Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters.

A/N: If you're not a friend of mine, the Original Characters of this story will not be familiar to you. To learn more about the group known as S.T.I.G.M.A.T.A., go to my original story website at FictionPress. (The link is in my author profile.)

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Chapter 1: Changing Worlds

It was another monotonous day at UCI. Brushing some of her black brown bangs from her eyes, Tracy yawns as she sat in one of her daily lectures. She stirs irritably in her seat as the professor before her spoke of meiosis, mitosis, and other biology nonsense she had already learned back in high school.

After class ended, Tracy files out of the lecture hall along with the other students like a herd of bison. It has been like this since she started college and that was about three months ago. Annoyed by the surroundings that had already become boring to her, Tracy saunters back to her dorm thinking of what would happen if she lived in an Anime world instead of this uninteresting real world. As she nears the crosswalk that would take her back to her dorm, her cell phone vibrates in her pocket. Curious as to who could be calling her in this time of day, Tracy picks it up to hear a familiar voice she hadn't heard in a while.

"Hey Tracy!" greets her friend, Stephanie.

"What's up?" Tracy greets back.

"Hey, do you have any more classes today?" asks Stephanie.

"Nope; I just left my last class of the day," answers Tracy.

"Oh, okay then!" responds Stephanie.

With that, Stephanie hung up, leaving Tracy in the dark.

What could she be planning? thought the Asian girl.

Ten minutes later, Tracy reaches her dorm and enters the entrance door with her key. Going up to her dorm room, she thought she heard a suspicious noise and puts her guard up. She saw no one as she went to the locked door of her dorm room. Turning the key into the lock, Tracy opens the door to find several pairs of hands reach out to her and bring her in.

"What the hell?" she exclaims in surprise.

"Surprise!"

All of her friends were there in the double occupancy dorm room. Among them were Stephanie, Jon, Bao, Lawrence, Robert, Kevin, Caroline, and her friend and roommate Priscilla.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tracy wonders out loud.

"We're here to visit you silly," answers Caroline with a grin.

"You guys," began Tracy.

It was not the group of friends before her that surprised her; those guys are always up for things like this. What surprised Tracy the most was the fact that Lawrence and Kevin were among the participants. She had known Kevin since the two of them were in the first grade back in elementary school but she had never really talked to him all that much. As for Lawrence, she never even expected him to come period, for he had not only been one of her closest friends, if not her best friend, but he had also been her boyfriend. At least for a short while, before he broke up with her and stopped talking to her altogether. She never really understood why he decided to sever all ties with her, but she had accepted it and moved on. And now here, on this day, there he was, right in front of her.

"I'm guessing you guys are not just here to visit me, are you?" asks Tracy.

"Well," began Caroline. "We figured since it IS a Friday…"

"We wanted to take you camping with use," finishes Stephanie.

"Camping?" repeated Tracy.

"Yeah," replies Jon.

"Priss told us that you've never been camping before so we decided to take you to your very first campout," explains Bao.

Tracy looks over at Priscilla who smiles in response.

"I don't know what to say," utters Tracy in shock.

"Don't say anything," said Caroline. "Just hurry up and pack. We'll be waiting in the parking lot."

With a nod, Tracy went to her closet and drawers as everyone except Priscilla files out of the room.

As the two roommates packed, Tracy pauses in the middle of folding a t-shirt to look over at Priscilla.

"Thanks, Priss," she said to her.

"No problem," replies Priscilla. "Just promise me you'll have fun."

"I will," answers Tracy with a smile.

Once all set, the group herds into Bao's and Kevin's vehicles and they were off. Riding in Bao's car with Stephanie, Caroline, and Priscilla, Tracy looks out the window and watches the world pass her by. It was strange; even though she felt ecstatic and happy that her friends are with her, another part of her felt something entirely different. If there was a word to describe it, it would be close to disgust. But why would she feel something like that for? She was with her friends and that was all that mattered.

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Once they reached the campgrounds, the group disperses to set up camp. As the boys set up the tent, the girls went to unpack the vehicles. After they were done, the group stood to look at their disheveled campsite and laughs at its messiness. Just then, a couple of hikers were passing by. Not letting the opportunity pass them by, the group asks the hikers if they could take group pictures of them. When the hikers answer positively, the group gave them all their cameras and the next ten minutes was spent taking group pictures with everyone's camera. With that done, the college kids settle into their weekend retreat.

Wanting to check out the river, Tracy separates from the group and began walking on her own. Once she reaches the steady flow of water, she sits down at the river's edge and puts her hand into the cool liquid. Flicking the water off of her hand, Tracy brushes some hair out of her face and stares at her reflection in the water. She felt weird, looking at her reflection like this.

She hears a noise and turns to find a spiked orange-haired Asian wearing glasses approach her.

"Hey Lawrence," she greets him.

"Hey," replies Lawrence hesitantly.

"What are you doing here?" Tracy asks him.

"Just wanted to see what you were doing," he answers her.

"Don't worry; I don't plan to commit suicide," assures Tracy.

"I… What?" stutters Lawrence.

"That's what you were thinking, weren't you?" said Tracy. "You wouldn't come all this way for no reason."

"No," responds the boy, trying to find an explanation.

Rolling her eyes, Tracy looks back at her reflection to find something that surprised her with shock. Suddenly, the world around them became blurry as the landscape began morphing. Back at the campsite, the group was seeing the same thing.

"What's going on?" exclaims Jon.

"I don't know," answers Bao.

"I think I'm going to be sick," adds Kevin.

In seconds, they all went unconscious.