Orochimaru (Naruto)

Orochimaru is a fictional character and major villain in the anime and manga series Naruto.

Part I

Background

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Orochimaru excels at techniques having to do with snakes.

Template:Spoilers The prodigy student of the Third Hokage, he, Jiraiya, and Tsunade are known as the Legendary Three Ninjas (伝説の三忍, "Densetsu no Sannin"). A missing-nin from Konoha, Orochimaru is a twisted, manipulative, and ruthless man, whose prime ambition is to become "the ultimate being" by achieving immortality and knowledge of all jutsu in the world. While technically a Jōnin, as it was the last rank he made in Konoha before defecting, his abilities are obviously far beyond those of the average Jōnin, and even those of some Kage-level ninja. Orochimaru has a knack for winning otherwise desperate people to his cause, filling the void in their life with loyalty to him; he brands some of his subordinates with a cursed seal which corrodes their body and free will in exchange for power. He relishes conflict and unrest.

Orochimaru's specialty is forbidden techniques having to do with souls, departed or otherwise, which he has researched to the point where he can defy death itself and his mind transcends the body it happens to currently inhabit. He is also very talented with techniques related to snakes (hence the name Orochi, a legendary eight-headed snake from Japanese folklore) and can summon snakes of various powers, such as the 'Boss Snake', Manda; the equal to Jiraiya's Gamabunta and Tsunade's Katsuyu. In fact, his introduction is riding a gigantic snake. His own appearance is bordering on inhuman, with very pale skin, slitted eyes, and an extending, snake-like tongue (Vollldeemooortt...) (this tongue is actually a permanent jutsu, which enables the user to extend parts of their body to infinite lengths). Orochimaru has the unique ability to molt or repair his skin as easily as someone else's clothes. Even Morino Ibiki, Konoha's veteran torture and interrogation specialist, admits that when he saw Orochimaru for the first time, he was very frightened and was convinced that what stood before him was not a man but rather something else which had merely donned human skin. Overall, Orochimaru is meant to embody evil incarnate and does not possess a single redeemable quality.

Years in Konoha

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Future Legends: The young Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya, with their sensei, Sarutobi.

Orochimaru was originally a student of Sarutobi (who was also the Third Hokage) as a part of a three-man team containing himself, Jiraiya and Tsunade. He was considered the most talented out of the three and Sarutobi had high hopes for him, often berating the clumsy Jiraiya and telling him he should be more like Orochimaru; he hoped that one day, Orochimaru would succeed him.

While Orochimaru's ambitions did include becoming Hokage, his eyes were set upon goals quite alien to the ideals traditionally associated with the title and emphatically embraced by his teacher. Sarutobi knew that "a shinobi's true strength will manifest when protecting something important," and the Hokage's role is to love and protect the people of the village as if they were family. For Orochimaru, however, Hokage was nothing more than a potential conquest on the way to what truly interested him - power.

Sarutobi hoped to make his student see the error of his ways, but the more time that passed, the more it became clear that Orochimaru was a lost cause. This culminated in Orochimaru kidnapping his fellow Konoha shinobi as human guinea pigs. He experimented on them to develop techniques that would grant him immortality, as he had already decided that he would settle for no less than to learn all jutsu in the world, a task that would take much more than one human lifetime. When the many disappearances were finally traced back to Orochimaru, Sarutobi knew that it was his duty to kill him, but even then he couldn't bring himself to kill his prized student for whom he had had such high hopes. But at the same time he realized that Orochimaru was a twisted man that was not fit to fill the role of Hokage, and when he finally retired years later he chose a student of Jiraiya's over Orochimaru as his successor, making the student the Fourth Hokage. Though it is not known just how much of a capable ninja the Fourth was compared to Orochimaru, it is implied in the series that the Fourth could at least equal Orochimaru in battle.

While it is unknown how many and what experiments Orochimaru had conducted during his stay in Konoha, a few things are currently known. The first is that he had developed his cursed seal, first tested upon Anko. The second would be the injection of the First Hokage's genes into sixty babies, in the hope of using First's mokuton and bijū-control ability; 59 babies died, but one, Yamato survived.

Defection from Konoha

Realizing that he had hit a dead end in his quest to become the ultimate being and had nothing to gain from staying in Konoha, Orochimaru defected from the village and joined the elite criminal organization Akatsuki. His old teammate, Jiraiya, tried to convince him to reconsider, but to no avail - he betrayed the village and the title of the 'Three Legendary Leafs' was no more, though he is still known as one of the Legendary Three. The role Orochimaru played in Akatsuki is unclear, as are his reasons for leaving sometime later (it's implied that Uchiha Itachi's growing power was somewhat responsible). He eventually founds his own village, Otogakure (Hidden Sound).

Attack on Konoha

For a while, Orochimaru left Konoha alone, plotting to destroy them when he was ready. The opportunity presented itself with the start of the Chūnin exams. With this, Orochimaru saw both a chance to destroy his former home and acquire Uchiha Sasuke's body as his own. Having Sasuke's body would give him the Sharingan, which would aid him greatly in his ultimate goal.

Before the exams begin, Orochimaru enlisted the help of Sunagakure (Hidden Sand), since his own village lacked the necessary strength to defeat Konoha. Already being weakened by their feudal lord, the village gladly accepts. Orochimaru would later kill the Fourth Kazekage and assume his place to get close to the Third Hokage.

During the second part of the Chūnin exams, he brands Sasuke with his cursed seal of Heaven. He's also discovered by Anko, but the exams continue due to his threat of retaliation. His Genin team is sent to kill Sasuke, unaware that they're just measuring posts for Sasuke's power. They're fought off by a combined effort from Haruno Sakura and Team Asuma, who happen to discover them while Sakura was holding them at bay. Sasuke's awakening of his cursed seal causes them to retreat.

During the final part of the Chūnin exams, Orochimaru starts his attack, hoping to unleash giant snakes outside Konoha while Shukaku is released from Gaara within the stadium. Things do not go as planned, however, and only the first of these occurs. During the attack, Orochimaru attempts to assassinate the Third Hokage. After a long battle, the Third Hokage sacrificed himself to seal Orochimaru's arms, preventing him from using any more techniques. Orochimaru's forces were also being repelled by the sudden appearance of all of Konoha's most powerful ninja, forcing a retreat.

After the Failed Invasion

Initially, Orochimaru planned to have his condition healed by appealing to his old team-mate, Tsunade, who had since become a legendary medical ninja. He offered to revive her brother and boyfriend, both of whom died in battle, hoping it would persuade her to cooperate. At the same time, Jiraiya also contacted Tsunade, asking her to replace the late Sarutobi as Konoha's Fifth Hokage. Though inclined to give in to her weaknesses and accept Orochimaru's offer at first, she ultimately chose to live her loved ones' dream rather than linger on their dead bodies and accepts the position of Hokage, becoming Orochimaru's opposition and leaving him with only one option of replacing his crumbling, useless arms: his original plan of transferring to another body through the use of Fushi Tensei.

Though Orochimaru was right about Sasuke after all, who did eventually seek him out for power, by the time Sasuke found Orochimaru, he was already in a critical state, the pain in his arms and the constant bleeding reaching the point when soon it wouldn't matter whether Sasuke arrived or not. Desperate for a new body to transfer to, Kabuto held a tournament of fights to the death between his prisoners and Orochimaru takes over the body of the last man who remains standing, Gen'yūmaru. This, while getting rid of his condition, drastically delayed his plans for Sasuke, since he can only take over a new body once about roughly every three years. When he took over him, he also noted that parts of Gen'yūmaru's will and consciousness would remain in the new body's subconscious.

Part II

It is unknown what Orochimaru had been up to during the three-year timeskip, though reason suggests he had been training Sasuke and biding his time until he would finally be able to use Fushi Tensei to transfer into him. Recently in the manga, he is revealed to have been spying on the meeting between Yakushi Kabuto and Yamato disguised as Sasori. Orochimaru explains that Sasori's "binding jutsu" on Kabuto had long ago been undone by him, before calling out Naruto, Sakura and Sai to do battle. He explains that Yamato was the only one out of sixty test subjects that survived one of his genetic experiments, to duplicate the First Hokage's Mokuton techniques and his previously unknown ability to "control bijū". Orochimaru demonstrates a number of inhuman abilities during his battle with four-tailed Kyūbi Naruto: he can shed his skin like a snake and by doing so, repair any damage to his body, make a large number of snakes and even a replica of himself (apparently also made up of snakes) emerge from his mouth. This clone was able to land a hit on Naruto, and also reform itself after being cut in half at the waist with no apparent side effects. Also in this battle, Orochimaru demonstrates his immense reserves of chakra when he summons three Rashomon gates to block the black chakra ball that Kyūbi Naruto spit at him.

The battle with Naruto comes to an end after Naruto parries an attack from Orochimaru's extended Kusanagi sword. He comments that his body had reached its limits, and says that he must wait for Sasuke's body to come to fruition.

Afterwards, back at Orochimaru's lair, it is made apparent that Orochimaru plans to team up with Danzō and destroy Konoha as it is today. (The wording would seem to indicate a revolution or takeover, rather than outright annihilation.) After a training exercise with Sasuke, he interrupts Sai and Naruto after they form a bond to question Sai's loyalty in Chapter 304.

In chapter 305 it seemed like Orochimaru would resume his heated fight with Naruto, but instead he retreated, saying that he would let Naruto go just one last time, in hopes that Naruto and company can take down more Akatsuki members for him.

Orochimaru returns again in Chapter 309; just in time to stop Sasuke from performing a certain jutsu. Kabuto also informs Sasuke to let the Konoha shinobi manage the other Akatsuki to make his revenge a little easier. Although Sasuke is hesitant, the trio disappears in a puff of smoke.

Trivia

• Orochimaru borrows heavily from Japanese literature — The names of Orochimaru, Jiraiya and Tsunade come from the Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), and the Orochimaru in that story excels in snake magic. In Japanese myth, the eight-headed snake Orochi, when slain, had the legendary sword Kusanagi salvaged from one of his tails; Orochimaru has the actual Kusanagi in the series, and uses it when he battles the Third Hokage, as well as in his later fight with Jiraiya and Tsunade and again against Naruto's four-tail transformation. In the dub (Or at least Naruto: Ultimate Ninja), Kusanagi has been renamed "Grass Halbard", similar to its true meaning, "Grass-Cutter,"
• Orochimaru's theme music in the anime seems to borrow some elements from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Orochimaru's theme is usually played when he appears as himself, not in a disguise.
• Orochimaru is male, yet he still speaks in very formal female Japanese. This is done to make him creepier (similar to Freeza of DBZ).
• While he appears in his original image, during the fight against Sarutobi, he removes what appears to be a mask covering his host's body. This happens again when he fights Jiraiya and Tsunade; a portion of his mask was ripped off. Jiraiya remarks, "No wonder he doesn't seem quite like himself."
• Orochimaru, along with Tsunade and Jiraiya, follow a trio trend. Orochimaru was the "Sasuke" of his group, while Tsunade and Jiraiya were the "Sakura" and "Naruto," respectively. Interestingly, he now trains Sasuke, while Tsunade trains Sakura and Jiraiya trains Naruto. This similarity is also show with the 4th Hokage team with Kakashi being the "Sasuke", Obito being the "Naruto" and Rin being the "Sakura".