Rock Lee is a powerful ninja, but why can’t he use ninjutsu? He’s proven himself as the world’s best taijutsu specialist, but what about the other techniques?
Rock Lee can’t use ninjutsu because it doesn’t come naturally to him. He can form enough chakra for small tasks like walking on water, but Rock Lee was not born with the ability to express that chakra through ninjutsu or genjutsu.
Lee developed into a bit of a late bloomer as the series went on with his taijutsu. He decided to go all in on the hand-to-hand combat techniques after ninjutsu didn’t work. Lee can still form enough chakra to climb walls and walk on water, but expressing his chakra through hand signs is unnatural to him.
Rock Lee’s inability to use ninjutsu
He shined as a member of Team Guy, alongside Neji and Tenten. Lee was their hand-to-hand expert, a character specific specialty like Shikamaru’s shadows on Team Asuma.
That’s not to say that it’s impossible for Rock Lee to use any chakra whatsoever. He can walk on water, which requires a small amount of chakra to come from the bottom of a ninja’s feet. Rock lee wouldn’t be able to walk on water without at least some bit of chakra.
There are some positive trade offs. Focusing all his energy back on to his physical body allows Lee to open his inner gates. These are limiters put on the human body that ninjutsu technique users don’t ever need to tap into.
We know that Rock Lee can at the least manipulate chakra because he can open a few chakra gates. During Naruto Shippuden, Rock Lee could open a few inner gates at a time. Ninjas can only use about 20 percent of their body’s potential. The inner gates put out limits to protect themselves. Lee learned to break these gates, but doing so requires some control over reflowing the chakra throughout the body.
Other Thoughts On Rock Lee Not Using Ninjutsu
Rock Lee was able to access the 8th inner gate in Boruto, but he can’t use any ninjutsu in the Boruto series.
Rock Lee can also still become affected by others’ chakra. He can fall victim to anyone’s genjutsu and is not protected from ninjutsu attacks.