"Believe in yourself, Lee! Even without nature ninjutsu, you will become a remarkable ninja!"
"...."
His eyes were half-lidded as he glanced at the exuberant Might Guy, a sigh hidden deep within his chest.
Rock Lee understood Guy's good intentions.
However, he also knew better than anyone the limits of taijutsu.
Strong? Sure, but even the Eight Gates, the pinnacle of taijutsu, were only brilliant for an instant. In this brutal shinobi world, such brilliance was a fleeting memory.
Six years ago, he woke up in the world of Naruto.
Before the shock had even settled, he noticed something peculiar: a green orb glowing deep within his consciousness.
After much trial and error, Lee discovered he had three advantages.
First, his chakra control was abnormally precise and exceptionally refined. Second, he could control his body and muscles with top-tier proficiency, Guy himself often comments that seasoned jōnin might not have such mastery over their own bodies. Third, his learning speed was freakishly fast.
Lee suspected that it all tied back to that mysterious orb.
Over the past six years, he noticed it didn't grow when he trained harder but when he understood something new.
That's why he'd have no choice but to forge his own path.
"Guy-sensei," Lee said, steadying his breath as he stopped running. "I've been thinking of a different approach to my training. I can't perform nature transformations, but I have chakra, and I can control it exceptionally well."
Guy opened his mouth, but Lee pressed on, before lifting his hand.
"I also believe it's possible to develop techniques that don't rely on nature transformations."
In his palm a concentrated orb of chakra appeared, shimmering faintly under the afternoon sun.
Guy's eyes widened slightly.
No, it wasn't the Rasengan, but rather a dense, compressed mass of pure chakra. Not only that, but it lacked the rotational force of the Rasengan.
"I often run past the river nearby," Lee continued. "And watching that current made me realize that the rotation of chakra alone isn't the key. It's how tightly the flow is controlled. Then by watching the whirlpool and condensing chakra to control the inward rotation, I added a destructive force."
He said it casually, but the idea was anything but.
From the day he arrived in this world, Lee had been secretly training.
Instead of relying on balloon training like Naruto did in the manga, Lee pieced together the principles over four years by watching the flow of water while developing muscle memory and an adaptive chakra control.
Lee slowly rotated the chakra.
The orb twisted internally like a miniature whirlpool, though its surface remained smooth and unbroken.
Guy watched in stunned silence for several seconds before speaking.
"Lee… have you tried adding a rotational force in multiple directions?"
Lee froze mid-step after hearing Guy's words.
"What? Multiple directions?"
His mind raced.
'Of course! Why didn't I think of that?'
Lee tried again, but the chakra orb collapsed.
Lee re-centered his focus, preparing for another attempt.
Before he could, Guy said heavily, "Lee, the technique you've created already exists. It's an A-rank ninjutsu developed by the Fourth Hokage. It's called Rasengan."
"This..." Lee muttered.
"Don't worry," Guy reassured him. "It's not plagiarism or theft. Sometimes great minds just think alike. If you were more talented in ninjutsu and genjutsu, you'd have undoubtedly become this generation's best prodigy."
There was genuine regret in Guy's voice. The boy in front of him lacked conventional talent, but his pure chakra control and creativity were nothing short of astounding.
"It's okay, Sensei," Lee smiled. "I will forge my own path, and I will be grateful for it."
No matter what, taijutsu would remain his foundation.
As Lee finished the last of his workout under the setting sun, Guy's words echoed in his mind as he began making his way through the quieter backstreets, feet crunching on gravel, the day's fatigue settling in. By the time he reached his small, government-assigned house on the village outskirts, the sun had already set.
While it wasn't as lively as the marketplace, the houses here had more space. Most families had their own small yards.
Lee pushed open the wooden gate to his yard. His eyes swept across the vegetable patch; the greens were thriving in this season, fresh and vibrant, mouthwateringly tender.
In another corner of the yard, meat was hung out to cure on a rack, surrounded by fishing nets to keep out birds and cats.
Under the wall, sweet potatoes were drying, and two strings of orange peels hung above the window.
Lee then closed the gate and walked into the house to check his belongings.
There wasn't much: a scroll of notes, ten kunai, twenty shuriken, one ninja tool pouch, and ten thousand Ryo.
Lee caressed the old scroll. The paper was soft from years of use. This was all his father had left him: personal notes on Three Basic Jutsu, how to extract chakra, and some basic techniques for throwing kunai and shuriken. Basic stuff. But there was no helping it. Lee's father, Togi, was a civilian before becoming a Jōnin. And just like him he could only use the Three Basic Jutsu. Though he did hear stories from his mother. Like how his physical prowess was insane and how he always used a custom made kusarigama to fight in all of his battles. Unfortunately, he died during the Nine-Tails incident.
At that time, Lee had only been two years old.
His mother was a civilian. When she heard of her husband's death, she was heartbroken. She did her best to raise Lee until he was six, and then she passed away herself.
But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. In such a twisted and dangerous world, having fewer attachments might help him survive longer. Plus, If he ever became a missing-nin, at least he wouldn't have to worry about family back home.
Lee glanced over the scroll again, then quickly set it aside.
He'd read this thing so many times already that he could throw kunai with sniper accuracy and perform the Three Jutsu with zero hand seals.
He packed the scroll and his ninja tools back into the pouch. However, when he picked up the ten thousand ryo, he placed it under his floorboard with the rest of his orphan money. (Orphans get subsidies: 2,000 ryo a month.)
As he slid his bedroom door shut, the day's events replayed vividly in his mind.
He knew he was only scratching the surface.
There were secrets in this world far beyond his reach: Sage Mode, Forbidden Techniques, and Bijuus.
And as a civilian-born orphan he'd have to tread carefully.
Casually reaching or even mentioning such high-level concepts would attract attention from the Hokage. And put him under surveillance by the ANBU, or worse, land him in Danzō's clutches.
Lee shuddered at the thought of being "invited" to a party at Root's underground facility.
He was twelve years old this year or in other terms when Canon was only 1 year away. And within a handful of years after would the Fourth Great Ninja War erupt across the world.
Time was running out, so he had to prepare and get as strong as possible.
He sat cross-legged in his small room and resumed training, pulling every ounce of chakra from his reserves to practice shaping it externally.
Currently, he could form razor-thin chakra threads strong enough to manipulate kunai and shuriken mid-air, but it wasn't enough. Not for the true potential he saw in these chakra threads.
He grabbed his notebook and started jotting notes.
[Current Issue: Chakra threads lack slicing force.]
[Next Step: Learn the scalpel technique then coat the threads or make chakra threads out of the scalpel's chakra.]
[Best Result So Far: Rasengan principles. Though sadly it's still a bit unstable.]
[Next Step: Increase rotation speed or further compress chakra to boost destructive power.]
[Tactics: Incorporate seamless formation and immediate combat integration to avoid telegraphed attacks.]
At the bottom, he drew two lines stemming from the Rasengan.
[Release speed.]
[Compression and Destructive Increase.]
Lee closed his notebook, took a deep breath, and steeled himself. He wasn't satisfied with merely recreating known jutsu.
He was going to refine them, weaponize them, and develop his own fighting style.