Jiraiya (Naruto)

Jiraiya is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

Jiraiya in Naruto v1 #42.

Jiraiya (Japanese: 自来也, Hepburn: Jiraiya) was a male human born in the village of Konohagakure in the Ninja World. After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he came to be placed under the tutelage of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. Under his sensei Hiruzen Sarutobi, he was assigned to a team that included Tsunade and Orochimaru where they took part in the bell test. Despite his attempts, he failed at catching the bell with him being left tied to a wooden post whilst his team mates had succeeded in the task. Both his compatriots though proved to be more skilled than Jiraiya who struggled to put the attention towards his training. This was until Hiruzen showed him the summoning jutsu with Jiraiya looking to make a contract with an animal himself. However, he had to find the animal by himself but his impatience led to him using the transportation technique without a contract being formed. This led to a reverse summoning where he came to fin himself at Mount Myōboku among the toads where he came to meet Gamabunta (ガマブン太, Gamabunta) and got rid of a giant snake that the chief toad was battling. The toads believed that Jiraiya's arrival was prophecised by the Great Toad Sage and they decided to train him until their leader called on the human. After that time, Jiraiya came to split his time between Konogakure and Mount Myōboku as he underwent his training where after many attempts he began to see a marked improvement in his skill and ability. In his time among the toads, he came to be trained in the arts of senjutsu where he learnt Sage Mode. He grew up over the years until finally he was ready to be brought before the Great Toad Sage Gamamaru (ガマ丸). The elderly toad's prophecies always came to pass and his vision had shown that Jiraiya would meet a fabled child that would change the future of the Ninja World. Gamamaru said that this could be for good or for destruction with Jiraiya responsible for training this student and determining the fate of the world. He came to inquire how he would know the boy with the Great Toad Sage stating that Jiraiya would need to travel the world to know more where over time he would be known as a great sage among the people.

Afterwards, he completed his training and decided to travel the world as he sought the Child of Prophecy. This saw him travel to many lands and encounter many people as well as foes but he failed in finding the person from the prophecy. He later returned to the village during the onset of the Second Shinobi World War where he joined Tsunade and Orochimaru to fight for the hidden leaf. Among their exploits saw them being deployed against Amegakure where they fought against Hanzō of the Salamander who was a powerful shinobi warlord. Despite their skill, the three were unable to defeat their opponent who was impressed by their fighting ability and decided to allow them to live. After learning their names, he decided to name them as Konohagakure's three Legendary Sanin. With the battle over, they headed back home but one the way they found three war orphans watching them as they were looking for food. These three were Yahiko, Konan and Nagato where Jiraiya decided to remain behind to teach the them ninjutsu along with other skills that would allow them to survive the war torn region. He stayed with the pair for several years though initially he did not teach them any ninjutsu. This was until one day he saw Nagato's eyes that possessed the Rinnegan where he came to believe that maybe the child was the one from the prophecy who was destined to change the world. This saw Jiraiya deciding to teach the three where he noted that Nagato quickly came to master all the different jutsu that was taught to him. He then had a test against the three children whereby he dispatched a shadow clone to fight them where through their abilities and teamwork they came to succeed. It was then that Jiraiya had decided that their training was complete and that he had to depart for back to his home where he said his farewells to the three children.

Years later, he came to receive a message from one of his toads that told him that the three orphans from Amegakure had died with Jiraiya crying over their deaths. After the Third Shinobi World War, Jiraiya came to continue his travels but made periodic travels where he would return to the village on occasion. During this time, he came to be a mentor to a group of young shinobi one of whom was a prodigy named Minato Namikaze. Eventually, Jiraiya published his first novel, The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. However, it did not sell well when released. Jiraiya found his writing style when he created the 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'. In this time, Minato was selected as Konoha's Fourth Hokage after Jiraiya refused the position where he enjoyed Jiraiya's first 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 could not 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 Konoha, 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. Orochimaru accused Jiraiya of being unable to understand him as his parents were not killed. Afterwards, he continued his tracking Orochimaru where he came to learn of a secret organization known as the Akatsuki though did not know much beyond them except that they intended to claim the power of the Tailed Beasts.

Naruto

Jiraiya came to return to the village after the death of his mentor Hiruzen Sarutobi following a battle with his former student Orochimaru. He then visited the Konoha Hot Springs in order to spy on the women bathing there when he was discovered by Ebisu who was unaware that this was Jiraiya there. Ebisu attempted to stop and reprimand the man which was when Jiraiya summoned a toad to knock the trainer out for interfering with his 'research'. The fight drew the attention of Naruto Uzumaki who was amazed at the man's skill and was determined to be trained by him. Jiraiya though had no interest in taking a student but Naruto used his Sexy Technique in order to convince him otherwise with the Toad Sage eagerly agreeing to take him on as a pupil.

After the funeral, he was approached by the village elders who were looking to appoint the next Hokage and decided to appoint Jiraiya for the role. However, he refused but instead suggested that a better candidate was Tsunade with him stating that he would seek her out and bring her back to the village. Before departing, he decided to take Naruto with him as he had become impressed by the boy and wanted to continue his training. Upon arriving at a town, a beautiful woman attracted Jiraiya who sent Naruto to train in his room at their lodging. Whilst separated, two of the Akatsuki named Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki went to the lodging to kidnap Naruto but their plan was thwarted by the arrival of Jiraiya who had learnt that the woman was a distraction made by the pair to separate him from his student. After the Akatsuki escaped, Jiraiya continued his training of Naruto as they arrived in a town to conduct their search for Tsunade. Afterwards, Jiraiya explains to Naruto why Akatsuki is after him. Naruto decides that he'll need to become stronger so that he can better face them next time, which Jiraiya decides to help with by teaching him the Rasengan. As they travel around the country trying to track Tsunade's location, Jiraiya instructs Naruto in the Rasengan's usage, providing him training aids where needed. Although Naruto relies on some unconventional workarounds and his developments often interrupt Jiraiya's rest, he masters the first two of Rasengan's three learning steps.

He quickly determined that Tsunade had already been in contact with Orochimaru and was offered some deal by him. However, Jiraiya was unsure about their negotiations and he came to worry that Tsunade may had decided to accept the offer. He even warned her that if she allied with Orochimaru that he would have no option but to eliminate her. He came to inform her that Konogakure's elders had decided to make her the next Hokage but she refused as she believed the position was a fool's errand. This drew the ire of Naruto Uzumaki who was angered at how she dismissed the honour of being the Hokage. This led to Tsunade deciding to challenging the young Gennin to put him in his place where she easily overpowered him though she was surprised to see him use the Rasengan. She then made a wage where she gave Naruto a week to learn the Rasengan and if he failed then he had to admit that the Hokage was a fool's errand but if he learnt the jutsu then she would admit she was wrong. As part of the wager, she agreed to even bet her necklace to him with it being a valuable relic as it belonged to the First Hokage. In that week, Jiraiya decided to have a drink with Tsunade where she spiked his alcohol to cause him to fall unconscious and weaken his chakra as she intended to meet Orochimaru. Upon regaining consciousness, Jiraiya gathered Naruto and Shizune in order to stop Tsunade from accomplishing the deal Shizune what Tsunade's deal with Orochimaru where it was revealed that, in exchange for healing the damage to Orochimaru's arms caused by the Third Hokage, Orochimaru would revive Nawaki and also Tsunade's dead lover, Dan Katō. As they try to find Tsunade in order to stop her from helping Orochimaru, Jiraiya worries that he may actually need to follow through on his promise to kill her. When they locate her, however, they find that she is already trying to kill Orochimaru. Jiraiya instructs Shizune to help deal with Kabuto while he fights Orochimaru by himself. He asks Tsunade to give him an antidote for the drug she gave him, but Kabuto has been able to trigger her fear of blood, rendering her unable to do anything. They came to find that Tsunade had decided to turn on Orochimaru after being inspired by Naruto where she attempted to kill her fellow Sanin but was nearly killed by his aide Kabuto Yakushi. This was only stopped by the arrival of Jiraiya and the others where he sought to fight Orochimaru. However, Tsunade's concoction had badly affected his ability to harness his chakra and impacted his ability to harness his own chakra for their fight.Jiraiya's inability to control his chakra and Orochimaru's inability to use his arms means they can't do much against each other. Jiraiya is able to create a Swamp of the Underworld, but it is too shallow to defeat Orochimaru's snake, only managing to stop it from moving. Nevertheless, Orochimaru is confident that Jiraiya will lose, proven by his "wasting" time with Naruto. He contrasts Naruto with Sasuke: Sasuke is an Uchiha, naturally gifted and capable of learning every ninjutsu; Naruto is mediocre, struggling to learn even one ninjutsu and thus failing to live up to the title of shinobi. Jiraiya rebuts: a shinobi is not someone who can learn all ninjutsu, but rather someone who refuses to give up. They watch as Naruto uses a completed Rasengan to defeat Kabuto, which Orochimaru decides is a problem. He goes to kill Naruto, parrying Jiraiya's attempt to stop him. Tsunade is able to protect Naruto and overcomes her phobia so that she can return to the fight. She summons Katsuyu to fight Orochimaru's Manda, with Jiraiya joining in by summoning Gamabunta. After they save Katsuyu from Manda, Jiraiya and Gambunta attack Manda with Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet. Manda avoids it and attacks them from behind, but they are saved by Tsunade, who defeats both him and Orochimaru. Orochimaru escapes with Kabuto; before he leaves, he warns that he has other ways of fixing his arms. Tsunade heals Jiraiya's broken bones, restores his chakra, and, having accepted the Hokage position, returns with him and Naruto to Konoha.

When they get back to Konoha, Jiraiya has Tsunade heal the mental damage done to Sasuke and Kakashi, as well as ask her to look at Rock Lee on behalf of Guy. Naruto goes around the village to visit his friends, with Jiraiya secretly watching him. Naruto gets into a fight with Sasuke shortly after Tsunade heals him, which Kakashi interrupts in time to stop them from using their Chidori and Rasengan against each other. Kakashi notices Jiraiya and asks him if it was a good idea to teach Naruto the Rasengan; Jiraiya asks the same about teaching Sasuke the Chidori. Jiraiya admits to being surprised that Naruto would use the Rasengan against a friend and asks about his relationship with Sasuke. Kakashi explains that Sasuke is a rival that Naruto wants to live up to, just as Jiraiya once did with Orochimaru. Now understanding things, Jiraiya decides to speak with Naruto about it. Sasuke ends up defecting to Orochimaru and Naruto ends up in the Konoha Hospital in his failed attempt to stop him. Jiraiya visits him there and informs Naruto that he's going to take him away from Konoha for three years of training; both Akatsuki and Orochimaru will be unable to move forward with their plans for three years, meaning this is the perfect opportunity to prepare Naruto for the next time he faces them. Naruto declines, believing it's essential that he go after Sasuke immediately. Jiraiya tries to convince him to give up on Sasuke, drawing on his own experience with Orochimaru and pointing to Naruto's contemporary condition as proof that Sasuke no longer considers him a friend. These facts, coupled with the many more important challenges Naruto must face someday, causes Jiraiya to conclude that going after Sasuke would be foolish. Naruto replies simply that he'd rather be a fool. Jiraiya is satisfied by this and tells Naruto to be ready to go once he's discharged from the hospital.

Two years into their training, Naruto's control of the Nine-Tails' chakra has improved significantly. Jiraiya tries to give him more access to the Nine-Tails' power and uses Gerotora to weaken Naruto's Eight Trigrams Sealing Style. This causes Naruto to enter a version 2 form with four tails; not in control of his body, Naruto attacks Jiraiya and nearly kills him before he manages to suppress the Nine-Tails. Naruto has no memory of what happened and Jiraiya does not tell him, instead shifting Naruto's training to other pursuits, including keeping his anger in check so that the Nine-Tails would not flare up again

Shippuden

Jiraiya returns Naruto to Konoha after two-and-a-half years. Kakashi greets them when they arrive and Naruto gives him a copy of Icha Icha Tactics, which Jiraiya wrote during their time together. He entrusts Naruto to Kakashi's care, warning that Akatsuki will likely be making a move soon; he sends the same warning to Sunagakure, whose Kazekage is a jinchūriki like Naruto. Jiraiya leaves Konoha to start investigating Akatsuki, but returns shortly afterwards to inform Tsunade that the Kazekage has been captured. She already knows this and is about to send Naruto and his team to Suna to lend assistance. He warns Naruto to keep his temper and to not use "that technique". He also tells Kakashi to keep an eye on Naruto, giving him a seal that can be used to suppress the Nine-Tails if Naruto starts losing control of it. When the Kazekage is successfully rescued, Jiraiya and Tsunade meet with Kakashi to discuss Naruto's display of the Nine-Tails' power during the mission, a sign of his worsening control. Jiraiya explains his own experience with Naruto's version 2 form and his observations about how Naruto's transformations work. Because Naruto can be as much a risk to himself as he is to others in these states, they task Yamato with keeping him in check. Jiraiya visits Tsunade and reports rumours that Orochimaru has been killed by Sasuke. They share these rumours with Naruto and Sakura Haruno, who suspect that Sasuke is making moves against his brother, Itachi Uchiha of Akatsuki. Naruto proposes that they try to locate Itachi so that they can, in turn, find Sasuke.

Through his intelligence network, he came to determine that the Akatsuki were not yet ready to claim the Tailed-Beast with Naruto and that they would be gathering their strength for the next two years. Jiraiya then decided to take Naruto under his wing and take responsibility for his training to make him stronger in this time. They departed Konohagakure where they began Naruto's training over the course of two years where he helped teach the boy better control. Jiraiya came to teach the Uzumaki boy the ability to tap into the power of the Tailed-Beasts chakra but warned that he could be overwhelmed by the fox spirit the more tails it began to manifest in its host. One such incident involved Naruto forming five tails where he went completely berserk and even wounded Jiraiya leaving a scar on his chest though he was restrained before he went out of control. Naruto came forget what happened in these moments with Jiraiya warning him on using too much of the fox spirits power. In this time, he also came to teach Naruto the power of the Rasengan which he initially came to struggle to create but found a solution by using his shadow clones to aid in the chakra collection. After reaching a degree of skill, Jiraiya decided that this stage of Naruto's training was complete and decided to return to the Hidden Leaf village.

From his spies, Jiraiya came to determine the location of the Akatsuki's leader which was the Land of Rain were he believed that the mysterious individual was the secret ruler of the country that was engulfed in a civil war. He reported his findings to Tsunade and stated that he would investigate the matter by himself despite the danger of doing it all alone. Entering Amegakure, he came to be surprised to find it being incredibly peaceful despite the intelligence that said it was in the grips of a civil war. Jiraiya came to learn then that Hanzō of the Salamander had been deposed and that a figure known as Pain now ruled the village as its secret ruler. The Toad Sage then sought to find more information on Pain where he was confronted by his lieutenant who he came to learn was now a grown up Konan. It was then that he learnt that Konan and Nagato had both survived despite the news of their deaths though Jiraiya came to be perplexed when Nagato was seemingly operated from multiple bodies who operated under the identity of Pain. Fighting this powerful foe, Jiraiya was forced to enter into Sage Mode but even then he was overwhelmed by his enemy where he came to suffer from serious injuries. Feeling responsible for Nagato, he attempted to defeat his foe but was fatally wounded but came to uncover the secret of his opponent's power which he passed to one of the Toad Sages to deliver back to the hidden leaf. He was then killed by Pain who caused his body to fall into the waters around the village with Jiraiya thinking back over his life in his final moments. As he died, Jiraiya came to show no regret as he sank into the sea knowing that Naruto is the foretold hero of the world.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Jiraiya was a tall well-built man with fair skin in his adulthood who had waist-length, spiky white hair that he usually tied back into a pony tail where two shoulder-length bangs framed his face. His talents led to him being referred to as the Toad Sage (蝦蟇仙人, Gama Sennin). Though his perverted nature led to him also being called the Perverted Hermit (エロ仙人, Ero-sennin, English TV: Pervy Sage). Alongside his team mates, he came to be regarded as one of the Sannin (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin, Literally meaning: Legendary Three Ninja).

On the surface, Jiraiya was generally a light-hearted and gregarious person who made jokes at his own expense and giving a mirthful laugh about it afterwards. He liked to pretend to be smug or selfish when interacting with others where he upset them so that he could further rile them up with his humour. Even when entering combat, he did not miss an opportunity to be flashy and over-the-top with Jiraiya often striking a kabuki poses and giving dramatic self-introductions. These introductions were often interrupted in some way and Jiraiya was quick to express his annoyance at whoever who was responsible.

He was a self-proclaimed super-pervert with no equal and a frequent voyeur. His favourite 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. With the 'research' from his peeping, he would use it as inspiriation for his novels. Despite his high-success as a novelist, 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 noted 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.

Despite his outward goofy nature, it was shown that deep down he was a haunted person who was regretful over the many failures he had made in his life. He had felt that he had failed in much of his life as he never managed to form a romantic relationship with Tsunade nor did he ever manage to stop his compatriot Orochimaru from going rogue.

Whilst having a self-deprecating nature, 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 and more importantly Naruto. He would pass these beliefs and drive on to his pupils.

Jiraiya was noted for being exemplary and a competent Shinobi.

He claimed that he was never fit to become Hokage which was why he never sought the position.

One of his hobbies was writing a series of stories with him being a noted author.

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.

Whilst at Mount Myōboku, the Great Toad Sage spoke of the Children of the Prophecy (予言の子達, Yogen no Ko-tachi) that were individuals that would change the world. These people could either destroy or save the world depending on how Jiraiya taught them. 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.

During his youth, he was noted to had many attempts to flirt with Tsunade though she often rejected his advances. One of the reasons for him training was in the hope that being stronger would lead to her accepting them going out on a date.

It was said that Jiraiya felt responsible for the actions of Orochimaru in the past which was why he went out in the world in pursuit of him.

Jiraiya came to be the sensei of Minato Namikaze (波風ミナト, Namikaze Minato) and watched the prodigy quickly become the finest shinobi of the village who even became the Fourth Hokage. The young man was akin to a son to Jiraiya where he was immensely proud of his student and maintained close ties to him. It was said that Jiraiya knew his student well and that Minato never did something without a purpose. This even went to Minato deciding to name his son after the lead character in his master Jiraiya's first novel who was a hero saving the world. This saw Minato and Kushina naming their son Naruto with Jiraiya being akin to being a godfather to the boy. He noted that Naruto reminded him a lot of the Fourth Hokage. When fighting Orochimaru, the two compared the qualities of Naruto and Sasuke where he remarked that there was little challenge in training the latter who was a prodigy. Instead, he wanted to train Naruto as he felt that the boy had the determination that was needed to become a shinobi. Jiraiya once told Tsunade that Naruto felt like a grandson to him and that he cared deeply for the boy. Upon his death, he noted that his story was over and that the next chapter was to go to Naruto to write.

Powers and abilities

Jiraiya was a human born with chakra (チャクラ, chakura) that could be manipulated to achieve various feats. He came to be trained in the arts of the shinobi in Konogakure where he came under the tutelage of the Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. He later underwent training at Mount Myōboku where he came to learn from the toads that resided there. Whilst seemingly goofy and eccentric, Jiraiya was actually shown to be very shrewd in the field. It was demonstrated that his specialty was intelligence gathering and he had cultivated a spy network that came to run through the Five Great Shinobi Countries. This allowed him to gather information on people or groups of interests that he could then share with his allies. In combat, he is very perceptive; Jiraiya observes all of the opponents' various actions, forms a theory about the how and why, and uses that theory to try and capitalise in the battle. He has repeatedly proven to be a very talented teacher, as all his students went on to become very powerful and well-known shinobi.

As one of the Sanin, Jiraiya came to be an exceptionally powerful shinobi who had been hailed as one of the greatest ninja of his generation that were produced by Konoha. The sage had an affinity who he used to perform many techniques ranging from delivering messages to transportation through them to summoning them to aid him in battle. Kisame and Itachi noted that Jiraiya was perhaps too strong for them to fight. It was shown that he could create a barrier ninjutsu whereby he created a sphere of chakra that allowed him to detect any entry within it. This proved to be a useful talent in fighting foes that were invisible as their entry into the barrier would reveal their location. Though incredibly skilled, it as said that his genjutsu was not very developed and he was not able to perform its techniques. Pain came to admit after killing Jiraiya that he might not have won their fight had his former sensei known the truth about his own jutsu.

Among the techniques known to him included:

• Barrier: Canopy Method Formation (結界・天蓋法陣­, Kekkai: Tengai Hōjin) : a technique that allowed the user to create a spherical detection barrier with the user at the centre. At the user's command, the detection barrier could expand where it took in everything in the surroundings. The users could also detect anything that moved inside the barrier space with their own 'sense'. As the users moved, the barrier similarly moved to follow them.
• Barrier: Toad Gourd Prison (結界・蝦蟇瓢牢­, Kekkai: Gama Hyōrō) : a technique that summoned a small, gourd-shaped toad, called a Gourd Toad (瓢箪蝦蟇, Hyōtan Gama) that were a unique species of toad indigenous to Mount Myōboku. By using the toad's tongue to drag in whatever it wraps around, this technique was best used to capture and isolate a victim dragging them into the toad's stomach.
• Hiding in a Toad Technique (蝦蟇隠れの術­, Gamagakure no Jutsu) : a technique that summoned a special Diving Toad (潜り蝦蟇, Moguri Gama) from Mount Myōboku allowing for the user to hide inside its stomach.
• Summoning Technique (口寄せの術­, Kuchiyose no Jutsu) : the summoning technique was made when a contract was formed with a chosen animal who then was manifested to aid the summoner through the transportation technique. Jiraiya came to learn the technique when he accidentally performed a reverse summoning that led to him being transported to Mount Myōboku. Once there, he came to find an affinity for the frogs that resided there who helped train him as a skilled shinobi. Among the toads he summoned included the giant Great Toad Chief Gamabunta, the giant toad Gamaken, the Two Great Toad Sages Fukasaku and Shima, the scroll toad Gerotora and also Gamariki.
• Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind (寄せ・蝦蟇口縛り­, Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari) : a variation of the summoning technique where instead of manifesting a giant toad but rather called the oesophagus of the creature that manifested in the surroundings. This caused the surrounding environment to form as the flesh of a giant Mount Myōboku toad that he could use to gain an advantage over enemies. This included the formation of a wall of flesh in order to apprehend people and the walls could be used to absorb people into it.
• Toad Flatness — Shadow Manipulation Technique (蝦蟇平　影操りの術­, Gamadaira — Kageayatsuri no Jutsu) : an ability whereby Jiraiya suffused his chakra into his target's shadow whereby he sunk into it and became one with it. At this stage, Jiraiya temporarily esablished control over his victim's mind and body where they acted as a human shield for him. The practitioner had to hold their breath whilst performing the technique though they were able to still speak but once the breathing recommenced then the jutsu was broken whereupon the wielder's body expanded until it regained its former form.
• Toad Oil Bullet (蝦蟇油弾­, Gamayudan) : Jiraiya was able to convert his chakra into an extremely stick oil that he could spit out as a large mass that covered his target. Those caught in it found it difficult to move unless the oil was washed away thus restricting their movements. The oil could be used to magnify his fire style causing the target to catch on fire faster and deal more damage to them.
• Rasengan (螺旋丸­, Rasengan) : a technique that was developed by Minato Namikaze with it described as being a difficult jutsu to master but was a powerful attack that was stronger than the Chidori.
  • Big Ball Rasengan (大玉螺旋丸­, Ōdama Rasengan) : a much more powerful version of the Rasengan that was grown to massive proportions and able to deal immense damage upon striking a target.
• Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld (土遁・黄泉沼­, Doton: Yomi Numa) : Jiraiya was able to create a swamp by changing the ground beneath a target area into mud causing any foes to sink into it. The mud was infused with chakra to make it sticky in order to better ensnare targets and prevent escape. The size and depth of the swamp was determined by the users skill and their reserves of chakra.
• Needle Jizō (針地蔵­, Hari Jizō) : with his chakra, he was able to harden his hair and shape it into spikes that were as sharp as metallic weapons. This also caused his hair to grow long enough to cover his body serving as a kind of armour which Jiraiya could use to discourage attacks or impale enemies onto the spikes in close quarters.
• Hair Needle Senbon (毛針千本­ (Kebari Senbon) :
• Needle Hell (針地獄­, Hari Jigoku) :

Under Fukasaku's tutelage, he came to learn Senjutsu (仙術, English TV: Sage Jutsu, literally meaning: Sage Techniques) whereby he was able to add natural chakra from his surroundings into his own body. This increased his speed, durability and physical strength where his outward appearance changed to bear a closer resemblance to a toad with him gaining warts, webbed hands and feet whilst his legs changed to allow him to jump over greater distances. It was said that Jiraiya lacked the ability to enter this state on his own and required some help from the Sage Toads to accomplish this state. He also had a reluctance to enter this state as it made him less attractive by human standards but he utilised it when fighting more dangerous enemies.

It was shown that he was well-versed in Fūinjutsu (封印術, English TV: Sealing Jutsu, literally meaning: Sealing Techniques) where he was able to deduce the workings of a stealing style within moments of encountering it. He was able to see a cursed seal by Orochimaru that was placed on Naruto which disrupted the boy's ability to effectively use his chakra. Jiraiya described the seal as crude and was shown to be able to break it with a physical strike involving chakra.

As a shinobi, he came to establish a vast information network across the countries.

Notes

• Jiraiya was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the setting of the Naruto universe.

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, Jiraiya appeared in the setting of the anime television series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Hōchū Ōtsuka and by English actor David Lodge in the dub.

Video games

• In Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Jiraiya appeared as a playable character in the setting of the fighting video game.

Appearances

• Naruto:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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