Why was Kakashi so misused in Shippuden?

Kakashi was like the best character shown in Naruto (original), lots of showing off, taking things casually. Even during first few episodes of shippuden he was a pro, showing off again but from there it was a straight downhill.

-His hand signs are faster than eye can see, he can smell better that Inuzuka clan and has opened atleast 1st gate. Where did these tricks disappear?

-He could defeat Might Guy (without gates), the strongest Taijutsu fighter of the series and he trained just Taijutsu all his life.

-He was even greater prodigy than Itachi as he graduated at 5 and became chunin at 6 (Itachi doing same at 7 and 10 years respectively).

-He even developed a jutsu of his own (chidori) and that too at a mere age of 12!!!! That beats all other ninjas in existence since everyone of them were at their prime when they made their own.

-Could hide his presence so much as to fool Kakazu and even Itachi (Kazekage arc). One who battled First Hokage and survived and other being another prodigy.

-At or before the age of 5, he could do multiple shadow clone jutsu. I don't even get the point how he couldn't use them anymore since he made an army of clones after Zabuza's fight and hell he was tired, weak, low on chakra and bleeding!!!!

-He trained every single day pushing himself to the limit that even Might guy didn't go. (One hand mountain climb).

-He copied jutsus just by looking at the caster and did their own jutsu even before them. He even copied 4th's rasengan!!! I mean, come on!! How many other sharingan users you know can do that??!! More important, why did he stop doing that in shippuden?

-The guy even mastered almost all chakra form, which is considered almost impossible feat for even pros. (even Sasuke, Itachi, Jiraiya and even kages couldn't do that).

-He is a better tactician than even Shikamaru and even excels at all range of combat.

-He even has 2 nicknames. 2!!!! (3rd one's bad though so i didn't count that...moreover it didn't fit him later)

-He taught Sasuke all that he does now with chidori. How do we know that? He told naruto that by controlling what amount of chakra you use for chidori, you can change it's shape and size. Why doesn't he use like it like Sasuke does then?

-Even as a kid he was fast enough to cut down a lightning hitting a ground. That's a freakishly fast speed, the speed of electricity and he was super low on chakra and whatever he could manifest, he was putting in on chidori. That meant the speed which he ran was his normal running speed. Then why does he look so slow in many of the fights? (Hitting Pain and Zabuza...both were interrupted)

-Strength. He could swing Zabuza's sword with ease. Point to be noted that he is not much of a sword fighter and even though he used to carry his father's blade, Zabuza's blade was way too heavier. Even Suigetsu had to puff up his muscles to hold it and going by Kakashi's figure, he too is not much of a body builder. That means it was his raw strength and not to mention he was fighting full day and even defeated swordsmen of mist who trained with swords their entire life.

-If his chakra was 'too low' how did he even survive the continuous battles of 7 swordsmen then jinchuriki then Obito without receiving any additional chakra.

And there are still lot more reasons. This makes me wonder why Kishi held off this kind of character? Using him as a test subject against powerful foes. "Oh!! Even Kakashi couldn't beat him. The guy must be tough". He should have been show stopper for most of the series.

What do you guys think?

TL;DR. But I remember him pretty much losing every fight after Zabuza.

He was noted as only better than Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee and Sasuke as of their Part 1 incarnations, I don't think that translates to later in the series.

Disregarding previous comments. Ahem, they show him as a badass through out the series. Period. However, the show isn't called kakashi is it. No. They already gave him plenty of spotlight as is

@zmasonite:

You're absolutly right, the show is actually called

"Everyone is overpowered, even the random extras can beat the **** out of you, our protagonist is potentially limitless, but gets his *** beat anyway, and half of the characters' motives make little-to-no sense."

@zmasonite:

** "Naruto"

Autocorrect...

@landrysaathoff: A little off base I think but everyone is entitled to their own opinion

To me that sounds like bleach not naruto

@zmasonite:

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Naruto, it has its moments and Kakashi is actually my favorite. But at the end of the day, the show is super wonky for sure.

@the_stegman: He basicslly got used to hype up other people.

Like Thor? Kakashi is like the Thor of the Naruto universe?

@blackwind: Pretty much.

"Oh! He beat Kakashi, he must be strong!" Even though everyone beats him.

Exactly.

@dum529001: exactly

Kakashi did pretty well considering the people he went up against.

He could defeat Might Guy in his prime so any incarnation of lee is ruled out. Inuzuka clan has smelling ability, it doesn't change with age. A 10 year's Sharingan and 20 year's Sharingan will still do the same thing. Naruto may be wrong at calculating Shikamaru's intelligence (being dumb himself) but in Kazekage rescue arc, Kakashi himself says this.

I agree that he was shown as a badass. But that was like 1% of his ability. He should have got atleast one fight alone with one of the strongest of the series. All he did was hype other villians and aid his team mates while he could take almost everyone on his own.

I mean come on, that guy fought a swordsman of mist with his eyes closed!!

Because the strength of the people he was fighting outgrew what he could handle. His hand signs were as fast as BoS Shippuden Naruto could see, which isn't that impressive at endgame, Konohamaru is also a prodigy, doesn't mean he has to get better with age etc etc.

I'm 95% sure a lot of the above feats are filler and the rest can be explained away pretty nonchalantly.

Nope dude. You are wrong. What feats do you think weren't true?
And what makes you think Konahamaru was a prodigy??!!

Upon further inspection, i'm sure most are true, but I don't recall Kakashi ever going gates or using a Rasengan, (always good to do research!) but most of the other cases either aren't that impressive or can be explained.

The big problem is the power creep. Kakashi is one of the old school shinobi that fought with their brains. At a certain point Kishi started introducing things like Susanoo that can only be beaten by brute force-that alone was fine, since it had huge drawbacks.

However, characters and their jutsu started to lose their weaknesses. Gai could easily fight in 7th gate for hours and spam Hirudora, Oonoki had better stamina than the other Kage despite being old, Naruto could use sennin mode without making elaborate strategies to gather natural energy... Once we got to EMS, fights were reduced to two "who has the higher power level".

Why would he need to smell his opponents?

What would the first gate do against someone like Obito or Kakuzu?

He even told Naruto in Shippuden that he could do shadow clone jutsu but that Naruto had more Chakra and uses it more. He also used his shadow clone attack in the 4th great ninja war.

Naruto made up multiple jutsu at the age of 15 which is an even greater feat than Kakashi's

What Jutsu was he going to copy considering he fought people like Pain and Madara who he couldn't copy

He could do Lotus, only possible by ones who can open at least 1st gate. Rasengan you got. For all other things, i can prove it if you want, just say the point

I totally agree with you. That's what I am saying. At start, Kakashi got hospitalized for using Kamui twice, in the war he was spamming it. I have no problem how so ever it went, but all I'm saying is that Kishi should have increased his power too while increasing every other character's. Maybe put some secret of Hatake clan?

@kgb725 Smelling is an excellent sensory method. With smell, there's no use in hiding cause you can block your line of sight to me but you can't block your smell. I would always know where you are. 1st gate would give him an edge over any possible combatant. Kakashi himself is too fast and skilled and if he faces someone with same skill, his gate would give him an edge, and in Narutoverse, an edge is all that matters between life and death. See what I wrote about Shadow clone, he could do shadow clone but all he did in shippuden was to make just 1 clone. Sure he cannot match the number of clones Naruto makes but still it's too much (watch post Zabuza fight).
And please tell me except Wind style Rasen Shuriken, what other jutsu did Naruto made? Even Rasen Shuriken was Kakashi's work to be exact cause without him Naruto could never have done it.
Jutsus to copy? Flesh hardening of Kakazu, Mountain jutsu of Kitsuchi, Lightning Style Chakra mode of A's and lot more.

@zenux: Really? It seemed to be a hell of a lot weaker then what Gai and Lee are able to do, I assume he just copied there move to lesser effect, as evident from the lack of AoE the attack caused, you are referring to the Kakuzu fight aren't you?

And again, the rest of it isn't that impressive anyway, Kakashi just ended up getting overtaken by a lot of the characters.

Kakazu cloned out. He hit a ground with water, what AoE do you expect with that. Lee stomped a hardened sand, much like a rock. That's the difference. And him being faster than electricity isn't impressive enough?

@zenux: If by that you are referring to the background of the name Chidori, then he wasn't faster then lightning, he just cut it. Although impressive, that doesn't put him at the level of EoS characters, and he wasn't a kid when he did it, he was an anbu.

Kakashi cut a lightning with his chidori. No matter how you imagine the scenario, this isn't possible unless you move faster than lightning. Even if we ignore anime and take that Kakashi was just standing next to the place where lightning would fall, he would still need to react faster than lightning. That's how his new move got it's name - Lightning blade.

He wasn't an Anbu, he was in a 2 man team with Guy and Rin. And I'm not talking about series end characters, just till 10 tails arc more precisely, before Obito became good.

And how did you say that Konahamaru was a prodigy?

@zenux: I'm not sure how he'd copy most of those techniques anyway. No one really hid from him after Zabuza so smelling was unnecessary , kakashi was Natuto's sensei it makes sense he'd help him out in any way he can , the 1st gate has no feats and wouldn't help him because most battles he fought wasn't a neck and neck battle so that little power up wouldn't have made the difference , Kakashi just likes using the one other shadow clone to make his chidori into the lightning cutter I think, your making him out to be weaker than he really is and your complaining about him not using techniques in certain situations that he didn't need to or his opponent was just too powerful , I'm sure Naruto created more than one jutsu if you don't count the rasengan variations

Yeah, he has lightning fast reactions, or maybe he doesn't, after all, uncle Iroh was able to react to lightning, but that doesn't give him lightning fast reflexes. at the end of it, we don't actually find out how Kakashi cut the lightning, as the ep he did it in is non canon, so it's really up to interpretation.

He still wouldn't of been all that useful bar a few Kamui snipes. Do you really think he could of stood up to Juubito like Naruto and Sasuke did? Because I sure as hell don't.

Konohamaru was the youngest person to be able to use the Rasengan, and he could also use Asuma's ash jutsu and the third's own Jutsu when he was still a Genin, that's a Genin primarily using Kage and Jonin class Jutsu, sounds like a prodigy to me.

How he'd copy??!!! Seriously? Dude that guy had sharingan and copied Water Dragon of Zabuza and did it before him. No practice needed. Why didn't he copy Kakazu's zutsu? Ist gate has no feats??!!! It's a limiter removal...that means it increases the speed of one using it. He would obviously be faster than normal people this way. Had he used it, that extra speed would have allowed him to hit Tendo before he could be intercepted. If he could make more clone, why didn't he do it. He could have used multi clones as a distraction for pain and hit him, same for Guren and Kakazu arc (Naruto won that way). I am not telling he would outright defeat them for it would change the storyline but he should have given much better fight, better to say flashier. The only opponents he couldn't have used these techniques against would be Madara, Itachi, Nagato (or all pains together).
Please name the jutsus Naruto created.

I haven't watched Avatar so I'm asking, was that lightning regular? If someone used it then it's easy to dodge by watching the moves of your opponent. Kakashi cut a lightning and wasn't said in the manga that it was someone shooting it from their body. Just a lightning.

By the time Naruto and Sasuke battled Jubbi, they were too strong. And I'm not comparing Kakashi to them. I only compare him to the opponent he actually battled.

Youngest doesn't matter because he was taught in the simplest way. Had Naruto known that trick with clones, even he would have done it. What Jiraiya was planning to teach him was to control chakra with one hand. Naruto developed much easier way and that's what he taught him. It wasn't Konahamaru's feat. Using Asuma's jutsu was non cannon. And which jutsu of 3rd did he use??

@zenux: More like "Why was every ninja from Konoha other than Naruto and Sasuke misused in Shippuden?"

@thevivas: True that but still he was a major let down. At least many other characters had awesome fights - Itachi, Jiraiya, Kabuto, Shikamaru, Neji etc where they fought with all of their might. There's not a single fight of Kakashi (pre susanoo) in which he showcased all of his abilities. He uses same techniques again and again and just finds a way for others to beat his enemy. As least he should have shown taking down all swordsmen after he got angry defeating Zabuza. That would have been an awesome fight.

@zenux: I think 1% might be low balling a bit. Or a lot. He fought Obito, one of the series strongest? And won. Granted he didn't fight Obito at his strongest @nickras: I kinda agree.

Ya...fight between him and Obito was just like a normal Taijutsu clash, not a display of power. (like that of Guy's)