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
During the 1990s, new manga author Masashi Kishimoto sought to write a one-shot chapter that would feature Naruto as a chef, but this version never made it to print. Kishimoto originally wanted to make Naruto a child who could transform into a fox, so he created a one-shot of "Naruto" for the summer 1997 issue of "Akamaru Jump" magazine based on the idea. For the serialized version, Kishimoto incorporated traits he felt made an ideal hero in the creation of Naruto: a straightforward way of thinking, a mischievous side, and attributes possessed by Goku from the "Dragon Ball" franchise. Aiming to keep Naruto "simple and stupid," Kishimoto avoided modeling him after anyone in particular, instead conceiving of him as naïve with a dark side resulting from his harsh past. Despite this, he is always optimistic, a trait Kishimoto said makes this character unique. By and large, Naruto's personality is childish; the creator tried to convey this trait in his illustrations. Kishimoto notes as an example of this the cover of volume 10, where Kishimoto depicts Naruto mimicking a turtle as a child might do. "Naruto" was Kishimoto's first published manga, and he focused on making Naruto's facial expressions consistent in difficult situations. He commented: "It's rather awkward to talk about what makes Naruto appealing to audiences, but I think his being a knucklehead gives him an appeal." He believed it was Naruto's losses that made readers identify with him, although he wanted Naruto not to feel defeat again, which was his primary aim when writing the series. Kishimoto has said that Naruto's burning desire to be a ninja was based on his own ambition to succeed as a manga artist.