It was nothing like what Kiba had expected, actually.

The walls had been left the color of slate, and there was a mile worth of tunnel that he had to follow before he even found anything that looked like an office, or a room.

And when he finally did, his jaw dropped.

He wasn't in ANBU at all. No no.

Kiba had just stumbled, somehow, into Root headquarters.

"Holy shit, I am so fucking dead."

There was no official way of telling, unless you counted the filing cabinets. There were about 300 of them in the room Kiba had found alone, and each one - if Kiba remembered right - had files on every shinobi (maybe even civi) in Konoha.

Age, hair color, favorite food, greatest accomplishment, greatest weakness, family, enemies, what they wore, clan names, even the easiest way to kill them.

It was all here.

And the only people who had access to them were Root agents. It all fit.

He remembered Sai - pale and emotionless, probably from spending so much of his damned time underground.

Under fucking ground.

How could he have been so stupid?

And he would have left right then, too. Any smarter ninja would have.

If it hadn't been for the file left open on the desk.

"Hyuuga, Neji. Number 0427, Jounnin Rank. 17-D 6-C 4-B 2-A, reference number 740082954....holy shit."

Kiba dropped the file, making certain to close and position it properly on the table-top.

Was it possible that Neji had been their target tonight? But for what?

Root, once upon a time, had been the spine of Konoha - the name itself was meant to symbolize the roots of the village - but they hadn't really been very active these past years.

Especially after Tsunade took her position as Hokage. Come to think of it, the third Hokage had been the last to seat Danzou as an advisor.

That is, unless you counted the house heads. As far as Kiba knew, the last clan official to seek Danzou had been.....

"Hiashi."

The tunnel took Kiba 2 miles at least before forking off, and Kiba could taste the blood now - thick with fresh iron, which meant whoever they had taken was definitely younger than Hiashi.

Neji's file was still fresh in his mind, whether he wanted to think about it or not.

He took a right, down another fucking tunnel - this one, at least, was lined with torches. Newly lit too; a good sign.

And just about 15 feet down the tunnel, completely unguarded, was a door.

"Just hang on a few more minutes, whoever the hell you are. Too late to back out now, any fucking way."