Konoha's Maelstrom

14

Meiko woke up at five.

She changed, stretched, did a quick run around the village, and arrived home at 5:45. After, triple-checked her equipment, and made sure to seal her katana into the right leg of her shorts.

For breakfast she had an egg, buttered toast, some bacon, and some water.

6:30

Meiko entered her dad's office. She walked to the picture that hung up, the one that had the letters her parents had left her, and stood level with it.

"Hope you're watching," she murmured and moved away.

The desk was clean. Every book was shelved, Every scroll was stacked and organised. On the desk, her dad's journal lay in the middle and a picture of his team was there. On the right side of the desk, Meiko had put a picture of her team and a picture of Shisui.

She stared at the picture for a bit longer and then turned away. Opening the drawer for the desk, Meiko pulled out her dad's special kunai. She spun it in her hand once, watching the tri-pronged kunai spin slowly.

These prongs are so...short. Why? If I had tri-pronged kunai, I would have made them like a miniature sai sword; sharper points, can catch blades better, and also look cooler.

Meiko shook her head and placed the kunai back.

Battle plan. She pulled out a paper and started drawing from memory. There's a river through the middle of the Forest of Death. The water is normally clean, but I have neutralising tablets in case. Next, the tower at the centre is our most likely checkpoint; it lies at the centre. Multiple entrances around the training ground, around 30 entrances all spaced perfectly. There's twenty-six teams left, Gaara included, so those four extra are either not going to be used or Konoha is going to release something to make this harder. Finally, the forest's diameter is around 10 kilometres, so that would mean that if we entered from one of the thirty gates, we'd have to go five kilometres to get to the tower.

Meiko studied her map. The Forest of Death rarely got sunlight with the tightly packed trees so the camouflage jacket would be helpful because there would be many shadows to hide in.

Meiko checked the clock on the wall. 7:00

She'd been drawing a map for around thirty minutes.

Meiko stood up and stretched, then sat back down. She looked over the map again. Entrance gates will be random, I think, but those by the river have an advantage because they just have to follow the river. However, the second stage isn't only about teamwork, there's a special element that is used to eliminate teams.

Twenty-six teams and Anko said she'd cut those numbers in half. What does that tell me? Meiko stared at the map, her eyes travelling over Training Ground 44 from her memories. Probably putting teams against each other, maybe collect something from another team?

Meiko sighed. "No point trying to guess. They'll tell us there." She left the makeshift map on her desk and grabbed her glass of water. She was glad that she knew the Forest of Death was hot during the summer because, if she hadn't, she would have had to print the seals on in the Forest and waste time.

The seals she was talking about were temperature seals that keep her body cool and at optimum temperatures at all times. Actually, all her clothes had that, but that was beside the point.

She picked up her book and started reading. This book was a mystery book about a death on a boat that was on a river and an investigator had to figure it out with his partner.

She looked up after getting through chapter 13 and noticed the clock.

7:40

Meiko jumped up, placing her bookmark in and leaving it on her desk, she ran to the door. Meiko pulled on her boots and ran out.