I never post on here anymore because my life has been a hurricane lately, but I have late night thoughts and it is an absolute necessity to share them.
So like, real talk: how did Kakuzu not kill Hidan? And more importantly, why not?
I know, I know, "they were partnered because Hidan is immortal and Kakuzu kills his partners!" Which yeah, sure, whatever, but you're going to tell me that ancient, mean ass Kakuzu didn't IMMEDIATELY realize that he could just cut Hidan up and throw him in a ditch somewhere? Or, if Pein/Zetsu finding his body and "reviving him" was the issue, he could just... toss his head in a large body of water and be done with it. Or burn his body. Or feed him to a lion or something I don't fucking know.
Point is, why did Kakuzu not attempt any of this shit? He could easily do it. If he's strong enough to overpower his other partners he could have definitely incapacitated Hidan for long enough to chop his head off. Especially with Hidan already incapacitating himself during his rituals. Which brings up another interesting idea: Hidan must trust Kakuzu to some degree to be that vulnerable around him.
It's probably just another one of kishimoto's plot holes, but it's interesting to think of nonetheless. It adds a lot of layers to their relationship. Did Kakuzu actually respect Hidan? A bit of a soft spot, maybe? Did pein threaten him to keep him from dismembering Hidan? ....That one's probably the most realistic explanation, actually lol.
But then again, if Pein was THAT upset about Kakuzu killing his partners, he could have put a stop to it at any point. Like, yeah Kakuzu is strong and all, but I'm sure even he doesn't want to fuck around with Pein. I'm sure a simple "Kill this next dude and you're going in the grave right alongside him" would have done the job, immortal or not. Maybe Kakuzu was just really good at making his partners' deaths look like accidents? The filler anime DID show him attacking his one partner in the middle of a battle, so maybe that's how he kept getting away with it?
