Top 10 Manga to Read If You Love Naruto
Finishing Naruto leaves a real gap. Few series manage the same combination of found-family teams, escalating power systems, and a protagonist who wins by connecting with people rather than just overpowering them, and finding the next thing to read can feel like searching for something that doesn’t quite exist elsewhere.
This list isn’t just “other popular shonen manga.” Each entry here is picked for a specific, real overlap with what made Naruto work, not just genre proximity.
Here is the whole list up front, for anyone who just wants titles to go and read.
- Basilisk
- Boruto: Naruto Next Generations / Two Blue Vortex
- My Hero Academia
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- One Piece
- Bleach
- Demon Slayer
- Hunter x Hunter
- Naruto (the manga itself, if you’ve only watched the anime)
10. Basilisk
Basilisk trades Naruto’s found-family warmth for something much colder: two rival ninja clans, forced into a deadly tournament by a centuries-old feud between their masters, with the two lead characters caught on opposite sides despite being in love with each other.
What connects it to Naruto is the ninja combat itself, distinct kekkei genkai-style clan techniques, tragic clan history, and duels built around exploiting an opponent’s specific ability rather than pure strength. It’s a much darker, more tragic read than Naruto ever gets, set in the 1600s with a body count that doesn’t spare its own leads, but the DNA of clan-based ninja warfare will feel immediately familiar.
Go in with the right expectations, though. Where Naruto ultimately argues that talking people down beats killing them, Basilisk offers no such off-ramp. Its two rival clans are bound by an inherited oath neither generation actually chose, and the tragedy comes precisely from characters who want to stop fighting but structurally can’t. Readers drawn to Naruto’s warmth may find this one bracing rather than comforting, but readers who loved its ninja-clan worldbuilding specifically will find a lot to like here.
9. Boruto: Naruto Next Generations / Two Blue Vortex
The most obvious entry on this list, and worth including anyway because it answers a specific question every finishing reader has: what happened to everyone after chapter 700? Boruto picks up the next generation of Konoha’s ninja, with Naruto’s own son at the center, and the ongoing Two Blue Vortex arc has pushed the story into genuinely high-stakes, unexpected territory in recent years.
It isn’t written by Kishimoto directly, and the shift in tone and pacing takes some adjustment. But if what you actually want is more time in this specific world with these specific characters’ children, nothing else on this list gives you that.
The current Two Blue Vortex run in particular has surprised a lot of readers who’d written the sequel off after its earlier chapters. Kawaki sealing away both Naruto and Hinata, Sasuke’s own losses at the hands of Code and Momoshiki, and a three-year timeskip that reshuffles the entire cast’s relationships have given the story real, unpredictable stakes again, closer in tone to the tension of the original series’ war arc than the more episodic early Boruto chapters.
8. My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia swaps ninja villages for a superhero school, but the emotional architecture is strikingly similar to Naruto’s own: an underdog protagonist chasing a legacy left by a legendary predecessor, a found-family class of classmates who become close over years of shared training and crisis, and a central belief that people can be reached and changed rather than simply defeated.
Midoriya’s relationship with All Might echoes Naruto’s own relationships with Jiraiya and the Third Hokage closely enough that fans of one consistently gravitate toward the other, and the series’ large ensemble cast rewards the same kind of attention Naruto’s own sprawling supporting cast does.
Class 1-A’s dynamic specifically mirrors the way Naruto builds out its own genin teams: a large group of distinct, differently powered classmates who start as rivals and competitors before becoming each other’s support system under real pressure. Readers who found themselves attached to side characters like Rock Lee or Shikamaru almost as much as the main trio will likely find similar favorites among Midoriya’s classmates.
7. Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen shares less of Naruto’s warmth and more of its structural DNA: a clear power system with real rules, escalating threats that force characters to grow into new abilities under pressure, and a protagonist whose defining trait is refusing to let people around him die if he can help it.
The specific overlap worth naming is how both series treat power as something that costs the user real, sometimes permanent, damage rather than a free resource to spend. Readers who appreciated Naruto’s own careful treatment of chakra as a limited, meaningful resource will find Jujutsu Kaisen’s cursed energy system scratches a similar itch.
Its mentor figure, Gojo Satoru, also occupies a similar narrative role to Naruto’s own Kakashi and Jiraiya: overwhelmingly powerful, more emotionally invested in his students than he initially lets on, and eventually forced to step back and let the next generation carry the fight forward. Readers who loved watching Naruto’s mentors shape him without overshadowing him will recognize the same careful balance here.
6. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist tells a tighter, more contained story than Naruto’s sprawling multi-arc run, but the emotional core lines up closely: two brothers bound by a shared trauma and a shared goal, a magic system with clear rules and clear costs, and a villain whose backstory forces the story to treat him with real complexity rather than flattening him into pure evil.
It’s frequently recommended to Naruto fans specifically because it delivers a similarly epic scope, family, loss, war, and a satisfying ending, in a more compact package, which makes it a good choice for readers who loved Naruto’s ambition but want a story that wraps up more efficiently.
The Brotherhood version specifically is the one worth seeking out over the earlier 2003 anime adaptation, since it follows the manga’s actual story to its intended conclusion rather than diverging into an entirely different, anime-original ending partway through. For a series this carefully plotted, that distinction matters more than it might for a show with a looser structure.
5. One Piece
One Piece and Naruto ran side by side for most of both series’ histories, and the overlap goes beyond simple genre proximity. Both center a found-family crew built one loyal, distinct member at a time, both treat their protagonist’s core strength as an ability to win people over rather than outfight them, and both build sprawling worlds with deep, interconnected histories rewarding long-term attention.
The difference that matters most for a Naruto fan considering the jump: One Piece’s world is built around exploration and open-ended adventure rather than village-bound political conflict, and the series is, at the time of writing, still ongoing after more than twenty-five years, which is either a selling point or a real commitment depending on how you feel about catching up to an active weekly release.
Both series also share a specific narrative habit worth calling out: villains who get real, sympathetic backstories rather than staying one-dimensional obstacles. One Piece’s government and Warlord system echoes the layered morality Naruto builds around figures like the Akatsuki, where understanding a villain’s history complicates rather than excuses what they’ve done. Readers who appreciated that nuance in Naruto will find One Piece leans on it just as heavily, if not more so, across its own much longer runtime.
4. Bleach
Bleach swaps ninjas for soul reapers, but the structural similarities run deep: a large, powerful organization with its own internal ranks and politics, distinct signature weapons and techniques for major characters, and story arcs built around a small team infiltrating enemy territory to save someone important to them.
Ichigo’s own arc, an ordinary teenager pulled into an extraordinary conflict he didn’t ask for, who grows into overwhelming power through loss and determination, tracks a similar emotional shape to Naruto’s own journey, even though the specific mythology around soul society and hollows is entirely its own thing.
Bleach’s Soul Society arc in particular, where Ichigo and his allies infiltrate an entire hostile organization to rescue one member of their group, follows almost the exact same structural beats as Naruto’s own rescue-mission arcs, a small team working against overwhelming odds inside enemy territory, discovering along the way that several of the people they’re fighting aren’t as villainous as they first appeared.
3. Demon Slayer
Demon Slayer shares one of Naruto’s most specific strengths: a protagonist whose defining trait is empathy, even toward enemies, in a genre that usually rewards raw aggression instead. Tanjiro’s insistence on understanding the demons he fights, rather than hating them, echoes Naruto’s own habit of reaching enemies like Gaara and Nagato rather than just defeating them.
The breathing-style combat system also gives it a structural echo of Naruto’s own elemental jutsu system, distinct techniques tied to specific users and specific weaknesses, which makes the fight scenes feel similarly readable and strategic rather than just an escalating power contest.
It’s also a considerably shorter, more tightly plotted read than Naruto, wrapping up its main story in roughly a quarter of the chapter count. For readers who loved Naruto’s themes but found its length daunting, or who want to recommend something to a friend without asking them to commit to hundreds of chapters, Demon Slayer delivers a similar emotional experience in a much more manageable package.
2. Hunter x Hunter
Hunter x Hunter is frequently cited as essential reading for any serious shonen fan, Naruto included, and the connection runs deeper than just shared popularity. Both series build meticulously detailed power systems with real rules and real limitations, both invest heavily in mentor-student relationships that shape their protagonists as much as raw talent does, and both are willing to let major arcs run dark and difficult rather than staying safely upbeat throughout.
Yoshihiro Togashi’s willingness to let the Chimera Ant arc in particular sit in bleak territory for long stretches gives the series an emotional range that Naruto fans who appreciated the weight of arcs like the Pain invasion or the war will likely respond to.
Worth a practical warning before recommending it as highly as this list does: Hunter x Hunter is notorious for lengthy, unpredictable publication hiatuses, sometimes stretching for years at a time. That’s a real cost for readers who want to follow an active series without long gaps, and it’s the single biggest reason this excellent series sits at second rather than first on this particular list.
1. Naruto (the manga itself, if you’ve only watched the anime)
This sits at the top of the list for a specific, practical reason: a huge number of self-described Naruto fans have only experienced the anime, filler and all, and never read Kishimoto’s original manga directly. The manga has zero filler, since filler by definition only exists in the anime adaptation, and reading it directly gives you the pacing, the art, and the story exactly as originally intended, without years of anime-original padding stretched in between.
If you’ve never sat down with the source material, that’s the single most direct way to get more Naruto, and it’s worth doing before jumping to any of the nine series above it on this list.
How to pick where to start
Given how different these ten series are from each other, it’s worth narrowing down based on what specifically you loved about Naruto rather than starting wherever seems most popular.
If it was the found-family team dynamic, start with My Hero Academia or One Piece, both of which build their casts the same slow, earned way Naruto builds Team 7 and the wider genin cast around it. If it was the escalating, rule-based power system, Jujutsu Kaisen or Hunter x Hunter will feel most familiar, since both treat their power systems as puzzles with real internal logic rather than an excuse for arbitrary escalation.
If it was the empathy-over-aggression theme running through Naruto’s own fights, Demon Slayer is the closest emotional match on this list, built around a protagonist who extends real compassion even to the demons trying to kill him. And if it was wanting more time inside the exact world Naruto already built, Boruto and the manga itself are the two most direct paths back into it, one moving the story forward and one letting you experience the original the way it was intended to be read.
A note on what this list leaves out
Plenty of other manga get recommended to Naruto fans for more general reasons, shared genre, shared publisher, shared art style, without sharing much of what made Naruto specifically work. This list deliberately skipped series that are popular shonen without a clear, specific point of overlap, since a recommendation built on “it’s also a fighting manga” is far less useful than one built on a real shared strength.
Series like Black Clover or Dragon Ball, while beloved and adjacent to Naruto in broad genre terms, lean much more heavily on straightforward power escalation and comparatively less on the specific found-family and reach-your-enemies themes this list is built around, which is why they didn’t make the cut here even though a more genre-general list would likely include them. Every entry above earns its spot for a reason stated directly, not just genre proximity.
Common questions
What should I read after finishing Naruto?
It depends what you loved. For the found-family team dynamic, My Hero Academia or One Piece. For rule-based power systems, Jujutsu Kaisen or Hunter x Hunter. For the empathy-toward-enemies theme, Demon Slayer.
Is Boruto worth reading?
If you want more of this specific world, it is the only option. The early chapters are uneven, but the current Two Blue Vortex run has genuinely higher stakes and has won back a number of readers who had given up on it.
What manga is most similar to Naruto?
Bleach in structure, with its large organisation, internal ranks, and rescue-mission arcs. My Hero Academia is closest in emotional architecture, built around an underdog inheriting a legendary predecessor’s power.
Should I read the Naruto manga if I watched the anime?
Yes, and it sits first on this list for that reason. The manga has no filler at all, so the pacing and art come without the years of anime-original padding stretched between story beats.
