"We are the boxers in the ring,
We are the bells
that never sing.
There is a title we can't win no matter how
hard we must swing"
- The Last Goodnight "Pictures of You"
No one is perfect, especially not them.
They are strong. They are good at what they do. But they will never achieve perfection.
To do so would mean that everything they dream of comes true. And that certainly won't happen.
For example; no matter how often he declares a challenge, no matter how often he wins, Gai cannot seem to surpass Kakashi. Kakashi has a better lineage, after all; he's the son of Konoha's white fang. It's debatable whether or not one's students surpass the others, but Kakashi's have definitely achieved more distinction, good or bad.
Lee will also never be perfect. He's a master at taijustu, that's true. But he is not perfect at it. He sometimes slips, allowing just enough space for an enemy to strike.
He used to think that hard work could overcome everything. He now knows it can't. True; he's an excellent shinobi, but he will never be able to do ninjutsu or genjutsu. Nor will he ever be instated into ANBU for exactly that reason. The 'perfect' shinobi is well rounded, able to excel in all areas as well as having his own unbeatable techniques. That's what ANBU is looking for.
And while Neji fits the description, he has never been approached. And he knows he never will. ANBU is a very secret organization, once you become a member you are loyal to only them, and you can never leave. As long as the curse remains on his forehead, Neji will be chained to the Hyuuga's side, forbidden to enter any secretive organization.
Being a Hyuuga restricted a lot of his actions. Three quarters of the money he made from missions were automatically sent to the Hyuuga coffers, he was regularly pulled out of training or missions to attend to some Hyuuga function, and he was forced into an arranged marriage at age twenty-five. That last one had been both painful and testing to live through considering that, over the year between the declaration that he would be married and the death of is 'wife' during childbirth, his curse seal had been activated three times.
Plus Neji has way too much emotional baggage to be considered perfect. Isn't one of the basic rules of being a shinobi to keep one's emotions separate form everyday life?
And that leaves Tenten. She has a hundred percent accurate hand when it comes to throwing… a statistic that would be considered perfect by nearly anyone. But to any weapons specialist, that's just mastery – nothing special.
She is also envied for her physique, by both males and females. She is muscled in all the right places, and is much stronger than she looks. Everything about her is battle-honed, built to have the best chances when it comes to a fight.
Yet with all this perfection she is plain. She was born poor, raised poor, and eventually reached the middle class. She had brown hair, brown skin, brown eyes. Nothing stands out. She doesn't even have known parents!
In the end, it is obvious that they aren't perfect. They all have an obstacle, something that prevents them from reaching the top. Something that keeps them cornered in the shadows.
But they are okay with that. In fact it's probably better that way. Just look what being noticed did to Uchiha Sasuke.
Gai has his students, three exemplary shinobi that he is proud to have taught. They continue what he could not, and maybe, just maybe, they'll beat Kakashi for him.
Lee discovered that he didn't need ANBU. He's now a jounin sensei, with his own team to coax out of their respective shells. There's even a Hyuuga on the team, something he can't wait to see how it turns out.
For all of Neji's suffering he was rewarded with a child, Hizashi. Not exactly a normal child, but that's what happens when one has to have the curse seal activated to make him sleep with his wife. Either way, he's proud of the prodigy he spawned, despite the mental instability.
And though Tenten is plain, she has caught the eye of a prodigy of a noble clan. Even though she will never find out who her parents were, she has a large surrogate family to make up for them.
So realistically, what the appeal in perfection?