How Many Naruto Databooks Are There?
Four principal databooks, each named for a ninja scroll: Rin no Sho (2002), To no Sho (2005), Sha no Sho (2008) and Jin no Sho, released on November 4, 2014 as the series ended. Each updates the same apparatus: character profiles with Kishimoto's stat ratings, jutsu encyclopedias, village and clan records, and timeline material that the manga itself never stops to explain.
Around them stand two official fanbooks, Hyo no Sho (2002) and Kai no Sho (2009, made for the tenth anniversary), a pocket-sized mini databook called Sho no Sho bundled with Part II's opening in 2005, and the movie theater books Retsu no Sho (2014) and Zai no Sho (2015). Which total a collector quotes, four, six or ten, depends on whether they count only the numbered databook line or everything in the reference shelf.
English readers got only part of the shelf. Viz published the Hyo no Sho fanbook as Naruto: The Official Fanbook in 2008 and Sha no Sho as Naruto: The Official Character Data Book in 2012. To no Sho and Jin no Sho were never officially translated, which is why fan translation projects for Jin no Sho's profiles remain the English-speaking fandom's working reference years later.
What the databooks actually are
The databooks are not merchandise summaries; Kishimoto authored them as series documents, and they settle questions the manga leaves open, from characters' birthdays and favorite foods to the mechanics and ranks of named jutsu. Debates in the fandom still cite databook stats as evidence, and the books' authority comes precisely from being the author's own filing system, published by his own publisher.
Collecting the reference shelf
A Japanese first printing of each book is identified by the same colophon method as the tankobon: original date, first printing notation, no later lines. The movie books are the opposite collecting problem: Retsu no Sho was handed to filmgoers at The Last in December 2014 rather than sold, so its survival in good condition depends on a theater handout being kept like a book for a decade.