However tasteless or comical he might be, I will never say that Gai-sensei is without skill. The man is an absolute monster. All three of us assaulted him with everything we had - every skill we'd learned - for an hour.

We didn't land a hit. Gai dodged most of my strikes - unlike Lee or Tenten's which he batted away with impunity - but those he didn't, he blocked. Which I was fairly sure was impossible, unless he knew Juuken as well.

There was one technique I'd held back - I wasn't supposed to know it. Hours of watching Hiashi practice, however, had allowed me to recreate it at least partially.

Gai was fending off an attack from Lee when I dashed up near him and lit into him with an explosive barrage of Juuken strikes.

I enhanced my speed until I could almost feel my muscles aching from the strain of it - just the limit of my control. My tenketsu burned with the expelled chakra. My right foot and hand slid back until I gave him a sideways profile, then ducked a casual blow from him.

"Juukenpo: Eight Trigrams Thirty Two Palms!" Gai actually smiled when I said it.

"Two Palms!" Gai batted them both away casually.

"Four Palms!"

"Eight Palms!"

"Sixteen Palms!"

"Thirty-two Palms!"

Then Gai knocked all three of us back with nothing but the wind from the strength of his kick - and that's not an exaggeration. He kicked while we were fifteen feet away and it sent all three of us tumbling ass over end another twenty feet.

He'd blocked every kami-bedamned blow. Wove his hand faster than I imagined possible to stop thirty two strikes that hit almost simultaneously.

We refused to give up, all of us, for different reasons, when Gai told us, "Are you sure you don't want to head back to the Academy?"

"I will be a great shinobi even with just taijutsu!" Lee proclaimed, he face swollen from hitting it repeatedly on the training ground.

"I'm not giving up when I'm closer than ever to being the kunoichi I've always wanted to be!" Tenten said with determination, picking herself up off the ground.

I stood up too, without saying anything at first. I saw Gai look at me expectantly. "As strong as you are, Gai-sensei, I will become even stronger, to help protect this village."

We reached him together, and reached out in a futile attempt to attack him - I tried to channel a bit of chakra into my hand, even, for a Juuken strike to his shoulder.

But all of us just collapsed, too tired to move another inch or attack with any semblance of strength.

"That's the spirit! That's exactly what I like to see from my students - hard work! You pass!" He hugged us all so tightly that we couldn't breathe.

Gai was insane. I knew this in my mind, with every fiber of my being. But perhaps I was a bit insane too, because I couldn't help but like him already.

"Dinner's waiting on the top of the Yakiniku Q - my favorite barbecue for a bit of a high protein post-workout meal! You three meet me there! Don't be too late or I'll eat all the short ribs myself." Gai was gone before I could blink, and the three of us remained in a pile on the ground.

It was nearly five minutes before Tenten said something.

"You seemed a lot faster, Neji - it was impressive." She said from one end of the pile of limbs.

"I wear resistance seals. It's like a combination of moving through water and holding weights. Hard to describe, but very effective at making you faster and stronger. You've probably only seen me fight while wearing the seals for the past year. I took it off to fight Gai-sensei, so I was probably...twice as fast as before?" I estimated.

"I watched your graduation test at the Academy, though - you kept it on for that? What am I saying, of course you did. The great Neji Hyuuga." She rolled her eyes at me and I fought back a smile.

"Can either of you actually get up?" She asked hesitantly. I tried to get a surge of inspiration to move from my chakra and found myself faced with an unfamiliar feeling.

I hadn't ever been familiar with chakra exhaustion, before, but now I knew why several of my clan members had mentioned that I should avoid it.

Every good thing I'd ever mentioned about chakra? Just like any drug, the withdrawal from it is a hell of a thing. I felt like absolute shit, and even more so because I'd been beat all to hell from sparring with Gai-sensei.

The tank was empty. If I pulled any more chakra the basic necessities of life - brain, heart - just wouldn't work.

I was forced to actually do things without chakra to help me - it was galling and awful and I wanted my chakra back. Kami, I'd gotten spoiled. Nonetheless I got up with only minimal groaning and helped the others up.

"Come on." I said as they complained even more than I had. "I like Yakiniku's short ribs. And Gai looks like he can eat a lot."

"Today you finally became genin." Gai announced hours later after we ate what was quite possibly our own body weight in assorted grilled meats. "Let's hear what you strive for!"

My teammates looked at me expectantly when Gai turned to me. They'd all heard me on the training ground anyway. "Fine, though this will sound stupid when I put it into words. I remember the Kyuubi attack on the village." Gai raised his eyebrows a bit, but nodded - he probably did some quick mental math and realized how young I must have been at the time.

"I want to be a strong enough shinobi to protect the village from threats like that - threats that can destroy the village and everything and everyone I love." I finished, refusing to look at my teammates.

Gai's ridiculously powerful hand clamped on my shoulder. "Neji! You know, my own father taught me you fight hardest when you're fighting to protect something you love. We usually call that the Will of Fire. I'm very proud that you have that - it's a wonderful goal, and I think you'll make quite the shinobi. But it'll take a lot of hard work!"

Lee jumped in, since working hard was actually the only thing he truly excelled at.

"Sensei! I want to prove that I can become a splendid ninja, even if I can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu! That means everything to me." Lee said, a fire in his eyes. I snorted in amusement.

"Did you forget that I worked with you for an entire year just so that you could actually use a simple ninjutsu and graduate?" I said with a bit of a scoff.

Lee looked away for a moment. My eyebrow quirked.

"What? What is that look for?" I demanded.

"Well Neji, while I of course appreciate all of your help..." He began. "The teachers actually requested that I use the Clone Jutsu, to graduate."

I blinked.

Lee couldn't use the Clone Jutsu. He had literally one ninjutsu in his repertoire, and we'd banked all of our hopes on it.

"Then how the hell did you graduate? We gave it a one in three shot and that was your best hope, even by working as hard as we did - you just couldn't do the others. Maybe with another year of chakra control exercises or something we could have figured something..." I looked at Gai, who was smiling like a loon.

Gai, who was a taijutsu master. Perhaps an unparalleled taijutsu master, who focused on it.

"You made sure he graduated anyway, Gai-sensei." I said. Life in Konoha was far from fair - if a jounin wanted a student to pass, that was the end of the story.

"That's right, Neji. I saw how hard the two of you worked, and even though Lee didn't get lucky in this case hard work trumps luck. And even without ninjutsu or genjutsu to fall back on Lee, I think you'll do just fine. If you have a good rival to compete with and keep you on your toes and improve each other, then the fires of youth can keep your blood boiling and you can become a great ninja; without a doubt." Lee was smiling again, and his hand had formed into a fist at Gai's inspiring words.

"I will admit though, you'll need to put in a lot of work." Gai added seriously.

"Yes, sensei!" Lee exclaimed immediately. "Neji! You must be my rival in order to make sure I am kept on my toes!" To add effect, he literally stood up on his toes and pirouetted.

Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope. That shit wasn't happening at all.

Thank kami I was a shinobi and could lie - Basic Deception was another class Lee had done terribly in. "Well Lee, Obviously I'd love to keep helping out, but as your teammate I was hoping to be more of your friend than a rival."

Lee's face lit up like a man trapped in a desert for a week who just stumbled into an oasis.

"Then Tenten, you...?!" She shot me a glare that promised death before answering him.

"Umm, no Lee. What'd Neji just say? We all need to be teammates and friends. Not rivals. I bet there's some genius kid out there besides Neji who could be your rival." She said.

Lee nodded thoughtfully. "Then Neji, we shall be friendly rivals!"

Oh Shinigami's fat cock.

Gai smiled and grinned. "Excellent, Lee - I'll have you know that I consider my Eternal Rival Kakashi to be a very good friend of mine, as well." He gave Lee a thumbs up.

I very much noticed that he said nothing about Kakashi considering him a friend. I decided that I needed to meet Kakashi.

"Alright Tenten, what about you?" Gai sensei said, asking Tenten about her goal. I knew this one - she talked about it constantly. Tenten flushed a bit and smiled.

"I want to become just like the legendary kunoichi Lady Tsunade." Tenten said.

"Lady Tsunade, eh?" Gai considered. "Well, she's great at taijutsu. She has superhuman strength. There's a rumor that she almost killed another one of the Legendary Sannin - Jiraiya."

At his description, Tenten nodded appropriately and became excited. "How can I become that strong?"

"You just need to work hard!" Gai said, giving her a toothy smile and a thumbs up.

I was pretty sure there was a bit more to Tsunade's legendary strength than a bit of work, but I wisely kept my mouth shut. Working hard would certainly get Tenten a lot stronger.

"Well then, now that we're finished with dinner, we've still got at least three hours until sunset. Let's head back over to Training Ground Five and get started, shall we? We'll do some stretches to get the food settled before we really get to work." Gai smiled broadly.

"We're going back?" Tenten cried with dismay. Gai was already gone, and I sighed in agreement with Tenten.

Gai outlined what he expected of us that evening and we looked at him incredulously.

"That's just to introduce you to your morning warm up!" He said with excitement.

I needed to learn to be wary any time Gai-sensei smiled, or was excited. It was inevitably a bad thing.

Our "morning warm-up" consisted of stretches, sprints, handstand sprints, and two thousand pull-ups, push-ups, curl-ups, walking lunges, and sit-ups. Some of the sprints and walking lunges were done at top speed around the perimeter of the village, in full view of far too many people who looked at us like we were insane.

I didn't know that we weren't.

Neither of the other two had made it to the end. Tenten barely made it past a thousand on any of the exercises - Lee struggled at fifteen hundred. Chakra could do many things, and made shinobi able to accomplish remarkable feats compared to civilians, but limits existed.

"Well, Neji!" Gai said exuberantly. Twisting my head to glare at Gai hurt. Everything hurt. "Your youthful energy knows no bounds, it seems! We'll have to increase your resistance and speed."

I was going to kill sensei. At night, maybe sneak into his room. Perhaps use poison - I didn't know any off the top of my head, but there were experts for that sort of thing. I could learn, as a last resort.

"Today was mostly to see where you were at, so great work everyone. We'll start every day with that set of exercises. Two thousand reps is a great starting point for shinobi, I think. Okay, break for the day and I'll see you back here tomorrow morning at five for another round of the same thing!" Gai ran off in a blur.

None of us moved. None of us could.

"I...hurt...everywhere." Tenten said in a moan - Gai had pushed her at each exercise, telling her that it would give her strength like Tsunade. Lee just let out a whimper; he had pushed himself even harder to impress Gai.

The next morning was even more grueling, since we were so sore from the previous day.

Gai encouraged us the whole time, but none of us made a particularly impressive showing even when pushed beyond our limits. Gai seemed to be expecting that.

When we finished a few hours later, he had a second breakfast for us and we inhaled it like a lifeline - desperate for the energy because we knew he wasn't nearly done with us for the day.

"Now! I have a gift for you all!" Gai smiled, and I was terrified. At least I was learning. He presented each of us with a package, and when I opened it, I knew I was right to be terrified.

It was a set of arm and leg weights. With matching orange covers.

Tenten looked as skeptical as I did, though Lee grinned at the prospect - he probably wanted to become as much like Gai as possible, which terrified me.

"Gai-sensei, I use Resistance Seals instead of weights. There was a paper put out by the Nara a while ago, about the detrimental effects of weights on joints, if you wear them while running." I mentioned. There was no way he hadn't heard about it.

"Ah, indeed there was. Resistance Seals are an option, I admit - and potentially faster to release in combat, too. But the damage mentioned can be offset by constant application of chakra reinforcement to those same joints, as well as a bit of regular medical chakra - excellent simultaneous training for chakra control." Gai said with a smile and a thumbs up.

That...was an excellent point. Brilliant, even. And not something the Nara thought to address in the paper where they criticized the training method - typical of the lazy slugs.

"You are, of course, welcome to use either - weights or seals. Seals might be better to start with." He pulled out two pairs of bracers for Tenten and Lee, who immediately put them on.

Tenten then looked at me like I was crazy. "You constantly wear these?!"

"That's right, Tenten! I noticed it when I first saw Neji. It's a fantastic training method, though I believe his are a bit out of date." Gai held out his hand expectantly, and the seals on my wrist guard swirled for a moment as I felt him apply a rush of chakra.

He knew a thing or two about seals, it seemed.

The world got at least twice as heavy and thick, around me. By "out-dated" Gai didn't want me to be able to move.

"Now you are ready for the first instruction in my personal taijutsu style!" Gai announced with fervor. "This is a style I have developed over many years of hard work."

I was tempted to count how many times the man mentioned 'work' each day but I knew I would just end up more depressed.

"I have named it Goken, the Strong Fist style. In many ways it is the antithesis of your clan's Gentle Fist style, Neji. But in others it draws much from it." I raised an eyebrow at Gai admitting that he had studied the Gentle Fist style. I'd been assuming, but still - Juuken was a very closely guarded.

As in our clan had killed shinobi - both openly and surreptitiously - for what Gai just admitted. He must have known someone in the family quite well.

"My taijutsu style relies on great speed and strength, where many other styles focus on only one or the other. It incorporates strong hits as well as many holds, blocks, and throws. It is a most deadly style. I do not teach it lightly." Gai added seriously.

It did sound exactly like the antithesis of Juuken. Gentle Fist was almost a dance, when performed alone. It wasn't necessary to hit someone with any strength, with a Juuken strike, so there was a lot of flow and redirection of their own aggression, instead.

I was more excited than I wanted to admit, to learn a bit of Goken and see where it excelled. Perhaps incorporate it into a more personal style - not many Hyuuga used anything more complicated than just the Juuken.

"It is such an honor to learn your great style, Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed, seemingly overcome. Tenten, too, nodded.

"Neji," Gai said hesitantly. "I know many of the Hyuuga Clan are hesitant to learn any style besides the Gentle Fist, but -"

"I would like to learn your style, Gai-sensei. It is a foolish shinobi who limits himself. I may specialize in my family's style, but I am not arrogant enough to believe that the Juuken is flawless. You are clearly a taijutsu master and have incorporated elements from a dozen styles into your Strong Fist. Perhaps there are elements I shall incorporate into my own style of the Gentle Fist as I strive to improve it. It is the same reason I perfected the Academy taijutsu style, which many Hyuuga do not." I explained. I didn't mention that I never much used the Academy-taught taijutsu style. Juuken had enough blocks and throws without it.

Suddenly I was wrapped in a hug and made a strangled sound. Tenten giggled hilariously.

"Neji, I knew you had the fires of youth inside of you! That drive to be a great shinobi is inside all three of my precious students - I swear, I will see that each of you fulfills your goals. Lee, you will become a splendid shinobi, Tenten, you a legendary kunoichi, and Neji you'll improve the Juuken into something even greater!"

"That's not really what I strive -" I started to clarify.

"Of course it is, Neji. And with my help you'll do it, too!" Gai said, giving me a thumbs up.

"Alright students, let's go through the kata. There are sixty five of them - which I know sounds like a lot. You'll have them all down in a week, I promise! If not, we'll do twenty laps around the village together. And after we get through the kata today, I have a surprise - you'll all be sparring! First Tenten and Neji, then Lee and Neji. It'll be fun!" Gai said; I could tell that Lee, at least, looked forward to the spar. As though working through sixty kata for a single day could drill something into his head so well that it would stick at all.

Nonetheless, sixty kata, which would inevitably be at least mildly complicated, was an absurd amount to learn in a week. It was absurd to learn it in anything less than a month, really.

I was about to walk home when I noticed Tenten get out ten wooden targets and nearly a hundred shuriken and kunai from a stiff leather backpack she carried. I'd wondered what she kept in it.

Practicing bukijutsu was certainly practical, but that seemed...a bit excessive.

I stuck around for a minute and watched her set up. She nailed the targets into trees at all different heights, angles, and facings. Then she came back to where I was, perhaps forty yards from the tree line.

"Been working on some trick shots. Just kinda fun." She said with a shrug. She threw three, then a fourth shuriken a moment later, bouncing it off one of the others to change their angle.

One of the original three was off it's mark by a few inches, but not a bad shot, really - and I had no idea how she ricocheted them with any accuracy. I did something sort of similar to get odd angles and such, but I just cheated and used chakra strings.

Her method was very interesting - it took a lot of skill.

"Do it again. Try for all ten targets." I said casually, wondering what she'd do. She smiled back at me and did.

Seven shuriken in the initial throw, then two more that ricocheted, then a final one right after - thrown considerably faster than either of the first two - to get the backward-facing target.

I watched it all with my Byakugan and still almost thought she used chakra, somehow.

"That's ridiculous." I just said. "That's amazing." Tenten gave a little bow, and held out a brace of shuriken.

"I can do it, but I have to cheat." I said wryly. I did, releasing all ten with a chakra string attached - the slightest tug of my fingers was all that gave away any movement. My accuracy was a bit worse than hers.

"Ugh, you probably didn't even try, and it took me like three months to get that trick." She said, discouraged.

"Tenten, you're doing something completely different - this is really impressive. You should focus on this. I know Itachi Uchiha was supposed to have been great, but maybe you could steal his title and become the Bukijutsu Queen of Konoha." I said encouragingly.

I knew about Itachi because researching exactly what skills the deadliest shinobi in the world possessed was a habit of mine.

"Plus you can use me for target practice, probably. Good training." I pulled out a kunai and grinned at her.

Eventually, the chakra emitted with Juuken strikes can be refined until it blocks even a samurai's chakra-enhanced blade. I've never had the opportunity, but a budding weapons specialist is probably a good partner for that kind of training.

A week later, of course we hadn't mastered the kata of Goken well enough, so we ran twenty laps around the village - nearly eight back to back marathons. Gai ran them on his hands, and Lee and I were forced to join him for as many laps on our hands as we could - I lasted two laps, and Lee lasted one. One and a quarter, perhaps.

Spectators had started gathering immediately - our team was officially a laughingstock.