Team Guy

Assembled a full year before the other headline Konoha squads, this unit answers to Might Guy and is built entirely around physical fighting. Every member leans on some form of taijutsu, and the way they mesh their attacks makes them peerless when a battle comes down to fists and feet. Also logged as Team 3 and, in some sources, Team Tenten, the group waited an extra year before Guy entered them into the Chunin Exams, where none of his students earned promotion on that first attempt.

Across the gap between the two parts of the story, Rock Lee and Tenten climbed to chunin while Neji Hyuga leapt past both of them to reach jonin, though he still rejoins the squad for missions as all three keep sharpening their speed. The team also throws in with the wider Konoha 11 when the group resolves to hunt down Sasuke Uchiha themselves and head off war with Kumogakure, until Naruto Uzumaki talks them into letting him handle Sasuke alone. Their missions run the gamut: a weapons-retrieval job at the Leaf's research lab with Naruto standing in for an injured Lee, a hunt for the bandit Raiga Kurosuki at Katabami Kinzan solved with help from Ranmaru and Karashi, and the rescue of Gaara from the Akatsuki, which forced the team to battle mirror duplicates of themselves before breaking into the enemy lair.

Might Guy heads a roster of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten, a lineup often noted for its Chinese flavor: Guy and Lee channel martial-arts icons, Neji's Gentle Fist borrows from baguazhang, and Tenten's look and weapon style share the same influence. The squad is the lone Konoha 11 group Kakashi Hatake never temporarily led. The war years brought heavy loss, as Neji fell in the line of duty and Guy suffered a lasting injury that forced his retirement afterward, leaving only Lee and Tenten still serving.