Satsuki had already seized on who would be her most likely teammates, in the past year, which she had mostly dedicated to the task of improving her control of her elements. While she had chakra reserves that bordered on huge, she had found that elemental jutsu tended to be horribly prohibitive in Chakra Costs, and since her affinities were less potent than any single given affinity would've been on its matching element, this wasn't mitigated by them. In an effort to subvert this, she had revived one of her father's old ideas, and a remnant of a marriage between an Uchiha and an Uzumaki that never quite went entirely through.
The Uzumaki were renowned sealmasters, and each member of the clan could boast knowledge that would dwarf most anyone else. So it was no wonder that the project Satsuki had revived was extremely complex. It made perfect sense to be.
After all, sealed jutsu paper bombs were exactly as useful as they sounded. A variation on the good old, tested, tried and true Explosive Tag, these could be altered, with sufficient experimentation and work, to have different effects and to even have entire techniques sealed in them. Her father hadn't truly furhtered the research as much as he could have, his life cut short well before he could add much to it, but Satsuki herself had made quite a bit of advancement on it the past year.
Most likely because having all affinities allowed her to increase the spectrum she could search for an answer to her problems in.
Her father had usable technique bombs, but Satsuki wanted to take it further. She had managed to discover how to alter the amount of power that was in any given bomb, altering the amount of chakra that flowed through the seals, and had even managed to combine several bombs at once to produce effects based on what the combined techniques would do. More difficult than it sounded, given that the detonation of one bomb tended to short out other bombs nearby, which left the usual method of jutsu combination useless.
All in all, she was quite proud of her progress. She had also discovered that certain materials took to holding onto this kind of seal differently. Most kinds of metals were completely useless, as was wood for the most part. Only the first Hokage's trees produced wood that could react well to the seals.
Paper produced satisfactory results, but it was stones that produced the best possible result. Specifically, precious stones. Expensive as it was to keep herself stocked up, she had learned to use them sparingly, and to be exceedingly careful when crafting the seals.
As an aside, she'd also become quite the accomplished craftswoman, as she had taken to wearing jewelry which had the concealed gem jutsu bombs (they definitely needed a better name) ready for use in an emergency, and she couldn't be seen with anything less than exquisite jewelry.
Some would've thought, what, did no Uchiha think of this before her? Well, they might have, but the entire project was something that was kept tightly under wraps by the clan head's family and furthermore, it was something that had only recently come into their possession, stolen from the Uzumaki clan, so it's not like they had a lot of history with it.
The musing from thinking on her specialty, her gemcraft, which she still thought needed a better name though that one was atleast an improvement, had kept her distracted long enough for Iruka to finish his speech about what it would be like for Genin now that they were about to graduate, and how arduous their life could be from then on.
It was time.
The reading of the team assignments was on.
The first seven teams weren't really surprising. She could remember tidbits about her irrelevant classmates, enough to put the general purpose of said teams as 'Jack of All Trades', which could decently perform any task, but not shine in any. The eight team was the first one to be a specialized team, and it had thrown Satsuki for a loop. "Team Eight, headed by Yuuhi Kurenai, will be staffed by Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei will be by in just a few minutes to pick you up."
Well, Satsuki mused, that knocked her plans on getting partnered with the quiet and unobtrusive Aburame. She'd have rather enjoyed a partnership with him and Akimichi, who was also a bit of a pushover. She knew she was a strong personality and would most likely not fit very well with Inuzuka or Nara, both of whom would drive her up the wall, and would have most likely murdered Yamanaka on principle.
The less said about her interactions with Naruko, the better.
Still, Satsuki frowned, this left her in a bit of a pickle. Because she was certain that Ino Shika Cho wouldn't be broken, at this stage. At least, it didn't fit in the possible team permutations that she'd allowed herself. While far from arrogant, or so she liked to think, Satsuki wasn't above admitting that she was a shoe-in for an elite. Even if she weren't a clan head, simply being the second highest scorer would ensure that they'd at least give her a chance to prove herself worthy of the honor. This meant giving her a team that wouldn't drag her down.
Except the only teammate left that wasn't headed for the Ino Shika Cho trio was…
Of course it had to be her. When had Satsuki been a lucky person before? It couldn't be anyone else, could it?
"Team Ten, headed by Sarutobi Asuma, will be staffed by Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino. Your sensei will meet you in Tobirama Park," Iruka said, looking straight at Satsuki for an instant, before his eyes moved across the room quickly. They landed on Naruko and Satsuki just knew that he was trying to gauge what their reactions would be.
Teams twelve and eleven went without issue.
Of course, the best would be left for last.