Kakashi Love Song

As Konohagakure repairs itself, Kakashi spots a travelling performer and slips into recollection. He remembers a woman, Hanare, who arrived at the village entrance disguised as an entertainer while secretly gathering intelligence for Jōmae Village. Detained for questioning, she gave Ibiki nothing useful, so he brought in Inoichi to probe her memories. Inoichi surfaced everything she had gleaned about Konoha and her home village, but Hanare turned her own mind-reading power on him, drawing out what he knew, including a buried memory of a young Kakashi.

Acting on that lead, Inoichi sought Kakashi out. During a stroll, the pair paused to watch the clouds, unaware that Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were listening from a tree. The genin tumbled down, knocking Kakashi onto Hanare and forcing an accidental kiss between them.

Believing Hanare had lost her knowledge of the village, the Third Hokage arranged a swap: her return in exchange for the captured shinobi Riichi, held by Jōmae. The exchange took place at a bridge's midpoint, but once Riichi crossed safely to Konoha's side, Kakashi detonated the span, refusing to release Hanare. She fled with Kakashi chasing, until they reached a cliff. There she told him she wished to die by his hand and revealed she had already erased all her memories of Konoha.

Kakashi answered that he would not slay a ninja stripped of honour, and instead sent her away. When his students arrived, he told them Hanare had leapt from the cliff. She was later glimpsed retracing the ground where she had first crossed paths with Kakashi years before.

This episode sits within Shippuden's Past Arc: The Locus of Konoha and centres on Kakashi's relationship with the spy Hanare, an anime-original thread framed as a flashback during the village's reconstruction. It pairs the opening theme Diver with the ending U Can Do It!