Naruto - Vol. 19 Ch. 165 - Naruto, Attack!!

[MangaDex]

 

[Wichossj]

I believe the only reason Kishi had Tsunade drug Jiraya was to nerf him, otherwise he would’ve easily been able to deal with the situation at hand. Otherwise it doesn’t really make much sense to have Tsunade do that. I guess you could argue that she still hadn’t made up her mind before the meeting with Orochimaru but Jiraya is way too strong while Orochimaru is in this current state. The conflict would’ve been resolved too easily if Jiraya wasn’t nerfed or incapacitated somehow. 2 sannin vs 1 is too unfair, good guys can’t have advantages in a story’s conflict otherwise how do you make your audience feel that the antagonist is a threat.