There's an art to assembling teams and Sarutobi's an old hat.
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When it came to teams he had to be careful. Politicing was always an issue. Couldn't let one team get too far ahead of another. The Hyuuga couldn't have a weaker team than the Uchicha for example. Though with the second clan all but wiped out at least that pressure didn't run both ways. So he'd put clan heirs with those of moderate skill and repute, together if all else failed, but they had to complement each other in skillset. And again the clans had to be appeased. Strength and the appearance of it mattered. Pride was something some died for or over.
And the teams had to complement each other. They had to be able to work together, stabilize each other, specialties had to be coordinated: trackers, intel-gatherers, the heavy-hitters, jack of all trades. Get along. It often helped to put a kunoichi on each team when possible.
And all this was stalling of course because this year, this year would be harder than ever. Because of one boy. All of this fuss. The boy had somehow passed ninja academy. And no one would work with him. No one would let their child work with him. But somehow he might be able to salvage this, work it out. The son of the fourth Hokage deserved better than to be treated as a pariah all his life. And he found a way to both do it and justify his choices to the counsel if asked.
Team seven.
Naruto, the loud boisterous boy whom he suspected housed too much chakra, and far too little control, to allow for the more nuanced techniques. And the kyuubi container. The real reason for the mess.
Then the Uchicha. The last in the village so he had no family to inform him of the situation or protest it. Better yet for him to be with the demon it was rumored he may have the power to control.
Kakashi. That one would be a tough sell but he'd manage it. The man had shirked his duties long enough and could help the two problem members. He was really the only suitable teacher for the bloodline left. And he could keep both boys under control. And he would treat Naruto as a boy, a shinobi, but not just a weapon and never as a demon. The team balanced out well like that the boy's rivalry doing well for them and the hopes that the boys who grew up with tragic, though vastly different, pasts could help each other.
And Sakura. A civilian. Lacking some of that same hatred and fear (both of the demon boy and the Uchicha who some whispered 'what if what if he snapped just like his brother' and though he knew it was unmerited, knew the truth- and cursed Danzo for it because he'd been looking into other, better alternatives- others didn't, couldn't) children born into the clans possessed. Best yet Naruto liked her. Ties like that could help protect the village. It comforted all concerned to have less reason to fear attack.
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A/N: some of my personal theories on team selection because it clearly can't be all grades based not with two generations of the ino-shika-cho team and the general sort of differences in the types of teams when you look at it. and it makes sense for there to be a big strategic part. And politics would play a huge part as well. I'm actually personally putting the team stuff down to fridge brilliance on kishi's part and according to my head-cannon because honestly given the way most adults treat naruto vs. how normally his team sort of acted they clearly didn't have that bias. Or well in sasuke's case he thinks he's just better than everyone so nothing in particular against naruto.
also i love team 7 and they make sense.