Twelve years after stepping away from the drawing board, Masashi Kishimoto is returning to Naruto. But he isn't moving the story forward. He's reaching back to 1993, to the ninja series he credits with making Naruto possible in the first place.
On October 10, 2026, at New York Comic Con, roughly 3,000 attendees packed into the "NARUTO: What's Next?" panel. The date was not incidental. October 10 is Naruto Uzumaki's in-universe birthday. What unfolded over the following hour reframed the franchise's future in two announcements: a new manga drawn by Kishimoto himself, and a crossover anime uniting Naruto with Koji Kiriyama's Ninku.
What Is 'NARUTO - SHADOW RISING'?
The headline announcement was NARUTO - SHADOW RISING, a new manga written and drawn by Masashi Kishimoto. According to the official Naruto site, it is a "completely newly drawn new work." For context, this marks Kishimoto's first return to the series as author-artist in roughly 12 years, following the original manga's conclusion in 2014.
The official site does not use the word "canon" or confirm a timeline, though the teaser's imagery, a seventh Hokage face under construction, strongly implies a setting between the Fourth Great Ninja War and Naruto's ascension to Seventh Hokage. That label and that placement have circulated through secondary coverage, but the primary source simply describes a new work drawn by the creator.
That teaser is worth examining closely. The PV opens on the six stone faces of the past Hokage carved into the cliffside, with a seventh under construction. It then moves through the four former members of Team 7: Naruto wearing the Hokage hat, Kakashi smiling, Sasuke composed and dignified, and Sakura holding a baby. It closes on a clash between Naruto and Sasuke.
The imagery does a great deal of narrative work. A seventh face mid-construction suggests a moment of transition, an era between one Hokage and the next. The presence of Sakura with a child, paired with a Naruto-Sasuke confrontation, signals a story set in the gap that the original manga largely skipped over.
The Ninku Crossover: Naruto's 'Secret Mentor' Comes Full Circle
The second announcement was NARUTO x NINKU, a limited anime crossover. Here, precision matters. Some early coverage framed this as a new ongoing television series. The official Naruto x Ninku page states it is "a total of 4 episodes." This is a limited crossover event, not a continuing show.
The project is supervised by both Kishimoto and Ninku creator Koji Kiriyama. Kishimoto's attachment is deeply personal. He has stated, "Without NINKU, Naruto would not exist," and describes Ninku protagonist Fūsuke as Naruto's "secret mentor."
The story setup places Team 7 on a mission assigned by Kakashi. Naruto serves as acting leader, and the trio finds itself lost in another world, where they encounter the frog-faced boy Fūsuke.
Production credits place the crossover in experienced hands. Noriyuki Abe directs, with Tetsuya Nishio serving as character designer and chief animation director. Animation is handled by Studio Pierrot (PIERROT FILMS). The opening theme is "GO!!!" by FLOW, with "Viva Rock" by FLOW as the ending theme.
For readers unfamiliar with Ninku, its significance is difficult to overstate. Kiriyama's manga began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1993, and a 55-episode Studio Pierrot anime aired from 1995 to 1996. It predates Naruto entirely and, by Kishimoto's own account, shaped his ambitions as a creator.
There is history here as well. The crossover was originally slated for TV Tokyo across four consecutive weeks beginning September 3, 2023. It was postponed shortly before broadcast for quality improvements. The NYCC reveal functions as its formal re-announcement.
PROJECT RASENGAN: The Bigger Multi-Year Picture
Both projects anchor PROJECT RASENGAN, a multi-year global roadmap spanning manga, anime, trading cards, and games, detailed on the official PROJECT RASENGAN hub.
The roadmap includes a NARUTO trading card game launching worldwide in June 2027, and a worldwide release for the Naruto Mobile smartphone game, which has been live in China since 2016. These are the kinds of releases that sustain a franchise between marquee story beats, and their inclusion alongside two narrative projects suggests a coordinated strategy rather than a scattered slate.
The scope extends beyond print and animation. Destin Daniel Cretton, director of the live-action Naruto film, sent a message that was read at the panel, addressing his intent to bring Kishimoto's world to life on screen. Cretton's involvement carries particular weight: his attachment to the project signals that the live-action film is being treated as a serious component of the franchise's future, not a licensing afterthought. It is a signal that PROJECT RASENGAN is positioning Naruto as a franchise across multiple mediums simultaneously, rather than a series of isolated releases.
What We Still Don't Know, and When We'll Find Out
No release dates have been announced for either Shadow Rising or Naruto x Ninku. Given the volume of information released at NYCC, this is the detail most likely to cause confusion.
Further Shadow Rising details are promised at the Jump Festa 2027 Naruto Jump Super Stage, scheduled for December 19 to 20, 2026, at Makuhari Messe. That event is the clearest next checkpoint on the calendar.
Several open questions remain worth tracking. Will Shadow Rising run as a limited or ongoing serialization? How will the crossover's four episodes be distributed internationally, given its original TV Tokyo scheduling? And does the 2023 postponement hint at production challenges that could affect the crossover's new timeline? These are questions the next round of announcements should answer.
A Franchise Built on Its Creator's Oldest Inspiration
There is a particular symmetry to where Naruto stands now. The series that defined a generation of shonen storytelling is charting its future by returning to the work that inspired its creator to draw ninja in the first place. Kishimoto is back at the pen, and he is doing it while honoring the 1993 series he says made everything possible.
Two projects, two timelines, one creator reaching backward to move forward. The roadmap is still being drawn, and its next lines will arrive at Makuhari Messe in December. For now, the most telling detail isn't a release date. It's that the man who built Naruto wants to show you where he learned to build.
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