Hatake Kakashi

Kakashi is one of the series’ more popular characters and it’s easy to see why. With his lazy expression told with a single eye, aloof manner, relaxed voice and minimalist attitude, Kakashi can be relied upon to provide comic relief through his lack of attention. However, when required to be serious, Kakashi quickly switches to the polar opposite, focusing himself on the subject and not missing a single thing.
Many, both inside the ninja village and outside, know his reputation but he has few real friends. The closest he has is Maito Gai, another Jounin team leader. The pair forms a good comedy duo, with Kakashi assuming the role of the straight arrow while Gai’s over-the-top dialogue and actions often earn him a response in the vein of “Did you say something?” from Kakashi. Gai describes Kakashi as hip, cool and trendy but seems to be the main instigator of their rivalry, often making the situation more complicated and unusual than necessary.
Kakashi is the son of Hatake Sakumo; a ninja blessed with extreme skill which earned himself the nickname of Konoha’s White Fang. This was either due to his sharply pointed white hair or the family tanto he carried, which emitted a white chakra when used by a Hatake. Kakashi himself would later possess this. Sakumo’s reputation was comparable with that of The Legendary Three but his attitude proved to be his undoing. Sakumo aborted a mission that cost his village dearly, with the reason for the abortion being the safety of his comrades. Shamed, Sakumo took his own life. Kakashi grew up with a very cold attitude, basing efficiency in carrying out the mission to be the #1 priority.
Kakashi accomplished a lot in the younger years of his life. He was the student of the man who would go on to become the Fourth Hokage, taking over that man’s role as commander of his team. His reputation has been widely increased thanks to an unexpected advantage coming from the first mission he performed as a Jounin. During a war, Kakashi’s objective was to destroy a bridge that aided the enemy Rock ninja forces. In an encounter with them, the team’s medic, Rin, was kidnapped and interrogated by the enemy. Kakashi, seeing her as a hindrance to the team, made the decision to leave her. However, his other companion, Uchiha Obito, refused and rejected his ideals.
“Those who don’t follow the rules and regulations are trash”. Kakashi lived by the motto. “But those who don’t care about their companions are worse than trash!” Obito added to it. Obito set off on his own to rescue Rin, but Kakashi followed him and saved him from an ambush, which cost Kakashi his left eye. Obito felt consumed by doubt and in a vow to protect his friend, his eyes lit up in red and the Sharingan sprouted for the first time with a pair in each eye. His enhanced vision penetrated the enemy’s camouflage and he was able to strike him down.
Catching up to Rin, the pair ran into another enemy, who attempted to kill all three by crushing them with falling rocks. As one was about to strike Kakashi, Obito slung him aside and took the hit instead. Totally crushed on his right side, Obito knew his death was imminent and made the decision to have his left eye removed and implanted into Kakashi by Rin. Kakashi accepted it and sought revenge on the Rock ninja. The battle broke the tanto in half, perhaps symbolic of Kakashi’s heartlessly efficient motto only being half correct. Kakashi then fell back on the perfected version of his first self-created move: Chidori.
The Rock ninja was taken down, but reinforcements soon arrived. Fortunately the kunai Kakashi was carrying was modified to alert their sensei if it was thrown. Blanking out from exhaustion after he attempted Chidori, Kakashi awoke to find all the enemies gone and the team leader with them once more. Rin gazed off into the distance, thinking about the events of the day. Since the loss of Obito, Kakashi took on several of his personality traits. He started to relax the strictness of his punctuality and also made up poor yet amusing excuses for being late. In truth, visiting the grave marker of Obito every day caused his lateness. He also decided that the mission was no longer the #1 priority.
In the coming years, Kakashi would acquire his own nickname – Copy Ninja Kakashi, due to him using the ability of the Sharingan to steal or adapt techniques he saw with it. He would also join the elite ANBU, a squad of masked ninja who worked directly under the Hokage. Kakashi further honed his skills while an ANBU, and earned the respect of many fellow ANBU including "Yamato" and Uzuki Yuugao. It also appears it was during this period when Kakashi and Gai developed their eternal rivalry. At some point during this period he may have also signed his blood oath with his nin-dogs.
His next appearance in the series would come when the Third Hokage put him in charge of the current year’s Team Seven. His first impression of them wasn’t much, especially when Naruto decided to wedge a dusty chalk eraser in the door to come down on Kakashi’s head. The trio would be the first Genin to impress Kakashi enough to pass his bell test. None of the former Genin sent to him in the past had lived up to his standards. For that reason the trio could remain under his guidance and not be sent back to the Academy. Kakashi formed a good relationship with his team, acting as a voice of reason to Naruto, a comfort to Sakura and somewhat of a father figure to Sasuke, although much of his advice was tough love to cool down the fiery boy. Overall, he stressed a hybrid of his previous two mottos – Teamwork, with the strength of the solid team coming together to accomplish the mission.
Their first major mission together was to the Wave Country, where they were escorting the architect, Tazuna. Tazuna’s goal was to build a bridge to improve the economy for the country instead of paying the high prices charged by the shipping magnate, Gato, who had formed a monopoly on the country’s imports and exports. Gato had hired a number of renegade mercenary ninja, including the Demon Brothers, their superior, Momochi Zabuza and his young student and bodyguard, Haku. Kakashi defeated the Demon Brothers effortlessly and later brushed with Zabuza for the first time. Kakashi revealed his Sharingan and baffled Zabuza with it, cornering him. At this point, a disguised Haku rescued Zabuza under the façade of killing him and taking the body for disposal.
Kakashi was unconvinced, but drained from using the Sharingan. The eye was not properly compatible with his own body and use of it sucked out his chakra and left him weak. Despite this, he still managed to set a task for Naruto and Sasuke to compete to enhance their chakra control. When the trio did the task he was nicely surprised that Sakura was already at a decent enough level. A short while later Kakashi learned his hunch was right, as Zabuza returned with Haku to once again sabotage the bridge. Kakashi’s Sharingan was unable to have an effect on the battle as Zabuza had lowered visibility to the point that the required eye contact was not happening.
Naruto and Sasuke had been trapped by Haku, until Naruto’s rage built up to the point that Kakashi was growing worried from the presence of the Kyuubi’s chakra. Feeling the need to finish the fight, he held Zabuza with the aid of a group of summoned dogs, before preparing his finishing move – now bearing a nickname, the Raikiri. However, instead of killing Zabuza, Haku sacrificed himself as a human shield and gladly allowed Kakashi’s hand to penetrate his chest.
Gato turned up to finalize things, just after Kakashi had disabled Zabuza’s arms. Following a change of heart, Zabuza turned on his employer and killed him in front of his own personal band of mercenaries. Kakashi and Naruto helped drive the rest of them off with a massive series of clones, before returning home.
Soon after, Kakashi volunteered Team 7 for the Chuunin exams, to Iruka’s dismay. Kakashi would next appear during the exams after Sasuke’s first fight; using an incantation to suppress the Cursed Seal he had been given. As he finished, Orochimaru appeared behind the scenes. Kakashi threatened him with a Raikiri, but realized that to take on Orochimaru would be suicide. However, he was not satisfied with the attention Sasuke was under and checked on him just in time to see Kabuto attempting an assassination. Kakashi drove him away, but with no time to apprehend him. Perhaps for Sasuke’s own safety, Kakashi personally tutored him over the next month or so, teaching him the Chidori and encouraging the speed to use it.
Kakashi and Sasuke would resurface in the Chuunin Exam finals, “fashionably late”. During the fight with Gaara, Sasuke pulled off the Chidori and became the first person in years to make Gaara bleed. However, the resulting instability on Gaara’s part forced the start of the planned invasion and the stadium in which the fight took place was almost entirely put to sleep. Kakashi, Gai and a few others repelled the sleep and the attacking enemy forces while sending out a small team of Genin to track Sasuke, who was already pursuing Gaara.
The war took its toll on Konoha, but something far worse was about to occur. Kakashi witnessed an attack on Asuma and Kurenai, quickly blocking a critical move by copying it and nullifying it quickly. The perpetrators were Kisame and Konoha’s own Itachi. The two seemed equally matched in skill until Itachi tried a Genjutsu technique. Kakashi attempted to fight it off, but fell prey to something beyond anything he’d ever encountered before, being put through mental torture lasting three days, suffering the imagined pain of being stabbed over and over. Luckily for him, his friend and rival Gai turned up with an ANBU squad, but Kakashi was severely traumatized before they left again.
Ironically, Sasuke had suffered a similar action at Itachi’s hands, before lashing out at Naruto and Sakura. Kakashi stopped both Naruto and Sasuke before they killed each other in a duel, realizing they were using the Rasengan and Chidori with serious intent. Jiraiya and he both blamed each other for teaching their students such dangerous techniques, but Kakashi went on to address Sasuke personally. When Sasuke began to show signs of unruly behavior, including threatening to murder Kakashi’s close ones to show him how he felt, Kakashi revealed everyone close to him was already dead. Despite this, Sasuke still took off. When word of the event reached Kakashi, he disobeyed Tsunade, who had set him another mission and sent his dogs to track Sasuke down. However, by the time Kakashi arrived, he found an unconscious Naruto and no Sasuke. Carrying Naruto back to the village was all he could do.
Roughly 2.5 years after the defection, Naruto returned home and alongside Sakura, met up with Kakashi once more. Kakashi was given the latest in his favorite series of adult novels, before sparring against Sakura and Naruto in a mock of the old bell-test. However, Naruto’s cunning overcame Kakashi when the boy shouted out spoilers to the novel, distracting Kakashi and allowing the youngsters to gain their bells. The peace was sadly short-lived as a message came through from the Wind Country that Akatsuki had struck there, with the request for help.
A surprise awaited him there as he was near instantly attacked by one of the residents of the village, the old lady Chiyo. Mistaking Kakashi for Sakumo, who had killed her own son several years ago, Chiyo apologized due to the heavy resemblance between Kakashi and Sakumo. Taking her with them, the team of Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto and Chiyo set off to trail Gaara. On the way to the neighboring River Country, they encountered an Akatsuki member… none other than Itachi. However, Kakashi noticed something different about him and took a moment to speak of the Mangekyou Sharingan which he had suffered to badly from before. When Kakashi discussed the weaknesses of it, Itachi looked on in shock and uttered “…Impossible…”
The team of four managed to bring Itachi down, with Naruto striking the final blow. However, as Itachi began to die, his shape began to change and the corpse was that of Yuura, an agent of Sasori and a former Hidden Sand ninja. It would later be explained that the Itachi they faced was Yuura possessed and transformed into what was essentially a duplicate of Itachi with all his memories, thought patterns and personality.
Team Seven made it to the rendezvous point outside Akatsuki’s base of operations, a large cave. However, as soon as they entered, the Akatsuki member responsible for abducting Gaara, Deidara, sat with his partner, Sasori in wait. Deidara was sitting on an apparently dead Gaara, but as soon as Naruto charged in, Deidara took off, taking Gaara’s corpse with him. At that point, Sakura and Chiyo stayed behind to deal with Sasori while Naruto and Kakashi pursued the airborne Deidara, flying away with the corpse on a huge animated clay bird. Eventually, Naruto and Kakashi got close to Deidara, but Kakashi told Naruto to hold back. Frustrated, Naruto complied until Kakashi finally pulled his trump card, opening his left eye… with a version of the Mangekyou Sharingan.
Slowly, the space around Deidara’s arm began to compress and was crushed into nothing, severing his right arm, despite Kakashi commenting on his inexperience with it leading to the move being faulty. A few moments later, the Sharingan collapsed back into the usual design, but bought Naruto enough time to reclaim Gaara’s corpse and begin attacking Deidara directly with his clones, until his knuckles bled from punching Deidara. Eventually, Naruto’s rage boiled over and he manifested into the shape of the Kyuubi with bubbling red chakra, sprouting a second tail from his back. Kakashi noticed the change and upon remembering a warning from Jiraiya, used a tag that the sage had prepared in case Naruto went too far to seal up the Kyuubi’s power.
Meanwhile, Deidara watched from a distance, but was found by Neji’s Byakugan. Chased by Gai’s team, he managed to escape to the remains of his clay bird and swallowed a piece of his exploding clay, planning to use his suicidal attack to wipe out both teams. As the disgustingly obese Deidara inflated with the power of the explosion building, Kakashi managed to use up his last reserves to once again manipulate space, containing and suppressing the explosion from the current dimension. Finally, Kakashi was rather embarrassingly carried home from the Sand Village on Gai’s back. The strain of the Mangekyou Sharingan had taken such a toll on him that he was hospitalized and temporarily replaced by another ninja as the team leader. Under Tsunade’s decision, the ANBU member codenamed Yamato took his place on a mission to meet another of Sasori’s subordinates.
Upon their return, Kakashi was informed of the events of the mission, including the increased skill that Sasuke had learned. After greeting Sasuke’s replacement on the team, Sai, Kakashi announced he had been spending all his time in bed thinking about things. His conclusion was that the only solution was to match Sasuke in power, but Naruto would be the only candidate for training. However, if Naruto were able to complete the training, his skill may not only equal Sasuke, but also perhaps even surpass Kakashi’s own…