After four months or so Kakashi had perfected no-handed jutsu and was now on the same level as Shanan and the boys.
As far as the awkwardness he'd felt after coming home, it had slowly faded away. Although, his crush had definitely developed into complete infatuation. He just found her to be really pleasant and charming and he looked forward to spending each day with her. She was probably one of the only people that made him actually laugh.
They hadn't even attempted to work on her Sharingan the whole time. But now that there was nothing left for her to try and teach him, they decided it was probably time to work on it.
Kakashi had unlocked a couple of different Sharingan techniques over the years, so he knew the basic steps. He had had to figure his out on his own, but he also had a fairly normal Sharingan.
"When I wanna work on a new technique I try to create a goal for what I want it to accomplish. And then once that's done, I gather the chakra in my eye and practice until I achieve that goal easily," he tried to explain as they finished their meal.
"Practice on who?" she asked.
"My summons are immune to the negative effects of Sharingan. But they can tell me if it's working or not and give me feedback. I don't know how they would react to your Sharingan, though. So I offer myself up as your test subject," he suggested.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, are you sure you wanna do that?"
"Don't worry about it. I've been thinking about this for months. I have mental barriers in place so you won't be able to see anything I don't want you to," he assured her. "Go home tonight and decide on a goal for what you'd like to do and we'll practice it tomorrow."
"I'll try, but I don't know…" she worried aloud.
"You'll figure something out," he assured her.
She went home and tried hard to think of anything else she might want to do with her Sharingan, but nothing came to mind. When she unlocked Kurushimi it was purely by accident because Naruto had convinced her to just try something. So maybe that's what she'd do with Kakashi tomorrow.
The entire next morning she still tried to come up with an idea just in case he was unsatisfied with her suggestion, but she still couldn't think of anything by the time she met up with him.
"Nothing at all?" he asked her.
"Kurushimi is a pretty well rounded technique," she said innocently. "I just don't know what else I would need to do. Can't I just try what I did with Naruto?" she pleaded.
He thought for a moment and sighed. "Ah well, this is why I put the barriers up. What do we need to do?"
Shanan positioned herself about five feet from him. "Just stand there, ok? And when I say 'go', look into my eyes. It might take a bit for anything to happen, though," she explained.
"Alright," he said as he stood in place and waited with his hands in his pockets.
She stood still and closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and revealing her Sharingan. "Ok, go."
Kakashi stared into her eyes. Her Sharingan was really calming, actually, and he could tell that she was really concentrating.
She stared back into his eyes and tried hard to create something new and different, but nothing was happening. All she could think about were his mental barriers before everything went black.
She opened her eyes and saw a white haired man holding a white haired toddler and they were standing at a grave. She knew that the baby was Kakashi and that the man was his father. So the grave had to be that of his mother.
Black.
She saw him again in a dark room. He was about five. She walked closer to him and saw the white haired man on the ground.
He was dead.
Shanan knelt next to Kakashi and cried with him as they looked down at the man together.
Black.
Kakashi was older now. He was with two other kids his age inside of a cave. His eye had been cut. The cave started falling down around them and the boy he was with pushed him out of the way before being crushed himself.
Shanan clamped her hand over her mouth and cried silently as she watched.
She watched as the girl transferred their friend's eye to Kakashi and listened to the friend as he spoke his last words and begged Kakashi to look out for the girl.
Black.
She saw Kakashi again around the same age. He was trying to save the girl and went to kill an enemy with Chidori and she jumped in front of him, dying almost instantly.
Shanan tried to run up to him, but was unable to get close before it faded away.
Black.
Shanan saw Kakashi at home. By himself. Crying.
She couldn't help him.
Black.
She watched him mourn his teammates and his Sensei.
She still couldn't do anything.
Black.
She watched several scenes flash by as he went through years of depression and darkness and confusion.
She had never seen so much sadness from one person.
Black.
She saw Kakashi standing in an empty room, surrounded by darkness. Eighteen. Wearing his Anbu gear, the same as he had looked the night she'd met him, minus the two masks. He was staring at the ground and he looked like he'd been rained on.
She walked up to him and put her hand over the tattoo on his arm.
"I thought you didn't want me to see," she said quietly.
He continued to stare at the ground as he put his hand on top of hers.
"I thought I didn't either." He gripped her hand tighter.
Shanan put her other hand on his face and turned him to look at her.
Tears were streaming down both of their faces.
"I've always been alone," he whispered as his chin quivered.
They looked the same age right now, but he looked so beaten down and drained.
Shanan wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.
"I don't know how, but I'm gonna save you, Kakashi. I promise." she whispered.
He wrapped his arms around her tightly as he sobbed quietly.
Black.
Shanan blinked, tears streaming down her face as she looked up at Kakashi. She was on the ground sitting on her knees now.
Kakashi looked like he had fallen as he was leaning back on his hands. His face was a mixture of shock, alarm and sadness as he slowly sat forward and crossed his legs. It took him a minute, but he finally looked up at Shanan.
He tried to clear his throat. "That was..." he'd started to say quietly.
But Shanan interrupted him as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
"I know what my goal is now," she told him softly through her tears as she gently squeezed him.
He sat there, still, for a few seconds before finally sinking in and hugging her warmly.