my personal list (with some insight into my train of thought):
Naruto (duh)
Shikamaru (great analytical/tacktical mind, sure to find the weaknesses and a way to exploit them in every ninja and great leader, capable of adapting his plans quickly when things change)
Neji (prodege of the hyuuga clan, sure to be hard to beat would take a very inteligent ninja to beat him, and he is a jounin already)
Shino (highly underestimated due to not having to much fight time, and not only good for fighting but also tracking and spying, a very complete ninja, and he has shown me that he also is highly inteligent)
Sai (also underestimated but his ink tech and spying abilities give him an edge for me)
Hinata (also a hyuuga genious, it took her some time to grow but she got the stuff, like with those bees in that filler, I was amazed, and she stood up to pain, she got guts)
Lee (taijutsu master, and can open celestial gates, not to mention the drunken fist

)
Sakura (sure she got power, and her medic skils from tsunade, but she is still to linear in her fighting, has not shown to have many jutsu masterd)
Kiba (excelent tracker but also his jutsu doesn't seem to have changed since the first part)
Choji (good for support, but probably isn't capable of much by his own unless he is called a fatass or uses his pills)
Tenten (weapons only but her attacks are always so spread out, and not focused, unncecery energy loss in my oppinion)
Ino (good for interogation, but in a fight she only demonstrated that mind swtich tech, not realy a fighter in my oppinion)
sory I have to edit

because someone posted almost the same lineup as myself while I was typing up my post
we think the same