A chuckle broke through the silence and all eyes turned to its source.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up." Madara grinned threateningly. "Good to see that isn't the case."

The white haired figure lifted their head and glared wordlessly at the Uchiha.

"Nina?" A voice from behind called with a mixture of confusion and surprise. Hashirama was shocked, not only because she was here, but also because the force of the two attacks colliding didn't leave a single scratch on her.

But her attention wasn't on him.

"What you are trying to achieve is ridiculous." She spat in a tone that was very unlike her.

"Ridiculous?" Madara repeated incredulously. "You of all people should understand why it is completely reasonable. Peace is necessary for a perfect world and violence is the only way to reach it. You've seen many wars, haven't you, Otsutsuki Nina?"

Silence.

"How did you find out?" She asked sharply.

Another chuckle left his lips.

"Now that you're here, things will be much more interesting." Ignoring her question, he clasped his hands together and the Demonic Statue lunged forward, instantly closing the gap between them. A decayed hand swung down and she leapt back, causing it to collide with the ground. She landed on one of the arms of the more pristine statue.

"Nina!"

She glanced down to see Hashirama looking back at her, evidently confused.

"Why are you here?" He questioned.

"We'll talk later, we have something on our hands at the moment."

As if on cue, another enormous hand clamped down on the arms of Hashirama's statue, just barely missing Nina. She leapt up onto the huge twisted arm and sprinted towards Madara who stood on its head. In a split second, she was right in front of him. He gripped his gunbai and swung it, creating a strong gust of wind that nearly pushed her off the statue.

"What are you planning?" She demanded, causing a smirk to spread across his face.

"I'll achieve what your clan never could." He took a deep breath and blew a large stream of fire. Nina leapt sideways and avoided it, landing on the statue's left shoulder.

"What makes you think you'll be able to bring peace?" She challenged as she dodged another blast of fire.

"The new world will need a ruler, who more fit than myself?" A flaring blue susanoo formed around his body and a sword appeared in its hand. It drew its arm back and sliced the air, sending out a wave of glistening blue spikes. Nina held a hand out and the spikes all crashed into an invisible barrier. The susanoo threw its sword at her but she jumped back in time to avoid it.

Behind her, the sword hit a patch of trees and cut straight through them. The tops of hundreds of trees toppled to the ground.

Nina landed on the ground a distance away and Madara didn't hesitate to follow. The susanoo slammed a fist onto the ground, dozens of pillars of the same blue chakra shot up from the ground and twisted into a dome around her. After a moment, the pillars shattered and Nina jumped out, landing just about ten meters away from the trigger-happy Uchiha. Without warning, the susanoo changed. Four extra arms appeared as the torso grew wider.

"With so many years of hiding, you must have developed a few tricks." Madara brought his hands together and the susanoo mirrored him. "Let's put on a good show." A chain of blasts went off one after another, forming a line of destruction headed straight towards Nina. As the last one sounded, Madara leapt forward and the susanoo slammed a hand down on the spot Nina stood. Seeing her dissappear and reappear a distance away, he wasted no time in charging at her once again.

Naruto watched from behind a thick row of trees. He was staring, still in shock.

"Naruto, isn't that..." Sasuke, who crouched next to him, narrowed his eyes. He had only seen her a couple of times in the past but her appearance didn't exactly help her blend in.

Naruto didn't respond. He didn't need to.

"What is she doing here? Madara isn't someone she can stand up to." He had noticed that she wasn't attacking, only dodging Madara's attacks.

A painfully long second of silence dragged between them. This was broken by a rustle of movement and next thing he knew, Naruto was sprinting towards the battle.

"Hey!" Sasuke cursed as he reluctantly chased after him, hoping to be able to stop him from doing anything stupid.

A stream of fire shot at Nina, she raised a hand and it was split straight down the middle, shooting off to either side of her.

Four branches emerged from the dirt and crept up behind her. It twisted around her ankles only to be immediately burned upon contact.

It was clear that Madara was getting impatient. She wasn't attacking and he was bored. However, his boredom quickly turned into excitement when he saw the jinjuriki boy running straight towards them.

Nina saw his eyes shift and quickly recognized the approaching chakra source.

Madara turned back to her with a smirk. The susanoo around him disappeared and he bolted to the left, straight towards Naruto. His hands flew through a string of seals and the Demonic Statue, who had been facing off with Hashirama, shot out a chain from its mouth.

Naruto barely had time to react as the huge chain flew at him. He jumped back but it changed direction and shot towards him again. He dodged again, knowing that he couldn't let it touch him or else Kurama would be pulled from him.

If that happened, Madara would win.

Naruto jumped to the left and just as the chain was about to chase after him, a figure appeared in front of it, stopping it dead in its tracks.

"Sensei!" He yelled and a wave of relief washed over him.

"Get out of here." She said without looking back. She forced a pulse of white chakra through the chain and it shot up, reaching the mouth of the statue in a matter of seconds. The statue immediately shut its mouth, causing the chain to break off and crash to the ground.

"Sensei, what are you doing here? Its not safe!"

Nina turned to her left, Naruto stood right next to her.

"I should be asking you the same. You must leave before Madara gets to you." She stated.

"But-"

"I know you have questions. I will answer all of them after this is all over. Please, get to safety now." She said with a sense of urgency.

He didn't know what to do. Or rather, he knew what he should do, he just couldn't do it.

"I'm not going to leave you with him, sensei. I can help." He stated.

Nina sighed in exasperation.

"...just watch your back, alright?"

Naruto grinned, determined to protect her.

"Deal." As soon as the word left his mouth, a fireball flew straight at them. A wall of water appeared and wrapped around it, leaving only steam in its place.

Madara took a step forward, gunbai in hand. Without a word, he lunged at Naruto who skillfully dodged it, if only by an inch. Nina appeared between them and blocked another swing from the Uchiha. With a gust of wind, she successfully shoved him back. He landed on his feet a few meters away and gave her a look of satisfaction. She moved to stand just a small distance in front of him.

"So you're finally ready to battle." He mused with a smirk.

"If you want to fight, we'll fight. But leave him out of it." She stated with a glare.

"Oh? I didn't realize you were so protective of the boy." He chuckled. "Very well. I expect a good battle." He clasped his hands together and a susanoo formed around him, this one was slightly larger than the others, six arms and full body armor.

Nina seemed unimpressed. She raised her arm and the air seemed to swirl. A black, staff-like object appeared in her hand.

The susanoo around him shifted once again, this one was much larger than the rest, with partial armor and a long nose that portruded from under its helmet. It held a sword in each of its hands, wings folded behind it. Madara stood inside a chamber in its forehead, giving him a safe view of everything below. The susanoo unsheathed one of its swords and swung down, aiming directly for Nina.

The blade struck something invisible, stopping it not a foot above above her head. She glanced up at it, unfazed. She tapped the edge with the top of her staff and a deafening crack was heard. The blade shattered into uncountable pieces.

Nina jumped just as a spike, with the same color and glow as the susanoo, shot out of the ground where she stood.

Landing on a high cliff, she now stood face to face with the enormous creature. It turned to her and slammed the hilt of the remaining sword down on the cliff, the rock immediately gave way and collapsed into a pile of pebble. The susanoo glanced around, the woman was nowhere in sight, but a sudden flare in chakra made it clear where she was.

'Up.'

A large hand rose up and reached above its head, blindly grabbing at Nina. However, before it could touch her, the hand instinctively retreated upon feeling a jolt.

Glancing at the hand, Madara realized it was dissentigrading. He formed a seal in an attempt to stop the damage, but nothing was happening. The dissentigration spread to the torso. Without any other choice, he released the susanoo and it instantly vanished. He landed on the ground and, looking up, saw Nina standing on the pile of rubble.

Frowning, he called his gunbai and swung it twice, arcs of wind rushed at Nina but proved useless. She stretched out her free hand and opened it so that her palm faced him. A red glow began forming at the center of her hand. The soft glow soon became bloody red and a solid pillar of light shot towards him. Madara quickly formed a chain of seals and blew out a concentrated stream of fire. The red light collided with the flames and they pushed against each other. Finally, the light overcame and dispersed the fire. Madara jumped away as the light shot under him. It hit a rock wall a distance away and passed straight through it, leaving an empty tunnel in its path.

Madara disappeared in midair. Nina whipped around just in time to block a fist aimed at her back. She looked straight into the pair of red and black eyes.

'They have no effect on her?' Madara cursed and leapt back. 'What is the meaning of this?' He frowned and his eyes shifted to the Rinnengan, red and black turned to rings of purple as he clenched his fists. His frustration was soon gone as a loud cry was heard a distance from them. Turning their heads, they both watched as a chain retreated into the mouth of the Demonic Statue, something orange caught at the end.

"Naruto!" The fourth Hokage shouted desperately upon seeing his son lying on the ground. "Naruto!" He ran up to him and kneeled at his side. He wasn't breathing.

Hashirama landed beside him, checking his pulse and chakra flow.

"His chakra says he's still hanging in there. The nine tails was pulled from his body so he's very weak." He stated grimly, placing both hands over the boy's chest. A soft green glow appeared beneath them. Hashirama glanced at an anxious Minato. "I'll do everything I can."

Thump

Thump

Everyone turned their heads.

Thump thump

Thump thump thump thump

An avalanche of footsteps was fast approaching, and there were a lot of them.

Someone stepped into view. Then another. And another.

In mere seconds, a hundred shinobi stood on the hill. They were dressed in all colors with all different expressions on their faces, but every one of them wore the same forehead protector: Shinobi.

They ran forward, heading directly toward the west side of the field, where Madara and Nina were in a stand off. As they approached, it became clear that at their head was none other than the Fifth Hokage herself. She gestured to the army behind her and a few of them broke off from the group, heading towards the lineup of people who had been injured and unable to run away when the others had.

Four of the newly arrived shinobi gathered around Naruto while the others went to treat the rest of the injured.

"Please excuse us, Hokage-sama." One of the medical ninja took a small glass bottle out from her supplies pouch. She pulled the cork out and carefully poured it into Naruto's mouth.

"What's that?" Hashirama inquired.

"A concentrated chakra solution. It should stimulate his chakra and breathing patterns." The medic nin answered. "Please, leave him to us. Help Tsunade-sama." The woman's eyes pleaded.

Hashirama nodded and quickly headed in the direction the army had gone.

Nina blocked another fireball and sent back one of her own. Madara blocked it with his gunbai and it absorbed the chakra, shooting a powerful blast of wind in return. Nina leapt high into the air, just managing to avoid the wall of wind racing at her. She felt a large mass of chakra approaching, and immediately recognized the most prevalent one.

"Hashirama, what happened with Naruto?" Nina asked the moment he landed next to her.

"The Kyuubi was extracted and he's unconscious but there's still hope." He said as reassuringly as possible.

She did not reply as she knew what was happening over on the other side of the battlefield. She was no longer able to sense his chakra.

"Things are finally complete." Madara observed, glancing over at the Demonic Statue, writhing and glowing a deadly red. Its form was quickly englufed completely by the red light, the creature grew and grew and grew until it was ten thousand times the size of a tailed beast.

Madara had vanished.

Hashirama shot Nina a sideways glance.

"What should we do?" He asked, brows knit.

Her eyes did not leave the creature. There was a dreadfully long silence.

"Gather everyone and take them away. Far away." She stated softly.

Hashirama shook his head.

"You know I won't-"

"But you will. To keep everyone safe." She turned and looked him dead in the eye. She wasn't angry. She wasn't upset. She wasn't fearful. Her expression showed regret. "From the time I stepped into this battle, I thought I could stop him without hurting anyone. I now understand that's not possible. I should have killed him the instant I saw him." She took a deep breath. "But I couldn't. Now I have to make things right." She was pleading with him. "Please."

Hashirama clenched his fists, his chest turned, knowing he was going to do what she asked, no matter how much he didn't want to.

She saw this and understood, a smile spread across her lips.

"Thank you." Her eyes turned to look at the creature again, Madara had put a seal on it. She looked back at Hashirama and gestured for him to go.

His brows knit and his eyes were full of sadness. He had just been reunited with his old friend and he already had to let her go.

"I'll make sure everyone is safe." He promised simply. As soon as the words left his mouth, he disappeared.

Nina smiled to herself, then she, too, disappeared.

The ten tails that had been revived from the Demonic Statue let out a screech as it was sealed inside Madara.

Nina appeared a distance in front of the glowing form of the said Uchiha. The white light dimmed slowly, and her opponent was revealed.

Spiky white hair cascaded down his back, he wore a white robe with nine tomoe by the collar. A white band lie across his forehead, two pointed horns protruding from it. In his hand was a black staff with half a circle at the top. He was an image of white, even his skin had become incredibly pale. His eyes, however, still held rings of deep purple.

Madara smirked, looking her straight in the eye.

She knew what was coming. They both did.

Nina let out a shallow breath. She held a hand out and the air swirled, a black staff similar to the one he held appeared.

Both shinobi stood tall, staff in their right hand. Both their white robes danced with the wind.

The air became cold.