Am I dead?
Where am I?
The air around Rin Nohara twisted into a haze, space bending in on itself.
She pushed herself up slowly, scanning the strange void. Nothing seemed alive… except an orange cat lazily licking its paw beside her.
Rin blinked. "…Where am I?"
"The dimensional space," The cat replied, without even looking up. "Try to keep up, big girl."
"Y-You can talk?!" Rin jerked backward. "Are you… are you an Uchiha ninja cat?"
Garfield rolled his eyes so hard his head moved with them. "Don't lump me in with those low-level furballs."
Rin crouched beside him, studying him… closely like someone examining a sacred relic.
"Then… are you the Great Cat God?"
"…The what now?"
"The Great Cat God! It's said that Lord Senju Hashirama once traveled with a divine orange cat, master of time and space."
Garfield paused, rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Orange cat… time and space… ah.
That unlucky idiot… figures he ended up being dragged around by Hashirama like a pet tailed beast.
"Never met that unlucky furball." He shook his head. "Anyway, what's your name, big girl?"
"Konoha Village medic-nin… Nohara Rin."
Cute, Garfield thought immediately, tail flicking.
He flashed her a mischievous grin. "So, Rin… Obito is your boyfriend, right?"
Rin's entire face flushed scarlet. "N-No! He's just… he was just a teammate!"
"Funny." Garfield tapped a paw to his chest. "Considering you called his name 381 times before you died."
"…What." Rin's soul left her body.
She dropped her gaze, cheeks burning. "I… I do like him. I admit it…"
Garfield leaned closer, voice dropping to a devilish whisper.
"Then why did you call Kakashi 486 times?"
"…" Absolute silence.
Rin let out a noise somewhere between a dying frog and a kettle boiling over, crouching down and covering her face.
If a hole appeared beneath her, she would have sprinted into it.
Garfield snickered triumphantly. Mission: Embarrass Cute Girl~ Success.
Enough, he thought eventually. If I tease her any more, Obito will break through dimensions to strangle me.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
Meanwhile, in another timeline…
Kakashi and a hidden wounded Obito were unable to find Rin's body. The last ripple of distorted space lingered in Obito's memory.
No matter what it took, each of them vowed to find her.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
With a flick of his tail, Garfield unraveled the dimensional pocket and stepped out, bringing Rin with him.
They emerged in Queenie's cozy home, where Tina, Queenie, and Baima greeted the bewildered girl.
Only then did Rin accept it… she had left her world behind.
She bowed deeply. "Thank you… all of you… for saving me."
They shared dinner together, Rin staring at the unfamiliar dishes, the bright lights of New York visible through the window.
Once the initial shock faded, worry crept in. Kakashi… her sensei… Konoha…
That night she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Eventually, she sat by the window, hugging her knees as she stared at the glittering city below.
How am I ever going to find my way back?
She pressed her forehead to the cool glass.
…
Queenie stood quietly in the doorway, Garfield curled in her arms like an oversized loaf.
They both watched Rin Nohara stare out her window, sleepless and shivering with homesickness. No one blamed her.
She had been ripped from one world and thrown into another in the span of seconds… of course she wouldn't sleep tonight.
Luckily, exhaustion won. Sometime past midnight, Rin finally drifted off.
Queenie tip-toed in, tucked the blanket around her shoulders, and slipped out silently.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
☾ Dream
Last night, Rin dreamed of…
A magical orange cat who controlled time and space.
Two kind sisters named Tina and Queenie.
And a pair of strange girls with gold and silver hair… the cat claimed they were 'Succubus King servants.'
Rin's dream-self had believed it.
When she woke up and sat upright in a strange warm bedroom in New York, she could only say…
"…So it wasn't a dream." Her shoulders sagged.
…
Days Turn Into Weeks
After a few days living in Garfield's house, Rin finally accepted the truth… it wasn't illusion, genjutsu, or hallucination. She had truly crossed into another world.
Her routine became simple…
Eat.
Sleep.
Follow Queenie to the shop in a daze.
Chat with Baima even though neither understood the other.
That didn't matter. Baima spoke, Rin spoke, and somehow they still shared something.
Rin learned fast. In just two months, she could hold everyday conversations.
Two months was also long enough for her to realize how terrifyingly huge and complicated this world was.
No villages. No chakra system. No missions.
No borders like home.
Just nations, cities, magic, sorcery, and a universe far larger than the Elemental Nations ever imagined.
Rin often felt tiny, as if this world itself rejected her.
One day, she confessed it to Garfield. "This world… feels hostile to me. Like it doesn't want me here."
Garfield scratched his ear lazily. "Maybe because you're an outsider."
"Worlds can sense foreign elements. Sometimes they treat them like viruses. So… supernatural accidents might follow you."
"Stay alert."
"I understand." Rin hesitated, then bowed. "King Garfield… Rin has a request. If you are willing to hear it…"
Garfield's whiskers twitched.
"Let me guess, you want me to officiate your wedding to Kakashi?"
"N-No!!" Rin nearly choked.
"Then you want to marry Obito? But honestly, you seem more like a Kakashi girl."
Rin went red, very red.
He smirked, delighted. "Hahahahaha! Your face is like a tomato! I love it!"
"Garfield!" Rin buried her face in her hands.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop bullying you." Garfield flicked his tail.
"You miss your friends and your home. And you're worried."
Rin nodded, silent.
Garfield looked serious… rare for a sleazy cat like him.
"Dimensional travel isn't a joke."
"You got here by accident and going back isn't simple. You need a stable anchor point and a precise timeline. That's difficult."
Rin's shoulders dropped, her expression small and wounded, like an abandoned puppy.
He sighed. "I didn't say impossible."
"I'll need time… maybe months, maybe a year… maybe more. You'll need to train. When we go back, it might be a fight."
"…" Rin inhaled sharply and the fire returned to her eyes.
She bowed deeply. "Thank you, King Garfield. I will train with all my strength."
"If there is anything I can do, anything at all, please guide me."
"Heh. Don't worry, I'll raise you well."
(Or Kakashi will kill me, he added privately.)
"Yes!"
…
With Tina, Queenie, and Garfield working together, they expanded the High Claw Gold & Exorcism Shop the next year, carving out a massive underground training chamber for Rin.
They reinforced it with magic barriers strong enough to withstand ninjutsu.
Next to it, they built an underground warehouse for the shop's future needs.
Rin Nohara finally had a place to train and prepare to survive this world.
And one day… Return to her own.
To make his life more convenient, Garfield poured a staggering amount of money into buying the entire upper floor of his shop… along with several neighboring buildings.
Overnight, all of it became part of the rapidly expanding High Claw.
News of High Claw's latest high-profile purchase exploded across major newspapers. Reporters and investors alike were left wondering:
What exactly does High Claw Group even do?
And who on earth is their mysterious boss?
Rumors spread and some claimed the company was backed by ancient aristocrats, others swore it was funded by supernatural forces.
But everyone agreed on one thing… High Claw was wealthy and undeniably powerful.
Naturally, many tried to investigate.
They found nothing and not a single crack in the company's façade.
A few stubborn troublemakers, unwilling to give up, attempted something far sinister… to sabotage the company and uncover its secrets by force.
They vanished overnight.
The chilling mystery of High Claw only deepened, catching the attention of a certain teenager… and stirring up dangerous curiosity.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
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