Boruto
Boruto originated from Shueisha's proposal to Kishimoto on making a sequel to Naruto. However, Kishimoto rejected this offer and proposed his former assistant Mikio Ikemoto to draw it; the writer of the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Ukyō Kodachi, created the plot. A 293-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Pierrot with Kodachi's story supervision, was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 2017 to March 2023; a second part was announced to be in development.
The anime series has earned praise for its use of both new and returning characters, but the narrative of the manga was noted to be more serious as it focused more on the protagonist. The overall series had over 10 million copies in circulation in Japan by October 2025.
Plot
Part I: ''Naruto Next Generations''
A teenaged Boruto Uzumaki faces off against a teenaged Kawaki in the ruins of Konoha, the former recounts his story.The son of Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki and his wife Hinata Uzumaki, and older brother of Himawari Uzumaki, Boruto feels so angry over his father placing the village first before his family. At that time, Boruto becomes a member of a ninja team led by Naruto's protégé Konohamaru Sarutobi, alongside Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sasuke Uchiha and his wife Sakura Uchiha, and Mitsuki, Orochimaru's artificial son. Sasuke returns to the village to warn Naruto of an impending threat related to the motivations of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. Boruto asks Sasuke to train him for the upcoming Chunin Exam to impress his father. During the exam, Momoshiki and Kinshiki Ōtsutsuki, the duo whom Sasuke met, abduct Naruto so they can use Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside his body, to revitalize the dying Divine Tree from the dimension they came from. Boruto, Sasuke and the four Kages, the leaders of other ninja villages, set out to rescue Naruto. The battle ends when Momoshiki, sacrificing Kinshiki to increase his own strength, is defeated by Boruto with Naruto and Sasuke's help; Momoshiki survives long enough to realize Boruto's full potential while warning him of future tribulations and giving him a mysterious mark called "Karma". After recovering from his fight, Boruto decides to become a vigilante like Sasuke in the future, while entrusting Sarada to follow her dream of becoming the next Hokage.
Boruto and the others learn about a group called "Kara" searching for people with the marks called Karma. Boruto's team meets Kara's fugitive Kawaki, a boy who also has Karma. Kawaki becomes an adopted member of the Uzumaki family. However, when trying to protect Kawaki, Naruto and Sasuke are defeated by the leader of Kara, Jigen, who seals Naruto away while Sasuke escapes. Boruto and his teammates save Naruto when Boruto's Karma causes him to be possessed by Momoshiki. Sasuke discovers all Karma users will be taken over by the Ōtsutsuki clan, including Jigen and Boruto. Meanwhile, a mutiny begins in Kara, with Koji Kashin, a clone of Naruto's late master Jiraiya, challenging Jigen, while Amado goes to Konoha to seek asylum in exchange for information, revealing that the true leader of Kara is Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, who has been possessing Jigen ever since he was betrayed by Kaguya when they came to Earth millennia ago, and that Karma allows the Ōtsutsuki clan to resurrect via the host's body. Although Koji kills Jigen, forcing Isshiki to reincarnate imperfectly while Kawaki's Karma is removed in the process, Isshiki forces Koji to retreat and leaves to attack Konoha. Isshiki attempts to find Kawaki, but Naruto faces him head-on, preparing to fight. Boruto transports himself and Isshiki to another dimension away from the village, with Sasuke and Naruto following. Since Boruto is Momoshiki's vessel, Isshiki plans to feed him to his Ten-Tails in order to plant a Divine Tree. With Naruto's new power, Baryon Mode, he delays Isshiki as long as possible. After Baryon Mode runs out, Isshiki quickly overpowers Naruto and finds Kawaki due to the chakra of Naruto's prosthetic arm before teleporting him nearby, but due to lack of life time caused by Baryon Mode, Isshiki dies. Momoshiki uses this as an opportunity to possess Boruto and destroy Sasuke's Rinnegan. Sasuke and Kawaki fight Momoshiki until Boruto recovers his body, but due to Baryon Mode, Kurama dies.
After being defeated, Isshiki requests Code, who was guarding the Ten-Tails, to carry on the Ōtsutsuki's will by sacrificing either Boruto or Kawaki and becoming Ōtsutsuki himself. Code vows to avenge Isshiki's death and proceeds to release the two strongest cyborgs created by Amado that were supposed to have been disposed off: Eida and Daemon. The female cyborg Eida agrees to help Code kill Naruto if he in turn spares Kawaki for her to have a normal romance with, because her powers of seduction hinder her from experiencing proper love except with Ōtsutsuki. Amado gives Kawaki a weaponized version of Isshiki's Karma. Kawaki uses it to escape from the village, but Boruto notices that he can sense his chakra. In order not to lose Kawaki, Boruto has to run after him while the sensors monitor his chakra. Code eventually finds Kawaki, and Boruto fights him using Karma with Momoshiki's thousands of years of experience. However, Momoshiki takes over Boruto's body, forcing Kawaki to kill him in front of Naruto. Momoshiki revives Boruto at the cost of his own reincarnation, causing Boruto becoming a full Ōtsutsuki. Eida and Daemon were revealed to have been reprogrammed by Amado, and turn against Code, forcing him to flee.
Amado reveals that Eida's and Daemon's powers are shinjutsu transplanted from the corpse of Shibai Ōtsutsuki, an Ōtsutsuki who achieved godhood and transcended to another plane. He defines shinjutsu as divine abilities more powerful than ninjutsu which can only be used by gods, including the Karma. In the aftermath, Momoshiki appears in Boruto's mind, showing him a vision of his friends fighting against him. Kawaki, having deduced that Boruto, being a full-fledged Ōtsutsuki, is likely to turn evil, sends Naruto and Hinata into another dimension, promising to free them after killing Boruto and all the Ōtsutsukis. In the ensuing fight, Boruto confronts Kawaki and loses his right eye protecting Sarada. Sasuke arrives and tries to stop Kawaki, but Momoshiki helps the latter escape. Kawaki meets with Eida, who activates her Senrigan dojutsu known as the Omnipotence to rewrite everyone's memories: Kawaki and Boruto permanently swapped places, with Kawaki forcing Eida to lie that Boruto has killed Naruto and Hinata. Only Sumire Kakei and Sarada are unaffected by the Omnipotence, with Sarada awakening her Mangekyou Sharingan and is able to convince Sasuke of Boruto's innocence. After Eida apologizes for her actions, Boruto vows to regain everything taken from him. The story ends with Kawaki keeping Naruto and Hinata sealed away permanently as the world believes that Seventh Hokage is dead.
Part II: ''Two Blue Vortex''
Three years have passed, Naruto and Hinata are still alive and unconscious in Kawaki's dimension, while Sarada has failed to convince the Eighth Hokage Shikamaru Nara of Boruto's innocence. Code attacks the Konoha village with an army of monsters, but Boruto arrives to fight them off. Kawaki attacks Boruto and allows Code to escape before Boruto can get information about the Ten-Tails. Boruto uses the Flying Raijin technique to teleport to the dimension where he encounters Code and the four Shinju clones. After escaping, Boruto is supported by Koji Kashin, who became his new mentor, while sitting next to the tree that Code has trapped Sasuke in. Boruto reunites with Sarada and Sumire in the village, but Mitsuki attacks Boruto. After snapping Mitsuki out of his wrath, Boruto reveals the truth about what happened three years ago to Shikamaru through the Mind Body Transmission technique by Ino Yamanaka. Shikamaru tells Boruto that until they are ready to expose Kawaki's crimes to the village, they must work together in the shadows since Boruto is still considered a criminal. After Boruto informs Shikamaru of the true purpose of the sentient Ten-Tails, two Shinju clones Jura and Hidari arrives to the village to search for Naruto's whereabouts. Himawari, who believes that Boruto is innocent and wants to help her brother, steps forth to oppose them. The two Shinju clones begin their assault and Jura attempts to capture Himawari as their new target, as she is revealed to be Kurama's new host, while Sarada, Sumire and Konohamaru fight Hidari. After failing to obtain the Thorn Soul Bulb, Boruto was arrested and interrogated but manages to escape.Production
When the Naruto manga concluded in 2014, the company Shueisha asked Masashi Kishimoto to draw the sequel. Kishimoto rejected the idea and proposed artist Mikio Ikemoto, who had been working as an assistant for Kishimoto ever since Narutos early chapters, to draw it instead. A countdown website titled "Next Generation" was used to promote the new manga. In December 2015, Boruto: Naruto Next Generationss serialisation was announced. Kishimoto said he wanted Boruto to surpass his own work. The writer of Boruto, Ukyō Kodachi, had written a light novel called Gaara Hiden and had assisted Kishimoto in writing the script for the film Boruto: Naruto the Movie. Besides writing for the series, Kodachi supervises the story of the anime. Kishimoto also acted as the supervisor of the anime for episodes 8 and 9. Kodachi explained that the series' setting which is notable for handling more science than Naruto was influenced by his father, a physician. In order to further combine the use of ninjutsu and technology, Kodachi was inspired by sci-fi role playing games.Despite Kishimoto revising the manga's scenario, he advised Ikemoto to make his own art style instead of imitating his. Ikemoto agreed and felt optimistic about his art style. While noting long-time fans might be disappointed Kishimoto is not drawing Boruto, Ikemoto stated he would do his best in making the manga. While feeling honoured to create the art for Boruto, Ikemoto stated he is grateful the series is released monthly rather than weekly because producing the required amount of nearly 20 pages per chapter would be stressful; however, he still finds the monthly serialisation challenging. Regular chapters of Boruto tend to exceed 40 pages; creation of the thumbnail sketches takes a week, the pages take 20 days to produce, while the rest of the time is used for colouring images and retouching the chapters. In drawing the characters, Ikemoto felt that the facial expressions of Boruto changed as the story moved on; Initially giving the protagonist large eyes for the character's interactions with Tento, Boruto's appearance was made more rebellious when he instead talked with Kawaki.
Despite having a lighter tone than Naruto, the series begins by hinting at a dark future. This set-up was proposed by Kishimoto to give the manga a bigger impact and to take a different approach than the one from the Boruto movie. In this scenario, Ikemoto drew an older Boruto, but he believes this design may change once the manga reaches this point. In early 2019, Ikemoto stated the relationship between Boruto and Kawaki would be the biggest focus on the plot as it would progress until their fight in the flashforward. Ikemoto aims to give the series nearly 30 volumes to tell the story. Kodachi drew parallels between Boruto and the post-Cold War era, stating that while the new characters are living in a time of peace, something complicated might bring the world back to chaos.
Although Kishimoto initially was not writing the series, he created multiple characters for the staff to use. Kishimoto did not specify whether Naruto or another important character would die, but he said he would find a situation like this interesting and added that the authors have freedom to write the story as they wish. In November 2020 it was announced that after 51 chapters and 13 volumes, Kodachi would step down as writer, with Kishimoto assuming full writing duties and Ikemoto continuing as illustrator beginning with chapter 52 in V Jump magazine on 21 November 2020. In an August 2024 interview, Kishimoto stated that Ikemoto is completely in charge of the story and main illustrations of the series, emphasizing, "It really is Ikemoto's manga."