Rock Lee -Do not read unless you have kept track with the manga-

Background

During his time as a student in the Ninja Academy, Lee proved to have no talent for ninjutsu and genjutsu. He was mocked by his peers because of this. Even his teachers labeled him as "just another failure", and later the "Dead-Last" of his graduating class. Lee persevered, focusing on taijutsu.

When Lee eventually graduated he was added to Team Guy. During the team's first meeting he vowed to become a splendid ninja that specialized in taijutsu. Neji Hyūga laughed at him, but their sensei, Might Guy, took a special interest in Lee. He encouraged Lee to keep at it and, in time, began teaching him powerful forms of taijutsu.

Personality Lee is extremely energetic, single-minded, and over-enthusiastic. He is characterized as being the epitome of a "nice guy", having assumed many of his Guy's personality quirks. 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 was shown by his readily befriending Gaara and forgiving him for crushing his arm and leg, thus hospitalizing him. Lee feels others should show the same respect towards their opponents, and is disgusted whenever someone is unnecessarily cruel to their enemies.

Lee is known for speaking respectfully to others, being very proper in both English and Japanese language versions, and never using contractions or swearwords. He also uses formal Japanese, applying proper titles ("-san", "-kun", etc.) to anyone he meets. However, Lee refers his teammates Neji Hyūga and Tenten just by their given names, implying that he is close enough to them to use such an informal way to speak to them. His relationship with Guy has also caused him to acquire many of Guy's traits; in addition to his personality, his dedication to his promises, as well as his belief that one cannot dislike food, are characteristics of Guy.

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 was initially most evident with his rivalry with Neji, having learned from Guy that having a rival will provide incentive to succeed. Neji, a "genius" ninja, found Lee's efforts of bettering himself to be in vain, believing Lee would 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. While Lee maintained the desire to defeat Neji in a fight throughout the Chūnin Exam arc, after Neji's eventual defeat by Naruto Uzumaki, another so-called "failure", Lee became less interested in this goal. Neji's rejection of his previous belief in fate might also have contributed to this, as he now respects Lee, believing that he will surpass the gifted with enough work.

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 met. While she did not seem to share these feelings for him, and considered him weird, Lee maintained these feelings, and went out of his way to help her throughout the Chūnin Exams. Sakura becomes more appreciative after this, and punches Naruto whenever he insults Lee.

Despite this, Sakura does not seem to return any romantic feelings for Lee, as she refers to him with the more formal "Lee-san", as opposed to "Lee-kun". After the Exams' conclusion, Lee's interest in Sakura goes largely unaddressed in the manga. It is occasionally referenced in the anime, such as when Naruto fought Lee in the Lee's Dojo arc; Naruto transformed into Sakura, causing Lee to forget about the fight long enough for Naruto to attack him.

Appearance Lee has a very unique appearance. Unlike most other characters in the series, Lee possesses very thick eyebrows (leading to the nickname "Bushy Brows" by Naruto) and large, perfectly round black eyes. During his academy days, Lee's hair was much longer and fastened in a braid, and his attire had more of a traditional Chinese appearance. After joining Might Guy's team, his appearance changed considerably to emulate his idol and sensei.

His hair was cut and styled into a shiny bowl-cut like Guy, and he also began wearing the same attire, consisting of a green jumpsuit, orange leg warmers, and wearing his red forehead protector as a belt. The only attire different Lee had to his sensei were the bandages he regularly wore around his hands and wrists, a trait that was due to his regular taijutsu training.

During Part II, his appearance has changed the least out of his friends. The most noticeable changes are that he has grown considerably taller, and wears a flak jacket to further emulate his sensei.

Part I Chūnin Exam arc Having not been allowed to participate the year before, Team Guy took part in the Chūnin Exams along with the Rookie Nine. They initially tried to avoid attention by acting weak, but Lee accidentally let slip his true strength by interfering with a fight between Sasuke and Kotetsu. Soon afterwards, he confronted Sasuke, challenging him to a fight to see how he fared against the Sharingan. Guy interrupted their fight, however, when Lee tried to use the Front Lotus, and Lee was forced to do laps around the village before he could proceed onto the first phase of the exams. With Tenten's help, he gained the answers for the written portion, and proceeded to the second round.


Lee comes to Sakura's aidAfter spending their first few days in the Forest of Death gathering supplies, Team Guy split up in search of other teams. Lee came across Sakura being attacked by Team Dosu, and went to her aid. He used his Front Lotus on Dosu, but he survived the attack because of Zaku using his Decapitating Air Wave in the ground, and Lee was left unable to defend himself from a counterattack from Dosu. Neji and Tenten soon arrived to help, but didn't have to because Sasuke woke up, and once he recovered they moved onto the preliminaries.

In the preliminaries, Lee was matched against Gaara. When his standard attacks proved unable to bypass Gaara's defenses, he removed his ankle weights to increase his speed. When this too failed, he attempted the Forward Lotus, but Gaara was able to escape at the last minute. His options running out if he was to win and prove himself, Guy allowed him to use the Reverse Lotus. Gaara survived by turning his gourd to sand and cushion him, and the techniques took a massive toll on Lee's body. Gaara added to Lee's injury by crushing his left arm and leg. Though Guy intervened to stop Gaara from killing him, Lee got to his feet to continue the battle, despite being completely unconscious.

Because of his injuries, Medics predicted, that even if Lee recovered, his injuries would prevent him from ever being able to be a shinobi again. He nevertheless tried to train while he was in the hospital, something that only worsened his condition. To try and cheer Lee up, Guy took him to watch the final round matches, but they were surprised when they arrived to find out that Neji had been defeated by Naruto. Envious of Naruto, Lee then watched Gaara's fight with Sasuke, and marveled at how quickly he had learned to emulate Lee's speed. Before the fight could finish, however, the invasion of Konoha began, and Lee was knocked unconscious.

Sasuke Retrieval arc Over the coming weeks, Guy tried a number of his own remedies to heal Lee. While Lee eagerly did anything he could in the hopes that it would allow him to be a ninja again, none of Guy's ideas helped him. It was not until news of Tsunade becoming Hokage reached them that they found hope. But, when she examined Lee, she informed 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 carried 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. Though Lee was worried he would die in the operation, thanks to Guy's influence, he accepted the surgery. In the end, Lee successfully survived the operation.

Upon overhearing Naruto, Chōji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shikamaru Nara talking about the mission to bring Sasuke back to Konoha, Lee suggested that Neji go with them. Lee was disappointed that he couldn't go with them, still recovering from his surgery (in the anime, he had yet to undergo the surgery).


The final moments of the fight with Kimimaro.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, Kimimaro was beginning to outmatch him, but after Lee drank some sake that he had mistaken for his medicine, he outclassed Kimimaro. Though Lee's anticipated moves are unpredictable to Kimimaro, he reveals his Kekkei Genkai, Shikotsumyaku, which, combined with Lee sobering up, gives him the upper hand in the battle. Before his attack lands on Lee, Gaara arrives 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 in Gaara's new abilities. Even though Gaara's new techniques completely burry Kimimaro, Kimimaro counters by turning the battlefield into a forest of bones, which Lee and Gaara escape 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 are saved, however, as Kimimaro finally succumbs to his disease and dies. After the battle, Lee and Gaara reflect upon Kimimaro's purpose, then the two return to Konoha.

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 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. He fought Raiga, but was defeated, and Naruto finished Raiga off.

Guy and Lee Impersonator arc Guy and Lee left the village 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 Neji accompanied Lee, Naruto, and Tenten on the mission to Hoshigakure, playing a lesser role than in previous arcs. He attempted to follow two of Akahoshi's men while hiding under a barrel, as Tenten suggested, 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 won, 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 in order to fight Lee. However, he was given a mission at the last second, and an impostor replaced 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 in order 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 impostor, 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.

Trap Master arc Lee, despite having few special abilities, made some noteworthy contributions to the investigation. While he initially encouraged the academy students to keep practicing 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 Gennō with his taijutsu during the final confrontation.

Ninja Academy arc The Academy Students were divided into teams of three and were assigned to a genin who would lead them on a mission against the other teams. Lee was assigned to lead a team of three academy students; Chen, Samo and En. His time with them was not covered much except that he was doing better than Naruto: After fending off some 'bandits', one of Lee's charges addressed Lee as "Lee-Sensei" out of awe, and, overjoyed, Lee went off into one of his declarations into the sunset whilst his students tried to tell him that he was going the wrong way.


Naruto accompanied Sakura and Lee to escort Gantetsu. 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.

Ultimate Weapon arc Lee and Naruto helped Gaara fight and defeat an opponent who could absorb his enemies' chakra with his armor. After the mission, 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 returned, they too must become stronger.

Part II Rescue Gaara arc
Rock Lee in Part IITeam Kakashi was sent on a mission to rescue Gaara from Akatsuki. When Tsunade began to worry that they might have problems, she sent Team Guy as back-up. On their way to a rendezvous point, they were attacked by Kisame Hoshigaki. 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 sixth 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 found out that there was a barrier on the Akatsuki headquarters, something Team Guy volunteered to take down. They split up and removed seals spread out across the area, bringing down the barrier but triggering a trap: 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 met them. With that, they all made up a new technique, and defeated their clones. Team Guy reunited with Team Kakashi and, once Gaara was revived, they headed back home. As they left, Guy was carrying a wounded Kakashi piggyback-style. Lee, thinking it was training, told Neji to get on his back so that they might race back to Konoha, but was forcefully rejected.

Twelve Guardian Ninja arc Unlike past fillers, Lee's appearance is in this one was very small. He first appeared shortly after Sora arrived in the village and began fighting with some of Lee's fellow graduates. Thinking it was a spirited sparring match, he joined in. Later, during Kazuma's invasion of Konoha, Lee helped defend the village from the zombies.

Three-Tailed Beast arc Guy taught Tenten and Lee how to synchronize attacks, something that consisted of tying them together. This had little success. Soon afterwards, they were assigned to assist Team Yamato and Team Kurenai with sealing the Three-Tailed Beast. Lee was tasked with preventing any interference with the sealing, so confronted Guren's men when they arrived. Although they tried to use a smokescreen to blind him, Lee was able to use his heightened senses to seek them out and defeat them. He then faced Guren herself, but was unable to stop her from interrupting the sealing. Later, after learning that Naruto was trapped inside the Three-Tails, Lee was assigned as a guard against interference from saving Naruto and sealing the Three-Tails. Lee expressed his confidence that Naruto was alright, and his desire to have an all-out battle with Naruto one day. Later, Lee was surprised to find that Guren's men had returned for a second fight. Despite his passionate desire to fight, he and his team were defeated by the enemies' new-found might. Later, they later return to Konoha with the others.

Invasion of Pain arc When Pain's invasion of Konoha began, Team Guy was away on a mission. During a pitstop on their return home, they noticed a number of birds apparently escaping from the village. They rushed to the village, and found it to be in ruins. They found Hinata Hyūga badly injured, and got her medical attention. Later, he is seen with the rest of the village celebrating Naruto's victory.

Five Kage Summit arc Lee is later seen with other Konoha 11 ninjas, where they talked about Sasuke being handled by them in order to avoid a war. After discussing about Sasuke, he departs with Sakura, Kiba, and Sai to the Land of Iron to meet Naruto. He is later seen, looking on in shock, then disappointment at Sakura's 'confession' to Naruto. Later, Lee and the rest leave.

Custom Arc:
As Lee and the rest were heading back to Konoha Lee continued to feel a sense of sheer sorrow upon hearing Sakura's confession. He had been tracking behind the group as the rest decided to let him have his space to mope. Finally withought realising what had happened Lee slipped upon the icy ground and rolled down a hill into a river. He had tried to fight against the icy cold as he was forced down the river of slush till he finally came to a waterfall. The cold and fall was to much for the Taijutsu specialist to take as he passed out. As he layed there in the water unconsious he had slowly been frozen at the bottom of the lake. The lake through unfortunate events had remained frozen for well over 400 years as it finally thawed enough for him to be washed up upon shore. He was then cared for by an elderly woman who had been kind enough to nurse him back to health. Though this land was so unsure and dangerous that Lee decided that he had to find a way back. Back to Guy-Sensei!