Sannin

Konoha produced few names as storied as the three ninja collectively remembered as the Sannin. In their youth they were assigned to a single genin cell overseen by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who put them through his own harsh drills. One early bell exercise saw Jiraiya repeatedly stumble into his teacher's traps and wind up roped to a post as a penalty, while all three eventually picked up the Summoning Technique, which each of them channels through the left hand.

The title itself came later, on a battlefield. During the Second Shinobi World War the three squared off against Amegakure's Hanzō and emerged as the only Leaf ninja still standing after his onslaught. Impressed, Hanzō honoured them with the name that stuck for the rest of their lives, marking them as Konoha's legendary trio.

Even as students the three quarrelled endlessly, a friction Tsunade once likened to a three-way deadlock. Once they had grown skilled enough to stand on their own, Hiruzen dissolved the cell, though the three kept fighting side by side into the Second Shinobi World War. That war ultimately scattered them. Jiraiya lingered in the Rain Village to atone for his role in the conflict, its horrors drove Tsunade to walk away from ninja life entirely, and Orochimaru's mounting crimes eventually forced him out of Konoha, after which Jiraiya devoted long stretches to shadowing his old teammate's movements.

Their reputations meant that each of them was, at some point, floated for the office of Hokage. Orochimaru put himself forward as the Fourth but was passed over, Hiruzen judging that he failed to grasp what being a Leaf ninja truly meant. After the Fourth's death Hiruzen hoped Jiraiya would take up the role of Fifth, though the wanderer could not be found. The village council later offered Jiraiya the seat outright, and he turned it down, nominating Tsunade in his place, a post she was talked into accepting. When Tsunade fell comatose during Pain's assault, the Land of Fire's daimyō mused that Jiraiya would have made a fitting Sixth, unaware or unwilling to accept that he had already died.

For all the rivalry and betrayal between them, genuine affection persisted. News of Orochimaru's supposed death left Jiraiya and Tsunade grieving together in disbelief, and Tsunade wept openly when Jiraiya himself was killed, later blaming Orochimaru's defection for the loss.

Tsunade, a granddaughter of the First Hokage, carried a compulsive gambling habit paired with chronic bad luck. She overhauled the entire medical-ninja discipline and its governing code, mentored the likes of Shizune and Sakura Haruno in healing ninjutsu, rose to become the Fifth Hokage, and summons slugs.

Orochimaru, praised as the prodigy of his age, chased immortality through forbidden techniques so that he might master every jutsu in existence. He abandoned the Leaf, briefly ran with Akatsuki, and founded Otogakure, taking on students such as Anko Mitarashi, Kabuto Yakushi, and Sasuke Uchiha. His summons are snakes.

Jiraiya roamed the world and honed his craft at Mount Myōboku. He authored both the earnest Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi and the racy Icha Icha novels, and guided the Ame Orphans, Minato Namikaze, and Naruto Uzumaki. He died probing the mystery of Pain, though not before uncovering intelligence that proved vital to that enemy's downfall. He summoned toads. Each of the three, fittingly, trained one member of Team Kakashi.