Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-25374031-20140917212238/@comment-1018594-20140918150232

In my opinion, Kishimoto didn't know he was going to extend the series for as long as he did. It's like it was supposed to end with the Invasion of Pain: Naruto surpassing his master was kinda like a spiritual journey.

But then Kishimoto started pulling Perfect Sages out of his ass: Hashirama, Kabuto, Minato. So now it just looks like Jiraiya was a derp because he was the only one who couldn't do it perfectly.