Disclaimer: Naruto (c) Kishimoto, not me.
A/N: Just a short scene with Naruto and Jiraiya (and Minato). Hope you enjoy!

Jiraiya of the Three sat back on his stool to let the food settle and sighed contentedly. There was nothing like a hot meal after a hard day's work, even if he had been eating said meal for the past three days in a row.

He patted his stomach and glanced at the teenager sitting next to him, still devouring his ramen (sadly not from Ichiraku's this time) with as much gusto as when they had settled down to eat two hours ago.

While training Naruto - and more-so since they had left Konoha -, Jiraiya had found that it was very easy to let himself believe that he was standing next to Minato once more. The kid looked more like his father with each passing day and had certainly inherited every ounce of determination and guts his former student had possessed. But when they were relaxing like this, it was hard to miss how much Naruto really was his mother's son.

Minato had hated ramen. In fact, the day Jiraiya had known without a doubt that his student was in love was when they had both gone out to eat and Minato had ordered ramen out of his own initiative.

"It kind of grew on me," he had said, but Jiraiya had not been fooled by the way he unconsciously grimaced or the little skill with which he ate the slippery noodles.

(Minato had left the restaurant with a huge stain on the front of his shirt that day.)

It was bittersweet for Jiraiya to watch Naruto on moments like these. He had loved Kushina and he most certainly loved the brat - who was practically his grandson -, but at the same time it was hard not to feel like he was losing his last remaining connection to Minato.

A sudden shout brought his attention back to the stool next to his and he turned to see Naruto yelling left and right, complaining about how the noodles that had slipped from his chopsticks had ruined the brand new shirt his teacher had bought him.

Jiraiya could not help but smile in relief.