“Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supposed to be an angel but they took him from that light and turned him into something hungry, something that forgets what his hands are for when they aren’t shaking. He will lose so much, and you will watch it all happen because you had him first, and you would let the world break its own neck if it means keeping him. Start by wiping the blood off of his chin and pretending to understand. Repeat to yourself “I won’t leave you, I won’t leave you” until you fall asleep and dream of the place where nothing is red. When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it. Oh, when you used to sing it to sleep. Here are your upturned hands. Give them to him and watch how he prays like he is learning his first words. Start by pulling him out of another fire, and putting him back together with the pieces you find on the floor. There is so much to forgive, but you do not know how to forget. When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you are the reason it has become so mangled. Here is your humble offering, obliterated and broken in the mouth of this abandoned church. He has come back to stop the world from turning itself inside out, and you love him, you do, so you won’t let him. Tell him that you will never know any better. Pretend to understand why that isn’t good enough.”
Ok so, Kakashi is a ninja. arguably the most ninja of the ninjas what with the mask and everything, but especially because of what he can do despite his chakra limitations. It really shows against Hidan and Kakuzu. The way he's able to keep two pretty much immortal Akatsuki freaks sweating for a good long while with just evasive acrobatics a kunai and the tattered remains of a uniform three sizes too big for him
I made and posted gifs of this fight a while back but it's so good I went back and saved some of my favorite still frames too. There are a lot. There will also be a few screenshots of truly horribly drawn Kakashi faces from whenever he's not fighting in these episodes. Truly tragic. The one at the top of this post is a rare exception. More below:
First off we have Kakashi blocking Hidan's three-in-one-scythe with his itty bitty knife only to jump around, do some backflips, stand on top of the damn scythe and do more backflips, graceful like a feral cat.
ohnoh!
This clip of him jumping and backing away is so cool and I love how they've made it feel stressful by having the camera close in along the ground with Hidan's steps forward like, we know one cut could be a death sentence here and the animation really shows the urgency of those evasive jumps by having the camera close in fast as soon as he's not in the air.
Look at his little mesh undershirt!
Ok so here's another favorite because Kakasi is coming for Kakuzu looking like a skinny junkie with a shiv and Kakuzu in his halter neck top is like "woah little dude, chill" but Kakashi has no chill, only violence and really bony shoulders.
So Kakuzu disarms Kakashi who is not bothered by this at all because he can still do spinny backflips and kicks wild enough that his opponent doesn't seem to know what to do. To be fair he doesn't land a single hit but it doesn't matter, he didn't take any hits either.
I hate to end this on a sad note but... Unfortunately
Someone forgot how to draw while making these episodes and sadly that person or persons massacred our boy several times over. This happens now and then but I'm really sad that he had to look like this while wrapped up in tentacle threads and squirming helplessly beneath another man i just think he deserved to have a cute damsel in distress moment...
It's time for more fighting gifs and stills! This time it's ANBU teen Kakashi vs mist man (can't recall if he has a name but he's not important)
Look at this grumpy, adorable little very serious face, and the tip-tappy fingers on the hilt! ANBU Kakashi my beloved, he's so cool.
The actual fighting stuff is below, but the post will be long so :
This fight is another one of those super fast-paced ones with no excessive talking or throwing of huge jutsus. It's just this mist dude and a violently traumatized teenage assassin trying to cut each other with sharp blades and they get all up in each other's faces about it (the mist dude literally gets up in Kakashi's nose twice but I didn't include that)
The gifs are at 70% original speed
Some favorite still frames:
The angry scowl wrinkle over his nose <3
The next gif is of the vanishingly quick moment where Kakashi goes completely crazy-eyed and yells "YOU'RE MINE!" before trying to chop the man's arm off.
The crazy eyes i'm referring to:
This might be a good moment to appreciate those long, long ANBU gloves but I'd like to especially point out how this animation team keeps extending the highlights in Kakashi's eyes to look like tears when he moves fast. The same thing happens in the previous clip too and while it's barely noticeable in motion, it looks amazing in the still frames and it suits him.
Maomao: ugh why does Jinshi insist on pursuing me I don't even like him
Also Maomao: this person can't even know I'm actually surprised, Jinshi would have understood my slightly furrowed brow. Ugh this other guy is too slow at understanding where I'm going with my investigations, Jinshi would get it faster. This girl is so beautiful, but not as beautiful as Jinshi.