Kotaku's report on the New York Comic Con reveal stresses the detail fans zeroed in on: Masashi Kishimoto will personally write and draw *Naruto: Shadow Rising*, not just supervise it. Kotaku notes Kishimoto penned the original *Naruto* but largely only supervised the divisive *Boruto*, whose art by Mikio Ikemoto many fans rank below Kishimoto's own work. The trailer also shows a baby Sarada — 11 at *Boruto*'s start — placing the new manga roughly a decade earlier, and includes another Naruto-versus-Sasuke punch-up that the official Naruto website's announcement specifically calls out.

The surprise is not simply that a new *Naruto* manga exists — it is who is making it. Kotaku frames Kishimoto's return to the art desk as the reason fans are 'losing it,' since he only supervised *Boruto* after the original run. IGN Africa's report adds that details were deliberately light, with only Kishimoto's involvement and the 'Shadow Rising' title confirmed at the panel, and that a teaser promised more at the NARUTO Super Stage at Jump Festa 2027. Tbreak UAE cautions that even the title comes via IGN's reporting, as the official recap describes it only as a new manga drawn by Kishimoto.

Because no plot was given, the teaser's imagery is doing the storytelling. Tbreak UAE's reading of the official recap describes the stone faces of six previous Hokage above the Hidden Leaf Village with a seventh face under construction, Naruto holding the Hokage hat, Kakashi smiling, Sasuke standing, Sakura looking at a baby, and a final clash between Naruto and Sasuke. Kotaku flags that ending as especially puzzling: the original manga closes with Naruto and Sasuke burying the hatchet, and *Boruto* opens with them as friends, so the fight's place in the timeline is anyone's guess. The first chapter is slated to drop in 2027, per Kotaku.

The pack's most surprising trivia is why *Ninkū* — a series Western fans barely remember — earned a crossover at all. Kotaku reports Kishimoto has long credited *Ninkū* as his main inspiration, quoting him directly: 'I created Naruto because I personally wanted to see the continuation of Ninkū... Without Ninkū, Naruto would not exist.' Kotaku also notes *Ninkū* is huge in Japan but never broke through in the West, partly because the English dub of the 1995 anime is considered lost media. That underdog pedigree is exactly what devoted readers are now talking about alongside the manga reveal.

The panel fit into a bigger roadmap: THE MAGIC RAIN describes 'Project Rasengan' as a three-year plan that also includes a global launch of Naruto Mobile and the Naruto Card Game, plus four unannounced projects. Tbreak UAE confirms neither the manga nor the four-episode *Naruto x Ninkū* anime — supervised by Kishimoto and *Ninkū* creator Koji Kiriyama, directed by Noriyuki Abe with Tetsuya Nishio on character design — has a release date or platform yet. The next confirmed window is the Naruto Jump Super Stage at Jump Festa 2027, held 19–20 December 2026 at Makuhari Messe, where fuller *Shadow Rising* details are promised.