnected, out of the short comm range. She inhaled, taking a measure of Zabuza and Utakata before saying, "Alright, let's get back to work. First we'll dig out any other volatiles and let's be careful alright?"
Zabuza rolled his eyes, "Obviously, not all of us have Hiden."
Rina pursed her lips at him, her eyes narrowed as she weighed whether or not to offer a response. She turned away and got to digging just as Utakata stuttered, "D-do you really think that Genin could've hired those dropouts?"
"What's there to doubt?" Zabuza asked, slightly offended. It was bad enough that his concerns and contributions were barely acknowledged but for them to be questioned, and this time by the timid Jinchuriki.
Rina stood up straight, lobbing a rock over to the side, "If you're right about them being hired then there's no way a Genin, a civilian born for that matter, could have afforded their service." She hauled another rock, passing it over to Utakata with a grunt, "And even if he did, chances are Yuuta Kenshin isn't the mastermind behind this."
"You think there's a larger conspiracy, that this might be the work of Kumo?" Zabuza said, biting his lip in thought. He hadn't thought about that being a possibility because—
"If that's true then it means Kumogakure managed to infiltrate the village and worse, turn one of our own against us." He shook his head in disbelief, "I think the ANBU would've caught that long before there was a chance to enact an incident like this."
Rina seemed to agree, she pushed a strand of blue behind her ear as she crouched to lift another rock, "Exactly. Yuuta Kenshin is clanless, he's probably just another disgruntled opportunist looking to steal from major clans and sell to the black market for a quick ryo. He could've promised those three a cut or outright intimidated them into cooperating." She passed a slab of concrete over to Utakata and glared at Zabuza, "Are you just going to sit there and talk or are you going to help us with this?"
Zabuza didn't answer, his gaze pierced through her, deep in thought as he pieced each of their theories together. "Anything is possible." He started, standing from his pile of debris, "There's a lot of tension going around right now between clans, two isles gifted to the Funato and Hozuki clan exclusively? As if the Yuki, Hoshigaki and Karatachi are going to sit idly by and even if they did, the caste clans don't seem to have been part of the conversation. A Genin like Yuuta, clanless, civilian and desperate…even worse than me, any one of the caste clans could have spun him up for a hit on Funato and Hozuki treasures."
Rina sighed, tossing her hair off her sweaty forehead as she shifted her weight, "Look, you don't know anything about that, none of us do. It's far above our rank to know or even guesstimate. And if anything the Karatachi have the most to gain, Mizukage-sama is a Karatachi remember?"
Utakata hummed, doubt staining his voice, "But it's likely isn't it? It wouldn't be the first time the clans have been screwed over by the major two." Rina shot him a glare and he raised his hands in surrender, "I'm just saying…it's happened and I think it's more believable than Kumogakure scoring a hit this close to the village."
Rina snorted and folded her arms, "I'm not saying Kumo did it but there's a reason Mizukage-sama asked us to look out for spies, if he thinks there's a chance they've snuck in…plus, there's what happened in Midoriwara."
"Midoriwara isn't Kiri, they can't touch us here." Utakata argued, finding the spine to stand his ground with his theory. "And even if they could, why would they risk starting another war? A hit this close…that's a fourth shinobi war waiting to happen and they have to know that."
"Whatever the truth is, Ao-taicho will find out and we'll know. Now let's get back to work, we still have to patrol and lockdown the docks afterwards. Actually, Zabuza you should go do that, you're useless here." Rina hissed, clearly sick of his loitering.
Zabuza grunted an affirmative and began walking off, Utakata following behind to let him through the bubble barrier. As much as Zabuza would like to believe his village was impenetrable, there was a grain of truth to what each of them said.
Yuuta Kenshin…are you a traitor or were you never loyal to begin with?