#wanna hear all of your Sukea theories and headcanons too 😍
[cracks knuckles] @skykashi Brace for some feels and a long-ass post, friend.
Theory and headcanon overlap a lot with Sukea because I need to have a solid grasp on him and the decisions Kakashi made to create him for my writing. (And writing Sukea is so much fun!) So, I’ll try to clarify where different headcanons come into play.
The first thing of note is portrayed so fucking perfectly by a fanart I found on pintrest. Now, because I found it there and do not know the identity of the artist, I’ll not be posting the original picture. This is all about appearance, and how appearance leads toward the definition of origin and background, so I’m going to take the concept that the piece points out and show it to you here. I’ll note that this isn’t headcanon or theory - this is very intentional by design in canon, but it doesn’t hit until you see them side by side.
Sukea is designed to be connected, at the very least visually, to Rin.
There could be hundreds of reasons for this, some of them subconscious, and some of them practical. It’s hard for me to put into words why consciously I think he designed Sukea this way, but subconsciously is a different story, and comes down to three things.
Self-punishment
Emotional security
What neither he nor Rin got to be, but could have been
Which also leads into Sukea’s personality, but that I’ll address later on.
Self-punishment in this case I think is fairly transparent. There is no way to be so closely connected visually, thematically, at all really, without having to think of her. He already spends countless hours dedicated to her, telling her literally everything that is happening to and around him. He does this more so than with Obito, and there are reasons for that which come into play in the next one.
Rin, unlike Obito, was always able to get along with Kakashi - to the point where she could get him to ease off on Obito and be slightly less of a brat, which even Minato couldn’t get him to do. We also see that he’s comfortable with her touching him, which if you stop and think about, he is almost always either the one initiating contact, avoiding or deflecting it, visibly uncomfortable, or it’s Gai.
They also have more time together after Obito’s death, which was a shared trauma. Kakashi has some major notable changes in his core beliefs and opens himself more to acknowledging he cares about people. Rin is present through both trauma and major changes and instability, and she’s always a caring and gentle. Essentially, the way I tend to interpret it, at this point Rin and Minato are family to him, and they’re familiar. It’s easy to slip into a role that you’re already familiar with, even if you alter it.
Which he does, bringing me to the third sub-con reason. When we consider Sukea’s personality, I can describe him more or less as: “If Kakashi wasn’t made of trauma and anger and did a gem fusion with Rin.” Mischief? Check. Sass? Check. Drama? Check. With Sukea being a “retired” shinobi, whatever reasons both Kakashi and Rin had for becoming shinobi in the first place are still recognized, and because he’s primarily a non-combatant, he’s able to do things for cover that are, to be frank, sometimes really childish.
But it goes one step further than that, and this is why I think Sukea was and is a long-term active use cover persona. (Though if we take all of Boruto as canon, which frankly I don’t, Sukea has been retired when we see him again.) There are a lot of freedoms from responsibility and expectation Sukea is able to take advantage of, and a part of that includes what is more than necessary for someone as reserved as Kakashi; he can react in the moment and he can react genuinely and emotionally. Instead of the more subtle sighs and stares, Sukea is significantly more dramatic and emotive. And impulsive, which sometimes gets him into trouble, or almost does. (That’s the risk of Sukea being so close to himself, but being close to yourself is also the most reliable way of maintaining consistency and a continuity of narrative.)
Interestingly, and I personally think this is primarily because the times we’ve seen him have been within the village, he never gives his surname. Why would this matter only in the village? Nohara. I absolutely headcanon that Sukea’s full name is Nohara Sukea, and this forms a core part of his background when undercover, which could be debunked only if someone is familiar with the Nohara clan.
There’s also a reason, I think, for the scarf, but that comes with another major headcanon that strays from Sukea directly into Kakashi himself, his reason for wearing a mask and scarf, and addresses a mystery that is heavily implied throughout the series.
Inuzuka have the most sensitive and acute sense of smell of any clan. Kakashi has a better sense of smell than Kiba, by far, and there’s another indicator that we’re given very plainly. Actually, there are eight of them. Sakumo had nothing tying him to ninken, and yet Kakashi raised eight of them from the time they were pups. Those two in combination heavily, heavily imply that his mother, who we sadly never get to see, was an Inuzuka.
With that in mind, I have two words to fill in a surprisingly simple explanation for why he wears a mask (and sometimes also a scarf) as a child, and why Sukea has a scarf as well: Sensory. Overload.
It’s probable that Obito had the same thing going on auditorily before having, uh, ninja-god DNA spliced into him.
And with that, I think, possibly? Those are my most prominent HCs and theories about Sukea. I’ll only add that, hoo boyo, writing Kakashi and writing Sukea are entirely different experiences, and the few times there’s a slip on Kakashi’s part? It’s absolutely hilarious. One such instance resulted in a momentary complete lack of concentration and nearly falling on his face as a result.