Masashi Kishimoto is a legendary manga artist known for his magnum opus, Naruto, which began its run in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on September 21, 1999. This manga continued strong for 15 long years before finally reaching its end on November 10, 2014, in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 50. By this time, Naruto had already become a global phenomenon and was quite easily one of the biggest manga series out there.
12 years have passed since then, and Naruto is now bigger than ever before, even though it does not have any ongoing series. The Naruto series ended with the release of Chapter 700, which saw Naruto Uzumaki lead the village as the Hokage after a long timeskip. Then, the franchise continued on with a sequel known as Boruto, which follows the story of Naruto Uzumaki's son. Boruto was handled by Ukyo Kodachi and Mikio Ikemoto before the latter completely took over. Now, Masashi Kishimoto is set to return to continue the Naruto story, as was officially announced on October 10, 2026, at New York Comic Con. With his return to the Naruto franchise, Boruto is being changed forever, for better or for worse.
Masashi Kishimoto Is Officially Making A Comeback With New Manga
Ever since the end of the Naruto series, fans all over the world have been craving more content from Kishimoto and begging for him to make an official comeback. Masashi Kishimoto released Naruto content every now and then, but never in the form of sustained releases. However, in 2024, Masashi Kishimoto revealed in France that he had an appetite for writing more manga once again and asked fans to wait patiently for his next release. That is precisely why many fans all over the world were anticipating more content from Masashi Kishimoto.
“For me, the most important things are taking care of my family, health, and perhaps a new manga. – Kishimoto, August 2024
It has now been officially confirmed that Kishimoto is returning to writing the Naruto manga once again. On October 10, 2026, at New York Comic Con, Naruto held its own panel. At the end of it, it was confirmed that a new Naruto manga by Masashi Kishimoto is on the way and that it is titled Naruto: Shadow Rising. This new Naruto manga is incredibly exciting, to say the least, as it covers the journeys of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kakashi Hatake, and many others after the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War. In many ways, it is a true sequel to the Naruto series. This manga is set before the events of Chapter 700, which sets up the Boruto era, and is something that fans all over the world are incredibly excited for.
“I came to realize that the pressure of living up to expectations can also take a heavy toll on a person. So I took that shift in my own mindset and applied it to Naruto. I'd like to depict my conclusions regarding that idea in a new manga someday, so please wait patiently for it.” — Kishimoto teases his new manga, August 2024
More information about Naruto: Shadow Rising will be revealed to us on December 19, 2026, at Jump Festa 2027. Masashi Kishimoto's new manga means that he will fully divert his attention to this new story and elaborate upon the legacies of the heroes who established themselves in the Fourth Great Ninja War and continue to build their legend even further.
Kishimoto's New Manga Ends His Boruto Involvement
Up until recently, there was a massive misconception among the fans in regards to Kishimoto's involvement in the Boruto series. It is true that the main Boruto characters, such as the protagonist Boruto himself, Sarada Uchiha, Mitsuki, and some other individuals, were created by Kishimoto himself. In fact, Boruto's first arc, which was first shown in Boruto: Naruto the Movie, was also written by Kishimoto, but what came after was entirely written by Ukyo Kodachi and then Mikio Ikemoto.
Masashi Kishimoto is labeled as the supervisor of the Boruto series, and to an extent, that certainly is true. When Ikemoto writes a chapter, he often sends the manuscript and drafts to Kishimoto to approve or to change. But, as mentioned by Kishimoto himself, Boruto is Ikemoto's story, and he hardly makes any changes to the plot. In fact, at times, Kishimoto doesn't even read the drafts because he trusts Ikemoto completely, which goes to show that his involvement in the Boruto series is very limited.
Furthermore, now that Kishimoto has his own manga to take care of, which will likely run in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, given its dwindling numbers, he has no time to supervise the Boruto series. This means that from here onwards, his involvement will practically be non-existent. For the fans who wanted Kishimoto to always supervise the Boruto series actively, this is a stark change. From here onwards, Boruto will continue to do its own thing while Kishimoto continues his own manga in whatever way he sees fit, which could potentially also involve retconning some major plots established already in the Boruto sequel.
Kishimoto Has Already Retconned Boruto In Some Ways
On October 10, 2026, a teaser was revealed for Kishimoto's upcoming manga, and the short teaser already retconned quite a few things from the Boruto series. For starters, Naruto's rise to Hokage was perceived to be completely different in the new story. Whereas Boruto showed Konohamaru Sarutobi transforming into Naruto and taking his position on the day of the Hokage ceremony, the new manga draft shows Naruto claiming the Hokage hat by himself and waving to people, which is starkly different from what we saw in the Boruto franchise.
Furthermore, it seems that the birth of Sarada Uchiha is also being retconned in the new story. Given that this series is set in the Blank Period, Sakura being shown with a young Sarada in the early drafts suggests that her birth might happen at a different time when compared to the Boruto series.
In any case, there are many changes that Masashi Kishimoto could make to the overarching lore that Boruto established and do things in his own way. This may undermine the Boruto series in many ways, but fans don't particularly care about that. At the end of the day, Boruto largely failed to live up to the legacy established by the Naruto series. Now that Masashi Kishimoto is returning, fans all over the world are incredibly excited to see this amazing story continue on a weekly basis. Hopefully, Kishimoto restores the legacy that the Boruto series destroyed for many characters, such as Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi, alongside a multitude of others.
All the chapters of Boruto: Two Blue Vortex by Mikio Ikemoto, supervised by Masashi Kishimoto, are available to read via Manga Plus and Viz Media.
