Approximately 17 years ago, a young girl was born into the small village of Snow. Her hair was of the purest white at its roots, and as you neared the ends, streaks of sky and violet gently wormed their way in. Her wide, pupil-less eyes were a pallid mauve, and gazed out at those around her inquisitively. She was called Yukiko; the snow child.

The more the snow child grew, the more she was treated like royalty. She neither enjoyed nor disliked the special treatment. Her preference was to stay neutral.

And neutral she was. When possible she avoided taking sides. She was not mean, but not nice. She wasn't unjust, but refused to show mercy. She simply was.

Perhaps it was the mysteriousness of her being that encouraged others to use respectful honorifics whenever greeting her. Perhaps not.

No one knew her well. For most, the phrase "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" would have meant something. For Yukiko, it meant nothing. Simply another ridiculous rule that people lived by. "Keep your friends and enemies equally close," she would say before calmly exiting the room.

It was the very same neutralness that caused her the worst luck she had yet to experience.

A precious artifact had been stolen from a room guarded by several ANBU, who were brutally slaughtered in what the villagers called "the start of an epidemic".

Not wanting the villagers to create an uproar, the investigators knew they had to act quickly, and get rid of the threat that someone, or something, posed.

A single hair had been found in one of the lifeless hands of the ANBU. A strand of hair that was whiter than the snow itself with light blue and purple shades that faded from the bottom.

Their prime suspect: Yukiko, the snow child.

And since no one knew her well, though she was an excellent kunoichi, they had nothing to prove her innocence.