Good news, Naruto fans! The official website of Shueisha Jump J Books announced last Monday that the Naruto franchise will get a new three-book novel series.

Just last month, Masashi Kishimoto was teasing us about his new sci-fi manga ready for serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump but it seems like he’s not yet really finish with Naruto as he is returning for another project. Masashi Kishimoto will be providing the illustrations and Mirei Miyamoto (Saiki Kusuo no Psi-Nan film novelization) is writing Naruto Shinden.

The new three-book novels are titled Naruto Shinden (The New Legend of Naruto), Sasuke Shinden (The New Legend of Sasuke), and Shikamaru Shinden (The New Legend of Shikamaru). All of the books will focus on the title characters as parents and will consist of short stories with their children.

Kishimoto ended Naruto in 2014, but he has returned to draw art for various novel series. He is also supervising the Boruto manga series, which is written by Ukyou Kodachi and drawn by Mikie Ikemoto.

Kishimoto's Naruto manga has inspired three previous novel series: "Naruto Ninden," "Naruto Hiden" (Naruto Hidden Legend), and "Naruto Shinden" (Naruto True Legend). The new "Naruto Shinden" (Naruto New Legend) series has the same title reading as the previous series, but features a different kanji and thus has a different meaning.

Viz Media has published some of the Hiden and Shinden novels in North America.

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