Konoha's Maelstrom

5

Meiko Uzumaki was sitting on the Hokage Tower roof. She was the last to take her genin pictures since she had come last for a reason; she didn't want any of the graduates to see her until tomorrow.

Firstly, they still thought she had not graduated. Secondly, Meiko had changed her outfit.

She now wore the same shirt she usually wore under her orange jacket. It was a dark blue, sleeveless turtleneck. Over the turtleneck was a new grey jacket that had the Uzumaki swirl on the chest. She also wore fingerless gloves, but those were covered by the jacket. She had on dark blue biker shorts. Her hitai-ate was tied around her forehead, beneath her bangs and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. Meiko now had a belt with several pouches holding different things as well as the standard shinobi pouch around her leg. She had on knee high, black boots with full toe coverage.

A little secret about her new outfit was that the right leg of her shorts had a storage seal and that storage seal held her katana. She had customised the seal to react to only her chakra, so when she put her hand and focused some chakra in the seal, her sword would appear. If anyone else tried to focus their chakra in the storage seal, it would zap them with lightning.

She was staring at the camera with a blank face for her photo. The camera man took the picture and Meiko put the picture on the file that was about her and entered her jiji's office.

"Morning, Hokage-sama." She had to be respectful as there was a shinobi sitting next to Hiruzen.

"Good morning Meiko-chan."

"Here is my form for my file and information about my genin status." She grinned at him as if there was an inside joke and he rolled his eyes fondly. He knew that she was far past the stage of a genin, perhaps bordering chunin. She sat in the chair opposite the desk and waited for Hiruzen.

"Alright, well the forms are all correctly filled ou-" Hiruzen was cut off by a sliding door to Meiko's right opening. In ran a short boy, who was shouting.

"Old man, I'm going to challenge you and become the fifth hokage!" the boy screamed while running at Hiruzen with a shuriken. He tripped on the long part of his scarf and fell. He began crying as soon as his head hit the floor.

Meiko studied the boy. He wore a far too long, blue scarf, which is obviously how he tripped. He had grey shorts, a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol on it, and blue shoes. The bow also wore a weird helmet.

And then another person ran in. Meiko recognised him as Ebisu immediately. Ebisu was a jonin of Konoha, but Meiko wondered how he got the title when all he did was act cocky.

The boy on the floor groaned, "Something tripped me."

Ebisu looked around the room and then at the boy, "Are you ok honourable grandson? And by the way there is nothing here for you to trip on."

Meiko showed nothing, but she did note that Ebisu wasn't the most observant when the long blue scarf was right there, beneath the kid's foot.

That was when the boy stood up and looked around the room. He honed in on Meiko and stomped to the girl. "Alright, you're the one who tripped me, aren't you?!"

Meiko regarded him calmly with a raised eyebrow, as if asking "Are you an idiot?"

The kid seemed to get the message because he screamed. "Ugh! I know it was you!"

"Kid, I was over a metre away from you. How could I have tripped you, idiot?" she replied, her Namikaze look making the kid feel stupid. He pushed away the feeling just as fast as it came.

"Hey you!" Ebisu got Meiko's attention, "How dare you talk to him like that. He's the honourable grandson of the honourable third hokage!"

Meiko turned to the Hokage who nodded subtly. She then turned to the boy and studied him. She could basically gather his thoughts from his face. He didn't think she would hurt him because he was the Third's grandson.