PLAYER

Name: Kuri
Journal Username: subtextual
E-mail: in.subtext [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/PLURK: in subtext / subtextual
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A


CHARACTER

Name: Hatake Kakashi
Canon: Naruto/Shippuden (Japanese anime & manga)
Gender: Male
Age: 31
Wing Color: Silver fading to black tips

Canon Point: Chapter 635
Canon Point Explanation: This is a recent canon point for Kakashi. I’ve taken him from 635 instead of 636 because I wanted to take him straight from the genjutsu for character development purposes.
History: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Kakashi_Hatake

Personality: The most defining, and arguably annoying aspect of Hatake Kakashi is his mask. This mask, a physical barrier between Kakashi’s true face and the one he shows the world, serves several purposes: 1.) it delineates and separates the external world from Kakashi’s internal private boundaries; 2.) it functions as a kind of “face” (or lack thereof); and 3.) it makes impossible the task of ever truly “knowing” Kakashi.

What is known, or easily read by others is that Kakashi seems to go about life in an overwhelmingly cheerful, carefree, and lackadaisical way. The only thing that seems to excite him is porn; specifically, porn in the form of little books with bright covers titled Icha Icha (fill in the blank here). His casual disregard towards just about everything, including overseeing the training of his students, is often rather infuriating to those subjected to it.

Constantly evasive and never honest about his life or the going-ons in it, "secretive" would be an understatement when it comes to how Kakashi lives his private life. Having experienced so much loss throughout his life, he holds his distance from others and is a relatively closed book. Those who try to pry his covers open constantly find themselves shoved away. Kakashi isn't interested in letting others read his pages; his story is his alone, and he has no interest in sharing. The times he does share are rare and completely unexpected, such as when he tied Sasuke up in a tree and informed him that he’s lost everyone he’s ever loved, or when, prior to Sandaime’s funeral, he quietly told Yugao that every time he visits the cenotaph, he’s reminded of and wants to punish his younger, foolish self.

The bits of story that emerge from those revealing moments paint a rather bleak picture that goes something like this: once upon a time, there was a young boy who became a ninja before he even knew what it was like to be a child. His childhood could not really be called a childhood because it was filled with missions and war and the death of his father, who committed suicide on his living room floor when Kakashi was small, leaving him an orphan. That initial loss, which stemmed from his father’s decision to choose saving his teammates over the success of the mission, turned Kakashi into a very aloof, hardened young boy whose only interest was upkeeping the rules.

Unfortunately, his refusal to ever break the rules when his teammate, Nohara Rin, was captured by enemy soldiers on his first mission as a jounin commander at the age of thirteen, resulted indirectly in what he had believed was the death of his best friend, Uchiha Obito. Due to an injury Kakashi’d received in battle while trying to save Rin, Kakashi lost his left eye and his depth perception; Obito shoved him out of the way just as a massive boulder fell, saving Kakashi at the expense of his own life, and offering up his own Sharingan eye as a gift to Kakashi.

As he lay dying (or so they all believed), Obito tells Kakashi: "I will become your eye, and from now on, I will see the future for you (Naruto, 243.17).” From that point on, Kakashi began to live for them both, and through the vast majority of the series, Obito's embodiment within Kakashi is both physical and metonymical: Obito is present within the embedded Sharingan eye, his memory constantly emerging through Kakashi's performance of Obito’s behavioral traits and beliefs adopted after Obito's death, such as being late, making excuses, and being lazy. Until they met again on the battlefield, these performances were essential for Kakashi, who struggled with Obito’s absent presence -- a presence represented by his Sharingan eye and continued existence, and an absence marked by Obito's death. Kakashi believed he had to perform Obito's role in order to allow Obito to "live on to see the future" for him, and in doing so he effaced and erased aspects of his own identity to metonymically embody Obito's memory. What we see here is a disavowal of the self in the appropriation of another's in an effort to create a transcendental space wherein "Obito" could reside and continue to "live" beyond his death.

(Of course, we now know that Obito did not die, but Kakashi operated for seventeen years believing that he did, and living with that kind of loss contributes so much to his personality, the decisions that he makes, and how he lives his life.)

We are first introduced to Obito's memory in the canon through the bell test: Kakashi presents a pair of bells that he wants Team 7 to steal from him and it is understood that whomever fails to steal a bell will be forced to return to the Academy. What this bell test creates is a situation wherein three members of a squad believe they must fight against one another in order to achieve a goal, or mission. In doing so, they must abandon one of their teammates if they are successful in recovering the bells. The choice Kakashi forces the team to consider is a thinly veiled lesson: deciding between achieving a mission, or abandoning a teammate. This very lesson is one Kakashi had to learn from Obito, and the mantra he tells Team 7 at the conclusion of the training session are the very words Obito once told him: "Ninja who break the rules and regulations of the ninja world are trash, but ninjas who abandon their friends are even worse than trash (8.19; 241.19)."

Though Kakashi lives by this mantra, and teaches it to those around him, he believes himself to be worse than trash -- a statement that he’s repeated multiple times -- for not only having once abandoned Rin (when she was captured by enemy soldiers), but also for failing to protect her, which he promised Obito he would do, after Obito sacrificed himself to save Kakashi. In fact, not only did he fail to protect Rin, but she actually died by his hand by running herself straight into one of his attacks as a sacrifice to save the village.

And it is largely because of his hang-ups with Obito and Rin and with the people in his life that he’s lost that Kakashi is incapable of, or rather, has a lot of difficulty with, forming meaningful, deep, relationships with others. Largely, the relationships he does form are kind of convoluted and distanced; the kind of closeness that one usually associates with close relationships through openness of communication and honesty is often completely absent from relationships Kakashi can consider remotely “close” at all.^† This is mostly due to Kakashi’s crippling sense of loss and the state of perpetual mourning he can never seem to overcome. (For example, one of the reasons why he was always late throughout the series was because he was always visiting Obito and Rin’s graves.) Kakashi seems to be in a perpetual state of losing those he cares about -- his father at age eight, Obito and Rin at thirteen, his teacher at fourteen, his students who all find better teachers than him (Naruto with Jiraiya and Sakura with Tsunade) or simply leave the village completely. More recently, his colleague Asuma, and even potentially his kouhai, Tenzou, who was captured by Kabuto. Loss for Kakashi is expected. Thus, by attempting to not grow overly invested in the bonds he considers integral to what it means to be a Konoha shinobi, it is therefore not as painful when it actually occurs -- or so his misguided logic seems to tell him. Yet, he hurts just as much as anyone else when loss occurs; he simply demonstrates it differently from others, in a more quiet, restrained and internalized way.

That being said, while fear of loss results in Kakashi keeping many at a distance, it does not prevent Kakashi from caring. One of Kakashi’s downfalls is that when he does care, he tends to care too deeply, and this caring sometimes flies in the face of complete betrayal, such as in the case of Sasuke, who he still attempts to try and “save” despite just how “low” he’d fallen. It also is represented by any consideration of self-preservation which is indicative not only of how much he does care, but another marker for a lack of ownership of any kind of real selfhood. As Kakashi has, since age five, been a shinobi of Konoha, his life, body, and any kind of agency is ultimately troubled by the relationship between shinobi (as a weapon of war) and the village. When he isn’t existing as a performance of perpetual mourning, he is existing in a state of ready sacrifice: at any given time, he is willing to, without any consideration of his own self, sacrifice his life for the sake of someone or something else. This is represented by his first fight with Zabuza, when he orders his students to leave despite what seemed like a trap that would ultimately result in his death; by his choice to take on two immortal Akatsuki by himself (with some help from Team Asuma, but he did most of the legwork there); by his tendency to fight to the brink of death which always results in hospitalization; his decision to actually die so that he can save Chouji in order to allow for a message to pass through during Pain’s invasion of Konoha; his recent decision in the manga to use Kamui to the point of death in order to fight the tailed beasts; and most recently, his attack on Obito which left him impaled by a fuuma shuriken in a genjutsu.

Bottom line: Kakashi cares too much about everyone but himself. In fact, he doesn’t think very much of himself at all, or very highly for that matter. Though once in a while, he’ll say something arrogant about his own abilities, such as when facing off against an opponent he really does not like, when it comes to who he is as a person, Kakashi very rarely has anything good to say or even think about himself. When we do hear about what he thinks of himself, it usually runs along the lines of worthlessness, failure, foolishness, and other degrading notions of selfhood. In fact, Kakashi flat out says that he’s trash. And believes it. After all -- if there is no real self to value, or if that self is in a state of permanent negation and failure, why bother?

(The above highlights a lot of Kakashi’s Baggage™ which is incredibly frustrating for anyone who actually gets to know him on this level, because seriously, it is a lot of baggage. Sorry folks, Kakashi isn’t as happy and does-not-give-a-shit as you think he might look -- he’s got a lot of emo, and even though he doesn’t outwardly emo, his private emo is pretty ridiculous. Especially for his mun who actually has to write all this shit.)

On the other side of caring-too-much is Kakashi’s tendency to be pretty authoritative. Pretty much, this means he doesn’t think twice about giving orders, especially if he thinks it is for someone else’s sake, or for their protection. (Case in point: he tells his team to leave him behind so that he can fight Zabuza; he also tells Sakura not to interfere when he fights Sasuke. Seeing as Kakashi has been a jounin, or elite ninja, and captain of various shinobi teams -- and now the freaking general of a joint shinobi army -- it shouldn’t be too surprising that he has a tendency to pass down orders.) This tendency to give orders is very much connected to and fueled by his problem with overthinking -- while he is analytical, sometimes that's a problem. Kakashi can be too analytical, overly so. This can be because he's incredibly skeptical of so many things and so unwilling to trust in things that don't seem completely rational or logical (sometimes not all things are -- like emotions, which he never seems capable of accepting). Or it can be because he can be overly cautious at times when it comes to shinobi-related-things.

Whether or not people actually listen to his orders or fall into his big black hole of overthinking (and often self-loathing) is another thing in and of itself, however. Especially as it seems to be that as much as he likes to give orders, people like to not follow them. Funny how that is.

In any case, since you’re probably thinking tl;dr at this point, the most important thing there is to know about Kakashi is that he lives by the following code:

A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash. But those who don't take care of their friends are worse than trash.

And somehow, he always smiles, even when it hurts the most.

† Some might argue that Gai is an example of a close relationship Kakashi has, but canonically in the manga, we never see any instance of when Kakashi actually opens up to Gai. Of course, I think they are great friends like the anime has shown, but even then, Kakashi seems to have a wall that Gai always is trying to climb over but never seems to succeed in actually doing so.

Strengths (Provide canon examples and include special powers/abilities as necessary. You may combine sections as needed, but remember to always be thorough.)

Physical: Having been an elite ninja for over twenty years of his life, Kakashi's fighting abilities are top-notch. His Sharingan, a special eye implanted as his left eye, allows him to copy any jutsu (ninja technique) that doesn't require a bloodline (i.e. a genetic inheritance), and he is incredibly skilled at being able to predict, copy, and execute an opponent's technique. He is capable of fighting at close, mid, and long range combat, switching between taijutsu (hand to hand combat), ninjutsu (magical explodey things), genjutsu (illusions and mind control techniques), and doujutsu (eye techniques that require the Sharingan). Though he has copied over a thousand techniques, Kakashi prefers to use a combination of taijutsu, earth jutsu, and his original Raikiri in combat, when possible. He also has a tendency to summon a pack of very cute dogs who fight with him and also help him track people. And who he probably cuddles with, too.

As a ninja, Kakashi is incredibly skilled at gathering/obtaining information, infiltrating high-security facilities, bypassing security measures, and keeping his presence unnoticed on enemy territory by suppressing his chakra (energy) levels completely. His incredibly acute sense of smell allows him to discern enemies in his proximity. Used in tandem with his chakra-sensing abilities, Kakashi can quickly determine how many enemies there are, and how close. Quite often, he can also discern emotions, when intense, especially heightened ones such as fear or killing intent.

Because of Rin’s death, Kakashi unlocked the special power of Mangekyou Sharingan, which, in Kakashi’s manifestation, is known as Kamui. Kamui essentially allows him to bend time and space and he can suck just about anything into an alternate dimension that he directs said eye at. Including entire bodies. It’s rather godmodey but it has a drawback which I will expand on in the weaknesses section.

Recently, he’s managed to evolve Kamui such that he can actually go into a pocket dimension that he shares with Obito, but in Luceti I’ll probably ix-nay that entirely or we can work out something as to not make him so godmodey.

Like all ninjas, he can walk on water like Jesus. And along vertical inclines. Apparently, shinobi are pseudo versions of Spiderman.

Mental: Kakashi's literally a genius with an incredibly high IQ (it’s canonically stated that his IQ is pretty much comparable to Nara Shikamaru’s, which is apparently over 200) -- and is very intelligent and insightful, quickly and easily picking up on his surroundings. He's also very analytical, always knowing how to "look underneath the underneath" to uncover what isn't necessarily easily seen -- not just about situations on the battlefield, but also about people and personal relationships. Due to his analytical skills and experience on the battlefield, Kakashi is incredibly adept at developing combat strategy on the fly to defeat an enemy or complete a mission. Pretty much, Kakashi’s really smart. And he’s also pretty great at manipulating people to do what he wants, especially when it involves getting others to pick up his tab at the bar or restaurant (more on the manipulation in the next section).

Apparently, Kakashi is a pretty smooth talker. He probably has horribly great pickup lines too, no thanks to the porn he’s always reading.

Emotional: Despite his reticence in letting others close to him, Kakashi has an innate ability in understanding others. He is incredibly intuitive, and can often understand the inner workings of someone else's mind better than they can; he reads people carefully and closely, and files them away in the back of his mind for later perusal. Sometimes, he uses this skill against them -- by figuring out their motives and desires, he is able to manipulate them into situations that are usually for their own good, or what he thinks is for their own good. (Though, at times, in execution, said manipulation can sometimes be for his own amusement. Kakashi has quite a dry sense of humor; sometimes it falls on the strange side.)

As for other emotional strengths, Kakashi is loyal to a fault, feels incredibly intensely and passionately (as is stated in the official Naruto Fanbook), but usually can keep himself controlled and composed. He’s very good at making himself seem completely unemotional and unreadable, even if there is a lot going on underneath the underneath, as Kakashi would put it.

Regardless of the situation (unless it involves Obito, apparently, who he’ll freeze up in the middle of a battlefield over), Kakashi can usually keep himself grounded and his conviction pretty much never wavers. He always seems to somehow have his shit together even when everything is going wrong. But then, Kakashi’s very good at pretending, at wearing a mask above a mask.

Weaknesses ( Provide canon examples and include special powers/abilities as necessary. You may combine sections as needed, but remember to always be thorough.)

Physical: Kakashi’s Sharingan is both his greatest strength and weakness, as it eats up his chakra way faster than it should. Because he isn’t an Uchiha, the Sharingan puts a considerable physical toll on his body and drains him of chakra, which doesn’t help when he is constantly fighting to the point of chakra exhaustion, which lands him in the hospital or flat out kills him, as it did that one time he was fighting Pain. (He always seems to be in and out of the hospital or getting himself terribly injured or almost dying, and it isn’t just because he pretty much has no sense of self-preservation; it’s also because his chakra stamina sucks due to Sharingan overusage.)

Really, Kakashi needs to stop it with the chakra exhaustion, but I don’t think he knows how.

His signature move, Raikiri, also eats up a crapload of chakra. In the pre-timeskip section of the manga, Kakashi could only use Raikiri a maximum of four times before being totally drained. Now, he seems to whip it out left and right, which is pretty great, except for the fact that it’s eating up his chakra every time he does it.

As for Kamui, the major drawback is that almost every time he uses it, he either comes close to killing himself or actually succeeds. (Geez, Kakashi.)

Mental: As stated before, Kakashi has a major problem with overthinking situations, such as that first encounter with Zabuza when he pretty much was certain that there was no way in hell his team could possibly take on Zabuza, and ordered them to abandon him, despite the fact that such an order goes directly against the very first thing he taught them: that ninja who break the rules of the ninja world are trash, and ninja who abandon their loved ones are even worse than trash. Instead of trusting in his team to try and help him get out of a precarious situation, he overthought, immediately jumping to the conclusion that there was no way some genin could be useful at all.

Of course, he was wrong.

And that certainly isn’t the first time that Kakashi’s been wrong. We see him pull this same crap again when facing off against Sasuke (he says it’s his duty, that he was a failure of a teacher, etc etc etc and tells Sakura to pretty much stay out of it) instead of relying on Sakura to work together to pin Sasuke down. Though, I don’t think that his choice to tell Sakura to stay out of it has as much to do with Kakashi believing that she wouldn’t be useful in fighting together, so much as it is that he overthought the situation and tried to make it all symbolically meaningful by doing his “duty” as a shinobi of Konoha and Sasuke’s sensei. To more or less try and make things right when he’s failed all of his students so much, which was his responsibility, duty, and the penance he had to pay.

In a nutshell, Kakashi is an idiot who gets dumbly symbolic about things, and sets off to do stuff on his own and forgets about his whole “teamwork is important!” thing when his mind decides to overwork itself and tells him he’s the only one that can do something.

Emotional: Oh, gee, I don’t know, maybe Kakashi’s huge massive ball of emo and guilt is the worst thing about him? Okay, in all seriousness -- Kakashi’s greatest emotional weakness is absolutely his guilt. Which rotates around Obito (and Rin, and everyone else he’s ever lost, but mostly Obito and Rin.) His weakness is unfortunately also what comprises so much of his personality, as he carries around his loss the way he carries around his porn: it’s always present and you can see it, but no one else but Kakashi can read it. I’ve outlined the way Kakashi deals with loss and guilt rather extensively in the “Personality” section, so continuing to wax poetic about it here may seem a bit redundant. That being said, a few more words about Kakashi’s guilt: it is the singular thing that both defines him and motivates him. Kakashi’s guilt doesn’t always cripple him -- it makes him try harder to be a better shinobi, to never let a teammate die, to live up to the expectations of what he believed Obito would probably have for him. For as long as he believed Obito was dead, anyway.

But the moment he’s physically forced to confront his guilt in the shape of a very-alive Obito, Kakashi completely froze up. In fact, he actually almost let Obito kill him, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Naruto intervened, he would’ve just let it happen. Even after he’s pulled into the pocket dimension with Obito, it isn’t until the very end, until he’s absolutely sure that there’s absolutely nothing else he can do to save Obito, that he raises his hand against Obito at all. Prior to that, he was trying desperately to reason with him, still wanting so much to believe that Obito could somehow be saved, despite the fact that Obito is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of shinobi, their sensei, and so many comrades.

Kakashi didn’t care about all of that, because to him, what mattered most was trying to save Obito. Because ninja who break the rules of the ninja world are trash, but ninja who abandon those they love the most are worse than trash.