Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-25374031-20140917212238/@comment-25349026-20140917230807

Fukusaku and Shima also stated that you cannot collect senki/shizenki (nature energy) while moving, and that at best you could only last 5 minutes with the collected energy. Having the two of them there allowed Jiraiya to fight indefinitely as a sage while they could collect energy. Furthermore, he was able to use combined techniques with them as well as cover his weaknesses such as genjutsu. Call it incomplete if you will, but its certainly not inferior. Jiraiya was a boss and quite possibly the closest thing to a full sage like Hashirama/Naruto that ever was in that era.