Kakashi opened his eyes and blinked slowly as he sat up. He wasn't sure why, but he was surrounded by trees.

He stood up slowly to look around and grabbed his head as he winced in pain. Realization, already, quickly flooding in.

He recognized the training field about ten feet outside of the tree line. He slowly walked towards the opening.

He was very shaken, but he already knew what had happened. He could feel the knot from flying backwards twenty feet from where he had been standing. He walked a few feet and saw someone lying about thirty feet from the treeline.

"Shanan!"

He ran over to her and fell to his knees beside her and grabbed her hand.

"Shanan!" he said again as he put his ear to her chest.

He could hear her heart beating and could tell that she was still breathing.

He put his hand on her face and caressed her cheek.

"Shanan..." he said a bit more softly.

She opened her eyes suddenly and blinked slowly as she turned her head towards him.

"Kakashi?" she asked as she tried to sit up.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

She looked around and was very visibly shaken as she put her hand on his face. He seemed to know something she didn't.

"Why are we outside? Where are the tw-"

"No…" He closed his eyes as a new realization set in. "You don't remember, do you?" he asked as tears formed in his eyes.

"Remember what?" she asked as she started to tear up. "Why are we out here?"

Kakashi helped her up and pulled her close as he cried for her, for both of them. "You really don't remember anything?" he asked again through tears.

"What do you mean?" She was sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

Kakashi looked around as he hugged her. He knew they couldn't talk out here for long before someone else showed up. "Come on. We should go home," he said to her gently as he put his arm around her and wiped his cheeks. "I'll explain everything when we get there."

Shanan was really confused, but held onto him the whole way. Hoping a valid explanation would be given.

They finally reached a cute house on the outskirts of the village. Cute, but a bit shabby and rundown looking.

Shanan looked at Kakashi with deep concern in her eyes.

"What's going on here?" she asked him as tears ran down her face.

"I know," he whispered as he grabbed her hand and fought back tears. "Let's just go in. I'll tell you everything."

Shanan was more frightened than she had ever remembered feeling, but she went in anyway.

When they walked inside, her home was similar, but very different. It felt cold. The furniture had sheets over it. The lights didn't turn on. And it definitely needed to be painted over.

"Kakashi, what's happening? Where are the twins?" she asked. She was extremely worried.

Kakashi led her to the couch and pulled the sheet off as he sat down while helping her sit next to him. Tears forming in his eyes already.

Shanan looked at him and could only feel fear and anxiety as he faced her and grabbed her hands again.

"Shanan, I um…" tears poured down Kakashi's face as he tried to find the courage to break her heart. He turned away and wiped his cheek on his shoulder as he cleared his throat. "I don't know how to tell you this, but…" he didn't know what words to use right now, "our life together…" his whole face was shaking now and the tears wouldn't stop, "it didn't really happen," he whispered as his voice broke completely and he hung his head as tears fell onto both of their hands. He knew that he was breaking her heart, but his was also very broken and he continued to sob. "We're the only ones that think it did. But…" He took a few deep breaths to try and get the words out, "it was a genjutsu."

"What?" Shanan was thoroughly confused, but also couldn't keep herself from sobbing with him. She had never seen Kakashi so broken. She pulled him in as they cried together for a few long minutes, but she also felt like she had to ask questions. How could this be true? She took a few deep breaths and wiped her tears. "But… Why would somebody put us in a genjutsu like that? I've never even heard of something like that," she tried to say clearly. She still wasn't sure why he was so upset, because she was sure that her life was real. How could he think it wasn't?

Kakashi nodded as he wiped his face again. He understood that she would have a hard time accepting it. She clearly only remembered their life inside of the genjutsu. He cleared his throat again as the tears continued to fall. "You have a um… a Sharingan and it's very unique. You…" his face started shaking again, he didn't want her to feel like it was her fault, but he didn't know how else to tell her, "you put us in the genjutsu."

She still didn't understand. She didn't have a Sharingan.

"But… why would I do that?" she whispered.

He looked at her sympathetically as he remembered exactly what had led up to it. "You wanted to save me from darkness," he said softly.

Shanan stared at him in complete disbelief as tears were still running down both of their faces. He was telling her the truth.

Just then she was hit with blinding pain in her eyes as she reached up to them instinctively.

"Are you alright, my love?" he asked quickly just as she opened her eyes. "Your Sharingan!"

Just as he looked into her eyes she stopped moving and stared right through him.

"Shanan!" He said, worried. It was as if she had been caught in some kind of genjutsu, but he hadn't been. "After a few seconds she shifted her eyes to look at him as her Sharingan disappeared. "Kakashi," she said as she put her hands over her mouth. "I remember."

He looked at her surprised as he blinked a few tears away. "You remember everything?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so… I think… it's just memories with you," she said as she teared up again.

Kakashi pulled her in and squeezed her tight as she cried, finally, truly believing everything he had told her. He held her for what felt like a long time until she calmed down a bit. Until they both calmed down.

"What kind of memories?" he finally asked gently.

Shanan thought for a minute. She didn't know if she was ready to talk yet. But she didn't want it to be quiet either. "I'm not sure... It felt like your memories of me unlocked my memories of you," she said at almost a whisper, keeping her head against his chest. "I um… I remember darkness first and then you in the Anbu and the hospital for a long time and you visited me and we were great friends." She suddenly teared up again as she remembered and looked up at him. "You were… Kakashi, you were different. Kurushimi. I remember…" she said as tears streamed down her face. "I needed to save you, because you were my good friend and I cared so much about you. Which is so strange to think of us as just friends."

Kakashi sat quietly and nodded. It was weird to think of them like that. As not lovers. As not husband and wife. As not parents. It actually really hurt that she was Shanan Takagi again.

"Did we kiss?" she asked him curiously.

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. He had already remembered that he was falling for her, even before the genjutsu. Which gave him butterflies as the new feelings from before the genjutsu resurfaced even through his lifelong feelings for her.

"And you liked me?" she said hopefully through her tears.

He nodded again, still feeling the ache of being in love with her.

"I…" she looked as though she was searching through her memories. "I thought you were amazing and really cute… but… this doesn't make any sense. I love you more than anything."

Kakashi couldn't bring himself to mention Sasuke.

While he did remember life both before the genjutsu and inside of the genjutsu, his life inside was the one that felt the most real to him.

"I can't really say for sure," he decided. "Shanan, I remember before this… genjutsu…"

"Kaitei," she said. "That seems appropriate."

Kakashi nodded. "I remember before the Kaitei. But that part of me is such a distant memory. You saw my Kurushimi and that isn't my life. Before the Kaitei, I lived in darkness and I do remember that, but it mostly feels like some kind of nightmare that wasn't ever actually real." He brushed her cheek as he smiled at her. "An hour or so ago we looked into eachothers eyes and your goal was to save me from darkness." He laughed a little as he teared up again. "I asked you to pick any other goal, but you wanted to help me. And so you did. Just by being there with me through all of it." He wrapped his arms around her. "I never once felt like our lives were sad or tragic. I never once felt alone. I never felt bitter. I didn't put a wall around me. I had deep and meaningful connections and loved and was loved and I wasn't scared of it," he said happily.

"I'm sorry that any version of you ever did feel that way," she said as she rested her forehead on his, tears still streaming.

"It's crazy to think that there's a version of me that wasn't proud of my father. That there was a version of me that hated themselves for the deaths of Obito and Rin. That… didn't have you. I'm not going back to that," he told her as he started to cry again.

"Do you promise?" she asked as she closed her eyes.

"We may have to get married all over again. But I'd marry you a million times if I had to," he said sweetly as he kissed her forehead softly.

Shanan smiled softly at him and then started sobbing as she remembered the twins again.

Kakashi's face started shaking again as he thought of them, too.

"I'm so sorry. I would do anything to get them back for us. For you," he whispered through a steady stream of tears. "They were the most beautiful babies and you were the most amazing mother," he assured her as he brushed her hair from her face. "I'll always miss our late night feedings. And reading to them. And playing with them. And how we had been trying to get them to crawl…" He trailed off as he started sobbing too hard to speak anymore and he pulled Shanan in close as they both shook.

It tore Shanan apart that he felt the need to apologize to her about them. Afterall, he wasn't the one that had placed them into a genjutsu. "Kakashi, don't apologize to me when your heart is so broken too," she whispered through tears.

After a long while, once they got to where they could speak again, they continued discussing memories and the differences between the real world and the Kaitei. And Shanan broke down again when she learned about Kushina and about Naruto's real life.

He still couldn't bring himself to tell her that she had ever been in love with someone else. Though he knew she would find out eventually, he couldn't think about what might happen then.

A/N- Chapter 47 is the sister chapter for this one if it's been awhile since you've read it. :D