How I would Fix Konoha's Teams

Tenten and Screentime should be the strongest team combo.

Tenten being on Team 7 and getting access to Zabuza's blade to learn how to use throughout the series is definitely something I would have loved to see

Tenten is what happens to characters with a ton of potential in a cast of hundreds. It just happens sometimes when building a story. I really wish she got more development.

It's funny how OG Team 7 was supposed to embody the 3 main Jutsu archetypes. Naruto for Taijutsu, Sasuke for Ninjutsu, and Sakura for Genjutsu. It was written that way with Naruto being a one-trick pony, Sasuke's affinity with multiple techniques thanks to the Sharingan, and Sakura's abnormally good chakra control and by extension is required for Genjutsu. Instead, Kishi went way overboard going into Shippuden and we got the imbalance we see now.

Shikamaru is one of Naruto’s closest friends and literally does the exact role he described once Naruto became hokage by becoming his advisor, on top of that Naruto’s sibling chemistry with Tenten is pretty much off the charts as I could easily see wonderfully wholesome training scenes like Shikamaru asking the 2 “alright geniuses, what should you do if you have to face someone stronger than you? Well?” Only to immediately shut them down as they raise their hands by saying “assuming that throwing a rasengan or weapons at them isn’t a possible solution” followed by the 2 slowly putting their hands down 😂

Tenten can also help Shikamaru by creating more sections of shadows to stretch out Shikamaru's reach and allow him to target peoples blind spots more effectively. Also Tenten targets from the sky, Naruto from eye level Shikamaru from the ground this basically information overload to in any battle

Sakura - Choji - Lee: Some other people have mentioned it but I think Sakura with Lee would be a great combo. Unlike Naruto who really just heals himself, Lee tends to burn fast and becomes unable to continue fighting. Put another space maker like Choji on the team and they can cover each other while Sakura gets them back into the fight. Plus as you mentioned, chakra control training for all three would be devastating. Naruto - Tenten - Shikamaru: Perfect. Sasuke - Kiba - Hinata: Level-headed, aggressive, and defensive respectively. Good balance of all techniques, visual and olfactory mastery, plus Hinata is the only girl who wouldn't annoy Sasuke because she hardly talks. Neji - Ino - Shino: Two teammates that can keep track of both Ino and opponents simultaneously. Both can also disable enemies and make them easy targets for soul transfer. Plus, Ino-Shino sounds funny together.

Kishimoto is really good at coming up with great concepts and immediately completely forgetting about them.

I appreciate the respect you give to Shino. He is my favorite of the 12 and the disrespect he gets is uncalled for. Also the idea of Shino and Ino being on the same team as exuberate fashion disasters Gain and Lee is hilarious. I imagine Ino's initial disgust at the idea of Shino's bugs touching her in any way, then the grudging respect because Shino actually has the bugs help in the flower shop or something. Ino trying to give her team a make over, but it fails. The dynamic has such good potential.

The Hyuga's being together would be a damn good plot line. Neji's grudge would be forced to come to a head a lot sooner with Kakashi's style of conflict resolution. The whole those who betray their mission are scum, those who betray their friends are worse then scum thing.

I kinda wanna see a spin-off series with these teams, the dynamics are so unique for the series v refreshing

I think TenTen and Shikamaru is kind of slept on. I know Ten Ten just throws weapons, but it gives Shikamaru more Shadows to work with. She could extend his shadows to long range with Ten Ten's mastery. Plus, he's also shown he can throw weapons with his shadows. Like that would be an interesting team ultimate to have those two put someone in the blender like that lol

Not to mention Tenten's entire combat style relies on fuinjutsu, something she's shown to be gifted at. Having her with Naruto, a scion of the Uzumaki who were renowned for their fuinjutsu would be really cool. She might have been able to help with the nine tails' seal, or with the other jinchuriki.

My favorite part was when Kurenai never trained Hinata in genjutsu, even though the Byakugan can exponentially increase a genjutsu’s range, and Hinata also displayed very good chakra control with her twin lion fists.

The Naruto-Tenten-Azuma-Shikamaru and Sasuke-Sakura-Kurenai-Kiba teams in particular are fascinating to me. This makes me wish we had gotten more cross-pollination between the teams in the actual series, since each of the sensei had something to offer to the genin outside their teams. Also, Naruto and Tenten spamming the whole battlefield with shadow clones and shuriken only for any survivor to find himself caught in Shikamaru's shadow possession is an awesome thought.

Tenten could have been portrayed as the ultimate backline support member of a war. If they would have just used her in scenes where she's supplying thousands of ninjas with weapons and bows in a pinch moment during some of the key battles, it honestly would have fixed her entire existence. Yeah, she still wouldn't be a strong character, but she nobody expects her to be anyway. Having ninjas skip the process of gathering weapons to head to battle and just rely on Tenten's infinite inventory would have been dope for her as a character. Also, she should have been a weapon's trainer, helping more skilled Shinobi find their perfect weapon.

Not gonna lie that I always felt Tenten was royally screwed over because of this, even an episode dedicated to Tenten finding out how she would grow as a ninja showed just how ill equipped Guy was with helping her grow. UPDATE: Holy crap, thanks for 1.6K likes guys! 😊

In the episode that showed Tenten’s growth, it was shown that she could summon a small tortoise. If this ability was developed, if she made a contract with a summons animal or even multiple, she could have had the same ability as the path of Pain that summoned animals. This would have made her even cooler!

The new team 7 build would even be effective earlier in the story when they don't have access to KCM cloak. Tenten could force enemies into positioning for shadow paralysis and then Naruto could hit them with his early iterations of the rasengan or other early attacks he gains.

Lord Naruto, Tenten, Shikamaru should of been a thing. The number of things possible between them as well as the teams interactions in general would have been so much better than what we got.