| SPOILER WARNING! this article may contain major plot or ending details |
|
|
|
|
|
|
NejiLee is the slash ship between Rock Lee and Neji Hyūga from the Naruto fandom.
Canon[]
Neji and Lee were assigned to the same team after graduating from the ninja academy along with Tenten under the leadership of Might Guy. When the three of them were introducing themselves to each other and saying their goals, Lee spoke about how he wanted to prove that he could become a respected shinobi without ninjutsu or genjutsu, to which Neji scoffed and said that was a stupid idea because Lee was born to be a failure and thus destined to be a failure. This began a heated rivalry between Neji and Lee, where Lee would work hard to prove himself against a talented genius like Neji.
Team Guy signed up to take the Chunin Exams a year later. When they were in the Forest of Death during the second round, the three of them split up for a while. When Neji and Tenten arrived at their designated meeting point and noticed that Lee did not arrive on time, they found that to be concerning because Lee was always punctual. Neji found Lee unconscious after having protected his crush Sakura from Otagakure ninja and said that he would take over watching over Lee.
Preliminary rounds were held before the third round, and Neji was matched up against his cousin Hinata. Neji defeated Hinata brutally, and when Naruto wanted to fight Neji for being cruel to her, but Lee stopped him. Lee lost his fight against Gaara and was badly injured to the point that he would have to give up being a ninja. When Lee got out of the hospital, he went to watch Neji's fight against Naruto in the third round, where Neji was defeated and humbled, finally changing his previously elitist views.
Lee was able to return to being a shinobi after a risky operation was performed on him. Neji supported Lee during his recovery and was seen helping him walk around the village when they learned that Sasuke defected from the village. Neji was recruited to join in the mission to retrieve him, and Lee saw them off. Lee ended up joining the mission after he felt that he could walk to assist.
Years later, Team Guy was given another chance to take the Chunin Exams, and they passed the first round thanks to Neji's leadership. During the second round, they struggled to obtain the needed scroll in part due to rescuing the Kazekage Gaara. When their time was up, Lee begged the proctors to please accept two heaven scrolls due to the circumstances, but Neji said it was no use. It was then announced that the rest of the exams were canceled, and that each village's kage would decide. Tsunade ended up promoting Lee to Chunin and Neji to Jōnin due to his superior leadership.
Team Guy was later sent to join Team Kakashi in a mission to rescue the Kazekage Gaara. Kisame attacked them to hold them back, and Lee and Neji were trapped in the water prison jutsu by Kisame's water clones. Neji eventually built up enough chakra to escape and was able to free Lee as well. Later, when they were fighting clones of themselves, Lee said that the way to defeat them was to become stronger than they were at the time of pulling the seals off. Neji then admitted that becoming a Jōnin was not his final goal before defeating his clone, while Lee defeated his. When Guy gave Kakashi a piggyback ride, Lee tried to do the same for Neji, to which he responded with "hell no" ("forget it" in the English dub).
Neji was killed in battle during the Fourth Shinobi World War. Lee cradled Neji's corpse and cried over his death. Tenten tried to comfort him, but Lee would not stop sobbing until Guy reminded him that Neji was still with him as long as he kept Neji and his ideals in his heart. Lee also recalled a moment of when Neji said something to Lee in the past. When Lee was trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he dreamed that Neji was still alive and that he had finally defeated him in battle with the power of youth.
In the years following the war, Lee was invited to attend Naruto's wedding with Neji's cousin Hinata. He was struggling to come up with an appropriate wedding gift and needed to do so or he might be forced to work guard duty instead of joining the wedding. Neji's ghost later appeared to Lee in a dream, encouraging him not to give up, and reminding him of "physical strength over endurance" and that Hinata was a member of the Hyūga clan. Lee decided to give dumbbells as a wedding gift, as that was how he interpreted Neji's advice.
Fanon[]
NejiLee has a decent amount of popularity in the Naruto fandom. Since Neji and Lee had a rivalry that was similar to Naruto and Sasuke's, this pairing is often compared to the very popular SasuNaru pairing. One key difference was that their rivalry became much more kinder after Neji's elitist views were changed by Naruto. NejiLee fans were saddened by Neji's death, as that sunk their ship, made Lee mourn, and took away their beloved character Neji. On AO3, there are over 400 works for the pairing. NejiLee rivals the LeeSaku, LeeTen, NaruLee, GaaLee, NejiTen, and NejiNaru pairings.
Fandom[]
- FAN ART
- NejiLee search results on DeviantArt
- NejiLee tag on DeviantArt
- ネジリー tag on Pixiv
- FAN FICTION
- Neji/Lee tag on AO3
- Neji/Lee tag on FanFiction.Net
- WIKIS
- NejiLee on Naruto Couples Wiki
Variations[]
- NejiLeeTen refers to the ship between Neji Hyūga, Rock Lee and Tenten
