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.
List of Naruto characters
is an organization of criminal ninja that serves as the primary antagonistic force of the second part of the "Naruto" series. It was founded by Yahiko, Nagato and Konan. After Yahiko's death, it was led by Nagato with Obito as his benefactor. The Akatsuki's goal is world domination by using the power of the nine Tailed Beasts. The members of Akatsuki are ninja who have abandoned their villages, and are considered by their former homes to be S-class criminals, the most powerful and wanted ninja in the "Naruto" universe. At any given time, Akatsuki is composed of ten members, who operate in two-man teams; it was later reduced to nine after Orochimaru's departure. Aside from an attempt by members Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki to capture Kurama (the Nine-Tailed fox sealed within Naruto Uzumaki), Akatsuki is not prominently featured in Part I. In Part II, they take a more active role, capturing Gaara and extracting the one-tailed tanuki, Shukaku, from his body, as well as working towards capturing the remaining Tailed Beasts. Kishimoto called the Akatsuki's members antiheroes as he wished to expand their backgrounds as much as the ones from the series' protagonists, contrasting them with other types of villains.