Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant

The, known as in the anime, is an arc from Part II of the series. This arc sees Jiraiya's investigation of Pain's identity. It spans through volumes 40 to 42, or more specifically, covers chapters 368 to 383 in the manga and episodes 124 to 137 of the Naruto: Shippūden anime. This arc is preceded by the Itachi Pursuit Mission and followed by the Fated Battle Between Brothers.

Art vs. Art
As the battle between Sasuke and Deidara commences, Deidara used his C4, his most powerful bomb. It exploded, and appeared to have killed Sasuke, but it was simply a Sharingan genjutsu from Sasuke, the same one Itachi had used. Sasuke then appeared to have constricted him with one of his bombs, but the genjutsu was dispelled by Deidara, as he revealed his left eye could dispel genjutsu, and since Sasuke had held back when using the technique, unlike Itachi, Deidara was able to dispel it. Deidara tried another C4 on Sasuke using his last bit of chakra, and went to a safe distance, but Sasuke shielded it one last time with his Chidori Current. He then jumped right next to Deidara and gave him a powerful punch to the face.

Realising that Deidara was out of chakra and could not get up, Sasuke asked where Itachi was. Deidara did not answer, and became enraged due to Sasuke being indifferent and uncaring towards his art. He then turned himself into a bomb in a suicide attempt to kill Sasuke. However, Sasuke summoned the snake, Manda, as a shield, and teleported both of them with a technique, at the cost of Manda's life. His team found him after seeing the explosion, and he went with them to rest, explaining what had happened.

Meetings with Itachi
After seeing the explosion, Naruto's team headed to it, and Kiba tracked Sasuke's scent. Back with Hebi, Sasuke asked what everyone had found out about Itachi. Suigetsu and Karin had found nothing, but Jūgo had communicated with the birds, who were able to sense Akatsuki's chakra coming out of their hideouts, which he had marked on a map. They decided to go to the most recently used one to find Itachi. Meanwhile, Itachi headed to an Uchiha hideout, and sent two clones, one to find Naruto, and the other to find Sasuke.

As Naruto's team went to find Sasuke, Karin could sense that they were coming, and informed Sasuke. Hebi then left, and went to the Akatsuki hideout. Before that, Karin realised that the team possessed scent trackers, so she asked Jūgo to have the birds tear up one of Sasuke's shirts, which had a very strong amount of Sasuke's scent on it, and scatter the pieces to throw off Naruto's team. It succeeded, and Kiba could no longer track Sasuke's scent. Naruto realised that they needed to split up, and Naruto encountered Itachi's clone. Itachi claimed that he only wished to talk, but Naruto knew he needed to catch Itachi. Naruto created a shadow clone that attacked with a Big Ball Rasengan, but Itachi was a clone as well. The real Itachi caught Naruto in a Sharingan genjutsu. In the illusion, Itachi asked why Naruto cared for Sasuke so much, to which Naruto claimed that Sasuke was like a brother to him, and that he was more of a brother to Sasuke than Itachi was. When Itachi went on the offensive with his genjutsu, Naruto dispelled it. Itachi then dispelled the clone, having run out of time to talk. Before he left, however, he inserted a crow containing chakra into Naruto's body, hoping that Naruto would never need to use it.

The other clone encountered Sasuke at the Akatsuki hideout. After a short greeting, Sasuke attacked the clone with his Chidori Sharp Spear, but Itachi substituted himself with a shadow clone as a shield. Sasuke was then caught in the clone's Sharingan genjutsu, but he easily dispelled it. Itachi then destroyed the clone, telling Sasuke to go to the nearby Uchiha hideout so they could end their dispute. Sasuke and the rest of Hebi go to the hideout. Sasuke encounters two of Naruto's shadow clones, so he destroys them with Chidori Current punches, and the team continues on. Naruto figures out where Sasuke is, so Naruto's Team goes in pursuit of him. Unfortunately, Naruto's Team encounters Tobi. Naruto attempts two Big Ball Rasengan with shadow clones, but the attacks are absorbed by Tobi. Naruto's team then prepares to finish Tobi off. Meanwhile, Sasuke encounters Kisame, who asks Sasuke to continue on by himself, since Itachi doesn't want interferences. Sasuke had no argument, and left his team with Kisame. Suigetsu and Kisame then prepared to fight for the Samehada. Sasuke then went to the hideout, and prepared to battle Itachi.

Jiraiya vs. Pain
Jiraiya told Tsunade that he was going to personally gather information regarding the Akatsuki in the most probable place: Amegakure. Seconds after Jiraiya successfully entered the village, he was detected by Pain. Wandering around the village, Jiraiya speaks to the inhabitants about their leader, Pain. Unsuccessful in gathering information he captures two ninja of the village, who tell him about their mysterious new leader Pain, who single handedly defeated Hanzō, the former leader of Ame. Before acting further, Jiraiya summoned Gerotora and instructed him to store himself in Naruto should anything happen to him, speculating that Madara Uchiha was responsible for the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha in the past. Meanwhile Pain knowing that an intruder had infiltrated the village, orders Konan to search for the intruder. She then transforms into multiple origami papers to seek the intruder out. Konan locates Jiraiya, and informed Pain, who then changes bodies in a secret chamber.

Konan then went ahead and attacked Jiraiya, who fought, evenly matched, with her for a short time. Jiraiya then spoke about this history with Yahiko, and Nagato. When Pain arrives, they discuss Pain's personal ideology, and Akatsuki's goals. Pain, who is convinced Jiraiya is to die anyway, reveals the his reasoning behind collecting the tailed beasts which was to create a kinjutsu which could wipe away entire nations, so that the world would "mature" and develop aversion for war. Finishing their talk, Pain summons a crustacean to attack Jiraiya, who defeats it and summons Gamaken. Having no other choice left, Jiraiya and Gamaken begin their battle against Pain. Camouflaging himself, Pain summons multiple creatures to defeat Jiraiya. Realising that he is up against a powerful foe, Jiraiya uses a barrier and prepares to enter Sage Mode. Due to the predicament Gamaken has, he sustains deep wounds from the battle. As Jiraiya has his technique ready to use, Gamaken leaves the battle and enters Sage Mode after summoning Fukasaku and Shima.

Jiraiya soon finds Pain, who summons two of his other Paths to enter the battle. Jiraiya blinds one of the new Pains with a kick to the face, and Fukasaku suspects that all three Pain's share the same eyes and vision after they countered all their attacks, while Jiraiya realises that each of the bodies has only one specific purpose. Jiraiya stalls for time while Fukasaku and Shima prepare a powerful genjutsu to defeat the bodies and are successful in doing so. Jiraiya had a flash back to when he first met the Toad Sage, who had told him that he would be a pervert, would travel the world, would write a book, and would train the destined child who would either save or destroy the world. Leaving the bodies behind, another Pain attacked Jiriya from behind and severed his arm off. Being confronted the the full attendance of the six paths of pain, Jiraiya was able to discover that all of Pain's bodies belonged to ninja he once knew, amongst them being his old student, Yahiko, functioning as Pain's Deva Path.

With this information, Jiraiya was able to discover the truth, but his throat was crushed by the Asura Path along with being stabbed by five of Pain's bodies. Pinned down to the ground, Jiraiya was unable to tell Fukasaku of what he had learned. As Jiraiya laid dying, he remembered a conversation he had had with Minato and Kushina (Naruto's parents), about how they wanted to name their son after the character in his book, thereby making him Naruto's godfather. Remembering this forced himself back to life with his own willpower, and writes a message on Fukasaku's back. Thinking to hinmself that Naruto was the destined child, and that it was up to him to decide his future. The Asura Path then shot his fist at Jiraiya and Fukasaku and destroyed the slab of concrete that Jiraiya was lying on. Jiraiya then drifted off into the water to his death while thinking about what he'd name his next book. He then decided to name it "The Tale of Naruto Uzumaki" and said it had a nice ring to it. Meanwhile, Pain deduced that Jiraiya was dead, but Fukasaku had got away.