Masashi Kishimoto
Following the conclusion of "Naruto", Kishimoto became involved in the "Start of a New Era Project" commemorating the manga's conclusion and 15th anniversary. On the last page of the final chapter, "Weekly Shonen Jump" announced that a spin-off miniseries, also authored by Kishimoto, would be released in 2015. The series, "", ran from April to July 2015. Beyond this, Kishimoto was also heavily involved with two canonical movies, "" and "", as he personally supervised both movies, and illustrated several light novels. When asked by Boruto Uzumaki's voice actress Yūko Sanpei to continue making "Naruto" movies, Kishimoto stated that he was taking a break and could not physically do so.
Mikio Ikemoto
Mikio Ikemoto first wrote a one-shot manga titled "Cosmos" for the manga magazine "Weekly Shōnen Jump", which granted him an award in 1997. By that time, Ikemoto had become interested in Masashi Kishimoto's works as he was also a rookie in manga. When hearing that Ikemoto had been contacted by Shueisha to make a gag series, Kishimoto felt that his art might suit another type of series. Thus, he asked his superior to meet Ikemoto and let him work as one of his assistants. Ikemoto was grateful for this job, since he felt that "Naruto"s genre was what he had originally wanted. During the making of "Naruto", Ikemoto was Kishimoto's youngest assistant, and the latter jokingly said this made him and his other assistants envious. Ikemoto was responsible for drawing crowds and background figures, adding white to speed lines, highlights and characters' eyes, whiting out art that went out of the panels, putting stars in night skies, and adding in half-tones. Ikemoto recalls how often Kishimoto requested his help with adding more details to the manga chapters, leading him to draw more clones created by Naruto Uzumaki as well as an unspecified character who could become giant.