Naruto's comeback isn't limited to anime. Alongside the newly announced Naruto x Ninku crossover anime, Masashi Kishimoto himself is returning to the manga page with a brand-new Naruto series — and the first look has already been revealed.
The announcement came at the very end of the NARUTO: What's Next? panel at New York Comic Con 2026, capping a day of Naruto reveals. The new manga, dubbed Shadow Rising, will explore a piece of canon that has only been hinted at before: what happens before Naruto is officially crowned as the Seventh Hokage. A first-look teaser trailer for the series debuted during the panel, giving fans their earliest glimpse of Kishimoto's return to the Hidden Leaf.
Details are still scarce, and even the Shadow Rising name has yet to be confirmed as the series' official title. What is clear is that this is a full return for Kishimoto, not a cameo contribution. The creator previously revisited the franchise with a special Minato Namikaze one-shot for its 20th anniversary and has been helping out with the story for the Boruto: Naruto Next Generations sequel — but this interquel puts him back at the helm of a Naruto manga in earnest.
The timing raises intriguing questions. Boruto, the official sequel set further along the timeline, is currently celebrating its own 10th anniversary, and a new series slotted into the gap before Naruto's Hokage coronation will have to navigate carefully around established continuity. How long the new run will last is also unknown — whether it's a short limited series or something more open-ended remains to be seen.
Kishimoto's full return carries real weight. The manga creator stepped back from weekly serialization after Naruto concluded, leaving the Boruto sequel largely in the hands of writer Ukyo Kodachi and artist Mikio Ikemoto. His Minato one-shot — released after fans voted the Fourth Hokage the franchise's most popular character — proved the appetite for Kishimoto-drawn Naruto stories never faded. Now he's committing to a new ongoing chapter of the saga himself.
Fans won't have to wait long for answers. The panel confirmed that much more information about the new series will be revealed during Jump Festa 2027 this December, the annual Shonen Jump showcase where major franchise announcements traditionally land.
The manga is just one piece of a much larger Naruto roadmap. The franchise has new projects lined up through at least 2029, including the Naruto x Ninku anime crossover and the live-action Hollywood film from Lionsgate directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. After years of quiet, the next three years are shaping up to be the busiest in the franchise's history.
Source: NYCC 2026
