Naruto is one of the longest running anime series of all time, with nearly 15 years of being on television and almost 19 years since the first issue of the manga was released. It’s safe to say that Naruto is a good series. The anime alone has had 200+ episodes, multiple movies, and two additional sequel series. When you have something that great going, you have to have unique characters to move the story along and capture the audience’s attention so they come back for more. In this series, there are a few characters that come and go, but this one we’re talking about today is no other than the sixth Hokage and sensei to team seven, Kakashi Hatake. The white-haired ninja has some interesting things about him that just makes you intriguing to follow and learn about!
This following post will help you scratch that itch you have, that or just help you learn something you just didn’t know. This is no common list though, this is 20 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know. Maybe you know some, but there should be something new and fascinating you didn’t know about Kakashi. After all, this fearless character was everyone’s role model growing up, in the Naruto universe and in reality. He kicks butt, is handsome, and also is a sensei to all. You’re going to learn just what he likes, his character history, and what the plans were for him when the creators were, well, creating the series!
Hope you enjoy it and learn something new about sensei Kakashi Hatake.
20 Once a Samurai, Always A Samurai
When coming up with a character, you tend to go through multiple changes until you get a finished product you’re happy with. For example, originally Kakashi was illustrated as a samurai. However, Kishimoto was not sure what the character would do in the manga and what his purpose would be.
Being a series based on ninjas, a sword master just didn’t fit. The action is fast-paced, so you could imagine how weird it would be seeing a character with a katana cutting through people while others use jutsus and Shurikens. Kishimoto could have made him the first Ninja Samurai, but they’re both too different. After all, samurais were warriors and ninjas are often assassins. Plus, samurai warriors are often wearing kimonos, and ninjas are often in tighter clothing. So seeing as the style of Naruto was very traditional when it came to character designs, seeing our mysterious ninja in a kimono just doesn’t seem right.
19 The Meaning Of His Name
Kakashi Hatake is obviously a Japanese name, but what does it really mean translated? Well, the name “Kakashi” means “scarecrow” and his family name “Hatake” means “farmland/field.” His name means “scarecrow in the farmland.” Quite simple, really, but did you know, before choosing Kakashi as his name, Kishimoto had other names he considered? They were Kuwa meaning “hoe,” Kama meaning “scythe,” Botan meaning “peony,” and Enoki meaning a nettle tree.
It’s even a running gag for a bit. Naruto, for example, uses a scarecrow that is dressed like Kakashi to help him train for a combat test between the two. Additionally, scarecrows were added to scenes in which Kakashi will appear, just like the cover of the Naruto manga volume three.
18 Your Eyes… They Look A Little Red
Kakashi’s eyes have a complex past. Kakashi got his Sharingan during the Third Shinobi World War from Obito Uchiha, a replacing his left eye. The Sharingan he possesses becomes his most identifying feature since that he gains the name “Kakashi of the Sharingan.” He was also able to copy over a thousand jutsu, gaining him the name the “Copy Ninja Kakashi.”
Kakashi’s Sharingan became a Mangekyō Sharingan, the pinwheel looking design, when Rin Nohara died. After Kakashi loses his Sharingan, his body is temporarily possessed by Obito’s spirit, gaining him the Mangekyō in both eyes. It’s kinda spooky knowing he got possessed. He got the first Sharingan just as he also lost his eye… talk about a coincidence.
17 He’s A Powerhouse
Kakashi has a huge arsenal of abilities he can use. He can perform his chakra which by his own accord stays its average size, use physical strength, ninjutsu and even has his own pack of ninken. Kakashi can use all five basic nature transformations, as well as the Yin Release and Yang Release. He can use Water Release without a nearby water source, use Earth Release to move underground or create walls. In the anime, he is using Fire Release to make a fireball.
When he was younger he tried to applied his Lightning nature into the Rasengan but it failed because it proved too difficult. Instead, he created the Chidori, a ball of lightning chakra that can pierce most targets. He even split a bolt of lightning with his Chidori, earning the name “Lightning Cutter.”
16 Everyone Has A Favourite Word
Kakashi’s favourite word? Teamwork. Simple and straight-forward. For example, Kakashi is assigned as the leader of Team Seven, comprised of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
The Third Hokage explains why he choose him, to make sure the team is in order, to keep an eye on Naruto, the Nine-Tails spirit and, in the anime, to help Sasuke cope with life after the Uchiha Clan Downfall. During his first meeting with Team Seven, Kakashi is unimpressed by them, finding them all to be too self-interested. He then gives the team the bell test as he has for all the previous teams he’s been assigned to. For the sake of the team. Others also believe the reason why he likes the word is that Minato told Kakashi to improve his teamwork, which is something Kakashi ignored.
15 A Kid Genius
Kakashi is a natural prodigy, evidenced by his rapid rise through the ninja ranks. His feats cause him to be recognized on sight by foreign ninjas like Zabuza Momochi, Kidōmaru, and the Fourth Raikage.
As a child in the Academy, Kakashi earned top of this class and the best of his generation. His talents soon became recognized. At age 5, Kakashi graduated from the Academy at the top of his class in a single year. At age 6, Konoha officials allowed Kakashi to compete in the Chūnin Exams with his team, which he passed by defeating Might Guy. He became a chūnin. He didn’t become a jōnin till age 12, and since Minato was needed from time to time, he left Kakashi in charge.
14 The Darker Secret
This one is a little tricky. There are facts that show Kakashi blames himself for the Uchiha Clan Slaughter. When you’re close to someone, even in the slightest, and they do something so unbelievable, you can’t help but feel responsible for not stopping them. Like how Kakashi regretted his inability to guide Itachi down a different path.
After all, while working under the Third Hokage, Itachi joined Kakashi as part of his team and Kakashi tried to act as a mentor to the older Uchiha sibling. Although Kakashi knew about Itachi’s ability, he was worried about Uchiha’s brutal nature. However, Itachi asks Kakashi for advice regarding requests of dead friends before committing his crime. Though Kakashi is shocked from hearing Itachi’s story from Tobi, it could be an act to hide his true feelings.
13 Mister Too Perfect
During Naruto Shippuden’s final fight, Kakashi is given both of Obito’s Uchiha eyes. Soon after gaining the extra eye, however, Kakashi unleashes a perfectly formed and controlled Susanoo, an ability only for advanced Uchiha warriors.
Despite the greatness of the scene itself, many Naruto fans noticed how quickly Kakashi managed to learn the technique, especially considering the hard training that other characters had to go through. With that said, perhaps this is just our prodigy Kakashi doing his thing. Maybe it’s just the writers wanting to give something back for this final moment. It’s worth saying that, Kakashi has had been using Obito’s power for most of his life and was hardly a stranger to new abilities. He is the Copy Ninja, after all.
12 Best Guy
Kakashi is an amazingly written character. Kakashi’s popularity was huge throughout the duration of the Naruto series, and he’s consistently on the upper entries of the various character polls that were conducted. Kakashi was also creator Kishimoto’s first choice for a potential solo series, too.
See, not only do the fans look up to the white-haired ninja, but even the creator learned to love him! Talk about a fleshed-out character. It’s hard to love most fictional characters because it just seems as time goes in the series they just are narrow-minded. It comes down to just one thing that keeps them going. With Kakashi, everything he does has a meaning. It’s not about revenge, it’s because of love. He does it because he knows he should.
11 The Classy Ninja, Kakashi
In pop culture, it can be normal for characters to end their sentences with a certain phrases or sounds in order to indicate something about their personality. Kishimoto originally intended Kakashi to have such a feature, and early drafts of the character concluded sentences by saying “de gozaru.” This phrase is often used to indicate a formal, somewhat old-fashioned and stiff speech pattern. It’s particularly associated with traditionally-minded Samurai types. Mostly, this idea for the speech pattern came with Kakashi’s original design.
10 What’s Behind Mask Number 1?
It wasn’t till 15 years later when we got a full face reveal. Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto opened a Naruto exhibit in Japan, where he finally revealed Kakashi’s face in an Official Guestbook Shinden Fū no Sho book for those attending the exhibit.
But why does he cover his face? Kishimoto’s answer was that ninjas are “mysterious,” so in designing Kakashi, he chose to make him wear a mask. However, according to Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth Full Power Ninja Chronicles, there’s another reason for it. So, pick what answer you prefer, the latter being more of a joke, but it could be a good reason why he still wears it!
9 You Dirty Ninja!!
This one is quite simple. So what exactly is the laid-back ninja reading? The answer might just surprise you, but Kakashi is reading Icha Icha. Little is known about the novel’s plot, but it is noted to be about a passionate love between a man and a woman. Kakashi Hatake is a big fan of the series and is shown reading one of them most of the time.
It’s hinted that it’s inappropriate and mostly a lewd book since, yet again, in Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth Full Power Ninja Chronicles, it’s mentioned that Kakashi wears a mask to hide the blood coming out of his nose. This is typically a running gag, where certain characters like Jiraiya and Sakura suffer a nosebleed and fall unconscious, something seen in several animes.
8 A Possible Spin-Off
Like it was mentioned before, Kakashi was creator Kishimoto’s first choice for a potential solo series. The manga artist confirmed in an interview with publishers Shonen Jump that if he were to create a Naruto story with a different main character, Hatake Kakashi would be his first pick.
However,Kakashi’s backstory has already been covered and everyone knows it. The potential spin-off would be Kakashi’s days as a Jōnin and cover the different missions he got, which helped create his reputation as a ninja. Or maybe it’d have a series of everything leading to getting assigned to team seven. It would be cool to see him as a kid, going through trials of his own.
7 Kakashi: Inside, And Out
Everyone wants to know: just who is Kakashi Hatake? With the internet today, what he would make his profile look like on social media, and what information would be there?
Well, Kakashi’s hobby is reading the Icha Icha series. He wishes to fight Minato Namikaze, his sensei, and his favourite foods are salt-broiled saury and miso soup with eggplant. His least favourite ones are anything fried or sweet. Kakashi is a shinobi of Konohagakure’s Hatake clan. After the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kakashi becomes Konoha’s Sixth Hokage, Rokudaime Hokage. This means Sixth Fire Shadow.
Oh, he’s also 26 years old when the show first starts. Pretty amazing how much is put into an animated character!
6 Taking It Slow And Easy
Masashi Kishimoto originally intended for Kakashi to debut in the second chapter of the Naruto manga, appearing prior to the other members of Team 7. But this Kakashi was designed as a laid back but very skilled ninja that ended his sentences with the “de gozaru.” After speaking with his editor, Kishimoto pushed this debut back, allowing him to better develop Kakashi as well as the other characters.
Remeber when he first shows up? You knew he was someone you didn’t want to mess with. He was mysterious and complex but funny and easy. When compared to Naruto or Sasake, seeing an adult figure like Kakashi was like getting a Christmas present. He was new, fresh, and you just couldn’t wait to see what he really could do.
5 Inner Kakashi
There are some things in the Naruto series that stand out, one of the more funny is a little bit called “Inner Sakura”, the animated and easily irritated side to Sakura that only the viewer or reader are able to see. Though only in the main series, it’s given to Sakura, in the Clash of Ninja video game, Inner Kakashi does indeed exist.
In the game, if players use Kakashi’s Sharingan copying ability to copy Sakura’s Cha Barrage, fans get a glimpse at what Inner Kakashi would look like. Both Kakashi and Sasuke can also copy Inner Sakura in their ultimates, showing use the inner versions of themselves in the process. Though brief, it shows us what could have happened if every ninja had a silly, crazed side.
4 Kakashi’s Mission Report
When you’re out being a ninja of any sort, you get tested along the way, making sure you can helpful and be truly the best/trusted. For Kakashi, he has to do that just like every other ninja.
According to the data book for Naruto, Kakashi has completed 1,141 missions. Official missions in total: 197 D-rank, 190 C-rank, 414 B-rank, 298 A-rank, 42 S-rank. It’s safe to say our boy knows what he’s doing and gets the work done too. This is from when he was a kid, with his team going through training and even helping team seven and solo missions as well. It’s also safe to say he’s ready to retire if he wanted to. Well, before he became Hokage. It’s too late now, but at least he’s laid-back and not lazy.
3 Just An Unlucky Fighter
When someone goes into a fight, each person believes there can be only one winner. So why break it up? Let the people fighting get what they want. Sadly, Kakashi has a trend of being stopped when he’s about to kill his enemies. Kinda cruel and unsatisfying to someone with bloodlust in their eyes!
Kakuzu countered Kakashi’s assault on Hidan, Pain’s Asura path intervened to protect his Deva path from Kakashi, Kakashi was about to kill Guren until Gozu intervened and Haku took Kakashi’s Lightning Blade that was intended for Zabuza Momochi, thus killing Haku instead. Though Kakashi has gotten some wins, it’s a misfortune when it comes to the few fights we see Kakashi partaking in.
2 Hope You Weren’t Disappointed
So like discussed in an earlier number, Kakashi’s face was a huge mystery. It wasn’t until episode 469 that we found out! It was revealed that he only hid a mole and his scar, nothing as out of the ordinary like the kids thought he had in episode 100.
Kishimoto, however, regrets designing him that way. He knew no matter what, someone would be disappointed with what we got. There were mixed reactions among fans but the reveal was generally taken positively. Of course, you can’t make everyone happy, but there was a point where they weren’t going to even consider showing it.
1 A Mean, Old Man
What if Kakashi was an old and rude male ninja like another teacher character? Thinking about how a protagonists’ teacher would behave, Kishimoto saw him as a rude adult. However, he was not happy with this type of personality so he rewrote him to a more laid-back person. He found this portrayal funny but still made him hot-blooded for serious situations.
Kakashi was originally created by Kishimoto to be a harsh teacher but he decided to avoid that. He wanted Kakashi to be the teacher he wanted to have! So, he made him most helpful to his students in difficult situations to the point of giving him feminine traits. The idea of him being rude was back when he was designed to be a samurai and would possibly be older.
