1.When Kishimoto first created Naruto, he was inspired by a roadside ramen stall, and so he wanted to write about a youth eating ramen. While his theme was considered questionable, in the end it was able to get serialized.
2.The Fourth Hokage's appearance was inspired by combining Kiba and Akamaru's appearance.
3.Before the Chunnin exams, Kishimoto originally wanted to draw a few more missions, but due to the vastness of the Naruto universe and its many characters, Kishimoto asked his assistant for help in creating some of the characters, which resulted in the creation of Rock Lee, who is based on Jackie Chan.
4. Due to the regulations associated with the Animation industry, Kishimoto was told that Shikamaru's smoking wouldn't be allowed, although Kishimoto did it anyway. Additionally, he tried to make Hidan's design look less intimidating.
5. The reason why Kishimoto decided not to have Jiraiya return using Edo Tensei was because he felt as though Jiraiya's death was spectacular, and as such, it would have been hard to draw Naruto's reaction to seeing him.
6. Kishimoto was troubled by Sakura's lack of popularity among the readers. In trying to increase her popularity, whenever he was drawing the covers, Kishimoto spent extra time drawing and re-drawing Sakura, worried that he would make her ugly.
Also, Hinata's popularity, despite being a secondary character, had once caused Kishimoto to have the idea of turning Hinata into the main heroine of the story.
7. Kishimoto had planned to let Neji die so that Naruto and Hinata could get closer to one another, which was why Hinata brought her daughter to visit his grave in chapter 700, and why Naruto's son, Boruto and Neji had the same meaning. Kishimoto said, "I needed a factor for Hinata to become more like Naruto's heroine so I made Neji act as a Cupid...."
8. Each time Naruto knocked out his enemies, Kishimoto would draw the shot from several different angles, which was inspired by Jackie Chan's martial arts films. Also, when doing these knockout scenes, Kishimoto doesn't like to draw the characters' face, as he feels as though revealing the faces would diminish the impact of the attack and the artwork.
9. At the end of the Naruto and Sasuke fight, the original intention was that they finished while holding hands, but Kishimoto changed his mind and cut their hands instead, making the ending more gory.
10. After introducing next year's movie and the Naruto exhibition 2015, Kishimoto also revealed that Orochimaru, Kabuto, and other lesser characters would be re-appearing in the Boruto series, in order to finish the main plot. After that, Kishi says he will be taking time off in order to relax, as well as get together with his assistant to discuss details of his next series. It is unclear whether the new series will be based on ninjas or a totally new theme.
