Everyone remembers Team 7. It’s the foundational image of modern shonen—the loud kid in orange, the broody genius, and the elite teacher with the silver hair. But when you actually look back at the relationship between Naruto Kakashi and Sasuke, the nostalgia often masks how incredibly messy and fractured their dynamic really was. It wasn't a happy family. Honestly, for the majority of the series, they were a group defined more by their failures to communicate than their successes as a team.
Masashi Kishimoto didn’t write a story about a perfect bond. He wrote a tragedy that took 700 chapters to fix.
The Kakashi Problem: Why He Favored Sasuke
There’s this long-standing debate in the fandom about whether Kakashi Hatake was a bad teacher. If you look at the Chunin Exams, it’s easy to see why people think so. He basically ditched Naruto to train Sasuke in private. He taught Sasuke the Chidori—a literal assassination blade—while leaving Naruto with Ebisu.
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That’s cold.
But there’s a nuance here that most people miss. Kakashi wasn't playing favorites because he liked Sasuke more; he was terrified. He saw himself in Sasuke. The same lightning nature, the same Sharingan, the same obsession with revenge that Kakashi had felt after his father’s death and Obito’s "passing." Kakashi felt he was the only person who could keep Sasuke from falling off the edge.
He failed.
The tragedy of Naruto Kakashi and Sasuke is that Kakashi’s attempt to mirror his own experiences onto Sasuke actually isolated Naruto. While Jiraiya eventually stepped in to fill that gap, the initial rift in Team 7 started because Kakashi couldn't figure out how to be a mentor to two very different types of trauma at the same time. He tried to fix the boy who looked like him, and in doing so, he lost the boy who didn't.
Sasuke Uchiha and the Burden of "The Genius"
Sasuke’s relationship with Naruto is often framed as a simple rivalry. It wasn't. It was a slow-motion car crash of inferiority and superiority complexes.
People forget that early on, Sasuke actually liked Naruto. He was willing to die for him against Haku. But the dynamic shifted when Sasuke realized that Naruto—the "loser"—was progressing faster than he was. For a kid whose entire identity was built on being the "Uchiha Genius" who would one day kill Itachi, Naruto’s growth wasn't just annoying. It was an existential threat.
The Hospital Roof Incident
This is the moment everything broke. When they fought on the roof of the Konoha hospital, Sasuke saw the back of Naruto’s water tank. It was shredded. His own Chidori had only made a small hole. In that moment, the power balance of Naruto Kakashi and Sasuke shifted forever. Sasuke didn't leave the village just for power; he left because he couldn't handle the fact that his "lesser" teammate was eclipsing him.
He felt the village, and specifically Kakashi, couldn't give him what he needed to stay ahead.
Naruto Uzumaki’s Impossible Goal
Naruto is the glue, but for a long time, the glue was incredibly brittle. His obsession with Sasuke is often criticized as being "too much." Why chase a guy who literally tried to put a Chidori through your chest?
It’s because Naruto didn't see Sasuke as a friend; he saw him as his first mirror. Before Iruka, before the village accepted him, Sasuke was the only other person who understood what it felt like to be alone. Naruto’s refusal to give up on Sasuke wasn't just about friendship—it was about proving that his own loneliness could be permanently cured. If Sasuke was gone, a part of Naruto’s validation went with him.
The Role of the Sharingan
We have to talk about the eyes. The Sharingan created a biological barrier between the trio. Kakashi and Sasuke shared a visual language that Naruto could never understand. This "Eye of Insight" allowed them to predict movements and copy techniques, creating a shorthand between teacher and student that excluded Naruto entirely.
Yet, ironically, Naruto ended up being the one who "saw" the truth of the world more clearly than the two men with the magical eyeballs.
The Long Road to Reconciliation
The Fourth Shinobi World War is where the Naruto Kakashi and Sasuke dynamic finally comes full circle, but it’s not a clean landing. When Sasuke returns and says he wants to be Hokage, the reaction from Kakashi and Naruto is telling. Kakashi is skeptical but hopeful. Naruto is just ready to fight.
They had to go through a literal god-level threat (Kaguya Otsutsuki) to function as a unit again. And even then, the moment the threat was gone, Sasuke immediately tried to kill Naruto again.
It takes the loss of their arms—one for Naruto, one for Sasuke—to finally balance the scales. That blood-soaked imagery at the Valley of the End is the only way their story could have ended. They had to be physically broken to be emotionally rebuilt.
What You Can Learn From Team 7
Looking at the history of these characters provides some pretty heavy insights into how we handle relationships and mentorship in the real world.
- Mentorship isn't one-size-fits-all: Kakashi’s mistake was assuming his experience was the only blueprint. If you're leading a team, recognize that different people need different types of "fuel."
- Rivalry is a double-edged sword: It can push you to be better (like it did for Naruto) or it can consume your identity (like it did for Sasuke). Know the difference.
- Conflict doesn't mean failure: The fact that Team 7 eventually reunited after years of literal attempted murder suggests that "broken" doesn't mean "unfixable." It just means the repair will take a different shape than the original.
The next time you watch a clip of Naruto Kakashi and Sasuke fighting together, remember that it wasn't a natural progression. It was a hard-fought, bloody, and often desperate attempt to keep a family together that probably should have fallen apart a dozen times over. That’s what makes them compelling. They aren't the best team because they work well together; they’re the best because they refused to stop trying even when they hated each other.
To truly understand the depth of their bond, re-watch the transition from the original series to Shippuden. Pay close attention to Kakashi's body language when he's with Naruto versus when he's fighting Sasuke. The grief is palpable. Then, look at the final battle and notice how they use the same basic tactics from their first bell test. The circle closes, but the scars remain.