It had been almost a year since Rin died and the war had ended and for all of Minato's great successes during the war, he was made Fourth Hokage.
Shanan still struggled with accepting Rin's death as not her fault, but Kakashi continued to support and remind her, having since given up the guilt and burden of responsibility for Obito's death.
In an effort to help keep both Shanan and Kakashi busy, Minato assigned them to the Anbu Black Ops. He hoped that if they had more responsibilities together then they could both move on completely and he knew that they had always made a great team.
And it did help. They did all of their missions together now, so they were never apart anymore and they were quite the formidable duo. Kakashi could copy any jutsu and he always shared everything he learned with Shanan.
They could use the same chakra types and seemed to do everything in sync. Their fighting almost always looked like a dance with how well they communicated without words. Especially their Dual Water Spout. They would both turn into water and swirl around one another, which in itself looked unassuming, but of course, once they reached their target they would add in lightning and take enemies down easily.
Even their taijutsu and swordplay looked fairly synchronized as they often assisted one another and used the other as a weapon when they had the opportunity.
Kakashi had his father's White Light Chakra Sabre that he kept down the center of his back while Shanan had two mid-length katanas that she kept on her lower back.
Word had reached Minato that some rogue members of The Mist were trying to break the treaty they had signed to end the war, so Shanan and Kakashi had been sent alone to make short work of them.
What they encountered was about twelve men who, not only could use water style, but not a single one of them seemed to be affected by Chidori.
Shanan and Kakashi were completely surrounded. They tried their swords, but most of the men were able to turn themselves into water too. So their blades passed right through them and none of their taijutsu landed.
All Shanan and Kakashi ended up doing was exhausting themselves and their chakra before they both ended up being captured and the enemies had decided to split them up and carry them off in different directions.
Kakashi managed to break free and tried to reach Shanan. He made it about ten feet before he was slashed across his ribs and fell to the ground.
Shanan screamed out and tried to reach for him, but she had four strong men carrying her as she kicked and screamed, trying to break free until one of the men finally hit her hard on the head to try and knock her out.
She slowly closed her eyes and reached out for Kakashi again and then fell to the ground.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she didn't bother to look around her, she ran straight to Kakashi. She didn't know what had happened. She just knew that nobody was stopping her.
She rolled him over and his cut was deep, but he was still alive.
"You're gonna be ok, Kakashi, " she said shakily as she pulled her mask down, tears streaming down her face.
She wasn't sure how, but she suddenly had plenty of energy and chakra to work with as she worked on healing him.
Kakashi was awake, but he didn't say anything. He carefully pulled his mask down and put one hand on Shanan's cheek and stared up at her face while resting his other hand on hers as she healed him. If he was going to die, he wanted her face to be the last thing he saw and her skin to be the last thing he touched. Tears ran back into his hair as he studied her. Her eyes had always been one of his favorite things about her, the color blue that they were was really soothing. Especially now. He felt really peaceful looking up at her and he wanted to absorb as much as he could, so that wherever he ended up, he would take the memory of her with him.
His cut was really deep...
It took about an hour before he was fully healed and Shanan was nearly out of chakra as she collapsed next to him.
He was still pretty weak, so he still wasn't able to get up.
They both laid there, facing each other, inches apart.
Shanan still had tears streaming sideways down her face as she looked at him. All she could think about was the fact that she had almost just lost him.
Kakashi reached his hand up to touch her face again as he stared back at her. He had never been more scared than when she was being dragged away from him or when he thought that he was going to die without having been able to protect her.
"Shanan..." he whispered.
"Kakashi... I love you. So much. I'm in love with you," she whispered back as she continued to cry. Her whole face was shaking now. Suddenly, part of her worried that he would completely reject her, even now in his current, weakened state.
But he didn't.
He just smiled softly at her.
"Finally," he said as he leaned in and kissed her deeply.
It felt like all of the butterflies in Shanan's stomach were dancing around and trying to escape. She felt their flutters everywhere. Inside and out. And all she could do was smile as Kakashi made her feel as though she were shining.
Kakashi suddenly felt more free than he had ever felt. He'd never thought of his world as dark in any way, but somehow, everything suddenly felt even brighter. His body felt lighter than it ever had and wherever he might be floating off to, he was glad to know that Shanan was going with him.
He had loved her for as long as he could remember and now she finally loved him too. Nothing else mattered to him.