Kakashi Hatake is Team 7’s mentor in naruto. He taught his students Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno the importance of teamwork and has been instrumental in many battles in the series.
However, there are more than a few mistakes that he has made throughout his time as a ninja.
Here’s a look at Kakashi Hatake’s five biggest mistakes and the five ways he redeemed them.
Note: This article reflects the author’s opinion only and contains spoilers for all of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.
Kakashi’s 5 Biggest Regrets and Mistakes in Naruto
1) Selfish rule following
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<p>Kakashi lost his mother before the events of <em>naruto </em>His father, Sakumo, committed suicide after he was vilified by the Konoha villagers for choosing to save people instead of completing an important mission. </p>
<p>Sakumo’s death severely traumatized young Kakashi into following the rules no matter what. This led to several questionable decisions and mistakes by Kakashi, including using his team as a springboard to achieve <em>his </em>objective and completely ignoring any lesson in teamwork. </p>
<p>Kakashi also nearly abandoned Rin and Obito when the former was captured. However, he came back to help Obito and save Rin.</p>
<p>Kakashi would continue to lament his inability to save Obito from the massive rock that was crushing him. He also mourned Rin’s death from the lightning he used to try to save her. </p>
<p>As a result of these incidents, Kakashi adopted his own motto, which read:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.”</p></blockquote>
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<h3>2) Root Actions</h3>
<p>Danzo Shimura approached a very depressed Kakashi and manipulated him into joining Root. He spied on the Third Hokage (Hiruzen Sarutobi) for a long time. </p>
<p>Kakashi was heavily influenced by Danzo’s words that Hiruzen was an unlucky and ineffectual fool who was unfit for the position of Hokage.</p>
<p>He would break into Hiruzen’s residence to try to find out what was going on with a Wood Release using Root member named Kinoe. </p>
<p>Fortunately, Hiruzen took pity on Kakashi and openly told him what was going on: Konoha had tried to replicate the Wood Release powers but failed due to too many deaths.</p>
<p>Kakashi, in turn, told Hiruzen of Danzo’s plans to assassinate him. He then intercepted these assassins and then confronted Danzo. </p>
<p>Ultimately, were it not for Hiruzen’s influence and help, Kakashi would have died regretting Root’s supposed “betrayal”.</p>
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<h3>3) He tried to stop Orochimaru by himself</h3>
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Despite having his own team as a member of the Anbu Black Ops, Kakashi decided to investigate a strange series of disappearances on his own. This proved unwise as it led him to Orochimaru. The legendary Sannin was able to incapacitate Kakashi only with his killing intent of him.
Kakashi would continue to track Orochimaru, but Kinoe always deflected or intercepted him when he tried. The first time, he was from the Iburi clan with the help of Kinoe since he was working with Orochimaru. The second was Kinoe alone.
Fortunately, those two encounters worked in his favor even if he didn’t stop or kill Orochimaru. It was still foolish of Kakashi not to have his team with him, since even Orochimaru might have trouble with a group instead of just one person.
4) Not helping Itachi
This is something Kakashi regretted as he worked alongside Itachi Uchiha as part of the Anbu Ro Team during the early days of naruto.
The two got along well, but Kakashi tried to talk Itachi out of his ruthless tactics and focus more on teamwork. It seemed to work, as the team successfully accomplished many missions together.
However, Itachi asked Kakashi something rather peculiar: should a dead friend’s request be honored? Kakashi, who had experience in that particular area, said that he should.
Kakashi would not know what Itachi was referring to until much later, when the latter murdered the Uchiha Clan.
Learning the truth about things years later didn’t make it any easier to digest. Kakashi felt that he had failed again, this time to have a better influence on Itachi.
5) Not properly helping Sasuke
Sasuke was one of the last members of the Uchiha after the clan’s massacre through Itachi. He had a vengeance in his heart that Kakashi tried to stop.
Kakashi helped Sasuke become more familiar with his equipment and sealed the curse mark Orochimaru put on him. He also helped him learn Chidori.
The only problem was that Sasuke had too much revenge and confusion to listen to Kakashi at all.. Even during the events of shippuden, where Sasuke had to fight several times, Kakashi still tried to reason. He even pinned him down during the Five Kage Summit assault.
Of course, this was countered by fighting, as Sasuke still wasn’t listening. It took an epic final battle with Naruto to stop Sasuke.
5 times Kakashi redeemed himself in naruto
1) Helping Kinoe
Kinoe was a member of Root with the Wood Release Jutsu and was a constant thorn in Kakashi’s side.
Kinoe tried to kill Kakashi many times. He first attempted to do so when he was assigned to spy on the Third Hokage and assassinate him. Kakashi saved Kinoe’s life after the assassination attempt.
After a series of events, Kakashi broke into Root’s headquarters to save Kinoe. He managed to do so thanks to the intervention of the Third Hokage in naruto shippudenThe flashback of episode 326.
Kinoe was renamed Tenzō. It may not be too surprising for naruto fans know that Tenzō is actually Captain Yamato, the captain of Team 7 in Shippuden.
2) Follow the principle of teamwork and teach it to your students
Kakashi’s whole motto of not abandoning friends was born after losing Rin and Obito. He carried that regret for a long time and vowed to keep his teammates in mind instead of focusing solely on the mission.
Kakashi led his Anbu Ro team through various missions. During his teaching career at the Ninja Academy, his troublesome students thrived under his tutelage.
Even when Sasuke finally left, Naruto and Sakura surprised Kakashi with their skills and teamwork. Shippuden. Seeing Team 7 work effectively as a team throughout naruto reinforced that motto and its teachings of teamwork.
3) Become Hokage
Lmao Kakashi becoming Hokage represents literally everyone who ended up working in a field they didn’t even major in in school. https://t.co/IJM8muvDGE
Kakashi didn’t want to become Hokage. He felt that his inexperience in political matters would muddy the waters when it came to work.
The problem was that the first time he approached her it was because Danzo died and Tsunade was in a coma.
However, after the Fourth Great Ninja War, he couldn’t help it any longer. His actions as Hokage helped the ninja world in many ways. Here are some examples:
- He stopped the kidnapping of the Tobishachimaru.
- Let Kahyō become the warden of the blood prison, cutting side crimes in half.
- Let Naruto go to the Land of Silence, ensuring Shikamaru’s safe return.
- He helped mobilize and blow up meteorites from the moon.
- Helped a former ninja slave free others.
These are just some of the things Kakashi did as the Sixth Hokage. He also ushered in a new era of peace by helping the ninja world modernize. Helping the Shinobi Union also helped ensure that no one faced a crisis alone.
4) Forgive Sasuke
After his perceived failure to help Sasuke out of his quest for revenge, this was a relief.
Sasuke spent time in jail for his derogatory actions before and during the Fourth Great Ninja War. However, Kakashi forgave him at the end of naruto shippuden for his role in ending the conflict.
This would turn out to be a very wise decision, as Sasuke would help various people and protect the Leaf in various ways.
Kakashi even gave Sasuke advice on how to deal with his daughter Sarada in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. It wasn’t particularly good advice, coming from Make Out Paradise of all the books. But it was the thought that counted, and Sasuke at least tried.
5) Train the next generation
Naruto’s son Boruto and his class were approaching their graduation days, and the supervisor was none other than Kakashi. Even though a pretty brilliant plan fell through, Kakashi bested them all after Boruto showed determination and teamwork in hatching the plan.
Kakashi would also help Naruto delegate some of his duties as Hokage. However, he mainly helped Boruto train with his chakra control and Rasengan control. He was definitely impressed with the young man’s ability to fight and keep going, something he attributed to Naruto.
Ultimately, Kakashi taught Boruto a lot about teamwork, determination, and how to make sure his chakra reserves were plentiful enough to handle the Rasengan.
Even if Kakashi retreated, naruto fans thought it was great that he was still teaching the next generation.