The new Naruto anime is NARUTO × NINKŪ, and it runs four episodes. It was revealed at the “NARUTO: What’s Next?” panel at New York Comic Con on 10 October 2026, and the official site now carries the staff, the cast, the theme songs and the story outline. What it still does not carry is a broadcast date.
It is a crossover, not a new arc. Team 7 are lost into another world and meet Fūsuke, the lead of NINKŪ, Koji Kiriyama’s 1993 Weekly Shonen Jump manga. Here is everything the official site confirms, the three things it still leaves open, and why this settles a question that had been hanging since 2022.
What NARUTO × NINKŪ actually is
Kakashi hands Team 7 a mission he cannot join himself, so Naruto is made acting leader. On the way the three of them are lost into another world, where they meet a boy with a frog-like face called Fūsuke.
Kishimoto has been unusually direct about why this exists. In his comment on the official site he says he created NARUTO because he wanted to see the continuation of NINKŪ, that NARUTO was immensely influenced by it, and that “Fūsuke is Naruto’s secret mentor”. That same comment is where the episode count comes from: “It consists of 4 episodes in total.”
| Title | NARUTO × NINKŪ |
| Episodes | 4 |
| Original story | Masashi Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama |
| Director | Noriyuki Abe |
| Character design | Tetsuya Nishio |
| Animation production | PIERROT FILMS |
| Opening | “GO!!!” by FLOW |
| Ending | “Viva★Rock” by FLOW |
| Broadcast date | Not announced |
Junko Takeuchi returns as Naruto, with Noriaki Sugiyama as Sasuke, Chie Nakamura as Sakura and Kazuhiko Inoue as Kakashi. Fūsuke is played by Rica Matsumoto, the role she first took when the NINKŪ anime aired in 1995. The rest of the NINKŪ cast listed is Mitsuaki Madono as Aicho, Jurota Kosugi as Toji, Megumi Hayashibara as Rihoko and Katsumi Suzuki as Hiroyuki.
The reveal was streamed worldwide, and the stream page on the NARUTO / BORUTO channel is still up if you want to watch it back.
What is confirmed
- The title: NARUTO × NINKŪ, a crossover rather than a new arc of NARUTO.
- Four episodes, stated by Kishimoto himself on the official site.
- Noriyuki Abe directing, Tetsuya Nishio on character design, animation production by PIERROT FILMS.
- FLOW on both theme songs, “GO!!!” and “Viva★Rock”, the two they wrote for the original series.
- The original cast returning: Junko Takeuchi, Noriaki Sugiyama, Chie Nakamura and Kazuhiko Inoue.
- Rica Matsumoto reprising Fūsuke, thirty years after the NINKŪ anime first aired.
- TV TOKYO sits in the copyright line on the official page, so it is a TV Tokyo production.
What is still not confirmed
The reveal answered most of what this page was opened to ask. These three it did not.
- A broadcast date. No year, no season, no month. The official page carries staff, cast, story and theme songs, and no date anywhere on it.
- Where it streams outside Japan. Crunchyroll carries the franchise in most territories, but no platform has been named for this.
- How the four episodes are shown. Weekly, as one block, or tied to an event. Nothing stated.
The four episodes that never aired
Back in 2022, to mark 20 years of the television anime, the franchise announced four brand new episodes. They were never broadcast. AniList still lists that project as NARUTO (2026), a television entry with an episode count of four, Studio Pierrot attached, FLOW on the theme songs, and no release date at all. AniList itself flags the title and format as provisional.
When this page first went up, before the panel, there were two reasonable readings and no way to choose between them:
- The long delayed four episode anniversary project is finally getting a date, now presented as a limited series.
- It is a separate, newly commissioned short run, and the anniversary episodes remain in limbo.
The reveal settled it, and it is the first reading. NARUTO × NINKŪ is four episodes, animated by PIERROT FILMS, with FLOW on both theme songs. That is the profile AniList had been carrying for the stalled anniversary project, down to the episode count and the band. The 2022 episodes were not abandoned. They were reshaped into a crossover and given a title.
Where this sits next to Shippuden and Boruto
The franchise timeline on screen is straightforward. The original Naruto ran 220 episodes from 3 October 2002 to February 2007. Naruto: Shippuden ran 500 episodes from February 2007 to 23 March 2017. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations ran 293 episodes from April 2017 and stopped on 26 March 2023.
The Boruto anime has not returned. Its continuation is listed as Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Part 2 with no date, no episode count and no staff announced, which we covered in our Boruto Two Blue Vortex guide. That gap is a large part of why a new Naruto anime lands the way it does: there has been no new weekly Naruto franchise anime on air for three years.
The Hollywood film is a separate thing
Worth separating, because the two keep getting mixed together. Lionsgate is producing a live action Naruto film, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The official franchise site announced a global casting search for Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura on 10 July 2026, and Charles Melton has been reported in final negotiations to play Kakashi Hatake. None of that has anything to do with the television limited series announced on Monday.
What a limited series usually means
Studio Pierrot has form here, and it is useful context rather than a prediction. Pierrot is currently making Black Clover 2nd Season and has been running Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War in short, self contained cours rather than long continuous runs. That structure, a small number of episodes built around one arc, is what the industry generally means by a limited series, and it is the shape the anniversary project was already announced in.
What it does not mean is a movie, and it does not mean a full weekly season. If the panel announces either of those instead, the wording will have changed.
How to follow the reveal
The stream is free and needs no account. The scheduled broadcast sits on the NARUTO / BORUTO Official Channel, and the franchise is also running a countdown at naruto-official.com. We will update this page as soon as the panel ends, with whatever is actually announced rather than what people hoped for.
If you want to know what else is starting in the meantime, our October 2026 premiere guide and the weekly anime schedule both cover the autumn lineup with dates and times.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a new Naruto anime?
Yes. It is called NARUTO × NINKŪ, it runs four episodes, and it is a crossover with Koji Kiriyama’s NINKŪ. It was announced on 28 September 2026 and detailed at New York Comic Con on 10 October. A broadcast date has still not been announced.
When does NARUTO × NINKŪ air?
Not announced. The official site published the full staff and cast without a date, which usually means the broadcast slot is still being arranged.
How many episodes is it?
Four. Kishimoto states it directly in his comment on the official site.
Is this the same as the four anniversary episodes from 2022?
Almost certainly yes. The 2022 anniversary project was four episodes, Pierrot, FLOW on the themes, no date. NARUTO × NINKŪ is four episodes, PIERROT FILMS, FLOW on both themes. The production has not spelled out the link, but the profiles match exactly.
Does this have anything to do with the live action film?
No. The Lionsgate film with Destin Daniel Cretton directing is a separate project.
Is Boruto coming back too?
The Boruto anime’s continuation is still listed with no date and no staff announced. Nothing said at the panel changed that.
Updated 30 October 2026. This page first went up on 29 September 2026, before the New York Comic Con panel, when the only confirmed fact was that a limited series existed. It has been rewritten around what the panel actually revealed. Checked against the official site and AniList on 30 October 2026. Sources: the announcement reported by Anime News Network from Viz Media’s press release, the official NARUTO × NINKŪ page at naruto-official.com for the staff, cast, theme songs, story and episode count, and AniList for the series records.
