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.
Naruto Uzumaki
Out of all the student-teacher relationships Kishimoto has created in the "Naruto" series, the bond between Naruto and Jiraiya is his favorite, noting that it makes drawing them "worthwhile." Regarding bonds in the story, Kishimoto remarks the Jiraiya's death in his fight against Pain as in his last moments, he discovers the origin of Pain's multiple bodies and uses his last forces to send it as a message to Naruto so that he could send him as an piece of advice to defeat him in his place.