Everyone has mentioned most the things I would say is one however I think has been overlooked and thats to have even just a small stockpile of each amakening material and some cultivation runes so when you get a new ninja that you want to use you have all the materials to immediately do so, do this in the weeks of the monthly event rotation that have the instance bonuses so not this week basically.

Teams, one that I see even though would usually be kurenai is a basic empress team when you get sasuke to 3* and thats sasuke, sailor sakura (can swap for kurenai not essential) and hinata.
for formation would prob go something like
X X X
sasuke main hinata
sakura X X
summon bull / rhino
21311
or same team different formation just move sakura to top lane so sasuke is last to give you more chance of keeping your barrier first round.