Jiraiya

Jiraiya is a character from the Naruto series, and was one of Konohagakure's Sannin. 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.

In the AWA fics, Jiraiya was given a second chance in life in ZeroTopia. He is currently a part of the AWA as one of it's instructors.

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 2form, 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", which denoted his affiliation with Mount Myōboku.

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 humour. 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 shinobi: he was deeply loyal to Konoha 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 honour.

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 recognise and analyse 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 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. Despite this, Jiraiya disliked it when Naruto Uzumaki referred to him as the "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 the Third and 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 saviour, 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 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.

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 Shinobi World 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.

Trivia

 * In the AWA fics, Jiraiya is among the people who knew that Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki were brought back to life.


 * Jiraiya and the other Sannin are named after the characters in the Japanese folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari; Jiraiya references the story before his death. The Jiraiya of that story excels in toad magic.
 * Jiraiya shares the same blood type with his former team-mates, Tsunade and Orochimaru, as well as his former apprentices, Naruto Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze.