Naruto: Why can’t Kakashi use Chidori anymore

The Copy Ninja of Naruto, Kakashi Hatake, is regarded as one of Konoha's greatest prodigies. He showcased many powerful and deadly Jutsus from a very young age. As a student of Minato Namikaze, Kakashi has learned many things under the leadership of the former alongside his teammates Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara.

Although Kakashi claims to know thousands of Jutsus, his most powerful and prominent Jutsus is his signature technique Chidori, which earned the name Lightning Cutter after Kakashi used it to split a bolt of lightning. However, in the aftermath of the Fourth Great Ninja War, he lost the ability to use Chidori.

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Exploring the reason behind Kakashi losing the ability to use Chidori in Naruto

In Naruto, Chidori is a very powerful Lightning Release technique that takes a heavy toll on the user’s body and draws a lot of chakra. Although Kakashi as a member of the Hatake clan retained a tremendous life force, it still wasn’t enough to perform Chidori. However, the Sharingan Kakashi received from Obito provided the former with enough chakra to successfully perform Chidori.

After Kakashi demonstrated Chidori in front of Minato, the latter explained that the former can use the technique without the need of Sharingan, but it will give him tunnel vision and will drain his chakra reserve expeditiously. Kakashi has never used Chidori without Sharingan in Naruto, as it will put his life at great risk.

After losing his Sharingan in Naruto, Kakashi replaced Chidori with its lightning-based counterpart named Purple Lightning, which is nearly identical but without the speed boost and piercing power. Unlike Chidori, Kakashi is able to use Purple Lightning in both close and long-range fights. However, he mostly uses this newfound technique to throw lightning bolts at distant targets.

Using the Purple Lightning to its greatest extent with all the chakra, Kakashi can induce the clouds by manipulating the weather to make rain. It was noticed that using Chidori damages the hand since it leads to the skin to peel and causes it to smolder, but Kakashi is capable of using Purple Lightning without hurting his hands.

Alongside Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, Kakashi learned many things from his teacher Minato Namikaze. As one of his favorite students, Minato passed on his Rasengan technique to Kakashi, and the latter mastered it in no time. Due to his natural affinity with lightning, Kakashi tried to infuse lightning with Rasengan but failed to do so, which accidentally created Chidori.

As Chidori stems from Rasengan, it moves rapidly, producing sounds similar to many birds chirping, which is why it got the name that literally means “a thousand birds.” Kakashi passed on this technique to Sasuke Uchiha, who has shown great prowess in this technique by surpassing the creator.

As Chidori drains a lot of chakra, Kakashi was only capable of using it four times a day, even in rapid succession. After mastering his Sharingan, he significantly increased his limit to an unspecified number. Unlike his teacher, Sasuke enhanced Chidori to the next level and created many variations of it like Chidori Senbon and Chidori Lance.

The only reason behind Sasuke’s proficiency in Chidori in Naruto is due to his visual prowess, as, unlike Kakashi, the former is an Uchiha, with both his Sharingan intact.

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