Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-32554648-20180706173543/@comment-6769189-20180718045916

FlatZone wrote: @seelentau, they only care if it fits into the main story as in part of the main story.. if not they call it a side story. I never once saw the light novels or the Shindens be called Side Stories so according to this logic they are what we would call canon. Shuesha and Shonen created a Naruto/Boruto timeline and placed all the novels in between the Last and Naruto Gaiden. All this stuff is also supervised by Kishimoto.

Gets kinda iffy because the anime retellings of the novels are heavily altered at times. Some hardcore shit goes down in the Itachi novels have some hardcore shit.