It's unclear if it was fate, but in every era, similar people emerge. The current Jiraiya, much like the later Uchiha Obito and Uzumaki Naruto, is a well-known dead last at the Ninja Academy.
Regardless of their future achievements, at this age, Jiraiya is genuinely not very strong, standing at opposite ends from Orochimaru, the genius whom Hiruzen Sarutobi holds dear.
Besides their strength, their personalities share some similarities—unyielding, persistent, and passionate—as if cast from the same mold.
Of course, after they grew up, due to their respective opportunities, they all embarked on different paths, a fact only Fumori Masaki knows for now.
After Hattori Heizo agreed to a match with Jiraiya, the two walked to the center of the training ground.
No one else tried to stop them; Tsunade, naturally, was happy to see Jiraiya get a good beating.
Although Hatake Sakumo felt it was a bit improper, it was Jiraiya who had actively challenged him, and it seemed to have struck a nerve with Hattori Heizo, who was, after all, his fellow disciple, so he remained silent.
Among Jiraiya's fellow disciples, Orochimaru had no intention of stopping him; he always found Jiraiya noisy and figured he could do whatever he wanted.
Asumi knew Jiraiya's strength and could tell that Hattori Heizo was not to be trifled with, so she was very worried.
However, she understood that Jiraiya wouldn't back down because of her words; that's just the kind of person he was—the more you thought he couldn't do something, the more he'd go against you.
"When things go south, I'll quickly pull him back."
Asumi could only choose this course of action; if Jiraiya wasn't defeated head-on, nothing would likely work. All she could do for Jiraiya now was cheer and pray.
"Alright, witness my power!" With both sides standing firm, Jiraiya immediately struck an exaggerated, swaggering pose.
"A brat shouldn't call himself 'this old man,'" Hattori Heizo said.
"Then you shouldn't call people brats either! You're only two years older than me!" Jiraiya retorted.
"You really don't understand anything," Hattori Heizo shook his head slightly, as if lamenting Jiraiya's dullness. "In our ninja world, two years represents a gap in experience, enough for me to consider you a brat. Of course, if it were the black-haired one over there, I might call him by his name; I believe he's called Orochimaru."
"It's always Orochimaru, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya currently didn't have a strong bond of camaraderie with Orochimaru, only finding him a conceited person and naturally quite jealous of him.
He couldn't stand hearing others praise Orochimaru, so he yelled, "Enough! Let's get started!"
"You first," Hattori Heizo made a deferential gesture. "Consider it a courtesy from your senior."
Jiraiya was thoroughly enraged by the other party's repeated acts of disdain.
He pulled out a kunai and shouted, "Let me show you the advanced ninjutsu taught to me by Hiruzen Sarutobi—Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"No way, Jiraiya actually learned that ninjutsu?" Asumi couldn't help but cover her mouth, and even Orochimaru couldn't help but show a hint of surprise.
However, the next scene left both of them dumbfounded. After Jiraiya threw a kunai, he threw out all the other kunai he had on him, in large quantities, which truly looked like Hiruzen Sarutobi's Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, but only in appearance.
Hattori Heizo thought it was some advanced ninjutsu, but it turned out to be just this. He was slightly surprised, then charged forward expressionlessly, blocking the flying kunai with his body.
"Huh?" This time it was Jiraiya who was dumbfounded. He knew he was just randomly throwing shuriken, and this ninjutsu should actually be called "All Shuriken Throwing Jutsu," completely incomparable to Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.
But now, he had actually hit the opponent head-on.
"What the heck, it looks like the other guy was just bluffing."
Jiraiya couldn't help but swell with pride, momentarily smug, not noticing Asumi signaling him or Orochimaru shaking his head.
By the time he came to his senses, he found a fist emerging from the corner of his vision, smashing heavily into his face, and his eyes saw a shower of golden stars.
Jiraiya felt the world spin, as if he had been thrown from the ground, his body losing strength, and he fell directly to the ground.
In a daze, he saw Asumi's face appear before him, seemingly saying something, but he couldn't hear clearly.
After an unknown amount of time, Jiraiya finally emerged from his dazed state, feeling Asumi shaking his body and loudly calling his name.
Presumably, he hadn't fully regained consciousness before, as Asumi was shouting very loudly, making Jiraiya cover his ears and say, "Ah! Your voice is too loud, a little softer, Asumi."
"That's great, it looks like nothing serious happened," Asumi breathed a sigh of relief.
"Of course nothing serious happened. I just intended to teach him a lesson, not kill him," the voice Jiraiya so detested then rang out.
"You brat, what trick did you pull?!" Jiraiya jumped up from the ground, pointing at Hattori Heizo's nose.
Hattori Heizo replied calmly, "I didn't pull any tricks, I just used our ninja methods normally. Rather, you, didn't you properly learn the Three Basic Jutsu? You were actually fooled by such a simple technique."
"What?" Jiraiya was still a bit confused. Asumi, standing nearby, couldn't bear it and gently poked his shoulder.
When he turned his head, she pointed in that direction.
Jiraiya followed Asumi's gaze and saw his thrown ninja tools scattered there, along with a "corpse" lying among them, wearing Hattori Heizo's outer garment, looking like Hattori Heizo himself.
However, Jiraiya took a closer look and realized it was just a humanoid wooden dummy, dressed in clothes, which could easily be mistaken for a real person in a hurry.
Jiraiya immediately understood that Hattori Heizo had seemingly been hit by his thrown kunai, but had actually used a Summoning: Substitution Jutsu with a wooden dummy, and with the high speed provided by the Substitution Jutsu, he had flashed to the side, leaving only his substitute charging towards Jiraiya.
As a result, Jiraiya foolishly took the substitute for the real Hattori Heizo.
That's why Hattori Heizo mocked Jiraiya, saying he hadn't even fully mastered the Three Basic Jutsu to be unable to see through such a simple substitution.
If it were anyone else, they would surely have noticed, as even with an outer garment, wood is still wood and could never turn into a person.
It only showed Jiraiya's lack of observational skills.
"Damn it!" Realizing this, Jiraiya immediately let out an unwilling cry.
"Go back and study hard, brat." Hattori Heizo no longer looked at Jiraiya, but turned his gaze to Orochimaru. "Do you intend to save some face for your fellow disciple?"
Orochimaru shook his head and said, "He has nothing to do with me."
"That's a bit much, Orochimaru," Asumi couldn't help but say upon hearing this.
"Hmph, let him say what he wants, I don't want to be associated with him either," Jiraiya, however, turned his head, indicating he wasn't afraid.
Hattori Heizo walked over to Tsunade and Hatake Sakumo, hearing the argument behind him, and said, "Their relationship is very bad, completely incomparable to ours."
"Of course, with a guy like that around, how can the relationship between fellow disciples be harmonious?" Tsunade firmly stood on the anti-Jiraiya front.
"I actually think they just have a different kind of harmony," Hatake Sakumo had a different opinion. "Perhaps in the future, their relationship can be as strong as ours."
"Really?" Tsunade expressed doubt.
"If it's you, it might really be true," Hattori Heizo said. "I also don't think that the Sarutobi patriarch, who is also a student of the Second Hokage like Fumori-sensei, would take a talentless person as a disciple. That Jiraiya might surprise me. Well, at least I don't see any signs of it right now."