Hidan is a Jonin (Naruto)

Understanding Hidan's Power

Coming to a grounded conclusion on Hidan from Naruto.

Prerequisite:

Unlike Kisame, Hidan is often seen as the lowest among his peers. The laughingstock of the Akatsuki, Hidan is generally placed somewhere in Kage tier with some going so far as to claim he is tailed best level in power.

I'm here once again to toss a new opinion in the ring; that being Hidan is not only not Kage level, but he isn't even an abnormality in the Naruto verse.

I'll be using the drawn out Hidan fights as examples of Hidan's general deadliness level.

Hidan vs The Akatsuki:

We are starting off with canon from game lore. Kakazu, Orochimaru, and Sasori are tasked with defeating Hidan and bringing him in.

The fight starts with a team jutsu. Kakazu and Orochimaru create a giant blast that Hidan watches in awe as it hits him. Hidan (obviously) tanks the blast and makes various attempts at Kakazu, all of which are back stepped. The fight continues... and ends. Hidan losses in a way that is quite unique: they simply hurt him into submission. This would imply that they simply stacked lethal blows until the pain became too great.

Conclusion: Hidan can't take on three Akatsuki members. Not surprising in the least.

Hidan vs Team Asuma:

In the Akatsuki Suppression Mission, Hidan takes a stab at Asuma, two Chunin, and Shikamaru.

Hidan opens with an attack on Asuma who dodges, allowing a window for Shikamaru to shadow possess Hidan. Two Chunin move in and swing for double lethal against Hidan, concluding what would have been the fight for him normally. Hidan doesn't actually die from stabs and slashes, so although this is clearly a loss for Hidan, the fight continues.

Hidan struggles quite a bit against Asuma with minimal help from Shikamaru. Hidan's goal is to land any blow, soft or not, and is able to swing wildly to achieve this. Despite this, Kakazu warns Hidan that he probably has his hands full, and this inadvertent claim was correct. Hidan takes lethal once again from the Jonin duo.

It takes Hidan three separate tries (with the progress made in the second attempt) to actually beat Asuma.

Conclusion: Hidan is mostly a statistical match to Asuma, but has the advantage with durability in mind. Hidan is more in competition with two Jonin, but loses out to a duo, suggesting he may be actually 1.5 Jonin in overall ability. This may be generous though considering how many times he took lethal.

Hidan vs Shikamaru:

Later in the Akatsuki Suppression Mission, Shikamaru engages Hidan.

This time, Shikamaru is able to finesse a shadow possession right away on his own. For those who don't understand what was set up in the Chunin Exams, Shikamaru capturing someone completely with his shadow is essentially a hit for lethal. Shikamaru isn't one to kill others, but the representation is still there. In this fight, Shikamaru obtains a lethal/win con in a matter of seconds.

Following this, Hidan is led into the forest where he is tricked into taking his eyes off of Shikamaru, allowing him to run up and once again hit for lethal to the throat. This confrontation leads to another lethal blow, this time blowing Hidan up and burying him alive.

Alright, but this is prep right? This isn't a normal variant of Shikamaru.

Well, yes and no. Shikamaru trapped Hidan in seconds without prep when the fight began. Although this wasn't a straight-up win, it would be a win without Hidan's durability factor. Keep in mind that my assessments of a character's deadliness ignore punch up potential and investigates the actual statistics of the character. I give Hidan props for being able to defeat tailed beasts and the like, but in reality he takes many lethal hits from Jonin level characters all the time.

Conclusion: Hidan continues to be an issue for solo Jonin. Despite this, he isn't actually more powerful than one. In fact, Shikamaru seems to out stat Hidan.

Conclusion - Hidan:

Hidan is often seen struggling against a single Jonin or a Jonin with backup. Worst yet, Hidan is challenged by Shikamaru. Shikamaru is a character who is often put on a pedestal because of intelligence. Being a Jonin, Shikamaru should be Jonin level in stats, but I generally hold the opinion that he may be lacking in physical prowess and chakra output based on how he performs compared to other Jonin. Shikamaru being blatantly more impressive than Hidan puts Hidan in low to mid Jonin level.

Even when accounting for punch up ability, Hidan was warned that a couple of Jonin working together was too much for him. Because of this, Hidan's punch up ability, when being practical, probably doesn't even bring him up to low Kage level.

Another piece that I decided was too small to include as a fight:

Hidan attempts to engage Part Two Kakashi, and gets casually back stepped. People are much slower when running backwards, and Kakashi wasn't even being particularly pressed over the situation. I can't speak on Kakashi's power level here, but he isn't crazy higher than his Part One base. His back step should definitely be slower than his Part One self.

My final estimation:

On a list from weakest to strongest, Hidan rests snugly between Asuma and Mid Shippuden Shikamaru in the Jonin tier. He isn't standout in the verse at all besides his ability to punch up. I'd say he does fine against the background Jonin like Genma or Hayate, but would probably lose to prominent Jonin like Part One Kakashi, Zabuza, or Minimal Gates Part One Guy.

Heres some interesting match-ups for Hidan:

Haku: Hidan seems to struggle with trap scenerios, so his approach to the Ice Mirrors or just raw speed would be interesting. I think this is a bit of a mismatch, but Hidan may be able to pull a couple wins out of ten.
Part One Final Valley Sasuke: This one is hot. Sasuke's wings don't seem to bleed, so a quick usage of CM2 may give Sasuke the edge here.
Shizune: I won't speak on this too much as I want to do a mini write-up for Tsunade's assistant. Shizune is probably too fast for Hidan. She only has needles and poison though. Can Hidan lose to poison? Excruciating pain has beat him before.
Kisame: Just for the laughs, since these two aren't very good. Kisame could lose if he's careless, but he may be able to rip all the chakra out of Hidan in a single swipe.

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