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Orochimaru is one of the primary villains within Naruto who had a significant impact on the plot of the anime. However, apart from him being a major villain, one of the key factors that interested a lot of fans was his snake-like features.
The legendary Sannin turns into a massive snake during fights which is impressive but also quite confusing. The question that often rises amongst fans is whether he was always this way or something that happened later. Hence, the same idea has been discussed in this article in great depth.
It is vital to remember that Naruto, despite being a very descriptive anime, is still filled with quite a lot of plotholes. Hence, fans can always have their own theories regarding a variety of aspects from the anime.
Orochimaru was not born a snake, instead became one later in Naruto
Orochimaru, for the most part of Naruto, was shown as someone who could shapeshift into a snake. He could turn himself into a massive white snake, who was also able to separate his entire body into smaller snakes.
However, irrespective of all his snake-like transformations, he was not always that way in the anime. Since his childhood, Orochimaru was shown as an orphan, even though the death of his parents was never properly explained.
He was a student of Hiruzen Sarutobi alongside Jiraya and Tsunade and was touted as a genius. He was extremely diligent as a student and was way more competent during his childhood compared to Jiraya.
Now, one of the key things that fans should remember is that Orochimaru did have very pale skin even during his childhood days. However, he was not a snake back then, but his features did resemble one.
In any case, Orochimaru, despite being a genius, was always sad about the death of his parents. As such, he would often visit the graves of his parents as a child to mourn.
One day, while he was doing the same, he saw a white snake near the grave. Hiruzen Sarutobi suggested that this white snake is a symbol of rebirth and good fortune. This was the moment that prompted Orochimaru to start his experimentation.
He wanted to understand the secrets of human life and thus reach immortality. Thus, he did a variety of research and eventually turned himself into a giant white snake, which also gained him a lot more features pertaining to the reptile.
However, this transformation of Orochimaru within Naruto did happen quite later in his life, primarily after the incidents of the Second Great Shinobi War. What can be assumed for sure is that during the Second Great Shinobi War, Orochimaru was still fighting alongside Jiraya and Tsunade.
But even during that time, he did use snake-based jutsus but never transformed himself into a snake. Obviously, it is safe to say that even then, he had already started experimenting on the ideology of snakes.
Orochimaru's general theme in Naruto is that of snakes. The idea and design of the character was heavily inspired from Japanese myths and literature. In fact, the word Orochimaru is a combination of two words, 'Orochi' and 'Maru,' which roughly translates to great snakes and man, respectively. Therefore, even though he was not born a snake, he was definitely destined to become one in the series.
