So, why does kakashi wear a mask? With a lengthy plot and a vast cast of characters that spans nearly 20 years, Naruto is one of the most popular manga and anime series. Kakashi Hatake, the captain of Shinobi Team Seven and the sensei of the primary group of teenage ninjas, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno, was the character with the highest popularity among Naruto fans.
One of the anime series that everyone is familiar with is probably Naruto. Even those who despise or don’t watch anime. And one of the popular characters is Kakashi. He does, however, have a secret!
Undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic characters in the Naruto manga chapters is Kakashi Hatake. He has been the center of attention throughout the series due to his devilish good looks, and he got the title of the famed Copy Ninja for owning the Sharingan, a dojutsu that only the Uchiha Clan is known to have. Naturally, such attention will make people wonder about his character.
Why Does Kakashi Wear a Mask?
What’s with that mask, the perennial query that has followers wondering about his identity? Kakashi’s mask, according to some fans, as all Anbu members wear masks, his mask served as a reminder that he was a member of the Anbu Black Ops. That would be wrong, though, as he has been wearing the mask since before that. Kakashi wears a face mask because he didn’t want people to witness his nosebleeds, as was so subtly stated in the Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals spin-off series.
He realized that if he kept getting nosebleeds, he wouldn’t be able to exercise his power. The best representation of a character having indecent thoughts in anime is when they have nosebleeds. By chance, the mask also covered over a mole on his chin. So perhaps he also wanted to conceal that.
One well-liked but quickly debunked theory holds that Kakashi wears a mask because his father perished while attempting to save his teammates. Kakashi dons the mask to either cover off his humiliation or to hide the fact that he resembles his father inexplicably. But since Kakashi wore the mask as a young child before his father’s passing, that idea is among the least tenable.
Why Did Kakashi Wear a Mask Even as a kid?
Sakumo Hatake was the father of Kakashi. After father Sakumo died, Kakashi had a more strict and serious demeanor. He adhered to all rules strictly and reprimanded anyone who did so, including his teammate Obito Uchiha. Obito frequently arrived late for tasks and would appear with a grandiose excuse, so Kakashi was distant and disinterested toward him.
Obito developed a disdain for Kakashi as a result of this. However, the relationship between the two soon changed after Obito was critically injured during the Third Shinobi World War. Kakashi and Obito developed a stronger friendship after Rin was taken.
Obito’s apparent demise greatly impacted Kakashi’s outlook, as he took on many of his friend’s positive traits, including caring more about his teammates and students than the successful completion of a mission and believing that collaboration is essential to overall team success. Like Obito before him, he has also acquired a slightly reckless demeanor and frequently arrives late for appointments while making plausible justifications.
The white-haired ninja always wears his signature facial covering when we see him in flashbacks as a child. The fact that no one else in the Land of Fire, including Kakashi’s father, wears a mask may give the impression to some that wearing one was not a tradition in Kakashi’s clan or nation. This suggests that Kakashi chose to wear the mask when he was a small child.
Kakashi’s face is exceedingly attractive when the mask is off, so we can rule out the possibility that he is hiding any kind of abnormality. People are frequently surprised by his natural attractiveness when they look at his features.
Does Kakashi Ever Take Mask Off?
In a manga image that was included in a pamphlet distributed at the Naruto art exhibition held in Japan last April, Naruto Shippuden creator Masashi Kishimoto had only briefly revealed Kakashi’s face.
The appearance of Kakashi’s face in Episode 469 always makes Naruto excited. Sukae, a new ninja, offers to look through the ninja registration database for a picture of Kakashi’s entire face, but Sakura and Sasuke trash the idea as stale. Sukae says he’ll assist them in return for the significant scoop he’ll gain from getting it reported in the media. Later on they were found by the ANBU security and forced to surrender while attempting to breach into the secret document storage room to disclose Kakashi’s photo.
While a backup plan, Sukae suggests attempting to take a picture of Kakashi as he gets ready to eat. When they examine the pictures, they discover that all that had happened was a bird flying in the way, followed by Kiba’s dog Akamaru jumping over Kakashi’s face a short while afterward.
Naruto directly questioned Kakashi about what was under his mask after they had all been severely beaten. They each pictured their mentor’s emotion when Kakashi promised to show them. After some time, Kakashi took off his mask, only to reveal another mask underneath. As Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto screamed in despair, Kakashi laughed.
Final Words
Some theories that fans have put forth over the years claim that Kakashi is concealing the guilt he feels as a result of his father’s death, while others contend that Masashi Kishimoto finds it difficult to draw distinct faces with such a large cast of characters and that Kakashi’s mask serves as the main identifier.
Given that one of Kakashi’s primary character traits is his love of racy books, it is an especially funny theory that he wears a mask to conceal his nosebleeds, which are frequently used in anime as a symbol of sexual desire.
Even though Kakashi’s appearance was eventually satisfactorily explained to the audience, the reasoning behind his choice to cover his face is still somewhat mysterious.
It’s well said by someone, “There is a story behind every mask!”
