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Like his father, whose skills have been compared to that of the Legendary Sannin, 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 Iwagakure forces from entering the Land of Grass, where the enemy could easily mount an attack on Konoha. Shortly after the mission started, Kakashi's team encountered an enemy shinobi and his clones. Kakashi saw this as a good time to test his newly-developed jutsu One Thousand Birds, but could not find the real enemy amongst the clones. After Kakashi's shoulder was slashed by the enemy in the confusion, the Fourth Hokage had to rescue him. The Fourth Hokage sternly told Kakashi never to use the technique again due to its incredible speed leaving the user extremely vulnerable and unable to prepare for the enemy's counter. Later on, after the Fourth Hokage had left the team to go to the front lines, Kakashi's teammate, Rin was captured by enemy shinobi. Obito immediately stated his intention to save her, but Kakashi stated that they had to focus on the completion of the mission, opting not to make the same mistake his father had. Obito disagreed and after telling Kakashi that ninjas who leave their teammates behind are worse than trash, set off to rescue Rin on his own. Kakashi then turned to complete their mission. However, Kakashi is reminded of Rin's kindness for him when his injured shoulder begins to pain him.

During their attempt to save Rin, Obito was surprised by an enemy shinobi and was narrowly saved by Kakashi, who had a change of heart and who returned to rescue Rin. Despite being injured by Kakashi s tanto, the enemy was able to blend in with the environment and also to remove all scent to prevent detection. The enemy then moved to attack Obito from behind, but Kakashi being able to sense hs presence through air currents and sound, moved to protect Obito. As a result, Kakashi sustained permanent damage to his left eye. Having witnessed Kakashi's sacrifice and vowing to protect his friends, Obito awakened his Sharingan and killed Kakashi's assailant as he was able to 'see' him with the Sharingan. The two then paired up to attack the remaining enemy shinobi and to rescue Rin. Soon after, Obito again saved Kakashi by pushing him out of the way of another enemy's rock-dislodging attack, but was crushed in the process. As he lay dying, Obito had Rin (a medical ninja) implant his Sharingan eye in Kakashi's damaged eye socket as a gift for his promotion to jounin, thus creating Copy Ninja Kakashi. As his first act, Kakashi avenged Obito by killing the enemy ninja with One Thousand Birds, now perfected with the addition of Obito's Sharingan.

Obito's death profoundly changed Kakashi, and Kakashi adopts many of Obito's traits. One such trait is 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 have realized this and passed the test. 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.