#Sasuke goes through gifted child syndrome

[paraderain]

Naruto Mixed Teams AU

So the teams in Naruto are broke as fuck and seem to have no reasoning outside of Asuma with InoShikaCho which they partially threw away in Boruto anyways so… I’m changing the teams and lots of other stuff but most notably is probably the teams.

In this AU Iruka as there home room or main instructor in the academy chooses team composition and their team leaders. Iruka is given a dossier of the available team leaders and chooses the teams each one will have.

First is Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Neji Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Kakashi Hatake as sensei. I think Iruka’s reasoning here is grouping all the prodigies together to challenge each other and to try and survive Kakashi’s no pass rate (and his shitty teaching, sorry not sorry). Shino is counted as a prodigy because he’s never lost a fight and I refuse to believe that kinda skill wasn’t noticed.

Next is Team 8: Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga, and Kurenai Yuhi as sensei. These guys are not as well balanced but I couldn’t take Hinata from Kurenai. The reasoning here is that Ino and Hinata need the companionship and Kiba needs to learn some tact and a bit more empathy. Ino needs a non competitive gal pal again to chill out and learn teamwork. Hinata needs the confidence from both teamates and her sensei to rub off on her. Ino’s temper and Hinata’s soft spoken personality will force Kiba to learn some tact and respect in trial by fire basically.

*I know none of the kids can get much from a genjutsu specialist except Sasuke or Sakura but it was the same in the show. Also I wanted to keep all the sensei with their favorite students and I had plans for Sakura.

Next we have Team 10: Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Tenten, and Asuma Sarutobi as their sensei. I think Shikamaru and Naruto work well to counter each other well. Levelheadedness and well thought out plans are all well and good but sometimes energy and spontaneity is what a situation needs. Also Naruto and Tenten can account for the human element of planning since Shika is a logic boy. Plus (although we see very little of her) Tenten seems like a good middle ground, excitable but mission focused. Plus Shika and Tenten seemed not to have their minds made up and predujiced against Naruto like some of their classmates so it’d make sense for Iruka to take that into account when deciding team dynamics. Also Asuma uses chakra infused weapons which could aid Tenten and help teach Naruto better control.

Lastly we have Team Guy: Choji Akimichi, Rock Lee, Sakura Haruno, and Might Guy as sensei. I think Iruka would see the spirit displayed when not pandering to her crush on Sasuke and throw her to Guy right away. She has the same energy without the “youth” obsession. And throw Choji in with those 3 to try and motivate him a bit more too and also give him some hype men. Guy and Lee would never call him fatso and might even indulge in eating competition with him after training since they see the “spirit of youth” in everything. Also all the guys, after getting to know each other, would definitely call Sakura out on her less than stellar motivations to be a ninja and her attitude towards Naruto and to a lesser degree everyone not Sasuke.

In this AU the original Team Guy members are still all a year older than the others but were in the academy at the same time. Lee and Tenten took the extra year to train ‘cause of there limited skill set and Neji wasn’t allowed to attend ahead of Hinata.

Also in this Naruto still has the moniker of “Knucklehead Ninja” but he’s not an idiot. It never made sense that Naruto as much as he said he wanted respect and acknowledgment couldn’t do anything at the beginning from what we could see. So my thoughts are he already learn Shadow clone and some other probably a bit common big chakra ninjutsu but things that require finer control are hard cause of just how much chakra he has to deal with. I think in this AU the moniker was mostly unjustly assigned due to prejudice and quick judgements.

Also he and Sasuke have a silent respect for each other already. I think right after the massacre Sasuke would be tired of the pitying looks or even praise over his genius so he wanders looking for a place to be alone and finds Naruto. From then on they have companionable silence together every now and then. Naruto just glad someone’s willing to be around him and Sasuke likes that at least one person just doesn’t care to worship him or walk on egg shells. Also Naruto doesn’t like Sakura here. He’s just not in a good enough headspace yet for romance when platonic love isn’t even in view yet. Sakura still likes Sasuke but mostly cause that was most of her character before so I’m using that crush for character growth on her end.

Lastly, episodes 1 and 2 basically don’t happen. I always thought 1 was like an original pilot pitch that never got adjusted in terms of how it actually fit in the show and 2 just seemed fully unnecessary. Basically everything before the Chunin Exam is getting gone or condensed and lots of training and team bonding is getting added since the exam supposedly starts 6 months from the beginning of the show.