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Hidan had disliked Itachi from the first moment he met the Uchiha shinobi. It wasn't Itachi's quiet disposition, grating passiveness, or general disassociation. Hidan's dislike of Itachi was on principle. The Uchiha hailed from Konohagakure. His village's first Hokage was revered as the God of shinobi. Sacrilege. There was only one god – and that was Jashin-sama. Itachi was simply born and raised a bloody heretic. Hence, Hidan had made it his – long, long, long - life's purpose to convert the stoic man, show him the true way. After all, Itachi possessed all the fine qualities of a true Jashinist. Massacre. Destruction. Massacre. Annihilation. It would be a real shame to let Itachi remain an ignorant, misled heretic when he could be so much more.
Unfortunately, Hidan's attempts hadn't received the appropriate gratitude. Itachi had disregarded Hidan's good intentions, refused to even contemplate embracing his religion. At first, Itachi had been polite in his verbal refusals. A simple 'no', uttered in the most indifferent manner Hidan had ever heard from a person. Itachi could have been another of Sasori's puppets with his utter lack of emotion, but it wasn't enough to make Hidan relent. The Uchiha had slaughtered his entire clan, his own flesh and blood. Hidan reckoned Itachi's apathy was nothing but a façade to avoid attention.
After a month, Itachi had realized such subtle measures wouldn't deter Hidan, so he had changed his tactics. He had threatened to trap Hidan in a genjutsu, making him forget his own beliefs. Ludicrous. As if Hidan could denounce Jashin-sama because of a mere genjutsu. Jashinism was in his blood, coursed through his body, sustained his immortality. It was impossible – and he had told Itachi as much. The Uchiha had nonetheless attempted to test his theory. Much to Hidan's chagrin, the genjutsu had been powerful enough to work – that is, until Kakuzu had 'killed' him. Apparently, suffering a death blow had dispelled the genjutsu. Hidan had been livid, more determined than ever to change Itachi's views into his own. Thus, he had resorted to physical methods.
If Itachi could experience a Jashinist ceremony, share, taste, and relish the pain of sacrifice with Hidan then he would surely see the error of his ways. Another failure. Not only had Hidan been unable to make a scratch on Itachi, he had suffered the greatest humiliation of his life. Kakuzu had sewn the arms Itachi had torn off in the wrong sockets. Hidan had cursed, yelled, threatened, begged his partner to sew his limbs into their rightful places, but Kakuzu had shrugged, insisted he would do no such thing unless Hidan relinquished his ideas of converting Itachi.
Pein had become aware of Hidan's side-hobby and had warned Kakuzu he wouldn't be assigning them any money-making missions if this continued. Even in Akatsuki, unity was a requirement as it seemed, and Hidan had been messing with Pein's ideology. Absurd. Given the chance, Hidan would love to cleave off Pein's head. Their leader wasn't simply a heretic, no. Claiming to be a God was much, much worse than merely that. If not for Kakuzu, he would have never enlisted in Akatsuki, but it was too late to back out. Despite being a heretic, a delusional one at that, Pein was not to be trifled with. Even Hidan knew at least that much.
Still, Hidan could not – and would not – abandon his holy mission. Itachi would become a Jashinist, Kakuzu and Pein be damned. It didn't matter that he was currently buried Jashin-sama only knew how many feet below ground, or that his head wasn't attached to his body, or that he had no means of escaping. His priorities were hard-set. Sacrifice that smart-ass kid who buried him in this hellhole – slowly and painfully – then convince Itachi to embrace Jashinism. Hidan could wait; he had all the time in the world, if nothing else.