(A/N) We start approaching canon. Barely. It'll be a couple chapters yet. Team Gai gets to graduate today though! So good for them! It was going to be Neji's turn. Then he refused to talk to me so now we're doing Tenten! A habitual fall back on a character I know well. This chapter fought me for weeks FYI. Let's just hope the next one isn't as bad.

Graduation morning wasn't really anything special, everyone got up, then did the few chores that needed done in the morning, primarily making breakfast and watering some of the plants, then got ready for school. Following that everyone went to school, it really wasn't different from the normal.

Only difference was what was going to happen at school. Tenten was ready, she knew she was ready, and with any luck, she'd beat Neji for top shinobi. She'd studied, practiced hard, and she was going to beat the bastard. Plus if she won, Neji agreed to let her have the team captain spot without any arguing. If they were on the same team of course, but she figured they would be. There wasn't really any reason they wouldn't.

Plus if the three of them, her, Neji, and Lee, were on a team, there was the perfect balance! Her long distance, Neji close distance, and Lee as their medic who also punched things a lot! Perfect. Sometimes Tenten was so glad Sakura managed to convince Lee that if he became a medic he could totally stop more people from dying like his parents had which then somehow let him use his chakra so he could totally be a medic like Tsunade.

Also if the two boys were with her she wouldn't have to wrangle a whole new set of teammates into submission. So that was also a bonus.

The exam had three parts. Taijutsu, which also included weapons, the written part, and then the academy jutsu. Tenten had prepared, and she was ready! She was going to beat Neji.

It was inevitable that Neji beat her in the Taijutsu section, he was a Hyuuga after all, even if he wasn't really part of the clan since the orphan thing, but she beat him soundly in weapons. She was pretty sure she would've beaten their instructor too, he wasn't a very good shot. Unfortunately she couldn't challenge him, so that'd have to wait.

They wouldn't be told the rest of their scores until the end, but Tenten was pretty sure she did pretty well. There wasn't an indication otherwise, if anything their teacher seemed surprised at the rankings when they picked them up, so it heralded well for her.

"Alright, you all passed except Torune, and the top shinobi was Tenten."

Tenten grinned at Neji, who just glared at her and sulked.

"So Torune, you'll need to be held back a year unless you feel like taking a make up test, and I'll announce teams tomorrow. Get out of my sight I don't want you back here again."

Tenten cheered as she followed the rest of her classmates out, dragging the still sulking Neji behind her.

They were quickly ambushed by the rest of the kids as soon as they got out.

"So!?" Naruto asked, practically jumping at her, although he stopped short right in front of her.

"I won," Tenten said, preening. "I got top shinobi!"

"Yes!" Sakura cheered. "Go Tenten!"

Naruto patted Neji on the head consolitorily. "Tenten's a better team captain anyway. You'll live."

Tenten just snickered at Neji's annoyed expression. "Yeah Neji, I'm a better option then you for team captain anyway. You can survive not being first this time."

"She says this like she wasn't going to be team captain anyway," Torune noted mildly. "And this only means Neji doesn't get to put up any sort of fight. He wouldn't have won anyway, so it doesn't matter in the end."

"Aww, thanks Torune!" Tenten chirped, patting him on the back. Extremely hard of course.

He wheezed slightly, staggering forward, then quickly righting himself like nothing had happened. "Of course."

Torune stayed with the younger class when they got to school the next morning, while Neji, Tenten, and Lee went into their classroom, ready for team assignments.

Sure enough, Tenten got to be on a team with Neji and Lee! Which meant she didn't have to wrangle two new teammates into submission! Yes!

Tenten heard her team's number called, and looked up to find their...sensei. A man in a green leotard and orange legwarmers with a horrific bowlcut. Oh boy.

"Onward!" The man cheered. "We must go now!"

Tenten shrugged, figuring he had to be a jounin and therefore he had to have some sort of skill that let him be this excentric, and followed him out, dragging a skeptical and still sulking Neji and a confused but enthusiastic Lee behind her.

"I am Maito Gai!" Their very loud new sensei informed them. "What are your names?"

Tenten assumed he hadn't read the files he would've gotten on them and shrugged, figuring she might as well go first. "I'm Tenten, and I'm going to be the team captain when we can do that."

"A good goal!" Gai praised, giving her a thumbs up.

"It is not a goal, it is a fact," Tenten replied, grinning in her slightly malicious way. "And no one here can stop me."

Gai looked confused, but still supportive, so Tenten marked him down as good in her book.

"I'm Neji Hyuuga and I would've been top shinobi if Tenten didn't take it upon herself to beat me." Neji glared at her, and Tenten just smirked back.

"It is good to see your fires of youth burning so brightly, but do not let it interfere with team bonds," Gai advised.

"It won't," Tenten said, closing her eyes when she smiled. "Not when we live together. We'll be just fine."

"I am Rock Lee!" Lee said enthusiastically. "Sometimes I do not like to talk and prefer to sign. I will be a medic of Tsunade's caliber and kill cancer and fix chakra diseases!"

"Also a worthy goal!" Gai encouraged, giving Lee a thumbs up as well. "You all seem to burn with the fires of youth, but let us put that to the test!"

Oh no. Tenten didn't think that statement boded well.

(A/N) So, I need opinions. There are kind of two options for the four training chapters. 1st, it's just one of Team Gai's perspective, and we go from there, or 2nd, we do a little segment from everyone's pov as they decide it'd be a hilarious idea to impersonate each other and see if anyone notices. Tell me if you have an opinion or I'll probably do number 2. This is a day late, but or my computer or possibly my wifi who knows malfunctioned and it didn't let me make any documents? I'm still not sure what happened, but clearly as you can see by the fact that this is posted, it got cleared up. No clue what happened, but oh well.