Kakashi vs. Orochimaru: Who Is Stronger & Who Would Win in a Fight?

As you probably know by now, the world of Naruto has provided us with a series of brilliant fights that became – some of them, at least – trademark moments of the whole show. Now, some of these fights are interesting enough for us to discuss them here, as we are going to not only analyze the fights but also bring you an analysis of the characters involved. This article is going to focus on the fight between Kakashi Hatake and Orochimaru, as we tell you who won and who the stronger character is.

At full power, Kakashi Hatake would be able to defeat Orochimaru. Orochimaru is definitely a very powerful enemy with some truly amazing abilities. Still, at the height of his powers, Kakashi Hatake is undoubtedly one of the strongest characters in the Naruto franchise, and that is why there is absolutely no doubt that he would be able to defeat Orochimaru.

Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article will be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we will give our final verdict and explain why Kakashi would ultimately be able to defeat Orochimaru in a direct fight.

Chakra and Physical Prowess

Kakashi is a natural genius, evidenced by the fact that he graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of five, became a Chūnin at six, and a Jonin at thirteen, in addition to having had a long career as ANBU. During his career as a ninja, he has learned more than a thousand techniques (mainly by copying them through the Sharingan), being a Konoha expert in said field.

His chakra level experiences a large increase between the first and second parts, increasing the number of times he can use Raikiri per day (six times), with the addition that he has enough Chakra left to use his Mangekyō Sharingan. He is frequently entrusted with important tasks (such as keeping an eye on Naruto in case the Nine-Tailed Fox’s seal begins to fail), eventually rising to assume the position of Hokage.

Being one of the Sannin and a former member of the S-rank criminal organization, Akatsuki, Orochimaru is an extremely powerful ninja. His powers, which can easily be considered Kage level, were so great that at the time of the invasion of Konoha, the Third Hokage feared that no one in the village would be able to defeat him or fight on an equal footing with him.

Even Kakashi, one of Konoha’s best ninjas, was in fear and dread when he came face to face during the Chūnin Exams, and he himself admitted that he wouldn’t even stand a chance against his power, stating that he had become crazy trying to face it. As one of the Sannin, Orochimaru made a name for himself and used to be Konoha’s pride. Hiruzen thought that Orochimaru had already had the power to defeat a small country by himself before leaving Konoha.

Initially, Orochimaru was much more powerful than Kakashi, as we’ve said above, but the fact is that over time, Kakashi definitely surpassed Orochimaru, and at this moment, he is more powerful than the renegade shinobi.

Points: Kakashi 1, Orochimaru 0

Dōjutsu / Senjutsu

Interestingly, Kakashi’s Sharingan is a gift from Obito Uchiha. It allowed him to copy any jutsu, see through any Genjutsu, perform Genjutsu, and predict the opponent’s moves. However, because Kakashi has no Uchiha blood, he cannot deactivate the Dojutsu and loses a large amount of Chakra when using it.

For his great mastery, he has received praise from other expert users, such as Obito and Sasuke, who acknowledged that despite being a borrowed power, he has completely mastered it. Kakashi further enhanced his Sharingan by developing his own Mangekyō Sharingan. This eye technique can manipulate space and can suck in targets or even rip parts off a target and send them to another dimension. As well as being able to use this technique on itself to teleport from one place to another in an instant.

Researching the Jūgo Clan, Orochimaru eventually tracked down the source of his power: Ryūchi Cave. It is assumed that here he was trained by the Sage of the White Serpent in Senjutsu and attempted to learn Sage Mode. However, he could not utilize this power to its full potential due to the fragility of his host’s organs, making him an unfeasible option for battle. Likewise, he has enough knowledge to undo the Sage Mode transformation on other people and absorb the Senjutsu chakra within them, as seen with Kabuto. Orochimaru developed another novel use for his Senjutsu chakra to compensate for this flaw: the Cursed Seals.

This is a category where Kakashi also wins. Although Orochimaru had his special powers, he constantly wanted a Dōjutsu of his own, which is also why he targeted Itachi and Sasuke; on the other hand, Kakashi had his own Dōjutsu, and that is more than enough for us.

Points: Kakashi 2, Orochimaru 0

Ninjutsu / Kenjutsu

Kakashi relies heavily on his mastery of Ninjutsu, of which he has a vast arsenal due to his Sharingan, of which Kakashi has been said to have copied a thousand techniques. With this arsenal, he can attack or defend against his opponents in numerous ways.

He has also shown to have impressive skills in Genjutsu. He has shown to be very skilled in Taijutsu, which, combined with his impressive speed, is able to effectively catch his opponents off guard and evade attacks. His Taijutsu skill has great level, thus being able to be on par with Hidan, defending himself only with a Kunai and without receiving a single scratch, knowing that Hidan was a member of Akatsuki, who had Taijutsu as his main form of combat, in addition to the fact that Kakuzu supported him.

In his quest to master all jutsu and become the greatest ninja, Orochimaru amassed a wealth of knowledge about various techniques, from straightforward attacking moves that, when used by him, turn deadly to more advanced moves of the highest classification. Regarding defensive moves, Orochimaru employs both Summoning: Rashmon and Summoning: Triple Rashmon, in which he calls forth several large demonic gates that can withstand even the most powerful types of harm. One of only three individuals capable of using the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, Orochimaru was able to resurrect the dead.

This is a category where we couldn’t really determine the winner, and this is probably the main reason why Kakashi was initially afraid of Orochimaru. He managed to surpass him in other fields, but Ninjutsu is Orochimaru’s forte, and that is why we decided to split the points.

Points: Kakashi 3, Orochimaru 1

The battle between Kakashi Katake and Orochimaru

Although the two of them did face each other when Kakashi was younger, and Kakashi was visibly afraid, over time, Kakashi has honed his skills so much that he has definitely surpassed Orochimaru; not only that, he has become one of the series’ most powerful characters of all time. The points confirm it, and we can only agree that Kakashi is stronger than Orochimaru.