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.
List of Naruto characters
, named after Konohagakure, is the grandson of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. He strives to replace his grandfather as Hokage so the villagers will recognize him by name, not simply as the Hokage's grandson. He looks to Naruto as a mentor in this quest, emulating his work ethic, determination, and signature jutsu such as the Rasengan and the Sexy Jutsu among a variety of other techniques. Konohamaru insists, however, that he will only become Hokage after Naruto has been Hokage first. By the events of the series epilogue, Konohamaru has ascended to the rank of jonin and is currently captain of Team Konohamaru. Konohamaru's design caused great difficulties for Masashi Kishimoto; he intended for Konohamaru to look like a "punk" smaller than Naruto, yet all of his attempts resulted in a mere recreation of Naruto. He eventually gave Konohamaru small, angry-looking eyes and was instantly happy with the design. While voiced in the Japanese anime by Ikue Ōtani and by Akiko Koike as a stand-in, Konohamaru's adult self is voiced by Hidenori Takahashi. In the English version, Colleen O'Shaughnessey voices Konohamaru's pre-adult self, and Max Mittelman voices Konohamaru's adult self.