Title: Dimensional Drift

Summary: Ten-Ten, living in the modern world suddenly woke up with memories not her own. A place unknown. An ongoing war. People she did not recognize. And the death of a person that brought tears in her eyes.

Pairing: Neji X Ten-Ten

Genre: Romance/Sci-Fi

Chapter 1: Rift

"Neji's..."

"…DEAD?!"

Ten-Ten abruptly stopped her attacks against the wooden spears coming on her way. So Gai-sensei had to defend her when the Juubi also stopped attacking—by its controller's will. On a distance, Naruto is laying Neji's body carefully on the ground. Beside him is the tear-filled face of Hinata, grieving for the loss of her cousin who protected her against death with his own body.

She, on the other hand staggered on her place. Eyes not leaving the face of her teammate whose Cursed Mark no longer visible—or simply vanished along with his chakra pulse.

"The light at the end of this tunnel…is what you've been dreading in your entire life…LONELINESS!" said the eerie voice of a despicable man named Obito who is atop the Juubi.

With that, the realization finally sink in—that the most important person in her life is gone. No more chaste kisses. No more sparring sessions that always led to make-out sessions. No more awkward but sweet moments of him saying those three words. It's gone. He's gone.

In this world filled with endless battles and wars, this Shinobi War will forever remind her of a lost love…

Beep-Beep-Beep~~

Ten-Ten woke up with a start. "What the hell was that?!"

Beep-Beep—

She grudgingly turned-off the alarm of her phone, then automatically glanced at the time, eyes widen with disbelief. "Oh shit! I'm so late!" The dark-haired stand almost instantly, discarding her clothes everywhere while skimming the closet for something to wear—an appropriate attire for the occasion. The truth is, she set her phone to alarm every ten minutes but it looks like it didn't work out—like always. Now she's tying her hair with its usual bun while putting on her shoes and while thinking of her weird dream. This is the first time that she remembered every little detail of what happened in her dream. But a single name struck her the most…

"Neji…" Ten-Ten said absentmindedly. Then without meaning to, she also remembered the scenes of her kissing and making-out with this long-haired guy with ivory eyes. So the result was: her, blushing madly from head to toe. Yes, this is the disadvantage of being a virgin for 23 years of her entire existence. Still flustered, she mentally swatted the memories away. Memories… She's in there—in the dream. But it's like they are memories of a different person, a person crying with the loss of her loved one. Crying…

"Crying?" She frowned. Then run towards the full body mirror. Her face is glistening. That's when she noticed the feel of wetness on her cheeks. "Why am I crying?" She said while wiping her face with tissue. When she was done, she applied a light make-up. "Weird." I shouldn't be crying over a dream…

…

"Damn! Caught in the traffic again!" She fervently honk her car repeatedly. Same sounds can be heard outside her open window. "Tsk! I'm late as it is!" She shouted outside. Earning stares from other drivers and civilians but she didn't care. Her boss' temper is more important than any type of gawking from unknown people. She shivered from the thought of her mighty punch.

As a journalist, it's very essential to always be on the latest occurrences in any place and in any given time. But because she's the type of person who's always late—without even meaning to, she frequently wondered why she got this kind of job. Maybe because of my strength and stamina? "That's right! Strength and stamina is also very important in this line of work! Why else can journalists have their way to interview VIPs who are heavily guarded?" She proudly said to herself. "And how can journalists climb any mountains, swim across the oceans and walk through miles and miles for scoops?" She grinned to herself. Or maybe…because of my decent handling of guns, knives and other deadly stuffs? She grimaced while staring at the hidden compartment on her car which contained her handgun. "I should have been a policewoman…" Then raised an eyebrow. "…or maybe a terrorist is good too." She sighed for her silliness.

The place she's going now is a science convention where a popular young scientist will be the guest speaker. Her boss is constantly pestering him for a personal interview but the youngster always refused her flatly—saying he's too lazy for that, so this is their only chance. "That damn kid." She gripped the steering wheel. I said that, but it looks like he's only younger than me by a year.

When the cars in front of her started moving, she recklessly overtake the others, causing another series of honks from other drivers. And again, she didn't care. Then she finally saw the building. She hastily went out of the car, gave her keys to the valet, and then run towards the elevator—ignoring the calls of the receptionists. She briefly turned around to show her PRESS I.D. before hoping on the elevator and asked the elevator girl to press the 8th floor. The building has a total of 64 floors. And to be honest, it's quite big for an establishment which only caters meetings, conventions, conferences and exhibitions.

The number 8 blinked, and when the elevator door opened, she was welcomed by the staffs. Ten-Ten only nodded to them before looking around the area. She assumed it's the floor lobby before her eyes spotted the huge double door, an equally large poster posted on the wall beside it. Again, she run towards the door, a staff opening it for her. The moment she entered, the cool air of the air-conditioner greeted her—its cooler there than in the lobby. Once she raised her head to look up, she saw the vast number of people inside—around a thousand. Yes, it's quite a large number considering it's a convention about science and there's only one guest speaker—so she assumed all of them must be science geeks (minus the press).

"Thank you for taking your time to hear my research." Said a man holding a microphone at the stage. He's thanking the audience although he sounded like he's saying about the weather with his lazy tone.

Then it hit her. It's already finished?!

"Now, I will start with the introduction of our main topic…"

What?! He's only starting now?! He should have started two hours ago! But his lethargic expression says it all—he doesn't want to do this, probably because he's too lazy. He must be forced by his sponsors to do this for public image. Then she shrugged, because it worked on her favor. She started walking nonchalantly and without caring about the stares from the other audiences when she spotted a seat near the front so she sat there and began listening to the speaker.

"Universe is a vast of infinite space and it is impossible that there are nothing more than stars, planets and asteroids in it. The universe has an immeasurable number of entrance points to other dimensions that contain beings similar to ours. In every gate, there is a version of you, every inch of your physical attributes is exactly the same. But universe follows logic and reason, from the beginning of time, it always does and always will be. Something that does not exist from one gate cannot exist on the other, I call it the Law of Universal Equality. This also applies to us humans, if the other version of you has somehow been eradicated from the realm they are in, they cannot exist in every dimension there is…"

A staff spotted Ten-Ten and gave her an envelope. She opened it and found out that it's the materials for the convention. It contains: a magazine with the speaker as the cover, a copy of the lecture, a notepad and a pen. She browse the pages of the magazine and found the speaker's brief bibliography.

"Nara Shikamaru, age 22. Started his personal research on dimensions at the age of 12. His reasons for starting the research is unknown. At middle school, his intelligence surpassed that of a college level so the school and his parents decided for him to skip high school and went directly to college. The Hyuuga Corporation became his major sponsor, shouldering college, research and personal expenses. He graduated in Tokyo University at the age of 18, then solely dedicated himself in pursuing his research. At the age of 22, he produced good results and now on his first step towards his lifelong dream: to open dimensions."

"Wow…so he's really a genius…" Ten-Ten mumbled to herself, then focused her attention to the pineapple-haired genius.

"Let me show you a demonstration." The staffs brought a cage with the dimension of 2x2x2 meter. Inside are two metallic boxes, placed in two brass tables. They are positioned inside the cage with the distance of half a meter. The boxes have simple design, with each sides having a magnetic field. "Through years of experiment and research, I have created an apparatus that can create a rift through dimensions." Two staffs opened the front of the cage. Then Nara Shikamaru entered inside to open the metallic boxes. "I have here an artificial gate which allows an entity to pass from one dimension to another. This is a highly excited particles moving faster than speed of light which allows an entity to pass from one dimension to another. These highly excited particles which is moving faster than speed of light which allowed me to create a rift—also known as wormhole. I've reduced the power of a nuclear power plant into a size of a baseball," The rift has an irregular shape. "with the highly excited particles bombarded by gamma rays moving in a small area and a powerful driving force which causes them to attain a velocity faster than light, the rift appeared…"

Standing in the hall of fame and the world's gonna know your name 'coz you burn with the brightest flame~~

All the audiences were startled when the ringtone echoed throughout the hall, especially Ten-Ten. My ringtone!

Then the emcee stand up. "May I remind you to please turn-off your mobile phones or set them on silent mode?"

She immediately dig through her sling bag to fish out her phone, and then tilted her head. "It's not mine…?"

"Sorry…it's mine…" A hand lazily raised itself from the person on the stage which earned stunned faces from the listeners. He shove his hand in his pocket to dig out his phone, then answer it nonchalantly while walking out of the cage. The staffs instantly closed it. "What the fuck?!" Again, the audiences were surprised—with his colorful used of words. "Why is that stiff bastard here?!" He then click the end button. "Troublesome… I'm outa here!" He trudged towards the closed cage, insert his hand with his mobile phone to the little space in front of one of the metallic boxes—then throw it on the rift.

"What the—?!"

Flashes of different cameras burst all over the hall. Then in a matter of seconds, a burnt object flew from inside of the other box, thumping loudly to the cage. More camera flashes were followed. At the same time, Nara Shikamaru is walking out of the stage, towards the backstage without even giving a glance to anyone.

"Nara-san!"

"Please wait!"

"Please answer our inquiries!"

"What can you say about your invention?!"

More questions from the media were thrown on his direction but he just continue walking.

Without really meaning to, Ten-Ten stand up from her seat, clenching her fists and then shouted. "What the hell is your problem?! We're asking you damn questions—you stupid genius!"

The room went silent, even Shikamaru stopped from his tracks—then slowly turned around to face the loudmouthed while raising an eyebrow. "Ask my assistant. Have a good day." He said monotonously then went back to his destination.

"Hey!" Two staffs have to stop her from running to the pineapple-head to punch him.

Another set of questions were thrown again, but this time, his assistant tried to answer them while the emcee is calming the other reporters. Then a staff walk to him to whisper something—with the latter raising his eyebrows from the news. "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen." He coughed to got their attention.

Ten-Ten can't explain it, but she knows something will happen.

"May I present to you our honored guest—"

Yes, she can feel the tension all over her body.

"—the Chief Executive Officer of Hyuuga Corporation, Hyuuga Neji-sama!"

…

...

Woah! I started a new story! I'm sorry for starting a new one even though I still haven't finished Miscalculated. My boyfriend thought of the plot and pushed me to write this so I have no choice—he said I have to challenge myself to be a good writer (even though I'm still an amateur). This genre (Sci-Fi) is whole new world for me because this is the first time I'm writing this kind of story—and a Naruto fic at that. I hope this will be an interesting read for you 'coz that will make me so happy. I've said this countless times to my other stories—that I apologized for my crappy writing and wrong grammar. English is not my native language though I can honestly say that it's passable.

Anyway, please enjoy~~

Matta ne~~!

Sincerely yours,

Natsuki

(P.S. Reviews, Favs and Follows are very much appreciated. Thanks a lot minna~~!)

Note: Most of the scientific terms were made up. Thank you very much.