Fuusuke

NARUTO×NINKU is a special crossover anime. A crossover is a story where characters from two different series meet. This one brings together Naruto, one of the most famous ninja stories in the world, and Ninku, an older ninja series from the 1990s. It was revealed at New York Comic Con on October 10, 2026, as part of the celebration of the Naruto anime's 20th anniversary. It is planned as four episodes with a completely new story that does not come from either manga. The two creators, Masashi Kishimoto of Naruto and Koji Kiriyama of Ninku, are both checking and guiding all four episodes. No premiere date had been announced at the time of the reveal. The link between the two series is personal. Ninku is a manga by Koji Kiriyama, and its TV anime, made with Studio Pierrot, ran for 55 episodes on Fuji TV in 1995 and 1996. Kishimoto has said that "without NINKU, Naruto would not exist." He explained that he made Naruto partly because he wanted to see what would happen next in Ninku, and he has even called Ninku's hero Fusuke the "secret mentor" of Naruto. So this project is a kind of thank-you from one series to the one that inspired it. The story is set in Naruto's early days, when he is still a young member of Team 7. Team 7 is a small ninja squad made up of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Their teacher, Kakashi, usually leads them, but this time he gives them a job and cannot come along. That means Naruto gets to be the leader for once. Naruto is loud, brave and a little reckless, and he has always dreamed of being taken seriously, so he is very excited. Sasuke is calm, proud and very skilled, and Sakura is smart and often has to keep the two boys from fighting. While they are on the road, something goes wrong. The three young ninja end up by accident in the world of Ninku, a place that is completely unknown to them. There they meet Fusuke and his friends. Fusuke is a cheerful boy who looks much younger than he is. He was once a member of the Ninku Corps, a group of fighters with special martial arts that use the power of nature, such as wind. In his own story, Fusuke travels three years after a great war, searching for his mother, who was taken away when he was small. On the way, he fights soldiers of the Imperial Army and many criminals. What comes next is a new adventure that brings the two groups together. Team 7 has to deal with a world they do not understand, while Fusuke has to deal with three noisy young ninja from somewhere else. Fans can expect a mix of action, travel and comedy, which fits both series. The genres listed for it are action, adventure and comedy. The voice actors also make this special for long-time fans. Junko Takeuchi returns as Naruto, as in the original anime. Rica Matsumoto, who played Fusuke in the 1990s Ninku anime, comes back to play him again, about thirty years later. Matsumoto is also well known as the voice of Ash in the Japanese version of Pokemon. For Naruto fans, it is a chance to see Team 7 in a fresh story. For older fans, it is a rare return of a classic series that helped shape the ninja stories that came after it.