Board Thread:Wiki Discussions and Support/@comment-2140588-20150318152949/@comment-945885-20150401101616

Correct, Blood Prison is not just a novelization of the movie. It's seemingly based on Akira Higashiyama's original screenplay for the film. I don't know how it differs from the film, as I haven't read it, but I do know that the references to it in the Hiden series indicate clear differences from the movie version, which means that the movie version obviously isn't part of the same canon.

You say the Hiden novels part of an "expanded universe," but so are the original anime stories. And these novels are being touted as a continuation of the manga series. I would go so far as to say they're more canon than the filler. They should be considered canon at least so long as no other media comes out and retcons them.

If we create in-line tags to address which sections describe content from the anime, novels, and films, it solves the issue, because people can look at the tag and decide if they want to consider it canon or not.

As for Naruto Gaiden, yes, it's by Kishimoto. We don't know where it fits in with the movie, but they'll probably both take place after chapter 700.