Naruto × Ninkū Anime: Four Episodes, Official Teaser and Release Status
Team 7 meets Fūsuke in a creator-supervised crossover announced at New York Comic Con. Here is what the official sources confirm—and which release details are still unannounced.
Four episodes bring Naruto and Ninkū together
Naruto has a new anime project: a four-episode crossover with Ninkū, the ninja adventure created by Koji Kiriyama. VIZ announced the project at New York Comic Con on October 10, 2026, alongside a first teaser. Masashi Kishimoto and Kiriyama are supervising the episodes, with Noriyuki Abe directing and Tetsuya Nishio handling character design and chief animation direction.
The announcement establishes a specific, limited project rather than an open-ended new television season. For viewers looking for a release date, however, the launch details are still missing: the official announcements reviewed on October 11 do not give a premiere date or name a streaming service. Source: VIZ’s New York Comic Con announcement.
Team 7’s mission takes Naruto into another world
The production’s official project page describes a mission assigned to Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. With Kakashi unable to accompany them, Naruto takes the lead. Their assignment becomes something much stranger when Naruto loses his way into another world and encounters Fūsuke, the central character of Ninkū.
That premise gives the crossover a clear starting point: a familiar Team 7 assignment becomes an encounter between two different approaches to ninja adventure. The announcement does not establish where these episodes belong in Naruto’s continuity, so a watch-order placement would be premature.
For readers unfamiliar with the other half of the title, Ninkū began as Kiriyama’s manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1993 and received an anime adaptation in 1995. Its fighting style combines ninjutsu and karate. The new project’s official materials also identify it as an influence on Kishimoto’s work, giving the pairing a documented creative connection.
Who is making the crossover?
The project page credits PIERROT FILMS with animation production. Its lead cast includes Junko Takeuchi as Naruto and Rica Matsumoto as Fūsuke, with Noriaki Sugiyama as Sasuke, Chie Nakamura as Sakura and Kazuhiko Inoue as Kakashi.
Both original creators are involved in supervising all four episodes. That is the confirmed scope of their participation; it should not be expanded into claims that they personally animate the project or write every scene. The official credits distinguish supervision, direction and character design as separate responsibilities.
Watch the official Naruto × Ninkū teaser
The NARUTO / BORUTO Official Channel published NARUTO×NINKŪ | Teaser | NARUTO on October 10, 2026. This is the teaser linked by VIZ’s announcement and corresponds to the crossover, rather than a preview for an unrelated Naruto season.
Watch the official teaser directly on YouTube. The player loads after a click and does not start automatically.
Release date and streaming: what remains unannounced
As of October 11, 2026, the reviewed official sources have not specified the premiere date, episode release schedule, broadcaster, streaming platform or country-by-country availability for the crossover. There is consequently no confirmed US viewing service to recommend yet, nor evidence for a simultaneous worldwide anime release.
TV Tokyo’s Project Rasengan announcement does contain a June 2027 date, but that belongs to the Naruto card game. It is not the release date for these four anime episodes. Its statement about global distribution of a mobile game likewise should not be read as an anime streaming agreement.
The crossover and Naruto Shadow Rising are separate projects
The official Naruto announcement roundup also introduces Kishimoto’s new Naruto Shadow Rising manga. That announcement sits alongside the crossover under the broader Project Rasengan initiative; it does not turn the crossover into a Shadow Rising anime adaptation.
The next announced Project Rasengan information point is Jump Festa 2027, scheduled for December 19–20, 2026. Despite the event’s name, those dates fall in December 2026. The promised follow-up concerns the broader project, so it is not a guarantee that an anime premiere date will be revealed there.
Until a distribution announcement appears, treat this as a confirmed four-episode production with a released teaser and an unannounced launch. For other titles with established dates, consult AniNextUp’s anime release calendar; this crossover should not receive a guessed calendar entry.
