Rock Lee

Rock Lee is a male anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

Rock Lee (Japanese: ロック・リー, Hepburn: Rokku Rī) was a male human ninja of the Lee clan who resided in Konohagakure in the Ninja World. As a child, he demonstrated little natural talent with him lacking any ninjutsu, genjutsu and even being below average on taijutsu. Despite that, he attended the ninja academy though was often teased by his class mates many of whom believed that he would be a failure. Whilst this was the case, Lee showed single-minded determination to prove them wrong where he believed that doing twice more training then his colleagues that he would prove to be an even better ninja. This led to him becoming well known among the village where he came under the attention of Might Guy. The ninja decided to take Lee on as an apprentice after watching his determination and believing that he could become his protégé as he saw much of himself in the boy. Rock Lee was later chosen to be a student of Might Guy alongside Ten-Ten and Neji Hyuga. Might Guy decided to forgo the use of ninjutsu and genjutsu with instead having Rock train completely in taijutsu. In this time, Lee saw that Neji was a natural prodigy and martial arts genius which led to Rock constantly challenging him into combat. Despite his intense training, he never managed to defeat Neji but hoped to become stronger to win against the talented member of the Hyuga clan.

Naruto

He was later selected to participate in the Chūnin Exams where he suggested that they not show their talents in order to maintain an advantage. However, he used his speed to stop a fight between some guards for the exam and Sasuke. This was because he had become smitten with Sakura Haruno and wanted to impress her with him asking her out but she refused him. Afterwards, he went off on his own in order to confront Sasuke and challenged him to a fight. This was because he wanted to test himself against the naturally talented Uchiha prodigy and determine if he was ready to fight more powerful opponents like his teammate Neji Hyūga who he considered the strongest warrior on their team. Using his taijutsu, he easily managed to knock out Sasuke numerous times in their fight and even attempted to use one of his forbidden jutsu but was stopped when his sensei arrived at the scene. Might Guy scolded Rock Lee and punished him whereupon he was sent back to the Chūnin Exam. He then participated in the first exam which was revealed to be a test of their ability to cheat without getting caught where Lee worked with his teammates to get the answers to the paper. After passing, he was selected with his team to take part in the next part of the exam.

Whilst scouring the Forest of Death for supplies, Team Guy decided to split up in search for the other teams. During his travels, Lee witnessed Sakura coming under attack from the sound ninja of Team Dosu. This saw Rock intervening to aid Sakura where he decided to use the Front Lotus technique to save Haruna from Dosu Kinuta. Despite his skill, Kinuta survived due to his team mate Zaku Abumi with the Lotus strike putting a heavy strain on Rock Lee's body that prevented him from defending himself from the coming counterattack. He was left on the ground badly wounded from the enemy attack which meant he was unable to save Sakura when the sound ninja attempted to kill her in order to get to Sasuke. It was only the intervention of Team Ino and Team Guy that stopped the enemy ninja from attacking further. By that point, Sasuke had recovered and seemingly gained increased power as a result where he dealt with Team Dosu who accepted their defeat and handed their scroll over before departing the area. Sakura came to thank the wounded Rock Lee for his help where he vowed to become stronger and his comrades in Team Guy recovered him as they continued on their assignment. They later rendezvoused at the tower where they were among the shinobi that completed the second stage of the exam and moved to the third part.

It was then he was selected or his match where he was paired off to fight against Gaara of the Sands. During their initial fight, Lee was shown to be incapable of getting past his opponent's ultimate sand defence. This saw Might Guy allow Rock to unleash his full strength where he removed the training weights that held him back and thus showcased his full strength. With his increased speed, he was able to get past Gaara's defences and actually land blows against his foe. This forced Gaara to unleash more of his power and bloodlust where the exhausted Rock Lee was nearly caught as a result. It was then that his sensei Might Guy authorised him to use the Eight Gates technique where Rock developed incredible strength, speed and power. With it, he sought to defeat Gaara in the match and nearly won the match by using the Cursed Lotus style but his foe had managed to save himself at the last moment using his sands. Both sides exhausted, Gaara used his sand coffin burial technique to attack Lee where it latched onto his left arm and leg badly wounding them. Gaara then attempted to kill Rock but was stopped by the intervention of Might Guy though this act disqualified Lee who was unconscious but standing through sheer act of willpower. Medical ninja then arrived to rush him into care but it was determined that the injuries and stresses in his body meant that Lee could never be a ninja again.

Upon gaining consciousness again, Lee opposed he diagnosis of the medical ninja and immediately went to start his physical workouts though this caused his wounds to re-open as a result. As a result, Rock remained at his hospital bed with his friends coming to visit him on numerous occasions. He was eventually able to leave the hospital alongside his sensei Might Guy where they went to the arena where the next stage of the Chunin Exam was occurring where the pair were shocked to discover that Neji Hyuga lost to Naruto Uzumaki. They then was among the audience as they waited the start of the match between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara. During the fight, he came to witness Sasuke copying Rock's speed technique to overcome Gaara where this in combination with the chidori jutsu was he able to injure the sand ninja. Further fighting was stopped when the sand ninja alongside with their sound ninja allies struck at the hidden leaf in an effort to eliminate it. Ultimately, the campaign that was spearheaded by Orochimaru was thwarted but this cost the life of the Third Hokage. An effort was made to find the new Hokage with this being the last of the legendary Sannin with this being Lady Tsunade. Upon returning to Konohagakure, she assumed her position of Hokage and also used her advanced medical jutsu to heal the injured from the recent attacks. This saw Might Guy ask Tsunade to heal Rock Le though she noted that the damage to his spine was severe to the point that any operation was a 50/50% chance of success. Thus, she urged Rock Lee to abandon the life a ninja and to seek another path. This devastated Rock Lee who considered stopping his career as a shinobi but Might Guy convinced him to take part in the operation.

Once Lee was well enough to move, he left the hospital to follow them and provide assistance. He caught up with Naruto, who was in the middle of a battle with Kimimaro, and told him to go after Sasuke while he dealt with Kimimaro. At first, it seemed Kimimaro overmatched him, but after Lee drank some sake that he had mistaken for his medicine, he began to outclass Kimimaro. Though Lee's anticipated moves were unpredictable to Kimimaro, he revealed his Kekkei Genkai, Shikotsumyaku, which, combined with Lee sobering up, easily took over the battle. Before his attack landed on Lee, Gaara arrived just in time to save him. Even though Lee insisted to fight side-by-side with him, he knew he was only getting in Gaara's way. For the rest of the battle, Lee watches and is amazed by Gaara's new abilities. Even though Gaara's new techniques completely buried Kimimaro, Kimimaro counters by turning the battlefield into a forest of bones, which Lee and Gaara escaped by hanging onto a pair of small clouds made out of sand. Kimimaro then emerged from one of the bones, preparing to kill the two at point blank range. They were saved, however, as Kimimaro finally succumbed to his disease and died. After the battle, Lee and Gaara reflect upon Kimimaro's purpose, then the two return to Konoha.

He later participated in the Fourth Shinobi World War where he was assigned to the Third Division alongside Sakura and Guy. In the resultant battle, the Akatsuki used the forbidden reanimation jutsu to resurrect dead shinobi to fight the Allied Shinobi Forces. Rock Lee arrived in time to help Sakura as their team was attacked by the resurrected Zabuza Momiji with the enemy being reinforced with the reanimated Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Next Generation

He then looked to teach his son about the Eight Gates jutsu and opening the first of the gates. However, he came to notice that Metal had not overcome his sense of embarrassment over other people watching him. This led to Rock believing his son was not ready to be taught the jutsu and decided that perhaps he needed to be more strict with Metal as he believed this would allow him to overcome his issue. Thus, he told Metal that he would not teach him any further unless he overcame his sense of embarrassment. Eventually, he challenged his son to a fight where he said that Metal had to land a single blow on him in an arena with spectators watching the arena match.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Rock Lee was a young human male of short stature who possessed highly distinct, exaggerated facial features. He had perfectly round, pitch-black eyes with a sharp gaze and remarkably thick, rectangular dark eyebrows that drew immediate mockery from peers. His hair was black, straight, and cut into an exceptionally neat, uniform bowl style with flat bangs extending across his forehead. He wore a traditional dark blue forehead protector belonging to his hidden village, wrapped firmly around his waist like a belt instead of across his brow. For the examination, he dressed in a simple, loose-fitting long-sleeved outfit and matching dark trousers, completing his gear with standard shinobi footwear and a small weapon pouch affixed to his lower back. He had bandages on his forearms up to his fingers with these covering sets of stitches that were the result of injuries from his rigorous training. Due to his features, he was at times referred to as Centipede Brows (ゲジマユ, Gejimayu, English TV: Bushy Brows).

Under Guy's leadership, Lee has acquired a number of his sensei's personality traits: he is energetic, optimistic, and hot-blooded, and shows the epitome of a "nice guy". He believes that one cannot dislike food and shows strong dedication to his promises; when this promise is broken, just barely, he assigns himself arduous training to prevent it from happening again. Lee speaks respectfully to others, never using contractions or swear words and always addressing people with appropriate honourifics (except his teammates, since Lee feels they are close enough to be spoken to informally). He also carries a small book and pencil to recall advice that Guy gives him over time.

Despite his passionate nature, Lee has also shown strong instincts, staying focused at the task at hand and rarely losing his composure. He has a keen sense of honour and respects his opponents, refusing to hold grudges against those who have defeated him, and returning favours to those that have helped him. This was shown by his befriending of Gaara, forgiving him for crushing his arm and leg — injuries that nearly ended his career as a shinobi. Lee feels others should show the same respect towards their opponents, and is disgusted whenever someone is unnecessarily cruel to their enemies.

One of Lee's recurring themes was his drive to succeed, believing with enough hard work and perseverance, he could surpass a natural genius. He could be prone to depression when faced with setbacks. Neji, Lee's more talented teammate and rival, found Lee's efforts to be in vain, believing a 'failure' could never defeat a 'genius'. As such, Lee became determined to defeat Neji in order to prove him wrong, though was met with defeat every time. When Neji himself was defeated by Naruto Uzumaki, another so-called 'failure', he rejected his belief in fate and now holds great respect for Lee, believing that he will surpass the gifted with enough work.

He believed that training ultimately won against natural skill at the end of the day. After his defeat by Team Dosu, he was determined to become even stronger and to ensure that no one he cared about ever cried around him. It was this reason that he wanted to fight stronger opponents to prove his worth. Lee had long wanted to test his skill against his team mate Neji Hyuga due to his skill and him being a gifted fighter. According to Might Guy, his talent was his determination and he was shown working harder than other ninja with this being described as his ninja way. He was later amazed and pleased to see that Naruto had defeated his team mate Neji thus proving that training outweighed natural talent. However, he came to be conflicted on his own skill after being defeated by Gaara and not being the one to defeat Neji himself.

Rock Lee was noted to have had a low tolerance for alcohol and got drunk easily from even the smallest glass of sake.

Lee was taught the Eight Gates jutsu by his sensei Might Guy but was told it was forbidden to use the technique except in limited circumstances. These were that either because someone's life was in danger or because Rock was trying to protect his ninja way. Guy could decide on whether a situation was an exception to using the jutsu.

Initially, he came to like Sakura Haruno and even asked her out but she refused him as she found him to be weird. Despite this, he made continued efforts at trying to win her over though these were without success. Although she did not reciprocate his feelings and even considered him weird, she later become more appreciative and friendly towards him after he helped saved her from the Otogakure genin during the Chūnin Exams. After the exams, Lee's interest in Sakura went largely unaddressed in the manga, though it is sometimes referenced in the anime; while having a match with Lee, Naruto transformed into Sakura, distracting Lee long enough for Naruto to attack him. However, Lee's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream was of winning Sakura's affections, implying he still had romantic feelings for her.

Rock was deeply committed to his sensei Might Guy and believed him to be the greatest warrior in the world.

By adulthood, he came to have a son named Metal Lee (メタル・リー, Metaru Rī) who shared many of his fathers traits.

Powers and abilities

Rock Lee was born a human able to manipulate chakra and thus able to perform jutsu though had no talent for the more commo styles. His sensei Might Guy said that his talent was his determination and he got up no matter how many times he was knocked down in a fight. In fact, in one case he stood up after receiving severe injuries and was in fact unconscious but still remained standing through a sheer act of willpower. As a ninja, he did not train in the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu but instead devoted himself to the pure martial arts of taijutsu. This was because when he was discovered he was shown to have had no talent. Thus, under the training of Might Guy, he put a focus completely into the physical art of fighting. Through training alone, he acquired speed that was fast enough to outpace a two-tomoe Sharingan. He tended to wear extremely heavy weights tied to his feet to slow him down but when he was serious he removed these restraints and was even faster as a result.

Rock Lee possessed exceptional hand-to-hand combat proficiency and physical conditioning that relied completely on martial arts execution. Despite showing a complete lack of mystical ninjutsu techniques during his initial outing, he possessed high-tier operational speed and physical reflexes. He demonstrated the ability to seamlessly blend into a crowd by suppressing his presence and mimicking physical vulnerability to deceive opposing scouts. When moving to neutralize a conflict, he could flash across a room instantaneously, using a precise physical interception to cleanly block an active kick from an elite opponent without breaking his own stance. His style emphasized absolute precision, strategic positioning, and physical endurance over standard magical ninja attributes.

Rock's sensei Might Guy also taught him about the Eight Gates (八門­, Hachimon) that were the inner gates that controlled chakra in the body. Through training, he was taught to release them where in his childhood he was taught to open five of them. These afforded him incredible amounts of sheer physical power and speed though this came a cost of putting his body through incredible strain. Years later, he was taught to open the sixth gate that increased his power even further. By adulthood, he was shown to had mastered all eight gates though the final gate had the risk of killing its user.

Among the techniques known to him included:

• Leaf Whirlwind (木ノ葉旋風­, Konoha Senpū) :
• Leaf Great Whirlwind (木ノ葉大旋風­, Konoha Daisenpū) : Rock delivered a series of kicks whilst spinning where as a result of his motion he lifted his opponent from the ground. This allowed him to strike with a series of kicks to different areas of the body. Lee started with a low kick, then a middle kick then a high kick before finishing them off with a heel drop. It was noted that he delivered this with such speed that his foe could not see the incoming attack until they were struck by it.
• Leaf Coiling Whirlwind (木ノ葉つむじ旋風­, Konoha Tsumuji Senpū) :
• Front Lotus (表蓮華­, Omote Renge) :
• Reverse Lotus (裏蓮華­, Ura Renge) : utilised after he opened three of the Eight Gates which led to him remove his body's limitations on his maximum speed. Once opened, he was able to move so fast that enemies were unable to follow his movements. In this state, Lee continually struck targets from multiple directions with this culminating in him pummelling them into the air.
• Crane Wing Formation (鶴翼の陣­, Kakuyoku no Jin) :
• Strong Fist (剛拳, Gōken) : a powerful move designed to cause external damage and break bones with it said to be the opposite of the Gentle Fist style.

His low tolerance for alcohol led to him being a natural Drunken Fist style fighter. Even consuming as little as a drop of alcohol left Rock Lee in a drunken state whereby his moves became unpredictable with him becoming an unstoppable force of destruction and chaos. The danger posed by him in his state meant that he was capable of attacking anyone whether they were friends or foe. He demonstrated a considerable level of speed and dexterity when using this style where he was able to strike and effectively dodge from various positions. It was noted by Kimimaro who was one of Orochimaru's strongest subordinates that he was ultimately overwhelmed by Lee when he used the Drunken Fist as he noted that his moves were too unpredictable to follow.

A disadvantage of his training was that it placed a great deal of strain on his body. Thus, excessive use of certain techniques left him exhausted with his body in agony and it was only through his determination was he still able to fight.

Notes

• Rock Lee was created by Masashi Kishimoto where he featured in the setting of the Naruto universe.

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, Rock Lee appeared in the setting of the anime television series adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Yōichi Masukawa and English actor Brian Donovan in the dub. In the anime, Lee revealed that he once ran a marathon with Guy near the village of Katabami Kinzan shortly after being assigned to his team, and when he collapsed from exhaustion near the Curry of Life shop, the owner, Sanshō, 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 found that Karashi had joined, and was upset that Karashi had sought strength in this way. He allowed Karashi to seek redemption, but Karashi used this opportunity to lure Lee's group into a trap after their first battle with Raiga. The trap failed due to Naruto's use of shadow clones, and while the villagers were willing to seek vengeance on Karashi, Lee stepped in, promising to take responsibility for Karashi's actions. Karashi used the opportunity to take Ranmaru to revive Raiga. Lee went to fight Raiga with Naruto and Neji, and was knocked out but brought back to consciousness with the Curry of Life. The curry, however, accidentally contained wine, and Lee was intoxicated and performed the Drunken Fist. He fought Raiga drunkenly, but was defeated, and Naruto finished Raiga off. Later, when the group went back to the Curry of Life shop, they found out that Karashi had made a new curry that looked so bad that even Naruto didn't want to eat it. Lee, however, could not wait to try it, so the rest of the group had to literally drag him back to Konoha while he cried for the curry.

Appearances

• Naruto:
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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