"Tch!" Naruto spat out the grass stem at once and turned around, his face full of disdain. "Pervy Sage, what are you looking at? How is that brat anything like me? Just look at what he's done!"
He started counting off his complaints on his fingers, as if those glimpses of the future were embarrassing memories of his own:
"I might've been a troublemaker as a kid, but at least I knew how to respect my elders! What about him? He acts like his Hokage dad doesn't matter."
"And another thing!" Naruto was just getting started. "Look at that blond hair. It's nowhere near as cool as mine! And his personality isn't cute at all."
Listening to his apprentice's indignant complaints, Jiraiya burst out laughing. The sound startled several birds from the trees.
He shook his head and patted Naruto's shoulder with his broad hand.
"You silly kid. Everything you've said is just surface stuff."
Jiraiya stopped laughing, though the smile in his eyes remained warm and deep. "Where you and your son are really alike..."
He pointed toward the Canopy Screen. On it, Boruto faced Gaara's threat and stood firmly in front of his companion, defending her with everything his still-immature strength could muster. Even if he might be crushed to pieces the next second, he refused to give an inch.
"It's here," Jiraiya said, his voice low and solemn. "It's in this heart."
"The heart that never gives up on a companion or abandons a bond, no matter how hard the road, how faint the hope, or how high the price."
"That thickheaded streak, that stubbornness that won't turn back even after hitting a wall—and would rather smash straight through it. Naruto, can you honestly say he didn't inherit every bit of that from you?"
Naruto followed Jiraiya's