Thread: Ebisu???? Kakashi was smarter than that

Might be a weird title but hear me out.

Alright we all know that Naruto asks Kakashi to train him after the Chuunin Exam prelims for the finals and Kakashi flat out refuses him and goes off to train the prodigy while passing off Naruto too a less than satisfactory teacher.

Defining in that in a lot of fanfiction they use this scene to make Kakashi into a huge prick that cares absolutely nothing about his two other students. And the fact a lot of people use it to show the favoritism Kakashi has for Sasuke over Naruto. Even though it's the only time in the manga we see something like this.

Everyone knows that Kakashi adopted Obito's quote about People being lower than trash for leaving comrades behind. So a thought just popped into my head, what if Kakashi set up the slight training with Ebisu as a precursor to Naruto meeting Jiraiya.

Situation is that Kakashi absolutely knows that Sasuke is going to need intense personal training to even come out alive in a fight against Gaara (also why he taught him Lee's taijutsu considering it's the only thing that they knew could work against the sand, if it ain't broke don't fix it). Considering he is one of Konoha's top ninja, I don't see him not knowing a certain someone is rumored to be in the village, or at least on his way back.

So he calls up the favor he has from Ebisu to help train Naruto (knowing that Jiraiya's training methods weren't with a whole lot of theoretical knowledge). And with a whisper in his ear about how pathetic Naruto's chakra control is and how falling into hot springs will make him learn quicker. Proceed forward and you have Ebisu teaching things Naruto probably didn't learn in the Academy (various reasons for that) and the beginning of water walking. Lo and behold they find someone peeking, and Ebisu being a man of strong moral fiber (denying he is even a closet pervert) confronts him and gets beaten down in full view of Naruto. The Gallant Jiraiya hears the name of his godson and takes him as an apprentice and teaches him skills that he could use in a month (could see Jiraiya knowing about Gaara and how likely he was going to be involved in Oro's plans so he gets Naruto something that would be able to fight against a jinchuuriki using it's demon's form while also improving his chakra control).

I'm taking a lot of things for granted, mostly the fact that Kakashi has pretty much figured that Naruto is Minato's son by now (for who but only the willfully blind couldn't see Naruto for who he is). And the fact that Kakashi knows enough about the going ons about Konoha that he'd know when Jiraiya was in town. But I can see this happening really easily.

The fact that Sakura only sits on her ass for that month is because Kakashi doesn't know what to do with her. He knows she has a great mind and excellent chakra control (precludes her to being a med-nin) but he either isn't connected enough to get her an apprenticeship in the hospital, or he wants his students to have the best. With Naruto it was passing him off to Jiraiya, probably the best person to teach him the way Naruto needed to be taught. With Sasuke it was himself, because he has the sharingan and is probably considered the best ninjutsu user in Konoha at the time bar Hiruzen. Finally with Sakura I guess you could say he was hoping for Tsunade to come back but that's probably stretching too far.

Plausible because we see how much Kakashi objected to the fact that he lost his whole team within the matter of days-a week or two. Which is to say was practically no objections from him. He's smart enough to see that he isn't the best teacher for Naruto or Sakura. His style doesn't match to either of them. He's a quick hitter with one hit kill moves and is more speed based. Sakura is a med-nin thru and thru and it's not something that he could teach because he doesn't have extensive knowledge of it. Finally, Naruto is someone who thrives on unpredictability and never giving up, something that Kakashi can't teach with any proficiency, seeing as he was the "Genius" of his generation.

I think Kakashi came to these realizations after having him do the tree-climbing exercise in Wave or even before that. So instead of teaching them individual things he focused on their teamwork and making them become the best of friends, because you can possibly see how he's lived with the regret that he only considered Obito a friend rather than a nuisance only hours before he died. So he doesn't want his team to feel the same regrets he has.

Now I don't know if this was brought up before (why Kakashi didn't physically train Naruto and Sakura while he personally trained Sasuke), but I've never seen anything about how Kakashi set up the meeting between Naruto and Jiraiya knowing the Jiraiya would take up Naruto's training because of who Naruto is. Guess that'll be all.

Thoughts?

Um... what's the question or discussion?

Just about the whole situation. Is there anything anyone would like to add, maybe something I'd missed. Just what are your thoughts on this. Instead of Kakashi being stupid and absolutely favoring one of his genin over the other, he guided the meeting between Jiraiya and Naruto by giving Naruto to Ebisu to train with a few choice words to Ebisu. I guess what do you think is the likelyhood of this line of thought.

I think he wasn't counting on Naruto meeting Jiraiya. I just think he wanted to go play with Sasuke and thought Naruto needed more work on his basics like chakra control. That's why e got a low grade jounin like Ebisu to train Naruto.

I agree. Meeting Jiraiya was probably not planned. I wouldn't go so far as to say he favored Sasuke though. Sasuke was heading down a dangerous path and Kakashi probably though he needed the attention. Not only helping him to survive the match with Garaa, but the whole deal with the cursed seal & Oro targeting him and the way Sasuke was bent on revenge. Kakashi probably hoped he could turn things around by giving him more attention.
Plus Naruto wasn't really at a point where he could learn as much from Kakashi. He really needed that basic training. I think choosing Ebisu was planned though. Just because Naruto might train harder to show Ebisu he was wrong.

Not to mention that Kakshi made up for it after the time skip.

I guess that needs a little clearing up. Kakashi said absolutely nothing to Jiraiya and Hiruzen. He knows for a fact that Orochimaru is in the village (Oro's confrontation after Sasuke's sealing) and wants his student to be protected and trained up, especially since he has the strongest opponent in the finals. So he takes and trains him personally.

Now since Kakashi knows that Orochimaru is in the village and he might know that Jiraiya has also been working on finding Oro over the last whenever that Jiraiya would follow the trail to Konoha. If only to help protect the village from him. This might be stretching, but we can also take into fact that Kakashi was and ANBU captain for how long and might be privy to that kind of information.

So what it comes down to is that Kakashi does absolutely nothing to initiate the meeting between Jiraiya and Naruto besides hire Ebisu as a teacher and point Ebisu to the hot springs. Kakashi was gambling with Naruto's education (only in that Kakashi didn't have definitive proof that Jiraiya was in village), but you can't say that once Jiraiya heard Naruto proclaim that his name was Uzumaki Naruto that Jiraiya wouldn't have taken up his training. I mean it's his godson and the son of someone that he called a son.

Kakashi was ORDERED to keep an eye on Naruto's progress and see if a he could be something to reckon with.

However, Kakashi was also ORDERED to be in-charge of Sasuke's training. I guess the fact that sharingan users are the best ones to train sharingan users put a lot of weight in his decision.

But I guess Kakashi knew that Jiraiya was in town. He was, after all, GAR with Jiraiya.

Where was he ordered to keep an eye on Naruto's progress? Was it in his meeting with the Sandaime at the beginning of the manga?

I doubt Kakashi went as far as planned the whole encounter with Jiraya from the beginning. It would have been far easier to approach Jiraya and asked him to train Naruto from the start... It must have been fate that put Jiyara and Naruto together.

As others have mentioned, Sasuke needed more attention at that point in time. On top of it, Kakashi was similar to Sasuke, making it easier for him than anyone. Naruto lacked the basics which anyone can teach, while Sasuke had a shit load coming to him from Orochi, Garaa, and his past -Itachi.

It might be because I'm not explaining it right, but it's sounding a lot better in my head.

What it is is that Kakashi wants his students to get better individually and he'll help the team come together with the teamwork.

Kakashi has knowledge that Jiraiya might be coming back to Konoha (Oro's intervention of the Chuunin 2nd round and meeting with Kakashi after Sasuke's sealing), add that to the fact that he might have a really good idea that Naruto is the son of his teacher and dare say father figure after Sakumo offed himself, and I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge where Jiraiya spends time doing his research. Kakashi gambles with the fact that Jiraiya might actually want to train another apprentice (only if the person is interesting enough) and he has that person in Naruto. So without even knowing if Jiraiya will be at the Hot Springs at so and so day, all Kakashi instructs Ebisu is to teach Naruto basics and water-walking/chakra control exercises.

So while his final plan was for Jiraiya to take up Naruto's training, he wasn't counting on it and had a teacher for Naruto to help Naruto's problem areas.