Quote Originally Posted by Abdula
The thing is that Kabuto seems to be operating of his own free will. If you remember that incident when Oro was in the shower and Kabuto was arguing with him, Kabuto was the one who made the prisoners fight so that Orochimaru would take over the body of the survivor.

Kabuto is also the one who sent Kimimaro to get Sasuke and during the early part of the series such as when Kabuto was talking to Baki or when he failed to capture Sasuke and when Oro sent him to eliminate Shizune. It shows that unlike Oro's other subordinates Kabuto has a lot of free will and that Oro trusts him more than anyone else so he isn't really a 'henchman'.
I'm not sure if you were agreeing with me or not, but basically I'm not disagreeing with what you wrote there. The things is, he can't act like a really adoring goon because I doubt Oro would teach anything really fancy to such a person. He needs to show initiative of his own for Oro to recognize his potential and ambitions (usefulness for anything more than carrying out simple orders) - if Oro even has an intention to teach anyone anything at all. However, considering Oro's goal is to learn all the jutsu around, you might assume he wouldn't diss Kabuto's wish to learn new skills as well. And being as tough, clever and skillful as Kabuto is, I very much doubt he would stick around unless he aims to get something out of it - no matter how much he respects Oro; he hasn't given me the kind of impression he would waste his life.