Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-3523655-20200812063608/@comment-36366948-20200812105134

If Jiraiya was present during Pain’s Assault, I don’t think Nagato would be convinced to join the path of good. First of all, the second Jiraiya wakes up, he would give full intel on atleast two of the paths of pain and Konan (he may assume the animal path is out of commission, and he doesn’t know the human, deva, naraka and asura path’s abilities). He would also tell them that Nagato is controlling them. I think he could easily give Konoha a better chance against Pain. He most definitely wouldn’t take a combat role rather a strategic one.

Also I’m not sure about this, but Naruto may arrive faster because Danzo wouldn’t pull the same BS he did by killing the messenger toad as Jiraiya is keeping an eye on him and would easily be able to contact Myoboku. This could possibly result in Konoha not getting destroyed, but idk.

Going back to my previous point, if Nagato sees Jiraiya alive, I think he’d just be shocked and that’s it. He didn’t show much attachment to him anyway. Naruto wouldn’t be as pissed as he was, neither would he feel the need to talk-no-jutsu Nagato. I think one of the biggest things to come out of this would be that Naruto would not meet Minato, as he wouldn’t get stuck in Chibaku Tensei.

They could formulate strategies to perfectly counter the Pains and Konan. They could send out Shinobi specifically to battle people like Konan and the Preta Path. Also I think Team Guy, Anko, Yamato and Sai wouldn’t be sent on a mission because Jiraiya may convince Tsunade to keep everyone in the village, especially Team Guy, which has possibly the strongest Shinobi currently in Konoha lol (idk what Tsunade was thinking sending like their best team for a mission.) Though she may have sent them before Jiraiya went to Ame.

Pain may attack before Konoha is fully ready tho, so it depends if they’re finished strategising. Pain would do the same thing he did in canon, which would probably lead to the Preta Path and Animal Path being dealt with easily. They would send strong Shinobi to battle the others, which would probably result in the human and naraka path being taken out. I think they would struggle against Konan, Tendo and the Asura Path, which would lead to them retreating.

From here two things could happen. Either Pain tries to destroy the entire village, using Shinra Tensei or he’d retreat. Either way, the village would be able to examine the rest of the paths, and may be able to detect Nagato’s location (though it depends if SM is necessary to track him or not). By this time Naruto would arrive as well. If Tendo alone tries to decimate Konoha, then Naruto would easily beat him, and if he retreats, they’ll probably hunt him down. If they find Nagato, Naruto wouldn’t go alone, reducing the chance of Talk no jutsu and increasing the chance of Nagato and Konan both getting apprehended/killed by the platoon that’s sent to track them. This would lead to no Rinne Rebirth, which means anyone who dies is screwed. This could lead to a snowball effect, as Obito may try to steal Nagato’s Rinnegan from Konoha.

This is all complete speculation. I think it really depends on what you would want to achieve by keeping Jiraiya alive. There are too many uncertainties guess what exactly would happen. I definitely think he’d help tho.