Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-18016240-20160208110013/@comment-734582-20160310230636

AsianReaper wrote: @Thekillman, it matters a little because we were talking about if he had the intent. Or at least I was. He was never willing to kill her. At that point, he wasn't ready to kill someone close to him, no matter the consequences. It doesn't matter what the intent was whatsoever. he killed a friend. He already had to live through that once. He can kill his pupil because he's been through it once before, willingly or not. Hiruzen didn't go through such a thing. Kakashi admitted even he had a lot of trouble hardening himself to do it. But Kakashi's already killed a friend, which is the only difference between Kakashi being able to do so and Hiruzen failing to do so.

Not to mention Orochimaru was a brilliant pupil, brilliant and strong enough to be a potential 4th Hokage.