Orochimaru

**Orochimaru** is one of the Hidden Leaf Village's legendary Sannin and one of the primary antagonists of the *Naruto* series. With a life-ambition to learn all of the world's secrets, Orochimaru seeks immortality so that he might live all of the lives necessary to accomplish his task. He defected from the Hidden Leaf rather than be persecuted for his ambitions, and for many years sought the village's destruction in order to take revenge and demonstrate what he has learned. He is also the old arch-enemy of Naruto Uzumaki and the Leaf Village.

## Physical Appearance

Originally, Orochimaru was a tall man with extremely translucent-looking pale skin and straight waist-length black hair with the front strands falling to his shoulders. He had a long face with pronounced cheekbones, golden eyes with slits in his pupils, purple markings around his eyes and fang-like teeth - a reference to his snake-like nature. Although he has taken on new bodies repeatedly, he has modified them each to resemble his original form, minus the height differences. He apparently used his Vanishing Facial Copy Technique on his original body so he can wear it over his hosts' faces as a mask.

Orochimaru is sometimes seen sporting different attires. He usually wears plain grey garbs with black pants and a thick purple rope belt tied in a large knot behind his back and blue tomoe-shaped earrings. He is seen wearing a black polo neck under it.

## Personality

Orochimaru possesses a complex personality, however more often than not he was described as twisted by a large number of people, including Tsunade. Jiraiya speculated that this was due to the fact that both of his parents died when he was at a very young age, along with his horror for Tsunade losing Nawaki and later shedding tears when she lost Dan, imply that Orochimaru grew to disdain the fragility of human life and how it affected those still living, which led him to desire immortality. To that end, the primary purpose of Orochimaru's human experimentation is to test what modifications the human body can endure and harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru had hoped to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being", unable to die and able to achieve his secondary goal to learn every ninja technique in the world, which would normally take many lifetimes to obtain.

According to Sasuke, becoming cruel with any good he had as a member of Team Hiruzen gone, Orochimaru's agenda made him develop a god complex and valued himself while delighting in striking terror in his first impressions. Though causing conflict to ease his boredom, Orochimaru seems to have no interest in wars started by others. His charisma also attracts a number of followers, many of which he would not hesitate to send on potential suicide missions if for his own personal benefit, expressing some remorse if they're unable to properly complete a task, having no sentimental attachments to any of them despite their values. Despite this, Orochimaru has genuine interest in the development of his underlings and experiments.

He also had an initial disdain toward Naruto Uzumaki, believing him to be a poor excuse for a ninja until he defeated Kabuto with the Rasengan. Despite attempting to kill Naruto at the time after coming to the realization that he would become a threat to him in the future, Orochimaru became interested in Naruto's development, provoking Naruto during their battle to see his full abilities at the time. Though coming to hate his home village, orchestrating a few attempts to destroy it, Orochimaru despised his former Akatsuki colleagues more. Throughout Part II, if Orochimaru was not busy with Sasuke's development, he would try to cripple the Akatsuki's operations, seen in the "Sai and Sasuke Arc" as well as the "Three-Tails Arc". He expresses delight over the death of Sasori and later convinced Sasuke from killing Team Kakashi so they would thin out the Akatsuki membership.

## Powers and Abilities

### Ninjutsu Prowess

* **Ninjutsu Master**: Wishing to obtain all of the techniques in the world, Orochimaru has a vast arsenal of techniques at his disposal, ranging from simple offensive ones, which nonetheless become deadly when performed by him, to higher ranking, more complicated ones. Even at a young age, he was able to utilise his former master's signature Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu. Orochimaru also exhibited mastery with the Transformation Jutsu, as he was able to view Sasuke's battle with Yoroi Akado during the Chunin Exams, undetected. He was also able to pose as the Fourth Kazekage for weeks, fooling the entire village of the Hidden Sand, including its elite shinobi and the ones closest to the dead Kazekage. When conducting experiments, he is also capable of utilising medical ninjutsu and would make use of the chakra scalpel.
	+ **Nature Transformation**: Orochimaru, being skilled and diverse in elemental ninjutsu, can use all five elemental chakra nature transformations as well as Light Style and Dark Style. With the Wind Style, he can level an entire forest with a powerful gust of wind. In the Naruto anime, using Fire Style, he is also able to unleash a simple but powerful fire stream able to repel Naruto enhanced by the Nine-Tails' chakra. He could also use Earth Style to create a clone of mud, which could act as a divergence or substitution against an attack on his behalf.
	+ **Snake Techniques**: Orochimaru's trademark trait is his affinity with snakes, in addition to impacting the appearance and composition of his true form, and granting him the ability to extend his limbs to abnormal lengths and to take on snake-like traits in battle, caused him to learn a number of snake-related abilities, including learning Sage Mode. His snake-related techniques have been referred to as Power of the White Snake. One such ability is being able to summon giant snakes to fight alongside him in battle, made possible by the summoning contract tattooed on his arm. This allows him to summon snakes within his vicinity, as opposed to having to place his hand on a surface. If need be, Orochimaru can morph into a giant snake, despite being slightly smaller in size to his larger ones. His signature summon was Manda, a colossal snake which was described as the largest in the world, with immense fighting capabilities. With Striking Shadow Snakes, Orochimaru can instantly call forth snakes from his sleeves and mouth to attack his opponents in large numbers with venomous bites. A stronger variation of this technique was the Multiple Striking Shadow Snales, in which the summoned snakes grow noticeably in both numbers and size.
	+ **Kenjutsu Practitioner**
	+ **Fuinjutsu Expert**
	+ **Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation**
	+ **Immortality Techniques**

### Taijutsu Prowess

* **Taijutsu Expert**
	+ **Enhanced Strength**
	+ **Enhanced Speed and Reflexes**
	+ **Enhanced Endurance**
	+ **Enhanced Durability**

### Intelligence

* **Genius Intellect**: From his childhood days, Orochimaru was identified as a genius shinobi and a once-in-a-generation prodigy. During his lifetime, his associations with powerful shinobi and groups, such as his tutoring by the Third Hokage and his stints with both the Root and Akatsuki organisations, as well as his later solo exploits into gaining knowledge, allowed him to develop and gain access to vast amounts of information.
	+ **Master Planner and Manipulator**: Orochimaru is a master planner and manipulator. For years, he evaded capture from both the Hidden Leaf and the Akatsuki, all the while setting up a network of fully supplied hideouts throughout various countries. He was also able to manipulate the entire village of the Hidden Sand into invading the Leaf Village, by posing as the Fourth Kazekage without anyone noticing, having killed the real one before the invasion. He was capable of manipulating multiple people into becoming his willing pawns and guinea pigs for his experiments, using a combination of manipulation, insight into a victim's past and the promise of power to gain their loyalty. The greatest examples of this are Kabuto and Kimimaro, who idolised the Sannin and showed nothing but absolute loyalty and respect for him. He even developed a fail-safe in case he was ever killed or sealed in the form of his cursed seals. At some point in time, Orochimaru and Kabuto learned that Tobi was not the real Madara Uchiha, although it would ultimately be Kabuto who would use this knowledge to his full advantage.
	+ **Expermetations**

### Body Modifications

* **Body Modifications**: Over the years, Orochimaru has conducted various experiments on his own body, thus modifying it greatly. This in turn has granted him an exponential increase in his bodies physical durability, speed, strength, and survival capabilities. It is also because of these experiments, Orochimaru is completely invulnerable to conventional techniques.

### Chakra Prowess

* **Immense Chakra Power**: Orochimaru has been noted, on many occasions, to have extremely foul and powerful chakra. Upon releasing his chakra, it causes a heavy effect on the atmosphere, causing dense surges of wind to uproar. When fighting his former sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the sheer force of both individuals' releasing their chakra caused the building they were fighting upon to crack. Likewise, his chakra alone can incite fear into his foes, causing them to hallucinate or render them incapable of breathing. In addition, Orochimaru has shown considerable chakra control. During the three years his hands were sealed by Hiruzen, preventing Orochimaru from performing hand signs, the Sannin was still able to perform various less-complicated yet powerful techniques.

### Other Skills

* **Master of Stealth**
* **Espionage, Escapism, and Subterfuge Expert**
* **Expert Tracker**
* **Chakra Absorption Jutsu**

## Relationships

### Allies

* Kabuto Yakushi (Right-handed Man)
* The Sound Five
	+ Kimimaro Kaguya
	+ Sakon & Ukon
	+ Tayuya
	+ Kidomaru
	+ Jirobo
* Hidden Sound Village

### Enemies/Rivals

* Naruto Uzumaki
* Hidden Leaf Village