Masashi Kishimoto
For the ninth "Naruto" film, "", Kishimoto was responsible for both the story planning and characters' designs. To promote the film, Kishimoto worked in "Motion Comic Naruto" a DVD that shows scenes from the manga in 3D that was given to the first 1.5 million people who went to the cinema. Regarding "Naruto"s publication Kishimoto told Tetsuya Nishio in July 2012 that the series would take over a year and a half to end. However, Kishimoto admitted that it now appears that the manga will continue beyond that timeframe. In April 2012, it was announced that Kishimoto would publish a one-shot version of his long-postponed mafia manga, "Mario", in "Jump Square", based on the rough, 160-page manuscript he began working on before "Naruto" became serialized.
Naruto Uzumaki
Introduced as a young orphan boy of 13 years with blond, spiky hair, blue eyes and goggles, Naruto Uzumaki frequently wears an orange tracksuit. Following his ninja graduation he also wore a headband that denotes his position as a ninja from Konohagakure. In Part II of the manga, the now older and larger Naruto wears a different outfit. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within influences his body, causing Naruto to resemble the Fox over the course of his battles. While Naruto only shows small changes such as sharp teeth and claws initially, he later develops a red tail made of the Fox's vital energy, or "chakra". The red chakra starts by surrounding his body; once four tails are manifested, Naruto's blood begins to merge with the chakra, coloring his entire body red. As the sixth tail appears, Naruto appears to wear the Fox's skeleton, but once Naruto takes control of the fox's chakra, he is able to maintain his regular form while using it. As a ninja, Naruto carries many weapons, but relies mostly on his ninja techniques while fighting, specializing in making clones of himself. Nevertheless, late in the series Naruto starts wielding a pair of "bō" in combat.