How Long Did Naruto Run in Weekly Shonen Jump?
Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump 1999 No. 43, which reached readers on September 21, 1999. The final chapter, chapter 700, ran in the magazine on November 10, 2014. Between those two Mondays the series missed very few weeks, which is part of why its fifteen years produced a round, deliberate 700 chapters rather than a number set by cancellation or drift.
The run divides cleanly in two. Part I covers chapters 1 to 238, following Naruto from academy outcast to the aftermath of the Sasuke retrieval mission. A short Kakashi Gaiden interlude (chapters 239 to 244) bridges into Part II, often called the Shippuden era in print terms, which runs from chapter 245 to the end and opens two and a half years later in story time.
Kishimoto has said in interviews that he planned the broad shape of the ending early and chose to finish while the story was still his to finish. Ending in 2014 also let Shueisha build the conclusion into an event: the final chapters, the last film and the epilogue projects were coordinated under one banner, the Naruto Project, rather than trailing off separately.
The run at a glance
Start: Weekly Shonen Jump 1999 No. 43, on sale September 21, 1999. End: November 10, 2014. Chapters: 700, plus the Kakashi Gaiden interlude counted inside that total. Collected in 72 tankobon volumes, released in Japan between March 3, 2000 and February 4, 2015. In the magazine's history, few series of Naruto's era ran longer without changing magazines or formats, which is why the 1999 to 2014 span is treated as a single era by collectors of the original issues.
Why the dates matter to collectors
The serialization window frames every physical object on this shelf. A copy of Jump 1999 No. 43 is the true first appearance in print, predating the first book by about six months. Issues from the final stretch of 2014 carry the last chapters as first published. Everything dated outside September 1999 to November 2014, however official, is a reprint, a spinoff or a sequel, and the Library catalogs it that way.