Talking to Sasukes team went pretty well. They thought Kabuto was helpful despite his apparent seven failed attempts at the chunin exams and everyone seemed to like him, everyone that is except Sasuke. But he distrusted almost everyone so that was fine. Manami would tell him her thoughts on them later when it was more convenient.

Besides a minor run in with some sound ninja, because apparently they didn't get the memo that Kabutos team was from the same village, everything was going off without a hitch. The written exams were easy at this point. Manami almost never needed to cheat anymore because she was beginning to memorize repeat questions and she had no doubt Kabuto had always known all of the answers.

Not having to try as hard left more time to daydream and stare at Kabuto. She wondered if he ever looked at her when she wasn't paying attention too. She liked to think he did but was pretty sure he didn't. He was always so focused on their mission. He had never really shown any interest in her as anything more than a friend, or anyone else for that matter which was fine by her because Manami thought that if she hadn't worked up the courage to tell him how she felt by now she probably never would and if she had to see him go for someone else it would be too hard.

She wondered what they were going to do after this. Supposedly this was their last year undercover in the leaf village but she wasn't sure what their next mission would be. She usually never did until the day of or the day before if she was lucky.

When the first part of the exams were over a crash followed by a person came spilling through the window. That person announced themselves as Anko Mitarashi, the next proctor. Manami didn't like her. She was outgoing and genuinely cared about the attendees but... there was just something ever so off about her that Manami couldn't quite place.

The next day they all met up at the site of the second test. It was a giant section of forest she had somehow never noticed before, surrounded by a fence with too many warning signs. Once there, the first thing Anko announced was that in order to help weed out the abundance of attendees they had that year she would allow them to kill each other during the next test. Now Manami knew why she didn't like her. That proctor had a sadistic streak in her. Even though the proctors were allowed to decide that rule it was extremely rare for them to decide to allow it.

"You're just trying to scare us", some kid yelled.

It was Naruto.

"Well I have news for you I'm not afraid of you or this stupid forest!"

"Oh really?"

Anko quickly threw a kunai, skimming past Narutos face and grazing his cheek. Just as quickly, she was behind him licking his blood off.

There was something weird about her. It wasn't just the sadistic streak, it was something else. Something that oddly reminded Manami of someone else. That someone else was behind Anko now, but in disguise as some random grass genin. He handed back he kunai but instead of using his hand, he decided holding it in his tongue would be way more convenient.

It didn't matter what disguise Orochimaru took, Manami would always be able to tell it was him and it wasn't just because of the weird tongue thing. Despite him being their leader and knowing him for so long Manami still felt afraid whenever he was around. Kabuto said it was his job as a leader to be intimidating now and then but Manami felt that Orochimaru wasn't so much intimidating as he was malevolent and threatening. If it wasn't for her trust in Kabuto he would never have been someone Manami would choose to follow.

It was strange too that he was even here like this. Wasn't he supposed to be disguised as their teacher? He had never disguised himself as one of the students before. She looked at Kabuto for any signs to this mystery but all she could see was the light reflecting from his glasses.

Luckily Anko took her kunai back without any problems, no more squabbles broke out and they resumed passing out the forms saying they were all perfectly fine with the possibility of dying during the exam.

"Once we're inside the forest I'm going to split off from you guys so I can join up with Sasukes team."

Kabutos words caught her off guard. Split up their team? They had never done that before. She wasn't even sure if she had ever had a full conversation with Yoroi before and now they were supposed to work together?

"Hold on. What makes you think I'm just going to babysit the rest of the test for you", Yoroi said.

Babysit. He meant her. She supposed it was true he had never really seen her fight but that was because there was never any reason to. Everyone was younger than them and they always dropped out early.

"Because if something happens to Manami because of you, I'll personally kill you."

Kabuto said these last words with a friendly smile, the kind of look you would give someone if you were inviting them to a picnic. It was times like this Manami actually wondered in the back of her head if it was possible he liked her too. After all you wouldn't make threats like that for someone you didn't care about right? At the very least she knew he thought of her as a friend, someone to look out for and make empty threats to protect them. She knew he would never actually kill their other teammate.

"I..it's ok, yyou don't ha..", she was cut off.

"Fine", Yoroi said and that was that.

"Anyways", Kabuto continued, "I need us to get our second scroll as soon as possible so I have more time to locate and follow Sasukes team. That's why, Manami, I need you to ask the other teams what scroll they have so we know which one to target once we're inside."

This was surprising. Usually in past tests that were similar they would just ask once they were inside or just not ask at all. It didn't matter if they failed after all.

"O..ok."

"Thank you. I need you to start asking now while everyone's still signing their sheets, meet back here when you're done."

"Yyou want me to...go by by myself?"

"It would be too noticeable if all three of us went, besides I know you can do it."

She knew she could do it, she just didn't want to. She hated talking to people and she definitely didn't want to talk to that grass team but how was she supposed to say no when he was looking at her like that. That cute little smile that made his eyes scrunch up into slits.