| Kakashi Hatake | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Gender |
Male |
|
Kekkei Genkai |
Sharingan Mangekyō Sharingan |
Kakashi Hatake (はたけカカシ, Hatake Kakashi) is aKonohagakure jōnin and the leader of Team 7. He is known worldwide for his use of the Sharingan, earning him the moniker Copy Ninja Kakashi (コピー忍者のカカシ, Kopī Ninja no Kakashi) and Kakashi of the Sharingan (写輪眼のカカシ, Sharingan no Kakashi).
Personality
Kakashi became more stern and serious following his father's death, following all the rules and scorning any who disobeyed them, like his team-mate Obito Uchiha. This caused Obito to resent Kakashi, as Kakashi showed little kindness to his team-mate. This changed when Obito was killed in a mission, and Kakashi and Obito became friends in the latter's final moments.
Obito's death had a huge impact on Kakashi's personality. He is now more cheerful and shows greater concern for his team-mates and students, placing their safety over the successful completion of a mission, as well as believing that teamwork is essential to overall success as a team. He is also regularly late for appointments, making obvious excuses just like Obito before him. This is because of his frequent visits to the memorial where Obito's name is engraved, where he loses track of time. However, Kakashi is still just as carefree and emotionless as he was during his youth, often speaking bluntly about sensitive topics.
Kakashi claims to have lost everyone who was close to him, causing some reluctance to allow others to get close to him. Of the people who are still alive, Kakashi is on the best terms with his students, although he is on good terms with almost everyone in Konoha. After the formation of Team 7, he begins taking a special interest in their development, as shown from his regular checking up on Naruto and his eating habits. He similarly refuses to go on a mission at the end of Part I so that he can stop Naruto and Sasuke from killing each other. Kakashi is just as devoted to his friends and the rest of Konoha, such that his signature jutsu, the Lightning Cutter, had been made on the principle of duty, and perfected on the principle of protecting loved ones.
Kakashi has a rather solitary and matter-of-fact attitude. His calm and detached demeanor has been called “cool, hip, and trendy” many times by Might Guy. Despite his increasingly growing reputation and prowess as a ninja, Kakashi has shown no signs of arrogance, and is rather modest about his abilities, as shown when he readily praises others for leaps in their combat abilities and stating on more than one occasion that Naruto has surpassed him in power. When suggested by many for him to become Hokage, Kakashi admitted that such a position was unfit for him. His naturally calm attitude is used to his advantage in battle, as it becomes easier for him to maintain his composure to stay focused on the situation at hand, and ultimately notice everything around him. As a result, he can quickly adjust to any situation to make keen and thought-out decisions, allowing him to stay steps ahead of his opponents.
Kakashi has an ongoing, albeit one-sided, rivalry with Guy. In trying to prove himself superior to Kakashi, Guy challenges him to competitions of questionable value ranging from Rock, Paper, Scissors to running races. Guy has a record of 50 wins to 49 losses, which he is particularly proud of, despite these competitions having little accuracy due to their large variations. Kakashi, on the other hand, shows very little interest in their competitions, which only further inspires Guy to defeat Kakashi and his "coolness". However, Kakashi did show disappointment when he learned that Guy taught Lee how to open the dangerous Eight Gates, which turned to sympathy when Guy shows how much his student meant to him.
Kakashi is an avid fan of the Icha Icha series of novels by Jiraiya, showing that he might be slightly perverted. He is typically seen reading one of the books when not involved in a fight, making it the only one of his reportedly many hobbies that is ever seen in the series. He even went and read it during his first fight against Naruto, as Naruto was, at that time, too weak to pose much of a threat. Despite his fondness for the books, he grows uncomfortable when reading passages to others (even around Pakkun and his ninken), presumably embarrassed by the adult content (as noted when they were decoding Jiraiya's last message). Naruto, on one occasion, has used these books against Kakashi during their second bell test, threatening to spoil the ending of the latest installment to force Kakashi to leave himself vulnerable (by shutting his eyes and blocking his ears) to prevent learning the ending of the story. Kakashi felt humiliated when he realized that Naruto hadn't read past the first ten pages, and that he was tricked.
Appearance
Kakashi's personality is further emphasized by his generally lazy expression, aloof manner, relaxed voice, and minimalist attitude. In serious situations, however, he is shown to have a very stern and intense look. He is almost always seen in his Konoha ninja uniform, along with iron guard gloves reminiscent of his ANBU days. The cover page for chapter 16 also shows him wearing a chain necklace. Another noticeable feature to Kakashi, other than his unique left eye, is the thin scar running over it and down to his cheek. He is a tall, fit ninja, is characterized by his tall and spiky white hair, forehead protector regularly covering his scarred left eye, and his chronically visible mask. He was once mistaken by Chiyo for his father Sakumo Hatake, who he is considered to greatly resemble.
While it has yet to be revealed why, he has, since a young age, always been seen concealing the lower half of his face. What he looks like remains a point of interest for his students, who try to find out what he looks like in various omake specials in the series. Episode 101, which is devoted to Team 7 trying to remove their sensei's mask, and suggests that he is in fact very handsome, as seen from Teuchi and Ayame's reaction to seeing his face. In the few instances that he is seen without his mask, it has been seen that he has a narrow jaw-line; in these instances the parts of his face normally covered by his mask are obstructed from view.
Trivia
- "Kakashi" is Japanese for "scarecrow" (案山子) and "Hatake" means "farmland/field" (畑), so his name means "scarecrow in the farmland" (畑・案山子). This is very fitting since many ninja in actual history (and ninja villages) posed as farmers.
- Kakashi always places in the top three of the Naruto character popularity polls. The third Naruto databook, after compiling the results of all six polls, places Kakashi as the most popular character in the series with 48,469 votes. In the seventh poll he ranked third with 4,828 votes.
- Kakashi is one of four characters to have always stayed in the Top Ten of every Character Popularity Poll.
- According to Pakkun in an omake chapter published in the Third Databook, Kakashi greatly dislikes being photographed without his mask.
- In the pre-Shippūden games of the Clash of Ninja and Ultimate Ninja series, Kakashi can copy Sakura's "Inner Sakura" technique using the Sharingan, allowing him to unleash his "Inner Kakashi" not seen in any other media.
- According to the Naruto databook:
- Kakashi's hobby is reading (Icha Icha series).
- Kakashi wishes to fight Minato Namikaze.
- Kakashi's favourite foods are salt-broiled saury and miso soup with eggplant, while his least favourites are anything fried or sweet.
- Kakashi has completed 1,141 official missions in total: 197 D-rank, 190 C-rank, 414 B-rank, 298 A-rank, 42 S-rank.
- Kakashi's favourite word is "Teamwork" (チームワーク, Chīmuwāku).
- During Naruto Shippūden 4: The Lost Tower, when Minato presented the Third Hokage with Kakashi's files, it showed his Ninja Stats. It revealed that Kakashi's Total Stats at age 10 are 22.5: Ninjutsu 3, Taijutsu 3, Genjutsu 2, Intelligence 4, Strength 1.5, Speed 3.5, Stamina 2, and Hand Seals 3.5. It also showed that his missions completed at age 10 were 140: S-ranks 0, A-ranks 8, B-ranks 63, C-ranks 21, and D-ranks 48.
- In Shippūden episode 214, his Mangekyō Sharingan's colours are inverted, making his Mangekyō black with a red design, similar to Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan.
- A younger Kakashi that appears in Kakashi Gaiden and ANBU Kakashi are playable as separate characters from his adult self in some Naruto games.