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.
Shikamaru Nara
Masashi Kishimoto originally created Shikamaru in order for him to be the only winner of an early "Naruto" arc: the Chunnin Exams, based on his high intelligence. However, recommendations from his editors resulted in Kishimoto to interrupt the fighting tournament between the ninjas in order to focus on a recently new introduced villain, Orochimaru. Nevertheless, Shikamaru ends becoming the only ninja from the original test to achieve a higher rank during Part I of the series.