Orochimaru - Jinchuuriki?
I know he isn't a Jinchuuriki. This just struck my mind.
1) Oro's Eyes: Orochimaru has some of the freakiest eyes in the series, yet there's been no overt explanation for them. We know from the flashbacks that he's had these eyes at least since his childhood, if not his whole life. Sure there could be other explanations, or no explanation at all, given that we've seen other characters with funky eyes before (Kurenai). Still, his having a demon inside him would go a long way to explaining this, as well as giving some insight into why he turned out to be such a warped individual, a la Gaara.
2) Oro's Jutsus: Oro's extensible tongue and neck are among the few jutsus we've seen that apparently do not require hand seals to activate. Remember how easily he called upon these skills when his hands had been sealed by the 3rd. If these abilities were not jutsus, but were, in fact, the manifestion of demonic power, this again would provide a ready explanation.
3) Oro's disinterest in Naruto: From the first that he meets Naruto, Orochimaru is instantly aware of who he is and what he has sealed inside him, yet he shows no interest at all beyond first sealing and later attempting to kill Naruto. This strikes me as odd behavior for someone as notably power-hungry as Orochimaru. If he was aware that Naruto had the Kyuubi sealed in him, and had him readily at hand, wouldn't the thought of attempting to harness that power at least occur to him? Not if he already possessed a Demon of his own...
4) Oro's departure from Akatsuki: We recently learned that apparently Orochimaru fled from Akatsuki shortly after learning of their plans. This could be connected to my theory in two possible ways; he was disinterested in further congress with his Akatsuki peers when he learned that their ultimate goals had nothing to offer him that he did not already possess, or he fled because he feared they would discover his secret and take his Demon for their own purposes.
Refutation: Like any good academic, I will present the weaknesses in my own hypotheses as they occur to me.
Firstly, the biggest problem with this theory is that if Oro has this power at his disposal, why hasn't he used it? A number of reasons could explain this. We have seen that there are varying degrees of the completeness of the demon sealing, as it would appear that Gaara's Shukaku is considerably less restricted than Naruto's Kyuubi. Perhaps if Oro does have his own Demon, its sealed in such a way that he is unable to access its full power. Also, it could be that Oro purposely refrains from its usage for fear of attracting further attention from Akatsuki.
Secondly, if Oro does have a Demon, why would he fear Itachi (or anyone else, for that matter)? This is a problem not easily explained away, but it can be understood if you consider the nature of the Mangekyou Sharingan. Perhaps the hypnotic nature of the Mangekyou is the Achilles' heel of the sealed demons. If this is true, it would put Itachi's place and importance among the Akatsuki in a whole new light, especially if their plans for controlling the Demon depend on having a Mangekyou Sharingan user among their number.
Thirdly, and this is purely from a practical point of view, what kind of Demon could Oro have? We already know of the existence of one really big snake (Manda), so to have second, possibly bigger one sealed inside Oro would seem somewhat redundant from a story-line perspective. Perhaps Oro's hypothetical Demon is more like his eight-headed namesake from Japanese mythology. This would also be interesting to note considering the seemingly numeric nature of the known Demon; Shukaku=One Tail, Kyuubi=Nine Tails, Orochi=Eight Heads?
Fourthly, If Oro was a Jinchurriki would Manda really talk down to him? Seriously, if he was Manda would be petrified of Oro and take every single order from him. but as we see in the Sannin Fight Between Oro and Tsu, not really Jir seeing he was poisoned, Manda talked down to him. Also Oro was afraid of Manda because he didn't have his 1000 Live Specimens. Oro thought Manda would destroy him.
I didn't intend for this post to grow so long, and I apologize for its length, yet I feel that I really might be onto a major plot point here. Then again, it could just be the mescaline talking
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