He didn’t get much screen time there.
Summary:
- Fans feel that Rock Lee didn’t get enough screen time in Shippuden.
- However, his character arc ended in Part 1.
- Some fans believe Kishimoto wanted to kill him off at the end of Part 1.
During Part 1 of Naruto, Rock Lee was one of fan-favorite characters. Despite his eccentric behavior, he is extremely strong — and his determination is admirable.
However, in Shippuden, his fans were upset about his lack of a prominent role. That said, his irrelevance in Shippuden is actually easily explained.
His Character Arc Was Already Over by the End of Part 1
Rock Lee’s character arc consisted of him proving that even despite being unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, he could reach great heights with taijutsu only.
While he was eliminated by Gaara during the preliminaries for the final stage of Chunin exam, he came scarily close to defeating him — and Gaara was supposed to be untouchable.
Gaara’s fight versus Rock Lee is still considered one of the best fights in the series. It showed just how great of a fight Rock Lee can be even with his limitations.
Moreover, he once again showed his determination when he woke up and chased the team that was trying to retrieve Sasuke, ending up vital in the fight against Kimimaro. Despite being advised not to strain his body, he risked his health to help his friends.
He Wouldn’t Have Done Much in Shippuden
In Shippuden, there wasn’t really anything for Rock Lee to do — he already proved himself. There wasn’t really anything further for his character arc because, despite his coolness, he didn’t really have a complicated backstory or personality or anything.
The lack of fights for Rock Lee in Shippuden is disappointing, yes, but most of them would have gone the same way anyway. He doesn’t have many tricks under his belt, he’s good with just using the same moves over and over again.
If he had many fights in Shippuden, some fans would probably have considered them boring.
Moreover, without Lee learning to open all the Gates, he wouldn’t have scaled well to Shippuden enemies, many of which were much stronger. It seems that he was simply outclassed by enemies like the Akatsuki.
Kishimoto Had Different Plans for Characters
There are also rumors that Rock Lee should have died at the end of Part 1, along with some other characters. However, Kishimoto was dissuaded from that, as the editors thought that would have made the manga too dark.
While we don’t know if it’s true or not, that could definitely explain his lack of appearance in Shippuden — every time we see him, he’s a supporting character for more important fights.