The next morning Shikamaru woke up a bit earlier than usual. All he could think about was the amazing day that he and Shanan had just spent together and he really hoped that he would see her again today. He woke up early, but he didn't bother to get out of bed or get dressed. He mostly just stared at the door and waited for her to knock.

He'd hoped she'd be a bit early, but she wasn't.

She knew what time he normally left for work, so maybe she'd show up in time to make sure he didn't go. But she didn't.

He waited another hour, before finally deciding that she wasn't coming. So he got up and slowly got dressed. He tried not to be upset, he knew the amount of guilt that he always felt was nothing compared to the amount that she felt. So he made himself some coffee and headed into work.

He walked slowly the entire way in the hopes that she'd show up and try to intercept him, but he knew what a longshot that had been and so was neither surprised nor hurt when it didn't happen.

He finally made it to work and walked into Kakashi's office to apologize for not showing up yesterday and to receive whatever list of tasks he had for him. He didn't think Kakashi saw him as he was going through a shelf of files when he walked in.

"Good morning, Lord Sixth. Sorry I'm late. And–"

"Go home, Shikamaru. Take the next week off," Kakashi said without so much as looking in his direction.

Shikamaru was both surprised and confused. He'd never been given time off from either Hokage. "But–"

"Now." He kept his voice calm, but the urgency hadn't gone unnoticed and Shikamaru left without another word.

As he was walking home, he couldn't help but feel tense. He tried to think of any other reason that Kakashi would have to dismiss him like that, but his calm, yet harsh tone only made it clear to Shikamaru, he knew.

It suddenly made sense why Shanan hadn't come over. Had they had a heartfelt conversation? Had they argued? Neither of them were the arguing type, but maybe he'd caused them to.

He rounded the corner to walk through the front gate of his yard and was very surprised to see Shanan sitting outside of his bedroom with tears streaming down her face.

"Hey," he said, frowning at her as he stood there, one hand in his pocket and one still holding his coffee cup.

She didn't say anything, just ran over to him and threw her arms around him.

He tossed his coffee cup onto the ground and pulled her in close as she cried and he held her for several minutes until she calmed down.

"Where'd you go?" she asked him quietly, still hugging him tight.

He pulled away and looked her in the eyes. "Work."

She swallowed hard as her eyes welled up again. "I can't imagine that went over too well…"

"I don't care about that. You're here." He kissed her softly and smiled as he brushed her cheek with his thumb. "Let's go inside."

They both told each other about their mornings. But Shanan still couldn't tell him about her ritual of going to sit on top of the library to try and convince herself into never giving into her feelings for him again. She knew it'd just make him feel bad, and as much as she knew they needed to, she just wasn't ready to hurt him or say goodbye to those feelings.

And once again, though she hadn't come here to do this, they just ended up in his bed again. Once again, they spent most of the day pouring their hearts out to one another with their words, with their lips and with their bodies. Neither of them seemed to be able to stop themselves…

Kakashi had been trying to concentrate all morning. Physically he was present, but his mind was elsewhere, as it had been since returning home the night before.

And then with Shikamaru coming in, he wasn't sure how he'd planned to handle that until he did. Part of him was satisfied with it, but another part of him was sure he'd just sent him right back to Shanan. Gave him permission to spend an entire week with her.

He was supposed to be writing out mission details for one of the genin teams, but all he'd done was stare down at the page with his pen in his hand. Fortunately, there was a knock at the door and whoever it was didn't wait for him to answer.

"Sensei," Naruto said as he walked in and leaned back against the wall next to the door. He could tell immediately that Kakashi had a lot on his mind. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah. Everything is fine, Naruto. How can I help you?" He'd had years of pretending everything was fine before the Kaitei, he was a bit surprised to know he still had it in him.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at him a bit, but brushed it off. "Alright, well, Hinata was looking for Shanan earlier and said she wasn't at the house. She has a bunch of wedding… things… I dunno… but she wanted to talk to our wedding planner about it. Any idea where she's at?"

Kakashi set his pen down and rubbed his eyebrow. "She's uh…" he looked at Naruto as plainly as he could. "She's probably at Shikamaru's."

"Oh ok, I'll…" He started to open the door but then stopped as Kakashi's words registered. "Wait… Shikamaru's?" he asked as he looked back at Kakashi.

Kakashi was leaning back and looking up at the ceiling now as he tried to keep the sudden rush of tears from falling down his face, which only caused them to fall back into his hair.

Naruto locked the door and went to lean against the window sill behind Kakashi. He stood there quietly until his sensei composed himself and wiped his tears away.

"Bet that feels a bit better…" Naruto said quietly as he patted Kakashi's shoulder. "Wanna tell me what happened?"

Kakashi felt foolish for not being able to stop the tears, but even though he still had some of his old pre-Kaitei skill sets, he was still very much a product of his rewritten life with Shanan and sometimes he couldn't hide his feelings no matter how hard he tried.

He turned back to face his desk as he put his head in his hand and sat quietly for a few minutes, deciding if he could or should open up about it. "I had another late night last night. I just wanted to get home and spend time with her and talk about our days…" he started barely audibly.

Naruto frowned and teared up a bit as he listened.

"As soon as I opened the door and walked in, I was immediately assaulted with the scent of…" he trailed off. "It had been so long, I'd almost forgotten what he smelled like on her. It hit me so hard it nearly knocked me back. I stood there at the door staring at her, asleep on the couch. I could smell her favorite tree on her too. So I knew she'd had a weak day and I knew she felt horrible. Like she always has." He looked up at Naruto, tears in his eyes again.

"Sensei…"

"I wanted to wake her up. I wanted to carry her into our room. I wanted to just be understanding and love her through it. I know it's what she needed. I tried to wave the smell away, ignore it. But I couldn't. And my body just wouldn't let me go near her." He let a few tears fall and wiped them away quickly. "I just left her lying on the couch, alone. I was angry at her, but I tried not to be. I tried so hard. I didn't sleep well because I spent the entire night trying to make myself go and get her." He took a few deep breaths to keep new tears at bay. "Then I heard the door open, the smell wafted in. I got angry again, so I didn't move. And then the door closed and she didn't come in. I knew she was really hurt. And I still didn't say goodbye this morning. I just couldn't." Tears were streaming down his face and into his mask.

"Damn. I'm sorry. They were doing so well..." he said as he stared at the ground with his arms folded. "So that's why I didn't see Shikamaru. I figured he was just out of the office on business."

"No, I... sent him home. I couldn't stand to smell her on him either. As soon as he walked in I got angry again, but I know it's not his fault either. I gave him the week off. That should be long enough for her scent to dissipate from him."

"Kakashi Sensei," he started thoughtfully. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I'm just curious and I'll understand if the answer is yes. But have you ever thought about breaking up with her?" he asked a bit somberly.

"No, never. I wouldn't leave her if she drank too much. I wouldn't leave her for struggling in this way either. It's not a thought that's ever crossed my mind," he said honestly.

Naruto sighed heavily. "I'm glad to hear that. She's really lucky to have you, and she knows that. She knows that... " He stood up and moved to stand at the end of Kakashi's desk. "I'm leaving for a mission in a few hours, but do you want me to go to Shikamaru's and pull her out of there or something?"

Kakashi looked at him appreciatively and shook his head. "No. That'll just make her feel even more terrible than she already does. No… I'd ask if you could wait for her and comfort her when she goes to sit on top of the library to beat herself up. But you'll probably be gone by that time. But I appreciate the offer. And I appreciate you listening, Kiddo," he said as he gave him a quick nod.

"I wish I could do more. You're my sensei, she's my sis, you're my brother-in-law, even," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, we're family and… and I'll see what I can do. As future Hokage, it's my duty to help and I'll try to do it without making her feel so bad, but that might not be helped."

Kakashi gave him another single nod.

Naruto headed for the door. "Try to go home early if you can. I can tell you need to. Being here won't make you feel better."

"I'll see what I can do," Kakashi said a bit more cheerfully. "Good luck on your mission, Kiddo."

By the time Shanan left Shikamaru's she was numb. Kakashi already hated her after yesterday. She knew when she woke up in the middle of the night that he should've been home, but she was still surprised to open their bedroom door and see him sleeping. And then in the morning he left so quickly, he didn't even look over at her to see if she was awake or not. He just left.

She wanted to tell Shikamaru that they couldn't keep doing this. But she lost her nerve to do so as soon as she saw him. But, then again, that always was their exact issue. Neither of them could or really even wanted to say goodbye.

She'd been so lost in thought that she didn't even realize that she was standing on the roof of the library when she heard a familiar voice.

"Funny seeing you up here," Sasuke yelled over to her.

She looked up suddenly and then checked to make sure she was in the right place. "Sasuke. Why are you here?"

He walked over to her and gently grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a hug. "Heard you needed my help."

Before she could really register what was happening, her face started shaking and she was sobbing into him.

"It's alright," he said as he wrapped her up tighter and rested his face on the top of her head. "Stop feeling so bad, Shanan."

She felt so worthless. She knew the dual memories would be really hard to adjust to, she often wished she didn't have the ability to unlock them. Better to not remember than to remember and hurt anyone, let alone the person she loved and cherished the most.

She pulled away from him and looked at him pleadingly. She didn't know what he thought he could do, but she was starting to feel as though she was drowning.

Sasuke took her face in his hands as he looked into her eyes. "Calm down, Shanan. You're alright," he said soothingly. "Just take some deep breaths with me."

She stared back at him and followed his breathing, which really did help. Just like when Kakashi did it.

"Why do you come up here anyway? To beat yourself up?" he asked bluntly.

She looked down and felt ashamed as she nodded. "It's what I deserve…"

"No it's not. You usually sit?"

She nodded again as she looked back up at him.

"Where? I'll sit with you, but I'm not gonna let you hate yourself."

Shanan looked at the spot under the tree where she usually sat, where he'd been standing when she arrived.

He chuckled softly. "I'm not surprised, it's a decent spot to think," he said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her over to sit.

Once they were seated, Shanan stared at the ground a bit listlessly as they sat quietly for a few minutes. "I don't just beat myself up, you know?" she said shakily. "I promise myself to do better. I beat myself up because I keep promising… and I keep failing. I try to do better. Shikamaru does too… I know he does. It's just…"

"Nobody faults either of you for your situation, Shanan. Not one other couple in the world can say they've gone through what you two have. And the same can be said for you and Kakashi." He squeezed her hand and tilted his head as he looked at her sympathetically. "Who would've imagined two people falling for each other all thanks to the power of the Sharingan? You guys lived a long and beautiful life together and I know that that means everything to the both of you."

Shanan stared at the ground and cried silently as he spoke.

"And then you both woke up from that. And even though Kakashi could remember both realities, he chose to believe in the one that you created. Just for him. You witnessed his darkness and it broke your heart so much that you pulled things from both of your conscious and subconscious memories and created a whole life, just for Kakashi. So that you could see him flourish in the light that he deserves. You did that for him. Don't think he'll ever, ever forget that or forget the things that you gave up in order to do it," he choked back a few tears as he said the last part and gripped her hand. "Nobody that truly knows you, wants you to beat yourself up for any of this."

She had a hard time believing that, but she trusted Sasuke enough to try to.

"And I know it's hard to hear, but I do think that you and Shikamaru need to say goodbye to what you had."

She still couldn't explain it, but the thought of doing so almost sent her into a panic. "No, I'm not ready to do that yet. I know I have to, but I can't do it yet," she said as tears streamed down her face again.

Sasuke put his arm around her and pulled her close. "Fine. But know that I'm here for you when you are ready. Alright? Just let me know if you need anything from me."

"Would you help me plan the wedding?" she asked before she even realized that she was. Now that she'd blurted it out, she was sure he'd say no. It didn't really seem like his style.

He smirked at the idea. "You know, I don't think Naruto or Hinata would appreciate me going anywhere near the planning of their big day, but if that's what you want me to do, then I will," he said as he laughed a bit.

"Really?"

"Of course, I think we'll work pretty well together, actually. Do you want me to go with you to Shikamaru's tomorrow so that you can tell him? I don't think you should try to go alone," he said gently.

She thought for a moment and then gave him a nod.

They spent the next hour chatting on the roof until it started getting dark and then Sasuke walked home with her and helped her make dinner so that he could try and keep her from being upset again. She ended up falling asleep on the couch while he was reading and he stayed until Kakashi walked through the door.

He carefully got up so as not to wake Shanan up and met Kakashi at the door.

"How is she?" Kakashi whispered.

"Better."

"I'm guessing Naruto filled you in?"

Sasuke crossed his arms and frowned as he looked at Kakashi. "He did. He had a mission, so he delegated it to me and I went to the library straight away. I didn't have to wait too long, but she was pretty distraught when she arrived."

"Thanks for making her feel better."

"I just reminded her of the truth."

"Well, I guess I owe you one," he said gratefully.

Sasuke looked at him with a hint of irritation. "Just don't leave her lying alone on the couch this time," he said sharply as he exited.

Kakashi sighed heavily. "I didn't plan to…" he said as he looked over at her longingly.

It'd been a long twenty-four hours, and as angry as he was at her and Shikamaru, he'd been even more angry with himself for not helping her through the pain and the guilt that she felt.