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Character Bios - Jiraya
Legendary Sannin

Techniques:
Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Underworld Swamp)
Goguoukaiin (Five Element Unsealer)
Hari Jizo (Spiked Jizo)
Katon: Gamayu Endan (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet)
Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)
Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari (Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind)
Kuchiyose: Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu (Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique)
Rasengan
Toton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique)

Description: Jiraiya is a remarkable ninja and possibly the closest thing to the Hokage that never was, not only trained by the third Hokage but also the trainer of the man who would eventually go on to become the Fourth, as well as a young boy who dreams of one day being the Hokage himself. Since childhood, he has had an eye for the opposite sex and often had conflicts with one of his team, Tsunade, over her figure. Jiraiya was not a model ninja at all and usually ended up as the fall guy, although his master comparing him to Orochimaru, his other team member, didn’t help much.

Despite his surrounding with the Hokage lineage, Jiraiya’s earlier years were mostly uneventful acting the trusted village soldier until he discovered the startling revelation of Orochimaru’s crimes against his own village. Although the two were comrades, Orochimaru would not listen to
Jiraiya and their last meeting as fellow Leaf Shinobi was a battle on the outskirts of the country. Orochimaru escaped, perhaps leaving Jiraiya a wiser man for it. Some time after, possibly because of the Orochimaru incident, Jiraiya parted ways as a ninja with his home village. For his
services, he was granted permission and went into seclusion, not viewed as a wanted criminal. Retired from active duty, Jiraiya’s life was rather simple – he became an erotic novelist, often spying with his telescope on bathing women in hot springs for inspiration. Incidentally, Hatake Kakashi is a firm fan of the series, named “Icha Icha” (Come, Come! or Make-Out in the western
version). Versions documented so far have been Paradise, Violence and Tactics.

However, it was later revealed that the real reason Jiraiya left was not to simply become writer – his spying on young women was a mere pastime, with his main objective in spying being on keeping track of Orochimaru. It was from his surveillance that Jiraiya uncovered the existence of the criminal organization, Akatsuki. Over the years, Jiraiya observed them carefully, even after Orochimaru left their ranks. It was one day while doing his other kind of research at a hot spring that Jiraiya met with a young boy and his tutor. After the tutor, Ebisu, offended Jiraiya, there was a brief scuffle which ended with Ebisu floored. The boy, Naruto, then demanded compensation for the fight as Ebisu was to train him and was currently knocked out. Jiraiya then agreed to help him instead, after Naruto bribed him by appealing to his lechery. It was during the training of helping Naruto develop chakra control that Jiraiya noticed the seal on Naruto’s stomach had been given an imbalance, Orochimaru’s work.

Jiraiya then began to undo Orochimaru’s Five Element Seal with a technique he had invented to directly counter it. Figuring out who Naruto was from the seal, Jiraiya trained Naruto to put the Kyuubi’s dormant chakra to use, helping Naruto understand more about himself. Ebisu, recovered, then begged Jiraiya to come back and help defend against Orochimaru, as they were
both considered to be on level pegging with each other as part of “the legendary three”. Jiraiya’s training with Naruto continued as he taught himhow to summon animals as aid. Not regular animals, but larger, intelligent ones capable of following spoken orders. Jiraiya was a master of toads, showing Naruto his skill by summoning one as tall as himself before his eyes. Naruto followed Jiraiya’s orders and signed a contract with the toads in blood, then tried out his new move. Naruto only managed to summon a tiny, useless tadpole. The incidents repeated, growing only in miniscule progress. Jiraiya then realized it would take drastic measures to help him learn.

Jiraiya sent Naruto tumbling off a cliff to a fatal fall. It was through necessity that Naruto reached inside himself, and then embrace the power that Orochimaru tried to deny him. Calling on the Kyuubi’s chakra, Naruto summoned a gigantic toad to break his fall. To Naruto’s surprise, he had called the ruler over all summoned toads, Gamabunta. To Gamabunta’s surprise, Naruto was the one who summoned him and not Jiraiya, as the only other person capable of summoning him, the Fourth Hokage, was long since gone.

Jiraiya, after fulfilling his promise to Naruto to train him, disappeared again for a while. It was not until Orochimaru’s attack on Konoha that Jiraiya came back out of hiding, crushing one of Orochimaru’s three-headed snakes by summoning a heavy toad over it. With a grand entrance, Jiraiya then helped to clean out the invaders, but had no time to help save his master who was busy with Orochimaru himself. He was too late to help, but was present to pay his respects after the third Hokage sacrificed himself for his village, reminiscing over the time that he, Orochimaru and the third Hokage were on good terms.

However, Jiraiya was soon given a surprise offer by the council of Leaf – with the Hokage dead, a replacement was needed and Jiraiya was the man in mind. Despite the good intention, Jiraiya declined and admitted that he was the wrong kind of person for the job, but had another candidate as a possible replacement – the other member of the legendary three, Tsunade. When he was told he would be assigned help, he once more declined, but asked to take Naruto with him. Naruto initially refused, wanting to learn the Chidori like Sasuke. Jiraiya convinced him though that on the trip to find Tsunade, he would teach him a move to rival even the Chidori. In an instant, Naruto accepted and packed for the journey. Along the way, Jiraiya also remarked that in a way, Naruto resembled the fourth Hokage.

The two stopped in small town on the way, where Jiraiya caught the eye of an attractive young woman (or was it the other way around?) and instantly shoved Naruto off to train on his own. However, Jiraiya’s suspicion grew about the girl until he realized she was under some form of hypnosis. Returning to where he left Naruto, he arrived just in time to see two members of Akatsuki meddling with Naruto and Sasuke, who had ran to face Itachi. Dropping the girl in a safe place and blocking one of Hoshigaki Kisame’s lethal sword swipes with a summoned toad, Jiraiya then threatened to take him and Uchiha Itachi out alone. Sasuke told him to hold back and that Itachi was rightfully his. However, Sasuke was still not capable of beating Itachi and took a variety of blows ending in Itachi using his Tsukiyomi hypnosis to mentally torture Sasuke. Naruto ran in headfirst to stop them, forcing Jiraiya to pull his trump card.

Using an unusual form of summoning, Jiraiya covered the corridor in the material that composed the stomach, mouth and throat of a fire-breathing toad, giving it amazing durability and wrapping around the criminals to hold them and pull Sasuke to safety. As Itachi and Kisame tried to back down, Jiraiya attempted to crush them by making the fleshy walls close in on them. As they approached a dead end, Jiraiya followed them and to his surprise, found a hole at the end. The opening was surrounded by a mysterious black fire, which Jiraiya decided to seal up inside a scroll for safety. Seconds later, he took a boot in the face from Gai, who mistook him for the Akatsuki members threatening the Genin kids.

Naruto, enraged by the actions of Akatsuki, claimed he would make them pay, but Jiraiya gave him a harsh reality check as they stared down at what remained of Sasuke after the battle. Gai took Sasuke back to the village, but offered Naruto a gift – a jumpsuit like the one he and Lee wore. Jiraiya, once Gai was out of earshot, told Naruto he would forbid him to wear it. Being serious, he then told Naruto what it was they wanted – the Kyuubi inside him, to use it for their own ends. Naruto simply decided that he’ll become stronger to defend himself from them and continued to ask about Tsunade. Jiraiya told him that during the search, he’ll be concentrating
more on Naruto’s training. Naruto popped the jumpsuit out again, but Jiraiya refuses to allow him to wear it.

While in the next town over, the place where Tsunade was rumored to be, Jiraiya also taught Naruto a lesson in vices – that money, women and alcohol are detrimental to the ninja way. And to stop Naruto from becoming greedy, he confiscated his bulging wallet and gave him a smaller amount, plus his luggage including the toad-summoning scroll in case they lose each other. Later, Naruto found Jiraiya sitting in a fancy bar, accompanied by a pair of girls, drunk and with Naruto’s empty wallet on the table. During the following scuffle, Naruto stains the jacket of a passer-by: a former Hidden Rock ninja, who tried to extort the money from Naruto or else. With
lightning-fast reflexes, Jiraiya unleashed a swirling maelstrom of chakra from his hand and sent the attacker spiraling away into a water balloon stand.

As Naruto and Jiraiya left, Jiraiya bought the remainder of the water balloons and gave them to Naruto, telling him that the move he just used will require extremely difficult chakra control. Over the next few days, Jiraiya slowly gave Naruto more hints on how to successfully perform the
move, allowing Naruto more time to work on it while he collected information on Tsunade and revealing the origin of it – the Fourth Hokage invented it, took 3 years to finally complete it and broke down the training for it into numerous steps. The complexity of it earned it a spot among the highest ranked techniques. Bit by bit, Jiraiya helped Naruto to learn it, also marking his hand as a focal point.

Eventually, Jiraiya traced Tsunade to the direction of Tanzaku Castle. However, he arrived to find it in ruins and reports of a giant snake. Later, Jiraiya finally bumped into her in a pub and spits out his purpose, shocking everyone including Naruto with the request for her to be the Fifth Hokage. Tsunade declined firmly, but Jiraiya later tried to talk her into it over a drink, also deducing the snake was present because of Orochimaru and that if she undid what the Third Hokage did to protect his village, she’d be an ally to Orochimaru and an enemy to him.

A week passed and Jiraiya tried one more time to convince Tsunade to accept the position over a drink. However, Jiraiya fell foul of her when she spiked his drink, waking up on the day that Tsunade planned to meet with Orochimaru with a stinging sensation all over, barely able to hold chopsticks let alone stand or use any moves. Tsunade had already gone ahead and turned on
Orochimaru by the time Jiraiya caught up with them, bringing Shizune, Naruto and Ton-Ton with him. Naruto was surprised to see Kabuto alongside Orochimaru, where Jiraiya pointed out Kabuto’s allegiance was on his forehead protector, now bearing the Hidden Sound logo. Jiraiya then told Shizune to keep an eye on Kabuto as he went after Orochimaru directly. The two were equally matched, fighting atop the incapacitated serpents that Orochimaru had summoned that were stuck in a gigantic artificial swamp Jiraiya made, even though he complained that it wasn’t his usual level of capability.

It wasn’t until Orochimaru noticed Naruto’s use of the Rasengan that Jiraiya slipped up, having fended off Orochimaru’s direct attacks with his unusual body by turning his hair into spiny projections. As Orochimaru hurtled towards Naruto, Jiraiya was caught in a sucker-punch, still groggy from the drug and ending up being ensnared by Orochimaru’s tongue, sent to the ground
with immense force. Still working it from his system, he finally got back up as Tsunade escalated the fight by bringing her summoned creature, the slug Katsuyu, forcing Jiraiya to back her up by calling on Gamabunta’s help. Gamabunta, as usual, was shocked to see the other major summoned creatures and joked at a reunion. Jiraiya set him straight that it was a battle against Orochimaru.

It was in this battle that Gamabunta showed another example of his flexibility and co-operation as he and Jiraiya simultaneously fired a stream of oil and flame respectively, resulting in a massive inferno that engulfed Manda, Orochimaru’s massive anaconda. However, Jiraiya noticed that Manda had escaped and shed his skin, cleverly hiding underground. As Manda popped out, Gamabunta and Jiraiya attacked it, only to find it was a fake-out as only the tail emerged. Manda’s fanged jaws opened up behind them, but Tsunade drove Gamabunta’s tremendous dagger into Manda’s head, pinning the jaws shut. The entire ordeal left Jiraiya with a broken rib and leg.

Jiraiya was also responsible for easing Tsunade back into Konoha, showing her to those who needed her medical skills. It wasn’t until the fight between Naruto and Sasuke on the roof of the hospital that Jiraiya reappeared, where he and Kakashi scolded each other for teaching the boys
such dangerous techniques as Rasengan and Chidori, despite the necessity. Kakashi also hit a sensitive spot with Jiraiya, pointing out their rivalry wasn’t too far from the one with him and Orochimaru.

A short time later, Jiraiya realized the full gravity of the situation as Naruto returned, being carried by Kakashi after failing to apprehend the rogue Sasuke during his betrayal and defection to Orochimaru. Visiting Naruto’s hospital bed, he assured Naruto that the two were now officially
teacher and apprentice for three years, due to his research on Akatsuki and Orochimaru revealing that Orochimaru wouldn’t be able to take over Sasuke until that time had passed. Despite the good news, Jiraiya also brought bad and told Naruto to forget about Sasuke, drawing on his own personal experiences and recalling his own attempt to stop Orochimaru leaving. The
two parted on good terms, agreeing that the training will begin officially for Naruto in several months time.

Before their official training began, Jiraiya gave into Naruto’s whim to find Sasuke; perhaps recognizing his own desires to redeem a colleague, leading Naruto and Sakura on a brief but ultimately failed mission into the outskirts of Orochimaru’s lair. While helping a clan that Orochimaru used and abused, Jiraiya’s weakness for women was exploited multiple times, even
with a custom-made trap set just for him when one of the Fuuma clan’s members was hypnotized, dressed as a geisha and made to seduce Jiraiya, then attack. The so-called “Koto Princess” clearly wasn’t enough to stop him and Jiraiya rescued his Genin charges, bringing them and two of the Fuuma members back to their clan. Needless to say, the incident put both Naruto
and Jiraiya off venturing back there without further information.

Soon enough the time came and Naruto and Jiraiya left Konoha behind and officially started on their training journey. During the time that passed, Jiraiya continued his novel series as well as his research into Akatsuki, Orochimaru and now with Naruto by his side, the Kyuubi. Concerned for Naruto’s phenomenon of Kyuubi manifestation, where the Kyuubi appeared around Naruto as a fox-shaped aura of bubbling red chakra, Jiraiya developed a patch that would neutralize it when placed on Naruto. Unfortunately this was not before Naruto went into a four-tailed fox aura form. This deadly berserk Naruto managed to strike Jiraiya causing a large scar to develop on
his chest. Not much else is currently known about the training, other than Naruto was able to improve on his Rasengan and endured exercises so tough, most of his clothing was worn through, even requiring him to move the metal plate on his forehead protector onto a new, bandana-like piece of fabric.

After three years, Naruto and Jiraiya finally returned to the village. Jiraiya returned Naruto to Kakashi's case and as a precaution; Jiraiya supplied the suppression patch to him in case Naruto ran wild. He also reminded Naruto that there was a technique in his arsenal he should not use.
After Kakashi and the team returned to Konoha from saving Gaara, Jiraiya met with Tsunade and Yamato in Kakashi's hospital room as he recuperated. With Kakashi out of commission due to his usage of the Mangekyou Sharingan, Naruto was turned over to the case of Yamato, the genetic air to Shodai Hokage's bijuu controlling abilities. Jiraiya warned the group of the danger Naruto posed when he lost control to the fox aura, showing him the large scar he received from Naruto's four-tailed form.

Jiraiya’s main motivation in life, besides his taste for women and adult affairs, is as a spy for Konoha and to ultimately foil Orochimaru. Disguising a lot of information gathering as peeping tom activity, Jiraiya is a very competent and powerful ninja, noted for being able to efficiently
repel Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. His connections to more than one Hokage and skill with summoning Toads has made him famous as one of The Legendary Three and his name, even when announced in the goofiest of manners, often strikes fear into his enemies.
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