Rock Heart, a naruto fanfic

A/N: Hello! Okay this is not a distraction. My friend wanted me to create something for her favorite character in Naruto and being the nice, gracious, sweet person that I am, I agreed. This is set during the Chuunin examinations, after Hinata and neji's fight, since my friend hasn't started watching the Shipuuden segment yet.

So please remember he is not my favorite character, so I'm not sure how to go about writing about him. Just like my one-shot, Tears, I spent quite a long time to decide how to portray Rock Lee. But I do like him.

Yes well, anyway enough jabbering, here is the one-shot dedicated to Rock Lee for his birthday today! Happy Birthday Lee! )

Rock Heart

"A dropout is a dropout. They cannot change."

In that span of seconds before Uzumaki Naruto could reply Hyuuga Neji's insensitive remark, Rock Lee's mind ran in circles with thoughts that had been hovering over his head during the entire fight.

It was as if somewhat had taken a memory out of Lee's head, put it into action but replaced the main character with Hinata. Other than that, Neji's words were one and the same. Always about Lee being a dropout, loser, failure, lost cause.

Anger was the first feeling Lee had, for although he hardly expressed any to anyone's memory, his heart was always full of it ever since he was teased of being unable to do ninjutsu or genjutsu. The feeling of wanting to explode and scream at everyone about how unfair God was being to him. The feeling of wanting to just strangle Neji until he could hardly breathe, or at least defeat him so that he would take back his words. The anger he felt at everyone who taunted him, at Neji who gave up on him, at people who just didn't even want to look at him because he wasn't 'shinobi' enough for them. At himself for not being able to do ninjutsu and genjutsu.

Then came disappointment. Hewas a failure in the eys of most shinobis. Would he ever be able to surpass Neji? His taijutsu was extremely good, almost perfect, but only after he had honed it for so many years of training and suffering. He was not a genius like Neji, or Sasuke. He was not talented in anything, and he might never be. He wanted to be someone great, someone as strong and talented as Gai. Why couldn't he be that sort of person? Why did he have to cursed with the inability to do ninjutsu and be laughed at my his peers?

"Do you want to try?"

And as if Naruto's words were keys to unlocking the deeper feelings in Lee's heart, the latter looked up to see the blond, reckless shinobi dashing towards his teammate.

Inside he was already hoping Neji could somehow be caught off guard and punched in the face instead of smirking as he always did whenever Lee tried to spar with him and defeat him. But Lee knew that was impossible. And as if God was giving him time to delve deeper into that thought, everything slowed down. Naruto was only a metre away from Neji, but he wasn't moving.

It was impossible. But Lee understood that it was never because Neji was a genius.

It was because Naruto, and himself, were not ready yet.

Why was he so upset about? He could slap himself a hundred times for being so stupid. What had he always told Neji and Ten-Ten, whenever Neji tried to put him down with the proclaimation of fate and that people could not change?

Even if I have no talent, I will surpass a genius with hardwork!

When had he forgotten that line? Why was he more confident as a child than now? He was now, an expert in taijutsu, many thanks to Gai's intensive training all these years. Didn't his mentor also tell him that he had not become a great shinobi through pure talent? Gai became who he was through hard work. Lee was skilled in different weapons, although he hardly needed to use them. He was fast, strong and had as much talent as any of these shinobis here to become a Chuunin.

Since he was a child Lee had the one skill most shinobis lacked: perseverence. It served him well enough to earn the praise of Gai, but the funny thing was that he never realized it until his mentor-cum-idol pointed it out to him. He would persevere and train for hours non-stop, sometimes even be unaware that he had nearly spent a whole day trying to do a thousand push ups or three hundred laps around the training field. All Lee had in his head was his goal to become an excellent ninja.

It was everything to him.

Hard work and determination were his middle names, Gai once told him. And as he watched Neji's smirk, he knew that one day, his middle names would jump out and flash brightly in front of Neji, showing him finally, that he was not just a loser, failure, dropout.

His determination and perseverence were rock hard, unwavering, and nothing was going to stop him from achieving his dream.

"I understand how you're feeling, Naruto. But you should fight in a proper match."

"A dropout will defeat a genius with hard work."

"The main matches will be exciting. But I may be his opponent. I will hold no grudge if you were to match up with him."

And as if things were suddenly clearer to him, Lee felt a whole lot lighter, as if the burden on his shoulder, the huge rock that was labeled dropout, as Neji always called him, had disappeared.

Everything, all his obstacles, they were never there. Only imaginary setbacks that he had felt depressed for in the past. He was not a dropout, or a failure, or a loser.

He was a shinobi, he would have the courage to face his enemies, the determination to overcome setbacks and limits, the perseverence to keep going on for his dream and the hard work that was needed and forever going to accompany his journey towards his goal.

"I will win!"

Gai looked over at Rock Lee, who was watching Naruto silently, but flames of burning determination was already alight in his eyes. Naruto and Lee were almost the same, with similar labels and similar childhood experiences (as Kakashi had told him).

The one thing Naruto would never have, was the title he gave Lee. No matter what Lee would become in the future, no matter what else would happen in this exam, nothing would change Gai's opinion of him, just as noting had for the past few years.

You are a genius in hard work!

I am a genius in hard work.

And I will surpass Neji.

A/N: ah well, that's it then. I hope I managed to do him alright. If there are any comments please feel free to do so because my writing style isn't perfect. Any comments on his character would be helpful too because he will appear in my stories more often than not.

Anyway, once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE! And I do hope he will become great. He's not my favorite character, but I do like him loads. )

-JE