Masashi Kishimoto (born November 8, 1974) is the author of the famous manga Naruto. He debuted as a mangaka with his work Karakuri, which was submitted to Shueisha in 1996. Beginning with 1999, his next work Naruto was serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine. Kishimoto had received the Hop Step Award, which was an award given to new artists once a month by Shonen Jump.
