Hidan actually has… depth???
I’ve been reading the Akatsuki Hiden novel lately, and one of the stories caught my attention. The book is intended to show a gentler, more human side to the Akatsuki, and the story itself - titled “The Valley of Lies” - follows Hidan and Kakuzu, as they come across a “happy” (in a Stepford way) cultist village, and proceed to mercilessly slaughter everybody living there; including a child, who spent a large part of the story bonding with Hidan over his teachings about the way of Jashin.
The first time I read this story, I was confused. How could this heartless display of violence serve as a way to humanize them? If anything, it made them look even worse, Hidan in particular. After repeatedly stating that killing people for money is against his religious beliefs, he doesn’t hesitate for a moment to kill a potential Jashin convert, only because Kakuzu wants to cash in on his bounty.
“Hohozuki was staring straight at Hidan, and suddenly, he appeared to be no different from the other villagers who were scrambling around, trying to escape the sudden invasion.”
What a cruel, nasty little hypocrite, eh?
But then I read the story again, and one scene in particular immediately stood out to me. It opens with Hidan teaching the boy the most important commandment in Jashinism - “Thou Shalt Kill Thy Neighbor” - which is explained as being less about physical distance, and more about murdering any person that you grow emotionally close to; people you most respect and bond with. The boy then asks Hidan how come he hasn’t killed Kakuzu, to which Hidan immediately responds that the rule doesn’t apply to him, because Kakuzu and Hidan are simply too different from each other to ever become emotionally attached. The boy then responds with this:
“That’s right… Hidan-san and… Kakuzu-san… are different… Just like me… and Ameyuki…”
Now, the reason why this scene reads differently the second time around, is because at the end of the story we find out that the boy’s “friend” is, in fact, his own mud clone. The two boys aren’t different at all - they are the same person.
Mind = Blown!
When the boy compares his relationship with his clone to that of Hidan and Kakuzu, he isn’t agreeing with Hidan’s explanation. He’s recognizing it as an excuse, a lie that Hidan tells himself, because the truth makes him uncomfortable. Much like the boy, Hidan is living in his own “valley of lies”, which is lampshaded early in the story, where he comments on the fact that the cultist village’s philosophy reminds him of his own faith in Jashin.
This is what the Databook has to say about Hidan’s relationship with Kakuzu:
Kakuzu is the first person Hidan has met in his life, that he could in some way relate to. Hidan is used to being one of a kind - the only killer in a village of pacifists, the only Jashinist who’s achieved immortality - and Kakuzu is the only person in the world, that Hidan could build a genuine connection with. But he doesn’t acknowledge that connection, either to the boy, or even to himself, because he knows that if he were to ever allow himself to bond with Kakuzu, his religion would compel him to kill the man, which is something that he very obviously doesn’t want.
“Hey, what the fuck, man!? Is Kakuzu gon’ be okay!?” - actual quote from the story. For a person, who supposedly doesn’t feel any attachment to Kakuzu, Hidan sure panics a lot whenever Kakuzu appears to be in genuine danger.
So many people take their bickering at a face value, and assume that they feel nothing but hate towards everyone and everything, themselves included. And I can hardly blame them, seeing as much of the nuance to Hidan and Kakuzu’s characters and their relationship is scattered between databooks and novels, that nobody reads. But it’s really fascinating to see that there may be more to them than meets the eye. It’s a shame that the anime didn’t choose to adapt any of this.
