"Wind Release: Tornado Jutsu!" The tornadoes converging from ten directions formed something that made Orochimaru's eye twitch uncontrollably.
He vaguely remembered seeing something similar, like a ball, in the hands of Jiraiya, one of the other Sannin. However, Jiraiya's was made purely from Chakra, simulating wind and controlling it in his hand along an irregular spiral trajectory. Though it had not yet been completed, Jiraiya had mysteriously shown it off before him. He claimed it was a Ninjutsu without hand seals he had created, capable of producing a powerful single-target attack with little Chakra—and it was fast and required no hand seals.
However, as a ninjutsu genius, Orochimaru had immediately spotted the technique's flaws. First, it was far too difficult to learn. Its S-rank learning difficulty meant only a select few could ever use or master it. Second, no matter how powerful it was, it was still a close-range technique. For ninjutsu-oriented shinobi, most battles were settled from over ten meters away, while taijutsu-oriented shinobi would find it even harder to learn.
So the technique was actually rather awkward. Its power was indeed formidable, but there was no point if it could not hit anyone.
Among those who later carried it forward, Minato Namikaze solved the problem of not being able to hit people with the Flying Thunder God, while Naruto relied on his unparalleled advantage in Shadow Clones to cover his reckless charges after getting close to his enemies.
Neither of those methods could be learned by ordinary people, so the Rasengan's actual value was not particularly great. Especially once its learning difficulty reached S-rank, the subsequent Chakra nature transformation and senjutsu Chakra made it even more difficult for many people.
Orochimaru's judgment had been correct, but with the Child of Prophecy and protagonist Aura bonuses, the Rasengan had