Episode Summaries

Due to the outbreak of the Third Shinobi World War, Team Hiruzen is dispatched to Amegakure, where they survive a battle against the village's leader, Hanzō. As a reward for their strength, Hanzō allows them to live, dubbing them the "Legendary Sannin" of Konoha. Following the battle, the Sannin notice that they are being followed by a trio of orphans, consisting of Yahiko, Konan and Nagato. Though Orochimaru suggests killing them to put them out of their misery, Jiraiya decides to stay behind in Ame with the three until they are strong enough to fend for themselves. While working on his novel at their hideout, Konan rushes in to notify Jiraiya that something terrible has happened to Yahiko and Nagato. When Jiraiya arrives, he sees a dead chūnin from Iwagakure, who had been murdered by Nagato after attacking Yahiko. Jiraiya wonders how Nagato managed to kill a chūnin without even knowing ninjutsu and is shocked to see that Nagato wields the Rinnegan, a mythical dōjutsu wielded by the Sage of Six Paths, which is said to have the power to either stabilise the world or annihilate it. Believing that Nagato might be the Child of the Prophecy, Jiraiya trains the three in ninjutsu for the next three years while also writing his first novel.

After Yahiko, Nagato and Konan manage to defeat Jiraiya's shadow clone, he leaves them and returns to Konoha, confident that they are now able to handle themselves. As the war is still raging, the Sannin continue to gain victories in battles against numerous opponents, using their Summoning Technique to call forth Manda, Katsuyu and Gamabunta. After one such battle, Jiraiya is notified by a toad that the three Ame orphans have died, prompting him to reconsider whether the decisions he has made throughout his life were correct. Eventually, the Third Shinobi World War comes to an end due to the actions of another one of Jiraiya's pupils — Minato Namikaze. Sometime after, Minato reads Jiraiya's novel, The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, and asks Jiraiya for permission to name his unborn son after the protagonist of the story, Naruto, a name which his wife Kushina Uzumaki likes. Jiraiya is named the godfather of the unborn Naruto and sets off on his travels once more, with the narrator proclaiming that it would be some time before Jiraiya would meet Naruto himself.