It had been six weeks since Obito died. Shanan and Kakashi went to lay flowers at the memorial every day after his name was added to it.
Kushina agreed to train Shanan in medical ninjutsu immediately, since they were still in the middle of the war and could always use skilled medical ninja. Shanan was determined to get it down and it didn't take her long to become quite proficient.
Kakashi spent most of his time training his new Sharingan. He had learned that his summons couldn't be negatively affected by Sharingan or genjutsu, even if they could be placed in one. So he was able to master the technique that Obito had unlocked before his death.
Shanan woke up to Kakashi knocking on her door with a cup of coffee and some toast like he always had since they joined their squads. They always sat in her bed and talked while they ate and drank. She enjoyed their morning routine and never could make coffee as well as he could.
Afterwards, they got ready to report to their Senseis. They both wore masks now, because Shanan decided that it did look cool and also allowed her to keep a certain amount of anonymity on the battlefield.
Their Senseis happened to be in the same place today and they were in the middle of what seemed like an important discussion when Shanan and Kakashi walked up to them.
"What do you mean she was taken? When?" Kushina asked quietly.
"Last night. But we haven't figured out w-" Minato was saying until he saw Kakashi.
"Who was taken?" Kakashi asked, curiously.
"It's..." Minato considered lying for a moment, but he knew that Kakashi would see through it. "Rin was taken last night."
"Where?!" Kakashi asked frantically.
Minato shook his head. "I can't tell you that, Kakashi."
"Tell me, she's my friend and I promised Obito I wouldn't let anything happen to her."
Minato sighed. "Intel says she's being held on the edge of The Mist in a cave behind a waterfall. We're getting the best team together now to go and rescue her," he tried to assure Kakashi.
"There's no time," he said as he started to run off.
"Kakashi!" Shanan yelled.
He stopped and looked back at her. "Shanan, I promised. I have to try."
"I know. I'm coming with you, though," she told him.
They ran as fast as they could. The place Minato mentioned wasn't far from where Shanan had almost been captured herself six weeks ago. So she led the way.
As they arrived they found Rin easily. Almost too easily they'd both decided. As the three of them exited the cave they were met with dozens of Mist shinobi.
Kakashi ordered Shanan to watch over Rin as he dispatched a few of the enemies before being knocked down with a pretty deep slash in his leg.
Shanan and Rin ran out to pull him out of the way and Rin knelt down to heal him while Shanan went to hold them off long enough, so that they could retreat when Kakashi was strong enough.
After a few minutes, Kakashi was healed and Shanan went to join the two of them, so they could head back until Rin stopped, refusing to go any further.
She looked back at the Mist Shinobi.
"They want me to go back," she said softly.
"Rin, we can't stay here," Kakashi told her as he grabbed her hand and tried to pull her away.
She jerked her hand away from him. "They locked something inside of me. They called me a Jin… Jinchuriki. I'm going to hurt people if I go back, I just know it. You have to kill me now!" she sobbed.
Shanan stared at Rin completely horrified. How could she ask Kakashi to kill her?
Kakashi looked at her tearfully. "What? I can't do that. Rin, you don't know what you're saying!" he cried.
Shanan saw something out of the corner of her eye.
"Kakashi, lookout!" she said as she tackled him out of the way.
One of the Mist Shinobi had sent out a volley of ice shards past Rin and aimed at Kakashi.
In the blink of an eye, Shanan activated Chidori as Kakashi created a water spear that he wound through the crowd of enemies before Shanan touched it with her Chidori and Rin intercepted it as it traveled down the spear on it's way to the enemies.
They didn't really have time to react as they both ran to her. Kakashi caught her as she fell and Shanan tried to use her medical ninjutsu on her.
Rin managed to say Kakashi's name before dying.
There was no way that Shanan could save her.
Shanan looked up at Kakashi with tears in her eyes before he passed out. She caught him and put him over her shoulder and took off as the enemies had started to close in around them.
When Shanan made it back to the village, she ran into Minato and Kushina almost immediately as they were leaving to meet with them.
Minato picked Kakashi up so that Shanan could rest and so Kushina could heal him.
Shanan fell to her knees.
"Why would she do that?" she said quietly as she buried her face into her hands and sobbed. "She made me kill her."
Kakashi had woken up almost as soon as Kushina had used her medical ninjutsu on him. He wasn't truly injured. He was just mostly drained of his chakra for some reason.
He went and wrapped his arms around Shanan.
"It's not your fault, Shanan. She said they locked something inside of her. She said something about a Jinchuriki. She was… just determined." He squeezed her tight. "It's not either of our faults."
Tears were streaming down his face. Not only had he just lost his other friend and teammate, but his closest friend was now blaming herself. He suddenly knew how she had felt when he blamed himself for Obito's death and he never wanted her to feel the pain of this kind of burden again.
Shanan continued to sob into his shoulder as he held her.
"It's not your fault."