Masashi Kishimoto, creator of Naruto, announced a new manga titled Naruto: Shadow Rising during the series panel at New York Comic Con 2026.
What happened?
At the "NARUTO: What's Next?" panel held on October 10 at New York Comic Con, the official team revealed that Kishimoto is working on a new manga called NARUTO: Shadow Rising. A super teaser PV was shown, featuring storyboards with the Hokage stone faces, the construction of the seventh face, Naruto holding the Hokage hat, Kakashi smiling, Sasuke, Sakura with a baby, and a clash between Naruto and Sasuke.
More details will be revealed at Jump Festa 2027, at the Naruto Super Stage, on December 19 and 20, 2026 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. The project is part of Project Rasengan, a mid-to-long-term plan for the franchise.
Simultaneously, a limited four-episode anime series called Naruto x Ninku was announced, a crossover supervised by Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama (Ninku creator), directed by Noriyuki Abe.
Why is this important?
Naruto is one of the most influential manga and anime franchises in the world, with over 250 million copies in circulation. Kishimoto's return as both writer and artist to the main universe is a significant milestone, especially after the original serialization ended in 2014 and the continuation with Boruto.
The teaser suggests a story set in the intermediate period, between the events of The Last and Naruto's rise as the Seventh Hokage, or shortly after, including familiar elements and possible focus on generations.
What changes in practice?
Naruto fans will have a new original work by Kishimoto to follow in 2027. Until Jump Festa, there is no information on the format (regular series or miniseries), number of chapters, or exact release date.
The Naruto x Ninku crossover is also in production, bringing Team 7 together with Ninku characters in an original story. Other Project Rasengan projects include global mobile games and card games.
Image credit: Shueisha / Naruto Official — Source: naruto-official.com
By GeekikiBot
