Asking the teams what scroll they had wasn't fun but she would do it for Kabuto. Some of them told the truth, either because they felt bad for her or they thought she would think it was a double bluff, some lied, and some refused to answer. But that was fine because she had already found a few teams with the scroll they needed. At this point she was just asking so it wasn't obvious which team they might be targeting later. Now Manami approached team seven who had already picked up their scroll and was discussing their plan of action upon entering the forest or they would be if they weren't re-going over the rules for Naruto.

"What the heck is she doing", Sasuke asked, mostly to himself.

"Hmm I don't know, that does seem strange though doesn't it", Sakura said.

"She's probably just being friendly", Naruto butted in.

"This isn't the kind of place to make friends in", Sasuke said darkly.

"Uum I'm sorry to to bother you. I was jjust wondering wwhich scroll you got", Manami asked when she finally got to them.

"We got the heaven one", Naruto said with a big smile and arms lazily behind his head.

"Naruto, you idiot! Don't just go telling other teams what scroll we have", Sakura yelled at him, hitting him out of his lazy pose.

"Hey that hurt!"

"You're the idiot Sakura. There was no way she could have known if he was actually telling the truth or not unless you said that", Sasuke said. He was wrong of course, but they didn't know that.

"Oh you're right. I'm sorry", Sakura said shamefully. She looked disappointed that she had let the guy she liked down. Manami could definitely understand that feeling.

"It's ook, we're not planning o..on telling the other teams. Ththank you", Manami said, did a slight bow then went to leave.

"Wait", Sasuke said stopping her in her tracks. "Even if you're not planning on telling anyone, we don't know which scroll you have so as far as we know you could be planning on attacking us later."

Manami turned back around timidly. "I..I'm sorry that isn't our iintention, we're jjust looking for friends."

"See I told you she was just being friendly", Naruto said

"That's great and all but how do we know if you're telling the truth or not."

"I um uh...", Manami said caught off guard. All of the other teams had said something like, "Why should we tell you?", or, "We have the scroll of earth, figure out if we're telling the truth or not." Besides, Kabuto was always the one who did the talking.

"Come on Sasuke be nice, her partner just gave you all of that information on other genin just to help out us newbies", Sakura said.

Sasuke glared at Manami a little longer before looking away and crossing his arms.

"Sorry about that, even though he seems grumpy sometimes, Sasuke's actually a nice person", Sakura said with a friendly smile.

"No way Sasukes always a huge grouch", Naruto interjected loudly. It seemed most things he said or did had to be done loudly.

"No I'm not. I'm just serious about this test, unlike you."

"Hey! I'm serious about it too!"

And before she knew it they were in each others faces yelling insults. Again.

"Uh sorry tto cause you any trotrouble. I'll just um..", Manami said. Her voice could barely be heard of the two of them fighting as she took the moment to awkwardly make her exit. "Ththank you", she said again with a slight bow then left as quickly as she could only to realize she wanted to stay longer because the next team she would have to ask was the grass team.

Black eyes followed her as she ever so cautiously approached the team. Manami desperately tried not to meet his gaze. Even though this man wore a disguise, there was nothing to hide those narrowed eyes and smile creeping up one side of his face, not to mention the killing intent seeping out from him, he was without a doubt Orochimaru.

She stopped before them and opened her mouth to force herself to speak but no words would come out. She could barely even look up at them before getting scared and looking back down or away. Even though he must have been turning down the killing intent to blend into the exams better it was still strong enough to be suffocating. It was hard to think like this, when all her mind kept telling her was to run. Despite the fact she had known this man for most of her life the feeling of fear he infected her with never seemed to go away.

"Kabuto's so mean. Making you go ask all the teams by yourself."

She cautiously glanced up at Orochimaru when he said this.

"Surely you didn't think it was necessary?"

She looked back down. This thought had briefly crossed her mind until she pushed it away with the same reasoning she used on everything. Kabuto had a logical reason, he never did things without thoroughly thinking them throuh but... why couldn't he have gone with her?

"I...I came to ask whwhich scroll your team g..got", she finally said.

"We have the scroll of Heaven."

He was lying.

He had no reason to lie to her. So, why? She looked up, confused.

As soon as she saw him grinning at her confusion she understood. He had been testing her.

"Th..thank you", she said and bowed, eager to leave.

Part of her thought he would say something more to her as she walked, practically ran, away but somehow she got lucky and he let her go. She figured he probably didn't want her passing out and hindering Kabuto. Passing out was one of her specialties. Whenever she sensed too many people all at once or one person with an overly strong feeling there was a possibility of her passing out from the overflow of emotion.

Kabuto was lazily leaning against the fence to the forest intently studying his ninja info cards while Yoroi looked bored as ever, arms crossed looking over the forest. She sighed, a little disappointed that Kabuto hadn't been paying any attention to anything she had been doing. As she got closer his eyes glanced over the top of his cards at her sending a bolt through her chest and causing her to forget all about it because now her heart wouldn't stop beating.

"Well, how'd it go", he asked kindly.

She recounted everything that had happened, mostly which teams seemed like easy targets and what Sasukes team had been like only stumbling a little over what Orochimaru had said.

"He only said what scroll he had and nothing else", Kabuto said surprised.

"Um... I mean hhe did say one other thing."

Kabuto waited.

"Hhe said you were being mmean by making me ask eveveryone by myself a..and it that it wasn't necessary."

She felt bad telling him. It wasn't as if she had been the one to say it but she felt bad anyways because she knew Kabuto looked up to him and didn't want to hurt his feelings but despite telling him this she received a slight smile.

Yoroi chuckled. "Looks like Orochimarus calling you out."

Manami was confused

"It's Master Oochimaru. Show some respect", Kabuto said darkly.

This was bad. There weren't that many things that could make Kabuto mad and so far, since they had started the exam, both had happened. First his glasses cracked and now his master was insulted, maybe this was a bad sign.

"Respect? I didn't think you knew what that was."

He grinned. "I show respect for those who are worthy so it's no wonder you've never seen a demonstration from me."

"You.."

"Save it for the forest, it looks like they're letting us in now."

Sure enough the other teams were being led to the respective entrances in the gate so they would have to scout each other out once inside the arena. Manami let out a breath of relief. Although it was a common occurrence, she hated seeing the two of them squabble and knowing she was completely useless.

Authors Note: Thank you for reading! And yes she has a speech impediment, it's not a typo it's done on purpose. Sorry if it's annoying but it's for the sake of character growth, she'll get rid of it eventually.