Boruto Preview Stills Confirm Adorable Naruto Flashback

Though the war against the Otsutsuki continues in both the anime currently, as well as in the manga, the upcoming storyline in the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations series will focus on an unlikely crossover. Thanks to time travel shenanigans, the young Boruto will be meeting a young version of his father from the original franchise. With this storyline inching closer, new images have been released that show the original cast of the long running ninja series re-imagined with the flashy current artwork that makes Boruto leap off the screen.

Twitter User SpirallingSphe2 shared a number of new images from the upcoming story arc, showing off ninjas living and dead such as a young Naruto, Jiraiya, Rock Lee, Ino, Shikamaru, and Sakura to name a few that will be appearing in this unique crossover:

It will be interesting to see how the father and son pairing react to one another, and whether or not everything will be laid out on the table from the get go. With most crossovers of an anime or super hero fare, a case of mistake identity will normally be the impetus for the two parties to display their talents against one another to show off their skills. As Boruto travels to the past, we assume, we would think that it would make for quite an even battle as he squares off against his younger father.

This time travel arc will also give us the chance to revisit a character who has been long dead in the form of Naruto’s mentor Jiraiya. The lecherous old man was responsible for teaching Naruto a ton about different ninjutsu, specifically walking him through how to create a Rasengan, the current Hokage’s trademark move.

What do you think of these new images that give us a brand new look at the Naruto characters of yesteryear? How do you see the crossover itself going down? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the Hidden Leaf Village!

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.