Boruto Reveals Another Cute Tick He Inherited From Naruto

In sort of a meta-commentary from the sequel series itself, the main thrust of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations has been about how Boruto is trying his best to escape the shadow of his father. There have been several comparisons made between the two highlighting just how different they are over the course of the series, but the recent time travel arc has done the opposite. By putting Boruto directly against the younger version of Naruto from the past, fans are starting to see just how many smaller quirks the two share.

Episode 132 shares another cute example of this as the two struggle to train together for a new combination jutsu, and when they’re feeling down both Naruto and his son smack themselves back to life in the same adorable way.

After failing to sync together their chakras during their training under Jiraiya, Boruto and Naruto have a falling out in which Boruto is worried about getting closer to the young Naruto’s wild Nine-Tails chakra. Boruto decides to walk away from Naruto and take a break, and soon he gets a heart warming pep talk from his uncle Neji. He’s never been able to meet Neji, and the normally stoic Neji actually opened up to Boruto because he’s reminded so much of Naruto. This is especially so when Boruto gets his head back into the game with a hearty face slap.

Naruto gets a pep talk in pretty much the same surprising way. The two of them parallel one another pretty well here, and both of them are given pep talks from usually stoic characters who find themselves opening up more than ever. When Naruto gets himself together, he slaps his face in exactly the same way — capping off this parallel journey the two of them have had.

This time travel arc has shown a whole new side of Boruto by going back into the past, and has been a much better reflection of just how far Naruto has come by the time we see him as Hokage in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.