"It's all right, boss."
Boruto took a seat at the counter, trying to make his tone sound merely curious.
"But from what you're saying, this person called Naruto looks a lot like me?"
"Yes, Naruto... oh dear, I'm so used to calling him that."
Teuchi smiled as he deftly prepared the ingredients.
"I should be calling him Lord Naruto now.
That's right, there's definitely a resemblance around your eyes and brows, especially your hair and eye color.
Hmm, though he's probably taller than you, and more solidly built."
He gestured with his hands. "And his hairstyle is different from yours. There was a while when he didn't really take care of his hair. Around the time he was nine, he gradually grew it out. He cut it a little shorter later, but it's still medium-length."
Teuchi enthusiastically pointed to the wooden menu board on the wall. "Order whatever you'd like! All our ingredients are fresh!"
Boruto ordered a classic tonkotsu ramen and a bottle of soda in the glass bottles common in this era.
Seeing how readily he ordered seemed to make Teuchi even happier and more talkative. As he cooked the noodles, he opened up, naturally returning to the subject of Naruto.
"Actually, I knew very early on that Naruto was the orphaned son of the Fourth Hokage."
Teuchi lowered his voice, sounding wistful as he recounted the past.
"Back then, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, often visited my little shop.
They loved the food here, and sometimes they'd come with Lord Jiraiya."
His gaze grew distant, as though he had returned to those days.
"I remember one time, they sat right where you're sitting now, eating noodles and laughing as they discussed what to name their child...
That was when they settled on