Orochimaru

Orochimaru, for a time, was the main villain of the animated series Naruto.

Origin
At first, Orochimaru seemed like a normal child growing up in the Hidden Leaf Village. But when he volunteered himself to be Hokage, and was denied, he plotted to destroy the village he once called home, and kill the rightful Hokage. Orochimaru had always been twisted, even back when he was a child. His sadistic attitude was presumably due to the death of his parents, which led him to study kinjutsu. Jiraiya theorized that Orochimaru went down this path in an attempt to forget his painful memories. Sarutobi in particular had had very high hopes for Orochimaru, often berating the clumsy Jiraiya and telling him he should be more like his teammate. After becoming the Third Hokage, Sarutobi hoped that one day Orochimaru would succeed him. While Orochimaru's ambitions did include becoming the Fourth Hokage, his eyes were set upon goals quite alien to the ideals traditionally associated with the title and emphatically embraced by his teacher. Hiruzen 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. Hiruzen had hoped to make his student see the error of his ways, but as more time passed, it became evident that Orochimaru was a lost cause. When Hiruzen finally retired years later he chose a student of Jiraiya's, Minato Namikaze, over Orochimaru as his successor, thus making Minato the Fourth Hokage. Realizing that he had hit a dead end in his quest to become the ultimate being and therefore had nothing to gain from staying in Konoha, Orochimaru began to be less discreet with his actions. Over the years, he had been kidnapping his fellow Konoha shinobi and using them 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, Hiruzen knew that it was his duty to kill him. At the time however, Hiruzen was unable to bring himself to kill his prized student for whom he had had such high hopes. Before Orochimaru defected he stole 60 infants in the hope of recreating the First Hokage Wood Jutsu. Before he could finish his work he was forced to leave Konoha, but he believed all the infants to be dead. However, one of these infants was Yamato. He was the only survivor of the experiments, and had gained the use of the Wood element.

Unlike most other Naruto characters, whose origins are told in chronological order over a consecutive series of chapters, small portions of Orochimaru's past are explored throughout the series. After his parents died when he was young, Orochimaru's only source of affection was received from his teacher, and his two teammates. As they grew older Orochimaru and his teammates collectively became known as the "Legendary Three Ninja" due to their exemplary ninja abilities. Orochimaru, however, craved more power than could be obtained from training with his master, and began abducting villagers for experimentation. He simultaneously applied for the title of Hokage, the village's protector, hoping that the position would give him access to new abilities. The Third, though wishing to pass the name of Hokage to his favorite student, could not bring himself to knowingly satisfy Orochimaru's lust for power, and thus gave the position to Jiraiya's student Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. No longer having a reason to keep face in Konoha, Orochimaru was less discreet about his abductions and experimentations, giving the Third the opportunity to discover what he was doing. Unwilling to bring himself to harm Orochimaru, the Third allowed him to escape and flee the village.

Orochimaru defected from the village and joined the elite criminal organization of Akatsuki. His former teammate, Jiraiya, tried to convince him to reconsider, but to no avail. Although the role Orochimaru played in Akatsuki is unclear, it is known that he was partnered withSasoriprior to his defection (the two apparently had great respect for each other when they were partners; Sasori also claimed that he and Orochimaru did a lot of good deeds when they were together in the organization). It was around this time, that Itachi joined Akatsuki, that Orochimaru saw his opportunity to gain possession of the Itachi's Sharingan, and soon Orochimaru made his attempt to steal Itachi Uchiha's body. Orochimaru tried to use his Living Corpse Reincarnation, but Itachi used his Sharingan to reverse it and cut off Orochimaru's left hand as a punishment, causing him to leave Akatsuki to acquire a new body. He eventually founded his own village; Otogakure to perform various experiments on his prisoners. At some point, when the Kaguya clanbarbarically attempted to massacre Kirigakure Village, in which they were slaughtered instead, Orochimaru was on the outskirts of the village, watching and commenting on their foolishness. It is there that he met Kimimaro, and after the slaughter, Kimimaro, being the sole survivor, was adopted by Orochimaru, in the hopes of becoming his new vessel.

Personality
Orochimaru's various human experiments take place so as to serve two purposes, most prominent of which is his desire to learn every jutsu in the Naruto world. Jiraiya speculates that this is due to the fact that his parents died when he was at a very young age, and flashbacks shown during his battle with the Third Hokage speak to this effect. Perhaps because he wanted to see his parents or as a means of avenging their deaths, he experiments on others to see what kind of modifications the human body can endure and to otherwise harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Another reason might be that he witnessed firsthand the deaths of Tsunade's younger brother, Nawaki, and her lover, Dan, and the pain that it caused her. He seemed saddened by the frailty of human life and how it affects those still living. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru hopes to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being". Because a human's lifespan does not allow enough time to learn every jutsu, Orochimaru also experiments on others so as to achieve immortality. By living throughout the ages, Orochimaru need never worry about death and thus all the knowledge he gains will never be lost.

Above all else, Orochimaru cares only for himself. He grows bored when there is no conflict or violence in the world, and immediately strikes fear into others when they first meet him. Though he has a number of followers who would do anything for him, Orochimaru treats them as mere pawns. He does not hesitate to send them to their deaths for his own personal benefit, and only finds remorse in their loss if they are unable to properly complete a task. To win over these followers to their disposable status, Orochimaru approaches them with promises of making their dreams, such as obtaining power, revenge, or a purpose to their lives, come true. He applies a cursed seal to many of his stronger subordinates in order to corrode their body and mind, making them more susceptible to his influence and control.

He experimented on others to see what kind of modifications the human body can endure and to otherwise harness a subject's unique abilities for himself. Once accomplishing this goal, Orochimaru had hoped to be worthy of the title of "ultimate being". Because a human's lifespan does not allow enough time to learn every jutsu, Orochimaru also experimented on others so as to achieve immortality. By living throughout the ages, Orochimaru needed to never worry about death and thus all the knowledge he gained would never be lost. Above all else, Orochimaru cared only for himself. He grew bored when there was no conflict or violence in the world, and immediately struck fear into others when they first met him. Though he had a number of followers who would do anything for him, Orochimaru treated them as mere pawns. He did not hesitate to send them to their deaths for his own personal benefit, and only found remorse in their loss if they were unable to properly complete a task. To win over these followers to their disposable status, Orochimaru approached them with promises of making their dreams come true. He applied a cursed seal to many of his stronger subordinates in order to corrode their body and mind, making them more susceptible to his influence and control.While he showed great interest in Sasuke Uchiha as a prodigy, Orochimaru had shown disdain toward Naruto Uzumaki, believing him to be a lost cause without any talent in ninjutsu arts. However, when Naruto injured Kabuto with his Rasengan (improved with the use of Shadow Clones), Orochimaru thought Naruto would become a threat in the future and tried to kill him. After the timeskip, Orochimaru revealed he was now more interested in Naruto's development, despite the failed murder attempt against him, taunting and angering Naruto about Sasuke. He trained Sasuke so he could become stronger to kill his older brother, Itachi. But Orochimaru was actually planning to take over Sasuke's body, and as a result the Sharingan, in his possession, would sky-rocket him towards his prime objective of learning all the jutsu in the world. Because of that, he would help Sasuke in whatever he needed, with the knowledge he had to become his new vessel. However, he hadn't truly planned on foul play from Sasuke, who never intended to become Orochimaru's new body, instead always planning on creating his own platoon and leaving Orochimaru behind. Orochimaru showed little surprise when Sasuke moved to betray him, merely saying "so, it came down to this after all".

Powers and Abilities
Orochimaru is a very powerful ninja with the power to summon the dead. For a long time, he searched for a way to make himself immortal. He decided that the best solution was transferring his soul into other bodies. To achieve this, he experimented on other human beings with no regard for their lives or health.

Much of Orochimaru's arsenal of abilities deals with snakes. By summoning them to his side during battle, Orochimaru can battle multiple opponents at once and simultaneously keep himself out of harm's way.Through his experimentations he has also been able to add some snake-like characteristics to his own body, such as shedding his body to escape injury or extending parts of his body to great lengths. Of the more common of his snake-related abilities, Orochimaru possesses the Kusanagi Sword, an extendable blade that he stores within a snake that is in turn stored in his own mouth. Though he can wield the sword regularly with great proficiency, it is not uncommon for him to use the sword without ever removing it from his mouth.

The influence snakes have had on Orochimaru is most evident in the results of his immortality research: after years of study and self-modifications, Orochimaru's "true" form has become that of a giant white snake that is composed of many smaller snakes. To live forever and escape death, Orochimaru first finds a new body that will act as his own. He then leaves the confines of the body he is inhabiting, revealing his true form. Once doing so, Orochimaru needs only to consume the new body and gain dominance over the soul of its current inhabitant, thus gaining complete control and access to all the body's unique abilities. While inhabiting this body, Orochimaru typically wears a mask of his original face, it being both his personal preference and for easier recognition by those who know him. Orochimaru can only perform this body-transfer once every three years, at which point in time weaker bodies begin to reject him and therefore necessitate he find a new body.

Being one of the Sannin, as well as a former member of Akatsuki, Orochimaru is an extraordinarily powerful ninja. His power is so great that, around the time of of his invasion of Konoha, the Third Hokage feared that no-one alive in Konoha could defeat or even fight on equal footing with him, even the Third Hokage himself. Orochimaru was also able to fight on equal footing with a Four Tailed Naruto Uzumaki in Part II while his body was in a weakened state, and despite the danger Naruto imposed, he found the battle highly entertaining. Due to him rarely being shown fighting, he has only displayed a limited amount of techniques, although it stands to reason that in his efforts to learn all existing jutsu, his array of abilities has probably become larger than any other single character. He has a vast knowledge in all forms of jutsu.

One of the few techniques he was seen using is the Earth Clone Technique, which creates a copy of himself out of mud that can attack on his behalf. He was also able to utilize Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, through which he can level a wide area with a powerful gust of wind. In terms of defensive techniques, Orochimaru uses both Summoning: Rashomon and Triple Rashomon, in which he summons a varying number of large demonic gates that are capable of enduring the most intense forms of damage. If need be, he can also place a Five Elements Seal on an opponent, sealing off their access to chakra and thus rendering them useless in battle.

In his quest to gain immortality, Orochimaru has made a number of modifications to his body, resulting in his natural form taking on the appearance of a giant, white snake composed of many smaller snakes. This form has the advantages of allowing him to stretch any part of his body to great lengths, regenerate any wound inflicted upon him, and otherwise use the snakes that he is composed of for attacks. The primary use of the form is with his Living Corpse Reincarnation, which allows him to transfer his soul to another's body and extend his life indefinitely. To use this jutsu, Orochimaru leaves his former body, revealing his true form. Once he has done this, he swallows the new body and transports its current inhabitant to a dimension within himself where he absorbs them, thus allowing him to take over their body. Orochimaru can only perform this technique once every three years, which is also around the time that his new body begins to reject him and forces him to find a new host. Although he might leave their bodies behind, the souls of those whose bodies he has taken always remain within Orochimaru's subconscious, causing some of their traits to affect the choices he makes, even if only slightly. While within another's body, Orochimaru uses Vanishing Facial Copy Technique to assume his original appearance. This ability also allows him to take the identities of others by forcefully peeling off their face for his own use, killing them in the process.After taking over another body, Orochimaru modifies it to suit his theme of snakes, in order to increase his survival capabilities, such as stretching and bending his body and shedding his skin to heal injuries. This makes that even if Orochimaru is unable to transfer body, he can allow it to greatly heal and evade attacks, rendering him virtually immortal.Orochimaru can use Summoning: Impure World Resurrection, which allowed him to revive the dead. To perform the technique, Orochimaru must sacrifice a living human so that the soul of the deceased person can be tied to the living world. The sacrificed body is then surrounded with dirt and dust that compacts into the shape of the summoned soul's original body. Although the revived retain their original memories and personalities, thus leaving them out of the control of Orochimaru, he can suppress their free wills with his own special seal to force them to do his bidding. The bodies of the resurrected are also able to regenerate any wound, meaning the only way to defeat them is to remove the soul within them.Orochimaru has an apparent affinity with snakes that, in addition to impacting the appearance and composition of his true form, has caused him to learn a number of snake-related abilities. One such ability is being able to summon giant snakes to fight alongside him in battle, made possible by the summoning contract tattooed to his arms. With Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, Orochimaru can call forth snakes from his sleeves and mouth to attack opponents in large numbers with poisonous bites. Another usage of snakes comes in the form of his Kusanagi Sword: Long Sword of the Heavens, the Kusanagi of Japanese legend. The sword, kept within the mouth of a snake within his own throat, is able to extend to great lengths and can be controlled remotely by Orochimaru. Although he was capable of using the sword normally with great proficiency, it was not uncommon for him to wield it without ever removing it from his mouth.