The Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is assorted by Issue Numbers every year, and there are only 48 total Issues. Due to the fact that 4 of them are actually Double Issues, the last issue of the year corresponds with this and is numbered as Issue #52.
Issue #52 is usually released in the third week of November (next week, when Naruto is taking a break) and Issue #01 is released in the last week of November, which will be the beginning of the 'new WSJ year'.
While we are on this topic, I'd also like to clarify the differences between the mangaka (author) taking a break, and a Double Issue.
When there is a holiday, Weekly Shonen Jump will give us what is known as a 'Double Issue'. This does not mean we will get two chapters for one week. In fact, it means the exact opposite: we get one chapter over a two week time span. This is not only restricted to Naruto; it affects all of the WSJ mangas.
Outlined below are the dates of each holiday break that the Weekly Shonen Jump observes, along with the issue number for the corresponding Double Issue:
Issue #04-05 (3rd week of December) --> No WSJ in last week of December (End of Year)
Issue #06-07 (first week of January) --> No WSJ in 2nd week of January (New Year)
Issue #22-23 (last week of April) --> No WSJ in 1st week of May (Golden Week)
Issue #36-37 or #37-38 (first week of August) --> No WSJ in 2nd week of August (Obon week)
This Double Issue business is different from the mangaka taking a break. We cannot predict when the author will take a break, we will only know at the end of the chapter that precedes the break. An example of that is this week's manga -- the author decided to take a break for one week, and it was posted at the end of the chapter. Fortunately for us, Weekly Shonen Jump will still publish all of its other manga next week (i.e. Bleach, One Piece, etc.) because only Kishimoto decided to take a break.
I hope this cleared some things up for people out there who were still confused.
-Thorium
