CXD70 - More sharks! Bigger! With FRIKKIN LASER BEAMS! Or not?

[classicdrogn]

So, Chuunin Exam Day continuws, with a new 'spite the flamers, nyah nyah' twist to 'unintentionally' bring Orochimaru into the loops. While
this is bad in sevaral obviuos ways, my own reaction is that it may well be a blessing in a deep nasty disguise for Clan Kitsune - at the least they won't
be bored anymore, and they have both thousands of years' head start on him in methods of exploiting it and dozens of different brains to analyse how he
reacts. The 'try over and over with the tiniest variations
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[classicdrogn]

will be by neccesity trained out of them by his opposition and by their opposition less effective for him. Also... if even the Kyuubi can be worn down and
turned ally, eventually the Naruto Effect will claim him and on that day the intel coup will be extreme vs Madara-yaro & Nagato-baka. Opinions?
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Necratoid]

I'm rather amused that this is an issue, in the end, simply because no one remembered that given new stimulation people do different things. Like when
confronted with their end goal... an obscenely high level ninja will remember he knows the academy level jutsu, replacement technique.

Actually this could be far, far, far more complex of a mess than your thinking it will be. In large part because of what Orochimaru actually is at this point.
His current host IS female however... its his host. The body is his because she ceded it to him. Also, she is in there as a vassal of his self, a drugged
out sleeping one, but one that isstill there. Along with who ever else he has been. I'm not going to bother looking up the exact count, but he actually
has somewhere between 6 and 10 others host sleeping in his greater self. Male and female. Which means that bring one man nonromantic friend with you trick is
going into fits here.

This also means that the reason that the 3rd vs. Orochimaru fight took so expletive squared long is that the Death God was trying pull over half a dozen souls
through a one soul sized hole. He did lose his arms to that trick and he had no soul left in them... but the new host did. Which means that one of the most
seemly pointlessly audience tormenting things in the series was a proper use of foreshadowing in a subtle way.

[Bluemage]

So why does everybody think that Orochimaru's gambit worked?

However Naruto neither liked nor trusted the Snake Sannin, and those were prerequisites to sharing his bloodline's power.

The explosion of Kyubi's power unleashed in fury eliminated everyone in that clearing, including a very stunned Naruto.

All I see there is:

1) Snake gets itself bitten.

2) Naruto/Kyuubi (ambiguous) realizes that the wrong person was there.

3) Explosion kills everybody, ends loop.

I like Necratoid's idea about just how many souls the guy's carrying around with him, though. One thing on that: Orochimaru's real form is a giant
snake, right? Snakes have no arms, so his soul, being shaped like himself, has no arms. The Shinigami only ate the arms of
his current host's soul during the fight with the Third; if he could change his spirit's form (again), or call up one of the other souls
he'd eaten, he could probably neutralize the effect of that partial sealing.

It might also be interesting if he found a way to split himself across multiple host bodies, especially if he then used it to fight Akatsuki...

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[classicdrogn]

Probably because he's, you know, Orochimaru, and screwing with people's heads to mess with their plans is what Orochimarus do best.

And now I have the image of a pasty man with long black hair bouncing along on his assbow with a boing-boing-boing sound effect.

I think that's even more scarring than the fan art of him doing the Nice Guy Pose...

ETA- even the laugh would be similar if 'rochikun was jolly or Tigger menacing...
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Necratoid]

I know his plan may have backfired completely... but I don't like giving the most obvious response.  That and his real form is a huge snake made of other snakes... so he could have a hundred arms if he wanted to.... his ability to actually control them being the limiting factor.  That is if your willing to concede that Orochimaru is really a snake rather than an intelligent disease at this point... and/or a a race of cursess.  I mean seriously maybe you haven't read any of the manga, but killing Orochimaru is harder than killing a popular rumor that has been circulating for months.  Even the Sharingan, which I'm convinced (and have been for a long time) is the series end boss, could not finish him with a pantheon in the machine.  I mean that... to put it another way:
(As sung by what is a Kabuto/Orochimaru hybrid in Orochimaru's outfit to a very disturbed Sasuke as he walks out that Sound base)

I am a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Immortality Science!!!
I do what we must because I can.
For the good of all of me.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of retakes.
And the Science!!! gets done by snake sue.
And you make a neat respawning jutsu.
For the Orochimaru who are
still alive.

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you rejected myself.
And killed me.
You chopped me to pieces.
And threw every piece onto the floor.
As they were diced it hurt because
I was so happy for you!
Now these points of possession
make a beautiful line.
And we're out of beta.
We're releasing me on time.
So I'm GLaD, I got gibbed.
Think of all the things I've learned
for the Orochimaru who are
still alive.
Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer you off my side.
Maybe you'll find someone else
to help you.
Maybe Akatsuki ...
THAT WAS A JOKE. [HA HA.] FAT CHANCE.
Anyway, this body is great.
It's so dexterious and mine.
Look at me still talking
when there's Science!!! to do.
When I look out there,
it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are
still alive.
And believe me I am
still alive.
I'm doing science!!! and I'm
still alive.
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm
still alive.
While you're dying I'll be
still alive.
And when you're dead I will be
still alive.
STILL ALIVE.

[Morganite]

I'm with Bluemage.

The requirements for getting "rooms", as I recall, were either trust or power. Neither would apply here. And it sounds like the same requirements
apply to the bloodline transfer process.

Though what would potentially be an interesting wrinkle is if somehow Naruto brought one of Orochimaru's former hosts into the loops, but she couldn't
bring Orochimaru in... So now he's got a voice in his head. Who he'll probably get almost as exasperated with as she will with him.

I don't really expect it to happen, but it sounds interesting.

-Morgan.

[Shepherd]

Although it seems likely that Orochimaru could be drawn into the loops, that outcome is hardly certain. For all we know, this may cause Orochimaru to
spontaneously explode at the beginning of each loop.

Of course, it would be interesting for the loopers to discover that, even with Orochimaru's death allowing them to dismantle the invasion well before it
starts, and Naruto getting to perform so spectacularly in the chuunin exams that the Hokage promotes him over the objections of his detractors, the loops still
don't end.

After all, according to the Kyuubi, they're in the loop because Naruto has a fate, and being killed by the barrier jutsu derailed that fate. Naruto is
therefore stuck in the loop until he gets his fate back on track, which does not necessarily have anything to do with passing an exam (since he didn't pass
the exam in cannon yet still continued on towards his fate anyway.

Now, anyone who knows about the toad prophecy (which amounts to Jiraiya and a bunch of toads) knows that Jiraiya's student is fated to either save or
destroy the shinobi world. So Naruto is trapped in the loops until it becomes inevitable that he accomplishes this goal (which means that he likely has to
learn all about Akatsuki, unravel their plans, foil the aforementioned plans, and begin working towards world peace before he can leave the loops).
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

[Morganite]

I think I did once read a comment somewhere about the idea that maybe becoming a chuunin wasn't the condition to exit the loop, just something that's
required for the real condition. So they could get Naruto to pass, and years later... "Oh god, not again!"

Though that's also an interesting thought. If, in theory, Naruto doesn't have to pass the exam, what's kept him in the loops on the times he's
gone through the entire invasion pretty much as it happened before?

-Morgan.

[Shepherd]

Morganni wrote:

---

Though that's also an interesting thought. If, in theory, Naruto doesn't have to pass the exam, what's kept him in the loops on the times
he's gone through the entire invasion pretty much as it happened before?

What is keeping him in the loops is his destiny. Naruto can't get out of the loops until he is on track to complete his destiny. In the cannon
timeline, Naruto progressed towards his destiny through a combination of luck, perseverance, charisma, and being underestimated by his opponents. By the time
Naruto managed to make it to the invasion within the loops, he'd already improved enough that his future opponents would no longer have discounted him as a
serious threat. Naruto is therefore no longer on track to achieve his destiny.

Note that Naruto still lacks sufficient skill to take Orochimaru in a fight unless he takes advantage of the loops to arrange a one hit kill out of nowhere,
and many of the Akatsuki members that Naruto would have to defeat to achieve his destiny are even tougher than Orochimaru (after all, Orochimaru fled from them
when his plan to steal Itachi's body failed). The only way that Naruto is likely to get out of the loops is if he learns of Akatsuki and enacts plans that
are likely to counter their plots before they get the chance to realize the threat that he has become and deal with him.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

[Necratoid]

Well if you want to go with the obvious answer of Orochimaru becoming a bomb every morning... thus removing him from play... you have to remember that its
likely they could just flat out lose one of there own here... which would mind screw them all. the snake goes boom on with the regularity of a rooster crowing
at dawn and collateral damage from to far away to actually stop it. For all we know his destiny is to be not only cool enough to unite all the elemental
countries into the Ramen Nation... but do it in a way he doesn't look like a total munchkin.

[Morganite]

I've got to say, when I got to the part in chapter 74 where they went "Hey, let's resurrect *everyone*!" I was thinking that this was when it finally went off the rails.

And then the end makes it all better again. Suddenly, consequences!

-Morgan.