"Reasonably Happy"?

[tozette]

Many moons ago, an anonymous tumblr user asked me: What are the keys to (reasonably) happy kakuhida? like they can be disasters but they're disasters who function well together (i just really like terrible people in a good relationship).

I answered as follows:

Let me put on my rambly shipper goggles. Are you ready? I hope you are ready. I am ready.

I think we're pretty limited on this topic when we draw from canon because, although both characters have strong personality traits and clear basic motives, we don't get enough page time to see more complicated interplay. Given this context, please accept the following as character speculation extrapolated from canon, rather than preaching a specific character gospel. I am sure dissenting headcanons exist, but they are not mine. :)

I think you need a couple of things to have a "happy" relationship: you need to be able to trust your partner to some degree, and when you try to attract your partner's interest or attention you need to have a good chance of actually getting it and receiving their consideration. Needs met, desires considered. You know. In short, you need to know they'll think about what you need and want. There are other things that people want: sex, financial stability, reliability, the ability to do the dishes once in a while without being asked—

But we're talking about fundamentals. So I'm going with 1. trust and 2. attention. Fight me. (Do not actually fight me, I am. so tired.)

We'll start with Kakuzu because I think he has a slightly more comprehensible character and history.

The TLDR summary for his character is:

- he was a loyal village ninja

- he was betrayed by his village

- he did some murder ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

- he nicked a kinjutsu and

- he left to become a wandering bounty hunter, never to trust anyone or anything again and only believing in the power of cold hard cash.

This is pretty important because, as above, trust and vulnerability are areas of significant importance for a happy committed relationship if you're close to someone. The mortifying ordeal and all that. This also ties in with providing attention to someone. If you become invested in someone and they reject you or hurt you, that is also a rubbish feeling. I don't think Kakuzu usually wants to roll the dice on ANY of this.

So it's conceivable to view his character as either needing to learn to cope with some, limited amount of vulnerability to access human connection for happiness (in the context of a romantic relationship), or else as someone who is pretty much content with never participating in a functional romantic relationship.

Canon seems to lean more to the second "never has a real relationship" option—but then, it has to, doesn't it. Kakuzu is a minor antagonist with minimal screen time. Despite that, it's clear to me that at some point Kakuzu did want significant human connections. It wouldn't have been such a defining part of his backstory to change and reject that need, otherwise. Kakuzu can be happy in this relationship if he can trust Hidan—and I think he can! Not in an unconditional way, but then, Kakuzu wouldn't trust anything in an unconditional way. But he can definitely trust Hidan to be reliably exactly as Hidan is. A very authentic person, Hidan.

We see he does trust him, curiously. When Shikamaru leads Hidan away during their fight, he says: "You are seriously underestimating Hidan."

A weird amount of faith in a guy whose head you had to sew back on, Kakuzu.

Secondly, Hidan. His character has clear and consistent motives in terms of his dedication to an ideology. But, from the perspective of someone looking for clues about his interpersonal relationships, he's kind of difficult.

So... well, immediately I think there's no getting along with Hidan without at the very least making time and space for all the religious... stuff. That's fundamental.

And then, looking at what we see of him in canon, we can safely say that he does desire human connections: he expresses interest in Kakuzu on the basis of their shared experiences of immortality, he's pleased when Kakuzu considers what he wants and he's at least shallowly interested in getting attention from other people.

Curiously, he seems to have very little trouble with physical vulnerability—maybe because he doesn't see it as in any way threatening. He's immortal. He can get his heart ripped out literally or metaphorically. (Come at him, bro.)

We see him trust Kakuzu with his actual, physical body during absurd moments of vulnerability, like. you know. dismemberment. He also gets the consideration he asks for a shockingly high proportion of the time when we see him ask for it? Like, for example, when Hidan insists he wants to be the one to fight, Kakuzu acquiesces readily. This is interesting because Kakuzu likes fighting. He likes expressing himself through violence—this is part of his character. He dislikes the way Hidan fights, both in terms of watching him make stupid arrogant mistakes (as he implies canonically) and in terms of waiting for his drawn-out death ritual (as he says). But he acquiesces. Why? He also waits for those long, drawn out rituals, even when he could do better by getting a head start on, for example, dropping off Chiriku's body.

I actually think canonically Hidan and Kakuzu have a surprisingly pleasant relationship because of events like these? I find them significant given how comparatively horrid they are to everyone else with whom we see them interact.

(...to be fair they either kill or attempt to kill most of those. But, hey, not each other!)

I don't think you have to work too hard to give them a happy relationship, really. I mean, accepting that Kakuzu seems to enjoy his own rage and misery to a degree, I think they're pretty good to each other on the whole... weirdly.