#even tho theyre the same rank now AND kakashi dislikes the formality of it

[mokutone]

Idk if you’ve been asked this before but what are your thoughts on Kakashi continuing to call Yamato “Tenzo” after the name change? What are Kakashi’s motivations, how does Yamato feel about it?

ho ho! interesting question, i do love to talk about names and their meanings.

My thoughts: I like it.

Generally, I try to refer to Yamato by his different names depending on what age he is when I'm talking about him, but I generally use Yamato as the overall name, because thats the one he wears during he course of shippuden. But, when I am talking about him from ages 13-26, he is Tenzō. From ages 5ish-13, he is Kinoe, from birth-5ish, he is nameless.

Of all the names though, Tenzō is my favorite personally, because it has a very sentimental meaning, both in terms of the translation of the name, and in terms of its personal meaning to Tenzō (the name being a gift, freely given, by Yukimi (they saved each other! she considered him to be like her brother, even though she had lost her brother...he wanted to claim that. he wanted to be that!), and then later affirmed by Kakashi.

Now for Yamato:

I've seen Kakashi calling Yamato "Tenzō" compared to deadnaming before, but for me that really doesn't hold up emotionally? Tenzō has to be a very emotionally loaded name for him, but most of those emotions aren't bad at all—and, most importantly, Tenzo is THE NAME that he chose for himself. Kinoe was a designation, Yamato was an identity he was ordered to assume (even if he ended up loving it)

But Tenzō was the name which was so important to him that he went against Danzō to assert it as his identity. To me, it's really hard to argue that that's a deadname, I think.

If Yamato was another name he chose for himself, that would make more sense, but it wasn't. It was just another order, another identity imposed upon him for his use as a tool of Konoha.

If his character progression is meant to see Tenzō (a name loaded with his attempts to achieve autonomy and his own identity) as a dead name (something he no longer wants or sees himself in) meanwhile Yamato (a name assigned to him by the hokage) is supposed to be his True/Real/Living name...that's.

that's like really fucking sad, right?

that is like the most depressing arc I could ever imagine for Yamato, and while sure, you could argue it's His True Arc, that he does go down the path of seeing his attempts to own his own identity as childish and naiive, and that the only self he will ever have is one dictated by the hokage, that feels like. super grimdark to me! i'm not going to touch that.

Like, don't get me wrong, I view Yamato as a fundamentally trans character regardless of Kishimoto's motives in writing him, but if he has a deadname, I think that would have to be Kinoe.

That said, while I think both Yamato and Tenzō are both functional names for him, I think Tenzō is a name only used in private, or in private with Kakashi or Yūgao. The way I see it, he likes both names fairly well, but does not want Tenzō to be his public name because:

1) it is super loaded! That was a name only used for him with Yukimi, and his teammates in anbu. Imagine how wigged out you would feel if one of your coworkers started calling you by a nickname you got everyone to call you back in middle or high school. Like, maybe you still love that name, maybe it's still meaningful to you, but you don't want to hear your coworker say it! Let alone students! Good god!

2) It was also like. his anbu designation (because Yamato has never had a "proper" name, only titles and codenames). Gai may not have had much respect for anbu protocol, and perhaps at this point Kakashi doesn't either, but I think Yamato still does. Anbu information should probably be kept secret, I figure, especially if he still expects to go back into anbu after this "mission" is over.

Now for Kakashi:

reasons he might continue to call Yamato "Tenzō" all kind of orbit around one core gesture; expressing familiarity.

He calls Yamato "Yamato" sometimes, and generally (it seems to me at least) when speaking to him in close proximity to other people, so it's not like he's forgotten Yamato's current codename.

He also genuinely works well with and seems to enjoy being around Yamato, so he's not just being a dick.

I think there's a lot of interesting and valid reasons to HC for why Kakashi doe this. Like, you could say that, since it's implied they havent interacted pretty much at all since Kakashi was removed from anbu, u could posit that he's doing it as a kind of reassurance or validation of the friendship (like, "things have changed, i have changed, you have changed, but I still recognize you through the friendship we had in anbu").

u could also say that it's teasing between them. Yamato, refusing to deviate from respectful, if distancing titles such as Senpai, and Kakashi disrespecting official policy by using a codename that Should Not be used outside of anbu.

or maybe Kakashi thinks Tenzō, due to its emotional meaning and history, is the most important name he has called his friend, and so, when he can get away with it, will use it.

maybe all of the above! or something else entirely. who is to say.

#yamswers #surrealistnonsense #also yamato as a name raises some concerns for me that i don't super want to get into bc like. it could definitely just be #a linguistic misunderstanding on my part #but i can't honestly let go of because of kishimotos tendences as a storyteller #also. its worth wondering why yamato stubbornly refuses to drop the senpai honorific #even tho theyre the same rank now AND kakashi dislikes the formality of it #why do u think he does that hm...? #i just think its interesting. is all. #long post