Mikio Ikemoto

Mikio Ikemoto ( 池本幹雄 , Ikemoto Mikio ) was Masashi Kishimoto 's third assistant during his fifteen years of working on the Naruto manga. In an assistant spotlight included with volume 6 of the manga, Kishimoto listed Ikemoto's duties as: "works as a 'mob', drawing crowds and background figures, adding the white to speed lines, highlights, and characters' eyes, and whiting out any art that goes out of the panel and into the gutter, as well as putting stars in the night sky, and adding in half-tones."

In a 2016 interview published in Weekly Shōnen Jump , Kishimoto revealed that Ikemoto also contributed to character designs for the series, notably designing many of the background characters, as well as Haku , Zabuza Momochi , and Hiruzen Sarutobi 's battle attire.

Ikemoto illustrated the monthly Boruto manga series, written by Ukyō Kodachi and supervised by Kishimoto. Following Kodachi's leave, Ikemoto took over as the author of this manga and its sequel, Boruto: Two Blue Vortex .