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The Man of Tomorrow
However, even though the battle was in Orochimaru’s favour, using his own reptilian sword, the combined Hokage slaves and his personal bodyguards forming a barrier, his defeat came when Sarutobi, knowing he would die, performed a suicidal technique that cost him his soul. Summoning the death god itself, Sarutobi instructed it to rip out and consume the souls of Orochimaru’s slaves, then Orochimaru’s soul. However, he was too close to death, especially with Orochimaru’s sword in his back, to complete the task. Choosing the next best thing and possibly something worse than death for Orochimaru, the death god took away the portions of Orochimaru’s soul that connected to his arms, which fell limp and impotent and rendered him unable to even make a hand seal. The irony of knowing so many techniques and not being able to utilise them hit Orochimaru as Sarutobi died in front of him, seeing not the furious abomination that almost murdered him as he closed his eyes, but the confident student he admired and raised. Orochimaru and his forces were driven away to their village, also cutting off his alliance with Sand as the Kazekage’s corpse was found, alerting Sand that he was not co-operating with Orochimaru and instead, the Kazekage that ordered the strike on Leaf was Orochimaru himself.
For a while, Orochimaru’s activity was limited. In constant agony from his incapacitated arms, Orochimaru decided to seek out the legendary medical specialist, his former partner, Tsunade. Coincidentally, Jiraiya had also decided to look for her as a replacement for the Third Hokage. It was Orochimaru who got to her first, proposing a deal with her. Knowing her history, he would use his resurrection technique, as he did with the former Hokage brothers, to bring back Tsunade’s younger brother, Nawaki and her lover, Dan, who had both been killed when she was younger. Leaving her a week to decide, Orochimaru was well prepared for her, knowing of her phobia of blood and preying on her sentimentality, saying he could only perform the resurrection if his hands were healed.
A week passed and at their meeting point, Orochimaru raised his hands to her. However, Kabuto stopped her at the last minute, recognising that Tsunade was about to assassinate Orochimaru instead of healing. The two fled as Tsunade chased them, resulting in Kabuto exploiting her phobia and taking her on in combat, being a medical specialist himself although not quite on her level. Jiraiya arrived to even the odds, slowing Orochimaru down a lot while Naruto took on Kabuto. Orochimaru was stunned by the boy’s capabilities, deciding his #1 priority, even over dealing with Tsunade and Jiraiya, was to kill Naruto before the Akatsuki Organisation abducted him. Tsunade used herself as a human shield, vowing to protect the boy. Orochimaru then decided to hold her to her position and slashed her up with his sword in his mouth, giving her fatal injuries. Tsunade, however, also intended to stick to her word and on that decision, accepted the position of Fifth Hokage, using a technique to heal herself even though it shortened her lifespan. Fighting back, the legendary three pulled out their trump cards, summoning the masters of all animals. Orochimaru’s gigantic anaconda, Manda, held off both Jiraiya’s toad, Gamabunta and Tsunade’s slug, Katsuyu on his own and was about to bite into Gamabunta when Tsunade herself drove Gamabunta’s huge dagger into Manda’s mouth. With nothing to be achieved, Orochimaru once again retreated, taunting that there was still another way to heal his arms and that he was immortal.
Orochimaru then sent his personal bodyguards, The Sound Four, to sneak into Leaf with an invitation for Sasuke, who had suffered numerous losses. Each member of the group bore a Curse Seal, just like Sasuke and once they engaged him, they told him the seal had a second stage of release that they would help him acquire – IF he left Leaf behind and joined Orochimaru. However, while the temptation occurred, Orochimaru’s arms were now putting him through unbearable torture. Cracked, bleeding and crumbling away, Orochimaru needed a new body and couldn’t wait. Kabuto arranged for a royal rumble among selected prisoners of Orochimaru’s, telling them to fight to the death until one remained. Orochimaru approached the winner and transferred his mind into the entranced ninja, ending his agony at a price – the transfer has a three-year “recharge” period. When his bodyguards took too long, he sent out a solitary ninja as reinforcement – stricken by illness and almost crippled, Kimimaro Kaguya, the leader of the Sound Four (which was previously the Sound Five before his sickness). Moving by means he described more or less as mind over matter, Kimimaro held back the forces of Leaf sent to bring Sasuke back long enough for Sasuke to adapt to the seal and run to Orochimaru of his own (if somewhat warped) will. Although his bodyguards all perished in the mission, Orochimaru’s face lit up as his new body, bearing a fully released curse seal and the Sharingan, walked down the halls of his lair. In three years, his ambition would finally be realised…
In the intervening years Orochimaru would escape the eye of Akatsuki and move bases. He, Kabuto and Sasuke would move every week to a new location, and only stay at that location for three days. Akatsuki member Sasori had utilized a memory block jutsu to place his subordinates in different ninja villages as a means to gather information and provide sabotage. One such memory block had been placed on Kabuto approximately five years earlier in the hopes of finding more information on Orochimaru's body transfer jutsu. Sasori had arranged to meet with Kabuto to gain updated information on Orochimaru. Sasori fell in battle before the meeting but Leaf ninja impersonated his Hiruko puppet form in the hopes of attaining the information meant for him. When Kabuto met the Leaf ninja Yamato and his team of Naruto, Sakura and Sai, he acted as Sasori's faithful servant. When Orochimaru appeared Kabuto jumped to Sasori's side but quickly revealed himself by cutting off Hiruko’s head. Orochimaru and Kabuto, who had actually had the memory block removed years earlier by Orochimaru, hoped to actually kill Sasori but now they were pitted against Naruto