Board Thread:Versus Debates/@comment-26958911-20151010214426/@comment-26773508-20151018114820

Trappedinmygenjutsu wrote: @BakumatsuWarrior

Jiraiya is one of my favourite characters in the series but he simply hasn't shown any speed feats which show he would definitely be able to dodge Itachi's sword. You're right in that regard. There is a high probability that Jiraiya would get hit by the sword, especially if he's taken by surprise. But what the rest of us are arguing is that the Sword of Totsuka isn't some unbeatable cheat that will easily subdue someone like Jiraiya. Itachi, sick or healthy, would be forced to use Susanoo against someone like Jiraiya. By the time he starts manifesting Susanoo, Jiraiya would go attempt to go into Sage Mode. And although Jiraiya has no knowledge of the Totsuka Blade, he does have knowledge of Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu and Susanoo. Danzo knew about Susanoo before he actually saw one (i.e. Sasuke's Susanoo). So it stands to reason that Jiraiya would know about Susanoo too.

One could argue that Danzo kept the intel on Susanoo only to himself and members of his personal ANBU. But the thing is that Madara's power was so legendary that even Jiraiya suspected that he had a hand in Kyuubi's attack, which led to the deaths of Minato and Kushina. And what was Madara's legendary power? SUSANO'O. A jutsu that powerful isn't easily going to fade away from memory, especially if you're the pupil of the Third Hokage, who in turn was the pupil of the First and Second Hokages, and who was actually alive at the time Madara and Hashirama fought their final battle.

So my point is that Jiraiya would, in all probability, know about Susanoo. Which means he would start making preparations for going into Sage Mode the moment this battle starts. And I'm talking about in-battle preparations, not pre-battle. And while you have a good point that Jiraiya's speed feats are not the greatest, but still there's no suggestion in the manga that the legendary Ero Senin was slow. He would be faster than Part 1 Kakashi, since Jiraiya is at a completely different level than P1 Kakashi.

And even if he doesn't have the speed feat to dodge, his Sage Mode would allow him to perceive Itachi preparing to use the Totsuka Blade moments before Itachi can attack with the Blade itself (just like how Edo Nagato was able to sense that Edo Itachi was about to do something funny to Naruto before Itachi did that thing).

The point is, there will be a small gap of time between the moment when someone first starts accumulating chakra to use a certain jutsu, and the moment when the jutsu is actually executed. Sage Mode allows in-depth perception of such instances, which is all Jiraiya needs to avoid getting pierced by the Totsuka Blade. Because the main reason slower shinobis usually get beaten by the faster ones is that they get hit before they even know what hit them. But the extreme sensory perception overcomes this by granting the ability to sense the imminent execution of jutsus before they are executed. And this makes a HUGE difference in battle, unless the difference of speed between Itachi and Jiraiya is comparable to that of Haku and Zabuza-arc Sasuke, where Sasuke was able to perceive some of Haku's movements but could do nothing against him. But nowhere in the manga is it suggested that Itachi is that fast compared to Jiraiya. So in the end, Jiraiya has high chances of avoiding the Totsuka Blade.