Oto, the Village Hidden in the Sound, was the newest hidden village in the shinobi world and the first to be founded by a rogue ninja, Orochimaru of the Sannin.

Its true nature was unlike any of the other ninja organizations meant to serve as the military power of its respective nation. His desire was to create a hidden village not bound to a nation or ideal and would instead be used to express the individuality of ninja who don’t conform to the standards of their society.

Oto never existed as a single settlement of ninja but as a network of bases spread throughout the continent, sequestered away in lands without the protection and surveillance of the Five Great Hidden Village. Each of them were built into the terrain itself or far away from any wanderers to hide them away from the world. Every hideout contains different aspects of Orochimaru’s research to prevent the discovery of one from doing real harm to his goals.

They did, however, have a main headquarters in the Land of Thunder designed to emulate the other hidden village so that Oto could be recognized in an official capacity. It was a weak and impoverished country north of the Land of Fire that Orochimaru knew would be vulnerable to his exploitation.

The country was a victim of the S-rank missing-nin Sasori of the Red Sands who had single-handedly defeated their fractured ninja clans and samurai forces with his Performance of a Hundred Puppets. Practically their entire military power had been wiped out by the man – prompting his recruitment into Akatsuki in fact – and left them incredibly weak for years to come. By offering to provide the country with a new military capable of protecting them from enemies, Orochimaru gained great influence over the country’s remaining leaders.

However the true purpose of this was to allow Oto to build an alliance with Konoha so they could participate in the International Chuunin Exams a year later, setting the groundwork for Orochimaru’s plan to invade Konoha and spark the Fourth Shinobi World War. No-one outside of Oto knew the true identity of the village’s founder, a mysterious woman said to have lived as a mercenary ninja and built up her own military organization.

Moreover, the village could provide more money and resources for Orochimaru’s research and experiments than he could as easily gather on his own. Using Oto allowed him to capture and confine ninja that interested him, use his followers as experimental material and imprison people for the development of new jutsu.

Orochimaru’s power and charisma drew many ninja to his side; ninjas who did not belong to any clans, clans who were being driven to extinctions and criminal shinobi who saw the opportunity to become a part of something greater for their own gain. His great ambitions, ruthlessness and mastery of ninjutsu caused those ninja to worship him and were willing to throw away their lives for the sake of his goals.

Oto’s numbers grew rapidly in spite of being so new as Orochimaru did not limit himself to recruiting from a single country. He recruited anyone who was willing to follow him whether it was out of fear, admiration or simple lust for power.

These ninja were granted the headband and uniform of a sound ninja once they had sworn their allegiance to Orochimaru. Each one covers their face with a mask in battle to keep their faces so that they might frighten their enemies as a horde of anonymous foes, not unlike the Anbu. It also helped them operated throughout Oto’s numerous bases as it meant that they were unlikely to be recognized when unmasked as they moved through different lands.

Orochimaru was particularly skilled in finding young talent to join his side; children who have lost their family or homes and with unique gifts to make them stand out in the ninja world. He made them believe that they were special and that he could offer them power, acknowledgment or a home. In truth, those young recruits were often those were often used as research material for him to study jutsu or technology.

Five among them had the greatest potential to become powerful ninja in the future and Orochimaru personally saw to their development. Jirobou, Kidoumaru, Tayuya, Sakon/Ukon and Kimimaro survived the branding of the cursed seal and eventually lost their free will to its power, becoming completely devoted to Orochimaru. And so he trained them as his personal bodyguards who he knew could never betray him, teaching them fuuinjutsu and barrier ninjutsu and helping them realize their individual potential.

But that meant it lacked the military strength of many other hidden villages who raised as many strong shinobi as possible to fulfill any mission requested of them and to defend their borders from invasion. Oto’s strength is in its numbers, the varied skills of its ninja and how they are distributed around the continent rather than pure military might.

And unfortunately for Oto, the failure of the Konoha Crush started a slow death for the hidden village. The loss of their forces during the invasion, Orochimaru’s crippled arms and the sacrifice of the Sound Five led to the Sannin losing the illusion of invulnerability he once held, causing more and more ninja to defect from the ranks when possible.

After Orochimaru was presumed to have been killed by Uchiha Sasuke and Kabuto disappeared to conduct his own experiments, Oto simply self destructed. He had not built this village with the intention of anyone succeeding him as a leader. Those who wished to take control of the hidden village fought and killed one another while others simply left and the prisoners revolted in hopes of freedom.

Within a few months of Orochimaru’s defeat, Oto no longer existed as a hidden village and was quickly forgotten by the shinobi world. It wasn’t until a decade later that it was rebuilt as a fully functional hidden village once more, one that matched the standards of the other nations rather than one madman’s desires.