Another point commonly brought up in Kakashi's defense is that Kakashi left Naruto with an elite teacher who was perfect for teaching Naruto.

Ebisu might be a decent teacher, but is he really the best for Naruto? I think not.

It's ironic that so many fans talk about how Kakashi is the perfect fit for Sasuke because his chakra nature is the same as Sasuke's and fans recurrently emphasize how important it is that Sasuke have someone compatible with his lightning chakra nature to teach him, yet they don't hold the same standards for Naruto's training. Sasuke gets a teacher specially catered to his own chakra nature, but Naruto doesn't? How is that fair?

In what way do Ebisu's and Naruto's fighting styles or chakra natures seem remotely comparable or similar to each other? Kakashi knows way more things that are compatible with Naruto's chakra nature and fighting style than Ebisu does, the Rasengan being one glaringly obvious example. Also Kakashi knows all of the elemental styles, so no matter what chakra nature Naruto had, Kakashi is compatible with it because Kakashi has already mastered all of them. Ergo, Kakashi is a lot more well-versed in jutsu than Kakashi fans generally give him credit for, at least when it comes to this particular topic, anyway.

Secondly, fans claim that Kakashi doesn't have anything to teach Naruto anyway. I guess fans forgot that Kakashi has already mastered Rasengan, which happens to be Naruto's signature jutsu.

Besides that, Kakashi is nicknamed, "Kakashi of a thousand jutsu", and not without reason. Some fans have claimed that Kakashi having mastered a thousand jutsu is perhaps only an exaggeration, but it doesn't matter. Maybe Kakashi doesn't know exactly 1,000 jutsu, but either way, his nickname means he knows a ton of jutsu, at least several dozen, and it's more probable that Kakashi knows at least a few hundred. Whatever the specific number, it's enough jutsu that it's difficult for people to count how many he has, thus the reason for Kakashi being touted as having mastered the impressive number of one thousand jutsu. No one else in the shinobi world is famed for knowing such a large variety of jutsu, even those who have impressively wide and varied arsenals. Kakashi got his nickname because he uses such a large number of jutsu that it's impossible for people to count all the different jutsu he has at his disposal.

Any way you look at it, Kakashi is the master of a lot of jutsu, so it's ludicrous to assume that Naruto can't master at least one of these, especially when Kakashi possesses the knowledge for Naruto's signature jutsu. Kakashi also knows how to do summoning and how to use basic chakra control.

In short, Kakashi could have easily taught Naruto everything Ebisu and Jiraiya taught Naruto, and more besides. I see no reason for Kakashi to not teach Naruto himself. Kakashi's arsenal, style, and chakra natures were compatible with Naruto's, and there was plenty that Kakashi could teach Naruto.

And Kakashi is just as equipped to teach Naruto jutsu as Jiraiya is. What about Jiraiya's arsenal seems similar to Naruto's anyway? Jiraiya is a fire style user, Naruto is a wind style user. That's not the same. If anything, Kakashi is better suited to Naruto's style because it was stated at the beginning of the series that Kakashi was one of the rare ninja to have mastered all five of the primary elemental styles.

Besides, if the situation were in reverse, do you really think Sasuke would be content with Ebisu for a sensei? I bet Sasuke would throw a fit if that happened to him too. Even Kakashi feels bad about the arrangement, internally apologizing to Naruto for abandoning him, and that is precisely what this is: Kakashi abandoning one student and favoring another. Kakashi is Naruto's teacher, not Ebisu. Shoving Naruto off on to someone else is cheap and irresponsible, and blatant favoritism.

Also, does Kakashi really think that refined basic chakra control is enough to defeat Neji? Or Gaara? Or Sasuke? Those are all of Naruto's prospective opponents, and during the month's training, Naruto needs to brought up each of those three's level as much as possible in that time. Naruto needs refined chakra control, but he needs something big up his sleeve too. Refined chakra control will work wonders for Naruto's stamina and efficiency, but it won't give him something new and unexpected, the kind of new jutsu he'd need to defeat Neji, Gaara, and Sasuke.

Neji has already watched Naruto fight, meaning that Neji is going to be prepared and equipped to fight Naruto. If Naruto wants to catch Neji off guard, he's going to have to learn something new. Especially since Naruto's fighting style typically relies on trickery and clever deception to fool an opponent via diversion. Those tactics aren't going to be as effective against a master of the Byakugan, so Naruto's usual creative battle strategy might not be as helpful against Neji.

Ebisu seemed like a fine teacher, and I'm sure he could have taught Naruto useful tricks. That said, Ebisu never struck me as a particularly strong or gifted shinobi, so he didn't seem to have much to impart to Naruto aside from basic knowledge on chakra control. Konohamaru didn't learn anything especially impressive from Ebisu either, seeing as how Konohamaru's signature jutsu came not from his sensei Ebisu, but from Naruto.

Besides, this skirts the point of the issue. Naruto didn't want Ebisu, he wanted Kakashi, and as Naruto's sensei, Kakashi is obligated to train his students. Ebisu is a third party who has no such obligations. Naruto is Kakashi's responsibility and under Kakashi's care. So as long as they are master and apprentice, Kakashi has a duty and obligation to teach Naruto, or otherwise make sure that Naruto is getting tutelage that Naruto is satisfied with. And sticking Naruto with a teacher that Naruto made it abundantly clear he didn't want doesn't count.

Another defense brought up is that Jiraiya told Kakashi he would train Naruto, which is incorrect. Kakashi wouldn't have bothered hiring Ebisu for the job of training Naruto if he knew that Jiraiya was going to train Naruto. So that's a moot point, since Kakashi was going to ditch Naruto in favor of Sasuke either way.

The scene where Jiraiya commands Kakashi to focus on training Sasuke while Jiraiya promises to train Naruto is frequently brought up, but the placement of this scene is ambiguous and never stated. So it's up to interpretation where that conversation took place and no one can definitively state for a fact when it took place, whether that was before or after the chunin exams. My personal opinion is that this scene occurs after Orochimaru's invasion and Naruto's fight with Gaara and after the chunin exams are finished, not before.

It's a possibility that Kakashi might have talked to Jiraiya before he started training Sasuke, though I think Kakashi took off after dumping Naruto with Ebisu at the hospital and went straight to his secret training spot and didn't return to the village until the day of the final exams. During that time he made no contact with anyone in the village: not his own teammates, the Anbu, or any Leaf authorities, which is why not even the Leaf government knew where Kakashi and Sasuke were during this time. Although the Fourth Hokage's Legacy filler duology goes against that a bit, so make of that what you will, and I'll discuss that further in another chapter.

It seems weird that Kakashi would talk to Jiraiya and not his own teammates (not like he'd tell Naruto and Sakura anything useful even if he did talk to them though) nor bother to talk to Leaf authorities. So I don't think this conversation happened until after the chunin exams were all over, especially since the conversation isn't shown until after the chunin exams.

Regardless, what is certain is that this conversation definitely happened sometime after Ebisu had been training Naruto and Jiraiya stepped in as Naruto's teacher. Kakashi didn't have anything whatsoever to do with Naruto being taught by Jiraiya, that was all Jiraiya's idea. Kakashi hadn't even known that Jiraiya would train Naruto until later. It was before Kakashi ever knew anything of Jiraiya's involvement that he'd been content with ditching Naruto with Ebisu.

My question is why doesn't Kakashi invite Ebisu and Naruto to train with him and Sasuke, that way Sasuke can learn at least the concept of better chakra control, which he evidently already needs to learn anyway if he wants to optimize his battle performance. Even if Kakashi doesn't want Sasuke to work on that for now (since it might be too overwhelming to learn that plus Chidori plus his speed training), it couldn't hurt Sasuke to at least start learning the basics.

Personally, I don't know why Kakashi doesn't just invite the entire team to join Sasuke for training. If Ebisu and all four members of Team 7 were present for Sasuke's and Naruto's chunin exams training, then all the better. That can only benefit the team. Having Sasuke and Naruto train together would benefit them by challenging them to push themselves harder, as well as teach them camaraderie of learning to grow stronger together as a team, instead of sneakily hiding S-class abilities from their teammates and only caring about getting stronger as an individual.

Adding Sakura into the mix seems like a great idea too. Instead of leaving her alone to be viciously eaten up by anxiety, stress, and worry over Sasuke, it involves her in the process of building up the team (reinforcing the concept of teamwork by including the entire team in times of important growth), and it adds her to the pool of resources that Naruto and Sasuke have available.

After all, Sakura happens to be an expert at refined chakra control, whereas Naruto and Sasuke are not as great at refined chakra control as she is. Having a peer on hand to ask for advice is a great idea, since in the Land of Waves arc, Naruto and Sasuke both sought Sakura's advice for help in learning chakra control during their tree-climbing exercise. They could have asked Kakashi, their trainer, for help, but instead they both sought Sakura's advice for help. First Naruto asked Sakura how she'd done it, then Sasuke felt compelled to also seek out Sakura's advice by asking Naruto what Sakura told him. Even after Naruto refused to help Sasuke by sharing Sakura's advice, Sasuke could've sought Kakashi's counsel on the matter, but he didn't. Meaning that even if the boys don't want to ask an adult for help, they might be willing to ask a peer for tips, as sometimes children feel more comfortable with asking people their age for help than adults.

Sakura could serve as a morale booster to the team, as Sakura is apt to cheer on the progress of her teammates. She's also the most likely to show care and concern for her teammates' welfare, which can only be a good thing. Having the whole team gathered together could invoke levity and fun into a training regime that otherwise might be dull and serious (because both Sasuke and Kakashi are serious people – it's Naruto and Sakura who invoke a fun and spirited levity into the team).

If Kakashi were really feeling industrious, he might even consider teaching Sakura a new jutsu too. It's not immediately relevant for Sakura to learn a jutsu before the chunnin exams, but Kakashi needs to stop thinking in short-term and have a little vision for the team's future: Sakura being as weak and useless to the team as she is now is a problem and she's a liability to the team. The teams' missions are only going to get harder and tougher and more dangerous as time goes on, especially if Naruto or Sasuke made the rank of chunin (the outcome that the team is hoping for), and Sakura needs to be able to take care of herself, because one day there could be a situation where Naruto and Sasuke are left depending on her help, and Sakura needs to be to the level where she can pretty much carry the team in a tight spot if necessary, or at the very least add significant contributions. Even if that isn't possible, Kakashi's job as leader and teacher is to get her to that point as close as is possible.

Especially considering Sasuke's present condition, that only makes it all the more important that Sakura get stronger, because the curse mark has given Sasuke a handicap when his chakra gets too low. There may come a time when Sasuke's life is completely in Naruto's and Sakura's hands, and Kakashi needs to be preparing Naruto and Sakura for that ASAP.

Plus with Kakashi being Sasuke's only company for an entire month, it's inevitably going to get lonely and boring. At least they have each other, but Kakashi and Sasuke are both adjusted to a four-squad group; it's going to feel lonely and quiet without the other half of the team. And only having one other person as your entire social group for an entire month just doesn't strike me as all that psychologically healthy, as it's pretty limiting.

Furthermore, people tend to relate best to their peers, and there can be a bit of a barrier between a child and an adult in a position and authority, no matter how slight or obscure it might be. People tend to enjoy having people their age to hang out with, because people on the same walk of life as you are often easier to relate to than someone removed from your generations' experiences.

Obviously because of the chunin exams deadline, Naruto and Sasuke's training should take precedence, but how hard can it be to teach three students at once, especially if Kakashi employs the help of another trainer such as Ebisu? Like say Kakashi teaches Sakura a genjutsu. Even if Sakura gets to work on her training less than Naruto and Sasuke and is required to always take a backseat to the boys in training for the time being, it should still be very easy for one teacher to watch over Naruto and Sasuke's training while one works with Sakura on her genjutsu training. Or again, Kakashi could always use a shadow clone to monitor the three kids simultaneously, since surely someone of Kakashi's level could handle that much. Besides that, Sakura has considerably lower stamina than the boys anyway due to her chakra levels being significantly lower, so she wouldn't be able to train as long as them anyway.

And before fans give me nonsense arguments about Kakashi not knowing genjutsu – don't even bother. Kakashi used genjutsu within the first 5 episodes of the series, so yes, Kakashi knows how to use genjutsu. He may not be an expert, but he at least knows the basics of genjutsu and by extension should be able to teach the basics. And right now, Sakura only needs the basics of genjutsu since she has no experience with using genjutsu whatsoever. So Kakashi has plenty to teach Sakura too, if he'd actually bother to do his job.

Another invalid excuse for Kakashi neglecting Naruto is the claim that "Kakashi doesn't have chakra reserves as Naruto, so him teaching Naruto would be pointless". Um, Jiraiya and Ebisu don't have chakra reserves anywhere near as high as Naruto's insanely massive chakra reserves either, so that excuse is invalid and doesn't make sense. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't teach Naruto just because their chakra reserves are naturally much higher, because then that would mean that no one would ever be able to teach Naruto anything at all. Besides, Kakashi did train Naruto later on in Part II. Clearly difference in chakra levels is not a barrier to being qualified for training someone.