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 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 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. 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"), 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 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 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 that battle.

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.

Through Guy's teachings, Lee has learned many powerful Taijutsu techniques. The most basic of these is his Strong Fist style of combat, a martial art style focusing on external damage. Lee has also learned how to open the first five of eight chakra gates, a feat that is difficult for even the most talented ninja. 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.

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 Elixer 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 which is a alcoholic chocolate snack that he eats when he is in a "dire pinch."

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, though he stands to his feet to continue the battle, despite being completely unconscious. medics predict that even if Lee recovers, his injuries will 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Even 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.

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, believe it to be a friendly sparring match. Later during Kazuma's invasion of Konoha, Lee helped defend it along with the others.

Invasion of Pain arc
During the invasion Team Guy were in a mission, unaware of what was happening in their village. While they were traveling back Tenten stops them, saying that they should take a break. Lee notices that Guy was looking at the sky and asks what was wrong. Guy states that birds were flying away from the village, as if fleeing, and Neji says that they should head back right away, much to Tenten's dismay.

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).

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.

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!"