Naruto Shadow Rising and Ninku crossover announced at New York Comic Con
A new Kishimoto-drawn Naruto manga and a four-episode Ninku crossover lead Project Rasengan's latest announcements.
Naruto is getting a new manga drawn by Masashi Kishimoto, alongside a four-episode Naruto x Ninku anime crossover and a wider Project Rasengan roadmap. The announcements were made at the NARUTO: What's Next? stage at New York Comic Con on 10 October, according to the official Naruto site.1
Kishimoto returns to the manga
The official announcement revealed a new Naruto manga drawn by Kishimoto himself. The teaser showed the stone faces of the previous Hokage above the Hidden Leaf Village, with a seventh face still under construction, before cutting to Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura.1
The project is currently being presented as a new Naruto manga rather than a fully detailed serialisation announcement. The official recap says more information is due at the Naruto Jump Super Stage during Jump Festa 2027 in December. Unconfirmed reports have suggested a setting between the original Naruto story and Boruto, but those details have not been officially confirmed and should not be treated as settled information.1
That distinction matters because the teaser establishes Kishimoto's involvement without yet providing a magazine, chapter date or full story synopsis. For now, the announcement is best understood as a confirmed project reveal, with its remaining publication details still to come.
Naruto meets Ninku
The same stage also introduced Naruto x Ninku, a completely new four-episode anime supervised by Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama, creator of Ninku. The story sends Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura into another world after Naruto is appointed acting leader for a mission. There they meet Fūsuke, the frog-faced hero of Ninku.1
The official crossover page describes the project as a new story bringing together the two series. Pierrot Films is handling the animation, with Noriyuki Abe directing. The announcement also confirms the return of Rica Matsumoto as Fūsuke, alongside the familiar Team 7 cast.2
The official material does not give the crossover a premiere date or platform. It does, however, confirm that the project contains four episodes and is being positioned as a major part of the franchise's 20th-anniversary plans.2
Project Rasengan expands the franchise
Both projects sit inside Project Rasengan, a broader global initiative covering manga, anime, games and a trading-card game. The roadmap includes the worldwide rollout of Naruto Mobile and a worldwide Naruto card game launch planned for June 2027, although individual dates and regional details remain subject to further announcements.1
Our opinion
The Kishimoto-drawn manga is the headline here, but the crossover may be the more immediately distinctive idea. Naruto x Ninku turns a long-discussed creative influence into an actual story, rather than leaving it as a footnote in Kishimoto's history. The sensible way to read the wider announcement is as a confirmed roadmap with several blanks still waiting to be filled: the manga's publication details, the crossover's release date and the final shape of the live-action film all remain open. That leaves plenty for Jump Festa and future Project Rasengan updates to clarify.