The interrogation room lay at the far end of the third underground level of Konoha's ANBU headquarters.
Jin Uchiha descended the narrow stone stairs. Oil lamps were set into the walls every few steps, their flames wavering in the damp air pouring through the vents. Rainwater seeped down the stone walls, forming a thin film over the steps that made faint splashing sounds beneath his feet. The air smelled of rust and moss.
Shisui stood outside the interrogation room, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. When he saw Jin Uchiha coming down, he straightened.
"He's awake," Shisui said. "He started talking not long after you went down, but what he said was fragmented, as though he was deliberately talking in circles."
"What did you get out of him?"
"His name was fake, but he gave us a codename: Xu. A Level Three Operative in Root, specializing in intelligence infiltration and theft. He admitted entering the hospital tonight, but insisted the filing cabinet was already missing two pages when he arrived."
Jin Uchiha narrowed his eyes slightly. "How long was he in the ventilation ducts?"
"He was vague about that. First he said ten minutes, then half an hour. He was deliberately muddying the timeline." Shisui paused. "But there's something strange. He said he entered through the vent in the third-floor dispensary and crawled through the ducts to the second-floor records room. Yet he didn't smell of anything from the dispensary."
"Which means he lied. He stayed in the records room longer than he claimed. Long enough to still be inside after the First Person left."
"Right. But I don't understand why he would lie about that." Shisui frowned. "If he went there to destroy evidence, what difference would admitting it make?"
Jin Uchiha did not