A Thousand Years

The Tale

The woman stepped into the field, drawing a pattern on the ground with the efficiency that only came with repeating it a hundred times. He watched as she jammed the end shaped like an open circle into the ground, jumping to land on top of the other end. The end she stood on was a loop with six rings hanging from it; three on either side. The entire staff seemed to be made of a material that was a shade darker than black.

They must have stood there for well over an hour before anything happened. She formed a chain of hand seals; hare, tiger, ox, bird, boar, hare, and, as if by her command, moon began to glow a pale orange, as did the symbol that had been drawn on the ground. The color began to get darker and darker. A stream of red moonlight drifted towards the ground.

Hashirama could feel it. The same odd chakra that the woman carried was streaming down towards them. It seemed to be getting absorbed into either her or the staff. It was only then that it hit him. This was the blood moon.

This was what was causing it.

She was what was causing it.

By the time the chakra stream had stopped, Hashirama was left with far more questions than he had come with. When the woman had stepped off the staff, a gust of wind blew away any marks she had made on the ground, leaving the area as unremarkable as it was before.

The woman walked towards him, stopping a few feet away.

"There are a few things you should know." she began.

For the next few hours, the two sat on the edge of the field. Nina told him her story.

Of who she was, of why she was here. She told him about her death almost a thousand years ago and about her revival soon after, not specifying whom she was revived by. She told him about her role as a guardian for the world, to protect the decedents of the Ōtsutsuki as best as possible while keeping herself as unknown as possible.

Even having listened to all this, Hashirama wanted to know more.

So she told him about her clan, about their architecture, about their festivals.

She told him about the princess, about the chakra tree, and about the rampage.

Next came the part about the princes.

She told of the sealing, of the creation of the tailed beasts, and of how the first person to receive chakra was a close friend of the legendary sages.

When Hashirama, intrigued by the idea of being the first person to receive chakra, asked to hear more about this person, all Nina could say was that she knew the person. They were young when they received the chakra were and even rumored to be as powerful as the two sages. She told him how no one knows much of what happened to the person, they disappeared just before the clan relocated.

The Senju's curiosity seemed to be unending. He would have asked many more hours' worth of questions had he not been interrupted by Nina.

"It's about time we get back. The sun will rise soon." she said, eyes fixed on the horizon. They stood up, dusted themselves off, and began heading back to the village after dropping off Nina's shakujō at her home.

The sun's light had not yet reached the sky when the two stepped foot in the village. They were just about to part ways, when Nina felt a hand on her shoulder. She felt his hesitation.

"Why did you choose to tell me all that?"

The question was simple, seemingly obvious. But she had to think about it for a minute.

"I'm not sure." her eyes softened. "Perhaps you reminded me of someone I knew."

The image of the younger version of her and Hagoromo flashed in her mind. They were sitting in a field, talking and laughing as if they had known each other their entire lives.