Jiraiya

Jiraiya (自来也) was one of Konohagakure's legendary Sannin. He was known as the Toad Sage (蝦蟇仙人), because of his special affinity for toads. Famed as a hermit and pervert of stupendous skill, Jiraiya traveled the world in search of knowledge that would help his friends, his series of adult novels, and, ultimately, the world in it's entirety. In which knowledge that would be passed on to his godson and final student, Uzumaki Naruto.

Background
As a child, Jiraiya and his former team-mates Orochimaru and Tsunade, were students of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Jiraiya's relation with his team practically mirrored that of Team Minato, and Team Kakashi, with Jiraiya being quite similar to Naruto. After leaving the Third's tutelage, he travelled the world.

Jiraiya at some point discovered the residence of the toads, a species he proved to have a natural affinity for. In the anime this is shown to have occurred when he was still the Third's student; after seeing the Third perform the Summoning Technique, Jiraiya tried to use it himself. Since he did not have a contract, Jiraiya was reversed summoned to Mount Myoboku, where the Great Toad Sage made a prophecy concerning Jiraiya: that he would someday choose whether one of his students saved or destroyed the world. During his time with the toads, he trained in senjutsu.

During the Second Shinobi War, Jiraiya and his former team-mates fought Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure. Hanzo was so impressed that they could survive in a fight with him, that he give them the nickname Konoha's Legendary Three Ninja (伝説の三忍), and that they accept the title in exchange for letting them live. Once the battle was over, Jiraiya and his team-mates encountered three young orphans from Amegakure. While Orochimaru suggested they kill them to spare them the cruelty of the world, Jiraiya decided to look after them for a while and teach them ninjutsu. During the time he spent with them, Jiraiya grew close to the three children, and even wrote a book that was inspired by one of them, Nagato. Eventually, he left them so that they could pursue their own goals. Although news of their exploits reached him from time to time, he believed they have died during an undisclosed incident.

Decades earlier, Jiraiya encountered the leader of the Nadeshiko Village, as he trespassed into her village to do "research" for his next novel. After he escaped, she pursued him and challenged him to a duel for his hand in marriage. This match was however postponed, as neither party was making headway against the other. Jiraiya promised that their students instead should one day seek each other out and fight if the two never met again.

Once becoming a jonin and capable of leading a squad, Jiraiya became the teacher of Namikaze Minato and two other unknown genin. Jiraiya took particular interest in Minato, taking him as an apprentice, and amongst other things teaching him the Summoning Technique. At some point, he also told Minato about the prophecy the Great Toad Sage had given him, believing that Minato could be the Child of the Prophecy.

Later, Jiraiya's first book, The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, failed to be a best-seller. Minato, now the Fourth Hokage, thought the book was excellent, and praised Jiraiya, saying that the protagonist resembled him greatly. It was then that Minato revealed that he and Uzumaki Kushina, who was pregnant at the time, wanted to raise their child to be a great shinobi, like the one in the book, and for that reason they decided to name him "Naruto", after the main character. Jiraiya jokingly pointed out that it would make him Naruto's godfather, and asked if they were sure that they would want that. Minato replied that Jiraiya was a good example for them all and that he could not think of a finer shinobi than him.

Years later, when Orochimaru betrayed Konoha and left the village, Jiraiya pursued him, trying to convince his friend to come back (similar to Naruto's efforts to bring Sasuke home). Orochimaru refused, and attacked Jiraiya. While he tried to find a reason for Orochimaru's defection, Jiraiya eventually realized that his friend wasn't coming back. Feeling that he was responsible for Orochimaru's escape, Jiraiya left Konoha so he could follow Orochimaru's movements, as well as learning about the Organization that was named the "Akatsuki", which Orochimaru had eventually joined. In doing so, Jiraiya was unable to fulfill Hiruzen's wishes of him taking on the role of Hokage, feeling that tracking down Orochimaru was more important. Thus not even looking after Uzumaki Naruto for the next 12 years of the young orphaned boy's life.

Personality
Although he left Konoha for many years, Jiraiya was still loyal to his village. When Konoha found itself in need of a new Hokage after the Third Hokage's death, Jiraiya volunteered to look for Tsunade so that she could be the Fifth Hokage, after turning down the position himself. His reason for refusing the position was, among other things, that he felt unworthy to take the role, since he had failed to save his student Namikaze Minato from dying, as well as him having to conduct more "research". After he found Tsunade, and began to suspect that she might be helping Orochimaru, he made it clear that he would kill her if she betrayed the village, a proof of his loyalty to Konoha. However, once it became clear that Tsunade was still loyal to Konoha, and later accepted the title of Hokage, Jiraiya served as her most trusted adviser, loyal confidant, and a spy into the dealings of Akatsuki and Konoha's enemies.

Jiraiya was a self-proclaimed super-pervert with no equal, and a frequent voyeur, going so far as to create the Transparent Escape Technique, to allow him to spy on naked women without being caught (doing "research" as he called it, even as a child). He never actually hid his perversion, and even seemed proud of it, as seen when he told the Third Hokage about it when he was still a child. Despite this, Jiraiya disliked being referred to as Ero-sennin (エロ仙人) by Uzumaki Naruto in front of others.

Jiraiya's perversion had been used against him on occasions, as seen when Naruto got Jiraiya to start training him after a simple display of the Sexy Technique (though Naruto hit a roadblock when Jiraiya wanted him to use the technique around him when training). When Akatsuki members, Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki, tried to distract Jiraiya, they used a hypnotised woman to catch his eye and keep him busy. While their effort initially succeeded, Jiraiya eventually saw through their plot, due solely to the fact that women did not typically express interest in him. His peeping habits had also caused him great injury on one occasion; when caught spying on Tsunade in his younger years, she proceeded to break both of his arms, six of his ribs, and ruptured a number of organs as punishment.

As a result of such injuries, Jiraiya now retained a rather healthy fear towards his former team-mate, and usually attempted to suppress his perverted ways when in Tsunade's presence. Despite these perverted tendencies, Jiraiya was in love with Tsunade nonetheless and even as he died, he lamented the fact that he was never able to win her heart. However, despite his one-sided affections for his team-mate, Jiraiya didn't let his feelings cloud his judgment and resolutely stated that he wouldn't hesitate to kill Tsunade should she betray Konoha and help Orochimaru.

Some time after leaving Konoha, Jiraiya became the author of a series of adult novels called Icha Icha. The novels were based on his personal experiences in love, that he retold in a comical way. In a filler episode of the anime, Naruto ghost-wrote one of Jiraiya's Icha Icha novels. The book was found to be very popular. This indicates that either Naruto is capable of writing on the same level as Jiraiya, or that Jiraiya's writing abilities were no better than those of a child. Tsunade seemed to suspect that the latter was true, as she noted that a report he wrote as a child, accompanied by crude crayon illustrations, was poorly written. The popularity of the Icha Icha series seemed to have paid off well, as Jiraiya's cheque book revealed that he was fairly wealthy. Despite his wealth, Jiraiya was not above taking Naruto's money and spending it on sake and women. Jiraiya frequently disappeared when Naruto attempted to make him pay.

Jiraiya had also been known to show off, even during a fight. This showing off typically included traditional kabuki poses accompanied by dramatic self-introductions, keeping with his hermit theme, even when he was a child. He became annoyed if he was interrupted for whatever reason while trying to strike a pose, which happened frequently. He would summon Gama, however Gama was the only toad he ever summoned that posed along with him. Although he was generally light-hearted and gregarious, Jiraiya could be very serious in a demanding situation, such as fighting Orochimaru, and later, Pain. He was also quite perceptive, as demonstrated when he watched Naruto try to walk over the surface of shallow water; Jiraiya quickly discerned that there was something within Naruto that was disrupting the chakra's circulation through his body.

Despite Jiraiya's eccentric behavior and prowess as a shinobi, he was a strong believer in peace; his hope being to one day end the hatred that plagued the ninja world. Jiraiya also held a great deal of faith in the next generation, and saw them as the solution to this hate.

Appearance
Jiraiya was a tall man with waist-length, spiky white hair usually tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face. He also had red lines that ran down from his eyes and wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for 'Oil' (油, abura), which denotes his affiliation with Mount Myōboku. He also had a noticeable wart on the left side of his nose. Jiraiya wore a green short shirt kimono and matching pants; under which he wore mesh armour that showed out of the sleeves and legs of his outfit. His outfit was completed with hand guards, a simple black belt, traditional Japanese geta (wooden sandals), a red haori with two simple yellow circles on each side, and a scroll on his back. He also had a tattoo in his left palm which resembles one that Gama has in his as well.

Jiraiya was also seen sporting different attires. As a child, he wore pale grey robes with a design of red flames on the edges, with a green ribbon showing a curled gold design tied in a loose bow around his waist. In childhood, the length of the red lines that ran down his eyes extended to just over half his face, but became longer in time. Underneath it, he wore the standard black mesh shirt with red lining, and wore puffy black pants that are tighter around the ankles as well as black sandals to go with the outfit. During the Second Great Shinobi War against Hanzō, he wore the wartime variant of Konoha's flak jacket. He was also shown wearing what appeared to be a rubber frog suit during a flash back to when he was training the Ame Orphans.

Abilities
Being one of the three Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya was an extremely powerful shinobi, easily considered Kage-level, and was initially chosen for the position of both Fourth and Fifth Hokage by his teacher the Third Hokage and the Konoha Council, though he turned it down both times. He stated that he had only been brought to the verge of death twice in his entire life, once when he was doing "research" on Tsunade herself, (and being beaten to a pulp by her for doing so), and when he used the toad key to weaken the seal that held the Nine-Tails' seal on Naruto's stomach, and resulting in Naruto's four-tailed form, the latter only happening because he was trying to reseal the demon chakra rather than harm Naruto.

His strength was so great that Ebisu asserted how only a Sannin like himself was powerful enough to kill Orochimaru during his Invasion of Konoha. Even powerful members of the S-rank criminal organisation Akatsuki were either easily subdued like Konan, while others like Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki, a Mangekyō Sharingan user and former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist respectively, opted not to face the Sannin in battle, fearing that the very best they could do together against Jiraiya would end in a stalemate, even with reinforcements.[16] Kisame even admitted that he was no match for Jiraiya, saying he was "on a whole other level". Minato Namikaze also acknowledged his master's power, skills, and mindset, and wished to fight him.[7] Even Nagato — the ex-leader of Akatsuki and a former student of Jiraiya who possessed the legendary Rinnegan — was initially overwhelmed despite outnumbering Jiraiya. This caused the younger opponent to marvel at Jiraiya's abilities, as defeating the Sannin still cost Nagato one of his strongest tools, stating that he would not have defeated Jiraiya had he had prior knowledge of Nagato's "secret".

Ninjutsu
Jiraiya was well-versed in a variety of ninjutsu types. He could grow and sharpen his hair for offensive and defensive purposes. Jiraiya was taught how to use the Rasengan by Minato, and had since developed larger variants.

Jiraiya was often described as a perfectionist. He had the ability to improvise or expand the limit of a techniques to the point where even an academic or E-rank techniques could make him an extremely formidable opponent. The Transparent Escape Technique, created to help him spy on women, eventually proved to be very useful in espionage and reconnaissance.

Apart from his fighting abilities, Jiraiya was very proficient with barrier based techniques. Examples would include Barrier: Canopy Method Formation, which allowed him to detect all movements within a wide radius and block attacks, and Barrier: Toad Gourd Prison, which allowed him to trap an enemy inside the belly of a small toad-shaped gourd, the inside of which contains a landscape with a lake of stomach acid.

While he had basic knowledge on how to recognise and counter genjutsu, he was not skilled at using it, and relied on his partners to use illusions.

Taijutsu
While not being his preferred combat method, Jiraiya was still very proficient with taijutsu, capable of stopping some of the individual dogs that split from the Giant Multi-Headed Dog just using his legs. His natural strength, while nowhere close to his female team-mate Tsunade, was very impressive. In the anime, there is one such occasion where this is shown, when Jiraiya intervened in a fight between a young Gamabunta (who was still bigger than himself) and an unknown snake of equal size where Jiraiya grabbed and tossed the snake a great distance away with ease. Also in the anime, Jiraiya, as a child, was able to lift a large boulder several times his size.

Jiraiya has showcased a high level of durability over the course of his life; taking a direct kick to the face from Gai, as well as surviving a direct blow from Nagato's Giant Ox, which ploughed him through several steel pipes, without genjutsu. Even at the brink of death he still managed to figure out Pain's secret and engrave it on Fukasaku's back, so he could deliver the intel to Konoha.

Natural Transformation
In terms of element ninjutsu, Jiraiya had proficient knowledge if not skill in multiple types. He could use Earth Release to create deep swamps to immobilise his opponents as large as Orochimaru's gigantic snakes even when on low chakra or beings as physically strong Human Path. His proficiency in Fire Release is great enough to unleash oil enhanced blasts of flame. Not only that, he could create even larger blasts of fire with the help of Gamabunta, creating the Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet which could cover an entire valley in flames. When in Sage Mode he could create entire lakes of burning oil with the help of Fukasaku and Shima. He was also at least knowledgeable enough to teach Yahiko and Nagato how to manipulate the nature of their chakra.

Toad Techniques
Jiraiya was known as the "Toad Sage", due to his natural affinity for toads, and his utilisation of a number of toad-related techniques. Many typically dealt with summoning toads. He had risen to a level of ability that allowed him to summon Gamabunta. He could even summon the nearly indestructible œsophagus of a great, fire-breathing toad with Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind. Once the technique had been used to cover the area, Jiraiya could control it as he pleased, and used it to trap most ninja. Due to his training with toads, he even gained the ability to spit oil from his mouth.

For spying and infiltration, Jiraiya had the Toad Flatness — Shadow Manipulation Technique, which allowed him to hide himself as a shadow, and even attach to the shadow of another ninja to control them. He also had the Hiding in a Toad Technique, where he hid in the belly of a small toad, which could enter most areas undetected. Kakashi noted that Jiraiya was a specialist when it comes to infiltration and espionage tactics.

Fuinjutsu
Jiraiya had been shown to be very skilled and otherwise knowledgeable with Sealing Techniques, and had used a number of them throughout the series. When first meeting Naruto, he quickly deduced that the seal on Naruto's stomach, that kept the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him, also allowed its chakra to mix with his own. Jiraiya easily recognised the Five Elements Seal that Orochimaru had placed on top of Naruto's seal and how it was distorting Naruto's chakra and easily removed it with Five Elements Unseal.

He later created a method of suppressing the Nine-Tails' influence over Naruto through the Chakra-Suppressing Seal, which activates by simply coming into contact with Naruto's body. In addition, he could utilise the Fire Sealing Method to contain even Itachi's Amaterasu within a scroll for future study.

Chakra
Like Naruto, Jiraiya naturally possessed exceptionally large amounts and strong levels of chakra and stamina. Its potency was able to make Naruto back down from chasing after Uchiha Itachi and Kisame with a single glare and chakra spike. Even with his ability to mould chakra weakened by Tsunade's poison, he could create a swamp which sank one of Orochimaru's massive snakes (two in the anime) and kept it completely immobilised throughout the battle. Though by Jiraiya's own admission, the technique had failed to some extent.

He has also shown an extremely high level of chakra control as well. He could use the Rasengan in a single hand, or two at once as well as effortlessly displaying each stage of the technique to Naruto. Even after being stabbed five times by the Six Paths of Pain's Chakra Disruption Blades, he was able to use the Finger Carving Seal.

Senjutsu
Jiraiya's chakra reserves were massive enough to learn senjutsu, an alternate combat style that utilizes natural energy in unison with his chakra to greatly increase his various techniques. The pinnacle of his skill is to enter Sage Mode, a transformation that allowed him to harness natural energy inside of himself to immensely augment his physical parameters. This form enhanced his strength to the point of destroying the Human Path's eyes with just a kick to the face, while also sending him several metres away. Likewise, his speed was enhanced to the point where he could leap down from a high vantage point and form an attack, before his sandals — which had fallen before he jumped — had even reached the ground.

In addition to maintaining Jiraiya's natural energy while he fought, they added their own abilities to help him in battle. Sage Mode greatly increased Jiraiya's physical power, as shown by his ability to send Pain's summons flying and use the extremely powerful collaboration ninjutsu Sage Art: Goemon. This form allowed Jiraiya to use stronger versions of his other techniques. An example would include the Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan, a massive variant of Rasengan even larger than his own body. Though unseen, this version is supposedly strong enough that if it exploded, it'd have destroyed an entire mountain. As Jiraiya was not adept with genjutsu, he relied on Shima and Fukasaku to help him in that aspect.

Due to the limited nature of using Sage Mode on his own as one must remain absolutely still to gather the necessary natural energy, while before entering it, Jiraiya will summon the elder toad couple Shima and Fukasaku and have them fuse to his body and absorb the energy for him. Jiraiya didn't like Sage Mode because it gave him a more toad-like appearance, with longer marks along the sides of his face, a goatee, a larger nose with warts, and webbed hands and feet, all of which made him unappealing to girls. This is due to Jiraiya not having complete mastery over the technique.

Intelligence
While he would normally come off as goofy, Jiraiya had repeatedly shown himself to be a shrewd man. His intelligence enabled him to track Orochimaru and Akatsuki through the years, and he headed his own spy network all over the Five Great Shinobi Countries for this purpose. He was very knowledgeable in various techniques, able to quickly recognise them and know how to counter them. He also demonstrated being a capable teacher, as even Itachi acknowledged Naruto's growth under Jiraiya's tutelage for three years. Jiraiya was also very skilled in information gathering, as he would constantly relay any important intelligence he acquired to his allies.

Chunin Exam arc
Jiraiya first met Uzumaki Naruto while he was "researching" at the hot springs in Konoha. After Jiraiya knocked out Ebisu for catching him in the act, Naruto demanded that Jiraiya become his trainer in Ebisu's place. He refused, until Naruto used his Sexy Technique. When they started training, Jiraiya removed Orochimaru's Five Elements Seal from Naruto's stomach, which allowed him to tap into the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's chakra. To teach him how to take advantage of the Nine-Tails' reserves, Jiraiya taught Naruto how to use the Summoning Technique, but was met with very poor results. To this end, Jiraiya decided to force Naruto to use the Nine-Tails' chakra by pushing him off a cliff. Naruto survived by summoning Gamabunta. Jiriaya left the scene after Gamabunta was summon.

Invasion of Konoha arc
When Orochimaru began his invasion of Konoha, Jiraiya summoned Gamahiro to stop Orochimaru's snakes. He later mourned Sarutobi Hiruzen's death, but decided not to attend his funeral.

Search for Tsunade arc
With the Third's death, the village elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, requested that Jiraiya become the next Hokage, which he quickly turned down. Instead, he volunteered to search for his former team-mate, Tsunade, asking only that he be allowed to take Naruto with him.

Just a day after setting off, however, Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki of Akatsuki tried to kidnap Naruto. To do so, they used genjutsu on a woman to distract Jiraiya while they captured Naruto. Jiraiya saw through the trick, and intercepted Itachi and Kisame, who decided they did not want to get involved in a fight with one of the Sannin. When they tried to escape, Jiraiya used Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind to trap Itachi and Kisame. Nobody had ever managed to escape that technique before, but Itachi used Amaterasu to burn through the walls and escaped. After that, Naruto and Jiraiya resumed their search for Tsunade, Jiraiya teaching Naruto the Rasengan along the way to keep him occupied.

Orochimaru found Tsunade before Jiraiya did, and asked that she heal his arms. When Jiraiya eventually found her as well, he suspected that they were in contact, and threatened Tsunade not to help Orochimaru. In response, Tsunade drugged his sake when they went to a bar, making it difficult for him to move or use chakra. After he discovered that this was so he wouldn't interfere in her attempt to kill Orochimaru, Jiraiya came to help her. In his drugged state, he struggled to fight Orochimaru, but was able to recover to the point that he could summon Gamabunta to fight Orochimaru's Manda. The healthy Tsunade proved too much for Orochimaru and Manda, defeating the two and causing them to flee. Tsunade then accepted her post as the Fifth Hokage, and battle Naruto, and give the boy the Hokage good luck kiss charm on his forehead (The same way she did with Nawaki and Kato Dan). After Tsunade's battle with Naruto, they returned to Konoha.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
After Naruto failed to stop Uchiha Sasuke from defecting to Orochimaru at the end of Part I, Jiraiya encouraged him to give up on Sasuke, remembering his own experiences with Orochimaru. Naruto refused, prompting Jiraiya to take him away for two-and-a-half years of training, to make him strong enough to bring Sasuke back, and to protect himself from the Akatsuki.

Pre-Shippuuden Filler arc
After recovering from his battle against Sasuke, Naruto joins Sakura in another attempt to save Sasuke from Orochimaru. Before crossing Konoha's border, Jiraiya appears. He saves them from becoming labelled missing-nin from leaving the village without authorisation by allowing them to join him on a mission to gather information on Sasuke and Orochimaru. Their journey takes them to the Land of Rice Fields, the land of the Otogakure. After a couple comedic failures to gather info due to Jiraiya's perverted antics, Naruto and Sakura met a young kunoichi named Sasame of the Fūma clan. She revealed her desire to find her cousin Arashi, who along with the majority. After facing three members of the Fuma clan and managing to escape them, Jiraiya returned with new information he gathered from the remnants of the Fuma clan that saw through Orochimaru's lies.

Jiraiya explained that Orochimaru was gathering as many supporters as he could from various clans simply to gain their secret technique. After facing the three members again and defeating them, Sasame led Naruto and his team to Orochimaru's current hideout. Inside the base with no knowledge of where to go, the team took different paths. Eventually, Naruto found Sakura in a long corridor facing off against Kabuto. Naruto was able to hit Kabuto with his Rasengan, but unfortunately fell prey to a devastating technique that attacked his heart. After being saved by Sakura and Sasame, it was discovered that Kabuto was actually another Fuma clan member, Kagero in disguise.

Soon after, they found Arashi, who became the victim of an unstable technique of Orochimaru's that merged him with his two fellow clan members and drove him insane. Naruto, along with Sasame and Sakura, were able to restore his mind. As Orochimaru's hideout began to fall apart, Arashi revealed that Sasuke was safe for now, but Orochimaru was doing everything in his power to make Sasuke a perfect host for him in the near future. After making sure that the Fuma clan were free from Orochimaru's control, Naruto and his team returned to Konoha.

In the Mizuki strikes Back arc, before he left to do intel on the Akatsuki, he gave Naruto a willpower scroll to train on. On Naruto's way back to Konoha from a recent mission, Naruto stops at a village with a hot springs resort. Along the way, he meet a unique ninja called a Courier Ninja who's mission duties were solely to deliver mail through the most difficult and dangerous of terrains. At the village, his shock and fury Naruto discovers Jiraiya fooling around with some girls. To calm Naruto down, Jiraiya reveals the real reason he hasn't started Naruto's training yet was because he was on a mission to gather information on the Akatsuki and learned that an agent of theirs was reported to be arriving in the village soon. Naruto asked Jiraiya to train him since they had the time, but Jiraiya explained he also had to finish the manuscript for his latest novel. After constant procrastination on Jiraiya's part, he eventually fell asleep with his work unfinished. Naruto instead decided to ghostwrite the manuscript for Jiraiya and had a courier ninja deliver it, after bumping into a couple men and getting their mail mixed together.

When Naruto told Jiraiya what he did, Jiraiya was furious as he feared this would ruin his career as an author. After getting the mail back, Jiraiya was horrified to discover that the package contained a peace treaty between the Land of Fang and Claw who were on the brink of war. Realising that Naruto's manuscript was being sent to the Fang Daimyō and fearing that the Fang Daimyō would view as an insult for war, Jiraiya and Naruto rushed to get the manuscript back. After a heated struggle against the courier ninja, the Fang Daimyō unfortunately got the manuscript. But to Naruto and Jiraiya's shock, the Fang Daimyo was a huge fan of the Icha Icha series and thought it was a peace offering from the Land of Claw, effectively causing the war to be cancelled. Later, Jiraiya had to leave as his Akatsuki target had already left the hot springs resort, forcing Naruto to return to Konoha to wait for Jiraiya's return.

With Naruto's display of stubborn resistance to Seimei, Gaara manages to prevent Shukaku to fully emerge and kill Seimei with his Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral. Everyone returns to Konoha, where Ino makes a request to also become Tsunade's student. Tenten is enraged by the fact that she was left out of the mission. As Naruto prepares to leave for his two-and-a-half years of training with Jiraiya (who had returned with information about the Akatsuki's plans), the others discuss the future and resolve to train harder so as to keep up with Naruto. Hinata watches him head off.

As Jiraiya and Naruto have left Konoha to begin their two year journey. While walking, they talk about Naruto's need to overcome Sasuke's Sharingan. During a genjutsu practice, Naruto tries to disrupt his inner chakra flow, but instead, creates a wave of chakra around him thus hitting Gamariki in the physical world. To overcome this part of the training, Jiraiya takes Naruto to the Genjutsu Tree Village. After realising that the village was taken over by a man named Kandachi, Naruto and Jiraiya decide to liberate the village. As the final battle with Kandachi continued, Jiraiya and Naruto got trapped in the Conch King's Water Release Genjutsu: Mystic Fog Prison but later managed to escape thanks to Tanishi's Chilli Pepper Bomb. At the end of the battle, Naruto defeats Kandachi with his Big Ball Rasengan.

Two years later after he and Naruto left Konoha, Jiraiya was send training Naruto on how to avoid the Needle Jizo Technique. But the plan back fire when he saw that Naruto had to use Kurama's cloak in order to escape the massive attack. Over the course of training, Jiraiya begins training Naruto to gain better control of Kurama's chakra, soon helping Naruto to master wielding the demon cloak up to two tails. Feeling he was ready to take it to the next level, Jiraiya had Gerotora tweak the seal enough for additional charka to be unleashed. Kurama however took advantage of this and was able to overwhelm Naruto by producing four tails, causing him to slip into a "Version 2" state, which allowed Kurama to go on a rampage in his body. Jiraiya was narrowly able to reseal the fox's chakra, to which his passive methods of saving Naruto led to Jiraiya being severely injured which made both him and Naruto whine up in the hospital.

While waking up in the hospital Naruto apologize to Jiraiya for doing this to him, but Jiraiya tells him that there is noting to be sorry for including that unexpected things happen for a reason. Naruto admitted that he was able to gain control of his body when three tails appear, but lost control when the fourth tail appear. Jiraiya asked Naruto if he is going to give up. But he also tells Naruto not to give up on training, and that they will just have to find another way to control Kurama's chakra.

Later after they were release from the Hospital, Jiraiya and Naruto were seen outside eating fish while having a camp fire. Jiraiya was laying down while Naruto remarks that he still hasn't remark from his stomach wound. While Naruto told Jiraiya that he'll go continue his training alone, Jiraiya silently remarked that it's time for them to head back to Konoha.

Kazekage Rescue arc
Jiraiya and Naruto return after two and half years of training and goes to Tsunade about how much progress Naruto has made. He later meets up with Kakashi with information about Akatsuki and gives him a seal to Naruto's transformation.

Sasuke & Sai arc
After taking Naruto back to Konoha, Jiraiya went off to search for information on Akatsuki. Jiraiya would soon return to inform Hatake Kakashi and Yamato about Naruto's four-tailed form, a form so powerful that it nearly killed Jiraiya before he managed to stop it. It was later revealed that Jiraiya himself released it (not expecting Naruto's loss of control) with a special key passed down from Namikaze Minato, capable of unlocking Naruto's seal.

Three Tails arc
In the anime, Jiraiya returned to Konoha to congratulate Naruto on defeating the Akatsuki's members Kakuzu and Deidara. In order to keep Naruto from participating in Team 7's new Uchiha Sasuke-related mission, Jiraiya offered to train him again, and took Naruto to Yugakure. Jiraiya and Naruto also had a discussion over the meaning of 'home': "Wherever someone is thinking of you, that is the place you can return to." In light of Naruto's need to learn some high-ranked, long-distance techniques, Jiraiya introduced Naruto to the concept of synchronised, collaboration jutsu and began by demonstrating a synchronised technique, the Water Release: Water Gun technique, in collaboration with Gamariki.

When Naruto and Gamariki proved unable to synchronise, due to their conflicting personalities, Jiraiya confronted Naruto with the fact that, unless he can work with a summoned toad, a collaboration techniques would stay out of his reach. Naruto compensated by summoning toads that he did get along with, and, after giving up on trying to work with Gamariki, finally began on working on a synchronised technique with Gamatatsu, while Gamakichi guided the process.

Jiraiya openly applauded Naruto's progress, and expressed how pleased he was at his dedication to his goals and beliefs. After receiving a message about Akatsuki, Jiraiya was forced to leave Naruto to continue training by himself, though not before convincing Tsunade to let Naruto go on the mission.

Itachi Pursuit arc
His meeting with Tsunade and Shizune, is cut short when Naruto and Sakura enter the office. Surprised that his master had returned to the village, Naruto informs him that he finally mastered the collaboration technique with Gamakichi and Gamatatsu, impressing him. After discussing on how to capture Uchiha Itachi, Jiraiya and Tsunade got to the front gate to see the Eight Man Squad off.

After Deidara's death, Jiraiya informed Tsunade that he had found the location of the Akatsuki leader, somewhere in Amegakure. After a chat with Tsunade, revealing much of Naruto's history, amongst others who his parents were, he left to infiltrate Amegakure and see what he could find out. He captured two Rain villagers while there, and sent one to Konoha to be interrogated. After hearing that the Akatsuki leader, Pain, killed Hanzō in battle, Jiraiya decided to leave the key to the Nine-Tails' seal to Naruto, before going out to see what else he could learn.

Jiraiya eventually found Konan, and after incapacitating her with his oil, questioned what happened to her, Yahiko, and Nagato. Suddenly Pain appeared and Jiraiya recognised him as his former student, Nagato, because of his Rinnegan. Fearing that his student would destroy the world, as was warned against in the prophecy, Jiraiya tried to kill Pain. After summoning Gamaken to protect him from various summons, he entered Sage Mode, and summoned Shima and Fukasaku to help him, but had difficulty with the battle when Pain summoned additional bodies (the Preta Path and the Human Path). Although they were able to defeat three of Pain's bodies with a powerful genjutsu, Jiraiya was handicapped when Pain's Asura Path ambushed Jiraiya and somehow severed his left arm. The Asura Path was joined by the other five paths, with the first three having been reanimated. Doing the most that he could without his arm, Jiraiya managed to kill and capture the Animal Path, and ordered Shima to leave and take it to Konoha, before heading out one last time to see if he could figure out the secret behind Pain.

Jiraiya was able to discover that all of Pain's bodies belonged to ninja he once knew, amongst them being his old student, Yahiko, functioning as Pain's Deva Path. With this information, Jiraiya was able to discover the truth, but his throat was crushed by the Asura Path and he was pinned down to the ground by the other paths, leaving him unable to tell Fukasaku what he had learned. As his life waned, he mused over his death, calling it unworthy compared to the Hokage and flashed back to his life and his failures, failing to win Tsunade's heart, failing to stop Orochimaru from leaving Konoha, and failing to protect both his master Hiruzen and his student Minato. But when he remembered how Minato called his book a success and decided to name his son after the book's protagonist, Jiraiya realised that it was he who named him Naruto.

Seeing that the student's way should also be the teacher's way, Jiraiya realised that Naruto, not Nagato, was the child foretold of in the prophecy. Knowing that Naruto would someday save the world, he forced himself back to life and inscribed a coded message into Fukasaku's back and sent him to Naruto. When the Asura Path saw the coded message on Fukasaku, he attacked him with a rocket hand, destroying the rock Jiraiya was lying on, making him fall into the water. As Jiraiya died, he compared himself to the "Frog at the bottom of the well… Drifts off into the Great Ocean", calling it a more honourable death and realised that he needed a title for his next book. Finding the title "Tale of Naruto Uzumaki" perfect, Jiraiya died with a smile while sinking into the watery depths of the battlefield.

Invasion of Pain arc
Jiraiya's death reached to Konoha by Fukasaku.Naruto blamed Jiraiya's death on Tsunade,and told her off before leaving her ooffice. Naruto and Tsunade sadden by Jiraiya's passing dearly. Naruto was really sadden by Jiraiya's death overall. He was confronted by Iruka, and Iruka told him that Jiraiya truly did care about Naruto. Iruka also told Naruto that he's also a student to a legendary Sanin. Naruto revealed to Iruka that he wanted Jiraiya to see him on the day that he would become Hokage. After this, Iruka's word touched Naruto and he thanked Iruka. Shikamaru also confronted Naruto to see if he knew what Jiraiya's code message meant. Shikamaru took Naruto to see a pregnant Yuhi Kurenai. Naruto was shock that Kunerai was pregnant wit Asuma's child. Shikamaru told Naruto that he knows what it's like to lose a sensei. He also told Naruto that he thought that Jiraiya was a cool guy,and encouraged Naruto to decode Jiraiya's message.

When the code was broken, Naruto decided to go to train with the toads to learn senjutsu, knowing that Pain was coming for him and deciding to make the most of the time Jiraiya had bought for him. To learn senjutsu, Naruto trained to harmonise with nature, a process he sped up by using a limited amount of shadow clones. He rapidly progressed through the introductory stages and attained a perfect Sage Mode, something Jiraiya had never been able to do.

Using the Deva Path's chakra receivers, Naruto sought out Nagato, Pain's base mind, to finally answer his earlier question about peace. Naruto admitted that he hated Nagato, but restrained himself long enough to ask how Nagato, a fellow student of Jiraiya, turned out this way. After hearing Nagato's past and his reasons for desiring war, Naruto agreed on some points, but rejected the overall conclusion on the grounds that it differed from Jiraiya's ideals. To break the cycle of hatred, Naruto told Nagato and Konan that, despite hating them, he would not kill them. Amazed by Naruto's determination to his answer, Nagato said that he would believe in Naruto, and revived all the people he had killed in Konoha, at the cost of his own life. With this, Naruto helped Konan retrieve Nagato and Yahiko's bodies for burial in Amegakure. After confirming that she had quit Akatsuki, Konan left Naruto a bouquet of paper flowers for him, symbolising their new alliance.

He then created a memorial for Jiraiya and left the flowers and a copy of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi by a rock with the kanji for teacher (師, shi).

Naruto movie 1
Jiraiya is seen in a flashback by Naruto.

Naruto Shippuuden movie 2
Most of Jiraiya's appearances were more spiritual than actually appearing. When Naruto was sent on a mission without Kakashi or Yamato, Jiraiya gave Naruto, through Sakura, a small package. After Naruto transformed into his four-tailed form, the package was revealed to be a small seal charm, to force Naruto back to normal. Jiraiya then appeared again as a hallucination, pushing Naruto to fight on. In the end, Jiraiya finally made a physical appearance by saving his apprentice and Amaru from certain death by summoning Gamabunta to cushion their fall.

Naruto Shippuuden movie 3
Jiraiya met with a group of Sunagakure shinobi and talked with Gaara. Later, he took a message from Gaara to a ravine, where Suna and Konoha forces were ready to battle. He stayed there and talked to Tsunade after Suna withdrew from the war.

Naruto Shippuuden movie 4
Jiraiya called Minato aside to show him he learned to perform the Rasengan. Unfazed, Minato simply congratulated him and left, much to Jiraiya's confusion. Jiraiya is lastly mention by Naruto, when he reveals to Sāra that Jiraiya was gone like his parents.

Naruto Shippuuden movie 5
Jiraiya is seen in a flashback by Naruto.

Naruto Shippuuden movie 6
In the Genjutsu World, Jiraiya died trying to procure the Red Moon Scroll which the Great Toad Sage foretold will help defeat the Masked Man.

Legacy
Although the next arc played out after his death, Jiraiya still had a great impact on the events that happened during it. With the message that he left on Fukasaku's back "the real one isn't among them" allowed Konoha to learn the nature of Nagato's Paths of Pain technique which ultimately helped Uzumaki Naruto in defeating Nagato's paths before facing him in person. Having inherited their mentor's ideals of peace being gained by ending hatred, Naruto convinced Nagato to redeem himself in the end.

Soon time after, Naruto created a memorial to Jiraiya in the woods near Konoha, adorned with symbols of high importance: A rock with the kanji for teacher (師), Jiraiya's first novel The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, and Konan's bouquet of "never-dying flowers of hope". Later on, Kabuto revealed that he attempted to retrieve Jiraiya's body to bring him back through Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, but it was far too deep in the ocean for him to reach without being crushed by the water pressure. However, he noted that Uchiha Obito should still have enough DNA on the Six Paths of Pain's weapons but was refused.

Later during the Fourth Shinobi War, Tsunade noted that Jiraiya wouldn't have died if Orochimaru had changed. Orochimaru countered that even if he had lived he would have changed instead of dying without changing. Betrayed by Nagato and defeated by Naruto, Obito comes to the conclusion that with the two as the students of Jiraiya, the Sannin was the one who defeated him in a sense. When Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi was activated, Jiraiya is seen in Tsunade's dream alongside a still alive Nawaki and asks Nawaki if he can help him give something to Tsunade; which made Tsunade got angry for.

Video Games
Jiraiya is a playable character in the following video games:
 * Jump Ultimate Stars
 * Naruto RPG 2 Chidori vs Rasengan
 * Naruto Shippuuden Clash of Ninja Revolution 3
 * Naruto Shippuuden Gekito Ninja Taisen! EX 2 29
 * Naruto Shippuuden Gekito Ninja Taisen! EX 3
 * Naruto Shippuuden Gekito Ninja Taisen! Special
 * Naruto Shippuuden Naruto vs Sasuke
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ninja Council 4
 * Naruto Shippuden Ninja Destiny 2
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ninja Destiny 3
 * Naruto Shippuuden Shinobi Rumble
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja 4
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja 5
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Impact
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations
 * Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
 * Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution
 * Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution 2
 * Naruto Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 3
 * Naruto Gekitō Ninja Taisen! 4
 * Naruto Ninja Council 3
 * Naruto Ninja Destiny
 * Naruto Path of the Ninja
 * Naruto Path of the Ninja 2
 * Naruto Rise of a Ninja 3
 * Naruto The Broken Bond
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 The Phantom Fortress
 * Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm

Knownable Relatives

 * Uzumaki Naruto (Godson)
 * Namikaze Minato (Student/dead)
 * Sarutobi Hiruzen (Sensei/dead)
 * Tsunade (Teammate/love Interest)
 * Orchimaru (Former Teammate and #1 Rival)

Trivia
According to the databook(s):
 * Jiraiya shares the same blood type with his former team-mates, Tsunade and Orochimaru, as well as his former apprentices, Naruto and Minato.
 * In a special episode, The Top 5 Ninja Battles!, Jiraiya was intended to have an interview, but Orochimaru popped up next to him instead.
 * Despite no canonic source ranking him, in the anime, he was revealed to be a jōnin.
 * Jiraiya's hobby was sneaking a peek into a Women's Bathing House.
 * Jiraiya wished to fight Uzumaki Naruto.
 * His favorite food was garlic pickled with Japanese basil and karaage-fried chicken, while his least favorites were kiwifruit and gratin.
 * Jiraiya completed 1,839 official missions in total: 58 D-rank, 345 C-rank, 684 B-rank, 614 A-rank, 138 S-rank. With this rating of mission completion by Jiraiya, he has the most completed missions of all characters in the entire Naruto series.
 * Jiraiya's favorite phrase was "Free and uninhibited" (自由奔放, Jiyū Honpō).
 * Jiraiya is tied with Uchiha Itachi as having the highest stats total in the databook.
 * Jiraiya's last words were based off of a Japanese proverb 'I no naka no kawazu taikai o shirazu' which translates literally to 'A frog in a well does not know the great ocean'.

Voice Actors
all information on Jiraiya is from http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Jiraiya
 * Japanese : Hochu Otsuka (Adult), Toru Nara (Child)
 * English : David Lodge (Adult), Brad MacDonald (Child)
 * Played by in (Live Action) : Yoshiaki Umegaki (Live Spectacle Naruto)