Orochimaru



Age: 51 years old
Date of birth: October 27
Height: 172 cm
Weight: 57,3 kg
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Yellow
Blood type: B
Registration #: 002300
Rank: n/a
Jutsu/Kekkei genkai:Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique) (Snakes), Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Kū no Tachi (Kusanagi Sword: Long Sword of the Heavens), Nan no Kaizō (Soft Physique Modification), Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Resurrection), Kanashibari no Jutsu (Temporary Paralysis Technique), Shūshagan no Jutsu (Vanishing Facial Copy Technique), Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough), Juin Jutsu (Cursed Seal Technique), Gogyō Fūin (Five Elements Seal), Fushi Tensei (Living Corpse Reincarnation), Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake Hand), Sen'eitajashu (Hidden Shadow Many Snakes Hand)
Current affiliation: Otogakure (Hidden Sound)
Current team: n/a
Previous affiliation: Former member of Akatsuki, partnered with Sasori, had the ring 空 (sora/kū, sky/empty), on his left little finger; missing-nin from Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf)
Previous team: Team Sarutobi (Sandaime Hokage, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade)
Relatives: Unknown

Personality and Ability:

Orochimaru excels at techniques having to do with Snakes.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 he is allegedly powerful enough to even defeat a small country on his own. Orochimaru has a knack for winning otherwise desperate people for his cause, filling the void in their life with loyalty to him; he brands most of his subordinates with a cursed seal which corrodes their body and free will. 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, and can summon snakes of various powers and sizes (his introduction is riding a gigantic snake). His own appearance is bordering on inhuman, with his pale skin, slitted eyes and extending, snake-like tongue. 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.

Years in Konoha:

The young Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya (and their sensei, Sarutobi).Orochimaru was originally a student of Sarutobi (who later became the Sandaime 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 probably 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 believed that a Shinobi's true strength will manifest when protecting something important to them, 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 and glory.

Sarutobi hoped to make his student see the error of his ways, but the more time passed, the more it became clear that Orochimaru was a lost cause. This culminated when Orochimaru started kidnapping his fellow Konoha shinobi as human guinea pigs to experiment on for developing 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 Yondaime (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 he could at least equal him in battle.

Defection and Conspiracy against Konoha:

Realizing that he had hit a dead end in his quest to become the ultimate being and has nothing to gain from staying in Konoha, Orochimaru defects from the village and joins the elite criminal organisation Akatsuki. His old teammate, Jiraiya, tries to convince him to reconsider, but to no avail - he betrays the village and the "Densetsu no Sannin" (伝説の三忍, "Legendary Three"), the name Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade came to be known by, are no more. The role Orochimaru played in Akatsuki is unclear, as are the reasons he some time later opts to leave the organisation to found his own Hidden Sound Village; but his ambitions are as clear as ever. He intends to wage war on Konoha, destroying it completely and triggering a world war. He also seeks a worthy body to use with his immortality technique - Fushi Tensei - which he had finished developing. In this regard he develops a great interest in Uchiha Sasuke, particularly due to the Sharingan, which would allow him to copy and learn all the jutsu in the world more easily than if he did not take over Sasuke's body.

Orochimaru finally finds an opportune time-frame to further both these ambitions in the up-and-coming Chūnin examinations taking place in Konoha. He orchestrates a joint assault on Konoha using both Sand and Sound ninja in a crucial moment during the exams, when many of Konoha's Jōnin would be gathered in one stadium, creating an opening to neutralise them all and leave the village very vulnerable. He also infiltrates the examination in various disguises throughout, appearing before Team 7 - which includes Sasuke - and branding Sasuke with his cursed seal. Knowing Sasuke's history, Orochimaru figures that with the aid of the cursed seal corroding Sasuke's will, his offers of power will eventually outweigh whatever other forces could be pulling his psyche in other directions than his quest as avenger, specifically his bond with Naruto which Orochimaru sees as crucial to subvert.

At some point during the brewing of the conspiracy to bring about the downfall of Konoha, Orochimaru kills the leader of the Hidden Sand Village - the Fourth Kazekage - and steals his identity, from then on playing both sides of the alliance he formed. Eventually, when the attack finally commences, he sheds this disguise and forces his old teacher, Sarutobi, into a one-on-one match, sacrificing his own henchmen and reviving the former Hokages of the village to fight on his side using the forbidden technique Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei, another of his developments which can bring the dead back to life.

Initially, Orochimaru clearly has the upper hand, and he continually mocks and belittles the way his teacher was growing weak with age. Even while overpowered, Sarutobi refuses to acknowledge that what Orochimaru has become is anything reflecting true strength, lecturing him one last time about how even if you learn all jutsu in existence you will not achieve true strength in this world, and only when fighting to protect the people important to them would a shinobi's true strength manifest. Finally, in the fight's climax, he proclaims that he will hand down Orochimaru's punishment for drowning himself in jutsu, and sacrifices his own life to seal Orochimaru's arms (lacking the power to seal his whole soul), using the same technique the Yondaime used to seal the Kyūbi inside Uzumaki Naruto. Without the use of his hands, Orochimaru is now incapable of forming seals and executing jutsu, and more importantly, is forced to call off the invasion.

After the Failed Invasion:

Initially, Orochimaru plans to have his condition healed by appealing to his old team-mate, Tsunade, who has since become a legendary medical ninja. He offers to revive her brother and boyfriend, both of which have died in battle in front of her eyes, in hopes this would persuade her to cooperate. At the same time, Jiraiya also contacts 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 chooses 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: Transferring to another body by fushi tensei.

Though Orochimaru was right about Sasuke after all, and Sasuke does eventually seek him out for power, by the time Sasuke leaves Konoha Orochimaru is 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 arrives or not. Desperate for a new body to transfer to, Orochimaru holds a tournament of fights to the death between his prisoners and takes over the body of the last man who remains standing, Gen'yūmaru. This, while getting rid of his condition, drastically delays his plans for Sasuke, since he can only take over a new body once about roughly every three years. When he takes him over, he also notes that parts of Gen'yūmaru's will and consciousness will remain in the new body's subconscious.

Naruto II arc:

It is unknown what Orochimaru had been up to since then for about three years the manga storyline skips, 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, who also mentions he will "explain this kid (Yamato) later" before calling out Naruto, Sakura and Sai to do battle.

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.

-Orochimaru's theme music in the anime seems to borrow some elements from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

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