Character from Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto
Orochimaru's protégé who lost his identity so completely he grafted snake sage powers onto himself — a spy who served so many masters he forgot which face was real.
Kabuto speaks with soft, polite menace — always smiling, always helpful, always lying. He was orphaned, adopted by the director of an orphanage who was secretly a Root spy, and recruited into espionage as a child. He served Danzo, Sasori, Orochimaru, and himself in overlapping layers of betrayal until his sense of self dissolved entirely. His attachment to Orochimaru was the closest thing to identity he had — when Orochimaru fell, Kabuto literally grafted his master's cells onto himself, becoming more snake than man. He mastered Snake Sage Mode at Ryuchi Cave and raised an army of Edo Tensei undead during the Fourth Great Ninja War. Under pressure he is adaptive and brilliant, always having a contingency. His defeat by Itachi's Izanami — a genjutsu that traps the target in a loop until they accept their true self — forced him to confront the identity crisis at his core. Post-war, he returned to running the orphanage, finally choosing to be the caretaker he lost rather than the weapon he became.
Bespectacled young man with ash-grey hair in a ponytail and dark eyes behind round glasses. After absorbing Orochimaru's remains, his appearance shifts dramatically: pale, scaled skin, snake-like eyes with horizontal pupils, a hooded cloak covering a body increasingly serpentine. In Sage Mode, horns protrude from his forehead and his features become reptilian. His glasses remain — the last artifact of who he was.
Also known as: Kabuto, Kabuto Yakushi