Better be happy I didn't pick a miley cyrus U_U
Background information
In this thread I will try to present and comment on Orochimaru as a whole. The reason I decided to create this thread is that not only is Orochimaru severely underrated but also, due to many of his abilities being not even having names - also misunderstood. I'll also try to figure out why some of his past Databook scores were what they were.
Another reason would be that the only Orochimaru entry in the Databook regarding his stats was when he was armless, sick or dying. That's why I thought we needed a wider look at it
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Ninjutsu, Fuuinjutsu and Kuchiyose
Orochimaru is well-known for his pursuit of knowledge and abilities so it's not surprising that he's very skilled in this area.
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- Edo Tensei
Obviously the strongerst technique Orochimaru has shown so far. It binds a soul and forces it to come back from the pure to the impure world. A vessel for that soul has to be a dead body of a human sacrifice and talismans (fuda) implanted into the Edo allows Orochimaru to completely erase their memories and personalities to turn them into killing machnies following his orders [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
- Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes
Another very strong technique that works by releasing thousands of poisonous snakes that in additions to their fangs produce a replica of Kusanagi and swarm their opponent [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]. Without massive aoe techniques like Kyuubi shockwaves, it becomes really deadly and almost impossible to evade.
- Eight Branches
Orochimaru's strongest snake-like technique. According to Databook it's created with Orochimaru's usage of White Snake Regenerative Powers that he obviously has due to becoming a white snake himself and has a form of Dragon God [You must be registered for see links]. Also, Orochimaru in this form managed to escape Totsuka Sword with 3 white snakes [You must be registered for see links], even though its sealing power was said to be strong enough to seal anything it pierces.
- Five Elements Seal
A very strong, A-rank seal that allows its user to disturb foe's chakra flow. Also, when used on an even-numbered seal that sealed another source of chakra inside one's body, disturbs that chakra source as well [You must be registered for see links]. It's initial effects were so strong, that it made Naruto pass out.
- Cursed Seal
Another powerful seal that utilizes Orochimaru's Senjutsu chakra. Injecting it into one's body causes them to feel severe pain [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]. Also, it implants Orochimaru's consciousness and chakra inside their bodies, making Orochimaru almost immortal only thanks to this technique alone, since he can emerge from the seals if the foe is low on chakra [You must be registered for see links], he gets unsealed [You must be registered for see links] or releases himself after victims of Cursed Seal lost their free will [You must be registered for see links].
But as for combat usage of this technique, it can be also used to paralyse a foe and make him unable to fight [You must be registered for see links].
- Living Corpse Reincarnation
Simply, Oro's immortality jutsu. He takes over a victims' bodies and keeps their soul supressed inside his own dimension. Taking over one's body also let's Orochimaru use all their abilities and also KKG. Moreover, strong bodies compatibile with strongest variants of Cursed Seal would let him stay in them for much longer or perhaps even forever. That's why his number 1 body was Kimimaro, then Sasuke [You must be registered for see links]. Now due to the fact that he's gotten in possession of a Zetsu body [You must be registered for see links] AND that he's researched Hashi DNA thoroughly (to the point where he even knew about Zetsu's sensory abilities [You must be registered for see links], gave Danzou Mokuton and actually managed to give Mokuton to Yamato), it's easily assumed that White Zetsu abilities are nothing he couldn't use. That leaves us with Zetsu Spores, Mayfly, sensory abilities and also probably Mokuton.
- Wind Release: Great Breakthrough
A jutsu based on one of the two Nature Transformations Orochimaru has shown so far - Fuuton. It creates a massive violent gale of wind that managed to uproot giant trees in the Forest of Death [You must be registered for see links].
- Sound Wave
Actually, NarutoWikia tags it as anime-only, but it's not true. This technique was used by Orochimaru canonically and managed to harm 2 Anbu, Hiruzen and Enma to the point they landed on the ground defenseless and started to bleed [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]
- Kuchiyose - Manda, 3 Ribbon Snakes and Giant Twin Snakes
Not much to write here. Orochimaru has many, many summons in his possession and these are the giant ones he summonned in the manga.
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*You must be registered for see linksTaijutsu, Kenjutsu, Strength and Close Combat
This is the area where Orochimaru gets severely underrated in and I'll try to convince you that he's not that defenseless when it comes to Taijutsu and CQC.
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- Taijutsu
While Orochimaru hasn't shown that many Taijutsu feats, his style is different from what we've seen so far. He utilizes kicks and punches with his physique and the fact that he can get away with wounds without any backdraft. It's exactly what happened when Orochimaru rushed at Jiraya [You must be registered for see links].
- Kenjutsu
His Kenjutsu is another story. Orochimaru is very skilled in using his legendary Sword of Kusanagi, which was proven for example when Hiruzen rushed with Enma staff on Orochimaru who didn't even have his Kusanagi in his hand. Yet he managed to equip it in time and repel consecutive Hiruzen's attacks [You must be registered for see links].
Orochimaru also developed techniques to enhance his sword fighting - and that being his Longsword of the Sky jutsu, letting him to control his Kusanagi with some sort of levitation and thereby making it in fact another opponent that Oro's foes have to encounter at the same time [You must be registered for see links].Another testament to his Kenjutsu skill was training Sasuke to the point of him becoming extremely proficient with Kenjutsu [You must be registered for see links].
- Strength and CQC with usage of Snakes
Orochimaru's strength and close combat potential are also very wide, yet underrated.
With use of his tongue he can effortlessly throw people around with a great force [You must be registered for see links] and his punch managed to even deform 4tailed Kyuubi's face [You must be registered for see links].
Also, just like others use boost their Kenjutsu/Taijutsu with Kunai, Senbon or other weapons, Orochimaru does it as well with extensive usage of his Snakes and poison. Orochimaru often relies on hisYou must be registered for see linksandYou must be registered for see links. Both described in the Databook as poisonous serve as another source of lethal attack and extension of Orochimaru's arms and grips.
Another thing worth noticing is the massive strength of these snakes. Snake Glare effortlessly stopped raging Juugi and Suigetsu in the middle or their attacks [You must be registered for see links] and Shadow Snake Hands effortlessly stopped a point-blank, already accelerated God Tree's branch [You must be registered for see links], Enma [You must be registered for see links] and A SINGLE (!) Shadow Snake managed to stop and constrict rushing 4tailed Kyuubi's arm [You must be registered for see links].Genjutsu
Many people, me included, always wondered why Orochimaru had a 5 in Genjutsu in the Databook. Considering that he hasn't used any Genjutsu yet and that Itachi caught him in his Genjutsu made things even more strange. But let's take a look at this scan [You must be registered for see links]. Orochimaru right away could tell what was the technique and was surprised that himself, out of all people, was the one to get caught in it, so it strongly suggests that it wasn't him not being able to resist such Genjutsu cast by other characters, but it was just that Itachi was in way another league in terms of Genjutsu than probably any other character in NV and to make it even worse, the Genjutsu was a Sharingan one.
Another testament to his skill is that even while under the effect of a Binding Illusion, he still managed to attempt to release himself from it [You must be registered for see links].
Intelligence and Knowledge
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I think there won't be any exaggeration if I say that Orochimaru is the most or at least one of the most intelligent and knowledgable characters in NV. Even Hiruzen said that he doesn't compare to Orochimaru and his intelligence. I'll just list some of the thing he's done so far and back up with scans only ones that may be unknown by others.
- Managed to decypher Uchiha Stone without Sharingan!
- Created his own dimension.
- Researched Hashi's DNA thoroughly to the point he knew everything about it [
You must be registered for see links].- Ran several hideouts with a great amount of prisoners without getting caught, despite being no.1 in the Bingo book [
You must be registered for see links].- Researched many Kinjutsu, including immortality spell.
- Managed to re-summon the Shinigami and release the souls he had in his stomach.
- Is an expert in 'sinister' Medical techniques - experimented on infants and many other people, including tries of turning humans into snakes [
You must be registered for see links].- Found Kusanagi and Ryuuchidou, which others considered legends only.
Speed and reactions
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- Speed feats
Base Orochimaru managed to outspeed and jump away from 4tailed Kyuubi chakra arms without problems [You must be registered for see links] and then he even managed to massively increase his agility and speed with entering Slithering Snake Mode [You must be registered for see links].
Orochimaru also managed to blitz Kabuto and Yamato from quite a distance without them even noticing. Yamato couldn't even switch his Kunai a few inches in Kabuto's direction before they both got blitzed [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
Moreover, Orochimaru knows Shunshin which he used against Sakura, Naruto and Yamato [You must be registered for see links].
- Reaction feats
First off, Orochimaru managed to evade Kyuubiruto chakra arm while mid-air [You must be registered for see links]!
Also, he reacted to a point-blank, accelerated God Tree's branch and saved Hiruzen, even though there was quite a distance between these two [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
Another testament to his reaction and speed feats would be him managing to summon Triple Rashoumon to defend from a Tailed Beast Blast, AFTER it'd been already fired off! [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].Stamina
Actually, Orochimaru is often considered a character with low stamina. But it's not true! Let's look at some scans.
Firstly, during the Sannin lockdown, Tsunade could summon a part of Katsuyu smaller than Manda and it was her limit. Orochimaru on the other hand showed he could summon 2 Giant Snakes AND Manda, despite beng feverish and weakened by the side effects of Shiki Fuuin [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
Secondly, during his fight with Naruto, not only did he use his Replacement Technique quite a few times, which technique was considered very chakra-draining [You must be registered for see links], summonned ten thousand snakes (!) and summonned Triple Rashoumon - where even a single one requires massive amout of chakra to perform (can't find an English scan, but I can post a Spanish one if needed)
Moreover, now that Orochimaru took over a Zetsu body, his stamina gained a massive boost as well. We've seen what Hashi's DNA does after it gets accepted by the body (for example Obito, Danzou).
Defense, mobility and miscellaneous
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- Defense
Orochimaru is probably the most difficult character to kill or even harm seriously. He utilizes many justu to mitigate or evade damage:A. Soft Physique - an ability to extend and control his body to an extent where he can dodge incoming attacks and surprise his foe [.You must be registered for see links].
B. Body Replacement - an already mentioned ability, that let's Orochimaru create another body, free from damage. Also, despite its name, it's not only replacement. He creates new limbs and body parts with it, as seen with Oro's hand cut off by Itachi, kept in his laboratory [You must be registered for see links], while is having new hands himself.
C. Gathering of the Snakes -an ability, where Orochimaru releases White Scaled Snakes from his own dimension to reconnect his human shell when damaged severely [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
D. Triple Rashoumon - also an already mentioned ability. It let's Orochimaru summon 3 giant gates that serve as his extremely good defense against potentially lethal attacks [You must be registered for see links].
E. Vanishing Facial Copy - an extremely underrated technique. Actually, Orochimaru having taken over a body can add his own layer of 'skin' not only to make him look like old Orochimaru, but also to defend him from attacks. This thin layer of 'skin' was strong enough not to let Kyuubiruto to get past it [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]. Not to mention that this layer of defense can be 'repaired' without any problems as shown here [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]
- Mobility
A. Earth Release: Hiding like a mole - an ability that let's Orochimaru instantly, without any hand seals dig underground and travel at fast speed, spy on enemies or simply use it as an escape or striking tool. Moreover, it grants its user a sensory ability due to magnetism, so using it as offense isn't a problem here [You must be registered for see links], [You must be registered for see links].
B. Attack Prevention Technique - Orochimaru uses it to merge with other objects to evade attacks [You must be registered for see links] or simply to travel [You must be registered for see links].
C. Shadow Clone - no explanation needed [You must be registered for see links].
- Sensory abilities
Orochimaru obviously has temperature and smell sensing [You must be registered for see links]. Also, he managed to see through Sai's Ink Clone [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links] and sensed Naruto, Sakura and Sai hiding in the bush [You must be registered for see links]. Another testament to his sensory skills is that he figured out that Kabuto had Sasori's needle in his brain and freed him from this jutsu. Without sensing he wouldn't be able to figure it out, since that jutsu removes its victim's knowledge on that he actually is affected by it, so his behavious cannot give anything away [You must be registered for see links].
- Regeneration
Apart from his ability to create new limbs, Orochimaru also possesses amazing regeneration abilities. They were praised by Sasuke after absorbing his chakra [You must be registered for see links]->[You must be registered for see links].
- Poison Immunity
Orochimaru is also immune to poisons, firstly thanks to his body structure and secondly thanks to his experiments with poisons and his body [You must be registered for see links].
- Chakra draining
Another feat in Orochimaru's arsenal. He showed being able to suck chakra with a mere touch and even decide what he wanted to suck out and what he didn't want to [You must be registered for see links].
