Jiraiya personality type: ENFP

Jiraiya introduces himself with a theatrical pose, a little dance and a lot of shouting about being the great Toad Sage. Naruto immediately calls him a pervert, and he is not wrong. When they meet, Jiraiya is peeping into the women’s side of a bathhouse. He calls it research for his novels.

His last moments are the most ENFP scene I can think of. Sinking after the fight, he compares his life to one of his own novels and decides that the ending is still open, because the sequel belongs to Naruto. With the last of his strength he leaves a coded message about Pain’s secret on the back of Fukasaku, his old toad partner.

Under the clowning is one of the most hopeful people in the series. Extraverted intuition chases ideas and patterns everywhere, from his spy network to the prophecy that a student of his will change the world. Introverted feeling gives him a private, stubborn belief in people. During a war he takes in three orphans in the Hidden Rain, Nagato, Yahiko and Konan, and trains them, wondering if one is the child of the prophecy.

He is also a Seven with an 8 wing, and Sevens chase pleasure and keep moving so pain cannot catch up. Jiraiya has a lot of pain to outrun: Tsunade turning him down, Orochimaru abandoning the village, Minato dying young, and Nagato, his own student, becoming the leader of the Akatsuki. The wing shows when the joking stops. To find out who Pain is, he walks into the Hidden Rain alone and fights until there is nothing left.

The competent spymaster is extraverted thinking. He tracks the Akatsuki for years and teaches with a clear method when he cares to, like breaking the Rasengan into three steps for Naruto. Introverted sensing, his weakest function, shows in how little he holds onto roots or routine. He drifts from town to town with a notebook.

Some fans type Jiraiya as ESTP, given the bathhouse antics, the drinking and his loud, physical style. It is a fun read. Still, Jiraiya’s real investment is in meaning and the future: novels, prophecies, students who might change everything. The pleasures are how he copes. The beliefs are who he is.