Jiraiya

Jiraiya
Series	Naruto (series)
Age	54
Birthday	November 11
Sex	Male
Species	Unknown
Height	191.2 cm
Weight	87.5 kg
Alignment	Neutral Good

Jiraiya is the Toad Sage and one of the legendary Sannin from the Naruto series. He is known as the godfather and sensei of Naruto Uzumaki.

Background

While his family is unknown, Jiraiya was indeed born in Konohagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and enrolled in Konoha’s Ninja Academy to become a shinobi. He was placed in Team Hiruzen with his love interest Tsunade Senju and his rival/future villain Orochimaru as his teammates, lead by the 3rd Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. While Jiraiya is considered the dead last of his team and usually falls behind compared to his teammates, he would make it up with his sheer determination, guts, and spy skills. This shows as he grows to be a well known and powerful ninja in adulthood.

At some point during his training with Hiruzen, Jiraiya attempted to try the Summoning Technique without having a signed contract with an animal species. This mistake caused him to be transported into Mount Myoboku, the Land of the Toads. With the teachings of the 800 year old elder toad Fukasaku, Jiraiya trained with the toads for many years which included learning the art of Senjutsu. During his training, Jiraiya is visited by the Great Toad Sage and is given a prediction: He will travel the world and meet the Child of Prophecy, a student destined to either save the world or destroy it depending on Jiraiya’s teachings. As such, Jiraiya traveled the world in an attempt to find the prophesied but had no such luck.

Later on in his life, Jiraiya would participate in the Second Shinobi World War along with his former Team Hiruzen teammates Tsunade and Orochimaru. One notable battle in the war was when the three were in a lengthy battle against Hanzo the Salamander, the then leader of Amegakure, or the Village Hidden in the Rain. Despite the three being at his mercy, Hanzo was impressed by their skills and the fact that they were able to last very long against him. In exchanged for their freedom, Hanzo bestowed Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru the title of Konoha’s “Legendary Sannin.” After the battle, the trio would come across three orphans from Amegakure. Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko.

Driven by guilt for his involvement in the war, Jiraiya stayed behind to look after the orphans. And upon discovering Nagato’s possession of the legendary Rinnegan, Jiraiya decided to take it upon himself to train the three as he believed Nagato was the Child of Prophecy foretold by the Great Toad Sage. After training them for 3 years, he bade them farewell and headed back to Konoha but not before writing his first novel The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.

Years later, Jiraiya’s skills and status as a shinobi skyrocketed. However, he would receive news of the orphans’ apparent deaths. Later on, Jiraiya became a leader of a team of his own, and one student just so happened to be Minato Namikaze, the future Fourth Hokage and father of the true Child of Prophecy Naruto Uzumaki. Jiraiya would teach Minato numerous skills and techniques, resulting in him being declared the godfather of Minato’s and Kushina’s unborn child Naruto, named after the main character of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.

Unfortunately, death reared its ugly head once more as Minato and Kushina sacrificed their lives during the Nine Tails’ attack on Konoha, leaving Naruto orphaned. It didn’t help when a few years later, Orochimaru defected from the Hidden Leaf Village which ended in Jiraiya failing to save the man who he considered his friend. Afterwards, he began to track his the illegal activities of his former teammate as well as the emergence of the secret organization known as the Akatsuki. In his downtime, Jiraiya became a famous author of an erotic novel series called the Icha Icha series.

After 12 years, Jiraiya would finally meet Naruto face to face when the latter interrupted the former’s peeping on bathing women. Despite the rocky start, Jiraiya develops a bond with Naruto as he would show care and concern for his godson. He would teach the jinchuriki numerous skills such as the Rasengan, the Summoning Technique, and how to control the Nine Tails’ chakra. This would prove to be crucial as Naruto would engages in battle against Akatsuki members and Orochimaru. Knowing Naruto needed to be ready in case the Akatsuki comes after him, Jiraiya took his godson to a 3 year training trip.

After those 3 years of training, the two arrived back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto continued his missions and training as a shinobi while Jiraiya continued gathering information about Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. At some point later in the series, Jiraiya learned about the supposed whereabouts of the Akatsuki’s leader in the Hidden Rain Village and decided to investigate. However, he would be unaware that this would be his final mission.

In Amegakure, Jiraiya learned the shocking discovery of Konan and Nagato revealing to be still alive and are the founding members of the Akatsuki. Despite a hard fought battle against Nagato’s Six Paths of Pain, Jiraiya was utterly defeated and killed by his former pupil. However, he sent a secret code about the Akatsuki leader before his death and trusted his goal of world peace into the hands of Naruto, whom he finally realized was the true Child of Prophecy. Despite dying, Jiraiya is hailed as one of the strongest shinobi to ever lived.

Powers & Abilities

• Chakra: Chakra is the physical and spiritual energy located in every cell of the body and gained through exercise and experience. It’s basically putting chi and stamina together in a blender and hitting the mix button. Shinobi in the Naruto-verse mainly channel their chakra is through the use of hand seals, and they can channel it through 361 different points of the body. Ninjas can also use chakra to perform a variety of different moves such as walking on water, creating element-based attacks and even defying the laws of physics.
  • Rasengan: When young Minato first invented the jutsu, the first person he showed it too was his sensei, Jiraiya. The toad sage was impressed by the new technique, and he became one of the few people Minato would teach it to. And years later, Jiraiya would teach the Rasengan to Minato’s son Naruto. The Rasengan doesn’t require any additional chakra to be sustained once it’s formed. The Rasengan has no definite limit to how long it can be used and varies in size but can grow larger with more experience. On contact, the Rasengan grinds into its target and propels them along the technique’s trajectory, which can be either away from the user or into the ground beneath them. At some point, the Rasengan will burst which causes severe damage at the point of contact.
    • Rasengan: A regular Rasengan is a small orb of blue energy that’s capable of packing a powerful punch. It’s can destroy walls, create craters in the ground, and send people flying.
    • Big Ball Rasengan: As the name suggests, this variant is basically a bigger version of a normal Rasengan. With more chakra, this version of the Rasengan has a higher density due to the compressed energy it has. Therefore, it creates a more destructive impact due to the energy released.
    • Spiraling Serial Spheres: Also known as the Twin Rasengan, Jiraiya creates two Rasengans at the same time. One for each hand, the two Rasengans can be used against two targets one after another or used together simultaneously for one single target.
    • Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan: This variant of the Rasengan is a much larger version than the Big Ball Rasengan as it’s larger than a human being. With more chakra added and compressed into it, this variant unleashes more power than the previous variants.
  • Elemental Techniques:
    • Fire Release: Flame Bullet: For this jutsu to be executed, Jiraiya must gather oil in his mouth by using chakra to create it. He then spits out the oil and ignites it, shooting a flame bullet at his opponent. If the amount of prepared oil is kept down, then there’ll be less time to activate the jutsu. This results in the oil-contained flame bullet to burn up the user completely. The technique can be shot in a series of flame bullets by pertaining by oil or can be used as a continuous flamethrower. Finally, this jutsu can be combined with the Toad Oil Bullet for a combination technique with enough power to either wound or kill.
    • Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique: Jiraiya breathes fire along a cord or at least any other type of long object, which rushes forward in a straight line and catches opponents on fire. However, a line of enemies can be used as a preferred conductor for the fire as well. The flames are meant to target and assault a person’s upper body. The jutsu can be devastating as the flames are enough to melt a person’s skin off, rock, and giant trees.
    • Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet: As the name implies, this technique is a stronger version of the regular Flame Bullet jutsu. The process to activate this jutsu is similar to the previous version, except this version uses senjutsu chakra. Due to the type of chakra used, the difference in power between this technique and the regular Flame Bullet jutsu is shown as the power of this technique is equivalent to a multitude of Flame Bullets. The flames of this jutsu can either be used as a single projectile or as a continuous stream of flames. It’s strong enough to incinerate Pain’s bird summon in a single instant.
    • Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld: Jiraiya creates a swamp by changing the ground beneath his opponent into mud. The mud is infused with his chakra, making it sticky to ensnare the opponent and preventing their escape. The size and depth of the swamp are determined by the user’s skill and the amount of chakra used. It’s usually most effective against multiple and/or particularly large groups. It’s not restricted to the ground as it can be used to capture enemies clinging onto ceilings, causing them to sink into it.
  • Combination Attacks:
    • Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet: This is a two-way combination technique Jiraiya performs with Gamabunta. When this jutsu is performed, Gamabunta spews out a jet of oil from his mouth while Jiraiya breathes out a blast of fire to ignite it which creates a giant flamethrower attack as a result.
    • Water Release: Water Gun: A water-based combination technique Jiraiya performs with Gamariki. For this technique, Gamariki shoots a wave of high speed water from his mouth using extreme precision and force while Jiraiya combines it with his chakra to slice the target into multiple fine-carved pieces.
    • Sage Art: Goemon: A three-way combination technique Jiraiya has while in Sage Mode with the Elder Toads. Jiraiya creates a large volume of oil, followed by Fukasaku using a wind-based jutsu to propel to oil, and Shima finishes it off by igniting it with a large fire-based jutsu. The entire area becomes filled with oil burning in temperatures at thousands of degrees in an instant. The superheated oil creates such a burning inferno, the target and the surrounding area would be reduced to cinders.
  • Toad Techniques: Due to Jiraiya's training on Mount Myobokuzan he learned various techniques based around Toads/Frogs. These very unique Jutsu’s gives Jiraiya a unpredictable edge on the battlefield since these techniques are not commonly known.
    • Toad Flatness: Shadow Manipulation Technique: With this technique, Jiraiya infuses his chakra into his victim’s shadow and sinks into it to become one with it. This allows the toad hermit to establish control over the person’s mind and body. The victim is temporarily stunned and serves as a human shield while the technique is in effect. However, Jiraiya has to hold his breath for this technique to remain activated to control others but can still talk through the victim. Once Jiraiya continues breathing, the technique is cancelled and their body, which became ultra-thin, expands to their original built.
    • Toad Oil Bullet: Jiraiya converts his chakra into an extremely sticky oil and spits it out as a huge mass of it. Those caught in the oil will find themselves having difficulty to move because of it and will have a hard time washing it away with regular water. Should Jiraiya use a fire jutsu on a person covered in that oil, they’ll be enveloped in flames in an instant.
    • Toad Hiding: Jiraiya hides inside a toad, which also serves as a useful mode of transportation. The toad itself can dive up to 100 meters in fresh water and contains a special barrier inside its stomach that obstructs chakra, protecting Jiraiya from any detection-type ninjutsu.
    • Frog Transformation: By touching the forehead of a target and forming a mental image of a frog Jiraiya is….somehow able to transform his target into one.
  • Hair Manipulation: Just like Gaara with his sand and Konan with her paper, Jiraiya can use his chakra to manipulate an outside object and use it for ninjutsu. For his case, that object would be his hair. Jiraiya temporarily enhances his head’s metabolism, allowing him to grow and manipulate his hair either to bind and destroy targets or to surround him as a defense.
    • Hair Needle Senbon: Jiraiya hardens the hair on his head and shoots a multitude of hair senbon at his opponent, able to turn them into a human pincushion due to the sharpened points of his hair. He has an upgraded version of this technique when he’s in Sage Mode known as Sage Art: Hair Needle Senbon. With his upgraded technique, Jiraiya kneads chakra and fires the senbon while the elder toads Fukasaku and Shima activate their summoner’s hair roots. As a result, Jiraiya’s hair grows at an accelerated rate which allows limitless rapid-fire.
    • Needle Hell: Jiraiya extends his hair around his body and shoots a barrage of hardened hair needles toward his opponent. When using his jutsu, the hair themselves become strong enough to pierce through and destroy boulders.
    • Needle Jizo: Jiraiya encases himself with his hair, hardening the strands and transforming his hair into shapes of needles. This jutsu makes his hair capable of injuring others and possess the same killing capacity as that of a metallic weapon. The technique can be used as a counterattack if Jiraiya activates it in response to someone else’s attack. Finally, Jiraiya can make his hair hard enough to withstand blows from certain types of weapons such as arrows.
    • Wild Lion’s Mane Technique: Jiraiya manipulates his hair to grow at great lengths and become as hard as steel wire. By thickly bundling the hair, Jiraiya increases its strength and destructive power with one example being ripping apart a giant lobster. The jutsu is also capable of resembling a lion’s mouth, hence its name.
  • Summoning: In the Naruto World, Summoning allows the user to call upon an animal from a specific species onto the battlefield in order to fight for their side. When it comes to Summoning - Jiraiya’s main animal that he summons are the Toads. He can summon various toads in order to aid him in combat or help him perform particular tasks:
    • Two Great Sage Toads - Shima & Fukasaku: These two toads that are capable of gathering Nature Chakra capable of lifting and tossing larger toads such as Gamabunta despite being as large as poodles and are able to use a variety of Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Using Sage Art: Amphibian Technique, these two elder toads can fuse onto Jiraiya’s shoulders and continuously gather nature energy for him while he’s on the move, allowing the Toad Hermit to have his nature chakra maximized to gain access to Sage Mode while still in combat.
    • Gamabunta: Jiraiya’s signature toad summon and a large one that towers over forests and uses a tanto to fight in combat. He’s capable of using water and fire ninjutsu and spewing oil which he can ignite. Decades of combat has turned this toad into a hardened warrior that is able to hold Kurama down for a while and fight a not-fully awakened Shukaku and win.
    • Gamahiro: A toad about Gamabunta’s size. He uses twin swords and a variety of kicks to fight.
    • Gamaken: A Gamabunta-sized Toad who uses a cracked plate as a shield and sasumata to fight with.
    • Scroll Toad: A toad whose only purpose is to help Jiraiya regulate Naruto’s seal on Kurama. Completely useless in combat.
    • Summoning - Food Cart Destroyer: Jiraiya can summon this toad in midair to crush whatever it falls on.
    • Summoning - Toad Mouth Bind: The esophagus of a giant toad from Mount Myoboku is summoned, though it’s very well disguised if summoned inside a cave or some structure. The walls of the toad’s esophagus are sticky and pliable, making it difficult for opponents to keep their footing and fight as normal as a result. The esophagus is usually inescapable and will contract around and digest its victims over time. Jiraiya can control the esophagus, causing it to expand, contract, or grow in whichever direction he wishes. Due to the giant toad possessing the ability to breath fire, the esophagus is fire resistant with Amaterasu being the only exceptional flame that can burn through it.
    • Summoning - Toad Shop Technique: A toad is summoned with the ability to turn into a building in which Jiraiya can use his chakra to give the toad’s building form a design of his own imagination. The toad is used to lure in victims with the promise of cheap drinks. When the victim is inside, the toad changes back to its original small form and traps the victim inside its stomach.
    • Summoning - Crushing Toad Stomach: While this technique does bear some similarity to the Toad Mouth Bind and Toad Gourd Prison techniques, it’s different based on how it’s used. Jiraiya reverse-summons himself and his opponents into the stomach of a giant toad, bringing them to a new battlefield. This captures and isolates the opponents, trapping them inside the toad’s stomach and cutting them off from allies. The opponents become completely immobilize as they’re being crushed to death by the stomach.
  • Barriers: Barrier ninjutsu is the incorporation of barriers into techniques, allowing shinobi to manipulate barriers. Barriers possess a variety of uses such as protecting the shinobi using them or to trap opponents. The strength and efficiency of barriers depends on not only the type of technique used to create the barrier itself but also the ability of others to perceive, enter, or destroy the barrier.
    • Barrier: Canopy Method Formation: This barrier technique allows Jiraiya to create a spherical detection barrier with him in the center. Jiraiya can command the barrier to expand, grasping everything in the surroundings. Jiraiya can also detect anything that moves inside the barrier space with their own “sense.” Whenever Jiraiya moves, the barrier will go with him.
    • Barrier: Toad Gourd Prison: A small, gourd-shaped toad, called the Gourd Toad, is summoned. The toad is used to capture and isolate a victim by dragging them into toad’s stomach by wrapping its tongue around them. Isolated from the outside world by a barrier, the space inside the Gourd Toad’s stomach is far larger than the surface size of the Gourd Toad itself. The environment inside the stomach is a cavernous chamber including a lake of strong corrosive gastric acid capable of dissolving anything that should fall into it, shores around the lake, and formations sticking out of the lake. Opponents that are trapped inside are cut off from their allies and are susceptible to attacks, making them easy to defeat.
  • Other Techniques:
    • Shadow Clone Technique: One of the most iconic techniques from Naruto, it allows Ninja to create one or more copies of themselves. The user's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones: creating one clone will give it half the user's chakra, creating two clones will give each a third of the user's chakra, and so on. This means that the technique is generally used by Ninjas is very high Chakra Reserves, however, the benefits more than outweigh the disadvantages as Jiraiya is able to have several clones fight for him while he is gathering nature chakra.
    • Finger Carving Seal: This was used during Jiraiya’s last moments of life - this technique allows the user to concentrate chakra around the finger and write on any surface
    • Fire Sealing Method: This allows the user to seal powerful flames such as the black flames of Amaterasu
    • Transparent Escape Technique: A stealth/spy technique used to spy on others without being noticed. This technique was invented by Jiraiya in his youth for the purpose of spying girls bathing without the risk of being caught. When using this technique, Jiraiya is rendered invisible, allowing him to either make stealthy strikes on his opponents or escape from their sights.
• Nature Chakra: Nature chakra is another type of chakra but contains the essence of nature itself. Jiraiya needs this type of chakra to access Sage Mode and use Senjutsu, but we’ll discuss that later on. It’s an extremely powerful form of energy, increasing a person's physical capabilities to many times their normal limits as well as increasing their chakra capacity. However, Jiraiya needs to be completely still to gather the required amount of nature chakra and therefore makes it difficult to accumulate during combat.

Equipment

• Shuriken: Classic ninja bread and butter, these sharp four-pronged throwing stars have many uses despite their small size. They can be used for a quick ranged attack, close combat (though not very effectively), to cancel out other projectiles, to cause a distraction, or if the user is skilled enough, to kill or incapacitate an enemy.
• Kunai: Also a classic ninja staple, generally used for thrusting and stabbing, but it can also be thrown as well. Similarly to shurikens, kunai can also be used to out cancel out other projectiles, or cause a distraction.
• Smoke Bombs: Yet another iconic ninja tool, when detonated it creates a large cloud of...well smoke. It can be used against opponents to blind them and make them easier to attack, or one can use it on themselves to hide their actions and make a quick escape.
• Wire Strings: Thin barely visible pieces of wire that can be useful for a variety of things like manipulating weapons, setting traps, rappelling, and restricting an enemy’s movements.
• Explosive Tags: Chakra-infused scraps of paper inscribed with a special writing centering around the kanji for "explode". After a set amount of time, being activated remotely or being ignited, the tag will explode. The tags can also be attached to a kunai making for a powerful surprise ranged attack.
• Chakra-Suppressing Seal: A special seal tag created by Jiraiya himself to suppress the Nine-Tails’ influence over Naruto Uzumaki. By applying the tag to Naruto’s forehead, the Nine-Tails’ chakra and personality recede.
• Fuma Shuriken: Large, four-bladed weapons possessing pre-eminent sharpness and lethality. Fuma Shurikens make for both excellent ranged weapons and deadly melee weapons as well. The most commonly used ones can be collapsed for easy storage.
• Stone Swords: Secret swords from Mount Myoboku, These swords were used by Jiraiya after the Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant was cast to drive into his targets' body like a wedge.

Transformation

Sage Mode

This mode is achieved when combining nature energy with the user’s own chakra. It allows the user to enter a state where they are able to use the natural forces in the world - giving them new techniques and abilities that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to use that involve nature energy. Sage Mode also increases their strength, speed, durability, stamina, sensing capabilities (they are able to sense Chakra all around them) and reflexes. It also makes their ninjutsu attacks a lot more powerful. However it has a few distances as absorbing too much nature chakra will turn the user to stone if they have not been properly trained and in order to gather the nature energy used to activate Sage Mode they need to stand still. In the case of Jiarya - at the time of his final fight - he had not been able to fully balance his own chakra with natural energy, resulting in his appearance taking on a number of toad-like traits though some of those traits such as the web-feat do give him some advantages. Overall Sage Mode is a very powerful transformation with some significant advantages.

Frog Kata

This is the main fighting style of Shinobi who utilize Sage Mode. When using Frog Kata - nature chakra surrounds the user - this chakra can be used as an extension of the user’s body being able to extend the range and force of the user’s physical attacks. For example: strikes that would normally miss the target making contact. In terms of Frog Kata as a fighting style it mostly utilizes Sage Mode’s superior reflexes in order to dodge an enemy attack at the last possible moment  and then counterattack with a strike that they can’t even see coming.

Feats

Strength

• 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.