A Mortal Sage

Jiraiya could never really be considered a genius by his peers or even his sensei least of all himself. Living in the shadow of the medical genius Tsunade was hard enough but the monstrous genius known as Orochimaru was a rude awakening. While Tsunade was a medical genius she was by no means a fearsome ninja, sure she had combat power but she was more focused on medical ninjutsu and it led to himself and Orochimaru being far more fearsome opponents to the enemies of Konoha. After her marriage to Ren that changed drastically, he had no definitive proof but as the toad sage he could feel a ridiculous amount of chakra from her. Tsunade was now likely stronger than Orochimaru and himself combined.

Orochimaru on the other hand shined in this war and was Konohas brightest star. Putting Ren and Tsunade aside Orochimaru had gained the most merits in this war. To start his tactical knowledge and prowess even received praise from the Nara clan strategists. His personal combat power was so vast he singlehandedly destroyed a few enemy outposts. If all that wasn't enough he even had time to advance his vast collection of ninjutsu knowledge. It was ridiculous how he excelled in every aspect of being a ninja. At a young age he was praised by the first hokage, he was trained by the third hokage, he showed the talent for ninjutsu development like the second. Charasmatic, strong and intelligent. It was no wonder that the village had secretly begun to call him the fourth hokage.

In the end Jiraya was the least impressive of Sarutobi senseis three pupils. He took solace in the fact he was far more unique than the other two. He couldn't create an array of jutsu like Orochimaru and he couldn't revolutionize medical ninjutsu like Tsunade. He did however create the transparency jutsu the most advanced espionage jutsu, he did it so he could peep on the women's baths but it was impressive nonetheless. Above that feat though was his appearance at Mount Myoboku where he was summoned by the great toad sage himself to inherit his knowledge and fulfill his destiny.

Over the years Jiraiya had never truly saw himself as less than his squad mates and it was because of the great toad sages prophecies he received. First was that he would go on to become both a talented ninja, and a pervert without equal. As such he had no need to feel less than Tsunade and Orochimaru for one day he would surpass them. The next prophecy was that he would walk across the world as a sage, <observing all creation, watching as nature takes its course>, and in doing so he would also write a book. Admittedly this was a strange prophecy but he had recently begun writing his book, the Gutsy Shinobi, so he had to accept that it was true. The last prophecy he received however was the one that gave him nightmares and anxiety that only peeping could soothe. The great toad sage said that he would one day have a student with the power to save or destroy the world, and that it would be his actions that will determine which path this student takes.

This child of prophecy often consumed his thoughts and he searched for that child as the world literally depended on it. He first believed this child would be Ren. That little monster seemed to be the combination of himself, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. A young talent that could be already considered his half pupil after learning some general ninja and jutsu knowledge from himself, and not to mention a perviness he could approve of? What greater student could he ask for. Sure the fact that the kid married the love of his life led him to one of his strangest drunken decisions in his life, not only did he wake up with four different women but he was now the proud owner of a brothel in the land of wind. Unfortunately shortly after meeting him the great toad sage had said he would determine if the the boy was the child of prophecy. The final verdict was that the boy would facilitate the child of prophecies destiny, and the toad sage refused to comment any further than that.

Ironically most recently he met a child born the same day as Ren who also happened to be a ridiculous genius in the same capacity as Ren. The little ninja was part of his genin team and was in his eyes no better candidate to be the child of prophecy than any current genius in Konoha. Sure Jiraiya didn't outright overlook the idea that the so called child of prophecy could be a foreigner from another village, maybe even a rival village. Regardless he did tend to have some favoritism towards the talents within his own village and such believed fate would likely already account for his personality. Thus when interacting and meeting Minato Namikaze he even disregarded the notion of asking the great toad sage if he was right and took the boy as his disciple. Before leaving on this incursion to the north Jiraiya had completely taught him many of his personal skill and jutsu such was his confidence in the boy.

His trust in the boy known as Minato was not betrayed as the boy soaked up all his knowledge incredibly quickly and had even started to train in Ren and the seconds signature jutsu. Minato also began to develop a combat style similar to Rens that didn't depend on hand seals. The greatest advancement into his self created combat style was the jutsu, Rasengan. It was admittedly an incomplete jutsu as it was incapable of nature transformations currently but it caused devastating damage nonetheless. Ironically he helped the boy create the jutsu without knowing when he answered some casual questions on chakra control for the boy. When he learned the current final product he couldn't help but stay slack jawed at the ridiculously creative and simple jutsu. It was simple in theory but incredibly difficult in practice and application but the kid could concoct and actually implement this crazy idea.

Needless to say Jiraiya could readily admit his most prized achievement in his life thus far was teaching Minato. Which is why the jutsu he took the most pride in was not any of his self created jutsu or even the sage arts of Mount Myoboku. No, his greatest pride was his pupils Rasengan jutsu. Killing the random rookie who avoided death by assassination with it was to honor the lucky warriors achievement in surviving he the great sage's assassination attempt.

What happened next though shook Jiraiya to his core.

He had tested this jutsu previously and he knew the jutsu's destructive prowess. He knew that by using the jutsu on this hapless little nobody he could not only enforce the idea of a brutal death into the opposing enemy ninja and demoralize them but also increase his own sides morale. Who would have thought it would result in quite the opposite effect. Instead of being torn apart into a spiral mess of blood and guts the ninja simply stood there with a mild wound that was visibly healing into nonexistence.

Jiraiya had never discounted the idea that enemy villages could produce frightening geniuses. As a ninja such arrogance was not allowed, but the ineffectiveness of the rasengan stunned him. This moment however would be etched into his very soul as the man in front of him capitalized on his stunned state and batted him away with a physical strength that exceeded even the monster known as Tsunade. As he was floating in the air he recovered and immediately summoned his friend Gamabunta. He had no idea what the monster in front of him was but Gamabunta was knowledgeable and strong he couldn't go wrong with this choice.

He was quite confident until he could see that the monster had also used a summoning jutsu. A very identifiable summon appeared and it was actually the main reason team Sarutobi had reunited for this mission. As Jiraiya stared at the massive salamander across from him and the man covered in chakra visible to the naked eye, he could only think< well its fated I wont die here but this is ridiculous.>

" Hanzo of the Salamander prepare to be defeated by the great toad sage of mount Myoboku and his trusty partner Gamabunta!!!"

Another two massive summons shortly appeared to the south east and west of their position.Seeing this Jiraiya could only sheepishly state:

"....and their trusty sidekicks Katsuyu and Manda too I guess?"