Kakashi Hatake is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is the leader of Team 7, originally consisting of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno. After Sasuke defects Team 7 receives Sai as a replacement.
Though his name is written in the manga using kana, Japanese syllabic scripts that carry no particular meaning, the family name "Hatake" can be written in kanji (Chinese characters) as 畑, which means "field" or "farmland". The name "Kakashi" can be written in kanji as 案山子, which means "scarecrow". Understandably, Naruto uses a scarecrow look-alike of Kakashi to practice on the day before Team 7's first test, since he then considered Kakashi as the main one to defeat. Also, when Sakura spies on Kakashi so he would take off his mask, he replaces himself with a scarecrow to get rid of her.
Like his father, Sakumo Hatake whose skills have been compared to that of the Legendary Ninja, Kakashi is considered a genius shinobi, graduating from the Ninja Academy at age 5 and achieving the rank of Chunin at 6. A few years after these accomplishments, Kakashi's father was disgraced by the village for abandoning a mission in favor of saving his comrades, which cost the Land of Fire dearly. Because of the shame he felt, Sakumo committed seppuku, leaving Kakashi to bear witness to the event. After his father's suicide, Kakashi began to adhere strictly to the rules of the shinobi – in particular the rule dictating that the success of the mission must come before the well being of one's teammates, causing him to become arrogant, humorless, and by-the-book.
At the age of 13, Kakashi achieved Jonin status. As a reward for his accomplishment, he was assigned to lead his team on a sabotage mission to blow up a bridge in order to prevent enemy forces from attacking Konoha. Shortly after the mission started, Kakashi's teammate, Rin was captured by enemy shinobi. Kakashi's other teammate, Obito Uchiha immediately stated his intention to save her, but Kakashi said they had to focus on completing the mission, opting not to make the same mistake his father had. Though Kakashi believed that they had to complete their objective, Obito eventually convinced him that his father had done the right thing in saving his teammates, causing Kakashi to join in on the rescue effort.
During their attempt to save Rin, Kakashi lost his left eye as a result of an enemy ninja's attack. To protect Kakashi, Obito managed to awaken his Sharingan and killed Kakashi's assailant. Soon after saving Rin, Obito again saved Kakashi, pushing him out of the way of another enemy's rock-dislodging attack but getting crushed in the process. Shortly before he died, Obito had Rin (a medical ninja) implant his Sharingan eye in Kakashi's damaged eye socket as a gift. As his first act with his new eye, Kakashi avenged Obito by killing the enemy ninja with his now-perfected One Thousand Birds technique, bringing the Kakashi of today into being.
Years later Kakashi would become a member of the Konohagakure ANBU where he served as a squad leader. During this time, he had several kōhai, named Yugao Uzuki and Tenzo, and recognized the latter as the most successful of his kōhai. It is unknown why he left ANBU, but he still wears iron guards on his gloves, a characteristic of ANBU uniforms.
Obito's death profoundly changed Kakashi, and Kakashi adopted many of Obito's traits. One such trait was Obito's concept of teamwork, which is most clearly seen in the way Kakashi tests newly-graduated students hoping to become a squad under him. He uses the bell test to test his students, which requires the three students to get the two bells he keeps on his person. Only those who get a bell get to pass, which would be difficult even with teamwork, as at least one ninja would fail regardless. However, the rule is only a ruse; the point of the test is to foster teamwork and to teach the students that teamwork is more important than the rules. Team 7 is the only team to realize this, and as such becomes the only team Kakashi passes into Genin-status. Kakashi also inherits Obito's chronic tardiness, due primarily to losing track of time during his frequent visits to Konoha's memorial site, where Obito's name is engraved. Ironically, this very habit is one that he often annoyed Obito about. Obito was primarily late due to random good deeds.
Kakashi's personal life appears to be as much of a mystery as the face behind the mask he has worn for most of his ninja career. He has no living family, or at least none he cares to acknowledge, and he's confirmed that everyone he loves is already dead. He is immediately recognizable as the son of his father, the "White Fang of Konoha". Though his face has never been seen, episode 101, which is devoted to Team 7 trying to remove their sensei's mask, implies that he is in fact quite handsome.
Kakashi has an ongoing, albeit slightly one-sided, rivalry with Might Guy, with Guy constantly proclaiming that Kakashi is his rival. Kakashi, however, seems indifferent to their rivalry, which annoys Guy to no end. Guy randomly challenges Kakashi to contests of skill, and has acquired a record of 50 wins and 49 losses in doing so. Given that the contests that make up this figure are so varied (ranging from Rock, Paper, Scissors to sumo-wrestling), this it is not much of an achievement on Guy's part. Nevertheless, Guy is proud of his record.
Though he reportedly has many hobbies, the one pastime seen most in the series is his reading of "Icha Icha Paradise", an adult and probably pornographic novel authored by Jiraiya that is a runaway bestseller in the Naruto world. Kakashi most prominently reads it while training and speaking with his team, and is later seen reading the second known volume in the series, "Icha Icha Violence". In Part II Naruto gives him the new "Icha Icha Tactics" which, during their second bell test, Naruto manages to use against him by attempting to spoil the ending and thus distracting Kakashi.
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