Ch239- Amends(P2)
Another dango was lifted from the set he ordered and ceremoniously chomped on. Zabuza watched, struggling to suffocate his fury at having to share his single order between his two…teammates.
Utakata sat beside him, his smile largely innocent despite his culpability. He nodded along as Rina enjoyed her bite of dango, humming satisfactorily as its tastes swirled deliciousness in her mouth.
“Seee? Told you this place was worth it.” Utakata cheered, helping himself to a stick and handing Zabuza one as well. “I’m glad we’re here together, might have been even cooler if we came here after missions but…”
Rina finished her dango stick, her eyes finding Zabuza’s critical stare as she placed the stick down. “Yeah, I’m sure that would’ve been…cool. But team 3 is disbanded and there’s no getting it back Uta-kun. We can run missions together though, we’re both Chuunin.”
Zabuza silently grinded his teeth at the mention of that little fact. They were both Chuunin and were authorized choice pick over D and C-rank missions, and could even select B-ranks if they gathered a team competent enough to the Mizukage or the Jounin assigners at desk.
In short, they didn’t need to have an official team to work together, that only benefitted him, the Genin who had no choice in anything. Zabuza felt his throat thickening with rage, he breathed deeply through it and rested against the booth chair.
“Yeah but…” Utakata started, his feet kicked and his fingers pinched at Zabuza underneath the booth as he muttered. “Some things are better in teams of threes or fours and we really had something going there, right?”
He turned an expectant smile at Zabuza, forcing him to sit up and clear his throat. “Utakata’s right.” Zabuza said at last, his first words beyond an ignored hello to the Princess. “We worked well as Team 3 and…I’m sorry I let my arrogance get in the way of that.”
Rina picked another dango stick, her brows raised skeptically at Utakata and Zabuza. She chewed the first one through and waved the dango stick at Zabuza, “Was that supposed to be an apology?”
Zabuza restrained a groan from escaping him, he started nodding before Utakata’s worried features could break into desperate pleading on his behalf. He stood up from his place in the booth and went down on a knee right beside Rina.
Her indifferent features immediately scrunched up with annoyance as the very act drew attention from every eye and ear in the tea shop. “What are you doing?” she hissed.
Zabuza let down his other knee and bowed his head so it pressed at her feet. “Chuunin Rina Hozuki!” He yelled, ensuring his muffled voice could be heard loud and clearly even as it startled the Princess. “I must sincerely apologize for my poor conduct under your command. It is not a Genin’s place to take action against your instructions yet I did so repeatedly and even defied our Jounin commanders instructions and trust in your command, undermining both authorities to satisfy my own delusions of strength and power!”
Gritting his teeth to dust Zabuza manufactured some more sorry sounding words to please her ego. “I…took advantage of your patience, your tolerance and your mercy. I took advantage of your kindness too, yours and Utakata.” He gulped, these words at least were honest and the sinking pit in his stomach as he recalled each instance he brushed away or overlooked the kindness of his teammates surged to mind. “I regret behaving as I did, I was afraid and I acted like a jerk because of it. I understand now what it means to truly be on a team and I’d appreciate it if you gave ours another chance.”
By now the entire dango shop was silently watching. He could sense at least eight pairs of eyes on their table and the sandals nearby he could see were all turned towards them. Zabuza hated having his dirty laundry aired out like this, in fact, he never imagined he could be so exposed but yet here he was, heart pounding to hear her response.
“Ughh, just get off the floor, okay?” She said, her fingers gently tapping his shoulders. “Get up.”
Zabuza did so quickly, wiping off the dirt from his forehead he sat back beside a stunned Utakata, trying his best to ignore the growing number of stares and mutters. He caught a glimpse of Koe peeking out the kitchen with her notepad covering her awed look.
Rina breathed deeply, using a dango stick to idly poke at another. “I…accept your apology. I’d honestly forgiven you long before…any of this.”
Utakata’s eyes widened in surprise, “You had?”
Rina shrugged, “I thought I’d be cautioned a lot harder for his disobedience, my failure to reign him under my command as Chuunin but…turns out the upper brass finds the Demon of the Mist’s consistent insolence an expected outcome of team pairing.”
Zabuza was flush with embarrassment. He put on his best sheepish smile as he shrugged, “I’m working on that.”
Rina snorted and rolled her eyes, “I can see that.”
Utakata clapped excitedly. “So? Team 3 is back in the game? I can tell Yagura-sama to reinstate us right?”
“You spoke to Yagura-sama about this?” Rina gasped. “Why? I mean…what did he say?”
Utakata shrugged, “Just that if I got you two to agree then he’d reinstate us.”
“Oh…” she trailed off, eying another dango. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can or…want to be part of team 3 anymore.”
“What?” Utakata almost yelled. He leaned closer, head turning between Zabuza and Rina. “What are you talking about, you just said you forgave him.”
Rina sighed as she nodded. “Yeah, I do but that doesn’t mean I have to rejoin. A lot has happened since team 3 disbanded. My clan is…in a delicate position and there’s a lot we have to prove now that we’re not mainland.”
“Well, like what?” Utakata demanded, as if he could do anything to change her mind at this point.
Zabuza read her expressions and body language enough to know she was being truthful. She had forgiven him, the ice around her demeanour towards him melted away the moment he gave a true apology and what hesitance was left had nothing to do with him.
“I want to test my leadership. After the Daimyo’s war and now in the aftermath of the Arrogance Purge, my clan needs me to step up even more. I’ve been Chuunin for at least two years and in those I’ve never actively thought about making Jounin.” Rina smiled, a far off look in her eyes as if she could see the very thing she spoke of.
“Jounin? That’ll require…a lot of missions. High ranking ones and leadership commitments too.” Utakata rattled off. He bit his lip, anxiously looking between Zabuza and Rina, “Doesn’t leading team 3 count as leadership?”
Zabuza answered for her. “Not unless we’re a squad of three Genin. I’m the only Genin here so…the only subordinate.”
“What? That should still count, should count even more since you’re so prone to insolence, Zabuza.” Utakata said, swiftly ignoring the cold glare Zabuza shot at him. “What about when we’re all Chuunin then? Zabuza won’t be Genin forever.”
“I might be.” Zabuza muttered too low for anyone to hear.
“Maybe, but leadership chops are usually evaluated by a superior Jounin assigned on the same mission or directly by Yagura-sama, and he’d have to have assigned me the mission too. I can’t pick and choose what missions I’m evaluated for.”
Utakata took and let out a deep breath, his frame deflating as all prior excitement for the reunification of team 3 went out the window.
“I guess…goodluck?”
Zabuza nodded, wearing a genuine smile. “Yeah, goodluck, Princess.”
Rina snarled at him. “Don’t call me that.” She eased up and smiled as she picked up another dango. “But thanks, I’ll need it. Mizukage-sama hasn’t given any Jounin promotions from what I hear, it’ll take a lot more than being a ‘Princess’ to convince him of my worth.”
Utakata drummed his fingers on the table. “Don’t worry so much, you’ll make Jounin with time and effort, both things you’re already putting in. And Yagura-sama? He already sees your worth.”
She chuckled, seeming largely relieved and optimistic. “I hope he does. So…what about you two? I guess now that I’m out you’ll have to work together on some missions? What about a third?”
The three-man cell existed for cohesion and reliability, not because it was strictly necessary. Utakata, as a chuunin, was well within his rights to enlist Zabuza as his subordinate and operate as a two-man team, but doing so almost always drew scrutiny from mission assignment and, in some cases, resulted in the request being quietly denied.
Zabuza found that ironic. He’d completed missions alone before without issue—shouldn’t the addition of a second blade only improve the odds? The question came up often among genin who struggled to form full teams, and the most popular explanation was one spoken only in half-jest.
Trust value.
How much the village trusted a shinobi not to betray it was never written down, but it was always accounted for. Solo missions were dangerous, yes, but clean. A shinobi who vanished or defected left no ambiguity behind—hunter-nin would be dispatched, and the matter would end in blood or imprisonment.
A chuunin paired with a single genin was different. It introduced risk the village could not easily price. Authority could have been abused. Force applied. One shinobi disappearing was a problem; two disappearing together was a pattern forming.
Stories like that circulated too often to ignore. A chuunin and their subordinate fleeing for richer contracts in some nameless country, or worse, a chuunin taking a genin hostage when the hunters inevitably closed in. Sometimes the genin wasn’t taken at all—just kept, groomed into complicity, too invested or afraid to turn back by the time the truth became clear.
Zabuza turned a furrowed look to his equally confounded friend. Utakata wasn’t the problem between them, he was— the village would sooner lose their Demon than a Jinchuriki even though it granted little trust to either of them. A third body, a valued, trusted shinobi with a clean record and a loving base in the village was needed. Someone like Rina.
But without Rina…
Zabuza sighed and pressed back into the booth. “We’ll figu—”
The words backed up as a short, neatly suited and equipped shinobi stepped up to their table. The Princess waved bright and excitedly at her prodigious cousin and Utakata blew up with joy to see him, “Mangetsu! You’re here too, with us and Zabuza…yeah!”
His friend passed a long sideways look at him as he awkwardly exclaimed those in attendance, tracking Zabuza’s mood, hands and feet. Zabuza didn’t mind the smell of privilege wafting up his nostrils, he was well used to it by now but the deadpan, indifferent stare Mangetsu passed around to everyone, even his cousin, infuriated him.
Still thinks he’s better than everyone in the room just because—! Utakata stomped on his foot and covered his clenching fist, a huge grin splayed over his face as he quickly asked the entitled brat, “So what brings you here?”
Mangetsu’s deadpan expression didn’t change, he nodded at the entrance where Ao stood with his arms folded and a mean expression fixed on Zabuza. The Demon of the Mist gulped, his lips running dry at the sudden full team reunion.
“Mizukage-sama has a mission for us, you’re not going to like it.” He said, looking directly at Utakata.
“Why?”
“Mangetsu, Utakata, Zabuza! Let’s go.” Ao yelled, startling the entire establishment and sending all of team 3 up on their feet, even Rina though she hadn’t been called.
“Goodluck you three, I’ll finish these for you.” The Princess said, not waiting a second before lifting Zabuza’s plates of dango for herself.
He sighed deep and tried to focus on regulating his emotions. The Byakugan Killer had very little affection for him and it’d seem they’d all be working together. He focussed ahead of him, on the small white haired boy leading them out of the shop and felt his blood spike.
Just great.