The Naruto manga may be wrapped up and the last movie aired, but the Naruto story is far from being finished. We get a small glimpse into new adventures with the Novel series being released, and the first book features Kakashi as the protagonist in Kakashi’s Story. Written by Akira Higashiyama, it’s set a year after the Fourth Great Ninja War ended the community has settled back into their daily lives, and Konoha is at peace with the neighboring Villages and Nations.
Madara was eradicated, but his ideals have not been forgotten and a small resistance of rogue ninja are planning to continue on his ultimate goal of uniting the world for eternal peace and equality through whatever evil and cruel means will get them there. After Naruto and Sai apprehend the mastermind of the group Garyo in the Land of Waves, he is sent to be imprisoned in Hozuki Castle for the rest of his days. While in the area, Naruto visits Inari and pays his respects to Zabuza and Haku, and learns of the secret new Air Ship the talented carpenters have been working on.
The opening chapter sets the scene, and that’s really about all we hear of Naruto throughout the whole novel, and I am quite glad in a way as he can be a bit over bearing sometimes and distract you from other characters. With the first flight of the Air Ship Tobisachimaru underway, Konoha dispatch ninja as a security force to make sure the guests are all safe. As you can already guess the maiden flight is certainly not going to go smoothly.
I won’t spoil any more of the story, I really enjoyed this read as it gives an insight into the struggles Kakashi faces after losing his Sharingan in the War, and his hesitation at becoming Hokage. It’s also hard not to imagine the characters acting out what you read, and there are some funny moments (mainly from Gai being an idiot) and lots, and lots of action. This is a novel, so there are no illustrations except for the front cover, first page and a character introduction page so not much to show here unfortunately. The story is well written if a bit simple, but this keeps it an easy read for younger audiences or those who come and go from books.
The book runs through 14 chapters over about 180 pages so it is a pretty quick read, and the front cover has a nice spot gloss in Japanese Kanji. I would recommend this to fans, and with Shikamaru’s Story novel coming in February 2016 released by Madman, I am glad they elaborated further using different methods other than animation and manga. There are six in total published in Japanese, hopefully the rest will all come released in English by the end of 2016. Below are the rest in their original Japanese covers.
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
