Truth Well Hidden

The Solitude of Rock Lee

A certain boy with thick, bushy eyebrows sat on a swing set. He was alone. He did not have a single friend. None of the other children wanted to have anything to do with him. A kid without chakra was pretty much useless in the world of shinobi, after all. No one so much as acknowledged him and his strange eyebrows did nothing to convince others to so much as look at him.

To many, he was hideous. Too ugly to even take pity on.

Without talent or beauty, with none of the gifts bestowed upon humans by Kami, this child was considered to be of less worth than even the very dirt people stepped on. No one so much as pitied him, for he was simply too lowly an existence for anyone to concern themselves with him. He had been abandoned by society as soon as he was born, his parents — both proud shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato — not caring enough about this child to even bother to raise him. They tossed him in an orphanage as soon as it was confirmed by the doctors at the hospital that he would never be able to use his chakra.

After all, a child born with atrophied chakra pathways was useless in the shinobi world no matter how intelligent or physically strong.

Even the academy instructors deemed him a lost cause, the ninjutsu teachers making him sit at the side while the taijutsu instructors barely paid attention to his progress. They spent every lesson lecturing him or simply advising him to give up. They did not see his impressive progress in taijutsu, nor did they see how his body instinctively channelled chakra to his muscles after continuous practice not unlike how shinobi augmented their physical strength using chakra. Although he could not control the chakra in his body, the body which naturally relies on chakra to function does for him what he cannot do himself.

They did not see his true talent. They never did notice his hidden latent potential. All they saw was a little kid chasing the hopeless dream of being a ninja when he had no disposition for it. They cut him down with their harsh, hurtful words, unaware that all they did was cause the poor boy unnecessary pain.

At the end of the day, this child was far too stubborn to quit just because of the words others say to him.

All they did was make him even more determined to succeed once he got past his initial depression.

The other children looked down on him, deeming him unworthy of their time of the day. The academically poorer students made fun of him, picking on him to make themselves feel better. They thought themselves superior since they thought that he would never be able to pass the graduation exam without the ability to use ninjutsu.

Without ninjutsu scores, he always failed his exams terribly and was hence labelled the dead last of the class since he always scored the lowest.

It was indeed unfair, but that was just the way the world works. Nothing is ever fair. Some are born with special talents while others are born without them.

Most people like him just chose not to enrol in the shinobi academy, opting for the civilian academy since they thought it more realistic.

He was not special. He was just like any other civilian, unable to use chakra. He would never be able to do flashy jutsu.

Fully aware that his only hope -- the only area his ilk could ever hope to expertise in -- was taijutsu, he trained furiously. He noticed how his punches, sloppy and off-centre as they were, would speed up and slam into the tree trunk with more force than he thought himself capable of. That made him realise that he had hope. If he were to train his body and continue building up muscle mass and increasing his physical strength, he might be able to exceed normal shinobi.

This child, whose hope altered the very threads of the fate of the destiny that a divine being had dealt him, was Lee.

He had not been given a surname by his parents when they abandoned him at the orphanage.