Board Thread:Consensus Track/@comment-4521917-20150810051444/@comment-28861328-20150902015918

Legendary Super Saiya-Jin 4 wrote: @Ten-Tailed Fox How do you explain the official novel timeline chart listing them in the same timeline as chapter 699, The Last, and chapter 700?

You've got it backwards. The timeline is not showing how the novels fit into the manga, rather how the manga fits into the novels. It's literally just the project's way of showing where they would be.

Furthermore, Kishimoto did not write that timeline. It is my understanding that at least three manga/anime companies are working on the so-called Naruto project. They commissioned the authors, they engineered the timelines, and they are calling all the shots. The only thing Kishi is doing is drawing covers for them.