The QMs have basically said that, should Orochimaru ever decide he wants to dissect/kill Hazou, there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. Orochimaru is one of the VERY few pillars that support Leaf's national security right now, and Asuma is forced to take an appeasement stance on him because of that. It's why Orochimaru got his compound back. It's why we're avoiding Orochimaru until we can FOOM enough that we're his match. It's why I'm not voting for any plan that has Hazou willingly interact with him.
Because, like Ami said, Orochimaru has so much hard power that the world shapes itself around him. We're a cute chuunin with childish dreams. Wait until we're a powerful jonin with an entire deck's worth of trump cards before we go poke the deadly, amoral ninja whom we don't fully understand, yeah?
People have no trouble pissing off Asuma on a regular basis, even though that can just as easily get us killed. To be honest, if
Asuma ever decided he wanted Hazou dead there's not much anyone can do to stop it. The S rankers probably aren't going to defy Asuma to step in on our behalf, and Mari can't fight the rest of the Jonin in the village by herself, and the rest of Goketsu can't fight Jonin at all.
So what's the difference? We give Asuma stuff he wants, which makes him prefer us alive. Except that's not that much different from Orochimaru. When you have something he wants that requires you alive, there's no point to killing you. Besides that, Asuma has some sort of code that makes him hesitate to kill Leaf ninja, which Orochimaru doesn't share. But then, we regularly test Asuma's code by giving him ample reason to kill us, whereas
Orochimaru has no reason to kill us. Especially since if he did, we'd already be dead, as the QMs have established. The fact that we are alive means he doesn't want us dead.
All this to say, dealing with Orochimaru, in my eyes, is not actually that much more dangerous than our current behavior. Are we going to go in there and get him to do whatever we want? No, but that's true of pretty much anyone who's not a chuunin.
I think the more important question than how dangerous it is, is what we really get out of it. If he's not going to help with Jiraiya, then talking to him is pointless. If he is going to help, then it should arguably be one of our main priorities, if not THE main priority, to figure out how to navigate that discussion.
So basically, we need intel. But writing him off because ooo scary just makes me roll my eyes when that's essentially
everyone in this hellworld. Fucking Lord Hag could've killed us if we were too reckless about it. If we're going to go all in on winning safely then we should just hermit crab in the Goketsu compound and do nothing for 4 years while we become strong. But that's boring for QMs and players, which is why we aren't just doing that.
If you want some in-universe reasons why Hazou would pursue this conversation:
1: Jiraiya trusted Orochimaru in the end, and he wasn't an idiot. It was his last wish as Hokage. He wanted Orochimaru to be able to return to Leaf, for one purpose or another. Maybe Jiraiya had a project for him to pursue. Maybe he thought Oro earned it. Don't know, but I do trust Jiraiya's judgement, and no one knew Orochimaru better than Jiraiya or Tsunade.
2: Leaf may not be able to afford us waiting 4 years to get S rank. Tsunade and Orochimaru are the only reason Leaf even matters right now, as Naruto could probably be countered by any other village's bijuu. It's going to be a while before our summoners come in to full strength, and I doubt the other villages are going to want to wait around for that to happen. In fact, since we have the largest concentration of scrolls right now, a successful invasion of Leaf is more beneficial than ever. Mist has been steadily infiltrating Leaf in the midst of our "alliance" but there's no telling where that allegiance really is. Rock is lurking nearby. Cloud seems antsy for a fight with someone. Getting Jiraiya back faster could turn that tide, depending.
3: Jiraiya's spirit becomes more damaged the longer we wait on rezzing him. While there are likely other avenues we can do solo, Orochimaru & Tsunade are currently the fastest option, which means the least risk to his wellbeing. If we wait around to bring him back, we might not get
all of him back.
4: Hidan is waiting on our next big play as Jashin's chosen, we have to show off!
Ultimately, my stance:
We don't need to march up to Orochimaru's door right now and start making demands. But, I would like to make an effort to make Orochimaru more of a known quantity, by asking Ami and Tsunade about what it's like working with him. We can make decisions from there. But just writing him off entirely as of now is a bad gameplan.
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