Rock Lee

is a supporting character in the Naruto series. He is a member of Team Guy. He is a hard-working person, and is very proficient in Taijutsu, though he is unable to perform Ninjutsu or Genjutsu.

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'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 admires 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 Hyuga and Tenten, have been Genin for one year longer than Naruto and the rest of the Rookie 9

Personality
Lee is known for speaking respectfully to others, being very proper in both English and Japanese language versions, and never using contractions or swearing (except while under the influence of alchohol). He also uses formal Japanese, applying proper titles ("-san", "-kun", etc.) to anyone he meets. His relationship with Guy has also caused him to acquire many of Guy's traits. Lee's green jumpsuit and shiny bowl haircut, having already had Guy's distinctive thick eyebrows (leading to the nickname of "Bushy Brow" by Naruto), are direct results of his modeling himself in his sensei's image. In Part II he even begins wearing a flack jacket like Guy. Guy's influence has also caused the reshaping of Lee's personality, and his dedication to his promises as well as his belief that one cannot dislike food are also characteristics of Guy.

Lee has a number of other odd personality traits, though whether or not they are results of Guy's mentorship is unknown. One such trait is his apparent lack of common sense, believing at times that he can get what he wants by not wanting it. At other times, he takes copious notes, but forgets that he cannot check them during a fight. He also has a keen sense of honor and respects his opponents, refusing to hold grudges against those who have defeated him and returning favors to those that have helped him. This innate goodness of heart is proved by his readily befriending Gaara and forgiving him for crushing his arm and leg and putting him in hospital and then trying to kill him in his sleep. Lee feels others should show the same respect towards their opponents, and is disgusted whenever someone is unnecessarily cruel to their enemies. 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 a 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. While Lee maintains the desire to defeat Neji in a fight throughout the Chunin Exams, after Neji's eventual defeat by Naruto Uzumaki, another "failure", he seems less interested in this goal. Neji's rejection of his previous belief in fate may also have contributed to this, as he now respects Lee, believing that he will surpass the gifted with enough work, and that he would have given up if he were in Lee's situation.

During his battle with Gaara during the Chunin Exams, Lee's attempts to prove himself have terrible consequences for him. Gaara's abilities render Lee's attempts to damage him futile, and Lee's attempts at using his more powerful techniques to defeat Gaara leave his body broken. After Gaara's attacks further damage his body, crushing his left arm and leg, Lee is left injured so badly that he can no longer pursue life as a ninja. Despite this, Lee would often sneak out of his hospital room in attempts to train. 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. 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 resolve to get stronger to only increase.

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. At one point, he distracts himself from looking for resting Genin groups with a task of catching falling leaves, the success of which would 'prove' Sakura loves him. He purposely abandons this in order to save the life of an endangered squirrel, leading him to find Sakura, also endangered. He comes to her rescue, against three to one odds and uses forbidden techniques in an attempt to protect her, considering her someone dear to him. Sakura becomes more appreciative after this and punches Naruto whenever he insults Lee. Despite this, she does not seem to have any feelings for him, as she refers to him by the more formal "Lee-san", as opposed to "Lee-kun". The only apparent return of his feelings is when she brings him a bouquet of flowers while he is in the hospital to wish him well, catching him when he trips and falls in reaching for them, and in her gentle wishes and telling him that if he ever needs anything all he has to do is ask, which moves him nearly to the point of tears. After the Exams' conclusion, Lee's interest in Sakura goes largely unaddressed. Despite this, when Naruto fights Lee in the Lee's Dojo arc, he transforms into Sakura, causing Lee to forget about the fight long enough for Naruto to attack him, and in Part II, he is especially pleased that Sakura is doing well against Sasori. Also, Lee envisions Sakura when fighting his clone, resulting in Lee figuring out how to win the battle against his clone created by the Mirrored Sudden Attacker jutsu.

Lee and Neji are shown to have become very good friends after their initial rivalry and to have faith and trust in each others abilities. Their friendship is possibly the greatest one seen in the manga with the possible exception of the Choji and Shikamaru friendship.

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 was 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," found 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 resolved to prove Neji wrong, and confronted another "genius," Sasuke Uchiha in an attempt to test his worth. Sasuke was 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 revealed that he liked Sakura Haruno, asking her to be his girlfriend and vowing to protect her immediately after they meet. While she did 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 proved to have terrible consequences for him. He used his most powerful techniques, the Front Lotus and the Reverse Lotus, but was 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 intervened to stop Gaara from killing Lee, though he stood to his feet to continue the battle, despite being completely unconscious. Medics predicted that even if Lee recovers, his injuries would prevent him from ever being able to be a ninja again.

Search For Tsunade
From his battle with Gaara, Lee would prove to be injured to such an extent that he was told he could never be a shinobi again. Unable to accept this, Lee still attempted 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 examined 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 offered 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 was hesitant to accept the operation. While he could't stand the thought of not living as a ninja, he was scared by the possibility that he would die before he could fully prove himself. Guy deeply wanted Lee to survive the surgery and told him that if he didn't live that he was going to die with Lee at his side. Through Guy's encouragement and words of dedication to him, Lee went through with the operation and survived, causing his determination to strengthen.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
Upon hearing Naruto, Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru talk about the mission to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Lee suggested that Neji go 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 arrived at the Gates (including Lee) and they began discussing their plan. Lee regret the fact that he was wounded because he wanted to come. Neji told Lee that he needed to do what he must.

Later on Lee was talking with Tsunade about the operation. She asked him why he was so adamant about becoming a ninja when it might very well cost him his life. He said that he wants to prove that even with his inabilities to perform Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, he could become a splendid ninja. In the anime this conversation takes place before this story arc.

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

At first they were both evenly matched, but after Lee drinks some sake that he had mistaken for his medicine, he outclassed Kimimaro. After he takes his "medicine", he began to act drunk, and this turned out to be the Drunken Fist, which he was described to be a natural born master at. His moves became unpredictable, and he had become much faster. Kimimaro was forced to use his cursed seal and his Kekkei Genkai, Shikotsumyaku at the same time and he overpowered Lee. When Lee finally awakened from his "daze", Lee didn't stand a chance, since even his Front Lotus had no effect, as Kimimaro used his bones to absorb the impact of the kicks. When Lee's about to be killed, Gaara showed up to save him. Gaara endured the fight, but then Kimimaro enters the Cursed Seal's Second State, and was about to kill both Genin. At the last moment, they're saved by Kimimaro's strange illness, which ended up killing him right before finishing Rock Lee and Gaara off. Both ninja formed a friendly bond and headed back to Konohagakure.

Pre-shippuden filler arcs
Lee appeared in many of the Filler arcs.

Curry of Life arc
Lee revealed 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 found that Karashi has 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 and promises 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 with the Curry of Life. The curry, however, accidentally contained wine, and Lee was intoxicated. He fought Raiga, but was defeated, and Naruto finished him off. Then, after he was defeated. Naruto and Neji felt bad for him.

The Imposters arc
In a one-episode filler story, Guy and Lee went on a mission, and two spies tried to imitate them. Tsunade immediately saw through their disguise, and gave them various difficult, disgusting, or humiliating missions in order to keep them busy and prevent them from learning anything. They encountered the real Lee and Guy on the way out of the village and tried to attack, but were sent flying back to Konohagakure.

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

Lee's Dojo arc
Lee, seeing that he had little time to train with other people due to the many missions that must be done, sought a new means of training. He saw a man challenging a dojo, ready to take the sign if he wins, and ready to join if he lost, and believed that a dojo would bring many strong opponents. When Naruto stumbled upon the dojo, Lee asked that he fight, but Naruto hastily left, late for reporting back to Tsunade. Guy heard about the dojo from Naruto, and decided to disguise himself to fight Lee, but was given a mission at the last second, and an impostor replaces him. Lee fought the impostor and easily defeated him, but Naruto believed that the impostor was Guy and that he was not fighting at full strength to avoid revealing himself. Naruto fought Lee while the impostor transformed into Lee, but met the real Guy while trying to leave, and was easily defeated by him.

Third Great Beast arc
Lee's condition worsened, and Tsunade became concerned about him injuring himself again. She removed him from missions, but allowed him to keep training after he convinced her to do so. Around this time, Guy arrived with a new student, who easily defeated Lee and injured his ankle. While Lee was recovering, Guy took the new student with him on a mission, causing Lee to believe that he had abandoned him. It was then revealed that the new student was an imposter, and that he planned on seeking vengeance against Guy. Lee headed to Guy's location, but was trapped in a castle made out of sparring posts. He and Lee were tricked into fighting each other by seeing the other as a sparring dummy, but they saw through the technique and opened their chakra gates to destroy the dummies without harming the actual person, freeing themselves and destroying the castle.

Konoha 11 arc
Lee, despite having few special abilities, made some noteworthy contributions to the investigation. While he initially encouraged the academy students to keep practice throwing kunai, once he realized that hitting the bull's eye would cause a chain reaction that would detonate explosives around Konoha, he caught a kunai in midair just before it hit the target despite being far away from it. He defeated Gennou with his Taijutsu during the final confrontation.

Shinobazu arc
Naruto accompanied Sakura and Lee to escort Gantetsu in prison. When the ship was sliced in half by a metal wire, Lee ended up with Sakura, and found the orphans Gantetsu had cared for. During the raid on the hideout, he fought the Shinobazu members outside.

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

Rescue Gaara arc
Fearing the worst, Tsunade sent Team Guy to help Kakashi's Squad rescue Gaara.

When they left they were attacked by Kisame Hoshigaki at the exact same time that Team 7 was attacked by Itachi Uchiha. Kisame was quite angered that Guy didn't remember him from their fight in Part I. Kisame soon captured Lee, Neji and Tenten, but by opening the 6th gate and using a move called Morning Peacock, Guy ended the fight quickly and they moved on.

Even though they left a few days after Team Kakashi, they arrived a few minutes before Kakashi's Team. The two Squads find out that there was a five seal barrier on the Akatsuki headquarters; a jutsu that involved putting 5 seals in 5 different locations. So Team Guy went to remove them so that they may enter the current Akatsuki Headquarters. But as they removed them, they were attacked by clones of themselves. When they were about to be defeated, Lee figured out how to beat the clones - by being stronger than when they meet them. With that, they all made up a new technique and defeated their clones. Team Guy raced back to help Team Kakashi, unfortunately, Gaara was dead. The Teams took him to a open field and Elder Chiyo performed a self sacrificing jutsu and bought Gaara back. The two teams, and a group of other sand ninja that showed up, all went back to the Sand Village, where Gaara got a huge welcome back by the whole village. As they left, Guy was carrying a wounded Kakashi piggy-back. Lee, thinking it's training, told Neji to get on his back so that they may race back to Konoha.

Fire Temple filler Arc
Shortly after Team Yamato, accompanied by Sora, returned to the village, Lee arrived to join in a fight Sora had started, believed it to be a friendly sparring match. Later during Kazuma's invasion of Konoha, Lee helped defend it from the zombies along with the others.

Three-Tails Arrival filler Arc
While not on a mission, Lee as usual finds time to train intensely under Guy. Guy has Lee train with Tenten on synchronizing their taijutsu skills by tying them together. This only leads to Lee swinging Tenten around. Much to his joy, he then finds out he will be assigned another high-level mission as backup for Kakashi's team against the newly emerged Three-Tailed Beast.

Upon meeting up with his team, he is put under Kakashi's command as a primary defense against interference with the sealing of the Three-Tails.

Invasion of Pain arc
During the invasion, Team Guy were on a mission, unaware of what was happening in their village. While they were traveling back, Tenten stopped them, saying that they should take a break. Lee noticed that Guy was looking at the sky and asked what was wrong. Guy stated that birds were flying away from the village, as if fleeing, and Neji said that they should head back right away, much to Tenten's dismay. When Team Guy reached Konoha, the rest of his team fussed over Hinata, while he stated that there was an injured frog.

Abilities
Guy's leadership has also influenced Lee's training habits, which, coupled with his hard-working resolve, has allowed Lee to rapidly improve. When making a promise, for example, Lee assigns himself arduous tasks to complete in the event that he doesn't provide. For example, he promises himself that if he cannot do a certain number of exercises in a row, he will have to do a larger number of other exercises. As he usually barely fails each goal, he usually trains for a long period of time on each promise. Since Guy began training him, Lee has worn heavy weights on his ankles, increasing his strength at the cost of inhibiting his speed to levels that his peers still consider quite fast. Upon removing the weights, Lee's speed vastly increases, making it almost impossible to see his movements with the unaided eye. As such, the removal of his weights is a huge trump card for Lee, and in most situations doing so can all but guarantee victory. Lee has trained so extensively he can run and even fight while unconscious, using nothing but pure muscle memory. Over the timeskip he becomes a Chunin, indicating his training has paid off well.

Taijutsu
Lee began using this style because he could not use Ninjutsu and Genjutsu (however his chakra control now allows him to do things like walk on water and use some genjutsu (at a really low level according to the Databook 3). He was taught it by Guy and exceled at it. Kakashi even said that no amount of hard work would allow him to reach the level of Taijutsu ability he is reaching now. Because of Guy's teachings, Lee's Taijutsu skills easily surpasses most Genin and on par with high level Chunin and probably Jonin level in Part II. He is a taijutsu master as he has only trained in that form and has almost perfected it. He is shown in his debut easily being able to stop both Sasuke's and Kotetsu's attacks at the same time. Lee has fought some of the strongest opponents in both the manga and the anime and gave them a run for their money, despite being able to use only Taijutsu, (a result of Guy's tutelage and Lee's hard work.) Examples being that he almost defeated Gaara, the future 5th Kazekage, and forced Kimimaro to enter the First Stage of the Cursed Seal of Earth, though Kimimaro was currently not in his prime because of his disease. Although the same could be said for Lee because he just went through a life risking operation(as well as being forbade to use his strongest technique during the fight). His Taijutsu skills are, without question, some of the greatest seen in the series.

Eight Inner Gates
Through Guy's teachings, Lee has learned many powerful and Advanced Taijutsu techniques. The most basic of these is his Strong Fist style of combat, a martial art style focusing on external damage. Lee has been seen to open the first five of eight chakra gates and it is hinted that he is able to open the sixth, a feat that is difficult for even the most talented ninja. In the video games he is even able to open up to the seventh gate. Because of the danger to his body that gates' power presents, Lee is only permitted to open them in certain circumstances (such as life-or-death situations, protecting someone dear, or defending his way of the ninja). Lee has also learned or developed a number of Taijutsu that take advantage of the extreme power and speed he gains from opening chakra gates. In Part II, he seems to be able to recover from using the chakra gates quickly as he was not injured after using it, but was very exhausted.

Drunken Fist
Lee has manifested a natural predisposition towards the Drunken Fist or Loopy Fist in the English dub. When he drinks as little as one drop of alcohol, or Elixir in the English dub, he becomes an unpredictable and unstoppable force of destruction and chaos. His actions while drunk are usually a combination of misguided attempts to impress Guy, regardless of whether or not Guy is around, and he drunkenly attacks any friend or foe that is near him. Guy explains that after Lee accidentally drank a small amount of sake, he proceeded to demolish the bar they were in, and it took the combined efforts of Guy and Neji to hold him down without harming him. Also in the Naruto Shippūden Movie, Rock Lee was given a chocolate bonbon by Guy, an alcoholic chocolate snack that he eats when he is in a "dire pinch", although he thinks that it is for opening the Sixth Chakra Gate.

Though Lee in almost all his battles has suffered bad injuries, the only opponents he has defeated by himself were only in movies: Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom he defeated one of the mercenaries although he had to open 5 of his chakra gates to do it. To beat his opponent in Naruto: Shippūden the Movie, he used a bonbon to enter the Drunken Fist while in fifth gate state, thus completely thrashing his opponent.

Other Media

 * Rock Lee is a playable character in all the Naruto games. As he cannot use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu techniques, moves such as the Front and Reverse Lotuses and opening chakra gates serve as the equivalent of other characters' special Ninjutsu moves.
 * He appears in Naruto the Movie 3: The Animal Riot of Crescent Moon Island. Lee acts as the third member of Team 7 for the movie's duration. During his battle with Kongou, Lee shows proficiency with nunchaku and a bo, both of which are made from his ankle weights. Its also the first time he actually managed to beat an opponent on screen (other than Sasuke and Naruto).
 * Rock Lee also appears inside of "Naruto: Shippūden the Movie" as Sasuke's replacement, Neji being Kakashi's replacement. Before the mission he was given a chocolate bonbon from Guy, and, not knowing what it did to him, ate it during a fight and easily defeated Gitai. Later in the movie he was able to kill Setsuna after Neji was able to get rid of the group's chakra source.

Trivia

 * Like his sensei, Rock Lee's character seems to be inspired by Bruce Lee as shown from his name and having the same birthday, as well as Bruce Lee having once received the same type of Injury as Rock Lee did in the Chunin Exams against Gaara, and he was also never expected to walk, none the less fight again.
 * Among all the members of Team Guy (including Guy himself), Lee makes the most appearances in all the Naruto media.
 * Rock Lee placed very high in the first four Naruto character popularity polls. He finished 5th in the first and second polls. 8th in the third poll and 7th in the fourth poll. But his popularity slipped in the last two polls, finishing 13th in the fifth poll and 18th in the sixth and most recent. However in the 3 Databook they did a combination of all the polls and he ranked as the 9th most popular character in all. The recent slip in rankings is understandable as Team Guy has had minimal exposure in Part II.
 * He is one of the only 2 Chunin who wears the flack jacket while the others wear customized outfits (The other one being Shikamaru).
 * Practically, Rock Lee wears the flack jacket to impress Guy yet again.

Creation and conception
According to an interview with Masashi Kishimoto in Shōnen Jump's Naruto Anime Profiles Episodes 1-37, Lee is his most fun character to draw. He also has stated that Sakura Haruno and Lee were meant to symbolize human weakness, at least in the beginning.

Quotes

 * "Sakura, please be my girlfriend? I vow to protect you with my life!"
 * "Guy sensei is the coolest! He practically GLOWS with cool!"
 * "I am the Handsome Devil of the Hidden Leaf Village! My name is Rock Lee!"
 * "If I can't do 400 push-ups I'll hit the dummy 800 times! If I can't hit the dummy 800 times, I'll do 2000 jump ropes!"
 * "Neji, I was saving this technique for you! But I'll give you a sneak peek!"
 * "A rock thrown at a pole will not hit, but if one does not aim at the pole, it will hit! That is the law I used!"
 * "Guy sensei please let this work, it's now or never!"
 * "To protect and maintain one's own ninja way! The third gate, gate of life open!"
 * "Sakura, the lotus of the leaf village blooms twice, the next time we meet I will of become a stronger ninja."
 * "I am all right, getting stronger all the time."
 * "The Chunin Exam I am going to make you proud, Guy sensei."
 * "I want to show I can be a splendid ninja as well even if I don't have ninjutsu or genjutsu....I want to prove it to the whole world!"