I'll take the liberty to point this out as a pivotal point in the story writing. I want kakashi to live, so much...but I can't think of a way to make it happen without it seeming like bullshit. If history is any help in predicting this, neither can Kishimoto (I'm hoping he can though...but the safe bet is to not even go there). So our options are, moving death of one of the coolest characters ever, or complete and utter ruination of his character via his survival. If some slug/some tsunade comes to save him, it'll be like "ooooh boy...where have I seen THIS before..." and I'm specifically saying that it's happened to kakashi before, not to mention other characters. If no one comes to save him, then he's got nothing left to save himself. Even if Pain leaves him alone, he should die for having used that move. That's a big death hole and it would take more ingenuity than anyone has to write a character that crawls out of it, in this kind of story anyway.

As much as this'll suck...I hope he dies...