Shanan and Kakashi spent the next few weeks holed up in his apartment.

They mostly reminisced. They cried. They held each other. They talked about what they expected things to be like once they were ready to join the world. And they had sex. Lots of it. It was a good distraction when they were both tired of thinking.

Shanan's real world version of herself was really falling for Kakashi. She wasn't sure why she hadn't been before, but she was glad she'd finally come around. And there had to have been at least some small part of her that liked him enough to kiss him, even if she had been drunk.

Kakashi's real world version continued to fall deeper and deeper in love with her. Every day. He truly felt that even if they had never been through the Kaitei, whether or not they somehow ended up together, then he still would've felt saved by her. She had already begun to break down his walls and he would've been happy just to remain friends with her if it meant he could just be around her. And the darkness he used to live in stayed a distant memory to him.

It was certainly a strange feeling to both feel very married and like they were in a new relationship, but they were getting more and more used to it by the day.

Once they were ready Kakashi sent his summon, Pakkun, to communicate with Tsunade. When he returned a couple of hours later it was to tell them that both of their Jonin and Chunin friends had been gathered and were waiting for them with Tsunade.

"So my friends are Hinata Hyuga, Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Shikamaru Nara, right?" Shanan asked again as she was getting ready.

"That's right. The ones that are here anyway. At least those were the ones you always talked about to me," he told her.

"I knew all of them as kids Naruto's age. I remember their parents as being a bit older than us. And so if I run up and hug Asuma and Guy they'll think I'm crazy?" she asked concernedly.

"It wouldn't be odd to hug Guy as your Sensei, but as your old friend, yes."

"That's gonna be really hard," she said sadly.

Kakashi went up to her and pulled her chin up to look at him. "I'll be right there. We'll explain it to all of them and I think they'll understand," he said as he gave her a kiss. "We should go, who knows how long they'll be able to wait."

When they arrived they saw Tsunade and the two older Jonin seated and the four younger ninja standing nearby and waiting.

They all immediately noticed the hand holding and Shikamaru was confused and very crushed, to say the least. Tsunade had apologized to him, but said that Shanan had had an injury and was recovering in an unknown location. He constantly asked for updates, but kept getting the runaround from her. Now he knew why.

As they sat down, Tsunade was the first to speak.

"You may all be wondering why we would call a meeting just to see these two walking in and holding hands. I can assure you we aren't here to announce their courtship. It's much more complicated than that. But I'll let them give you the breakdown."

Kakashi cleared his throat before he spoke. "So I believe you all know that Shanan and I were working on unlocking new Sharingan techniques. Um... well... to make a very long story short, she did unlock one. We were locked into a twenty-five year long genjutsu where we grew up together. We lost both sets of parents at a young age. We lived in my old family home. We took care of eachother. We fell in love. We got married. We even..." Kakashi fought back tears now, "had a set of twins that had just turned six months old, before we woke up," he managed to say before a single tear finally fell.

Everyone in the room looked on in disbelief.

"And... Shanan doesn't remember anything from before doing the Kaitei technique. However, she can perform her Omoidasu technique on each of you and unlock her memories with you."

Shanan nodded. "I can tell by looking at you guys that we have memories together," she said as she smiled with tears in her eyes.

Hinata walked over and sat next to Shanan and hugged her. "I'm so sorry," she told her.

"Oh, Shanan..." Neji said sadly as he looked over at Shikamaru and then made his way toward her too.

Lee was standing there crying, sad about her memory and sad about her loss and sad for Shikamaru, too.

They all knew that they were secretly dating. Shikamaru had even gone to them when Shanan had disappeared as he was sick with worry every day. It was all he could think about or talk about and he'd even cried to them about it several times.

And now he was just completely devastated. He couldn't even look at her right now, even though he really missed her and wanted to. But he couldn't run up to her and hold her or say anything in front of Kakashi.

Almost everyone went up to Shanan and hugged her, which made her happy to know that she did have strong bonds with these people that Kakashi had said were her friends. Everyone except for Asuma and Shikamaru.

Asuma went to stand next to Shikamaru and casually put his hand on his shoulder.

Shanan sat forward so that she could speak to Asuma and Guy. "Um… before we do any remembering, I wanted to say something. Asuma. Guy. We were close, we were team Kushina and you both walked with me when I married Kakashi," Shanan told them as she smiled. "We went on a lot of missions together and I cared about both of you so much. I just wanted you to know that and I wanted you to know that while Omoidasu can help me remember, I can also share my memories with you as well if you like. But you don't have to either, I'll understand."

"I'm ok with that," Guy said gently. "I'd like to see how that went."

"What if I don't want you to do Omoidasu on me?" Shikamaru asked quietly as he stared at the ground.

Shanan was a bit hurt by his question as she could tell that they had been close, but she wasn't going to make anyone let her in.

"Then that's ok, I won't do it without anyone's permission," she assured them, even if it made her sad that someone might not let her remember them.

Shikamaru put his hands in his pockets and left the room calmly without saying anything else.

"I'm sorry for what all you've gone through, you two," Asuma said, "I think I'm gonna pass on the Omoidasu too, but I truly wish you all the best," he said as he left to go and speak to Shikamaru.

Kakashi squeezed Shanan's hand to remind her that he was there.

"Shikamaru's just... I think he was just caught off guard, Shanan," Neji lied to her almost convincingly.

"Shanan... I would like to go first," Lee said hopefully.

"Ok," she said as she brightened a bit.

He made his way over to her and Kakashi let go of her hand so that she could hold hands with Lee as she activated her Omoidasu Sharingan and looked into his eyes. He seemed confused as it seemed that only she had been caught up and she stared through him.

Kakashi looked at him. "She's just remembering everything, it doesn't pull you in," he informed him.

Afterwards, she adjusted her eyes to look at him once more as she smiled and hugged him.

"Lee!" she said as she cried. "We're the best of friends and we've had so much fun together. I trust you with my life more than most," she told him.

Lee smiled back and perked up. "I am so happy that you remember me! I was sure you would not see anything you cared about."

"Not at all. I remember that you're one of my favorite people," she said as she touched his face and kissed him on the cheek.

Everyone took turns letting Shanan unlock her memories with them and it truly amazed her how different things had been outside of the Kaitei. She was a lot more carefree outside than she had been inside and she really liked that she was remembering how to be like that again. Inside, she was such a stickler for rules and not the most confident person, so it was interesting how she now had these two sides to her.

She couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at the love and support she had received from people that she didn't know she knew. She was still very curious as to why Shikamaru wouldn't let her in, though.