A new Naruto manga, set between the end of the original manga and the beginning of Boruto, was announced last night at New York Comic Con 2026. A four-part Naruto spin-off anime was also announced, but don’t get too excited on that front before you hear all the details.
A trailer for the new Naruto manga, titled Naruto: Shadow Rising, premiered at NYCC, and while there is a lot to cover in it, the most exciting part is front and center in the title: Masashi Kishimoto will write and draw it.
For context, and to explain why Naruto fans are losing it, Kishimoto penned the original Naruto manga, but mostly only supervised the creation of its extremely divisive sequel, Boruto. Whether you’re a Boruto hater or not, I don’t think anyone would argue that Mikio Ikemoto’s artwork pales in comparison to Kishimoto’s art.
The shot of Sasuke’s daughter, Sarada, in the trailer also confirms when Naruto: Shadow Rising is set to take place. Sarada is a baby in the new trailer, and as she’s 11 at the start of Boruto, that means Naruto: Shadow Rising is set roughly a decade earlier.
We also see a shot of Naruto and Sasuke having yet another punch-up, which the press announcement on the official Naruto website also makes a specific note of.
Beyond that, we don’t know any plot details, so your guess is as good as mine here–especially considering that Naruto ends with the two burying the hatchet and Boruto starts with them as besties. We’ll just have to wait until the first chapter drops in 2027.
Oh, and yeah–there’s a new four-part anime on its way too. It’s a crossover miniseries between Naruto and Ninkū, titled… Naruto x Ninkū. If your first response to that news is “Who the hell is Ninkū?” then, trust me, you’re not alone, as the Western Naruto fandom was mostly confused by the announcement trailer.
I’ll be honest, I like to think I know quite a bit about manga, and even I completely forgot that Ninkū exists. However, the link between the two manga properties is actually pretty important, as Kishimoto has stated before that Ninkū was his main inspiration for Naruto.
In case you’re not convinced, here’s a direct quote from Kishimoto following the announcement of Naruto x Ninkū: ”I created Naruto because I personally wanted to see the continuation of Ninkū. I think many of you have already noticed, but Naruto was immensely influenced by Ninkū. Without Ninkū, Naruto would not exist.”
Funnily enough, Ninkū is huge in Japan, but it never successfully made the leap to Western audiences. Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that the English dub of the original 1995 Ninkū anime is considered lost media. But hey, at least Kishimoto seems to be very excited about it.
