Killing Clichés

Teamwork's the Dreamwork!

Many, and by many I mean literally everyone, wants their OC to be on Team Seven. I don't see anything particularly wrong with that, but keep in mind—

1) How often people do this.
(Usually because there is no plot and the author just wants to make a character for no reason or the author is too lazy to make more OCs)

2) There are only three Genin to a team and ONE sensei. Chûnin are no longer on teams but can lead a mission and Jônin can become sensei. A Chûnin cannot have a Genin team and cannot follow a Jônin as a teacher's assistant.

3) Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi are on a team together for a reason.

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Now that we've settled that, I've come up with plenty of ways for an OC to be placed on Team Seven. (If there's an asterisk, it means I've actually used this before.)

• One of the original members of Team Seven dies.
(Keep in mind, your new character has to be of the same caliber as the character killed off to keep balance. I recommend killing off a canon character during the Land of the Waves arc or the Konoha Crush arc–the easiest ones to kill off in both of those arcs are Sasuke and Sakura.)*

• Sakura—because we all know if one person is gonna leave the team it would most-likely be her—quits because she realizes she isn't cut out to be a ninja or doesn't want to kill anyone.

• If you want all the original members and your OC to form a team of four, make all of the other canon teams have four. This keeps the number equal and evades the overused Special Snowflake "odd-number-out" student trope.

• Have Sakura never become a ninja in the first place.

• Have Sakura start studying under Tsunade at a young age instead of going to the Academy, allowing your OC to be placed on Team Seven instead.
(Keep in mind that this trope will seriously affect Sakura's character. If she trained with Tsunade from a young age, she probably never really met Ino so she'd remain shy and introverted and still have bangs but also not be a Sasuke fangirl because she'd one–never have met him; and two–wouldn't care for relationships as Medical Nin and even Shinobi in general prioritize their jobs over romantic relationships. Her inner wouldn't exist either.)*

• Create a separate team, but have the team's sensei teach in a style similarly to Kakashi so they end up teaching their teams together.

• Have Kakashi be a substitute sensei for a separate team while their original sensei is on a solo mission or going through childbirth or something and Kakashi has to take his team with him.

• Your OC begs, LITERALLY on hands and knees, for Kakashi to train them and will willingly pay for lessons.
(This gives your OC originality in the sense that maybe they're trying to be a ninja behind their parents' backs or perhaps she JUST moved to Konoha from a small village. They won't get to meet the team right away but they will eventually.)

• Kakashi trains your OC in the time-slot between pre-Shipp and Shippūden.
(This gives Kakashi an excuse to be extremely busy; handling a student and missions at the same time.)

• Have a mission that one of the canon characters cannot go on because they are either already preoccupied or injured.

• The Konoha Elders deemed Sasuke too mentally unstable to become a ninja due to his undying hatred of Itachi, his Tsukuyomi trauma, and being an Uchiha–which could lead to a revolt against Konoha.

• Naruto wasn't allowed to become a ninja because he's the Jinchûuriki and no one liked him but the village couldn't risk him dying or being captured.

• Place Sakura, Naruto, or Sasuke on a different team, but make sure that team has significance in the story.*

• Completely mess with the teams. For example, put Naruto, Shikamaru, and Hinata on a team together. (However, make sure that the new teams have attributes that work well together like how Hinata can use her Byakugan to tell Shikamaru what the enemies ahead are doing so he can form a plan and Naruto can carry out the plan. In this team, Shikamaru would be the leader with his smarts to keep the team in check and keep them safe. Hinata would be the eyes–meaning she makes sure everything goes accordingly and gathers information for the team leader. Naruto is the action-person on the team that carries out the plans formulated by Shikamaru with Hinata's help.)

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Alrighty peoples! We've got one cliché trope fixed up and there are plenty more where this one came from! Up next is the dreaded "Massacred Clan"!