Kishimoto Masashi (岸本 斉史) is a Japanese manga artist and author. He is known for being the creator, writer, and artist behind the NARUTO (1999) manga series; he is also the creator/supervisor of its sequel series BORUTO (2016). NARUTO has seen massive success both in Japan and overseas being one of the most sold manga properties in history with an estimated 250 million physical (tankōbon) copies in circulation as of May 2019.