Anyone would say that he always seemed to ignore her, but she never really seemed to mind. To her a single glance or a small smile was enough for her, he was a busy person after all. Anytime he was around she felt like no matter what, everything would be all right. Anytime she looked at him her heart would twist into a familiar knot in her throat. Manami had known Kabuto for almost all her life but no amount of time spent with him seemed to ease her embarrassment to talk around him or just exist in general.

Currently they were on a mission that had lasted the past four years and for the most part had been pretty uneventful. Their one other teammate was named Yoroi. He wore small black circular shades, a purple head mask, and the same purple outfit as Kabuto and somehow after all that time she still didn't know anything about him other than that he didn't seem to terribly like either of them. He and Kabuto bickered all the time but since everything in the group was decided by majority rules and Manami would always side with Kabuto...

Anyways their mission had put them undercover in the Leaf Village for the past four years. She wasn't sure why they were there but as far as she could tell, her, as well as Yorois, only role was to stand there and make a three member group so Kabuto could enroll in the chunin exams each year and gather information that he would then give to their leader Orochimaru-sama. Their leader scared her, even though she had been a part of their group for a long time there always just seemed to be something slightly off about him that made her nervous, but she trusted Kabuto so she stayed.

This year was supposedly special because they were there to watch one kid in particular, someone named Sasuke Uchiha. Apparently this kid had a powerful bloodline jutsu so they wanted to recruit him to the sound village. Beyond that Manami didn't know the details to their mission. She never did. She never really wanted to. Kabuto was there and she trusted him, nothing else mattered.

"They're noisy this year aren't they"

Manami jumped a little, surprised Kabuto had said something to her. They had been sitting in silence for a while watching the new chunin exam attendees in the waiting room. Or at least, he was. She was too busy staring at the glare on his glasses and the way his grey bangs hung above them but he was right. They were noisier this year. Especially the one in orange.

"What do you think of them", Kabuto asked her.

He wasn't asking for her opinion. Stuff like that didn't matter to him. What mattered was her ability. The only reason she was ever chosen to go on so many missions with him in the first place. Ever since she could remember Manami had had a special ability nobody could really explain, and being an orphan didn't leave any family members she could ask about it.

"It's hhard to tell, they..there's too many ppeople."

"I guess it's time to introduce ourselves then."

Introducing themselves consisted mainly of Manami and Yoroi quietly standing by while listening to Kabuto give the new kids tips on the exams, flaunt his ninja info cards, and act like an all around dork. Yoroi found this all very annoying but Manami thought he was mesmerizing. He was so good with the kids, so kind and helpful to give them all of these insights from their years of taking the exams. But this wasn't the time to be admiring Kabuto, she had a job to do. The whole reason he had introduced themselves was to get close enough for Manami to get a clear read on them.

She turned her attention to Sasukes team. The three teammates kept bickering with each other except, unlike her own team, she could tell they all actually cared about each other. Sakura was the easiest to read. The pink haired girl obviously had a crush on Sasuke and was generally a happy person but for some reason tried not to express her frustrations or anger.

Naruto on the other hand seemed to have no problems expressing any of his feelings, although, like most people there was a hidden sadness in him as well. His felt much deeper than most but that wasn't even the most concerning thing about him. The more she sensed the more she could feel something else inside of him that was scary, evil almost, like it was just waiting for an opportunity to kill everyone in the room. This feeling differed from Narutos sunny demeanor on a such a scale that it was almost as if two different people were in front of her.

Next was Sasuke. The real reason they were here. He had a sadness as deep as Narutos but didn't hide it nearly as well. It hurt to try to read him. He cared about his teammates, he thought of Naruto as a brother but also found him extremely irritating and Sakura usually annoyed him too. The one thing that really stuck out to her though was that he seemed just a little bit happier every time one of them talked to him even though his face remained completely stoic.

How could Manami tell all this? That was her ability. To be able to sense peoples emotions without even trying. It caused a lot of problems for her as a kid. Always knowing when someone was lying to her, always being able to feel someone's sadness or anger. Other's pain would seep into her as if it were her own and there was no way to turn it off. Because of this Manami kept her distance from others. It was hard for her to talk to people, especially in large groups. Large groups meant more people and more people meant more emotions and the more emotions there were the more quickly overwhelmed she became.

That's why she liked Kabuto so much. Kabuto was special. He was special because he was quiet. But not in an empty kind of way, in a peaceful way. Kabuto was the only person in the world she couldn't read because every time she looked at him her own emotions would get in the way and the only thing she could feel was the loud thumping of her own chest.

Author's Note: Rewriting this series because I'm slightly better at writing now...I think...mabye? Any comments are much appreciated!