The Last: Naruto the Movie

is the tenth film of the Naruto series, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the franchise. The movie was released in Japanese theatres on December 6, 2014. A subtitled version received limited international releases in early 2015.

The Last is the first film to be an official part of the Naruto storyline, set during the timeskip that occurs between chapters 699 and 700. In an advertisement published along with the final two chapters, the film was dubbed chapter "699.5."

Memories
The film starts off with the explanation of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki consuming the chakra fruit, the birth of the Ten-Tails, the Sage of the Six Paths stopping the beast and creating the tailed beasts. It then moves over to the fight battles between Asura Ōtsutsuki and Indra Ōtsutsuki, to Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, and the ending conflict between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.

Before enrolling in the Academy, a young Hinata Hyūga is seen being bullied by boys over her Byakugan, calling her a monster, which causes her to cry. Naruto shows up and tells them to back off, proclaiming he'll be the future Hokage; however, the boys outnumber him and easily beat him up and tear his red scarf. Hinata thanks Naruto for his efforts and Naruto lets her keep the scarf since it's ruined, unaware this was when the young girl's affections began for Naruto. Sometime later at the Academy, Iruka Umino tells his students to write down the name of the person they would want to be with if the world was to end that day. Though Naruto tries to act tough towards Sakura Haruno, she ignores him for Sasuke. While Hinata is unsure whose name to write, she sees Naruto making a paper plane with his paper, which leads him to be scolded by Iruka. Naruto goes on to state that he has no friends nor family, and that the world isn't going to end. Seeing this, Hinata happily writes Naruto's name on her paper.

Natural Disaster
In the present time, two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Hiashi Hyūga accompanied by two subordinates met with Toneri Ōtsutsuki outside of Konohagakure. Asking for an answer to his earlier proposition and stating the fate of the Hyūga clan depends on Hizashi's answer, he declined Toneri's offer. Engaging in combat, Hisashi is overwhelmed by his puppet army and trapped in a cave.

In Konoha, Naruto is invited to teach Academy Students taijutsu, much to the joy of the young boys. The lesson however is interrupted by a crowd of young girls that greatly admire Naruto, much to his confusion. Ino, Chōji, and Shikamaru spot this, noting how popular he's gotten since the war. He has since then received various gifts from Konoha villagers and abroad from young women smitten with him as the hero of the world. Later, Konohamaru meets with Naruto and wishes to take him to his late grandfather's old storage shed, claiming there is something for him.

Elsewhere in Konoha, Hinata knits a red scarf in remembrance of the one Naruto used to wear back in the Academy, so she can give it to Naruto at the Rinne Festival as a personal gift of love when she confesses her love for him. She is later found by Sakura, who encourages her to give it to him and win his heart.

Meanwhile, the five Kage — Sixth Hokage: Kakashi Hatake, Fifth Kazekage: Gaara, Fifth Mizukage: Mei Terumī, Fourth Raikage: A, and Third Tsuchikage: Ōnoki — have an emergency meeting in regards to the threat of the moon, which is revealed to be falling out of orbit and onto the Earth. They deduce if nothing is done soon, then the moon will break apart and crash into the Earth and kill all life on the planet.

At night, Hinata finishes her gift for Naruto and attempts to give it to him, but her shyness stops her from doing so. Hanabi Hyūga playfully encourages her to give it to him while warning her sister that there are various girls after him now as well. She meets Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Chōji at Ramen Ichiraku. Just as she sits down to eat, three kunoichi show up and starts being affectionate towards Naruto. After seeing this, Hinata decides to leave, to which Sakura tells Naruto to walk her home. However, he doesn’t understand why he has to given her powerful abilities. Sakura catches up to Hinata, telling her that Naruto is very dense about love due to not having anyone in his life to express it for him and assures Hinata she'll be able to win him over if she’s confident enough.

Meanwhile, various puppets secretly invade Konoha, and raid the Hyūga Estate, kidnapping Hanabi in the process. On the outskirts of the village, Sai paints a portrait, and spots one of Hanabi's captors flying overhead and follows behind. However, after a quick chase, Sai was taken down by a blast.

Back in Konoha, in front of Naruto's home, Hinata practises her confession, but is interrupted by Naruto’s arrival. After noticing a scarf around Naruto's neck, Hinata's stomach growls. This notions Naruto to invite Hinata to eat ramen in his apartment, but runs off embarrassed, much to his confusion. As Hinata sits on a park swing, she begins to cry, saying she is happy for him and thinking that she has lost her chance to be with him. Just then, Toneri appears before Hinata, claiming that he came for her. She is rendered unconscious by Toneri, who affirms the strength of her chakra of Hamura as Naruto shows up and gives chase. Naruto is able to save her from her kidnapper, but the scarf she knitted is ripped as a result of her chakra being distorted. Toneri leaves a message that the end of mankind is approaching and he will return for Hinata. As he leaves, Naruto and Hinata witness a meteor crash outside the village.

Search for Hanabi
With Hanabi captured by Toneri, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Sai, and Shikamaru are deployed by Kakashi to go and rescue her. To accommodate for the mission, Shikamaru is given a special clock held only by the five Kage, which apparently counts down the time till doomsday. As the group follow Toneri's trail, courtesy of Sai, Hinata finds Hanabi's kunai and puts it in her bag where Naruto sees the ripped scarf. They eventually find a cave with a secret path towards Toneri's location. Hinata is unable to use her Byakugan due to the lake distorting her vision for an unknown reason. Naruto proceeds to make sure his scarf is not wet, proclaiming it to be special to him, leading Sakura to state it can't be that important and Hinata feels upset. Sai realises that the water is incapable of making them wet. They then dive into the lake, only to discover it is a genjutsu set by Toneri.

They are all trapped in their own memories from the past as Naruto recalls his fight with Kiba Inuzuka in the Chūnin Exams. Hinata's scarf begins to wrap around Naruto and her memories flood into his, causing him to remember her fight with Pain, her confession of her love to him, her writing his name on her paper in the Academy, and Hinata and Sakura's talk about giving him her scarf. Naruto is left utterly bewildered by how much she's loved him for so long. Before it can sink in, Sakura dispells the genjutsu placed on all of everyone.

As they descend further, Hinata is found by Toneri who calls her the "Byakugan Princess" and announces his desire for them to be married. Hinata refuses, demanding the safe return of her sister. Toneri then reveals he has taken her sister’s Byakugan and if Hinata agrees to his proposal, he will spare both Hinata and Hanabi’s lives, and eventually return Hanabi’s Byakugan. While Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru fight against the Gatekeeper of the spring, Naruto comes back to protect Hinata and fights Toneri only for the two to realise "Toneri" is a puppet. The Toneri puppet explains he will return in person to hear Hinata's answer. Now knowing Toneri is targeting Hinata, Naruto proclaims he will not let Hinata out of his sight, now having realised his own romantic feelings for her as well. With this, Hinata notices Naruto isn't wearing his scarf anymore.

The team arrives outside the cave, seeing an artificial sun inside the moon. They make their way to an abandoned shinobi village of the Ōtsutsuki clan. At some point, Toneri "borrows" Hanabi's Byakugan, which he remarks it incredibly "pure" after he implants them in his own empty eye sockets, awakening the Tenseigan sealed by Hamura's descendants over the last millennium. He tells his guards he will go after Hinata, but not till his eyes are adjusted. As Naruto and Hinata spend more time with each other, she remains humorously oblivious to his feelings for her. As Hinata runs into a spider web, she screams, having Naruto rush to her and he picks the web out of her hair, making her blush. Hinata asks why Naruto took off his scarf, to which Naruto states it he feels fine without it. Naruto then falls down some stairs and hurts his back. With Naruto unable to reach his bruised spot, Hinata proceeds to rub ointment on his back, which leaves Naruto rather pleased. As they search the ruins, Shikamaru realises Toneri’s plan and that he is the orchestrator of the falling moon. With Hinata’s arrival, a monument of the clan awakens for her, revealing a puppet, which calls her the "Byakugan Princess", and shows her a vision of Hamura. Hamura awakens her latent Hamura chakra, transfers his own and orders her to stop Toneri as only she can destroy the Tenseigan as she is the "Byakugan Princess" and that Toneri, a member of the Ōtsutsuki’s Branch House, has misinterpreted his Celestial Decree. When Hinata awakens, she tells the others what she saw was "nothing".

Later that night, Naruto follows Hinata to a pond, seeing her knit away at the scarf. Naruto consoles her when Hinata thinks she's a horrible big sister since she just knits a scarf rather than spending more energy to find her sister. Naruto disagrees, recounting the amount of time and energy she’s been putting into finding Hanabi. When Hinata thanks him for his reassuring kindness, a flustered Naruto accidentally reveals his newfound feelings for her, leaving her greatly shocked. However, the tender moment is interrupted by Toneri’s arrival. This time Hinata freely goes with Toneri after giving the refurbished scarf to Naruto. Before having his chakra drained by Toneri, Naruto chased after Toneri and Hinata, only to be shocked at Toenri's statement that Hinata agreed to become his wife. The resulting explosion of Naruto’s vast chakra destroys a massive part of the Moon and shreds Hinata’s scarf yet again leaving her heartbroken at Toneri’s assault on Naruto, forcing him to put her into a slumber.

Naruto's Reality
Back on Earth, the various hidden villages defend themselves against the crashing meteorites as they protect civilians all over from Toneri’s genocidal assault. As Rock Lee and others fail to completely destroy a huge meteor, Sasuke arrives and saves Konoha from certain doom, revealing he rescued Hiashi. Sasuke then declares he’ll defend Konoha since Naruto is away and gives the Konoha ninja a much needed break. Elsewhere, as Naruto is being healed by Sakura, she notes his injuries are quite serious. Naruto mutters Hinata's name, and Sakura notes that he has finally realised his feelings for her.

Back on the moon at Toneri's palace, Toneri marvels at Hinata's beauty as she sleeps. Wanting to know more about her, he reads her mind only to see that she's only thinking about Naruto, much to his confusion and jealousy. When she awakens, she finds her sister safe but even while in her comatose state, Hanabi grabs Hinata silently begging for help. Toneri arrives and gives Hinata a vast army of puppet maids to do her bidding and gives her a tour of his palace. Here, Toneri tells her about his clan and how they would use the Tenseigan against their enemies, this case being mankind who used chakra as a weapon, and thus intends to wipe them out as per Hamura’s Celestial Decree. After showing Hinata the Mausoleum of Hamura and having dinner, Toneri requests Hinata to make him a scarf like she made Naruto and orders her to never question his plans to destroy Earth again. Later, upon seeing a floating island in front of his castle, Toneri explains that it's a temple of Hamura and it comes near by his castle once a year during the Rinne Festival. He later takes her to the floating temple after Hinata asks that she personally wants to pay homage, stating that Hamura must be happy for her offer. Hinata realises she couldn't find the Tenseigan somewhere here in the Moon, but she finds a hidden location with her Byakugan.

While Toneri rests from his inability to control the Tenseigan, Hinata attempts to destroy the Tenseigan Altar as per Hamura’s request only to be stopped by Toneri. Angered by her "lies and betrayals", Toneri destroys her scarf in a jealous rage, proclaiming he knew fully well she made it for Naruto. He then brainwashes Hinata by placing his green chakra sphere with her body, so they can still go through with their wedding. Meanwhile, following a three day recovery process, Naruto awakes and becomes depressed about Hinata's choice, leading Shikamaru and Sai to scold and make fun of him in hopes of reigniting his drive, only to fail. Shikamaru then takes Naruto to Sakura revealing that she was severely weakened due to saving his life in hopes she can restore his fighting spirit (something he admits Sai and himself are nowhere near capable of). Sakura talks with Naruto and helps him realise that Hinata truly loves him, stating she noted the feelings he had for herself were just another way to compete with Sasuke, but Naruto's feelings for Hinata are far more genuine and deeper than they were for herself and Hinata’s love for Naruto is far more genuine. With newfound strength, Naruto leads the charge into Toneri's moon base.

Account of the Battle for Pure Love
Naruto's team invades the palace and split up. Sai and Sakura going to rescue Hanabi, while Shikamaru and Naruto go after Hinata. As Shikamaru holds off Toneri's puppets, Naruto arrives just in time to disrupt the wedding, angering Toneri. To humiliate Naruto, Toneri forces the brainwashed Hinata to attack him but he manages to remove the orb in her body. After Toneri pulls Hinata towards him, he tries to put another green orb in her body, but his latest Tenseigan pulsation allows Hinata to escape from Toneri and after apologising to him, she leads Naruto to the energy vessel. With their combined efforts, they are able to destroy the vessel, revealing numerous Byakugan's sealed inside which stops the moon from plummeting to the Earth. After regrouping with everyone, Sakura presents Hinata with the remnants of her scarf, to which Naruto reveals he knows it was for him after seeing her memories. Despite being ruined, Naruto happily takes it, which leaves Hinata on the brink of tears of joy. Just then, Shikamaru notices the doomsday clock has began again for some reason.

Back on Earth, A and Killer B use a massive chakra cannon to destroy the meteor's heading for Earth and upon learning of the moon still approaching, intends to use the cannon to destroy the moon. Kakashi is then told by Hiashi that he is certain that Toneri took his daughters to the moon. After observing Kurama battling on the moon, Hiashi's theory is confirmed. Despite now being informed that Naruto and his team are on the moon, A wishes to destroy the moon regardless. The other Kage are against this (angry that A once again has a weapon of mass destruction secretly hidden away) and order him to wait an hour as they feel Naruto can stop the moon given his actions during the previous war.

Meanwhile, at the destroyed energy vessel, a furious Toneri manages to unlock the Tenseigan, allowing him to continue his view of the Celestial Decree. Toneri then summons a giant golem that battles Kurama, as he unlocks the Tenseigan Chakra Mode. He captures Hinata, throwing her into a cage so she can watch him kill Naruto, who he has grown to despise. As a huge duel then ensues, Toneri reveals his newfound power to slice the moon in half. Near the end of the fight, Naruto grasps the last remaining shred of the scarf Hinata had made for him and seemingly redirects and channels his chakra shroud into his the scrap in his right fist and delivers a devastating punch, which is enough to de-power Toneri and pin him against a wall. With his defeat, Kurama uses this chance to destroy the golem with a Tailed Beast Ball and allows Hinata to retrieve Hanabi's Byakugan. Despite his defeat, Toneri refuses to give up and summons all the Byakugan eyes around him to grant him power to kill Naruto by draining his chakra, but Hinata stops him from absorbing his chakra any more. With Toneri unable to maintain his form, and about to is about to burn in the sun, Naruto saves him.

With the hour up, A prepares to fire the cannon, but B refuses to kill Naruto and the others, much to A’s frustration. Luckily, Kurama writes on the moon a "Mission Complete" symbol, much to the fox's annoyance as he admits his penmanship is terrible, signifying everyone is safe and the disaster averted. A global declaration is made that Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Sai have saved the planet from extinction. It is revealed that before returning to Earth and saving Toneri, that Hinata took Toneri to the site of Hamura's soul and the truth is revealed to him. Seeing this, Toneri apologises for his actions and chooses to stay on the moon to atone for his sins and promises that the moon will never approach Earth again despite Hinata and Naruto offering him a place on Earth.

Later, Hinata asks Naruto about his scarf he was using earlier to which he reveals it was knitted by his late mother for him before he was born, which is why he was so protective of it, leaving Hinata relieved and embarrassed by her actions. As they all head home on Hanabi’s request, Naruto proclaims to Hinata he wants to spend the rest of his life with her, which moves her to tears. As they leave through the portal, a glimpse of their future lives together is shown, and is followed by them seeing past versions of themselves with Naruto's past selves wearing the red scarf she knitted all while running out of the cave hand-in-hand as the portal falls apart. Hinata falls but is caught by Naruto who tells her not to let go, to which she happily states she never wants to and they then fly out of the cave, leaving the others behind at the exit. While floating in the sky with the moon behind them, they lean in and share their first kiss.

To Tomorrow
The movie ends with a series of flash-forwards of Naruto and Hinata's wedding. It further flash forwards to them having a peaceful morning with their two children, Boruto Uzumaki and Himawari Uzumaki who playfully order their father to play with them instigating the happy family into a snowball fight.

Light novel
As with all previous films in the series, The Last: Naruto the Movie received a light novel adaptation. Written by Maruo Kyōzuka, it was released in Japan on December 8, 2014 (ISBN 978-4-08-703339-7). Though the plot is the same as the film, the novel features some extended and additional scenes as well as details that wouldn't be obvious from watching the film. The more noteworthy of these changes, organised by chapter, are:


 * Prologue —
 * Hinata's encounter with the bullies occurs shortly before her entrance in the Academy.
 * After the bullies destroy Naruto's scarf, Hinata tries to give him the one that she's wearing.
 * When Iruka instructs the class to write down the name of who they'd like to spend their last day with, Sakura writes down Sasuke's name. Sasuke, like Naruto, does not write down anyone's.


 * Chapter 1 —
 * Naruto teaches the Academy students at Iruka's invitation.
 * While Hinata is buying supplies to make a scarf – one month before the Rinne Festival – Shikamaru, Chōji, and Ino are celebrating Mirai's second birthday. They remark to Kurenai that she looks like Asuma.
 * Hinata observes that Hanabi's playful, child-like personality didn't start until after the death of Neji; she was previously very serious and only cared about training.
 * Hinata and Hanabi wonder about Hiashi's long absence, and assume that he's on a classified mission that prevents him from communicating with them.
 * The Kage Summit is convened at Kakashi's request.
 * Like Sakura, Ino is irritated that Naruto doesn't notice Hinata's feelings while they're eating at Ramen Ichiraku.
 * Lee and Tenten investigate the crater left by the meteorite that falls near Konoha.
 * Shikamaru initially disagrees when Kakashi assigns Hinata and Naruto's to the rescue team: he worries that Hinata, as Hanabi's sister, may not remain composed during the mission, and he feels that Naruto's strength would be better served keeping Konoha safe from the falling moon. He quickly accepts Kakashi's judgment: Naruto might be able to save Konoha by defeating Toneri and Hinata, as one of Toneri's targets, may lure him to them if she's part of the team.
 * Each of the Five Kage assigns a team of ninja to protect their respective villages from meteors. In Konoha, this team includes Yamato, Kiba, Chōji, Lee, and Tenten.


 * Chapter 2 —
 * Hanabi's kunai is coated with trace amounts of her chakra. Using her Byakugan, Hinata follows this chakra to the underground cave's entrance.
 * When the rescue team is caught in the genjutsu bubble, only Sakura realises what's happened to them. She has dreams of Sasuke, Naruto, Ino, and Tsunade before she's finally able to break the genjutsu's hold on her. She tries to rouse the others once she's awake.
 * While reliving the day in Iruka's classroom, Naruto looks at what everybody wrote down about who they would spend their last day with. He deduces that Hinata wrote down his name for the same reason that Sakura wrote down Sasuke's.
 * While reliving Hinata's confession to him during the fight with Pain, Naruto realises that the "love" she feels for him is not the same as the "love" he feels for ramen.
 * Shikamaru decides to call the Gatekeeper's various bubble-related jutsu.
 * Because of Toneri's continued reliance on puppets, holograms, and other distractions, Shikamaru and the others speculate that Toneri's forces are actually quite small, that he can't leave his location, or both.
 * Tsunade is placed in charge of overseeing the evacuation of the Land of Fire's citizens. She is also in charge of healing anyone who is injured.
 * Guy watches from the Konoha Hospital as Lee destroys falling meteors. He gives Lee words of tearful praise.
 * Naruto notices that Hinata averts her gaze whenever she sees the scarf he wears. For this reason, he puts it away.
 * Shikamaru notices Naruto's increasing attachment to Hinata. Although he has no personal objections to their relationship, he considers reminding Naruto to focus on the mission. He ultimately decides against it because it might ruin his own relationship with Naruto.
 * After receiving Hanabi's Byakugan, Toneri has his first ever experience with eyesight. Although he's always been able to sense his surroundings using chakra – a far faster and more informative way of taking in the world – it doesn't compare to actually seeing the world.
 * As a child, Toneri used to ask his father for some human companionship, as the puppets that served them made poor company. His father appeased him by sometimes taking him to Konoha to secretly observe members of the Hyūga clan, such as Hinata. On these occasions, his father suggested that Hinata should someday become Toneri's bride.
 * The sphere of chakra that Toneri knocks Hinata out with produces a vapor when it bursts that, when inhaled, renders her unconscious.


 * Chapter 3 —
 * Toneri explains to Hinata that, after his father died when he was a child, he had only the Ōtsutsuki clan's autonomous puppets to keep him company. Hinata concludes that it is because of this that Toneri has such a simple view of "good" and "evil", as the puppets couldn't challenge him to develop better critical thinking skills. Although Toneri is only doing what he believes is right, spending so long with obedient puppets has rendered him unable to consider others' views or desires.
 * Hinata speculates that the old man she met in the underground cemetery was an apparition, whose regret caused him to continue wandering after death so that he could save the Earth and its inhabitants.
 * The chakra cannon that the Raikage plans to use to destroy the moon was originally created as a weapon of mass destruction to use against other countries in times of war.
 * When he sees that Sakura is going to exhaust herself healing Naruto, Shikamaru lies to her that they still have plenty of time in order to force her to take a break.
 * Naruto reveals that he confessed to Hinata, which Shikamaru has to explain the significance of to Sai. When Naruto goes on to say that Hinata rejected him, Shikamaru is surprised, as he expected it would have been the other way around due to Naruto's obliviousness.


 * Chapter 4 —
 * In Konoha's evacuation shelter, Iruka reads to a group of children to help them keep their minds off the meteorites falling outside.
 * While Kiba and Shino are out looking for stragglers who haven't been evacuated yet, they find Teuchi still at work preparing ramen for tomorrow's business. Kiba has been irritated that he wasn't assigned to help rescue Hanabi, as he wants to be in the limelight during his final hours. When he tries to explain this to Teuchi, pointing out that there may be no tomorrow to prepare for, Teuchi says he doesn't care, as he will do his best today regardless of what tomorrow may bring. Kiba is moved by this and feels as though Teuchi is giving him advice. As such, he recruits Shino and Akamaru to help Teuchi prepare ramen.
 * Despite the evacuation order, Kurenai and Mirai return to their apartment to gather mementos of Asuma. The apartment catches fire while they're inside and the village's water-users aren't able to put out the flames. Chōji rushes into the building to save them, following the sounds of Mirai's cries. When he finds them, Kurenai's foot is caught under debris. She pleads with Chōji to take Mirai and go just as the building collapses. He protects both of them with his body and then escapes with them using his Human Bullet Tank. Outside, medics treat Kurenai's burns and Chōji keeps Mirai company, choosing to focus on the future that she represents and not the finality of what may be their deaths.
 * Although she's tired, Sakura insists on joining the others during the raid on Toneri's castle, as she knows her medical ninjutsu will be needed on a mission of this magnitude.
 * Sasuke's intervention in Konoha's defense is so brief that only Kakashi notices his presence.
 * In the "rebirth chamber" of Toneri's castle is a male and female pair of all Earth's animals, which Toneri plans to use to repopulate the planet after humanity is destroyed.
 * Toneri forces Hinata to fight Naruto using the Puppet Technique, but does so via the orb placed within her body rather than the usual chakra strings.
 * Although Kakashi had several measures in place to prevent the moon from crashing into the Earth, he immediately suspects it was Shikamaru's team that was ultimately successful.
 * When Toneri is shown the Ōtsutsuki clan's underground cemetery, he blames himself for ignoring his father's instructions. When his father was on his deathbed, he worried that being alone would be bad for Toneri. As such, he encouraged Toneri to abandon Hamra's decree, go to Earth, and make friends there. At the time, Toneri felt that their ancestors' wishes were too important and so he remained on the moon. Naruto tries to convince Toneri to join them, fulfilling his father's request at long last, but Toneri declines so that he can atone for his actions.
 * While returning to Earth, Naruto observes that his childhood was just as lonely as Toneri's, and that if he hadn't had Hinata and the others he might have turned out the same way.


 * Epilogue —
 * no significant differences

Production
The film was directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi. Masashi Kishimoto provided the story concept, character designs, and complete editorial supervision. Since the story takes place two years after Part II and several years before the epilogue, the characters were redesigned with clothing suitable for missions and more-mature facial features. The film contains homages to Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows, Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), and Nobuhiko Obayashi's Lonely Heart (1985). A new character, Toneri (voiced by Jun Fukuyama), appeared in the film.

Screenwriter Maruo Kyōzuka said that he wanted to depict a love triangle between Naruto, Hinata, and Toneri in the film. Although Naruto is initially clueless about Hinata's feelings for him, during the film he begins to acknowledge and respond to them. Hinata's character was also developed in the film, with Kyozuka saying that she had to put aside her feelings for Naruto to accept Toneri's proposal so she could find Hanabi. During this scene, Kyozuka wanted to depict Naruto at his lowest after his rejection by Hinata. He then returned Naruto to his brave self, with the character resolving to continue his mission regardless of the cost. Toneri was developed as a despicable villain.

After seeing the staff's initial work on a film about Naruto's relationship with Hinata, Kishimoto decided to oversee the project. He enjoyed seeing Naruto and Hinata's romantic scenes, even those not written by him. Kishimoto acknowledged his discomfort at writing romantic scenes, and he admitted he was not sure if he would be able to look at the scene depicting Naruto and Hinata's kiss. In making The Last: Naruto the Movie, Kishimoto based the idea of Hinata wanting to make a scarf for Naruto on what his wife had actually once done for him; this elicited laughs from the staff as they worked on the film. Kishimoto felt a mixture of satisfaction and sadness due to the two characters' growth since the start of Naruto; they had become like his own children.

Hinata's Japanese voice actress, Nana Mizuki, was surprised at the attention her character received. After seeing Hinata as an adult, Mizuki was amazed by how womanly Hinata looked and acted, feeling the same way about Naruto's young-adult self. The character's personality and unwillingness to give up, regardless of the situation, attracted Mizuki to Hinata. According to Mizuki, her favorite scene in the film was when Naruto tells Hinata he loves her. While being happy at Hinata's joy, she thought the character behaved rather coldly when Hinata went to Toneri. Naruto's Japanese voice actress, Junko Takeuchi, was happy with the story and had hoped that Naruto would end up in a relationship with Hinata. Takeuchi was reminded of Naruto's late godfather, Jiraiya, when she read the script. She thought that although Naruto's declaration of love was the most important part of the character's growth, his true nature had not changed at that point. Satisfied with the story, Takeuchi thought that the audience would agree with her view.

Audio
The jazz fusion duo Sukima Switch performed the film's theme song, "Star Vessel", after producer Takuyuki Hirobe had asked them to compose a song which invoked a gentle (yet powerful) world view. The single was released on 3 December 2014, at the same time as the film's soundtrack. A character CD song for Hinata, "At the End of Winter", was recorded by Nana Mizuki. Two additional CDs were "Even in a Future Day", a character song sung by Junko Takeuchi, and The Host: Naruto the CD, a drama CD about a new mission ordered by the Sixth Hokage.

Box office and sales
The Last was first announced at Jump Festa 2012. The film's first trailer premiered on 31 July 2014. It was promoted in the lead-up to the Naruto manga finale in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with information announced weekly. The Japanese film premiere took place on 6 December 2014. Theatergoers were given a copy of Retsu no Sho, a guidebook providing information about the movie and its characters.

During its first weekend, The Last earned ¥515 million (US$4.35 million) and grossed ¥1.29 billion after three weekends. In December 2014, it earned about ¥1.75 billion ($14.76 million) and became the franchise's top-grossing feature film. By January 2016, the film had grossed ¥2 billion ($16.9 million).

Aniplex released the Japanese DVD on 22 July 2015, which sold 18,565 copies in that country. It was one of 2016's bestselling DVDs in Japan, selling 34,687 copies. On 29 December 2016, the film aired on TV Tokyo at 1:30 a.m. and received a rating of 1.4 percent.

It was released by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand January 17, 2015. In North America, Viz Media and Eleven Arts screened the film in 21 theaters on 20 February 2015. Viz released the DVD and Blu-ray versions on 6 October 2015.

Trivia

 * At the end of the film screening in Japan, it was announced that a new movie featuring Naruto and Hinata's son, Boruto Uzumaki, would premiere on August 7, 2015.
 * Retsu no Sho includes two manga-omake chapters set shortly after the events of this movie: "After The Last" and "The Rest".
 * There are a few errors seen in the film:
 * In the scene where Kurama is writing on the moon, it is shown with only eight tails.
 * In the post-marriage photo after the credits, Naruto's prosthetic right arm has no bandages and looked no different from his original right arm.
 * Naruto's red scarf throughout the movie symbolises the "red string of fate" between him and Hinata.