I guess this was their plan all along and I think this explains the ending and everything after it . We don't know how Kishi trully wanted to end his manga , he seems to only have cared about Naruto vs Sasuke . But , it is clear that people from the magazine wanted to continue milking Naruto . Since Kishi would not draw it for them , they got his assistant and convinced Kishi to end his manga so that it fits with this whole new series that they had planned . Well , "new" as in the same as Naruto just with different character names .
This is why Naruto has to be a scumbag dad , this is why Orochimaru is alive and well and has a kid too . I am actually glad that these guys are NH fans , I don't want to know what they would have turned NS into (I feel sorry for Shikamaru and Temari )