**Part 4 – There's more swearing in this, so I apologize if you don't care for that. Hope you enjoy!**

The multistory Headquarters building was the hub of activity in the hidden village. The Hokage oversaw everything from the top floor; central intelligence occupied the middle floors, and the ANBU operated out of the basement. It was the most secure building in the village and access was usually limited. Raidou had once spent a few weeks working intel on the third floor, but other than the handful of times he had been in the Hokage's office, he had never been allowed entry to the rest of the building.

He followed a step behind the squad leader as the large man led him through the upper halls. "I'll take you down to our part of the building," he was saying over his shoulder. "They stuck us underground. Guess that shows what they think of us, eh?" His eyes narrowed the same way the medic's had.

For trained killers, these guys sure do smile a lot, Raidou thought as Kuma stopped in front of a door.

There was a brief moment of silence as the two men looked at one another and then the door unlocked with a soft click. Raidou glanced at it curiously and then surveyed the area for some kind of security mechanism. There were none – at least none that his eyes could see.

Kuma glanced at him again as they made their way down a stairway. "Security is tighter here than anywhere else in the village. ANBU have access to all three levels. There are no keypads, no cameras, no scanners. Nobody can henge their way in here."

Raidou threw him a glance and waited.

Kuma tapped his shoulder lightly. "The tattoo. It's actually a seal; our form of a security system. It permits us access to the entire building and these doors only open for us."

They had descended five levels and now exited the stairwell into a well-lit chamber.

"You'd have to be one sneaky bastard to get in here."

Raidou looked at his surroundings and muttered, "That or a rogue ANBU."

Kuma looked over his shoulder slowly. "ANBU don't go rogue." The message was as clear as the glint in his eyes: you'd be dead before you could even get out of the village. Raidou eyed the back of his head as they continued down another hallway. ANBU were supposed to be the watchers of the village. Apparently, they were also some of the watched.

They were moving through an area that looked like any typical office setting when Kuma stopped suddenly. He gestured for Raidou to wait and stepped a few feet away to talk to another man, one of the few on the floor who was not wearing a mask.

Raidou took the time to survey his surroundings. Like any office, this one was filled with low-walled cubicles. A few offices dotted the walls, doors closed and blinds drawn. The placed buzzed with activity, even though it was well past midnight by now. Several people had looked up when they walked onto the floor and Raidou could feel eyes on him from around the room. He shifted his weight subtly – the novelty of the situation had taken his mind off the fatigue for a little while, but now he was seriously hoping there was a comfortable bed in his future.

He eyed the men and women in the room as Kuma turned from his conversation. The squad leader jerked his head for Raidou to follow him and the smaller man fell into step once more. Kuma was walking faster now, his strides long enough that Raidou had to hustle to keep up. He threw a final glance over his shoulder before Kuma ushered him through another door and down a small hallway.

Two doors opened off the end, marked with symbols for males and females. The men went through the right-hand door into a pristine locker room.

"Here you go," Kuma said, making his way through the bank of lockers. He stopped and gestured to one of them. "There's a set of regulation blacks in there. The gear we took off you is in there as well. You should find everything in order." He pulled a towel and a bar of soap off a shelf and handed them to the exhausted man. "Go ahead and get cleaned up. When you're done, you can head down the hall to the briefing room. Inoshi-sama will brief you on protocol. Will you be okay from here?" Raidou nodded, suddenly unable to keep the rest of his body from shaking as well.

"If you need anything, uh, well, I'll leave you to your own devices. I have to get back to work." The friendly tone was gone from Kuma's voice and Raidou was suddenly looking at the man who had chased him down in the woods.

Raidou cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I'll be fine."

Kuma continued to look at Raidou. When he spoke again his voice was tight with malice. "You should know - we picked up a traitor the other day."

Raidou's stomach fell at the words. "Who?"

"Some kid," Kuma spat. "Caught him selling secrets to the Cloud, the fucker. They're working on him in interrogation right now."

Rai nodded, trying to think of an appropriate response. "Good," he finally muttered.

"That being the case, I should go see if they need any help." There was an edge in the man's voice that made the hair on the back of Raidou's neck stand on end. Kuma looked at him for a moment longer before adjusting his gloves and murmuring, "Glad to have you with us." The man turned and exited the room, leaving Raidou alone in the room.

Raidou stood still for a moment in the silence. The buzz from the lights was almost overpowering after spending the past three days in the woods. His hands shook around the towel and he desperately craved a hot meal. He hoped the protocol briefing wouldn't last too long and stiffly began pulling the wet clothes from his body.

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A half-hour later, he stepped out from the steam-filled shower stall and wrapped the towel around waist. The hot water had taken care of his shaking, but now his eyes were heavy with the need for sleep. He brushed water out of his eyes and started to sort through the gear in his locker. It was an ANBU-issue uniform, black pants and a sleeveless shirt. There were wrist-guards and leg wraps, and a grey vest hung next to the green one they stripped off him when they had taken him into the woods. He considered them both for a moment before pulling the grey one from its hook. He shrugged into it, letting it settle on his torso. The whole thing felt foreign, simultaneously too tight and too loose on his body. He rolled his shoulders one last time and closed the door to the locker with a metallic bang.

Now what.

There didn't appear to be anyone else in the locker room. He didn't know where the briefing room was and decided to head back out to the main corridor.

The hallway was quiet, everyone off in their respective cubicles on the main floor. He limped along, looking for someone from who he could ask directions, or for something that might be a briefing room.

No luck.

He paused for a moment, rubbing the vision back into his eyes. He heard a door open at the far end of the hall and turned. A tall young man stepped out into the main hall, brow furrowed in thought. He looked familiar – dark-haired and broad-shouldered - and Raidou tried to think of where he had seen him before. He was dressed in a jounin uniform, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and he started walking toward Raidou seemingly without noticing him.

Raidou stepped back against the wall, preparing to ask the man about the location of the briefing room. He was opening his mouth to speak when the tall man looked up. He continued to frown for a moment, but then his face softened as he looked at Raidou through a pair of keen eyes. A thin scar ran across his left cheek and Raidou suddenly realized who he was – Morino Ibiki, the psych genius.

Shit, Raidou thought. This kid's only Genma's age. He marveled at this for a second before Ibiki raised his hand in greeting.

"Namiashi-san," he called as he moved closer. "They told me about your little escapade in the woods. Pretty impressive. They had to carry me back here after I got to the tower. Most people don't even make it that far."

Ibiki smiled, a gesture that made him look almost like any other shit-eating eighteen-year-old – except for the fact that it didn't reach his eyes.

Raidou didn't know how to respond so he gave a slight bow and murmured a thank you. "I'm just glad to be dry again."

Ibiki nodded and replied, "I'm sure."

Several moments passed.

The younger man was studying Raidou closely, enough to make the smaller man want to shift where he stood. He opened his mouth to ask about the briefing room but Ibiki was faster. "You were on B-ranked missions?"

Rai didn't blink at the random question. "Uh, yeah, 24 B-rank and 4 A-rank in the last year."

Ibiki nodded. "Any of those take you to Cloud?"

Raidou thought for a moment, not taking his eyes off Ibiki's. "One, but that was several months ago."

"You go alone?"

Raidou couldn't stop his eyes from narrowing slightly. "No," he said slowly. "I was partnered with Shiranui Genma."

Ibiki nodded again and Raidou wished he would blink. The tall man's youthful appearance was marred by the stark intensity of his eyes. It felt like Ibiki was looking inside his brain.

"Perhaps you can assist me with something," the young man murmured, somewhat distractedly.

Raidou raised his eyebrows. "I'm supposed to debrief with someone named Inoshi right now."

"That can wait."

They stared at one another for a moment longer. Raidou suddenly felt off, though he couldn't be sure whether it was the eyes of the man in front of him or just disorientation from lack of sleep. He finally sighed and the nodded. "Alright."

He didn't break eye-contact until Ibiki turned back to the door he had come though. Raidou waited a moment, wishing that he had run into someone else first, and then followed behind him.