Well it seems before the new Sasuke arc, the anime is going for ANOTHER filler arc, this time though, its more of an addition to the manga story it seems with Naruto trying to get the Three Tails ¬_¬
This is getting kinda out of hand now.
At least it isn't a bunch of 1-2 episode long filler arcs full of shitty story. Plus, intertwining canon and filler together is a nice way to slow the pace down, yet keep things interesting.
From what i've seen...they were pretty badass. Orochamiru was pretty badass till the 3rd pulled off an unbelieveable type attack to paralyze him. Jirayai was awesome and just happened to go against the 2nd most powerful villian in the series whom he had absolutely 0 knowledge on.
And managed to wipe out one of Pains controlled bodies in the process, totally under prepared. And let's not forget. Tsunade is likely the strongest one of them all, due to her regenerative technique and chakra reinforced super strength. Orochimaru just had a vast array of techniques. Jiraiya was the clever one.
And just proof of their strength, Orochimaru
did defeat Sarutobi - who was probably the overall strongest Hokage, if not among all Kage. The exception being Madara of course. He had to be pretty high up there at least, if coming out of retirement when Minato died was the best option Konoha had. We're talking about a guy who was hailed as the second best Ninja available to take up the Hokage title after the Kyuubi incident.
And really, the way I see it, age was the reason he lost.
The same goes for Orochimaru. If it wasn't for his desire to stay forever young and his bodies rejecting his soul, he would've mopped the floor with Sasuke.
Jiraiya wasn't outclassed or had a handicap because of his age. He was simply outnumbered.