#yes there is strategic value in demoralising kakashi by forcing him to reexperience one of the worst traumas of his youth

[leavesandcurses]

i have been plagued for years by this gif, i needed to share with the class!! all assassination-jutsu-logic thoughts aside, the chidori is actually a super intimate way to kill: but only depending on who is being pierced.

because it can be a quick punch-through, pull-back, get-out-of-the-way type of manoeuvre, but in the moment after the chidori strikes true, and kakashi is stunned by the reality of what just happened and what he's just done to his teammate, he doesn't pull back. it's antithesis to the trained killer's aversion to getting (physically) close to others, especially enemies. they just tried to kill each other after a highly emotionally laden fight- locked in close quarters would be the perfect opportunity for obito to take another shot and actually land a mortal wound.

(and we know that being pierced through was obito's plan and that he had no intention of actually killing kakashi, which is a whole rant for another day, but kakashi decidedly did not. and his composure cracks so badly that it shows.)

just... move his hand a little, have him not pierce through the chest, and that's an embrace. eye to eye, chest to chest- i'd call it a heart to heart if obito's hadn't literally just been chidori'd

Kakashi’s hand shaking as he pulls it out of Obito’s chest makes my heart physically contract.