Rock Lee

Lee is known for his glossy black hair, perfectly round eyes with pronounced lower lashes, and famously thick eyebrows that earned him the nickname Bushy Brows from Naruto. As a boy his hair was long and braided, but he cropped it into the bowl cut he shares with Guy upon joining Team Guy. His trademark outfit is a green jumpsuit paired with orange leg warmers and a red forehead protector worn as a belt, with bandages wound around his forearms and hands. In Part II he added a Konoha flak jacket, and by adulthood he had grown notably muscular with sharper features, switching to a sleeveless jumpsuit with an orange neckwarmer.

Shaped by Guy's influence, Lee is energetic, sunny, and hot-blooded, the very picture of a well-meaning nice guy. He speaks with unfailing politeness, avoiding contractions and coarse language and addressing people with proper honorifics, and he jots down his teacher's advice in a small notebook. Beneath the exuberance sits genuine focus and a keen sense of honour: he respects his opponents, holds no grudges against those who beat him, and befriended Gaara despite the crippling injuries Gaara once dealt him. His guiding theme is the belief that hard work and perseverance can overtake inborn talent, a conviction tested by his rivalry with the gifted Neji, who came to respect Lee after his own defeat. During Part I Lee nursed a crush on Sakura Haruno, and while those feelings lingered into his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, by adulthood he married and had a son, Metal Lee.

Written off at the Academy for his inability to mold ninjutsu or genjutsu, Lee reshaped himself under Guy into a superb fighter who leans wholly on taijutsu. A late bloomer, he stunned observers in Part I by defeating the prodigy Sasuke Uchiha, pushing Gaara to his limits in the Chunin Exams, and holding his own against Kimimaro. By age thirteen he had become essentially a taijutsu master in the Strong Fist style, strong enough to tear a massive tree root from the earth and fast enough, once he shed his heavy ankle weights, to become the first person ever to pierce Gaara's Shield of Sand. His low tolerance for alcohol grants him a natural gift for the chaotic, near-unstoppable Drunken Fist, whose unpredictable patterns overwhelmed even Kimimaro.

His signature edge is the Eight Gates, taught by Guy: he could open five by age twelve, the sixth by seventeen, and the final gate by adulthood. Each opened gate multiplies his strength, speed, and stamina at the cost of severe strain on his body, so he reserves them for the direst moments, using techniques such as the Front Lotus, the Reverse Lotus, and, with the Suicide Corps, the Crane Wing Formation that helped shatter half of a meteorite. Though nearly devoid of ninjutsu, he can still manage basic chakra control to walk up walls and across water. His battles at the Chunin Exams left his arm and leg crushed by Gaara, an injury Tsunade later repaired through risky surgery, and he went on to fight beside Gaara against Kimimaro.

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Lee served in the Third Division, countered the reincarnated master Chen with his One-Man Front Lotus, and grieved deeply at Neji's death before charging forward with chakra from Naruto to bisect Madara and sever his link to the Ten-Tails. Alongside Guy he opened his gates to hold off Madara so his teacher could unleash the Night Guy, then fell victim with the others to the Infinite Tsukuyomi until Naruto and Sasuke freed the world. In the New Era he was promoted to jonin, trained his son Metal, and served as proctor for the final round of the Chunin Exams, disqualifying Boruto for cheating before whisking Shikadai to safety when Momoshiki and Kinshiki attacked.