>>281731095
>He was decently intimidating during his confrontation with Kakashi and the implication of him being able to deceive a former ace ANBU operative with his dead body fake out was a pretty good setup to there being more than meets the eye with him.
Yeah. It was also pretty cool how fast he got over Tsunade's jutsu that messed up the signals in his brain and kicked her ass. But he was still just Orochimaru's minion, and it was obvious from the start that he's nowhere near as ruthless or insane as Oro. Kabuto is simply less intimidating, and it didn't really change after he injected Oro's cells into his bloodstream. Even his creepy snake faces and body modifications are less creepy than the og snake's.

>Kabuto was implied to be hyper-competent but not "special" enough for Orochimaru to consider him a viable heir.
His body wasn't special enough to become possessed by Oro, but he was Oro's actual heir before Mitsuki and Log were created. Orochimaru praised Kabuto's intelligence and medical jutsu a lot (there's also picrel, not sure what to make of it.) He gave Kabuto the hideout with the lab right off the bat when Kabuto was like 12, while treating his other minions like shit. He changed his life philosophy partly because Kabuto surpassed him and then still jobbed to Sasuke and Itachi. Kabuto was Orochimaru's right-hand man, which, in a way, makes him more special than Sasuke, who was meant to be Orochimaru's umpteenth vessel. But none of that changes the fact that Kabuto is straight up goofy more often than not, and he doesn't have Orochimaru's creepy aura.