#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon .

[ophidae-a]

Orochimaru and the political implications that have kept him alive and free pre & post war...

This has been a long time coming, I will try to word this as best as I can given that it will involve a lot of actual research but I was simply exhausted of seeing people’s bad takes. Anyway let’s begin.

Assuming you could implement actual real world logic into the naruto world, that would mean all the countries are/were probably influenced by many of the economic movements that influenced and shaped the real world. Since the series seems to be set in a mix between ancient and modern times, it is hard to place it in a specific moment in history, so I will only be addressing the more general theories.

We know that Shinobi villages get commissioned for their assistance by other villages, and that seems to be a big part of the Shinobi Villages’ income, which means trade is a thing in that universe. Shinobi villages seem to specialize in exporting services ( aka the Shinobi ), which probably means they have to import everything that the common villagers cannot produce. Being within a country, that means the Shinobi village is subjected to the laws imposed by the Daimyo —— which means that international trade is also probably a thing.

No country is 100% self-sufficient ; in the past, people argued and theorized for and against international trade, trying to justify its need and place certain standards on it. The law of comparative advantage came to explain why certain countries still engage in international trade despite being good at producing everything it needs (absolute advantage)  —— it comes with the premise that if you can produce a product in large quantities and efficiently ( low costs ), than that is your specialty, and you should export that and buy the products you cannot produce with the same efficiency for that will be more beneficial to you. David Ricardo demonstrated that if two countries capable of producing two commodities engage in trade, then each country will increase its overall consumption by exporting the good for which it has a comparative advantage while importing the other good, provided that there exist differences in labor productivity between both countries. Basically he says that this comparative advantage is what makes international trade possible, opposed to what Adam Smith alluded in 1776 when he spoke about the absolute advantage.

Here is an example to make things easier:

Hours of work necessary to produce one unit

Country/ Product         X         Y

Country 1                     100      120

Country 2                     90        80

For country 1 to produce one unit of both products it would take them 220 hours, for country 2 it would take them 170 hours to produce one unit of both products. Country 1 requires 100 hours to make one unit X, and Country 2 needs 90 hours for that. It is a difference of 10 hours. Product Y takes country 1 120 hours to produce a single unit, while it takes 80 hours for country 2 to make that.

That being said, country 1 is more efficient at producing X, while country 2 is more efficient at producing Y —— which means they should specialize in producing those products and buy the one they’re not as efficient from each other. And that will be financially beneficial to them. ( country 2 has absolute advantage, however even like that it is more beneficial to buy product x than to produce it themselves ).

Why is this important? Well, Orochimaru didn’t just leave Konoha and that was it, he founded a Village —— a Shinobi village in a land that previously had none. The land of rice is very small and probably lived off of exporting rice to the nearby villages and countries ; a commodity based economy is not very strong. That means Orochimaru not only opened a whole new industry in this country, but also brought with him intellectual property, in other words, technology. The land of rice now not only had a new economic pillar, it also has potential to join the big guys since with Orochimaru on the inside it means less importing more exporting.

Okay but what is Orochimaru producing Lua, I don’t get it! Not to worry, I shall explain. Orochimaru is a scientist, he produces what most scientists do : intellectual property —— vaccines, medication, anti-venom, research on treatments for a variety of illnesses, technology, industrial models, genetic research among others. All things that he can patent, and by extension patent to the land of rice. That is what he is producing, and that is what makes him so special and influential.

Throughout the series, we know of very few characters who are gifted in healthcare/science —— we have Tsunade, Sasori, Chiyo, Orochimaru, Shizune, Kabuto and Sakura. Those are the characters we canonically know are in this industry, however do you see where they are from? Land of Wind, Land of Fire, but what about the the other countries? It is stupid to think they do not have their own medically inclined people and industry, but given the fact that we know villages such as Ame and Kiri, the smaller villages, are heavily subjugated by the bigger countries, it is not absurd to think they’d turn to imports to supplement the fact that they might have a small or non existent industry for these areas. Even bigger countries must struggle to supply the whole population with things such as vaccines and medication, and that is where Orochimaru comes in.

Not only is he in charge of his own village, therefore doesn’t really have to worry about many regulations that might delay his production, he is also not bound by any other jurisdiction other than his own ( since it has been implied in canon that the daimyo is basically his puppet ). Orochimaru has absolute advantage when it comes to the medical industry, and that is what he exports to all the other nations —— I am talking mass production, with full control of the supply chain. This is what makes him so politically important, because a village in shortage of medication and vaccines is a village ready to die (healthcare crisis), especially when we talk about Shinobi Villages who are probably the ones that need these products the most.

And that is the reason Orochimaru hasn’t been hunted down and killed pre 4th war. The Kages and Daimyos know where these products are coming from, they understand the implications but they can’t do without them. No matter how much they’d like to deny it, they need Orochimaru alive. Otherwise they’ll have a huge problem in their hands.

Post war this need is even bigger —— they have just been through a war, a lot of people died, a lot of people are sick, need medication, vaccines, transfusions, surgeries and there aren’t a lot of personnel left. Not only that, but Orochimaru was a key factor on them winning this war —— without him, all of the current kages would have died, without him none of the previous konoha kages would have been resurrected therefore more death would have come.

That is one of the reasons after the war that he wasn’t imprisoned. It isn’t because Konoha is biased —- why would they be biased toward Orochimaru? It is because they know that if they lock him up, or kill him, they won’t have from who import the shit they need.

Throughout the whole series Orochimaru only really had beef with two major countries —— the land of fire, and the land of wind. Those were the only countries he really pissed off, and neither of those countries ever went after him with the intensity you would see if they actually wanted him dead. The other nations probably didn’t care about him other than his potential as a business partner, which probably influenced in him not being “held accountable” for the things he did.

When people mention the difference between treatments of Sasuke and Orochimaru, it kills me because they are not the same thing. Sasuke left the village and made himself a war criminal the moment he walked into that Kage meeting and tried to kill everyone to get to Danzo. Orochimaru is a villain, a criminal and in my opinion the best since he went ahead and made himself so important worldwide that he cannot be touched, and even managed to survive, however it is not comparable to what Sasuke did. Sasuke went ahead and made himself an enemy of the Shinobi alliance, not just one nation but all of them, Orochimaru did no such thing because he was at the time a fully grown man, not an angsty teen. Orochimaru knew what he was doing, Sasuke was fully controlled by rage. And it showed, that is why Sasuke wasn’t left off the hook, not only that but Sasuke doesn’t provide the nations with anything other than a threat —— Orochimaru poses a big threat but he also provides them with things they need to survive, so he is something that they have to manage, Sasuke? Not that much. Countries don’t like to feel threatened, that is why they rained down on Sasuke and not on Orochimaru.

Making yourself politically important can get you out of a plethora of situations, not only in naruto world. In the real world it is very much the same, it is why diplomats have immunity, why many politicians get away with countless bad things —— because their fall could impact a whole country or more.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( listen....... yes i did this )

[ophidae-a]

a small headcanon:  the older kids ( sound four + kimimaro ) refer to orochimaru as "father" while the younger kids ( team taka , mitsuki + log ) refer to orochimaru as "mother" and that has everything to do with the attitude orochimaru had while they were growing up  ;  with the sound four and kimimaro, orochimaru was struggling, was during his not-so-sane years, and thus he represented a figure that was more masculine (  that fit in more with what society sees as father-like or masculine ). as time went by, and he found stability within the rice country, and set up a strong foundation for otogakure, as well as progressed with his experiments towards immortality, he took in a more "motherly" persona  (  fitting in more with what society sees as motherly or feminine ), thus the different titles for different generations. he doesn't care and actually likes both titles equally  ;  feels that they cater to his gender fluidity quite well.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( i said what i said.... which means yes.... team taka calls him 'mama' ) #including sasuke.... the only one that switches between the titles is juugo )

[ophidae-a]

                              ｡    16.   ━━   @firestcrm​  .  

If your muse could talk to one person they’ve lost, who would it be?

Without a doubt it would be his mother  ;  he just has so much to ask her  ━━━━━━━━  so much he wants to know, about her, his father, their clan, their homeland, things he can't learn from the few old books and pieces of parchment he found. He would love to hear her voice clearly one last time, to feel her touch again  ;  to have her brush his hair and sing him songs. But mostly, he'd like to ask her why did she hide him? Why did she hide him instead of letting him die with them? Despite all he achieved, if he could go back and choose to die with them he would do so without hesitation.

Orochimaru had always been very attached to his mother as a toddler, and he would do anything to be able to have a moment with her once again.

#｡ MY HEART COULD BE THIS COLD ━━ replied . #｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #firestcrm #( i am now super emotional about orochimaru and his mom so yeah rip me )

[ophidae-a]

;  how do you need to be loved?

━━━━ like the burn marks on my hands

you need to be loved gently, taken care of. you need to let yourself be taken care of. you deserve the kindness. you deserve to have fingertips pressed to yours, you deserve soft smiles and quiet laughs. you need to be kissed in the middle of the night, you need to be told it’s okay. you’re used to aggressive love, you need it gently.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #｡ YOU ARE A GOD AMONGST MEN ━━ study .

[ophidae-a]

｡   AESTHETICS   ━━ body type  .

PERSONALS DO NOT INTERACT. 

#｡ HE IS BLOOD AND DEATH AND PERFUME ━━ visage . #｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( zhang posted this on his stories yesterday ???? or sunday idk and i just ! ! ! ! ) #( first of all....he is so thin ;/// but then my brain went OROCHIMARU ) #( and so i had to save it ) #( i miss him a lot ;/// ) #( i think he is still in china which makes me happy ) #( he seemed sad ??? in NY )

[ophidae-a]

｡   Parental Orochimaru! I'd like to know these instincts developed. Was it always innate to him, or did certain experiences mold and shape it? Both, maybe? What made him decide to genetically engineer his own children, and since having Mitsuki and Log, has the Sound taken in any more children? Thank you.   ━━   @super-kame-love​​​​​​​​​  .

Parental Orochimaru is literally my favourite Orochimaru, so this ask has made me very happy ! ! ! So, how did these instincts develop... Despite growing up in a mainly Japanese society (   konoha   ), Orochimaru was born and raised for a few years, his first years of life, completely surrounded by Chinese culture only ━━━━━ you see, while for most western people Asia as a whole has a collective society (  as in they prioritise the whole and not the individual, including work and social environments  )  Japan within Asia is considered an individualistic society, so the people in Japan seem to value their idividuality and independence more, hence the culture of seniority while important as it is in many if not all Asian countries, in Japan it is not as strict as say, in Korea or China. This culture or concept, was instilled in Orochimaru by his parents ━━━━━━ when you are older than someone they have to respect you, but you have to take care of them and guide them through life, it is your duty as their elder. At three years old, toddler Orochimaru was aware of this concept and understood it  ;  it was part of whom he was, and in the little village he lived in, when interacting with younger children he made sure to take care of them ━━━━━━━━  this "big brother" culture/thing is very strong in China and Korea, while in Japan it turns into the "senpai" culture/thing mostly in work environments and school, while for children it's the "nii-san/nee-chan".

Alongside this upbringing, Orochimaru was always a very gentle child seeing someone else in trouble or pain was never something he enjoyed, and so his cultural background plus his gentle nature, in his adulthood, developed into his parental instincts. We also have to keep in mind that Orochimaru lost his parents when he was three years old, so he never really had many clear memories of them or what a parent really is or does ━━━━━━━━ which is why, most of his parenting decisions are solely based on what he wished he had as a young orphan, what he wished someone had done to him or for him as a young orphan ━━━━━━━━ which makes him him a great parent, but also a not-so great parent.

Creating Log and Mitsuki was quite possibly one of his biggest feats  ━━━━━━ the decision of genetically engineering his children was due to the fact that Orochimaru is very picky  ;  not only does he want children with extreme potential, he wants them to be as close to perfect as possible. The only example he has of such is himself, whom he himself had experimented on and improved to what he deems perfection. Dealing with genetic material is difficult as it is, trying to have children the conventional way is letting the universe decide too much for Orochimaru's liking ━━━━━━━━ since DNA can carry genectic material dating back 150-200 years back, the probabilities of having too many unwanted results were too many, even if he had chosen someone extremelly strong that met all criteria, there is no way of knowing which genes the children would inherit.

So the safest option was to artificially engineer the children  ;  he used his own genome and the genome of an Otsutsuki, and even then, Orochimaru had planned for Log and Mitsuki to look like him, pale skin, black hair and intense eyes ━━━━━━━━━ when Log and Mitsuki were "born" they still ended up looking like Otsutsuki, so even with all the interventions, there are things one really can't control. And that is why Orochimaru chose to artificially engineer his children.

Well, as the Sound is a full-fledged Village, with thousands of people, I can surely say that they have taken in more children and refugees, Otogakure didn't stop being a safe haven for those who wanted to run away from the Shinobi world, or simply run away from a failed system.  Now, has Orochimaru personally taken in new children? No. He has raised all his children to adulthood, and now only really has Mitsuki to look after, I don't think he plans on taking anymore children, but you never know.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #long post // #super-kame-love #( me using what i learned in college for a headcanon ????? yes aksjdhaksd ) #( marketing had me doing market research and that's oof ) #( anyway ! ! ! ! i love parent orochimaru he is just ;/////// the softest ) #( also he is super salty log and mitsuki look like toneri )

[ophidae-a]

｡   Does your muse read smut, own magazines, or watch p-rn? Is your muse the type to discuss their sex life or sexual prowess with others?   ━━   @thatsneakymedic​  .

I think it is not a surprise to say that no, Orochimaru doesn't read smut, own magazines or watch p-rn ━━━━━━ he's not much of a reader in general, as in, he doesn't take interest in books that are not of the scientific genre because more often than not, he has trouble with the flowery writing styles  ;  has a bit of a hard time understanding idioms, metaphors and so he avoids it when he can. The only piece of literature that contained mature content he read were Jiraiya's Icha Icha series ━━━━━━━━━ which he surprisingly enjoyed.

As for the second question, normally no  ;  he won't start talking about his sex life or sexual prowess on a daily conversation, however he is far from being shy ━━━━━━ life and his rather unpleasant experiences have made him very desensitized to the subject of sex, so he is not opposed to discussing it openly, however he will only do so if prompted to ━━━━━━━━━━━━ he understands that not everyone is comfortable with the subject, that it can be triggering, or just inappropriate for certain settings. When prompted and in an appropriate place, he has no qualms talking about such subjects  ;  sometimes to the point where people have to tell him to calm down a bit, he doesn't have to get so specific.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #thatsneakymedic

[ophidae-a]

｡   Does Orochimaru like scented candles and incense sticks or does he prefer ones with no scents? What are his favorite smells?   ━━ anonymous

Orochimaru experiences synesthesia, where scents have colours and flavours, therefore he tends to avoid things like incense sticks or even scented candles. He can appreciate them from time to time, but to be constantly exposed to them can be very overwhelming and distracting ━━━━ Orochimaru uses his ability to pick up scents as a tracking device, so he is sort of a sensor type Shinobi, being around scented candles and incense can throw this ability off.

When he does allow himself to enjoy them, he prefers more natural scents ━━━━ jasmine, wisteria, lemongrass ; fresh and floral but not overwhelming. Sometimes he enjoys more warmth and opts to light up a cinnamon candle, something a bit more spicy. As for incense, he chooses clove, roses or ylang-ylang.

As for his favourite smells, well it might be weird to some ? But as someone who can literally smell pheromones and emotions, Orochimaru doesn’t really go for the obvious scents when asked what his favourite smell is. He’ll definitely answer, but it won’t be something like sandalwood, vanilla or lavender, his favourite smells are the smell of his children ━━━━ the combination of pheromones, emotions, and non-natural smells that make their own unique scent. To smell his children calms him down, it makes him feel relaxed and safe, which is why whenever he greets them with a hug, he’ll spend just a few seconds with his face buried in their hair ━━━━━━ breathing them in.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #｡ THE LEFT HAND MAN ━━ anonymous . #( he is literally the softest man i'm in shambles )

[ophidae-a]

           ｡   hibiscus, hydrangea, and peony!   ━━   @sensshi​​​​​​​​​​​​​  .

hibiscus :   how does your muse view the gentler ,   daintier things in life ?   as things worth preserving   &   caring for ,   or things only bound to wither   &   disappear ?

One of the joys in diving into Orochimaru is that he is very multifaceted. It is well-known that he has no time for gentleness  ;  not the kindest, most merciful person out there, and yet he was also raised as a shinobi ━━━ while he has no place for daintiness or weakness in his life, it was drilled into him from a very fundamentally young age that he lived to protect those who are weaker ━━━━━ those who cannot fight for themselves. And he carries this view when looking at the softer, gentler aspects or things in life  ;  while personally he hasn't had much time or means to explore and enjoy such things, he feels compelled to preserve them, or at least their essence. I believe part of his obsession with immortality comes from that too  ━━━━━ the frail things, those gentle and precious things will eventually fade, whiter away with the passing of time, but he will not  ;  he will be there to tell younger generations their stories.

hydrangea :   how much does your muse value communication in their relationships with others ?  are they prone to being misunderstood ?

As someone who is used to using his words as part of his deadly arsenal of weapons, Orochimaru can be painfully awkward when it comes to talking about feelings ━━━━━━ because he doesn't quite understand them, or at least not like a normal person would. Still, he deeply values communication especially with the people he is close to and holds dear. He values truth, and honesty with those he is intimate to, no matter what the subject may be, if you ask him to be truthful and you are within his group of people he trusts, Orochimaru will be honest, and that ranges from adults and children ━━━ it is one of the reasons Orochimaru is seen as so strange, he talks to children as if he sees them eye to eye, not like he is their superior, or even older. He holds entire conversations with children on topics that any other adult wouldn't want to entertain ━━━━ because they are too childish, or seemingly stupid. As for being misunderstood, the chances are very very low  ;  unless the person is purposefully being daft. Orochimaru is brutally straightforward, he won't try to measure his words, and will deliver whatever information with the precision of a viper striking its victims ( see his conversation with literal five-year-old Itachi..... ).

peony :   what would a   ‘  happy life  ’   look like in your muse’s eyes ?

I would say the period post-fourth war is the happiest he has ever had. Orochimaru has always craved stability deep within his very soul, he spent most of his live under someone else's rule ━━━━ subjected to someone else's whims, and that brought him so many inconstant changes, and so happiness for him was stability  ;  the freedom of having his own village to rule, the safety of not having to worry about where he'd sleep, what he'd eat, if he'd even be alive the next morning, the relief of knowing his children were safe and had everything they needed to survive and thrive ━━━━ that is what is happiness for him, that is what he pictures as a happy life, and fortunately for him, he managed to get that after the 4th war.

#｡ MY HEART COULD BE THIS COLD ━━ replied . #｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #sensshi #( thank you !! ) #( i will never forget orochimaru's convo with 5yro itachi like.......why ?????? ) #( why is he like this ?????? aksdha )

[ophidae-a]

｡   Can I ask that does Orochimaru see themselves as a "good" ruler or do they doubt themselves at times? And how would he react if someone called him a "Demon Lord" with Yokai as their followers?   ━━   @thatsneakymedic​

Orochimaru doesn't consider himself a "good" ruler, he describes himself as a "better ruler" ━━━━━━━ he is better than those that came before him, but he cannot guarantee he'll be as good as the ones that will come after him or even if the people think he is any good at all. And one day he might give his title to someone else   ;  or even the people might request an election, and he won't deny them the choice. In the beginning, when he was alone and trying to set Otogakure up, Orochimaru had plenty of questions and doubts he couldn't ask anyone about ━━━━━━ he had no one to seek guidance from, and so back then he doubted himself quite a lot, though never enough to let that impact his goals.

With time, self-doubt gave place to confidence, and he no longer feels the need to second-guess himself. He does what he thinks its best for the people of Otogakure and their collective goals, anything outside of that is none of his business.

He would find it amusing and rather impolite at the same time  ;  Orochimaru is very spiritually oriented, he believes in Yokai, Gods and in a plethora of Deities, and he does not find himself worthy of being considered one ━━━━━━━━━ still, he understands why some might be inclined to think him not from this world  ;  as a child other children would say he looked like a ghost, a bad omen. And while he finds it a bit strange and uncomfortable, he doesn't correct those who do think he is a demon lord ━━━━ the rumour in itself discourages people from trying to cross him, so he uses it to his benefit, he isn't sure how his "followers" feel about it though.

#｡ MY HEART COULD BE THIS COLD ━━ replied . #｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #thatsneakymedic #( this is one of the only subjects he's rather.....humble when answering #questions... ) #( as for the demon lord thing.... he is always a bit uncomfy when people #compare or refer to him as a god/demon because..... in his conception #he is not worthy of being compared to such beings )

[ophidae-a]

while tiny tot Orochimaru thought Madara and Hashirama were super cool, the apple of his eye and his idol, the person he thought was the coolest in the world, the one he would literally fangirl over was Tobirama. He was literally a Tobirama Senju stan, talked about the man non-stop, wanted to be like Tobirama when he grew up, would get starry-eyed whenever Hiruzen told them stories about Tobirama.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( tiny baby orochimaru was a tobirama senju stan ) #( probably member of the tobirama senju fanclub ) #( literally had a huge puppy-love crush on the man ) #( and literally hoped to be as cool as tobirama when he grew up )

[ophidae-a]

｡   💭 + what drove orchimaru to sasuke? i feel the fandom always mixes it up a lot for various reasons they have the backing for, and then their are others who spin it differently various headcanons. we know he wanted the power sasuke had in his body & couldn't get it from itachi, so he targeted sasuke, and baited him with power to kill his brother. could it be he also wanted to kill itachi too? to get what he wanted? i know this varies from your orochimaru to a degree, but i'm curious about yours   ━━   @heroicstm​  .

Orochimaru mainly wanted a body with a sharingan. That was the whole thing ━━━━━━━ he tried to get Itachi, but Itachi didn't give him a chance, and Orochimaru probably already had an inkling about Itachi's illness. But why? Why a sharingan? Well, he wasn't the first one to link a sharingan to immortality  (  most people in the fandom don't consider movies to be canon, but I do, and so I am going to talk about it  )  in Inheritors of the Will of Fire,  the main villain is called Hiruko ━━━━━━ Hiruko was friends with the sannin as a child, but unlike them, he lacked the potential to be a strong shinobi, he wasn't a prodigy like them, and so he began to develop a jutsu called "Chimera no Jutsu". Essentially he would be able to absorb and utilize other people's kekkei-genkai. Obviously, he was found out and chased out of the village by the sannin, still allegedly after years of research Hiruko figured out that to become immortal he needed to absorb five kekkei-genkai, and the fifth had to be a sharingan. The Sharingan he chose was Kakashi's, for the reason that Kakashi had managed to control it. That is the plot of the movie, now take a look at Orochimaru. Doesn't that sound similar?

In my opinion, Orochimaru targeting the Uchiha in special, had to do with the side effects Kakashi experiences when using the Sharingan. Since he was thinking about a permanent body, he wouldn't chose something that would cause him problems in the future. His targeting Sasuke proved effective because he could use Sasuke's hatred for Itachi to his benefit  (  obviously here we diverge from my portrayal as Orochimaru later begins to see Sasuke as a son  ), that is once he helps Sasuke kill Itachi, he could implant Itachi's eyes on Sasuke and then get not only Sasuke and all the benefits that come with him, but also the eternal mangekyo.  His goal with Sasuke was never the body per say, but what they body could get him ━━━━━━━━━ the assimilation of the sharingan, if not for that he could have chosen literally anyone else. There were so many other shinobi whose bodies were more powerful than Sasuke and Itachi's ━━━━━━ he could have gone for Neji, Kakashi, Hidan, and so many others he encountered. It is worth mentioning here, that his first permanent vessel was supposed to be Kimimaro ━━━━━━━━━━━━ the only reason the plan switched was because Kimimaro had an unknown disease that couldn't be cured  (  probably something to do with the kid being idk 70% alien ??  ).

Sasuke was a plan B, nothing more.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #heroicstm #( listen........ this is always constantly on my mind ) #( all he wanted was a sharingan..... it had nothing to do with the body on itself #and i still stand by my headcanon that if lee or gai could use chakra normally #they would have been orochimaru's first choices ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ) #( sasuke as a plan b fits with how hasty his approach to all of it was ) #( to how differently he approached sasuke compared to all of the other kids ) #( i mean...... look at how he approached kimimaro and karin then compare it #to how he approached sasuke ????????? he was desperate )

[ophidae-a]

｡   💭 + Naruto Uzumaki   ━━   @super-kame-love​​​​​​​​​  .

𝙰  𝚂𝚄𝚁𝙿𝚁𝙸𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝙸𝙽𝚀𝚄𝙸𝚁𝚈  𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃  𝚆𝙰𝚂  𝙲𝙴𝚁𝚃𝙰𝙸𝙽  ,  still  one  that  wasn't  often  directed  at  him.  ❛        Uzumaki  Naruto  is  a  victim  of  an  idealistic  father  and  a  rotten  government.        ❜    People  tend  to  forget  that  Orochimaru  was  still  in  the  village  when  the  Nine-tails  attacked,  that  he  came  back  from  a  mission  to  his  village  destroyed  and  the  newly  assigned  Hokage  dead  ━━━━━━━━━━━━  the  village's  jinchuuriki  passing  along  and  leaving  behind  their  infant  son.  To  learn  that  the  boy  had  been  made  the  new  jinchuuriki  with  barely  a  day  of  life  was  outraging  in  many  different  levels,  and  yet  Orochimaru  knew  he  couldn't  voice  his  opinions    ;    Hiruzen  hardly  heard  him  by  then.  ❛        As  someone  who  has  lived  through  Konoha's  treatment  of  orphans,  especially  those  who  are  different  and  don't  fit  in,  I  understand  what  the  boy  went  through  as  a  child.      ❜    One  of  the  last  conversations  he  had  with  Hiruzen  included  a  very  pointed  comment  on  how  the  Uzumaki  boy  would  need  a  family  to  keep  him  from  experiencing  hatred  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  comment  that  was  met  with  a  soft  click  of  the  tongue.

❛        Considering  he  grew  up  in  a  village  that  slaughters  their  own  instead  of  approaching  things  diplomatically,  he  has  grown  quite  well.      ❜    Orochimaru  didn't  really  know  Naruto  very  well,  and  he  couldn't  rely  on  Sasuke's  stories  as  the  Uchiha  was  an  unreliable  narrator.  He  could  see  the  similarities  with  Minato,  Kushina  and  even  Jiraiya,  but  his  knowledge  on  the  boy  was  very  limited.  ❛        Perhaps  a  bit  too  idealistic,  but  aren't  all  people  from  Konoha  like  that?      ❜  

#｡ TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN ━━ interaction . #｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #super-kame-love #( orochimaru doesn't know much about naruto..... #like about how naruto is as a person because he left konoha #when naruto was only two but...... as someone who was a weird orphan in konoha #he knows what naruto went through ) #( on that note......... orochimaru fucking hates konoha and he can't stand minato #.......... and he fully believes most of naruto's suffering was caused by minato.... )

[ophidae-a]

Orochimaru while a scientist, is also religious, he believes in many deities and gods, which is why he is always very accepting of other people's beliefs and will even join them in their religious practices. This happened quite often in the Akatsuki, mostly with Hidan ━━━━━ the most vocal about his religion. And while Orochimaru didn't convert to Jashinism, he definitely earned Hidan's respect for at least showing interest in the cult of Jashin and its traditions. Orochimaru was very intrigued by how the act of praying to Jashin gave Hidan immortality ━━━━━ was it really the god's power? Or was it simply a kekkei-genkai no one had heard of yet? He never really got to figure that out, but took some of the practices with him as he left. While he was definitely not sacrificing people to the deity, Orochimaru did offer him sometimes from time to time ━━━━ mostly blood. His willingness to learn was what placed him in so many people's good graces during his Akatsuki period, Orochimaru is introverted but he knows how to play an extrovert  ;   not that he was so lively, but he knew how to endear himself to others. And he did that very well as a member of the Akatsuki. The members he was closer with were Sasori, Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara and Kisame.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( unsolicited headcanon because i crave akatsuki orochimaru so....... )

[ophidae-a]

As a snake-hybrid of sorts, Orochimaru has snake-like behaviours  ━━━━━━ the instinct to nuzzle into his blankets, sticking his tongue out to catch scents, curling around people or things, lashing out first asking questions later and a primarily carnivorous diet. This is what I want to address now ━━━━━━━━ Orochimaru while human, is also part snake and he will behave like a snake when prompted to. 

As a young three-year-old he was alone and starving, he only had snakes around him to teach him, and with them he learned what food was and what he could and couldn't eat  ;  which meant that for a whole year, all Orochimaru ate were small animals he could catch, or the ones some snakes would bring him. These memories while blurry, stick to him for the rest of his life ━━━━ it takes years for him to learn that "normal" children don't just pick up mice and eat them, that it is not "acceptable" for him to prefer to eat a small frog than potato chips.

Growing older, he learns to keep these habits to himself, and only indulge in it when he is at home  ;  he no longer needs to hunt them daily, now he can stock them in his fridge, and while he prefers cooked food ━━━━ or so he thinks ━━━━ he sometimes likes to snack on his stock. The war made things harder and easier for him ; easier because he was used to it, he’d been raised by that environment ━━━━ harder because old instincts came back at full force, though for him they came to aid his comrades ; he was able to give his colleagues his share of soldier pills and rations, he had no need for them ━━━━━━ rather he could find food elsewhere. When they would reach places where forests were non-existent, Orochimaru reached an impasse ; where to find food? He would watch as their rations were few and sparse ━━━━━━ he couldn’t have Jiraiya and Tsunade starving.

Again the snakes came to his aid, curling around him and asking why wasn’t he eating, to which he would reply eat what? And they replied, there is food everywhere. That was when Orochimaru understood what they meant ━━━━━━ at first he was hesitant, to eat another human being....wasn't that too much? Even for him? Turns out it was not.

His cannibalism began during that war, and never really stopped. After he fled from Konoha, and well after his village was established, Orochimaru no longer had the need to eat these things, he is no longer a struggling orphan, and yet from time to time, Kabuto would find him snacking on his rather unusual snacks...even as they dealt with casualties on their tables, if particularly hungry and distracted Orochimaru will nibble onto the deceased’s flesh ━━━━━━ maybe snack onto a finger or two, and when Kabuto brings it up he just goes “What...? It’s not like he’ll have any use for it anymore...”

He has been conditioned to enjoy cooked food, but that is not necessarily what his body needs ━━━━━━ later in life Kabuto pointed out that Orochimaru’s health was much better when he fed on raw meat, to which Orochimaru shrugged ; perhaps there was a reason behind the fact that most foods didn’t sit right with him ━━━━ perhaps there was a reason that he only liked meat and eggs, that he couldn’t stand sweets and only occasionally tried noodles.

The point is, Orochimaru is not fully human, he doesn’t eat like a human and the same way people don’t blame a tiger for eating other animals, people who are aware of the fact that Orochimaru is a snake-hybrid don’t blame him for eating animals raw or even alive . They might be weirded out by the cannibalism, but otherwise, this is a part of Orochimaru ━━━━━━━━ this is who he is, and obviously he doesn’t his habits to other people ; he knows they’ll die if they eat like him. His body is made for this diet, and he is aware of that singularity.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #tw cannibalism #cannibalism tw #tw animal harm #animal harm tw #tw implied animal death #implied animal death tw #( another one that was coming for a long time ) #( but yeah.... his eating habits are weird and strange and only really apply to him ) #( he knows that he is aware of that and he doesn't blame people for #thinking it is weird because for the longest time he did too )

[ophidae-a]

a gentle reminder as i freeze to death: people legitimately have to hold orochimaru back from fights  ; he may look at cool and collected, but he has 0 capability to refuse a challenge, he will throw hands if prompted to. no questions asked. thus people definitely have to hold him back, haul him away, or refuse it for him.

#｡ THE PATH TO ETERNITY'S PAVED BY DEATH ━━ headcanon . #｡ SEE YOUR LEGACY IMMORTALIZED ━━ save . #( literally.....he is the worst..... ) #( when i say that like he is the sannin's attack dog..... it's because.... of that ) #( tsunade and jiraiya had to hold him /back/ because he would throw himself #at people at the first hit of provocation )