Highlights

• The rivalry between Rock Lee and Neji Hyuga in the Chunin Exams Arc was built up, but never realized in Naruto.
• Lee's perseverance in mastering Strong Fist taijutsu clashed with Neji's inherent talent in Gentle Fist taijutsu.
• Despite their contrasting fighting styles, the lack of a competitive match or sparring session diminished their rivalry.

Presented as a competition between innate talent and persistent hard work, the rivalry between Rock Lee and Neji Hyuga was a central feature of the Chunin Exams Arc in Part I of Masashi Kishimoto's book. Naruto. The seeds for this clash of contrasting ideals were slowly sown with each stage of the Chunin Exams, and there was a palpable sense of an impending payoff at the arc's climax.

Unfortunately, all of this proved to be in vain, as Lee and Neji never faced each other in the Chunin Exams, and their mutual enmity had all but disappeared. In Part II of Naruto, both characters took on supporting roles and had few, if any, standout moments. Considering the layers of thematic meaning embedded in this rivalry, why was it never capitalized upon?

The Hyuga Genius vs. A Model of Perseverance

During their introductions at the beginning of the Chunin Exams, Lee and Neji were presented as polar opposites. While Neji was hailed as the strongest rookie of the previous year's group, Rock Lee paled in comparison. To make matters worse, it soon became known that Lee was once ridiculed by his fellow Konoha Academy students for his inability to use genjutsu and taijutsu.

However, this did not deter him, and he chose to focus all of his efforts on mastering Strong Fist taijutsu under the guidance of his mentor, Might Guy. Lee's incredible perseverance, consistent efforts, and self-confidence resulted in him developing into an incredibly powerful ninja for his age by the beginning of the series. As a result, Lee believed that if he continued to put in the effort, he would eventually become strong enough to challenge a natural genius like Neji.

On the other hand, Neji displayed an inherent aptitude for the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist taijutsu, and was seen as a generational talent. That said, he was also disillusioned with the traditional hierarchy of succession in his clan, as he was a member of the branch of the Hyuga family that was subservient to the bloodline of the clan's leader, Hiashi Hyuga.

What made this even worse was the fact that Hiashi was the older brother of Neji's father, Hizashi Hyuga. Years before the beginning Naruto, Hizashi gave up his life in an incident known as the "Hyuga Affair", to protect his older brother. This incident left a huge impact on the young Neji, who resigned himself to the belief that his fate was decided from the moment he was born and that he had no power to shape his own destiny.

A scenario set by the Chunin Exams

Once their respective ideologies were outlined, the backdrop of the ongoing Chunin Exams was perhaps the ideal arena for a conflict between Lee and Neji to arise. While the Forest of Death placed a lot of emphasis on teamwork, Team Guy made the interesting choice to split up and search for the scrolls needed to progress.

The Preliminaries then offered an ideal opportunity for this rivalry to play out in a competitive environment, but unfortunately, this was not to be the case as the trajectory of Naruto The plot didn't allow for that. For one thing, Neji's eventual character arc for the finals against Naruto wouldn't have been defined if he hadn't fought Hinata at that stage.

Furthermore, Lee's fight against Gaara turned into one of the most iconic battles of the Chunin Exams Arc, providing a spectacle that kept viewers on the edge of their seats and erased all notion of an anticipated showdown between him and Neji. While this was understandable given the path this arc was about to take, what happened afterward was the true cause of disappointment regarding this rivalry.

How this rivalry was never deserved

After the Chunin Exams, the story shifted from focusing on all the newly introduced supporting characters to centering on Naruto and Jiraiya's search for Tsunade. Once everything was concluded and she took over as the Fifth Hokage, the groundwork was laid for the final story arc of Part I, which brought Lee and Neji back into the spotlight, albeit for different reasons.

Since the core theme of the Sasuke Retrieval Mission was the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, there was little room for Neji and Lee, other than their individual battles against Orochimaru's subordinates. As Part II began with the Kazekage Retrieval Mission, the focus was firmly on Konoha's forces facing the threat of Akatsuki, and the internal rivalries within the village took a back seat.

At this point, Neji had become a jonin, while Lee was still a chunin. Furthermore, Neji's lack of animosity towards Lee at this point was portrayed as a sign of his change in attitude following his defeat against Naruto in the finals of the Chunin Exams. Unfortunately, this would be a death blow to the once-growing rivalry between the two shinobi, as they were relegated to background characters who had little impact on the remainder of the story.

Rock Lee's Strong Fist vs. Neji Hyuga's Gentle Fist

In addition to their ideological differences, there was also an underlying conflict in Lee and Neji's fighting styles. As a practitioner of Strong Fist taijutsu like his mentor, Rock Lee placed great emphasis on keeping himself in peak physical condition, both to increase his martial arts skill and to allow his body to survive the stress of opening several of the Eight Inner Gates.

Neji's Gentle Fist taijutsu relied heavily on his mastery of the Hyuga's signature dojutsu, the Byakugan. Coupled with his immense intellect, Neji's strengths lay in precise, targeted strikes to an opponent's chakra pathways, as opposed to Lee's more forceful and aggressive approach, which centered on pummeling his enemies into submission. The fact that Naruto never explored how these two taijutsu styles fared against each other, it's just another problem with how this rivalry was handled.

Even in the absence of a competitive match or heated argument between Neji and Lee, the fact that they weren't even shown fighting each other indicated that their rivalry had taken a backseat to other, more important plot points. While this was understandable considering how much Kishimoto had to work through, it was still disappointing. By the end of the series, this was all but confirmed with Neji's untimely death in the Fourth Shinobi World War, which was the final nail in the coffin of this now-forgotten rivalry.

Naruto is available for streaming on Crunchy Roll.