Masashi Kishimoto is a Japanese manga artist, well known for creating the manga series Naruto which was in serialization from 1999 to 2014. As of October 2015, Naruto manga has sold over 220 million copies worldwide. The series has been adapted into two anime, and multiple films, video games and multiple related media. Besides the Naruto manga, Kishimoto also personally supervised the two canonical anime films, The Last: Naruto the Movie and Boruto: Naruto the Movie, and has written several one-shot stories.
A reader of manga ever since a young age, Kishimoto showed a desire to write his own manga, citing authors Akira Toriyama and Katsuhiro Otomo as his main inspirations. As a result, Kishimoto spent several years working to write his own shōnen manga for Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine which he was a fan of.
Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto
Source: Naruto, Vol. 02: The Worst Client
“You were the leaves, basking in the sunlight.
I was the root, growing in the darkness
~Danzo”
Source: NARUTO -ナルト- 51 巻ノ五十一
“So if someone is thinking about me, then that's the place I go?”
Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto
Source: Naruto, Vol. 01: The Tests of the Ninja