Orochimaru

Orochimaru is one of the Leaf Village's three legendary ninja or Sannin. He was the student that everyone believed would become the Fourth Hokage, but his hunger for power led him to commit dark experiments and practice forbidden jutsu. After the Third uncovered the truth, Orochimaru left Konoha and formed the Hidden Sound Village in the Land of Rice. He was responsible for countless immoral experiments and collected many ninja with unique abilities in his numerous hidden bases. He wished more than anything to find the ultimate body and improve himself to the state of a god. He attempted to possess Uchiha Itachi, Kaguya Kimimaro, and Uchiha Sasuke's body, but all of the attempts failed for various reasons, with Uchiha Sasuke actually reversing the jutsu and possessing Orochimaru's soul.

Part in the Story
Orochimaru was originally a student of Sarutobi (the Third Hokage) as a part of a three-man team consisting of himself, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. Team Sarutobi mirrored Team Kakashi in nearly every way. Orochimaru, like Sasuke, was aloof, arrogant, and considered the most talented out of the three. Sarutobi in particular had very high hopes for him, often berating the clumsy Jiraiya and telling him he should be more like Orochimaru. After becoming Hokage, Sarutobi 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 a 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 at the time he simply couldn't bring himself to kill his prized student for whom he had had such high hopes. At the same time, he realized that Orochimaru was a twisted and power-hungry 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, Minato Namikaze, over Orochimaru as his successor, making Minato the Fourth Hokage.

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 Leaves' 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, although it is known that he was partnered with Sasori prior to his defection. He admits that Itachi Uchiha's growing power had made it impossible for him to acquire his body and thus he chose to go after the much weaker Sasuke Uchiha instead. He eventually founded his own village, Otogakure.

For a while, Orochimaru left Konoha alone, plotting to destroy them when he was ready. The opportunity presented itself with the start of the Chunin exams. With this, Orochimaru saw both a chance to destroy his former home and acquire Sasuke Uchiha'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 began, Orochimaru enlisted the help of Sunagakure, since his own village lacked the necessary strength to defeat Konoha. Already being weakened by their feudal lord, the village gladly accepted. Orochimaru later killed the Fourth Kazekage and assumed his place to get close to the Third Hokage.

During the second part of the Chunin exams, he entered the Forest of Death disguised as a Kusagakure ninja. During a confrontation with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, he sealed Naruto's demon fox chakra and branded Sasuke with his Cursed Seal of Heaven. He was discovered by Anko, but the exams continued due to his threat of retaliation. His Genin team was sent to kill Sasuke, unaware that they were just measuring posts for Sasuke's power. They were fought off by a combined effort from Sakura Haruno, Rock Lee, and Team 10, who happened to discover them while Sakura was holding them at bay. Sasuke's awakening of his cursed seal caused them to retreat.

During the final part of the Chunin exams, Orochimaru started his attack, hoping to unleash giant snakes outside Konoha while Shukaku was released from Gaara within the stadium. Things did not go as planned, however, and only the first of these occurred. During the attack, Orochimaru attempted to assassinate the Third Hokage. He even resorted to summoning the departed First and Second Hokages to attack his former master. After a long and spectacular battle, the Third attempted to seal Orochimaru's soul in the same manner as the Fourth Hokage had sealed the demon fox. Orochimaru, however, managed to impale his former mentor with his Kusanagi sword, weakening the Third to the point that he could only seal Orochimaru's arms, not his soul. This prevented him from using many of his techniques and left him in agonizing pain. Orochimaru's forces were also being repelled by the sudden appearance of all of Konoha's most powerful ninja, forcing a retreat.

Initially, Orochimaru planned to have his condition healed by appealing to his old teammate, Tsunade, who had since become a legendary medical ninja. He offered to revive her brother and lover, both of whom died in battle, hoping it would persuade her to cooperate. Though it looked like he succeeded at first, it turned out that Tsunade actually intended to kill him rather than heal him. It was Kabuto Yakushi who interfered before she could do so. Strangely, Orochimaru almost seemed hurt by the betrayal, and remarked that he really would have brought her loved ones back and promised not to interfere with Konohagakure, a rarity considering his usual self-centeredness. After a large scale battle between him, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, in which all three of their largest summons were used, Orochimaru retreated. Since Tsunade wouldn't heal him, his only option left was taking a new host.

Though Orochimaru was right about Sasuke after all, who did eventually seek him out for power, Sasuke did not arrive fast enough to become Orochimaru's new container. With the pain in his arms and the constant decay and bleeding reaching the point when soon it wouldn't matter whether Sasuke arrived or not, Kabuto proposed that Orochimaru take a new host. Kabuto held a tournament of fights to the death between his prisoners and Orochimaru took over the body of the last man standing, Gen'yumaru. This, while getting rid of his condition, drastically delayed his plans for Sasuke, since he can only take over a new body once about every three years. When he took him over, he also noted that parts of Gen'yumaru's will and consciousness would remain in the new body's subconscious

It is unknown what Orochimaru had been up to during the two-and-a-half-year timeskip, though logic suggests he had been training Sasuke (and himself) and biding his time until he can transfer his soul into Sasuke. He makes his debut reappearance by spying on the meeting between Kabuto Yakushi and Yamato, who was disguised as the now deceased Sasori. Orochimaru explains that he had long ago undone Sasori's "binding jutsu" on Kabuto, and had intended assassinating his former Akatsuki partner 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 tailed beasts", though he himself did not recognize this until Yamato revealed the abilities himself.

After antagonizing Naruto to the point where he transforms into a four-tailed state and attacks him, Orochimaru demonstrates a number of new and outright inhuman abilities. As well as modified forms of snake summonings, he can shed his skin like a snake and, by doing so, repair any damage to his body (including lost limbs), summon an enormous number of snakes from his mouth, and can stretch his body to lengths far beyond what he exhibited in Part I. He also demonstrates his immense reserves of chakra when he summons three Rashomon gates to block the black chakra ball that the four-tailed demon fox Naruto spat at him. Though they fail to completely stop the chakra ball, this is nonetheless an impressive feat. Additionally, Orochimaru can create a clone out of snakes that can morph various parts of its body into snake parts. If injured, it can simply regenerate, even if it is sliced in half.

The battle with Naruto comes to an end after Orochimaru attempts to stab Naruto with his Kusanagi sword. Even the sword is unable to pierce the intense chakra shield protecting Naruto. He comments that his body had reached its limit, as his current body does not allow for extended fighting. It is later shown at his lair, however, that the time he must rest for is quite short.

Afterwards, back at Orochimaru's lair, it is made apparent that Orochimaru plans to team up with the militaristic Konoha leader Danzo 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. Though it seems like Orochimaru will resume his heated fight with Naruto at this point, he instead retreats, saying that he'll let Naruto go in the hopes that Naruto and company will take down more Akatsuki members for him.

Orochimaru returns again in Chapter 309, just in time to stop Sasuke from performing an unnamed jutsu on his former friends. 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.

Looks
Orochimaru is male, but speaks in a very formal female tone. This is done to make him more sinister, similar to Freeza of Dragon Ball Z. In fact, at the start of the series, he is actually possessing a female body. This cannot be copied in the English dubbed version so he speaks in a masculine but silent and slightly high-pitched tone. Despite the fact that he is able to alter both his body shape and voice, he still speaks with a female tone.

Orochimaru's appearance borders on inhuman with very pale white skin, slitted eyes, and an extending, snake-like tongue (this tongue is actually a permanent jutsu, which enables the user to extend parts of their body to infinite lengths). Orochimaru also has the unique ability to molt, repairing any damage to his body as easily as someone else repairs their clothes. Even Ibiki Morino, Konoha's veteran torture and interrogation specialist, admits that when he saw Orochimaru for the first time, he was terrified and was convinced that what stood before him was not a man but rather something else which had merely donned human skin

Jutsu

 * Cursed Seal Technique
 * Five Elements Seal
 * Death Foreseeing Technique
 * Hidden Shadow Snake Hand
 * Hidden Shadow Many Snakes Hand
 * Kusanagi Sword: Long Sword of the Heavens
 * Leech All Creation: Attack Prevention Technique
 * Living Corpse Reincarnation
 * Summoning: Impure World Resurrection
 * Summoning Technique (Snakes)
 * Soft Physique Modification
 * Triple Rashomon
 * Vanishing Facial Copy Technique
 * Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Fighting Style
Orochimaru's specialty is forbidden techniques related to 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. He even keeps the summoning contract on his left arm as a tattoo. In fact, in his introduction he is riding a gigantic snake.

Trivia

 * Orochimaru borrows heavily from Japanese literature — his name, as well as those of 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 was originally Jiraiya's student until he was corrupted by snake magic.