Jiraiya (自来也) is a fictional character in the Naruto manga and anime series created by Masashi Kishimoto.

Jiraiya appears as a perverted old man who occasionally returns to the village Konohagakure, reporting the activities of Orochimaru and the organization Akatsuki.

[4] After being asked which character's point of view he would choose to tell the story from instead of Naruto's if given the possibility, Kishimoto listed Jiraiya as one of his choices.

[5] Kishimoto further mentioned that jutsu was still in the process of developing during Jiraiya's childhood, and he felt this would have been an engaging subject to depict in the series.

[5] Jiraiya is played by Hōchū Ōtsuka in the series' original animated adaptation,[6] while David Lodge voices him in the English dub.

[8] When questioned if he is frequently asked to voice Jiraiya in new features since the character is a part of such a popular franchise, he answered affirmatively.

[15] Soon after, Jiraiya encounters a trio of Amegakure orphans consisting of Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, training the three in ninjutsu to protect themselves before returning to the Land of Fire.

[16] Sometime later, Jiraiya becomes a mentor to Minato Namikaze, the future Fourth Hokage, who dies due to sealing the Nine-Tailed Fox inside his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki.

[17] Jiraiya makes only sporadic appearances, returning to Konohagakure after long absences to report on information he has learned throughout his travels.

[18][19] During his first appearance in the series' Part I, Jiraiya takes the time to train Naruto, teaching him his own signature abilities and trying to help him learn how to control Kurama.

Despite this, Jiraiya thinks his inability to prevent Orochimaru from becoming a criminal makes him unworthy of the responsibility and instead offers to search for Tsunade so that she can take the position instead—a task he eventually succeeds at.

[25] In Part II, Jiraiya returns to inform Kakashi Hatake and Yamato about the threat Naruto can become under the Nine-Tails's influence by telling them of his near-death experiences when the youth used only a fraction of Kurama's power.

Davey Jones of ActiveAnime regarded Jiraiya's training with Naruto as good comic relief and stated that the two characters are similar.

[48] Luke Carroll of Anime News Network enjoyed David Lodge's role as Jiraiya's English voice actor.

[50] In 2010, Shueisha published the first novel Jiraiya wrote, which was inspired by his student Nagato and prompted Minato and Kushina Uzumaki to name their son after its protagonist.

Naruto tries to track down his former comrade, Renge Momoashi, and unravel a mysterious conspiracy involving the destruction of a nearby village.