Two ninja-themed series are coming together in a brand-new four-episode crossover anime: Naruto and NINKŪ. According to the official Naruto site, the story follows Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura on a mission that unexpectedly carries Team 7 into another world. There they encounter Fūsuke, the recognizable protagonist of NINKŪ.
The crossover is supervised by the original creators, Masashi Kishimoto and Koji Kiriyama. Kishimoto has explained that NINKŪ had an enormous influence on the development of Naruto, going so far as to describe Fūsuke as Naruto's secret mentor. That makes this collaboration an unusually meaningful meeting of inspirations rather than an arbitrary crossover.
NINKŪ began as a manga in the early 1990s and received an anime adaptation in 1995. The new project creates an opportunity for longtime fans to revisit that history and for younger audiences to discover a series that helped shape one of anime's most famous ninja stories. An exact release date was not listed on the official project page at the time of this announcement.