Another Nine-Tails?!

Preliminaries

Uta stood behind Kabuto, their teammates behind her. To her right was a team from the Hidden Sand and on their other side was the Sound team that attacked Team 7 at the beginning of the second exam. To her left was the team with Rock Lee, followed by Naruto's group. She took noticed of Kiba being on a team with Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga. At the end of the line was Shikamaru's team.

The Hokage began to speak, but the red-head tuned him out. She knew what these exams were for, it was just stupid words at this point that he was speaking. Instead, she observed all the Jonin gathered in the room. She was surprised Iruka was there, but shoved down the want to wave at him. Among the faces of jonin she noticed, included Kakashi Hatake. She had never personally met him, but Iruka had mentioned him a few times.

The silver-haired jonin scanned the crowd, lingering on his students before landing on Kabuto. His visible eye narrowed, barely, and he sniffed the air. He became alert at the scent that reached his nose. It was hard to pinpoint, especially with all the other scents mixing in. One of them was more bloody then the rest. 'He died years ago. He can't be here... unless...' He took his eyes off the teen.

One of the kids from the Sand team nudged Uta with his elbow. "What's your name? I saw you fighting during the first part."

"Uta. And yours?"

"Kankuro." He gave her a smirk before paying attention to the Hokage.

"It's nice to meet you." He nodded, showing he heard her.

A man named Gekko Hayate was going to be the preliminaries proctor, but he appeared to be very ill. Coughing between a lot of his words. "Now that you know something about what this exam is really about, anyone who doesn't feel up to the challenge, either physically or mentally, can walk away."

Kabuto raised his hand. "Well, that's by cue."

"What?! K-Kabuto..?!" Naruto whipped around, eyeing the older boy.

"Uh, aren't you Kabuto Yakushi from the Leaf? Okay, you can go. Um, in case I forgot to mention it, from here on out all of you will be fighting as individuals and not as teams. So you can make the choice, whichever choice is right for you, without worrying about anyone else. So, anyone else want out?"

"Hey! Kabuto, what's up with quitting?!" The blonde boy asked the older genin.

"Naruto, I'm sorry, but those guys we fought beat the crap out of me. And ever since my scuffle with those Sound ninja before the first exam, I've been totally deaf in my left ear. Now they're saying this could be a fight to the death. I just don't think I'm up to that!" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Is your blood aching to flow free yet?"

"I'm simply following orders. And considering how you hate my ranking, I would have thought you'd jump at chance."

"Hmph..! You might think you're Lord Orochimaru's favorite, but don't push it, brat."

"I got it loud and clear!"

"So, uh... looks like no one else is bailing out-" Uta raised her hand.

"Huh? You too?!" Naruto exclaimed at her.

"I don't want to kill anyone, Naruto. I can't. It goes against what I believe in. I'm sorry." She smiled at him, heading after Kabuto.

"Good excuse." He muttered, making her grin up at him.

"I just bent the truth a little, that's all."

"You're learning to become a spy. It will come in handy in the future." The girl felt cold scales on the back of her neck, Uroko's head coming into view.

"Orochimaru would like to see you, alone." The redhead nodded.

"I'll see you later than, Akiko." He chuckled at her glare, watching her disappear.