As far as I know, Konoha Shinden was never truly confirmed to be part of the canon timeline, but please correct me if there has been an official statement at some point.
Konoha Shinden is in fact canon and actually takes place immediately following 700. The mission that Mirai mentions about escorting Kakashi is actually what leads to the novel, and then there’s a moment in the epilogue where Kakashi is talking to Naruto about the stuff with Sasuke that’s going on.
That I know, but even I could use all the stuff I knew from Naruto 700 and Gaiden to write my own version of the blank period as well by coming up with some plausible connections between events, and this wouldn’t make my version canon either.
I haven’t read Shinden and it doesn’t matter to me either way, but if there is no officially statement that says that Konoha Shinden could be truly considered canon in some way (e.g. influenced by Kishimoto, confirmed by Kishimoto, etc.), I’ll think of it more as neat extra content.
I dunno if there’s an official statement or anything, but I believe the general understanding is that anything written post-ending is canon, especially since it’s very clear where it’s set in the timeline. Also, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t exist without Kishimoto signing off on it or whatever.
[screaming externally] 