Rock Lee



Rock Lee is a former ninja from the Ashigakure village. At the close age of around 2-5, he and his family moved from the village to the village of Konoha. His twin brother is the Genin Brock Lee. Being from a pure taijutsu village, would make him unable to use the required Ninjutsu to pass the Genin exam. Being the only one who has ever passed the exam by using taijutsu, he was bugged by one of his teammates. Later in the years, he became chunin in Konoha, and continued to follow up his beloved Sensei, Might Guy. He also is very good friends with Genin, Indo Huiyo. Because he is unable to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu, he trains his body very hard. His dream is to become a great ninja despite his handicap. In the beginning of the series, he was Neji Hyuga's rival, because he doubted that he would ever amount to much using only taijutsu, which just made him work harder to prove him wrong.

He idolizes his teacher Might Guy, and has picked up many of his traits such as extreme training regimes and goes as far to dress exactly like him, making them look nearly identical. Might Guy has taught Lee many powerful techniques, such as unlocking the first five chakra gates making him many times stronger but also severely strains his body if used too much.

Lee and his teammates, Neji and Tenten, have been Genin for one year longer than Naruto and the rest of the Rookie 9

PART ONE
Part I

[edit] Chunin Exams
Lee's attempts to prove and better himself are recurring themes for his actions throughout the series. He is generally optimistic and believes that with hard work and passion, he can surpass natural genius, but can be prone to depression when faced with setbacks. His drive to succeed is initially most evident with his rivalry with Neji Hyuga, having learned from Guy that having a rival will provide incentive to succeed. Neji, a "genius," finds Lee's efforts of bettering himself to be in vain, believing Lee to be stuck as a "failure" for the rest of his life. As such, Lee resolves to prove Neji wrong, and confronts another "genius," Sasuke Uchiha in an attempt to test his worth. Sasuke is impressed with Lee's ability after he stopped a kick from Sasuke to a disguised exam proctor. They then fight for a short time. Shortly after his introduction, Lee reveals that he likes Sakura Haruno, asking her to be his girlfriend and vowing to protect her immediately after they meet. While she does not seem to share these feelings for him and considers him weird, Lee maintains these feelings throughout the Chunin Exams.

During his battle with Gaara during the Chunin Exams, Lee's attempt's to prove himself prove to have terrible consequences for him. He uses his most powerful techniques, the Primary Lotus and Hidden Lotus, but is unable to defeat Gaara. The techniques take a massive toll on his body, and Gaara adds to Lee's injury by crushing his left arm and leg. After Guy intervenes to stop Gaara from killing Lee, medics predict that even if Lee recovers, his injuries will prevent him from ever being able to be a ninja again.

[edit] Search For Tsunade
From his battle with Gaara, Lee would prove to be injured to such an extent that he is told he can never be a shinobi again. Unable to accept this, Lee still attempts to continue to train. Might Guy would also aid in Lee's hopes of recovery, having him do such eccentricities as eating 50 bitter "Dumplings of Rejuvenation" in order to restore him.

The news of Tsunade, the legendary medical ninja, becoming Hokage is a beacon of hope for Guy. But, when she examines Lee, she informs him of the dire situation. His broken bones and torn muscles had, for the most part, healed. But fragments of bone had lodged in his spinal column, and removing them would involve an extensive operation that only she was capable of.

When Tsunade offers him an operation that carries a fifty percent chance of returning him to his former state, and a fifty percent chance of killing him, Lee is hesitant to accept the operation. While he can't stand the thought of not living as a ninja, he is scared by the possibility that he will die before he can fully prove himself. Through Guy's encouragement and words of dedication to him, Lee goes through with the operation and survives, causing his determination to strengthen.

[edit] Sasuke Retrieval Arc
Upon hearing Naruto, Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru talk about the mission to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Lee suggests that Neji goes with them (in the anime the group instead finds the two of them talking about Lee's operation where at this point he had undergone in the anime storyline). After that they all arrive at the Gates (including Lee) and they begin discussing their plan. Lee regrets the fact that he is wounded because he wanted to come. Neji tells Lee that he needs to do what he must.

Later on Lee is talking with Tsunade about the operation. She asks him why he is so adamant about becoming a ninja when it might very well cost him his life. He says that he wants to prove that even with his inabilities to perform genjutsu and ninjutsu, he can become a splendid ninja.

Meanwhile, Naruto, who tapped in the Demon Fox chakra, is fighting Kimimaro, one of the Sound Five. Kimimaro, however is still too powerful for Naruto. Naruto, on the brink of death, is about to have his head cut off when Rock Lee appears and kicks Kimimaro away. Telling Naruto to go after Sasuke, he takes the ninja head on by himself.

At first they are both evenly matched, but after Lee drinks some sake that he had mistaken for his medicine, he outclasses Kimimaro. After he takes his "medicine", he begins to act drunk, and this turns out to be the Drunken Fist, which he is described to be a natural born master at. His moves become unpredictable, and he has become much faster. Kimimaro is forced to use his cursed seal and his Kekkei Genkai, Shikotsumyaku at the same time and he overpowers Lee. When Lee finally awakens from his "daze", Lee doesn't stand a chance, since even his Front Lotus has no effect, as Kimimaro uses his bones to absorb the impact of the kicks. When Lee's about to be killed, Gaara shows up to save him. Gaara endures the fight, but then Kimimaro enters the Cursed Seal's Second State, and is about to kill both Genin. At the last moment, they're saved by Kimimaro's strange illness, which ends up killing him right before finishing Rock Lee and Gaara off. Both ninja form a friendly bond and head back to Konohagakure.

[edit] Filler Arcs
Lee appears in many of the Filler Arcs. In the Raiga arc, he reveals that he once ran a marathon with Guy near the village of Katabame Kinzan shortly after being assigned to his team, and when he collapsed from exhaustion near the Curry of Life shop, the owner Sansho, and her son Karashi, fed him curry and saved his life. Lee's dedication caused Karashi to become enthusiastic, and he later left. A year later, when he came to the village with his teammates and Naruto to defeat the Kurosuki family, he finds that Karashi has joined, and is upset that Karashi has sought strength in this way. He allows Karashi to seek redemption, but Karashi uses this opportunity to lure Lee's group into a trap after their first battle with Raiga. The trap fails due to Naruto's use of shadow clones, and while the villagers are willing to seek vengeance on Karashi, Lee steps in and promises to take responsibility for Karashi's actions. Karashi uses the opportunity to take Ranmaru to revive Raiga. Lee goes to fight Raiga with Naruto and Neji, and is knocked out but brought back with the Curry of Life. The curry, however, accidentally contains wine, and Lee is intoxicated. He fights Raiga, but is defeated, and Naruto finishes him off.

In a one-episode filler story, Guy and Lee go out on a mission, and two spies try to imitate them. Tsunade immediately sees through their disguise, and gives them various difficult, disgusting, or humiliating missions in order to keep them busy and prevent them from learning anything. They encounter the real Lee and Guy on the way out of the village and try to attack, but are sent flying.

In the Hidden Star Village arc, Lee accompanies Neji and Naruto on the mission to the village, playing a lesser role than previous arcs. He attempts to follow two of Akahoshi's men while hiding under a barrel as Tenten suggests, but is discovered almost instantly. While trying to infiltrate Akahoshi's mansion, he pretends to use a jutsu known as Wall Removing Technique, but in actuality, it involves him moving at high speed to open a door from the other side. He is wounded during the final battle with Akahoshi, leaving Naruto to fight him alone.

In the Lee's Dojo arc, Lee, seeing that he has little time to train with other people due to the many missions that must be done, seeks a new means of training. He sees a man challenging a dojo, ready to take the sign if he wins, and ready to join if he loses, and believes that a dojo will bring many strong opponents. When Naruto stumbles upon the dojo, Lee asks that he fight, but Naruto hastily leaves, late for reporting back to Tsunade. Guy hears about the dojo from Naruto, and decides to disguise himself to fight Lee, but is given a mission at the last second, and an impostor replaces him. Lee fights the impostor and easily defeats him, but Naruto believes that the impostor is Guy and that he is not fighting at full strength to avoid revealing himself. Naruto fights Lee while the impostor transforms into Lee, but meets the real Guy while trying to leave, and is easily defeated.

In the Third Great Beast Arc, Lee's condition worsens, and Tsunade becomes concerned about him injuring himself again. She removes him from missions, but allows him to keep training after he convinces her to do so. Around this time, Guy arrives with a new student, who easily defeats Lee and injures his ankle. While Lee is recovering, Guy takes the new student with him on a mission, causing Lee to believe that he has abandoned him. It is then revealed that the new student is an imposter, and that he plans on seeking vengeance against Guy. Lee heads to Guy's location, but is trapped in a castle made out of sparring posts. He and Lee are tricked into fighting each other by seeing the other as a sparring dummy, but they see through the technique and open their chakra gates to destroy the dummies without harming the actual person, freeing themselves and destroying the castle.

In the Konoha 11 arc, Lee, despite having few special abilities, makes some noteworthy contributions to the investigation. While he initially encourages the academy students to keep practice throwing kunai, once he realizes that hitting the bull's eye will cause a chain reaction that will detonate explosives around Konoha, he catches a kunai in midair just before it hits the target despite being far away from it. He defeats Gennou with his taijutsu during the final confrontation.

In the Shinobazu arc, Naruto accompanies Sakura and Lee to escort Gantetsu in prison. When the ship is sliced in half by a metal wire, Lee ends up with Sakura, and finds the orphans Gantetsu had cared for. During the raid on the hideout, he fights the Shinobazu members outside.

In the final filler arc, Lee and Naruto help Gaara fight and defeat an opponent who can absorb his enemies' chakra with his armor. He spars with Tenten, who is upset over being the only member of the Konoha 11 left out of the mission despite having a mission at the time, and notes that in order to be able to face Naruto when he returns, they too must become stronger.

[edit] Part II
Rock Lee in Part II

[edit] Rescue Gaara arc
Fearing the worst, Tsunade sends Team Guy to help Kakashi's Squad rescue Gaara.

When they leave they are attacked by Kisame at the exact same time that Team 7 is attacked by Itachi Uchiha. Kisame is quite angered that Guy doesn't remember him from their fight in Part I. Kisame soon captures Rock Lee, Neji and Tenten but by opening the 6th gate and using a move called Morning Peacock, Guy ends the fight quickly and they move on.

Rock Lee in the Fifth GateEven though they left a few days after Team Kakashi, they arrive a few minutes before Kakashi's Team. The two Squads find out that there is a five seal barrier on the Akatsuki headquarters; a jutsu that involves putting 5 seals in 5 different locations. So Team Guy goes to remove them so that they may enter the current Akatsuki Headquarters. But as they remove them, they are attacked by clones of themselves. When they are about to be defeated, Lee figures out how to beat the clones - by being stronger than when they meet them. With that, they all make up a new technique and defeat their clones. Team Guy races back to help Team Kakashi, unfortunately, Gaara is dead. The Teams take him to a open field and Elder Chiyo performs a self sacrificing jutsu and brings Gaara back. The two teams, and a group of other sand ninja that showed up, all go back to the Sand Village, where Gaara gets a huge welcome back by the whole village. As they leave, Guy is carrying a wounded Kakashi piggy-back. Lee, thinking it's training, tells Neji to get on his back so that they may race back to Konoha.