Jiraiya (Naruto)

**Jiraiya** (自来也, *Jiraiya*), also known as "**Jiraiya the Gallant**" (自来也豪傑, *Jiraiya Gōketsu*) is both a fictional character and tritagonist of the *Naruto* series created by Masashi Kishimoto. He was a Hidden Leaf ninja, and one of Hidden Leaf Village's three "Legendary Sannin"—along with Orochimaru and Lady Tsunade, his former teammates. Kishimoto has commented that out of all the master-pupil relationships he has created in the *Naruto* series, the bond between Naruto and Jiraiya is his favorite, noting that it makes drawing them "worthwhile".

As a child, Jiraiya was a student under the tutelage of Third Hokage, along with his teammates. Jiraiya appears as an old man who occasionally returns to the village, and reporting the activities of Orochimaru and the organization Akatsuki to the Hokage. Jiraiya was been known throughout the *Naruto* world as the "**Toad Sage**" (蝦蟇仙人, *Gama Sennin*) due to his toad-related jutsu and knowledge of Sage Jutsu. Prior to Naruto, he also trained other pupils like Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and Nagato due to a prophecy he heard that his pupil would be great man. Although still affiliated with Konoha, Jiraiya is usually traveling to watch over potential threats to his home. Jiraiya later becomes the godfather of Minato's son, Naruto Uzumaki.

Referred to as the "**Pervy Sage**" (エロ仙人, *Ero-sennin*; literally meaning "Perverted Hermit"), his personality is openly lecherous and perverted, proudly describes himself as a "super pervert" while authoring a series of best-selling adult romance novels. He also wrote the epic "Tale of the Gutsy Ninja", with Naruto named after its protagonist. During Part I, he takes Naruto as his student, and returns him to Konoha in Part II before leaving to investigate the Akatsuki.

However, finding Nagato leading the organization, Jiraiya dies fighting his former student's Paths of Pain while sending a message of them to the village, believing to have done enough for Naruto. Famed as a hermit and pervert of stupendous ninja skill, Jiraiya travelled the world in search of knowledge that would help his friends, the various novels he wrote, and, posthumously, the world in its entirety – knowledge that would be passed on to his godson and final student, Naruto Uzumaki.

"*The true measure of a ninja is not how he or she lives, but how they die.*"

—Jiraiya.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: David Lodge (English), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)
*Voice Actor (Young)*: Brad MacDonald (English), Tōru Nara (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known(Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Jiraiya was a tall and well-built man in adulthood with fair skin. He had a wart on the left side of his nose and waist-length, spiky white hair that he usually ties back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. There were red lines under his eyes which extended further down his face as he got older, going all the way to the bottom by the time he was an adult. Following an encounter with Naruto's Version 2 form, he received a large scar on his chest. His usual attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armour that is visible at his wrists and ankles. He also wore hand guards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side. He often carried a large scroll on his back, and had a tattoo on his left palm, and he wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for "**oil**" (油, *abura*), which denoted his affiliation with Mount Myōboku.

* Hair Color: Pink-Orange
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Light Blue
* Age: Not Known
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

Jiraiya was generally light-hearted and gregarious, making jokes at his own expense and giving a mirthful laugh about it afterwards. In his interactions with others, he liked to pretend to be smug or selfish, upsetting them so that he could further rile them up with his humor. Even when entering combat he did not miss an opportunity to be flashy and over-the-top, striking kabuki poses and giving dramatic self-introductions; these intros were often interrupted in some way, and Jiraiya was quick to express his annoyance at whoever was responsible. Friends and foes alike were fond of Jiraiya for his eccentricities, admiring that somebody so seemingly irreverent could in actuality be an extremely competent ninja: he was deeply loyal to the Hidden Leaf Village despite how often he is away from it, not hesitating to threaten to kill Tsunade if she betrayed the village, despite their long history. Jiraiya also demonstrated no hesitation in attempting to destroy his former best friend Orochimaru in retribution for the death of their teacher, nor in attempting to dispatch his former pupil Nagato when he learned Nagato was the true leader of Akatsuki, despite the pain it brought him. Jiraiya felt that his personality quirks render him incapable of being Hokage, as he either lacked the responsibility for the position or he had, through his past infractions and failures, proven unworthy of such an honor.

Despite being seen as an eccentric troublemaker in his youth, Jiraiya proved to be an exemplary and competent Shinobi. Jiraiya would establish a vast information network across the countries and in battle demonstrated the ability to both recognize and analyze threats and danger on short notice. Jiraiya was also capable of coming up with quick gambits and new strategies in the middle of battle based on his keen observations.

Jiraiya was a self-proclaimed super-pervert with no equal. His favorite hobby was spying on women while they bathe, a passion he flaunted openly and in fact took pride in because of how infrequently he was caught. Despite this, Jiraiya disliked it when Naruto Uzumaki referred to him as the "**Pervy Sage**" (エロ仙人, *Ero-sennin*; literally meaning "Perverted Hermit") in front of others. With the "research" from his peeping, Jiraiya wrote a series of adult novels called *Icha Icha*. The novels were based on his personal experiences in love - particularly his rejections by Tsunade - retold in a comical way. The books were wildly popular, giving his chequebook a balance that is "filled with zeroes"; this fact did not stop him from taking Naruto's money when he got the chance and spending it on alcohol and women. In the anime, Naruto ghost-writes an *Icha Icha* book without anybody noticing, suggesting that either Naruto can write like an adult, or that Jiraiya's writing abilities were no better than a child's. Tsunade suspected it was the latter, as she notes that a report Jiraiya wrote when he was younger was poorly written and accompanied by crude crayon illustrations.

Jiraiya's perversion has backfired on him a number of times. When he first meets Naruto, he has no interest in training him. Naruto convinces him to change his mind by using the Sexy Technique, which Jiraiya so strongly approves of that he asks Naruto to continue to use it for the duration of their training. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame of Akatsuki later hypnotise an attractive woman to lure Jiraiya away from Naruto so that they can try to capture him; though it works at first, Jiraiya quickly realises that women aren't usually attracted to him, allowing him to return to Naruto in time to rescue him. When he was younger, he spied on Tsunade while she was bathing and, when she caught him, she broke both of his arms, six of his ribs, and ruptured a number of organs as punishment. Ever since, he's used greater discretion in expressing his interests in Tsunade, careful to make his advances come off only as playful. Jiraiya considers his inability to win Tsunade's heart to be one of the greatest failures of his life. Despite his boisterous nature, Jiraiya was plagued by doubts and insecurities that his life was nothing more than a series of failures. Being unable to save Orochimaru weighed heavily on him, as did the deaths of his sensei the Third Hokage, and his student the Fourth Hokage. Jiraiya considered his achievements paltry things next to the previous four Hokage and desired a death as glorious as their own. In his final moments, Jiraiya expressed his pride in realising a heroic death that was "just barely glorious, but glorious indeed".

Despite his self deprecation, one of Jiraiya's defining feature was his indomitable spirit and drive to never give up. Despite the multitude of failures he suffered in life, he never succumbed to despair, always forging ahead as he felt a shinobi must. Against Orochimaru, Jiraiya revealed his belief that the truest essence of the shinobi was one who endured and fought on no matter what they faced, regardless of inborn talent or genius. Even mortally wounded, Jiraiya's willpower was so powerful that he willed his own heart to begin beating again in order to impart a final message to Konoha. He would pass these beliefs and drive on to his pupils.

Perhaps Jiriaya's greatest contribution to the world was his abilities as a teacher. Driven by the prophecy he would one day find the world's savior, Jiraiya would mentor three of the most powerful shinobi in history, Nagato, Minato and Naruto, imparting his belief in the spirit of a shinobi to all three. While he could be harsh and distant to Naruto at first, Jiraiya held a genuine love for the boy and took time to make certain he acted like a parental figure as opposed to merely teacher and student, even buying ice cream to share with him when Naruto was depressed at his lack of a family. Even in death, Jiraiya's last thoughts were of Naruto, who he entrusted the world's salvation to. In the anime, before departing for the afterlife, Jiraiya's spirit would use its final moments to clap Naruto on the shoulder in a final show of affection.

While he rarely revealed it outwardly, Jiraiya was a great believer in peace and held a deep longing to change the hatred inherent in the world. While he desired to find an answer to the cycle of hatred that plagued the world, he was never been able to come up with a way to do so. He never had children of his own, for which reason he thought of Minato Namikaze as his son and, by extension, thought of Naruto as his grandson. Jiraiya stated simply that to be happy was not his fate; Tsunade doubted he believed his own words. Under his bluster, Jiraiya remained a fundamentally kind man who treasured those close to him, maintaining a strong faith in the next generation, especially those he personally trained and Naruto in particular, believing that Naruto would be able to create and enjoy the world that Jiraiya could only dream of. When he died, Jiraiya decided that, despite his numerous failures, the successes of his time with Naruto made everything worthwhile

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Tsunade
* Kakashi Hatake
* Sakura Haruno
* Yamato
* Hiruzen Sarutobi (mentor)
* Ebisu
* Hidden Leaf Elders
* Iruka Umino
* Minato Namikaze (student)
* Kushina Uzumaki
* Gamabunta
* Gamaken
* Gamahiro
* Fukasaku (mentor)
* Yahiko (student)
* Asuma Sarutobi
* Shizune
* Kurenai Yūhi
* Might Guy
* Ibiki Morino

### Enemies

* Akatsuki
* Orochimaru
* Kabuto Yakushi
* Manda

## Abilities and Powers

### Abilities

Like his fellow students of the Third Hokage, Jiraiya was an exceptionally talented shinobi, hailed as one of the strongest ninja of his generation and one of the most powerful shinobi ever produced in Konoha. It wasn't until the Second Great Ninja War that his skills became widely known; dubbed by Hanzō as a Sannin, a title which makes the Uchiha Clan and Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist pale in comparison. Kisame Hoshigaki viewed him as being in a league above himself, and Itachi Uchiha believed that at best he would stalemate with Jiraiya if they fought even with assistance. His skill lead him to becoming a jōnin and was offered the position of Hokage three times, and would have been offered it a fourth time had he lived longer. Kakashi, a highly experienced ninja himself, found the notion of someone single-handedly defeating Jiraiya almost absurd. Although he ultimately met his end by the strongest Akatsuki member Nagato, the latter stated that he would have lost had Jiraiya known the secret of the Six Paths of Pain, which Tobi feels is a major testament to the Sannin's abilities.

### Physical Abilities

#### Chakra and Physical Prowess

Jiraiya has chakra reserves large enough to summon Gamabunta and chakra potent enough to use senjutsu. Jiraiya also was masterful with his chakra control, able to perform two Rasengan at the same time, or even carve a message just using his chakra despite it being disrupted. He also taught Naruto how to break genjutsu using chakra control. The manga shows little of his physical prowess other than being able to fling Naruto several meters with a single finger tap. In the anime, he is shown lifting and throwing large boulders, as well as kicking away some of the Giant Multi-Headed Dogs.

Jiraiya was also remarkably durable, able to withstand a lot of damage before going down. He could survive a full on kick from Might Guy with barely a scratch, and even attacks from summons as big as Gamabunta, such as the Giant Ox. Due to this durability he's only been brought to the brink of death twice: against Naruto's Four-Tailed Form and Tsunade's monster strength, and even Nagato had a difficult time inflicting lethal damage on his old master using the Six Paths of Pain.

### Ninja Arts

Jiraiya is a ninja arts master, who is famed as the "**Toad Sage**" (蝦蟇仙人, *Gama Sennin*) because of his affiliation with the toads of Mount Myōboku. This affiliation is most commonly displayed through summoning toads, either to fight alongside him in battle or simply summoning a toad's œsophagus to cover an area and restrict any movements within that area. Other toad-based skills include spitting oil from his mouth, hiding himself within a target's shadow to control their actions undetected, and using toads to infiltrate sensitive areas.

He is able to grow and manipulate his hair, either to bind and destroy targets or to surround him as a defense, injuring any who comes into contact with him. He is also able to use the Rasengan — a destructive ball of compressed chakra — as well as its improved version, the Big Ball Rasengan.

Jiraiya is well-versed in fūinjutsu, able to deduce the workings of Naruto's Eight Trigrams Sealing Style within moments of seeing the seal's design. He also quickly notices the seal is being restricted, and as such removes the restriction. He can create seals for others that they can use to suppress the chakra of those who have been applied with Jiraiya's seal. He also displays a certain skill for barrier ninjutsu, erecting barriers to either detect all movements within a wide radius or toad-themed barriers for him to take shelter in.

Jiraiya can utilize the natures of Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Yin and Yang Release. With Fire Release, he can a shoot a blast of fire that he can combine with his toad's oil to make for an even more devastating attack. With Earth Release, he can create a swamp beneath a target to trap them.

#### Nature Type

* Fire Style

* Wind Style

* Earth Style

* Water Style

* Shadow Style

* Light Style

### Feats

#### Strength level

* Kicked a Path of Pain hard enough to send him flying.
* Sent Ashura Path’s Giant Ox Summon Flying (some oxes can weigh 1,198lb and of course the Giant Ox Summon is much heavier then that).
* Lifted and threw several large boulders.
* Flung Naruto several meters with a single finger tap.
* Kicked away several of the Giant, Multi-Headed Dogs.

#### Speed

* Evaded hundreds of chakra infused paper spear attacks.
* Kept up with Pain.
* Managed to save Sasuke before Itachi and Kisame could see him.
* Even when drugged, could keep up with Orochimaru and Tsunade.

#### Durability

* Tsunade once broke 6 of his ribs, his arms and his lung and he survived
* Survived an attack by a Four Tailed Naruto that severely wounded him
* Got hit by Might Guy’s Dynamic Kick
* Got hit by Ashura Path’s Giant Ox Summon which breaks through a wall.
* Tanked a hit from Ashura Path (which also severed his arm)
* Got stabbed through the shoulder by Animal Path
* Survived getting his throat crushed
* Is able to function despite being impaled in several places by Chakra Receivers

#### Skill

* With Tsunade and Orochimaru, fought Hanzo to a stalemate, earning the title of Sannin.
* Completed 138 S-Rank & 614 A-Rank missions.
* Stopped Itachi and Kisame from capturing Naruto and killing Sasuke.
* Fought the leader of the Akatsuki - Pain as well as discovered the nature of his powers.
* Faced Konan, one of the strongest members of the Akatsuki.
* Fought against Orochimaru numerous times.
* Was requested to be the Hokage due to his reputation as a skilled ninja.
* Trained Minato Uzumaki, the Fourth Hokage.
* Author of the best-selling series of erotic novels, Icha Icha.
* Pain admitted Jiraiya could have beaten him if he knew about his powers.

### Weaknesses

* **Limited Chakra Reserves**: While Jiraiya does have an impressive amount of Chakra, it is not an infinite pool and will eventually run out, meaning he won’t be able to perform any techniques requiring Chakra.
* **Nature Energy Requirement**: It takes time to gather nature energy in order to activate Sage Mode, which is impractical in a fight unless he has Shima & Fukasaku to gather it for him.

## History

### Past

After he graduated from Hidden Leaf's Ninja Academy, Jiraiya was teamed with Orochimaru and Tsunade under the leadership of Hiruzen Sarutobi. Hiruzen gave them a bell test for the team's first exercise, during which Jiraiya repeatedly fell for Hiruzen's tricks, and for failing to acquire a bell, he was tied to a stump as punishment. Hiruzen encouraged Jiraiya to be more like Orochimaru, but Jiraiya countered that his Transparency Jutsu was a fair testament to his skills, as he could spy on bathing women without getting caught: Hiruzen offered to accompany him to see if this was true. Jiraiya had a certain interest in Tsunade from their first meeting, and when her breasts developed, she became a frequent target of his peepings. She nearly killed him when she caught him on one occasion, forcing him to be more discreet about his interests.

Jiraiya at some point had discovered Mount Myōboku, the residence of the toads; in the anime version, he was brought there accidently when he tried to summon a toad without first having a contract with them. Fukasaku trained Jiraiya in their ways, most prominently Sage Jutsu. While he was at Mount Myōboku, the Great Toad Sage made a prediction about Jiraiya: that he would travel the world and during that time meet the Child of the Prophecy, a student who would grow up to either save or destroy the world depending upon how Jiraiya taught them.

Although their team under Hiruzen's leadership had disbanded, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade continued fighting together during the second war. During one such fight in Hidden Rain Village, they were the only three to survive an encounter with Hanzō, for which accomplishment Hanzō dubbed them Hidden Leaf's ninja as the "Legendary Sannin". After the battle, three war orphans approached them and asked to be taught Ninja Arts. Jiraiya, guilty for his involvement in the war, decided to stay in Ame for a time in order to look after them. Shortly after he joined them, he discovered that one of the orphans, Nagato, possessed the Rinnegan, once used by the Sage of the Six Paths to save the world. Jiraiya decided that Nagato was the Child of the Prophecy, and as such agreed to teach the orphans ninjutsu so that he might guide Nagato towards the world's salvation.

Nagato was a kind child, torn between his desire to not hurt others and his wish to protect Yahiko and Konan. Jiraiya comforted Nagato that it was enough to want to protect people one holds to be important, as the world is plagued with seemingly endless conflict. Nagato decided that it was possible to end the constant bloodshed and, though he didn't know how, that he would someday find the path to peace. Jiraiya was inspired by Nagato's words and started writing what would become *The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi*. After three years of training the orphans, Jiraiya decided they were ready to forge out on their own and he returned to Konoha; he left them a finished copy of *Gutsy Shinobi*, dedicated to Nagato. News of the orphans' deeds would reach him from time to time, but eventually he heard that they'd all died.

At some point Jiraiya began to lead a Konoha team of his own, and started to suspect that one of his students, Minato Namikaze, might be the Child of the Prophecy because of his natural genius. As such, he took Minato as his disciple and taught him many of his skills; Minato would eventually teach Jiraiya the Rasengan. *Gutsy Shinobi* did not sell well when it was released. Minato - selected as Konoha's Fourth Hokage after Jiraiya refused the position - enjoyed the book, finding the main character very much like Jiraiya. He decided to name his and Kushina Uzumaki's then-unborn son "Naruto" after the main character, hoping that their Naruto would be just as determined as the character (and thus its author). Jiraiya tried to convince them not to since that would make him Naruto's godfather, but Minato and Kushina insisted this was a good thing. Minato died during the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack, giving his life to seal the Nine-Tails into the newborn Naruto; as one of his last acts, Minato sent Jiraiya Gerotora, on whose stomach he wrote the key to Naruto's seal. Jiraiya guessed that Minato wanted him to help Naruto gain control of the Nine-Tails' power, though he couldn't guess what that power would be needed for.

Although Orochimaru had always been his better, someone that Hiruzen pointed to as an example for Jiraiya to live up to, Jiraiya considered Orochimaru to be one of his closest friends. For this reason, when Orochimaru eventually defected from Hidden Leaf Village, Jiraiya pursued him and tried to convince him to return. Orochimaru refused and attacked Jiraiya in order to secure his escape. For a time, Jiraiya tried to find a deeper meaning in Orochimaru's betrayal, something that, if changed, would bring Orochimaru back. He could ultimately come up with nothing. From that point onward, Jiraiya started following Orochimaru's movements as well as those of Akatsuki, an organization which Orochimaru eventually joined. His investigations often took him away from the village, preventing Jiraiya from becoming Fifth Hokage like Hiruzen wanted him to.

## External links

* Jiraiya *Wikipedia*
* Jiraiya *Narutopedia*
* Jiraiya *Heroes Wiki*
* Jiraiya *Character Profile Wiki*