Naruto Final Chapter Explained: Everything You Need to Know About the Shonen Finale

When Weekly Shonen Jump published the double release of Chapters 699 and 700 on November 10, 2014, Masashi Kishimoto concluded a fifteen-year cultural landmark. The final installment was entirely in full color, skipping past the immediate wreckage of the Fourth Shinobi World War to reveal a tranquil, technologically advancing Hidden Leaf Village. Years later, that conclusion remains the definitive blueprint for the entire sequel landscape, spanning light novels, feature films, and the ongoing saga of Boruto.

The transition from Kishimoto's original 700-chapter run into generational spin-offs proved durable. The franchise maintained massive worldwide viewership, culminating in milestone broadcast shifts such as the Crunchyroll Report documenting the conclusion of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Part 1 with Episode 293. Understanding where the expanded universe stands requires looking closely at how Kishimoto constructed his final pages, settled longstanding romantic disputes, and completely restructured the shinobi world.

📌 Key Takeaways:

• The Dual Finale: Chapter 699 formally settled the Fourth Shinobi World War and Sasuke's redemption, while Chapter 700 jumped roughly fifteen years forward to present Konoha's next generation.
• The Canon Pairings: Kishimoto confirmed permanent unions between Naruto and Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura, Shikamaru and Temari, Sai and Ino, and Choji and Karui.
• The Inauguration Twist: Naruto is active as the Seventh Hokage during Chapter 700, though the chaotic ceremony itself was later depicted in a dedicated one-shot omake.
• Technological Modernization: The epilogue fundamentally altered Konoha from an agrarian martial camp into an electrified metropolis with skyscrapers, personal computers, and modern infrastructure.

The Dual-Chapter Strategy That Closed a Fifteen-Year Serialization

Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #50 in 2014 carried an unprecedented structural release. Kishimoto delivered two complete chapters totaling 44 pages: Chapter 699 in standard monochrome, immediately followed by Chapter 700 rendered fully in color. This decision served a practical editorial purpose. Rather than compressing Sasuke Uchiha's reconciliation, the release of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and a generational time jump into a single rushed vignette, Kishimoto bifurcated the ending.

Chapter 699 provided the narrative resolution. Kakashi Hatake stood as the newly appointed Sixth Hokage, pardoning Sasuke for his crimes based on Naruto Uzumaki's testimony and Sasuke's critical intervention against Kaguya Otsutsuki. The final page featured Sasuke departing Konoha on a self-imposed journey of atonement, tapping Sakura Haruno's forehead in a gesture inherited from Itachi. That single action closed the vengeance arc that drove the series since 1999.

Chapter 700 served as an expansive epilogue. By skipping approximately fifteen years into the future, Kishimoto bypassed the tedious diplomatic summits required to rebuild the continent. Readers landed directly in a prosperous era governed by adult veterans, shifting the thematic lens from survival to parenthood and legacy.

Canon Romances and the Konoha New Generation Shinobi

The release of Chapter 700 detonated years of factional shipping wars across the global fandom. Kishimoto bypassed ambiguous, open-ended relationships, choosing instead to present unambiguous domestic family units. Every central character had settled into domestic life, populating the Leaf Village Academy with direct descendants.

The core unions established in the finale include:

• Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga: Raising Boruto and Himawari Uzumaki. Boruto mirrors his father's childhood defiance, defacing the Hokage Rock to gain attention from a workaholic parent.
• Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno: Parents to Sarada Uchiha. Sasuke operates as a roaming shadow operative outside the village borders, while Sakura anchors the household and Konoha's medical corps.
• Shikamaru Nara and Temari: Raising Shikadai Nara, who inherits his father's strategic lethargy alongside his mother's sharp wind-release temperament. Shikamaru serves as chief advisor to the Seventh Hokage.
• Sai and Ino Yamanaka: Parents to Inojin Yamanaka, blending Sai's ink techniques with the sensory mind-transfer jutsu of the Yamanaka clan.
• Choji Akimichi and Karui: A cross-village union uniting Konoha and Kumogakure, resulting in Chocho Akimichi.

Rock Lee appears training his son Metal Lee, while characters like Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Tenten occupy civilian and academic roles. Shino, once an enigmatic combatant, transitioned into an elementary school instructor. The romantic decisions were not arbitrary; Kishimoto revealed in post-serialization interviews that Naruto ending up with Hinata had been planned internally around the midpoint of the series, codified during the Pain Invasion arc.

When Did Naruto Actually Become Hokage?

A widespread misconception among casual readers is that Chapter 700 showcases the day Naruto took office. In the chapter itself, Naruto is already the sitting Seventh Hokage, exhausted under stacks of bureaucratic paperwork before departing for an emergency Five Kage Summit hosted in Konoha. His inauguration happened years prior.

The actual ceremony was detailed in a special one-shot titled The Day Naruto Became the Hokage, distributed to moviegoers attending Boruto: Naruto the Movie in August 2015. Kishimoto played the historic event entirely for comedy. On the morning of the ceremony, Himawari awakened her Byakugan during a sibling dispute over a plush toy. When Naruto intervened, she struck his tenketsu point with gentle fist precision, knocking him unconscious for the entire day.

To prevent a diplomatic catastrophe in front of thousands of assembled citizens, Konohamaru Sarutobi used the Transformation Jutsu to impersonate Naruto on stage. Kakashi officially transferred authority to a surrogate. Naruto achieved his lifelong ambition while sprawled unconscious on his living room floor, a subversion classic to Kishimoto's storytelling style.

Timeline Architecture: From Chapter 699 to Boruto

The narrative gap between the end of the war and the arrival of the sequel series created significant timeline confusion for international fans. Studio Pierrot, Shueisha, and Kishimoto collaborated to fill this window through canon light novels and feature-length animation.

This layout clarifies why The Last: Naruto the Movie sits between Chapters 699 and 700. The film exists solely to bridge the emotional void between Naruto treating Hinata as a comrade and deciding to spend his life with her. Without that project, the leap to Chapter 700's domestic reality felt jarring to readers who had followed fifteen years of unrequited affection.

The Technological Modernization of the Hidden Leaf

One visual shock in Chapter 700 was the background architecture. Behind the historic Hokage monument carved into the mountain sat towering steel-and-glass skyscrapers. Modern transmission towers dotted the skyline. Naruto sat at an office desk equipped with an operating flat-screen personal computer, surrounded by filing cabinets and industrial communications gear.

Kishimoto introduced this transformation intentionally to signal that the Fourth Shinobi World War permanently eliminated the feudal isolationism separating the Great Nations. When the Five Kage pooled resources, trade routes opened. Defense budgets shifted toward civil infrastructure, scientific research, and digital communications. The ninja world ceased being an archaic wilderness of hidden military outposts and transformed into an interconnected industrial society.

This technological leap provided the ideological foundation for the Boruto narrative. In a modernized society running on scientific ninja tools and high-speed rail lines, the relevance of arduous chakra training came into question. Chapter 700 did not just close Naruto's journey; it established the friction between hard-won martial discipline and modern convenience that defined the next decade of franchise storytelling.

How Chapter 700 Sparked the Next-Generation Franchise

Chapter 700 was never designed as a complete dead end. Shueisha used the finale as a commercial launchpad. Following the manga's conclusion, Kishimoto penned Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring, a ten-chapter miniseries centered on Sarada Uchiha questioning her parentage while tracking down Sasuke alongside Naruto.

That miniseries flowed directly into Boruto: Naruto the Movie, scripted by Kishimoto himself, which broke franchise box office records by grossing over $40 million worldwide. The success convinced Shueisha to greenlight monthly serialization of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations in 2016, illustrated by Kishimoto's former assistant Mikio Ikemoto and initially scripted by Ukyo Kodachi before Kishimoto resumed writing duties in late 2020.

The anime adaptation expanded these foundations across hundreds of episodes. When Studio Pierrot concluded Part 1 at Episode 293 in March 2023, the franchise had adapted through the pivotal Omnipotence arc. This directly mirrored the structural split of the original series, setting up the time-skip era serialized in manga form as Boruto: Two Blue Vortex. Every conflict currently playing out in the sequel traces back to the character rosters, political alliances, and tech shifts established in the twenty-odd pages of Chapter 700.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Why didn't Naruto and Sakura end up together in the final chapter?
A1: Kishimoto confirmed that Sakura's romantic devotion to Sasuke was foundational to her character from the beginning. Naruto's early crush on Sakura was conceived as a rivalrous pursuit tied to his competition with Sasuke, whereas Hinata's unwavering support since childhood formed an authentic emotional foundation that Kishimoto chose to solidify during the second half of the series.

Q2: Is Chapter 700 considered canon to the Boruto storyline?
A2: Yes, Chapter 700 is completely canonical. It represents the foundational bridge between the original manga and the subsequent light novels, movies, and the Boruto manga series. The events depicted in Chapter 700 align directly with the Academy Days prologue of the modern sequel.

Q3: Why does Naruto look so exhausted as Hokage in Chapter 700?
A3: Peace brought massive administrative responsibility. Unlike earlier eras where Hokage focused primarily on military skirmishes and covert missions, Naruto governs a modernized, rapidly growing metropolitan hub. His workload involves domestic policy, inter-village commerce, technological regulation, and civic administration, leaving him persistently drained despite his massive chakra reserves.

The Lasting Cultural Footprint of the 2014 Finale

Reaching Chapter 700 without an abrupt corporate cancellation or a protracted, unresolved hiatus placed Kishimoto in an elite bracket of Weekly Shonen Jump creators. Few mega-hits of that scale managed to conclude on their creator's own terms while systematically resolving over a decade of personal, political, and generational promises.

The finale succeeded because it prioritized emotional payoff over unending warfare. Chapter 699 healed the physical and ideological scars of two broken boys at the Valley of the End. Chapter 700 gave them the world they bled to build: safe streets, thriving children, and the peaceful, mundane burdens of adulthood. The legacy of Chapter 700 is not merely that Naruto Uzumaki became the Seventh Hokage; it proved that his vision of mutual understanding could hold long enough for an entire generation to grow up without knowing war.