I too, find the "code" incredibly dumb, and Jiraiya making 1 round turn and 2 half hitches at the brink of death to do so, is really ridiculous. Hopefully that's not all there is to the code.

More on the code for those interested:

The first kanji of each line reads: 本物葉意無椅, which sounds like 本物はいない. Meaning is broken down as such:

本物 = real one
は = is
いない = not here