'Naruto' Creator Shares New Shikamaru Artwork

The Naruto series may be going strong following the adventures of the next generation of ninja in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, but there are many fans wishing the older versions of the previous series' characters would get more attention.

Luckily, these characters aren't forgotten as original creator Masashi Kishimoto drew new art of Shikamaru for the upcoming Shikamaru Shinden novel release.

Official Cover Art of Shikamaru Shinden. from r/Naruto

Shueisha's Jump J Books branch will get three new Naruto spin-off books this year. Each of the titles follows a character's struggles through fatherhood with the three novels in the series following Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke as they try and bond with their sons. Kishimoto is providing new art for all three of the novels, which cover a slew of short stories featuring the differences in each of their parent and child relationships.

This new series carries the subtitle Shinden, and is written by Mirei Miyamoto. The first book in the series is Naruto Shinden (The New Legend of Naruto), followed by Shikamaru Shinden (The New Legend of Shikamaru) and Sasuke Shinden (The New Legend of Sasuke) respectively. While the first cover featured Naruto and his son Boruto, the second cover features only features Shikamaru standing proudly alone. It's a distant cry from the first cover, but many fans will appreciate Kishimoto drawing Shikamaru again in any capacity.

For those unfamiliar with Naruto, it has quite a storied history. Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto, the series ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump for 700 chapters. The story follows Naruto, a young ninja with a sealed demon within him that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and featuring the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations recently made TV Tokyo's list of Top 5 Anime in sales and profits, coming third in sales and fifth and profits. The anime has been such a success that the Naruto franchise as a whole stills holds a top spot in many anime profits rankings as well. The series even managed to cross 235 million copies of the manga sold worldwide. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was even given a major bump of approval as it just took over a more familiar timeslot, airing in the same time and day that its predecessor Naruto: Shippuden once did.