Did Orochimaru capture Konoha villagers and Konoha Ninja for human experiments in the original story in order to force himself to make up his mind and sever his ties with Konoha?
Because he found it hard to let go of Konoha, yet deliberately committed unforgivable acts for the sake of his ultimate pursuit, forcing Konoha to make up its mind—and forcing himself to do the same.
If there was no way out, then there was no need to struggle with the agony of choosing!
After the Nine-Tails incident, perhaps Orochimaru had already anticipated that Danzo, in his bid to become Hokage, would expose the forbidden deeds he had committed in the past...
Once the news came out, Hiruzen Sarutobi would have no choice but to deal with Orochimaru and cut ties with him.
If something that violated the taboos of everyone in the village went unpunished, Konoha's cohesion would quickly crumble away.
If the people above and below became divided, Konoha would not be far from ruin.
It just so happened that Tsunade and Jiraiya were both out of the village at the time, while Minato Namikaze was dead. Danzo naturally believed that no one but him could become the Fifth Hokage.
Unfortunately, Danzo never expected Hiruzen Sarutobi to shamelessly pull the old retirement-rehire trick on him...
Danzo's plan fell apart completely. Not only did Konoha lose a top-tier combatant, but Orochimaru, one of the Sannin and a direct disciple of the Hokage, defected, setting off a rather terrible chain reaction!
It was like a royal prince with inheritance rights in a feudal nation defecting. The impact was simply far too vile.
Even the most steadfast of vested interests could defect—just how rotten and weak did that country have to be?
Once such doubts arose, all kinds of probing naturally