In Naruto, arguably the most important time in a young ninja’s life is their training. After all, if they aren’t trained well, they can’t possibly become great warriors and protectors of their village. Of course Konoha would take their ninja academy and young teams very seriously because of this.
Despite having two of the greatest shinobi on his team, though, it’s debatable if Kakashi was a good teacher. He had some breakthrough moments with his students, but he also made steep mistakes that made them worse, more troubled people. And anyway, his team spent a lot of their peak training years being taught by other ninjas. Does the good he did for them outweigh the bad?
Here are 10 Times Kakashi Was A Terrible Teacher.
Teaching Sasuke The Chidori
Teachers are meant to protect and help their students grow. In Sasuke’s case, Kakashi went about things in a slightly too aggressive manner. Instead of trying to deal with the underlying anger that made Sasuke tempted to join Orochimaru, he just gave the kid more firepower.
Arguably, all of the shinobi teachers are pretty bad at helping the kids deal with their feelings instead of just trying to punch it out. No wonder so many immensely powerful bad guys come from Konoha. With great power comes great responsibility, and it’s questionable how well the teachers (particularly Kakashi) cope with the complex emotions of their powerful students.
Sasuke and Naruto’s Rivalry
The shinobi world acts like having a rival is great for making powerful, heroic ninja. That may be true, but literally only 50%. Because, which each heroic ninja comes and equally terrible rival. It’s fair to say that maybe their encouragement of rivalries has not helped their world in the long run.
Kakashi watched Naruto and Sasuke get at each other’s throats and did nothing. If he, at any point, could have nudged them towards having a healthy rivalry instead of a toxic one, maybe their teen years could’ve turned out better. But he didn’t, he failed at that, and before he knew it, the two were fighting on a hospital roof.
Reading Jiraiya’s Books
Half the time during their missions, Kakashi wasn’t even paying attention to what his students were doing. Talk all you want about his expert capability to read and keep track of them, or the power of his own seasoned ninja skills. He still actively chose to read dirty books rather than actively partake in his students’ training far more often than he should have. Asuma and Kurenai didn’t seem to do that; they always were engaged. Might Guy was even enthusiastic in helping encourage his students in whatever they did.
And what did Kakashi do? Sit in trees and make fun of their bickering. The guy is an amazing ninja, but he really was not their best choice for a teacher. That, or he at least needed some shaping up first.
The Bell Test
The Bell Test is a cool sequence and, in theory, was a great way to show the underlying unity between the bickering three. However, there are easier ways to do that than beating your students half to the grave the first time you meet them. It mostly just made the overeager Naruto look like an idiot, the powerful but unrefined Sasuke look insecure, and Sakura looked useless.
The show does a great job of making Sakura look useless for unfortunately large chunks of its run. Regardless, Kakashi wasn’t perhaps a terrible teacher for using the Bell Test, but the fact he let it go on for so long was. All he did was torment them and make them feel weak by the end.
Keeping Secrets From Naruto
Half, if not more, of Naruto’s early emotional problems all, stemmed from not feeling good enough and being a shunned, fox-filled orphan. Kakashi, like may adults, knew that he actually was not only the son of the Fourth Hokage but that there were others like him. That he wasn’t a freak. If Kakashi explained this to Naruto, he might’ve been able to deal with his own emotions better and grow up a more well-rounded person.
But nope. Instead, Naruto learned about his parents from ghost visions or whatever. Awesome. Everyone dropped the ball on telling Naruto who he was, but Kakashi and Jiraiya take the most blame. They knew so much and still refused to tell him.
Not Protecting Sasuke From Orochimaru’s Curse
Sure, maybe he posted Anbu around Sasuke’s hospital room and put himself between the kid and snake man himself. Physically, Kakashi did his best. Emotionally, though, he didn’t. All it took was one look at Sasuke to know that he was unhinged. Kakashi never should have left his side and should have worked on Sasuke’s psychological state.
The problem wasn’t keeping Orochimaru away from Sasuke; it was keeping Sasuke’s mind away from temptation. And Kakashi didn’t do a great job of that, keeping secrets and refusing to address his real problems. Sasuke really needed some therapy, guys.
Treating Naruto Poorly
Everyone can agree that Naruto, especially early on in the show, was very, very annoying. It’s understandable that his classmates and teachers may sometimes struggle to deal with him. However, that didn’t mean that he deserved to be treated poorly, by adults or his peers.
And the person who should’ve known better and dropped the ball the worst was Kakashi. He jeered and insulted Naruto, always pointing out how inept he was, despite the power that lay within. That’s not what a good teacher does. A good teacher brings the best out of their students through encouragement and faith. No one really has a story about a great teacher that heckled them even when they were down.
Encouraging Them To Do The Chunin Exam
For all the strength Naruto and Sasuke showed during the Land of Waves mission, Kakashi was pushing it by encouraging them to do the Chunin exam. One, Sakura was in no way prepared and would always have failed to get to Chunin. Second, Naruto only made it through on dumb luck, the kind that would’ve doomed his team if he wasn’t so inordinately sure of himself. And Sasuke? Well, he is powerful but quickly derailed into a stubborn, bloodthirsty fighter.
All three of them needed another year to grow stronger, but instead, Kakashi pushed them. As a result, Sasuke got the mark and turned to the dark side.
The Land of Waves Mission
Even though it helped his team grow, one of Kakashi’s worst mistakes as a teacher was letting Team 7 continue the Land of Waves mission. Perhaps as a pushy squadron leader, it wouldn’t have been a terrible choice to let the mission continue after the assassins jumped them. But as a teacher of students who never faced combat before?
Kakashi missed the mark. He put his students in needless danger just because he wanted to push their limits instead of respecting them. It was more likely that they’d have lost their lives to this mission instead of surviving it. Using karate as an analogy, if he wanted to push them, his white belts probably could have dealt with some yellows or oranges and felt good about their progress. Instead, he threw them straight at two black belts and broke half their bones. He was just being reckless.
Neglecting Sakura’s Training
By far, Kakashi’s biggest sin as a teacher was fiercely neglecting Sakura’s training. Sure she was smart, but she would freeze up in the face of danger and struggled to apply any of those brains. As a shinobi, she had so much potential, but Kakashi willfully ignored her for the two aggressive loudmouths. A good teacher pays attention to the needs of all their students, not just the obnoxious ones.
But, that’s precisely what he did, and Sakura suffered for it. When he pushed them to do the Chunin Exams, the woefully unprepared girl pushed herself to feel ready even though she definitely wasn’t. With some educational attention, she possibly could have been one of the best students there. Now, with his neglect canon, the world may never know.
