Naruto is an iconic series that fans all over the world hold very close to their hearts. It is a brilliant story of a young boy with great dreams in his heart who goes on to follow them and see them through. Naruto is a story of hard work, perseverance, and, above all, kindness. The story of Naruto Uzumaki is beautiful as fans get to see him mature from a young boy who likes playing pranks to a responsible Hokage, who protects everyone close to him and ends the cycle of hatred, for the most part.
Naruto's journey concluded with him ending the Fourth Great Ninja War and saving the world. Following this, fans got to see glimpses of him in movies and eventually, the sequel series, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations finally kicked off. While Boruto is certainly entertaining, fans would rather have Naruto return for several reasons.
The Failure Of Boruto
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is set years after the conclusion of the Fourth Great Ninja War. Nearly 15 years later, Naruto is now the Hokage of the village and he has a loving family as well. As fans know, Naruto is married to Hinata and together, they have two beautiful children in Boruto Uzumaki and Himawari Uzumaki. Boruto is the protagonist of the sequel series and, unlike his father, he is quite a unique protagonist. Boruto is a genius from the get-go and doesn't quite understand the importance of shinobi sacrifice. This is made clear to the fans at the very beginning of the story and, as the plot advances, he grows as well.
Another interesting addition in Boruto is that the series is set in an era where scientific technology is making progress by leaps and bounds. The scientific technology is incorporated into the lives of shinobi. While its use in Boruto certainly carried a lot of promise, the vast majority of the story has not appealed to the fans. Furthermore, the old characters are barely involved in the story and even the new characters are simply not compelling enough, bar a few. What's more, the villains in the story are certainly not nearly as interesting as what Naruto offered and, overall, it is simply not gripping enough. This is further backed up by the plummeting sales of the manga which are slowly getting lower and lower. While Boruto is still a popular anime, much of that is down to Naruto's already high popularity among the fans.
The Return Of Naruto
With Boruto now nearing the conclusion of its first part, it won't take the series long to conclude. The manga is very close to entering the timeskip, after which Boruto ends up fighting Kawaki and perhaps the story will wrap up shortly after that. Regardless of when the story ends, fans would much rather prefer the Naruto anime return.
While it is true that Naruto would not have a manga series to follow, the story still carries a tremendous amount of potential that can be explored by the anime alone. This is something that Dragon Ball Super has also done in the past. Dragon Ball Super's manga started long after the anime and was actually far behind it. The creator of the story, Akira Toriyama directly worked with the anime and played a significant role until it wrapped up in 2017.
Naruto could do something similar with a story that actually has a lot of potential. For one, fans would get to see the characters that they are already familiar with on their screens. The era of shinobi would still be the same and, with help from Kishimoto himself, they could come up with an extremely gripping story that fans are sure to like. Clearly, Naruto has an abundance of potential for making incredible story arcs.
Where It Would Be Set
The question remains, where would the Naruto anime be set if it does return? And the answer to the question is, shortly after the event of the Fourth Great Ninja War. This war is followed by a blank period where Naruto is just a regular shinobi of the village and Kakashi takes up the position of the Hokage. Meanwhile, Sasuke roams around the world for his redemption and, at the same time, traces down the Otsutsuki clan. What's more, all the other members of Konoha 11, along with the various characters that fans grew familiar with that live across the Five Great Nations, also work towards their goals and dreams.
The blank period Of Naruto carries an abundance of potential that can be explored by a well-handled anime series. Fans could get to see new evil organizations come up and Naruto and his group tackle them, as they always have. With Kishimoto, writing interesting villains is certainly not going to be hard. In fact, fans know that he's capable of writing some incredibly amazing story arcs and given that Naruto would be at the helm of this story, fans are sure to watch it. These events could eventually lead up to the Last: Naruto the Movie, which would mean that this anime would be set before the conclusion of Naruto Shippuden, where Naruto and Hinata ended up getting married in the last episode. Or, this anime could also be set right after their wedding, and shortly before the events of Boruto finally begin.