Chidori (Batman5295)

The Chidori is Kakashi Hatake's first original technique, though he more frequently uses an S-ranked version known as the Lightning Cutter. He created it around the time he was promoted to jōnin, and later taught it to Sasuke Uchiha.

Overview
This technique channels a large amount of lightning chakra to the user's hand. The amount of chakra is so great that it becomes visible. The high concentration of electricity produces a sound reminiscent of many birds chirping, hence the name. Once the technique is completed, the user charges forward and thrusts the Chidori into the target. This produces heavy amounts of damage that is usually fatal. This technique is classified as an assassination technique because of the speed at which it is performed, despite the loud noise it produces.

As shown against Killer B, Chidori can also be used to simply give the opponent a large electrical shock without impaling them.

Kakashi noted he created this technique because of his inability to combine the Rasengan's shape transformation with his lightning change in chakra nature.

Drawbacks
This technique has a major drawback, however. The speed at which the attack must be done, combined with the fact that the user must run in a straight line, causes a tunnel vision-like effect for the user. This allows the enemy to easily counter the attack, making it a potentially lethal move for the user. Though this drawback would seem to make learning the technique fairly pointless, Sasuke and Kakashi are able to avoid the drawback because of their Sharingan, which takes in every detail, regardless of how fast the user is moving.

As an additional drawback, the large amount of chakra required limits the number of times this technique can be performed per day. In Part I, Sasuke can only use it twice a day (under his own power) and Kakashi can use it four times, though their limits have been shown to have increased to an unspecified level in Part II. Should the user attempt to go beyond their limit, all of their chakra will be drained and their very life force could go along with it.

An additional problem, though not necessarily a debilitating one, is the fact that the large amount of chakra can also injure the user's hand if they put too much force into the attack. In Part I, Sasuke does this when confronting his brother Itachi, causing some of the skin to peel from his hand and leaving it slightly smoldering after the attack was finished.

Use and Improvement
Originally, when Kakashi invented the Chidori, he suffered the drawback of the technique being a straight-line attack, which prompted Minato Namikaze to tell him not to use it, as the risk is too dangerous, and the technique would be rendered useless as the targets could simply evade or easily counter it. However, after acquiring the Sharingan from his friend, Obito Uchiha, Kakashi has eliminated the drawback, as he can predict the opponents' movements and aim at them much easier, making it rather difficult for the enemy to evade the attack. Sometime after mastering the Chidori, Kakashi improved it into a far more powerful version, the Lightning Cutter, which he uses more often than the Chidori itself. The Lightning Cutter is powerful enough to drive a hole through the chest of a person struck by it, as seen when Haku protected Zabuza from Kakashi.

Kakashi taught Sasuke the Chidori as a means to persuade him not to use the Cursed Seal of Heaven as well as to forfeit his desires for revenge. He also emphasised that the Chidori was a blade to protect his friends. However, Sasuke has warped it into a blade to sever those bonds in his desire for power and vengeance. In Part II, Sasuke has mastered the principles of lightning manipulation and developed a number of other Lightning Release techniques, most of which are derived from the Chidori. Sasuke can also transmit his Chidori through weapons as he does with both his sword and with his fūma shuriken.