parrallel is their way of life. They are in complete denial of the present time.

Look how Tsunade is always comparing the people she met with her beloved dead ones. And How every single person who met Naruto found a striking resemblance between Naruto with somebody else (at the end you have naruto=gaara and jiraiya=naruto so jiraiya=gaara ?).

They all live in the past and can't accept that kids are not a copycat of an other adult but a entity of his own. It's all about the difference between societies which see human as individual and human as a part of something bigger.

I like Jiraiya but I wish everytime he compare Sasuke with Orochimaru that he could chock on himself. I think it's a way for him to dismiss his own failure regarding Orochimaru. It's comforting for Jiraiya to compare with Naruto. I don't usually think high of Naruto but here he's way better than any member of the leaf village by not letting down Sasuke.