10 Ways Masashi Kishimoto Could Spin a Naruto Threequel after Boruto

The Naruto story is already one of the greatest epic shonen sagas written by Masashi Kishimoto, and the follow-up story of Boruto by Ukyo Kodachi is just as great. However, where do we go from here? I mean, what if Kishimoto decided to come back to the story after that and create a threequel for the narrative? To top that, in a recent interview, Kishimoto talked about further expanding the universe, as posted by a fan on social media (via X):

— R 9 👾 (@prowlerearth42) July 29, 2026

While we wait for further reveals, let’s put our own theories behind the thought. If you’re wondering how the story would continue after the Boruto series, we’ve got you. Here are some of the ideas that we feel would be great additions or a continuation of the story from where we are currently.

TITLE	Naruto
CREATOR	Masashi Kishimoto
STUDIO	Studio Pierrot
IMDb RATING (as of July 30, 2026)	8.4/10
WHERE TO WATCH	Crunchyroll, Hulu

1 Hand The Whole Story Off To Sarada And Let Team 7’s Kids Run Konoha

Honestly, the cleanest way forward is just letting go of the Uzumaki name being the center of everything. Sarada has spent this entire generation proving she’s got the brains, the Sharingan, and the political instincts her mom never got screen time for.

A threequel built around her actually becoming Hokage, with Boruto and Mitsuki as her support instead of the leads, would feel like a natural passing of the torch rather than another “chosen kid saves the world” retread. Kishimoto clearly likes writing found-family dynamics, and Sarada inheriting Sasuke’s isolation while rejecting it in her own way is right there waiting to be written. It’s the least predictable direction left, honestly.

2 Skip Ahead A Decade So Kawaki’s Redemption Gets Room To Breathe

Two Blue Vortex has Kawaki stuck as this tragic, half-villain figure who never quite gets to just exist as a person. A threequel that jumps ten or so years past whatever ending Two Blue Vortex lands on could finally let him be someone other than “the vessel” or “Naruto’s replacement son.”

Give him a genin team of his own, maybe even one that doesn’t know his history, and let the story slowly peel back who he chose to become once nobody was forcing a destiny on him. It’s the kind of quiet character study Kishimoto rarely gets to write because Naruto and Boruto were both built around prophecy. Kawaki earned a story that isn’t about being used.

3 Center It On Himawari Once She Steps Out Of Everyone’s Shadow

Himawari already quietly became one of the most loaded characters in the franchise, awakening her Byakugan young and later bonding with Kurama as his new jinchuriki, yet she’s still treated like a supporting player behind Boruto and Kawaki.

A threequel that puts her front and center, really digging into what it means to carry both Hyuga blood and a trace of Otsutsuki ancestry inside a body already hosting the strongest tailed beast, gives Kishimoto room to explore inherited power from a different angle. She grew up watching her brother get erased from history, and her parents get sealed away, so there’s real material there. This isn’t just “give the girl a turn”; it’s a character who’s overdue.

4 Make The Next Generation Deal With A World That Doesn’t Need Ninjas

One idea that keeps circling in fan discussions is a story about shinobi becoming obsolete now that the Otsutsuki threat is handled and the world’s technology, thanks to people like Katasuke, keeps advancing. A threequel could follow Konohagakure’s next class of genin figuring out what a ninja village is even for anymore, when scrolls and jutsu start losing ground to Amado-style science.

That’s a genuinely fresh conflict for the franchise, less about villains and more about identity and purpose. It would let Kishimoto write something closer to a slow societal shift than another apocalyptic showdown, which the series honestly hasn’t tried yet.

5 Bring Back The Five Kage Summit And Let Konohamaru Lead A War

Two Blue Vortex has already started setting up Konohamaru for the Hokage seat, with a recent vision pointing toward him taking over once Shikamaru steps aside, so a threequel wouldn’t need to invent that promotion, just cash it in properly.

Give him a full-scale crisis to run once he’s actually wearing the hat, forcing him to make the brutal calls his mentor Naruto never fully had to make, and you finally justify years of setup that mostly played out in the background while Boruto and Kawaki hogged the spotlight. Pair that with a new Five Kage summit, and Konohamaru earning his authority in real time, instead of just inheriting goodwill, is the payoff the story owes him.

6 Let Mitsuki’s Origins With Orochimaru Finally Become The Main Event

Mitsuki is one of the most quietly interesting characters in the whole Boruto era, being an artificial life form built from Orochimaru‘s cells, and the story keeps sidelining that in favor of Kawaki’s Otsutsuki drama. A threequel could dig into what happens when Mitsuki starts confronting his own nature head-on, maybe even facing other experiments Orochimaru never mentioned.

Toss Orochimaru himself back into an active role, since he’s always lurking at the edges of these plots anyway, and there’s a genuinely creepy, morally messy arc sitting right there. It plays to Kishimoto’s strength for body-horror-adjacent concepts without needing another Otsutsuki invasion to raise the stakes.

7 Set It In The Land Of Iron And Finally Give The Samurai Their Due

The Land of Iron and its samurai culture got a handful of cool cameos across the original Naruto run and then mostly vanished from relevance. A threequel built around a shinobi-samurai alliance, maybe centered on a new character trained in both traditions, would open up fresh visual and philosophical ground Kishimoto hasn’t touched since Mifune showed up during the Fourth Shinobi World War Arc.

It also sidesteps the Otsutsuki well entirely, which by this point has been drained dry across two full manga runs. A story about honor codes clashing with ninja pragmatism feels like genuinely unexplored territory for this franchise, and the setting alone would look incredible in Ikemoto-style art.

8 Follow Boruto After He Loses His Otsutsuki Power For Good This Time

Boruto Uzumaki spent his entire section of the story either resenting his Otsutsuki mark or getting overwhelmed by it, so the most satisfying threequel pitch might just be taking that power away entirely and forcing him to be a normal shinobi again.

There’s real dramatic weight in watching someone who’s always had a built-in advantage suddenly having to rebuild their identity and their fighting style from zero, especially after the ego hits he’s taken throughout Two Blue Vortex. It also mirrors his father’s own arc of proving himself without shortcuts, but from the opposite direction, since Boruto’s starting point was inherited strength instead of none at all.

9 Do A Time-Skip Villain Story Where One Of The Kids Goes Rogue

Every generation of this franchise gets its own version of Sasuke walking away from the village, and honestly the next series doesn’t need to be scared of repeating that beat if it commits to a different reason behind it.

Picture one of the current kids, maybe someone quieter like Inojin or a newly introduced character, leaving not out of revenge but out of genuine disagreement with how Konoha handles power like Kawaki’s or the Otsutsuki bloodlines. A threequel chasing that defector down, only to find their reasoning is uncomfortably valid, would give Kishimoto room to question the village system itself instead of just defending it again.

10 Wrap It Up With A Full Otsutsuki Reckoning Told From Their Side

After three manga runs’ worth of immortal Otsutsuki showing up as unstoppable cosmic threats, a threequel finally slowing down to tell part of the story from their perspective could recontextualize the entire franchise. Give a surviving Otsutsuki, maybe someone tied to Isshiki or Momoshiki’s fractured legacy, a redemption or tragedy arc that explains why this clan keeps producing monsters instead of just labeling them as such.

It’s a risky pitch because it flips the villain framework Kishimoto’s leaned on since Boruto’s second half began, but it’s also the only genuinely unexplored angle left on a threat this franchise has been building since the very start.

What are your thoughts on our theories that can become the perfect narrative for a Naruto threequel in the series? We’d love to know your ideas and opinions on our list in the comments below.

All episodes of the Naruto anime series are available to watch on Crunchyroll and Hulu.