Why I like Sakumo x Orochimaru
I just looked up Sakumo x Orochimaru for the first time here on Tumblr despite me reading every single SakuOro fic there ever was, and apparently people don’t like it? I mean, I suppose at first, I was skeptical as well, like? How would that even happen? They didn’t even interact with one another. But then I eventually fell in love with the ship, probably because I like Orochimaru lol.
So first, let me talk about what I like about Orochimaru, or at least the Orochimaru that exists in my mind. I am under the impression, from the flashbacks, that Orochimaru wasn’t all that bad back when the Sannin was still complete. Jiraiya and Tsunade were there for him and made sure to keep him in the light. As we see during the time when he offered to kill off the three orphans. To me, that shows that Orochimaru was morally gray even before, but I don’t think he was malicious during that scenario. Think of it this way, they were orphans in a war-stricken place in a shinobi world, they would steal for food and they’d be able to survive, but time will come where they’d be caught and killed or taken and sold. Either way, had Jiraiya not stayed with them, they were going to suffer regardless. So, in my eyes, Orochimaru believed he was being helpful. (Or maybe I try to look too much for a good side in people lol I’m working on it I swear)
Then Jiraiya stayed behind with the orphans. Then Tsunade left. Then Sarutobi was busy with his Hokage duties, and we all know Orochimaru wouldn’t run to him for help anyway. And suddenly, Orochimaru was all alone in a village that barely tolerated him. Because the villagers didn’t really like Orochimaru like how they adored his two other teammates – who left the village in wartime might I add! Furthermore, he was also grieving because I assume that Nawaki was his student since he was with him on the mission that eventually killed him and his teammates.
He was isolated and grieving without his two anchors. He was already morally gray even before all of this happened, so I see why he had ended up doing those horrible experiments. He started becoming obsessed with eternal life back when his parents died, now with his genin team dead and his teammates leaving him, I can see how he’d end up the way he did. And I bet my entire arm that Danzo had a hand in how Orochimaru eventually started with the experiments. Who else would provide him with orphans to experiment in but that ugly, slimy, disgusting, war-hawk bastard? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing Orochimaru’s experiments because those are horrible and he deserves death at least 100x, but also, what if he wasn’t alone and he had someone to keep him afloat before he even went down that road? That’s where Sakumo comes in.
We are all suckers for aloof morally gray men with golden retriever boyfriends! Admit it!! Okay maybe not all of us, but I bet a lot of us like that pairing! I adore those pairings aaaaa
I’m not incredibly certain regarding the timeline of when Sakumo died and when Orochimaru left, but let’s pretend that after Tsunade left Sakumo was still alive. What if Sakumo was there for Orochimaru when his teammates left him and his genin died? What if, in return, Orochimaru was there for him when the villagers were being stupid and hating on him for saving his team? What if they were there for each other before everything went bad? It’s all of those “what ifs” that makes the Sakumo x Orochimaru ship really attractive to me personally.
Side note: I also like how good of a parent Orochimaru is to Mitsuki and I want Kashi to have a nice childhood that’s all.
I’m not saying everyone should ship SakuOro because that’s silly, we all have different tastes and I know a lot of Naruto fans aren’t fond of Oro and that’s perfectly fine! I just wanted to give insight on why I, personally, like the ship. <3
