Board Thread:Naruto Novel Discussons/@comment-25319479-20150725151541/@comment-5936871-20150728193354

Seelentau wrote: That's what I said. The manga is the official story, it's the original medium that told it. The anime, the movies, the games and the novels are adaptions. They don't tell the official story, they adapted it.

The Last was considered part of the official story (= the manga) as chapter 699.5. Raiga was considered part of the official story in that one chapter he appeared. The novels were never referenced in the manga or a manga timeline. It was the other way around: The manga was referenced in a novel timeline. Well to be fair, the novels came after the manga ended. So it wouldn't make much sense for the manga to reference them.