Boruto Gave Naruto Fans Flashbacks with Major Jiraiya Easter Egg

One of the most popular decisions made over Boruto: Naruto Next Generations‘ time travel arc is the return of Jiraiya to the fold. After the character’s death during Naruto: Shippuden, Jiraiya had not been seen in the series for quite some time despite many of the other dead characters being revived or revisited in some form since. So each new episode of the 20th Anniversary time travel arc has featured great reminders of why Jiraiya was such a fan favorite during his original run in the series. But as the time travel prepares to end, there was one final Easter Egg that’s giving Naruto fans all kinds of flashbacks.

Episode 135 of the series sees Jiraiya battling the transformed Urashiki Otsutsuki alongside Boruto and Naruto, and when Urashiki insults him, Jiraiya takes the time out to officially introduce himself to the monstrous villain. And as eagle-eyed fan @Abdul_S17 on Twitter pointed out, it’s reminiscent of his very first introduction to the series.

When Urashiki easily gets out of Jiraiya’s techniques and traps, he calls Jiraiya a weakling. But Jiraiya soon makes a fool of him by managing to take him by surprise. This gives Jiraiya the little boost he needs to properly make his stance as one of the Legendary Sannin. Taking on his performance candor and pose, he introduces himself as the Mountain Sage master Jiraiya, and it’s a pretty hilarious final stamp on Jiraiya’s big comeback to the series.

Making this even better is seeing Sasuke’s reaction to this as he notes that the “Idiot’s master is also an idiot.” The time travel arc has been Sasuke’s first introduction to Jiraiya overall, and it’s clear that he’ll walk away from it with a much different perspective on Naruto’s former teacher. Especially because he’s caught onto Jiraiya’s penchant to play the fool to keep from really letting on what he knows.

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.