Naruto x Ninku: what is confirmed and what is not

What it is

NARUTO x NINKŪ is a four-episode TV anime that sends Naruto’s Team 7 into the world of another ninja series. It was announced on October 10, 2026 at the “NARUTO: What’s Next?” panel at New York Comic Con, with a teaser trailer and a key visual.¹² The story is original and is supervised from start to finish by Masashi Kishimoto, creator of Naruto, and Koji Kiriyama, creator of Ninku.²

VIZ’s release says Kakashi gives Team 7 a mission, that Naruto is appointed acting leader because Kakashi cannot take part, and that the team ends up lost in another world.² The official page adds that the first person they meet there is a boy with a frog-like face named Fūsuke.⁴ Anime News Network reports that the world is Ninku’s.³

Why it matters now

The news is only days old. The announcement came on Naruto’s birthday, in front of an audience of about 3,000, with Junko Takeuchi and Noriaki Sugiyama, the Japanese voices of Naruto and Sasuke, and Pierrot Films executive producer Yoshihiro Tominaga on stage.²

It also looks like the end of a long wait. In August 2023 the Naruto production committee postponed a four-episode 20th anniversary anime that was due to start on September 3, 2023, saying it wanted to raise the quality, and gave no new date.⁵ The official page for this project still opens with a header describing a four-week TV Tokyo run starting on that date, and it lists FLOW for the opening and ending themes,⁴ the band Crunchyroll News said in 2023 would return for the anniversary anime.⁵ That is a strong match. No source we read says in words that the two are the same project, so we call it a likely link, not a confirmed one.

The project also sits inside a larger plan. The same panel launched PROJECT RASENGAN, a multiyear plan for new Naruto content, and announced a new Naruto manga by Kishimoto called Naruto Shadow Rising. More on both is due at Jump Festa on December 19 and 20, 2026.¹² A worldwide Naruto card game is set for June 2027.²

Who it is for

It is for people who watched Naruto and want more of Team 7, and for anyone curious about the series that shaped Naruto. The official page lists Junko Takeuchi as Naruto, Noriaki Sugiyama as Sasuke, Chie Nakamura as Sakura and Kazuhiko Inoue as Kakashi, with Rika Matsumoto voicing Fūsuke.⁴ Matsumoto’s comment there says it is a joy to see Fūsuke running around again about thirty years on, and to reunite with the original cast.⁴

You do not need to know Ninku. Anime News Network reports that Pierrot is streaming the first five episodes of the Ninku anime for free on its YouTube channel ahead of the crossover, which would be a low-cost way to meet Fūsuke and his friends.³

What makes it different

The crossover has a stated reason to exist. Kishimoto’s comment on the official page says he created Naruto because he wanted to see more of Ninku, calls Fūsuke Naruto’s “secret mentor,” and says this story brings that relationship out of the shadows.⁴ Both creators are supervising the whole story.²

The staff overlaps with both worlds. Noriyuki Abe directs at Studio Pierrot and Tetsuya Nishio is character designer and chief animation director.¹⁴ Anime News Network adds that Abe directed the Ninku anime and is chief director of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, and that Nishio worked on both the Naruto and Ninku anime.³ Yasuharu Takanashi, -Yaiba- and Yusuke Honma are credited on music.¹

The one thing to watch for

Watch what is missing. As of October 13, 2026 the sources we checked give no release date, no platform and no runtime, and they do not say how the four episodes will be released.¹ The official page’s 2023 broadcast header looks like leftover text from the earlier plan, so do not read it as a schedule.⁴

One honest gap: we could not confirm in the sources whether this is the postponed 2023 project, and we found no episode titles, so we are not stating either.