Naruto Creator Debuts New Cover Art for Upcoming Novel

The story of Naruto isn’t just contained to the mediums of anime and manga, it also unveils new character beats and stories with a series of novels that explore areas that would have otherwise been unexplored. This Naruto series finds the most recent Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto of course, struggling with a disease that may end his life and is causing his chakra to go haywire. Presented with a proposition from the franchise’s most notable antagonist, Orochimaru, Sasuke and Sakura are simultaneously on a mission to assist their friend and former team mate in his current predicament. Now, the creator of the franchise, Masashi Kishimoto, has unveiled a brand new cover for the upcoming tale.

Twitter User SpirallingSphe2 has shared the upcoming cover which shows Naruto, and Orochimaru of all people, jumping through the air in Konoha past their version of “Mount Rushmore” which celebrates the Hokages of the past:

One of the best things that the Retsuden series has done so far for fans is really dive into the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura, exploring their marriage and the customs they underwent in tying the knot. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations did a fantastic job of “aging up” the characters that we had grown to know and care for throughout Naruto’s twenty year history, and being given more of an opportunity to learn about aspects that would otherwise go un-revealed makes for some great reading.

Considering this novel series does take place during a certain time frame, we’re fairly confident in saying that we won’t be seeing any truly exceptional events, such as a main character death, but being given the opportunity to explore the thoughts and feelings of our main protagonists makes these a must read for any fan of the ninja franchise.

What do you think of the cover for the upcoming installment of Naruto Retsuden? Have you been keeping up with these spin-off stories? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the Hidden Leaf Village!

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.