OROCHIMARU'S ABILITIES

OROCHIMARU'S STRENGTH-

Being one of the Sannin, as well as a former
member of the S-rank criminal organisation
Akatsuki, Orochimaru is an extraordinarily
powerful ninja. His powers, which can easily be
considered Kage-level, were so great that during
the time of his invasion in Konoha, the Third Hokage feared no one in the village would be
able to defeat him or fight on equal footing with
him, even the Third himself. Even Kakashi, one of
Konoha's greatest shinobi, was stiff with
tremendous fear and awe when he met him
during the time of the Chūnin Exams, and himself admitted he wouldn't even stand a chance
against his power.

He was able to hold his own against a four-tailed Naruto Uzumaki in Part II while his body was in a weakened state, and despite the danger Naruto
imposed, he found the battle highly entertaining.
Even then, his body gave in, he expressed regret
that he couldn't complete the battle. Even among
the Sannin, he was the one who originally stood
out for individual ability. Due to him rarely being shown fighting, he has only displayed a limited
amount of techniques, although it stands to
reason that in his efforts to learn all existing jutsu,
his array of abilities has probably become larger
than any other single character. He has a vast
knowledge in all forms of jutsu. He also has immense strength in the anime, as when he was
walking to Tanzaku Quarters he was immensely
frustrated by the pain he was in and used only a
kick to knock down a tree. His fighting style is
very fluid and he is nearly invulnerable to most
conventional techniques, even being bisected couldn't even slow him down. He even survived
a direct punch from Tsunade's monstrous super strength and all it did was damage the skin that
made up his face mask. And he has shown that,
although he was extremely crippled from the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, he could still use several ninjutsu without using hand seals.

OROCHIMARU'S NINJUTSU-

Wishing to obtain all of the jutsu in the world,
Orochimaru has a vast arsenal of techniques at
his disposal, ranging from simple offensive ones,
which nonetheless become deadly when
performed by him, to higher ranking, more
complicated ones. In the anime, of the few techniques he was seen using is the Earth Release Shadow Clone, which creates a copy of himself out of mud that can attack on his behalf.
He was also able to utilize Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, through which he can level a wide area with a powerful gust of wind. In
terms of defensive techniques, Orochimaru uses
both Summoning: Rashōmon and Summoning: Triple Rashōmon, in which he summons a varying number of large demonic gates that are
capable of enduring the most intense forms of
damage. If need be, he can also place a Five Elements Seal on an opponent, sealing off their access to chakra and thus rendering them useless
in battle.

Orochimaru was one of the three people capable
of performing Summoning: Impure World Resurrection, which allowed him to revive the dead; the technique was developed but left
incomplete by the Second Hokage, and Orochimaru himself completed the technique. To
perform the technique, Orochimaru must sacrifice
a living human so that the soul of the deceased
person can be tied to the living world. The
sacrificed body is then surrounded with dirt and
dust that compacts into the shape of the summoned soul's original body. Although the
revived retain their original memories and
personalities, thus leaving them out of the control
of Orochimaru, however he can suppress their
free wills with his own special seal to force them
to do his bidding. The bodies of the resurrected are also able to regenerate any wound, meaning
the only way to defeat them is to remove the
soul within them.

OROCIMARU'S IMMORTALITY TECHNIQUES-

In his quest to gain immortality, Orochimaru has
made a number of modifications to his body,
resulting in his natural form taking on the
appearance of a giant, white snake composed of
many smaller snakes. The snakes that compose
Orochimaru's body can extend themselves to strike and bind the targets, and if Orochimaru is
sliced to pieces, the body simply can reform,
making him very difficult to kill. Also, the blood
that is released by killing the snakes is also
poisonous, evaporating into the air and
paralysing anyone who has breathed it in, something that makes long lasting fights against
him a bad choice.

The primary use of the form is with his Living Corpse Reincarnation, which allows him to transfer his soul to another body and extend his
life indefinitely. To use this jutsu, Orochimaru
leaves his former body, revealing his true form.
Once he has done this, he swallows the new
body and transports its current inhabitant to a
dimension within himself where he absorbs them, thus allowing him to take over their body.
Orochimaru can only perform this technique once
every three years, which is also around the time
that his new body begins to reject him and
forces him to find a new host. Although he might
leave their bodies behind, the souls of those whose bodies he has taken always remain
within Orochimaru's subconscious. After taking
over another body, Orochimaru modifies it to suit
his theme of snakes, in order to increase his
survival capabilities, such as stretching and bending his body, reconnect his body from bisection and shedding his skin to heal injuries. Thus, even if Orochimaru is unable to transfer
bodies, he can easily heal and evade attacks
rendering him virtually immortal. Orochimaru also alters the face of his host body to look like his original form.

OROCHIMARU'S SNAKE ABILITIES-

Orochimaru's trademark trait was his affinity
with snakes that, in addition to impacting the
appearance and composition of his true form,
and granting him the ability to extend his limbs
to abnormal lengths and to take on snake-like
traits in battle, caused him to learn a number of snake-related abilities. One such ability was being
able to summon giant snakes to fight alongside him in battle, made possible by the summoning
contract tattooed on his arm. His signature
summon was Manda, a colossal snake which was described as the largest in the world, with
immense fighting capabilities. With Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, Orochimaru could instantly call forth snakes from his sleeves and mouth to
attack opponents in large numbers with
poisonous bites. A stronger variation of this
technique was the Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands, in which the summoned snakes grow noticeably in both numbers and size.

Another usage of snakes came in the form of his
signature weapon, the Kusanagi Sword, the Kusanagi of Japanese legend. The sword, kept within the mouth of a snake within his own
throat, was able to extend to great lengths to
attack enemies that are far away, could be controlled remotely by Orochimaru, and could return to him by turning in a snake. Although he
was capable of wielding the sword normally
with great proficiency, it was not uncommon for
him to use it without ever removing it from his
mouth. The sword was stated to be able to cut
through almost anything, and despite failing to penetrate Four-Tailed Naruto's chakra shroud, did
push him back an incredible length. He was also
capable of having numerous Kusanagi-like blades sprout from the mouth of the snakes he
summoned.

His strongest technique was the Eight Branches Technique, which allowed him to transform into an eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent bigger
than the already colossal Manda, another reference to the Japanese myth. This was described as the ultimate snake-related
technique, which turned the user into an
immensely powerful "Dragon God".