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.
Boruto: Naruto the Movie
"Boruto" was first announced in December 2014 by a post-credits scene in "". Kishimoto stated the film would star the son of Naruto and Hinata, Boruto Uzumaki, as well as Sasuke and Sakura's daughter, Sarada. While not knowing what the film would be about, voice actress Junko Takeuchi was pleased with the announcement. While having too many thoughts about the film, Kishimoto stated he was not sure what technique Boruto would use in the story. Director Hiroyuki Yamashita was added to the project in December 2014, and Masashi Kishimoto began writing the script the following month. Yamashita said that he had felt pressured due to the time constraints, owing to the movie's planned release date, and had almost refused to direct it. Kishimoto explained that he felt he could rely on Yamashita based on his work on the animated adaptations of the "Naruto" manga. Kishimoto had originally envisioned the film's storyline as a manga, but did not feel there was enough time to complete it and chose to write a screenplay instead.