For the last century, approximately, this had been her home. Every once in a while, she would move to a new place, either to keep the scenery fresh or due to the fact that her residence would be discovered, usually ending with her being chased down but, luckily, never caught.

She often reminisced in the few memories of her life before she died. That was a painful thing when she, quite literally, had all the time in the world. Everyone she had known in her life before her current... situation were long dead, and sometimes she wondered if it would have been better if she had followed them.

"Hagoromo-kun! Hamura-kun!" A young girl of no more than 7 years ran towards two boys of around the same age, her short white hair whipping from side to side.

The boys turned around and waved to the girl who seemed to be radiating with excitement.

"Nina-chan, what is it?" the slightly taller boy, Hagomoro, asked.

"I wanna see more! Can you show me the magic?" the girl pleaded, hands clasped in front of her, black irises gleaming.

Hagomoro and Hamura glanced at each other and smiled. They molded chakra in their hands and, a moment later, snowflakes slowly began floating down, somehow staying frozen even under the glare of the blazing sun.

"Yay! Snow in summer!" she giggled, reaching up in an attempt to catch a snowflake. "Thank you!" She threw an arm around each of them and squeezed with all the strength she could muster, and they hugged back, laughing along with her.

She always wanted to have chakra like the twins.

"Kaasan, this is Nina. She's friends with Hamura and I." Hagoromo introduced.

The three children stood in front of a beautiful woman, white hair cascading down her back, touching the floor.

The princess, Otsutsuki Kaguya.

The ten year old girl, Nina, looked at the ground, slightly hiding behind Hamura. She was unthinkably nervous. Ever since she could remember, she had looked up to the princess. She had quickly denied when Hagoromo and Hamura had insisted that she meet their mother. Despite having now been friends with the two for four years, she knew that she'd be far too fidgety. However, being clever as they are, the two had managed to make sure they were late for dinner while Nina was in their company, and, just as they planned, their mother came looking for them.

"Hello young lady." the princess smiled gently. "You're friends with my sons?"

Nina nodded vigorously, not daring to look up at the princess.

"Well, my sons never introduce me to their friends, you must be close." Kaguya concluded. "How would you like to come over for dinner? I'm sure Hagoromo and Hamura would enjoy the company." the woman offered, looking at her sons who nodded happily. "Then it's settled. I will send someone to inform your parents."

"Oh, um, you don't need to do that, Kaguya-hime. I don't have parents," Nina said, not a hint of sorrow present on her innocent features.

The princess blinked in surprise.

"They died before I was a year old." By then, she had said those words too many times to be fazed.

"Is that so? You have my sympathy." the woman looked genuinely sorry, but quickly changed the topic. "Come, dinner is ready."

That was among the happiest memories she could recollect.

If only it had lasted.

The entire clan stood frozen, staring up at the monstrous creature towering overhead. Fires raged throughout the village, houses lie in rubble behind the creature.

"Nina!" shouted a familiar voice.

"Hamura?" the young woman, just shy of her twenty-first birthday, spun around, coming face to face with her longtime friend. "Where's Hagomoro?"

"He's holding off our mother." Hamura said grimly, glancing at the monster. "I'll bring you to a safe place. Come with me."

Nina nodded, taking his hand as he teleported the two to the edge of a forest, far enough away from the village to be out of range of the monster's, or rather, the princess', attacks.

"Stay here. I'll come back for you afterwards." he said before dissapearing.

It had been over an hour and there was no sign of Hamura or Hagoromo. Nina was getting worried; she couldn't see what was happening from here. After a moment of deliberation, she started towards the village, her concern getting the best of her.

She was already exhausted by the time she got close enough to see the village. 'If only I had chakra like those two...' she thought as she paused to catch her breath. She saw the monster was still there, still battling with two small figures in front of it.

Nina let out a sigh of relief. At least they were still alive.

She continued towards the village, this time at a jog. She was already past the outskirts of the village when-

"Nina!"

The burning pain came ripping through her. Next thing she knew, she was thrown twenty meters away from where she last stood, now crumpled on the ground.

She couldn't move at all.

Right before she blacked out, she could have sworn she heard someone calling her name.

A crash from outside snapped her out of her daydream. She swore under her breath for allowing herself to carelessly zone out. Swiftly standing up and stepping outside, Nina felt a number of chakra sources not too far in the distance, they seemed to be the source of the noise as numerous more were now coming from the same direction. Jumping into the trees, she headed in towards the sounds.

Nina landed on a branch right above where the strangers were. Eight men, Uchihas, were surrounding one other, probably a Senju. Around them, a few trees had fallen, others were burned, had weapons stuck in them, or had noticeable dents all around.

On any other occasion, Nina would have stepped in and helped the Senju, but this time it seems that was not needed.

The Senju, even when being vastly outnumbered, seemed fearless. Suddenly, with a swift movement of his hand, the men all jumped back as large spikes shot came up from the ground where they had just stood. Spikes made of ice.

"Be careful, he's fast!" one of the Uchihas shouted. Weapons and jutsus were thrown by both sides for a long while, but the Uchihas began to show signs of exhaustion. They were slowing down, their movements becoming sloppy. Nina saw the Senju's eyes flash, a dragon made of water burst from the ground, launching straight towards the leader of the Uchihas. He wasn't quick enough to get out of the way.

A stream of white fire shot out from in front of him.

His teammates paused for a moment; Uchihas didn't use white fire. The flames collided with the dragon, steam spread quickly, engulfing the entire area in seconds.

The leader was confused, he had closed his eyes, waiting for the attack to hit. Next thing he knew, he was surrounded by mist and couldn't see more than a foot ahead of him. He instantly activated his Sharingan and saw his team: they seemed to be a distance away. He ran after them, hesitating only for a second when he heard weapons clash behind him. Before he knew it, he was out of the mist and on a tree branch. He saw his team a short ways ahead, already headed back to the compound, and chased after them.

He wondered momentarily about who was fighting back there.

Nina returned to her home, slightly annoyed that it took so long to get away from the Senju. He was certainly skilled and very fast, even managing to cut her on the side of the neck. It had bled slightly but had formed into a light scar by now. She was able to lose him after a solid 30 second of being chased. She had a thousand years of experience running away to thank for her speed.

At least she hadn't been seen by the man.

Probably.

A month flashed by, Nina continued to drop in on as many Senju and Uchiha battles as she could, helping the losing side as subtly as possible, only physically stepping in when absolutely necessary. She would send a water bomb to extinguish a fireball or a bolt of lightning to counter a speeding boulder. The task wasn't easy; hiding her face from the very people she was trying to protect. Not to mention the fear of accidentally injuring either side always tugged at her mind. What was most concerning at the moment was the rumor she's heard floating around about a 'phantom shinobi' interfering with the war between the clans.

It is said the person has the ability to control a great number of elements, moving with the speed of light, and has a chakra that is so heavy that anyone within his view feels as if they're being suffocated.

Thankfully, somewhere along the line, someone had stretched the story so much that it must have been thought of as just another rumor, made up to instill fear. Even so, Nina was worried that people would really believe it. If someone in power happened to do such, she may be in a dangerous position.

Being discovered would not be an option, neither would sitting back and letting the clans slaughter each other. Honestly, she wasn't sure what she would do if she was found out to be the 'phantom,' so she pushed it to the back of her mind for now and focused of the task in front of her: helping a group of Senjus escape from a much larger group of Uchihas.

One of the Senju men seemed to be speaking to an Uchiha whom she remembered was named Madara. All the while, they swung various weapons and justus at each other.

'Odd...' Nina thought.

A kunai was headed straight towards the Uchiha who was too busy engaging with the Senju to notice, that is, until he heard the sound of cracking wood. Looking down quickly, he saw a twig, split into two, lying next to a kunai that seemed to have been scratched by the small branch. Odd, yes, but he didn't have time to think about it, swinging his gunbai up to block a blow from his opponent's sword.

Nina silently offered help to both sides when they needed it, while also making sure no one got too injured. She had just made an Uchiha lose his footing as he was about to deliver a fatal blow to his enemy, when, at that moment, she froze; she realized that she hadn't seen something. Something very important.

Not a hundred paces in front of her was Hamura's reincarnation, Madara, and the Senju from before, charging at each other with such powerful jutsus that they would undoubtedly create a blast strong enough to kill the men around them, if not themselves as well.

Nina didn't think that she had ever teleported so hastily before. Perhaps she got the speed from the thought that she needed to protect the man that held her friend's chakra, or perhaps from the sense of duty to protect the two clans and their members. Either way, she had managed to step between the two powerful attacks and immediately formed a barrier.

She felt the barrier crack upon contact from the two forces and added more chakra to it, reducing the cracks and reinforcing the shield. She kept channeling chakra until she felt a large break on one side. In a moment of panic, she became distracted and the forces on both sides shattered the barrier.

Now she was scared. Not for any of the members of the warring clans, but for herself. The men was powerful, that much was clear, and, if it came down to it, she would not be able to make herself fight back against the very clan she vowed to protect. Nina was scared. An emotion she did not feel often.

Despite having been alive for so long, she knew she was simply surviving on the chakra her clan sent her. She knew she was as mortal as anyone else.

Her heart stopped when she felt a hand grasp her wrist. She closed her eyes and waited for the incoming blow.

"Careful!" a voice next to her shouted as she felt herself being tugged to the side. Her eyes shot open just in time to see Madara's sword slam into the ground where she had stood a moment ago.

She flinched at the thought of the man who held her friend's chakra, the man who was one of her best friends in his past life, showing such hostility towards her.

A dull pain struck her heart.

After regaining her composure, Nina looked at the person next to her, the one who saved her. He was tall with long brown hair, and, from his aura of confidence and authority, was evidently a high positioning Senju officer.

"Why are you protecting her, Hashirama? Our dance was interrupted by... this." Madara spat, contempt dripping from every word.

"She has nothing to do with our fight, we don't hurt innocent people." the one named Hashirama frowned.

"If she really had nothing to do with the war, then why would she interfere?"

Hashirama paused at this, but he did not take back his word, nor did he question her.

"Our fight is going to have to be postponed, Madara. Until next time." Then he, along with all the Senju soldiers, jumped back and disappeared from view, Nina along with them.