Renowned across the world of Naruto as the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake is a genius shinobi who was destined for greatness ever since a very young age. Hailed as one of the most prodigious ninjas, Kakashi's talent was special even among the so-called geniuses in the world of ninja. At the very young age of 5, Kakashi had already become a Chunin, and in doing so, he became the youngest known person to hold this rank.
His genius was further highlighted when he had already become a full-fledged Jonin at the age of 13, something that earned him praise from even Minato Namikaze, and eventually, even following his footsteps by becoming the Hokage. Being as skilled as he was, it's no surprise that Kakashi developed several Jutsu of his own and perhaps the one that he's known for the most is none other than the Lightning Blade, also known as Raikiri. This Jutsu saw him make use of Lightning Style chakra gathered in his hand and, with a high-speed movement, thrust right through the chest of his targets, making it incredibly dangerous. Kakashi relied on it quite a lot, however, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, he ended up losing his Sharingan. As such, he had to come up with an alternative technique, and thus, Purple Electricity was born. Fans have been wondering how this Jutsu is unique and what it has to offer and, thankfully, Kakashi has given them quite a showing in Boruto already. Furthermore, the many Naruto light novels have also provided fans with a glimpse of this incredible technique, the specialty of which will now be discussed.
What Is Purple Electricity?
Purple Electricity is a powerful jutsu that Kakashi Hatake developed after the Fourth Great Ninja War to make up for what he lost in the Raikiri. Losing the Sharingan meant that Kakashi would be open to counterattacks while using the Raikiri and thus, this jutsu became a massive risk for him to employ in battle. After all, it was mentioned time and again that without the Sharingan, using the Raikiri is nigh impossible. As such, Kakashi needed a new signature technique, so he decided to create Purple Electricity.
As expected, this technique, just like the Raikiri, makes use of Lightning Release as that is Kakashi's natural affinity. In application, this technique differs greatly from Raikiri, as it doesn't see the user run at tremendous speeds to stab through them. Instead, Lightning Release: Purple Electricity is mostly used from a distance as a bolt of lightning, as seen during its debut in Kakashi Hiden: Lightning in the Icy Sky. This makes the technique quite easy for Kakashi to work with even without the Sharingan as he can simply hurl it from a distance and cause tremendous damage to his enemies.
What's more, Purple Electricity is much more versatile and can be used in a plethora of ways. Aside from using it from a distance to slice and burn through his target, Kakashi can also use Purple Electricity on contact and then transmit a powerful shock of electricity through that. He's been seen using alcohol to transmit Purple Electricity by making contact with it, which, once again, goes to show the usability of this technique is quite high.
At the same time, the power of Purple Electricity can also be adjusted accordingly to Kakashi's liking. It can be weak enough to barely paralyze his targets, as seen when Kakashi took on the Academy students before they became Genin, or strong enough to create blasts that can completely destroy the target. What's even more impressive is the fact that Purple Electricity is exceptionally useful in the way that it gets things done by harming only what Kakashi wants to be harmed. For instance, Kakashi once used to remove a target's explosive vest in a way in which it exploded without hurting the target, which is something the Rakiri would never be able to accomplish.
How Strong Is Kakashi's Purple Electricity?
Purple electricity is quite a powerful technique and, as is quite clear from its versatility, it appears to be stronger than Chidori or, Raikiri, in the case of Kakashi. This technique can be used in close-range combat and, at the same time, from a distance as well. This automatically makes it incredibly strong. Meanwhile, Raikiri could only be used from close range. One of the reasons why Raikiri was useful only for those who possessed a Sharingan was because of the tunnel vision faced by the user and the opening for a counterattack that would be impossible to avoid without the Sharingan.
With Purple Electricity, this disadvantage doesn't exist. Purple Electricity allows Kakashi to bring out his very best, and, at the same time, maintain the incredible offensive power that Raikiri offered him. At the same time, Purple Electricity also appears to be stronger. This is evident from Kakashi's short clash against two characters in Boruto. The very first instance this was confirmed to the fans was when he took part in the battle against the Nue. The Nue was strong enough to destroy Konoha, yet Kakashi was able to chop off its tail with Purple Electricity in just one blow. With Raikiri, Kakashi would have struggled to do that. This goes to show that, over the years, Kakashi has strengthened the level of Lightning Release that he possesses and, as a result of that, Purple Electricity is stronger than his Raikiri.
The second instance this was confirmed for the fans was when Kakashi fought against Kashin Koji. Although this clash was very brief, it gave fans a good glimpse of his level of skill. Kashin Koji is an Inner of Kara and Kakashi was able to go toe to toe with him when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. To put that into perspective, Konohamaru was absolutely outclassed within a matter of seconds when the two clashed. Kakashi also used Purple Electricity while clashing against him and even Koji was wary of the level of power this technique offers.
Another indication of the tremendous power that skill this possesses came during the Chunin Exams arc, however, through Boruto Uzumaki. In the world of Naruto, Iron Sand is known to be one of the most dangerous abilities. It is generally known to be better than regular sand due to its incredible toughness and the Third Kazekage was incredibly famous for its usage. When Boruto clashed against Shinki and used Purple Electricity through his Scientific Ninja Tool, he was able to break through the Iron Sand within a matter of seconds.
Clearly, Kakashi has not gotten any weaker even without the Sharingan. It has been hinted on several instances that during his time as Hokage, Kakashi could actually have gotten stronger than before. His level of skill over all the other techniques improved drastically after the war and this only means that all his other jutsu got much stronger as well. Undoubtedly, Kakashi's Purple Electricity is one of the strongest Lightning Release techniques of all time.