Power of the White Snake

Ever since Orochimaru found the scales of a white snake on his parents’ gravestone, he has been enamored by the idea of rebirth.

It was once the pure-hearted wish of a child who wanted to meet his lost loved ones again. But years of brutal warfare and a relentless pursuit of knowledge turned it into an obsession for immortality, living forever so that he could learn everything there is to know about chakra.

Orochimaru’s early forays into immortality involved surgical procedures, medicinal drugs and kinjutsu and enhance his body into something that could survive the worst kind of injuries and environment; he could endure remarkable amounts of damage, heal injuries at an accelerated rate, resist any kind of poison and age remarkably slowly. However none of that was able to give him true immortality and could only extend his lifespan.

He found the path he was searching for when he discovered the Ryuuchi Cave. The White Snake Sage had lived since the era of the Sage of Six Paths and was, in fact, the very source of the idea that white snakes symbolize rebirth. It had extended its lifespan using a ninjutsu that caused it to be reborn in a younger body, allowing it up to live up to the modern-day. In that revelation, Orochimaru saw how he too could become immortal.

He spent years developing a ninjutsu that would allow him to achieve immortality by stealing the body of another and living out that life in their place. He studied the body, mind and soul extensively with all kinds of inhuman experiments to gather the knowledge he needed.

After he defected from Konoha and was no longer bound by its morality, he had the freedom to finally complete the kinjutsu.

The Living Corpse Reincarnation shed Orochimaru’s human body like dead skin and granted him the body of a monster. He became the White Snake; a human-faced serpent composed of smaller snakes and with veins filled with poisonous blood.

In his true form, he swallows his chosen host and transports their souls to a spiritual dimension where he assimilates their mind. His snake body dies and Orochimaru dominates the body as he takes his soul and chakra takes it as his own. The victims’ souls remain trapped within him and their strongest desires resonate within his subconscious so that they become his own desires.

But the strength of his chakra is usually more than the vessel can bear. If it is then within three years the body will start to reject Orochimaru’s presence, making him weak and sick until he exchanges that body for a new one when the kinjutsu can be used again. Only a particularly strong vessel would be capable of withstanding his soul for its entire lifespan such as one with a powerful lineage or has the cursed seal.

Becoming the White Snake granted Orochimaru a host of new abilities to reflect the metamorphosis he had been through.

He can extend his form to great lengths, transform himself into a snake either partially or entirely, grow new flesh to adopt his original appearance and attach severed body parts. And the regenerative power of the White Snake is truly expressed with his ability to materialize an entirely new body and abandon his damaged one.

When Sasuke reversed the Living Corpse Reincarnation to dominate Orochimaru’s soul, he gained some benefits from having his chakra inside his body such as accelerated healing and body shedding.

The white snakes that make up Orochimaru’s true form can be released from his body to slip inside someone else. From the inside, the snake seizes control of the victim with his chakra and turns them into a victim for him to take advantage of. It was this trick that Orochimaru attempted when Itachi captured him with the Totsuka Blade but the flames of Amaterasu prevented it from coming to fruition.

The culmination of all these abilities is the Eight Branches Technique. Using his body of snakes and power of regeneration, Orochimaru can transform himself into a colossal white serpent with eight heads, each one able to think and attack independently. He becomes a titanic beast that could fight against the greatest of summoning animals, overshadowing even the great snake Manda.