During the Naruto franchise's run, the readers and viewers were introduced to many ninja whom, while of express bear upon to the main story, withal registered a big impact with them. Perhaps no grapheme exemplifies this greater than that of Rock Lee. Introduced initially every bit a rival to Naruto & Sasuke prior to being slotted into the background, the exuberant taijutsu specialist wound up being enough of a hit to warrant fairly high popularity poll finishes and his own spin-off gag manga. Despite this, the serial wound up never really exploring his character besides deeply after featuring him heavily in earlier arcs. While no means a terrible portrayal, the series nevertheless missed many opportunities to brand Rock Lee truly special.

Here are 5 Ways 'Naruto' Messed Up Rock Lee (And 5 Ways They Rocked Him Out):

x Messed Upwardly: No Neji Fight

neji and rock lee in naruto

When Lee is beginning introduced during the onset of the Chunin Exams, audiences learn that he desires, higher up all else, to evidence that 'hard piece of work surpasses genius.' Though initially said in the context of defeating Sasuke, it is not long after that the audience discovers that his true target is his teammate, Neji Hyuga. In the flashbacks that ensue, it is shown that Neji is, to put it mildly, kind of a d-bag to Lee, belittling the latter's lack of ninjutsu talent.

Being the human being he is and having the teacher he does, Lee trains to prove Neji wrong/pop him in his mouth for running it as well effin' much. In time, Neji reforms and the 'd-bag' aspect dies down, but the 'hard piece of work vs genius' fence is left lingering without resolution. With Neji'south expiry, the narrative faux pas is set in stone, with the writers never adequately releasing the tension they hyped up so many chapters before.

9 Rocked Out: The Weights

Perhaps 1 of the greatest Rock Lee moments was during his Chunnin Exams fight confronting Gaara. Afterwards declining to penetrate Gaara's ultimate defense and seeing Lee would need more to defeat the future Kazekage, Guy grants Lee permission to channel his inner Piccolo and remove the training weights from his body. Both Sand and Leaf ninja scoff at the notion, thinking the reward to be gained from doing then to be negligible at best. Arrogant smiles line their faces equally Lee's weights careen toward the flooring, only for them to blow away upon the weights' literal world-shattering impact. Moments subsequently, Lee is zipping effectually the arena and giving Gaara a run for his money that no 1 expected.

viii Messed Up: His Recovery

Rock Lee hurt doing push ups

One of the portends to Lee's eventual substandard portrayal was the quickness with which he is shown to recover from his catastrophic injury at the hands of Gaara. After Tsunade's surgery, Lee prematurely goes into battle in club to assist in the retrieval of Sasuke, availing himself valiantly against Kimmimaro before running out of stamina and setting the phase for villian-turned-hero Gaara to rescue him.

Though a dramatic series of events, the ultimate lack of consequences for this recklessness comes off as poor writing--especially given the fact that it killed the dramatic build up earlier established regarding the extent of his injury and his distress over his future every bit a shinobi. Every bit an culling, the writers could accept, instead, given him an extended recovery--exploring his character'southward psychology every bit he works to regain and ultimately surpass his pre-injury class--akin to what audiences see from the Avatar in Legend of Korra.

7 Rocked Out: Drunken Fist

It can exist like shooting fish in a barrel to forget that Naruto & Sasuke's outset battle at the Valley of the End would have been preempted by Kimimaro if not for Rock Lee's dynamic entry. Having just undergone Tsunade'due south surgery, the impetuous young ninja chased later the Sasuke retrieval team in club to resume the ninja career that had just barely escaped a premature end.

During the fight, Lee pauses to take a dose of what he thinks is his medicine but what is, in authenticity, a shot of sake. In a surprise twist, information technology was revealed that the inebriation enhances the ninja's skills as opposed to dull them, being that he is a natural master of the drunken fist--on par with any other. The boost in skill stresses Kimimaro, causing him to dig deeper into his bag of tricks to stave off the onslaught, revealing just how formidable the young ninja truly is.

6 Messed Up:No Wife

By the time Boruto comes effectually, Lee is shown to have a son, Metal. Mysteriously though, the story fails to explicitly name a specific kunoichi as the mother of Lee'due south newly revealed son. And while the failure hasn't stopped fans from speculating, the lack of specificity demonstrates merely how much neglect the graphic symbol has suffered from the writers.

After all, information technology wouldn't be difficult for a wife to be named for Lee given the limited number of available kunoichi at the stop of the series. Declining to exercise and so was just gross negligence of the highest social club.

v Rocked Out: His Obliviousness

Considering he is such an earnest pupil, Lee appears to hang on his teacher's every word equally gospel. This isn't terribly hard to understand as Might Guy is probably the but person to believe in Lee's ability to become a competent ninja. That said, this leads to instances where Lee'southward devotion to his instructor makes him oblivious to things that should exist fairly obvious.

A great example of this is at the conclusion of the fight with Sasori, when Kakashi'southward so depleted from the boxing that Might Guy volunteers to comport his rival on his ain dorsum equally a manner to sneak in actress training. The overzealous Lee, hoping to imitate his teacher, hilariously offers Neji his dorsum and is immediately rebuffed--an answer he probably should have expected. The fact that he didn't though, makes Lee crawly for being just that oblivious.

4 Messed Up: No Skill Evolution

Another glaring issue with Lee'south character is the fact that the story fails to aggrandize his skillset as a ninja aside from increasing the number of Gates he'due south able to open. While that's to exist expected given his entire character's premise every bit a ninja without ninjutsu, there take been enough auxiliary developments with other characters to warrant the expectation Lee'due south abilities to include more than the Eight Gates. Writers could have given him weapons (like Ten-X), strategies (similar Guy's strategy against the Sharingan), or fifty-fifty summoning jutsus (similar Guy), but they came with aught. Once again, this failure to grant him any unique development seems to be zip short of neglect.

3 Rocked Out: Piece of work Ethic

Ane of the great things nearly Rock Lee that all fans should adore is his piece of work ethic. Rather than crumble at the fact that he is less talented than well-nigh other ninja, he instead steels his will and resolves to discover a ninja way for himself through hard work and conclusion. No matter how dangerous or hard, he never shies abroad from challenging himself and surpassing his ain limits. Moreover, rather than run away from people who are naturally more talented than himself--like Hunter X Hunter character Killua--he runs toward them in order to see if he has what it takes. Every bit a potential role model for younger viewers, this makes Rock Lee without equal.

2 Messed Up: Guy Clone

Lee's sensei, Might Guy, is an awesome grapheme that naturally fabricated a huge impact upon Lee's development and rightly so. As a result, it's little surprise that, when Lee and Guy are introduced, Lee is fanatically devoted to his teacher, to the point of obsessively imitating the latter's mannerisms. Nevertheless, equally the serial progressed and the characters aged, ane would take expected Lee to come into his own--integrating his instructor'due south tutelage with his own unique life experiences. Sadly, the audience never got to run into such come to laissez passer, as the writers kept Lee's portrayal limited to that of a Might Guy clone.

i Rocked Out: His Power To Forgive

Gaara And Lee

It may sound cheesy, but one of the coolest & nigh distinctive moments for Stone Lee had nil to practise with him boot butt and taking names but really quite the opposite. In the previously mentioned fight against retconned Otsutsuki descendant Kimimaro, where Gaara somewhen comes to his rescue, Rock Lee and his 1 fourth dimension enemy share a few words prior to teaming upward. Given the history between the two, namely Gaara catastrophically injuring Lee in an attempt to kill him, one would wait Lee to agree a grudge--especially since Lee almost lost his ability to be a ninja as a consequence.

But instead, Lee brushes the by off with only a slight quip, substantially forgiving Gaara. It may not seem like much, simply the power to forgive those who have harmed u.s. and shown remorse is an extraordinary power, as information technology shows maturity and an power to get out the past in the by and move forward. We may not exist able to emulate Rock Lee'southward awesome physical feats and insane work ethic, but we can all make strides to emulate his awesome chapters for forgiveness.

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