No matter how hard he strained his ears Zabuza couldn't make out more than the crackle of static coming from the Byakugan Killers earpiece. It was doubly difficult over the incessant restless leg syndrome the Jinchuriki, Utakata continued to suffer.
"Stop it!" Zabuza hissed at the boy, hand clamped over his leg.
"Sorry, I get a little-"
"Shush! Both of you. Captain's almost done." Rina's whisper was sharp. Her narrowed eyes stayed fixed on the row of abandoned warehouses below— their target.
Team three, as well as several other teams of Genin, Chuunin and Jounin were scattered a fair distance around the target. No one save ANBU special ops were meant to be closer than three blocks.
Zabuza wondered why Ao didn't simply use his Byakugan to see into the target, track and maintain her position in real-time rather than depend on the updates from ANBU. In fact, he wondered why they were spaced so far away in the first place, with their numbers and might there's no way that subduing any of these traitors would be difficult.
He looked over to the Princess at his side and the consternated look on her face more or less gave him the answer. Crowd control and property damage.
They were still within the low caste district of the village and it seemed that while the Mizukage had no qualms about arresting the traitors involved, there was still some concern about how things looked. Zabuza thought it was dumb. If there was to be damage it'll be much wiser to sacrifice the abandoned warehouses.
"Understood," Ao said, finally turning around to face his team. He released his earpiece and folded his arms behind his back as he eyed them all. "The target has been confirmed. Hisako Yuki is on site. Now, we have at most thirty minutes before the operation starts in full force, what are your duties in this operation?" he asked, staring intently at Zabuza all the while.
Crouched beside him, the Hozuki Princess answered first like the good girl she was, "We are to round up all involved shinobi and civilians exiting the warehouses. Spread out our concentration and pick them off with as little force as possible."
Ao narrowed his eye at her, clearly displeased with her answer, "Incorrect. Utakata!"
"Sir! Our mission is to round up every traitor to Kirigakure, proven or unproven as they exit the warehouses. We are authorized to use force if necessary but encouraged not to. Our essential task is to keep the target, Hisako Yuki isolated while ANBU apprehends her and whoever else may still be at her side."
This time Ao nodded, "Some of these traitors may be friends, acquaintances, shinobi you've shared missions with and even men and women you've passed by on the street. But make no mistake, the only mercy to be found for traitors is that of Yagura-sama! Until our Lord Fourth discerns who amongst them is to be spared they are all traitors of the Mist, treat them as such, is that understood?"
""Sir!""
"Good, now then, we wait."
"Ao-taicho, a question." Zabuza chirped up just as Ao began to turn away. He met the man's stern eye and asked without reservation, "What of the Kumo spies? Once we're done rounding these civili-"
"That is mere speculation, not fact. There aren't any known Kumogakure infiltrators as of this moment." Ao said, quickly turning his back on Zabuza.
Zabuza shared a confused look with his teammates, by now, each of them knew with some degree of certainty that the Kumo spies had been traced through Hisako Yuki's connection to Yuuta Kenshin, the Genin behind the port bombing. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together, especially when there were such obvious signs.
Rina shook her head at Zabuza, going as far as shushing him once again but he wouldn't have it. Rounding up civilians and weak low caste shinobi that likely had little to do with the true threat wasn't going to satiate Zabuza, "Ao-taicho, there wouldn't be this scale of response if there weren't—"
"Silence."
A wave of killing intent fell upon the entire team. Zabuza choked on his words, Utakata took a step back, nervous but otherwise not all too affected whereas Rina instantly began to sweat.
Ao turned his attention to his team once more, his single eyed gaze falling solely upon Zabuza, "I will not repeat myself, Demon, you will do as ordered and nothing more. When you are finished with your assignment you report to your nearest superior." His gaze turned over to Rina, the Princess's lip quivering as she stared intensely at the ground, "Rina, you're in charge of these two, if Zabuza disobeys orders, you will be punished right alongside him, is that understood? Good."
He hadn't even waited for her response before turning back around. The killing intent let up as he did, allowing the team to finally breathe in a tense silence. Rina glared death at Zabuza but the Demon of the Mist merely smirked, a bead of sweat drooping against his brow.
Ao getting defensive about the Kumo spies hadn't been something he expected, but it seemed things were a lot more sensitive than simply capturing and punishing them. What angle is Yagura-sama playing at now? Why not—
"Get ready, here they come." Ao said.
The team straightened up as Ao began to lean over the edge of the building they scouted from. Zabuza turned on his ear piece, the crackle of static echoing all through as several subordinate shinobi clocked in. Ao gave the team a curt nod and eyed Zabuza before leaping off the edge and leaving Rina in charge once again as he and several others all around the district raced towards the warehouse.
"Alright," Rina began, she too eyed Zabuza as she spoke, "Let's not mess this up, alright? No killing, that judgement is reserved for Lord Fourth alone."
Zabuza sniggered at that, propping his foot up on the ledge. It was a windy night in the village and blood would soon stain the air, "I thought I was the only rebel, didn't you hear what Ao-taicho said? We are to treat them as traitors, use whatever force is required to apprehend them and if you listened as closely as I did you'd hear him give the order to kill if necessary."
'Pack of four approaching east.' An unfamiliar voice echoed updates throughout their ear pieces. At that instance Zabuza saw the east team moving to apprehend. He pulled out his wakizashi and licked his lips, reveling in the disgusted look Rina continued to give him.
"Ao-taicho might be testing us." Utakata said suddenly. All eyes fell on him, surprised to hear him speak up at all— this wasn't the kind of mission he appreciated at all, Zabuza hadn't missed the sour look he had on for hours after they'd been assigned.
"Why do you think that?" Zabuza asked, his smirk growing as he walked up to the Jinchuriki fiddling with his pipe, "Isn't that far fetched? Why would this of all moments be the one the Byakugan Killer chooses to use as a test?"
It was a completely incredulous thought to Zabuza and it infuriated him even more that the Jinchuriki wasn't fazed by him, even as he stood up right in his face Utakata merely exhaled into his pipe, blowing out harmless bubbles.
Rina yanked Zabuza away from Utakata, hissing at him, "Leave him alone, he knows more about Lord Fourth than either of us." She smiled at the Jinchuriki and asked, "But, really though, why do you think so?"
'Ten headed west bound.' Another update came in. They were south bound and were still waiting for their set of traitors to make it their way. Zabuza was already getting anxious doing nothing save listening to inane theories.
"Ao-taicho has been around Lord Fourth the entire year, protecting and sometimes even advising him. Ao-taicho is friends with Mei Terumi and she's a low caste Elite Jounin and one of the very few people that can actually influence Lord Fourth."
Zabuza groaned, "So? What does she have to do with this being a test?"
Utakata met his glare without flinching, his bubbles floating annoyingly around his head, "She's an advocate for the abolishment of the caste system…it's a very small movement but she cares and she makes Lord Fourth and Ao care too. There's no way they'd be comfortable just killing civilians who—"
"Who plan to betray the village." Zabuza growled, shaking his head at his two idiot teammates, "And they're not just civilians, many of them are retired or even active shinobi that have Kekkei Genkai or have learned their clan Hiden. Their betrayal means as much as any other rogue shinobi, worse still since we know Kumogakure is involved so…they're defecting to the enemy. Kind influences or not, the Fourth Mizukage will never forgive that. This is no test."
'Six headed south bound.'
"Finally!" Zabuza roared, leaping off the edge of the building without a single thought of restraint or teamwork. Rina's yells drowned out in the cool wind of the night as he plummeted into the streets.
He barely touched the ground before launching off onto the rooftops, leaping over stalls, people, fruit carts and every obstacle such that the world blurred as he raced towards his targets.
Two figures flickered a distance parallel to him, he spared them a glance and found Rina on his left, her piercing eyes promising an earful of nagging and Utakata on his right, the young Jinchuriki merely keeping up for the sake of it. He increased his pace, his wakizashi gleaming in the generous moonlight, a rare occurrence within Kiri and surely one happening for the sake of this operation.
The all so familiar mist was gone, replaced instead with full visibility of everything within the lower districts a boon for those few worthless Kiri shinobi that had failed to master the art of silent killing yet found themselves assigned to this mission. Zabuza didn't know who they were but mist or not, he would wet his blade.
Up ahead, just before the busy markets gave way to the residentials were a six traitors, Zabuza knew it was them because, unlike everyone else around them they hauled luggage, food coolers and weren't interacting with anyone but themselves. Their eyes never once glanced at the myriad of produce sold in the market.
Two of them were certainly of the Poison Mist clan, their hoods and masks marked them as such, it also marked them as trained shinobi and users of their clan [Hiden]. The other four were also of the Poison Mist clan but from the very manner they carried themselves, sticking close to the two shinobi among them and so blatantly expressing the nervousness on their faces, it was obvious they were civilians.
Zabuza loaded his soles with chakra, then kicked off the ground—releasing it in a violent burst that hurled him high into the air. Mid-ascent, he pressed a finger to his earpiece. "Utakata. Secure the civilians. I'll deal with the rest of the traitors."
"Zabuza! We can talk it out first we don't need to—!" Rina's voice once again drowned out against the billowing winds as he fell blade first towards the two Poison Mist traitors, to their credit, they sensed the well of killing intent radiating off of him but never once thought to look up— until it was too late.