Jiraiya is one of the legendary three Sannin, along with Tsunade and Orochimaru, who was trained by the Third Hokage himself. He is a self proclaimed mega-pervert, and writes popular adult book series called Make-Out, a favorite of Kakashi Hatake. He is also known as the Toad Sage (Gama Sennin), because of his signature toad summonings. Jiraiya has the kanji for "oil" on his forehead protector. He was the Fourth Hokage's teacher and now is Naruto's, who calls him Ero-sennin, or Perverted Hermit or in the English anime, "Pervy Sage." He proved this in his childhood when he peeped on Tsunade in the baths, resulting in him being beaten to an inch of his life.

Despite his perversion, Jiraiya is a Kage-level ninja. During a war the team consisting of Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade came to battle "Salamander" Hanzo of the Rain village. Hanzo was so impressed that they easily survived the attack that he gave them the title of Sannin, the legendary three ninjas (which he ordered they refer to themselves as in exchange for fighting Konoha any further). In his early years, Jiraya invented the Transparent Escape Technique to help him peek on women and not get caught.

Background
As a child, Jiraiya and his former teammates, Orochimaru and Tsunade, were students of the Third Hokage. After leaving the Third's tutelage, he traveled the world and discovered the residence of the toads, a species he proved to have a natural affinity for. During this time, Jiraiya is told a prophecy concerning him and his students, which states that they will decide the fate of the world. Once returning to Konoha, Jiraiya and his former teammates were forced into battle with Hanzo as a result of an ongoing war at the time. When they proved able to survive his attacks, Hanzo rewarded them with the title of "Legendary Three Ninja" (Densetsu no Sannin) to indicate their status as the strongest ninja in Konoha. Once the battle was over, Jiraiya encountered three orphans from Amegakure; Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato. He looked after them for a time and taught them ninjutsu before leaving them so that they could pursue their own goals. Although news of their exploits reached him from time to time, he thought them to have died during an undisclosed incident. Presumably leaving the three, Jiraiya began to travel the Naruto world and write his book.

Once becoming a Jonin capable of leading a squad, Jiraiya became the teacher of Minato Namikaze and two other unknown Genin. Years later, when Orochimaru betrayed Konoha and fled the village, Jiraiya pursued him, trying to convince his friend to come back. Orochimaru refused, and attacked and easily defeated Jiraiya. While he tried to find a reason for Orochimaru's defection, he eventually realized that his friend wasn't coming back. Feeling he was responsible for Orochimaru's escape, Jiraiya left Konoha so he could follow Orochimaru's movements as well as the organization Orochimaru eventually joined, Akatsuki. In doing so, Jiraiya was unable to fulfill the Third's wishes of taking on the role of Hokage, knowing that tracking down Orochimaru was more important. A few years before Orochimaru's defection, Jiraiya finished his first book that had failed as a seller. Minato, now the Fourth Hokage, however thought the book was excellent, he and Kushina Uzumaki decided to name their son after the main character in his book, Naruto, thus making him Naruto's godfather.

Personality
Despite the fact that he left Konoha for many years, Jiraiya has maintained a strong allegiance with his hometown. During Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha, he helps fend off the invading forces in order to protect the village. When Konoha finds itself in need of a new Hokage after the Third Hokage's death, Jiraiya volunteers to look for Tsunade so that she can become the Third's successor after turning down the position himself. His reason for refusing the position is, among other things, that he feels unworthy to take the role since he failed to save either of the previous Hokages from dying. After he finds Tsunade and begins to suspect that she may be assisting Orochimaru, he makes it clear that he will kill her if she betrays the village.

Jiraiya is a self-proclaimed super-pervert with no equal and a frequent voyeur, going so far as to create the Transparent Escape Technique (Tōton Jutsu; English TV "Transparency Jutsu") to allow him to spy on naked women without being caught (doing "research" as he calls it). He never actually hides his perversion and even seems proud of it, as seen when he told the Third Hokage about it when he was still a child. Despite this, Jiraiya doesn't like being called Ero-sennin ("Pervy Sage" Literally meaning "Perverted hermit"or "Erotic hermit") by Naruto Uzumaki in front of others.

Jiraiya's perversion has been used against him on occasion, as seen when Naruto gets Jiraiya to start training him after a simple display of the Sexy Technique. When two Akatsuki members later try to distract Jiraiya, they use a hypnotized woman to catch his eye and keep him busy. While their effort initially succeeds, Jiraiya eventually sees through their plot due solely to the fact that women do not typically express interest in him. His peeping habits have also caused him great injury on one occasion; when caught spying on Tsunade in his younger years, she proceeded to break both of his arms, six of his ribs, and ruptured a number of organs as punishment.

Some time after leaving Konoha, Jiraiya became an author of adult novels, his most popular work being "Make-Out Paradise" (Icha Icha Paradaisu), a personal favorite of Kakashi Hatake's. The novels are based on his rejections in love that he retells in a comical way. In a filler episode of the anime, Naruto ghostwrites one of Jiraiya's Icha Icha novels and the book is found to be very popular, indicating that Naruto is capable of writing on the same level as Jiraiya, or that Jiraiya's writing abilities are no better than those of a child. Tsunade seems to suspect that the latter is true, as she notes that a report on the Onbaa he wrote as a child, accompanied by crude crayon illustrations, was poorly written. Although Jiraiya's writing ability may have increased dramatically since his childhood. The popularity of the Icha Icha series seems to have paid off well, as Jiraiya's checkbook reveals that he is fairly wealthy. Despite his wealth, Jiraiya is not above taking Naruto's money and spending it on sake and women, and frequently disappears when Naruto attempts to make him pay.

Jiraiya has also been known to show off even during a fight. This showing off typically takes the form of traditional kabuki poses, keeping with his hermit theme. He becomes annoyed if he is interrupted for whatever reason while trying to strike a pose. Jiraiya can become extremely serious in battle and discussing about an important matter.



Traveling Frog
- This Frog is the one who basically carries it's user around on it's back from place to place, quickly. r as Quick as he can go, it was seen in the episodes, and may be one of the only frogs that does nto talk.

Common Frog
- This is more or less Jiraiya's helper frog or possibly his look out frog. It was seen facing the open area while Jiraiya was peeping at the women in the hot springs. This frog has no specified name.

Demolisher Frog
- This gigantic frog was summoned by Jiraiya to help defend Konoha during the Sound/Sand invasion and also made an appearance at the hospital when Jiraiya came to tell Naruto about the intensive 2 and a half year training he was taking him on.

Gamabunta
- Gamabunta is the king of all frogs. He was summoned by the 4th Hokage to battle the Kyuubi, by Jiraiya when the Sannin battled and by Naruto during his teaching of the Kuchiyose no Jutsu and battle against Shukaku.

Gamaken
- This is another one of Jirayia's toad summons which he calls upon in the battle with Pain. Gamaken carries a large shield and staff with a split spiked end.

Gamakichi
- Extremely small compared to the other frog summons, Gamakichi is the son of Gamabunta and was summoned by Naruto by accident when he attempted to summon Gamabunta during the Shukaku fight.

Gamatatsu
- Gamatatsu is another extremely small frog. He is the son of Gamabunta and brother of Gamakichi. He was accidentally summoned by Naruto during the fight with Shukaku and was also summoned in the first episode of the series. It is safe to say, he is the dumbest of the frogs summoned.

Key Toad
- This toad is the guardian of the scroll that unlocks the Eight Trigrams Seal on Naruto. Jiraiya summons the told to allow Naruto to have this seal.

Toad Sennin
- These two toads named Ma and Pa are advisors to the Elder Toad Sage. They have to ability to combine with Jiraiya. When they do, Jiraiya becomes much stronger and has the ability to use the toad's jutsus.