A new series of prose novels, straight from the worldwide Naruto franchise. Naruto's allies and enemies take center stage in these fast-paced adventures, with each volume focusing on a particular clanmate, ally, team...or villain.

Uchiha Sasuke heads for an astronomical observatory, far from the Land of Fire. There, he syncs up with Sakura, and together they dive into an undercover investigation in search of traces of the Sage of Six Paths! They discover a plan that goes beyond life and death, and a battle that will test this husband-and-wife team till death do they part.

Author/artist Masashi Kishimoto was born in 1974 in rural Okayama Prefecture, Japan. After spending time in art college, he won the Hop Step Award for new manga artists with his manga Karakuri (Mechanism). Kishimoto decided to base his next story on traditional Japanese culture. His first version of Naruto, drawn in 1997, was a one-shot story about fox spirits; his final version, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, quickly became the most popular ninja manga in Japan.

Jun Esaka

Born February 13 in Kanagawa Prefecture. Blood type O. After graduating from Waseda University, he began working as a writer.