What is orochimaru

Having the Sound Four discard the guises of the Kazekage's bodyguards, Orochimaru has them erect a barrier to hold the other Konoha ninja back to prevent any interference. Having regretting letting Orochimaru escape years earlier, Hiruzen agrees to battle his former pupil.

Exhilarated that he could finally fight his former teacher, Orochimaru used Impure World Reincarnation to summon Hashirama Senju and his brother Tobirama to have the first two Hokage to attack their successor. During the fight, Orochimaru reveals to Hiruzen the fruits of his labour from mastering Living Corpse Reincarnation with the host body he took after his brush-in with Itachi and his intention to make Sasuke into his next host.

Horrified on how far Orochimaru has truly went, with both his age and the regenerative abilities of the two first Hokage placing him in a grand disadvantage, Hiruzen resolves to stop Orochimaru with the Dead Demon Consuming Seal , sealing away the souls of the two Hokage prior to going after Orochimaru himself.

Not wishing to join the three Hokages' souls in being trapped within the Reaper's stomach, Orochimaru stabbed Hiruzen through the back of his chest with his Sword of Kusanagi before the weakened Hiruzen resolves to only seal the part of Orochimaru's soul within his arms.

Cursing the dying Hiruzen for robbing him of his use of ninjutsu, Orochimaru is carried off by the Sound Four with the invasion halted. Afterwards, Sunagakure broke ties with Orochimaru upon discovering the corpse of the Fourth Kazekage. Main article: Search for Tsunade. After barely being able to stand the pain from his rotting arms, Orochimaru plans to have his condition healed by appealing Tsunade with the offer to reincarnate her Nawaki and Dan to win her cooperation.

However, though she seemed to agree, Tsunade had actually intended to kill him to ensure he never attacks Konoha again. Kabuto intervened before she could do so, intending to force her to help before Jiraiya, Shizune and Naruto soon arrived to her aid.

While Orochimaru and Jiraiya having earlier been drugged by Tsunade and thus unable to properly perform techniques faced off, Kabuto battled Naruto before being defeated. Seeing this and seeing a potential threat, Orochimaru resolves to kill Naruto before Tsunade teams up with Jiraiya to face their former teammate.

Despite summoning Manda , managing to hide his condition from the giant serpent as he fights Gamabunta, Orochimaru is forced to give up healing his arms and just take a new host body. Main article: Sasuke Recovery Mission. Even though he had hoped to wait for Sasuke to grow older, Orochimaru sent his Sound Four to retrieve and bring Sasuke to him. Though the act undid most of the damage caused by the Dead Demon Consuming Seal , it still left Orochimaru incapable of using techniques requiring hand seals.

Main article: Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission Two and a half years later, a Yamato -led Team Kakashi , hoping to find Sasuke, learned of an opportunity from a dying Sasori that he was meeting with his spy, Kabuto. Posing as Sasori within his Hiruko puppet, the group's temporary leader Yamato met with Kabuto while the others watched.

However, Orochimaru arrived as Kabuto destroyed the Hiruko, with Orochimaru clarifying to a confused Kabuto that Sasori never came as the rest of Team Kakashi reveal themselves to fight the two ninja.

Although he was surprised to see Yamato has survived his experiments involving Hashirama's DNA, Orochimaru was more interested to see if Naruto had become as strong as "his Sasuke". When Naruto assumed his three-tailed form in response, Orochimaru eluded Naruto, enjoying the battle while provoking Naruto further. It was only after Naruto submitted to Kurama's influence and entered his mindless four-tailed form that Orochimaru took the fight seriously due to Naruto now being able to kill him and his host body beginning to reject him after he used his Kusanagi to force Naruto away.

Intrigued, Orochimaru and Kabuto took him back to their base. Later, after the rest of Team Kakashi arrived at the lair and Sai teamed up with them, Orochimaru confronted Sai and Naruto to question Sai about his loyalties.

He fled before he could be drawn into another fight and later kept Sasuke from killing the team, noting that they might kill another Akatsuki member like they had done with Sasori. Main article: Three-Tails' Appearance. In the anime, sensing that the time was close approaching to change vessels, Orochimaru sent Kabuto to find Guren , so that she could help with preparations for the process. Orochimaru eventually decided it was time to test Sasuke's abilities and watched in awe as he defeated an army of ninja, without killing any, and without receiving a scratch.

As Sasuke walked off, Orochimaru admitted that while he used to be recognised as a genius, Sasuke's powers far surpassed his own when he was Sasuke's age. Noticing that Guren was watching, he offered her another chance to prove herself worthy as Orochimaru's next vessel, which she was delighted with. He ordered Kabuto to be ready to eliminate her should she betray him.

Later, after receiving word that the Konoha shinobi were complicating things, Orochimaru decided he might have to intervene personally. Orochimaru dismissed it as nothing more than a minor setback, saying that once he had Sasuke's body, it wouldn't make any difference. Main article: Itachi Pursuit Mission.

On the verge of being rejected by his current body, Orochimaru contemplated about the best way to take Sasuke's body. In the anime, he and Kabuto recapped all the events that led to Sasuke defecting and how much he had improved since.

Before he could formulate his plan, however, Sasuke attacked him, having decided that Orochimaru was unworthy of having an Uchiha's body, and tried to kill him with Chidori Sharp Spear but only succeeds in piercing his arm. Orochimaru proceeded to reveal his true body, a large white snake made of a multitude of smaller snakes in order to initiate the body-switch process.

Sasuke, however, cuts up Orochimaru's large snake body, only to realise that the vaporising blood was turning into a paralysis-type poison. Orochimaru then successfully started the body-switch process. Sasuke stopped the process like Itachi had done years earlier but took it a step further by turning the switch against Orochimaru, absorbing him into his own body.

Sasuke gained access to some of Orochimaru's abilities but, at the same time, had to dedicate some of his chakra to suppressing Orochimaru.

Kabuto later took Orochimaru remains and transfused his blood into himself, giving him access to Orochimaru's abilities. Main article: Fated Battle Between Brothers. During the battle with Itachi, Sasuke ran low on chakra and Orochimaru was able to emerge from his cursed seal using his signature Eight Branches Technique. He marvelled at the fact that he would finally have the chance to take Sasuke's body, but was immediately pierced through by the blade held by Itachi's Susanoo.

At first Orochimaru boasted that it would take more than that to kill him, but he soon realised that he had been pierced by the Totsuka Sword that he himself had been searching for. Orochimaru was then sealed away by Itachi's Susanoo, which had the effect of removing Sasuke's cursed seal in the process. Three white snakes escaped from Orochimaru's body as he was sealed, but at least one of these snakes was subsequently killed by the black flames of Amaterasu.

Despite Suigetsu's fears of his next action as he reclaims the rest of his chakra that Kabuto took from him, Orochimaru explains that he is neither interested in Tobi's war nor strong enough to even attempt to take Sasuke's body if he wanted to. However, Orochimaru, noting the change in his former student, does agree to take Sasuke to one who has the answers he wants.

Arriving in Konohagakure , Orochimaru and the others sense Naruto 's chakra from a great distance away. Noting that Sasuke was annoyed by this, Orochimaru pressed on with the group at the young man's behest. He led them to the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple to pick up a mask from the ruins, and then takes the group to the underground hall in the Naka Shrine. Orochimaru proceeded to don the mask which invoked the Shinigami to possess his body. Orochimaru then proceeded to cut open the Shinigami's stomach, a wound reflected on his own body, to release the trapped contents inside the Shinigami.

To escape death, Orochimaru transferred his being in the White Zetsu Suigetsu was holding down. Once the Hokage were reincarnated, revealing he researched the means to undo the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, Orochimaru explained that his reasons for bringing them back were for them to aid Sasuke by giving him the information he desired.

When Orochimaru accused the Second Hokage of being the one to cause the coup d'etat to surface, he was rebuffed by the Hokage who later explained that he had tried to save the Uchiha from themselves. When Tobirama later declared that he was heading to the battlefield, Orochimaru's new vessel provided him with access to Hashirama's cells, allowing him to bind the Hokage.

Noting that Hashirama had broken his control over him, Orochimaru is told by the First that he would first free Sasuke from the darkness which surrounded him. During this course of events, Sasuke had a flashback about a conversation he and Orochimaru had as they made their way to Konoha where Sasuke stated that he does not believe Orochimaru's reasons to destroy Konoha were on a whim.

After hearing Sasuke's decision to protect the village, Orochimaru announces that he will also help in the war effort against Madara. When Hiruzen asks him after why he changed his mind after all these years, Orochimaru explains that he made an error in judgement from watching Kabuto act in his stead and is now interested to see the result of Sasuke's "different path" of not letting those who sacrificed themselves for the village go to waste.

Later, Orochimaru arrived to the place where Tsunade and the other Kage were left severely wounded, alongside Suigetsu and Karin , commenting that Tsunade was in a rather bad shape. He broke up the arguing Karin and Suigetsu, and ordered them to help Katsuyu heal Tsunade.

As Obito began the final stages of his and Madara's grand plan: "Infinite Tsukuyomi", Hashirama had Ino Yamanaka telepathically link everyone via the Mind Body Transmission Technique to inform everyone about the plan as well as try and rally the shinobi to continue fighting.

While Hashirama's words fail to inspire them, Naruto's memories are conveyed to them via Ino's telepathy. The Sannin looked on solemnly as Naruto remembered the memorial he erected for Jiraiya. Later, while asserting that he had no interest in the war, Orochimaru noted that Obito's plan would interfere with his experiments, he then decided to heed his former sensei's urgings and participate in the war.

With his assistance , Hiruzen was able to destroy the branches of the Ten-Tails into pieces. As Naruto began his great tug-of-war against Obito, Orochimaru alongside Hiruzen watched on as the tree's flower halted its blooming.

After a momentary lull in the battle after Obito is defeated, the Allied Forces were attacked by Tobi , who created an enormous wooden statue to assault them. Orochimaru teamed up with his former subordinates to effectively subdue their attacker in order to make a break for Sasuke's location.

He was then impressed by Karin's ability to use the chakra chains and he was reminded of Kushina Uzumaki. As they raced towards where Karin last senses Sasuke, Orochimaru noticed that the young woman was expending herself. Contemplating the situation, he wondered solemnly if this was really the end for Sasuke.

Upon reaching Sasuke, they found Kabuto merging with Sasuke, seemingly to assimilate the Uchiha. When asking his former right-hand man why he came, Kabuto simply explained that his experience under the effects of Izanami made him rediscover his true identity as simply Kabuto Yakushi and acknowledged what he always sought was back at the Konoha orphanage. Wanting to make up for his mistakes, starting with healing Sasuke through his medical ninjutsu and instructions from Tobirama.

Eventually, Kabuto succeeded in healing Sasuke, who quickly returned to his feet and was ready to resume the battle. Orochimaru was later caught in Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi. After the war's conclusion, Orochimaru would return to conducting his genetic experiments. Despite the strict watch, Orochimaru was allowed to move freely as the shinobi that watched over Orochimaru were ordered not to make any form of contact with him until he made a move against Konoha or did anything suspicious.

He was even allowed to move freely in and out of Konoha. Main articles: Sasuke Shinden novel and Sasuke Shinden anime Orochimaru meets with Sasuke, who is gathering information on the Dark Thunder Group , for the first time in a few years since the war.

Orochimaru tells Sasuke to meet with En Oyashiro , who is a medical ninja but is a notorious kekkei genkai collector, because he may have connections to the group since its leader is a kekkei genkai owner. They take a boat to En's "Coliseum", where a tournament is being hosted with En's clients attending to purchase the winning shinobi. Orochimaru reveals to him that Sasuke is a kekkei genkai owner himself, causing Sasuke to be forced into participating in the tournament.

In the following years, between gaining a new appreciation for natural development of people and forming a truce between Konohagakure, Orochimaru ultimately reestablished Otogakure as a legitimate shinobi village.

Having failed the test fives times, Orochimaru used a drug each time to remove Mitsuki's memories. On the sixth attempt, Mitsuki passed the test by rebelling against the pair to forge his own destiny himself, resulting in him wanting to migrate to Konoha. Naruto commented on his youthful looks, to which Orochimaru replied to "not stress on the details". After a talk, he explained that Shin was, in fact, an experiment of his in cloning technology and that he would be glad if they took him off his hands.

He then went on to lecture about the ethics of cloning. Once he finished his story, Orochimaru happily decided to tell Sasuke all he knew about Shin's whereabouts in the hope of the true Uchiha killing Shin. Later on, Orochimaru commented on the possibility of Sakura Uchiha being already dead, to which Sasuke disagreed. Main article: School Trip Arc In the anime, when learning of civil unrest in Kirigakure and rumours of the Sixth Mizukage killing off people against the peaceful expansion of his village, Orochimaru sent Suigetsu to investigate, hoping to find useful new allies.

While realising that Suigetsu got directly involved in exposing Shizuma's actions, he decided to keep quiet about it, instead marvelling at how much Boruto was like his father. Main article: Graduation Exams Arc. In the anime, as Konoha's Academy classes began preparing for graduation exams, Orochimaru stealthily came to the village with Yamato, to avoid any commotion from villagers still uneasy about his presence. Afterwards, he attended Mitsuki's parent-teacher conference, where he and his son met with Shino Aburame.

Wanting to become a Konoha shinobi, Orochimaru allowed Mitsuki to stay in the village to become one. Main articles: Boruto: Naruto the Movie and Versus Momoshiki Arc In the anime, having contacted Mitsuki through their snakes, Orochimaru instructed him to not reveal his true strength, as Mitsuki wouldn't be able to remain in Konoha. Upon Team Konohamaru capturing a bear within Konoha, Orochimaru overlooked the genin completing their mission from atop a building. When he finds Mitsuki, Mitsuki is in the middle of practicing with the Lorentz Gun.

Although Mitsuki isn't able to perform it successfully, Orochimaru is nevertheless impressed by his progress, believing such skill is proof of being Orochimaru's son. Mitsuki is not comforted by this, as his Lorentz Gun still pales in comparison to Sasuke's, who taught it to him in the first place.

Orochimaru stirs at the mention of Sasuke and tries to casually offer to accompany Mitsuki the next time he trains with Sasuke. Mitsuki tells Orochimaru to stop. In the anime, Mitsuki brought Orochimaru a scroll for him to sign so he could partake in an upcoming mission. Before which, they had a sparring session. While Orochimaru decisively won, he applauded Mitsuki's improvement. When Mitsuki asked if he should refer to Orochimaru as his father or mother, Orochimaru said it was irrelevant as he has been all kinds of entities over the years and all that matters is one's core.

Main article: Mitsuki's Disappearance Arc In the anime, when Mitsuki apparently betrayed and deserted Konohagakure, Orochimaru was confronted by Yamato about it. Orochimaru insisted he was clueless about the situation. The boy wanted to ask Orochimaru about a last message from Mitsuki through a snake, which simply stated that "It is his will". After doing tests on the snake, Orochimaru concluded that there was no apparent hidden message, but suggested going to White Snake Sage who might know more.

After all this, Orochimaru was left intrigued, both by his son's random actions and Boruto's unwavering loyalty to Mitsuki like Naruto's to Sasuke from years ago. At the same time, Orochimaru was concerned when learning that the investigation into the development of the Fabrications was covered up by an unknown person, leading Orochimaru to wonder who else besides himself could create artificial humans that advanced.

I could only imagine what his actual elimination count was all those years. Even more disturbing was how much his mission ranking progressed. To only do 16 D-Rank missions meant they moved him on up very young. No one in this village seems to know a thing about developmental psychology! But, what I find to be the most disturbing about Orochimaru is how people flock to him.

Orochimaru was able to inspire fierce loyalty in his servants. From Kabuto to the Sound Four, to Kimmimaro, all were willing to follow him to their deaths. When Anko was growing up, it was almost implied she fell in love with Orochimaru and allowed him to use and experiment on her body. Though never loyal to him, Orochimaru was even able to sway Sasuke to abandon his entire life in the village, just for the promise of power.

Orochimaru is a great story of what could have been. Together with Tsunade and Jiraiya, they were arguably the greatest ninja squad to ever live before Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke matured. To be the strongest, from the strongest squad, has a lot of implications.

Orochimaru was able to 2 vs 1 Jiraya and Tsunade, without the use of his arms. Granted he had Kabuto pulling some weight, and Tsunade was a little rusty, but still, that was no easy feat. Despite Tsunade and Jiraiya's good hearts, Orochimaru was better than both of them, basically since birth.

I think this is where Naruto differs from a lot of shonen manga. Sometimes, the bad guy is just better than you, and no amount of Nakama magic is ever going to change that. Among them was his star pupil, Orochimaru. Sarutobi often chastised Jiraya and wanted him to be more like Orochimaru. In fact, if Sarutobi had his way, Orochimaru would have been the Fourth Hokage.

Eventually, Orochimaru would repay his master, by killing him. Orochimaru was left with a bitter hatred for the leaf, but had he not strayed off to the path of evil, he would have easily gotten his wish to lead the village. Talk about throwing a kunai into your own foot.

There was a period of pandemonium and fear in the hidden leaf as powerful shinobi kept disappearing. Eventually, those disappearances were traced back to Orochimaru.

Before he made his leave permeant, Orochimaru stole 60 infants from Konoha for his experiments. The one to survive was none other than Captain Yamato. What is interesting to note is where he found these people, particularly Jugo. He had set up large prison camps, where he would house his failed experiments, or cultivate potential vessels for a body transfer. The conditions in these camps were less than stellar, as Orochimaru saw their inhabitants as assets, and not living things.

Sasuke ended up liberating some of these camps, but only the ones he found. It begs the question, how many of these did Orochimaru set up, and what happened to the poor souls in the ones we never got to see?

Then you see that he kind of just snatches bodies for the heck of it. The first time he reveals it, he shows that he stole the body of an unknown woman to replace the hand that Itachi had cut off. All that mattered was the bottom line, power. He eventually pulled the move off on Sasuke but was unable to overtake his body. Orochimaru's body modifications have resulted in his true form taking on the appearance of a giant white snake. The body is composed of many smaller snakes that can be used to attack the opponent.

Even if the opponent manages to incapacitate him, the blood released by killing the snakes is poisonous, evaporating into the air and paralysing anyone who inhales it. This form also enables Orochimaru to use his Living Corpse Reincarnation, his main method of immortality.

It allows him to transfer his soul into a new body by swallowing that person whole and absorbing their consciousness, thereby gaining control of their body. This can only be used once every three years, as Orochimaru's current body begins to reject him and forces him to find a new host. The souls of the bodies he has taken remain in Orochimaru's subconscious and he can modify his body as he sees fit. Orochimaru has conducted research on Hashirama Senju's DNA in order to access the latter's rapid healing abilities.

Orochimaru has a vast arsenal of ninjutsu styles. The anime shows Orochimaru using other techniques, such as the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique, chakra scalpels,[49] as well as space—time ninjutsu. Orochimaru wields the legendary Sword of Kusanagi, showing enough proficiency to fight evenly with his former master Hiruzen. The blade is able to extend great distances, cut through almost anything, and even be remotely controlled.

He normally keeps the blade within a snake's mouth inside his own throat and retrieves it by having it turning into a snake after use. Orochimaru can use all five basic nature transformations, along with Yin and Yang Release.

His elemental displays are brief in the manga, using only Wind Release to create a powerful gust of wind and Earth Release to travel underground. In the anime, he can create mud-based clones. After taking over the body of a White Zetsu clone, Orochimaru gained access to the latter's Wood Release — a simultaneous mixture of earth and water. As his appearance suggests, Orochimaru has an affinity for snakes, using the unique arm tattoo to summon them for assistance in battle, his largest and strongest being Manda.

He can also eject snakes from either his sleeves or his mouth to attack opponents; in the anime, the snakes can sprout Kusanagi-like blades from their own mouths for deadlier effect.

He can even turn his lower body into a snake's tail, increasing his speed and mobility in battle. Orochimaru's ultimate snake-related technique is the Eight Branches Technique, where he transforms into an eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent with size superior to that of Manda. Orochimaru can perform the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, having further refined the kinjutsu developed by Tobirama Senju.

Upon reviving the dead, he can implant them with special tags that erase their personalities, granting him complete control over their actions. During the Konoha Crush, Orochimaru revives the Second and First Hokage to fight his former teacher Hiruzen; the latter later seals away part of Orochimaru's soul within his arms, making him temporarily lose access to this technique. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Orochimaru uses the Shinigami Mask to spiritually restore himself, allowing him to use the technique once more.

His prowess with it has increased, as he revives all four previous Hokage with nearly their full power and can use Hashirama's cells to strengthen his control.

Although he lacked the body and chakra reserves strong enough to learn Sage Mode, Orochimaru developed another use for senjutsu chakra: the cursed seals. These cursed seals can be used to enhance the power of one's techniques, and serve as anchors to Orochimaru's consciousness, allowing him to observe events through anyone branded by the seal. He can even be revived any number of times through the Evil Releasing Method, provided there are enough cursed seals and DNA.

Orochimaru has acquired a vast amount of information of the shinobi world from his time with organisations such as Root and Akatsuki, having set up a network of fully supplied hideouts throughout various countries. He has great charisma in manipulating people into becoming his pawns, providing insight into their past and promising them power in order to gain their loyalty. In battle, he can deduce the workings of an enemy's fighting style and respond accordingly.

Wanting to decipher all of the world's secrets, Orochimaru conducted extensive research and numerous experiments on himself and the DNA of other individuals to comprehend, attain, or reproduce their abilities. From experimentation of Shin Uchiha, Orochimaru has become more knowledgeable of human genetics, facilitating his overall research. In the following years, between gaining a new appreciation for natural development of people and forming a truce between Konohagakure, Orochimaru ultimately reestablished Otogakure as a legitimate shinobi village.

Fifteen years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Orochimaru revealed himself to Sasuke and Naruto when the former demanded to meet him, wanting to inquire about Shin Uchiha. Naruto commented on his youthful looks, to which Orochimaru replied to "not stress on the details".