Shanan opened her eyes slowly as she sat up, trying to rub the sleep away from them. "I feel like I've been asleep for days…" she said, groggy, as she continued to try and wake herself up fully.

Once her eyes were clear, she blinked several times as her mouth fell open. Instinctively, she reached under her pillow for her kunai knives, but found nothing but a tube of lip balm. "What the–?" she asked as she tossed it to the ground and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Deciding she'd be fine without a weapon, she jumped out of bed and rolled through the open doorway into the main room, ready to fight if she saw anyone.

"Hello?" she called out as she scanned the room. She was very aware of the fact that she was in pajamas that weren't her own, short shorts and a long sleeved shirt with a cat shooting beams from its eyes, and that the apartment she was in belonged to someone else, though she couldn't be sure who that someone else was.

It wasn't a large apartment, but she remained on guard as she opened every door to inspect the space behind them.

"Nothing," she thought to herself when she had checked the last remaining door which led to the bathroom.

She went back to the front room and opened the front door and to her surprise it looked pretty nice. The building wasn't as tall as hers was and this front door opened to the outside, as opposed to a dark hallway. And she didn't think this complex was full of ANBU like hers was. There was even a nice pool in the center of it all. ANBU didn't have time for swimming.

She went back inside and started looking around to try and determine where she was, and from what she could gather, a single woman occupied this place. In fact, the closer she got to the wall of photos, the single woman… was her!

"How–?" She pulled the pin from a spot in the middle and half of the pictures fell to the ground. She examined one photo in particular more closely. She was standing with two older people on a beach and the woman looked like an older version of her. "Mom?" Her now teary eyes shifted to the man as she brought the photo inches from her face to make sure she was seeing it clearly. "Dad? But… this looks so recent! And they look older than I remember–"

She was startled by a loud knock on the door and she took a defensive position, ready to fight anyone that tried to barge in.

"Shanan, we're gonna be late again! Hurry up!"

She didn't recognize the girl's voice on the other side of the door, but she didn't sound threatening. She ran to the kitchen and opened the first drawer that she saw to look for a weapon just in case, she always kept kunai and ninja stars in various locations throughout her apartment, all good ANBU did. But all she could find here were these small plastic corn with two small prongs sticking out of them. "I can work with this," she said confidently, closing her fist around the strange object.

Just in case.

The girl at the door continued knocking and trying to goad Shanan into answering until she finally opened the door slowly.

"Finally!" the girl said, exasperated as she shoved her way inside. "I knew you'd still be sleeping when I showed up."

Shanan looked at her, confused as the girl went into her kitchen and started rifling through the cabinets.

Maybe she knows where the weapons are.

Shanan turned the corn shaped weapon over in her palm behind her back as she eyed the girl.

"Dude, you can't call in today! You're training the new guy from Japan. Nobody else is certified to train him. I told you not to drink too much last night and you did it anyway."

"I–"

"You always do with Malibu."

Shanan raised an eyebrow at her.

"Go! Get dressed already. I'll make you a cup of coffee and some toast, but we need to hurry."

"Um…" Shanan suddenly had so many things she wanted to ask this girl, but she couldn't form the proper words without sounding insane. This girl seemed to know her and this was apparently her apartment.

"Waffles instead of toast? Done. Hurry up! I've heard this guy is kinda cute, so make yourself pretty," she said as she giggled.

Shanan opened her mouth again, but the only thing to come out was a sigh and she decided to give up for the time being. However, she was keeping the corn device on her so that she wouldn't feel completely defenseless if things went awry with this girl or anyone else.

She went back into her room and searched through the dresser drawers, only to find them mostly empty. So she turned to the hamper and grabbed the first thing off the top and smelled it tentatively.

Clean.

Great, I'm a total slob here…

She dumped everything out into a pile on the bed and found an outfit she thought was acceptable and went into the bathroom to get ready.

Once she came out she started to head back over to the drawer for more corn weapons and was stopped by abrupt laughter from the living room couch.

"You're not actually gonna wear those pajama pants!"

Shanan looked down quickly as her cheeks turned red. She had a lot of nice clothes at her actual apartment that she'd bought over the years, but had never had the opportunity to wear any of them.

"Is it bad?"

The girl audibly sighed and stood up. "Eat your damn waffles and I'll find you something to wear. You should at least have a fair shot if this guy is actually as cute as they say."

They were thirty minutes late, according to the girl she was with, she never did get her name, but Shanan also apparently looked totes amazing.

They pulled up to a large cluster of white, odd-shaped buildings of varying sizes and Shanan was all too happy to not have to be in that car anymore. She jumped out eagerly and had to take several deep breaths as she tried not to vomit. She thought she could run fast, but that… That was too much for anyone.

"Good luck!" the girl said in a sing-song tone.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"To my telescope. W-T-F?" she said as she started driving off.

"What's 'W-T-F?!'" Shanan yelled after her. "What the hell?" she said quietly as she turned around to look at the building she'd been dropped in front of. It seemed to be one of the smaller buildings and the sun was already nearly set. "At least I'm still a night owl."

She walked in and saw a couple of people sitting near a large object in the center of the room that seemed to be sticking out through an opening in the ceiling and pointed straight at the sky. One of the men was older and balding with thick red rimmed glasses. The other, she couldn't be too sure of since he was sitting behind whatever this giant thing was. It almost looked like one side of a pair of binoculars. Was this her job to look through this thing? Was she a spy? She could do that.

"You're late again…" said the older man as he pushed his glasses up on his nose. "You're lucky I don't have plans," he said as he stood up from the stool he'd been sitting on.

Shanan couldn't help but put her hand in her pocket so that she could count the corn weapons. Six. Maybe she should've grabbed all twelve… No no no. Let's not underestimate ourselves now… Six is plenty. I can do a lot of damage with six of these things.

The man approached her with a clipboard and handed it to her as he spoke quietly. "Ok, so this guy is from Japan, but his English is perfect. I don't know why they didn't tell us that, we all thought you were gonna have a hard time trying to communicate." He chuckled, seemingly at the thought. "But seriously, not only that, but he knows his stuff. He actually transferred over from the Sendai Observatory. It's bigger than this building, so there won't be much training involved." He pointed to a few checks on the clipboard. "He's already located all of the test coordinates. So, looks like you got lucky. Have a good night," he said as he walked towards the exit with a quick wave.

Shanan furrowed her brow as she watched him leave and then looked back down at the clipboard. "Coordinates?" she asked quietly.

"That's right," said a voice from behind her. It would've startled her had it not been so calm and… familiar. "I've been on my own telescope for eight years now, so these were all fairly easy. I hear you primarily watch the same small section and that you think there may even be a planet near there?"

Shanan turned slowly to look at him. She definitely knew his voice and had known it for most of her life. She was sure of it.

"Do you mind if I take a look first?" he asked as her eyes finally landed on his face. He suddenly looked a bit concerned for her as she stared at him. "Are you alright?"

Shanan covered her mouth as her eyes filled with tears. And then she held her hand up as if to block out a portion of his face, only to then gasp loudly and cover her mouth with both hands. She wasn't expecting to not only see a familiar face, but the face of the man she'd spent years pining over. He was wearing a T-Shirt that had the words Sorry I'm late, I didn't want to come on it and blue framed glasses, but it was definitely him. Though, did her Kakashi have that beauty mark?

"Kakashi?" she asked, muffled, hands still pressed against her mouth.

He tilted his head at her and seemed a bit confused before a look of relief spread over his face. "You know, you're the first person here that's said that right," he said as he started walking away with his hands in his pockets. "I was told you were quite silly, but that you were the best person to train with." He stopped off at a desk full of papers and what looked to be maps and picked up a notebook. "Is it alright if I take a look at your notes? I'm very curious about this possible new planet," he said as he opened the notebook.

It was hard not to be completely confused about literally everything that had happened since she woke up, but all this talk about planets and coordinates had her head spinning. And being in the ANBU, she was supposed to know what was happening. She was supposed to be confident in her mission and precise and– "Um… planet?" Shanan asked as she walked towards him. She checked her pocket once more for the corn and they were all still there.

Was this really Kakashi? Or an imposter?

"Oh, Dr. Aikau told me about your research over the last few weeks."

"Kakashi… I'm–"

He looked up from the notebook and waited in confusion.

"How are we here? And why don't you remember me?" She knew it sounded crazy and she hated it. She was pretty reserved for an ANBU member, but if the Hokage was more confused than she was or if he was just playing along with whatever was happening, then she hoped he'd at least give her a hint.

He seemed taken aback as he narrowed his eyes. She could tell that he wasn't sure how to answer her.

"That guy said you were from… Japan? But you're not. We're not. We're from–"

Kakashi sighed as he set the notebook down and looked at her a bit impatiently. "Please don't say it."

"So–" she gasped and moved towards him. "You do remember?"

His glasses were in one hand as he pinched the bridge of his nose with the other. "Look, I enjoy anime as much as the next guy, I watch it subbed! I've seen most of it before anyone outside of Japan. And yes, ever since Naruto came out, I've heard all of it. 'Wow, not only is your name Kakashi Hatake, but you look just like him. Was he made after you? Did your parents name you after him? Did you change your name?' And I can assure you, it's all just a strange coincidence," he told her, completely exasperated.

Shanan took a deep, disappointed breath. "Ok, well… I don't know what you mean about Naruto coming out. Coming out from where? Is he here too? Does he also not remember anything? And no, I don't think you're named after Kakashi. You are Kakashi. I'm Shanan. We were both in the same class. We were both in ANBU together. You're the Hokage now. I woke up in a strange place. The only weapons I have are these tiny corns!" she said, starting to tear up as she held up one of the sharp corn weapons. "I put a bunch in my pocket and they've been poking me. I'm probably bleeding now! And I'm black ops, so I'm not supposed to cry, because something so small shouldn't hurt me." Real and full tears were now streaming down her face as she continued. "But they do hurt, Kakashi! They're nice little weapons and they're all I have…" she said as she sobbed into her hands now. "Why couldn't I find any real weapons in my apartment?"

Kakashi covered his mouth and chuckled slightly, but not in a malicious way. He couldn't help but think her blubbering was kind of adorable. He walked up to her and gently grabbed her hands. "You're gonna poke out your eyes if you aren't careful with these," he teased. "You know these are to hold corn on the cob in place, right?"

She looked up at him, still misty eyed, and then back at the tiny weapon she'd been carrying around. "What's corn on the cob?"

"You know they make entire shows on what you're trying to convince me of."

Another sigh. She didn't feel like asking another stupid question like, "What's a show?" Or, "What am I trying to convince you of?" Though, those two questions were exactly what she was wondering.

"You–" Kakashi seemed alarmed as he stared at her. Whether he was alarmed at the fact that she seemed so crazy or alarmed at the fact that he was starting to believe her, that remained to be seen. But the alarm was visible. "Are you really reincarnated from a show?"

The question made no sense to her, but she decided not to say anything while he worked it all out.

He rested his hand on his chin as he thought. "Usually, what I know from Isekai, is that people usually go from the real world into the show. Not the other way around. Unless…" He started scratching his head as he looked around. "No. There's no way I'm in a show. I'm an astronomer. You're an astronomer. The universe wouldn't take you from something as cool as ANBU to something as… well, I like being an astronomer, it's still pretty cool, but you know what I mean," he said as he was now starting to pace. "Perhaps, the real astronomer version of you was sent into Naruto and you came here. A swap. That's it!"

"A swap?"

"Yes. That's why people know you, and you don't know them. Except for me, because of that weird coincidence. Maybe the universe told me to move here so that we could meet and so I could be part of your isekai. That way you don't feel so alone, maybe?"

She stared at the ground and considered his words for a moment and then looked back up at him, still concerned. "But, what about the person that took my place then? Won't she be all alone?"

"Not if she's familiar with the show. Think about it. If she is, then she woke up in a world that's familiar to her, but you have no way of being familiar with this world," he explained.

She still wasn't sure what he meant by show, but she trusted his logic. She'd always admired Kakashi for his intelligence and his deductive reasoning. There was a reason why he'd been made ANBU years before her and why he was ranked so high by the time she made it. And why he was Hokage now. And whatever an astronomer was, they clearly had to have high intellect to do the job.

Feeling a bit better about his explanation and his understanding, she decided to give this world a chance. Even if he wasn't her Kakashi, his mannerisms still seemed very similar. "Kakashi… do you think you could tell me more about the planet thing and the coordinates thing? I'd like to learn more about what you do. Since I'm here."

He smiled softly at her. "I'd be more than happy to help you on your journey of reincarnation!" he said as he stuffed a hand into his pocket and walked the few feet back to the desk for the notebook. "You know, this is probably the part where we'd do a training montage, but I'm not sure how it would look here," he mused. "Notebook. Nodding. Stargazing. Writing. Laughter. Dropping a pen. More laughter. Cool!"

Shanan remained quiet as she watched him.

"Nothing? Really?" he asked, dejected.

She forced a small chuckle, but shook her head at him. He did tend to act a bit silly when it came to hanging around Might Guy, but she was always too shy to laugh at them.

"Ah. So… shy girl gets transported to the modern world…" Kakashi said as he wrote the words into the notebook. "No worries. I'm a scientist. I've been around a lot of shy girls. Though, I'm sure you're the only one that could kill me with her pinky finger."

She did smile at that. "Well, I wouldn't go that far. I'd probably have to use both."

"First joke," he wrote. "Wow. We're really blazing through the tropes here. This is great! And we're gonna look up at the stars together, that's gotta be on the list."

"It does?"

"Yeah, well…" he felt a little embarrassed having said the last bit out loud. "I suppose it just kinda feels like something that would happen in an isekai."

"Oh." Shanan glanced over at the telescope again and teared up a bit. "I really don't get to look up at the stars much. But when I do, I think about this time when I was pretty young, I was walking home and found you– I mean, the Kakashi that I know, just kind of staring up at the sky."

"Oh?" he asked as he looked up from the notebook to listen to her.

"Yeah," she continued as she nodded. "I asked what you were looking at. And, I mean–"

"It's alright, I know what you mean," he said patiently.

She sighed, feeling a bit frustrated as she went on. "Well, you said that they reminded you of your parents and that you liked to think that maybe they were watching you through the stars. Made me sad at the time, but then when my parents died, I started imagining that they were there as well."

Kakashi smiled at her. "Ah, well… we call that heaven out here."

"Oh."

He smiled gently as he stood up and walked towards her. "I don't particularly believe in all of that, but there is a certain magic to the night sky, so, I suppose I believe in something. You should see it for yourself though," he said as he led her to the stool in front of the computers. "Let's start with something easy." He typed a few numbers into the keyboard and the giant telescope whirred loudly and moved to find the exact right location.

Kakashi leaned forward to zoom in on the particular thing he wanted to show her. As he did, a faint, fresh scent wafted through the air and Shanan couldn't help but feel a slight pang somewhere within her. She had always liked how her Kakashi smelled clean and like freshly washed laundry when they were kids. It often distracted her when they sparred in class. Not that she could've beaten him anyway, but she was always impressed with how well he took care of himself even though he was completely alone.

"There," he said as he grabbed the other stool and sat down close to her. "This is one of my favorites."

Shanan tried to hide her goosebumps and swallowed as she pulled her eyes away from him and to the screen in front of her. "Oh," she said, a bit surprised. "It looks like… a horse!" She looked back over at him, feeling a bit silly, and was surprised to find him beaming at her, thoroughly enjoying watching her as she saw her first part of deep space. She smiled softly and looked away quickly. "I'm sure that's a childish comparison."

Kakashi chuckled and highlighted the part that looked like a horse and pointed to the screen again. "Not at all, see?"

"Horsehead Nebula," she read out loud, already feeling less silly about it. "What's a nebula?"

"Basically a colorful space cloud. And this one is in the Orion constellation which houses two of the brightest stars in the night sky. One of which… being… my… favorite…" he said slowly as he typed in new coordinates. "Rigel." He said it right as he hit enter on the keyboard and the screen zoomed in to show a large, bright bluish looking star. "Way better than Betelgeuse," he told her as a matter of fact.

They spent the rest of the evening sitting next to one another in front of the screen while Kakashi continued to show Shanan as many of the more famous constellations, stars, nebulas, planets and galaxies that he could think of and made sure she knew which ones were his favorites and which ones he thought got more recognition than they deserved. Shanan didn't think she'd ever seen Kakashi look so happy or passionate about anything, but this Kakashi really seemed to love his job. Either way, she had never been this close to her Kakashi or spent this much time discussing interests with him, though she had always wished she had.

"Tonight was fun," Kakashi said as they started cleaning everything up for the next shift. "Probably not as exciting as ANBU, but–"

"Actually," Shanan interrupted quietly. "This was the most fun I've had in quite some time. I can see why whoever I'm supposed to be does this for a living."

Kakashi nodded gently and smiled as he checked off another box on the list. "Acceptance," he said happily. "Now, I've only been here a week. But there's a nice little restaurant I found on the island that serves amazing spam and eggs. And the waffles are quite exquisite." He hadn't meant to sound so hopeful, but he had noticed her as soon as she walked in and he really enjoyed watching her face light up anytime he showed her something new. Which was basically everything he'd shown her. They may not have been lying out under the night sky in a romantic setting, but his view had been pretty amazing anyway.

"Spam?"

Kakashi laughed as he was brought back to the moment, thoroughly entertained again. "Ah yes, it's a Hawaiian delicacy. Let's go, I promise you'll like it. And hey, you can tell me all about the ANBU. We spent all evening learning about my favorite thing, I'm dying to hear more about what you do!"

Shanan smiled softly at him as she rubbed the back of her neck. It all felt eerily similar to a date, which she didn't mind at all. "I'd really like that, but…"

"What is it?"

"Is there any way we can just run? I might be sick if I have to ride in a car again."

Kakashi laughed again as he grabbed his keys from the desk. "I think I'd actually die if I tried to run the whole way, but I'll drive slow for you. And you can let me know if I need to pull over."

She thought for a brief moment and sighed. "I guess that's a fair compromise."

They'd only had to pull over to the side of the road once and even though she thought she might, she didn't vomit. Nope. She fought it off like a well trained member of the ANBU Black Ops should! Kakashi did get out with her though, just in case she needed him to hold her hair back. Which she thought was really sweet of him.

"I thought you were a goner there for a moment," he said as they walked into the restaurant.

"A what?" she asked him, once again perplexed.

"It's just something I've seen Americans say on TV a lot," he explained thoughtfully. "It just means that I thought you were definitely going to vomit back there," he teased.

"Oh. What's an American?"

"Oh, brother…" He chuckled as the hostess led them to their booth.

It was a nice little place, not unlike some of the restaurants in Konoha. But it being 5:30 in the morning meant that they mostly had the place to themselves. Nowhere in Konoha was ever open this early.

"I can see I'm going to have to explain a lot to you, but hmm…" he pulled out the piece of paper from earlier and started a separate list. "Yes, it's gonna have to be me. Nobody else will understand."

Shanan smiled at that as she tucked her hair behind her ear. She certainly didn't mind spending more time with him for any reason.

"So tell me about your world. And not the stuff I already know about from the show, give me the inside scoop."

She stared at him blankly for a moment and then cleared her throat. It was still a bit strange that she was supposedly from a show, whatever that was. "Well actually, I have no idea what you know from the… show?" she reminded him.

He closed his eyes as realization dawned on him. "Yeah, I'm an idiot. Of course you wouldn't."

"No, it's ok."

He thought for a moment and then looked back at her. "Ok then, tell me more about your Kakashi. Did you know him well?"

She nodded gently. "Yes, we went to the academy together. I still remember when his dad died. He was all alone and I just felt so sad for him and wished he could come and live with me and my family. And then my parents died when I was fifteen. A nine-tailed fox attacked our village and they were caught in some of the damage while I was on a mission. It was shortly after that that I joined the ANBU. I actually joined because of Kakashi. We didn't talk much, but I don't know, we had a thing we shared and we just kind of acknowledged that about each other."

"I see," Kakashi said when she finished.

"Were those things you already knew?"

He shook his head, not wanting to tell her that everyone knew about the nine-tails, the reason her parents were dead. "I'm sorry about your parents."

"Thank you." She suddenly remembered the photo she'd seen at her apartment after waking up. "Actually, I think they're still alive here, so I'm not really sure what to think about that. There was a picture…" she added when he seemed confused.

He leaned forward and put his hand gently on top of hers. "It's ok to be confused about that. Did they look the same?"

The warmth from his hand seemed to help her to feel less overwhelmed about it already. "Yeah, just older. But it was definitely mom and dad."

"Well," he said softly. "If you decide you'd like to look into that further, I'd be happy to help. They probably don't live here in Hawaii. I can tell you aren't from here. I mean, the other you..." he said nervously.

Shanan nodded, understanding what he meant. "I think I remember that guy from earlier rambling on about you being from somewhere else?"

Kakashi smiled at her. "Yes, actually. I'm from Japan. I was living in Sendai, where I worked, but am originally from Osaka."

"I'd love to visit sometime and see where you're from."

"We'll have to go sometime," he said a bit hopefully before rubbing his neck sheepishly. He'd been thinking all night that she was beautiful and sweet. Especially for someone that could kill him without even physically touching him. Probably. But he was really glad that he got to be the one to help her on her adventure.

They spent the rest of the morning eating and talking about their families and their homes before finally going back to the car, and Shanan was already feeling a bit less apprehensive about it. Though, she did still ask that he not drive too fast.

Once they were back to her apartment, she couldn't stop herself. "Do you wanna see the apartment? Sorry," she said as she bit her lip, realizing that it was probably inappropriate to ask. "I'm just nervous being here by myself."

"No… I can crash on the couch if you like," he said as he turned the car off.

She smiled softly at him, feeling shy again, and he followed her up to her second story apartment.

"This is really nice, actually! Nicer than my place."

Shanan made her way to the drawer in the kitchen and unloaded the tiny corn skewers, blood and all. "I'll clean those later."

Kakashi chuckled as he walked slowly towards her and stopped in front of her.

Heat was rushing to her cheeks when she noticed the way he was staring down at her and she quickly cleared her throat. "Kakashi, thank you for being so kind to me today. It's all been very confusing, but you made me feel a lot better just by believing me."

"It was no problem, Shanan. I had a lot of fun with you," he assured her as he carefully grabbed her hand.

"Really?" She asked, beaming up at him.

He smiled and nodded gently.

Shanan threw her arms around him and hugged him tight around his neck. She didn't really hug people, especially not Kakashi Hatake, but she wasn't really sure how else to show her appreciation. And he didn't seem to mind at all since he was hugging her back. As she leaned back, she kissed him gently on the cheek and then stayed close to gauge his reaction, hoping that the kiss was ok.

His reaction was to caress her cheek and kiss her deeply on the lips…

He wasn't sure if he should, having only just met her ten hours ago, but he couldn't help but feel a deep connection with her.

And as soon as their lips met, that feeling only deepened. Had he known her before this? Had fate brought both of them here? It was all too much of a coincidence for him to just not kiss her.

Shanan had only kissed one other man, and that was really awkward. Followed by an awkward first and only sexual experience when she was nineteen. But this was far from awkward. This man knew his way around a kiss and had shown her all night how amazingly kind and understanding he was. He was so much like her Kakashi, without the shyness or the darkness. She felt like she knew him, but also like she needed to know more of him.

Never in her life did she think anyone would kiss her like this, but here she was, floating on air with a version of Kakashi of all people.

When they woke up later in the afternoon in Shanan's bed, he gave her another soft kiss and smiled at her. They'd had a really nice morning getting to know each other in all the best ways.

And then he noticed something.

"Oh, you have a cat!"

Shanan looked at him, confused, and followed his eyes to where he was looking. And sure enough, there was a cat sleeping at the end of her bed. "Oh, I do!" she said as she sat up and picked the kitty up and brought it closer for them to pet.

Kakashi chuckled. "The other you must've had a good sense of humor."

"Why's that?" she asked as she scratched the cat under its chin.

He pointed to the name tag. "Shanan Jr."

Shanan laughed at the other version of herself. "I wonder what she's up to in Konoha…"

"Well, if she's anything like you, she's probably well into other Kakashi's pants by now," he teased with another chuckle before leaning in to kiss her again.

It didn't take them long to kick Shanan Jr out of the bed so that they could continue getting to know one another.


Within eighteen months, they'd been engaged, tracked down Shanan's parents in the states and had even gone to Osaka to meet Kakashi's parents.

And Kakashi assured Shanan that this clearly wasn't the type of isekai in which one ever returns home, having fulfilled some type of obligation, because otherwise she'd have gone back after their first night together.