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.
Sasuke Uchiha
Kishimoto wished to further explore Sasuke's role in the series after "Naruto" finale. He wanted to explain the connection between Sasuke and Sakura in the spin-off manga "" (2015), which focuses on their daughter, Sarada Uchiha. Despite their separation during Sasuke's mission, which draws him away from his village, the story explains the bond between the three characters. Kishimoto focused on the final scene of the Uchiha family, which he regards as the spin-off's most important facet. Because Sasuke had few appearances in the "Naruto" films, Kishimoto decided to give him a bigger role in "" (2015), in which he teaches Naruto's firstborn child, Boruto Uzumaki; a reference to Piccolo and Gohan in Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball" manga series and also depicted in the manga "" (2016). Kishimoto identified Naruto's fights alongside Sasuke against Momoshiki as the highlights of the film and asked that the film's staff pay close attention to those sequences. Two other scenes written by the staff which surprised Kishimoto were Sasuke's use of one of his taijutsu moves and the combination of his Susanoo technique and Naruto's recreation of the Nine-Tailed Fox.