Even at full strength right now Lee couldn't beat the top three genin... Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji would put Lee down. I like Lee alot, but his limits are Taijitsu and he can't compete against a highly trained ninja with the ability to use all three skills. As for Sasuke gaining his speed I think that you forget that Sasuke trains every day very hard as well and that all it took was conditioning to push him to that speed. Also he can open the first gate even if he doesn't understand it... because that's how you do the Lotus and he saw the first half of the move. Anothing thing about his speed... he was probably using his chakara to augment his speed to that of Lee's. As for Naruto hiding behind Bushins... in a normal battle he's joining his bushins in the fight, but he knows when to step back and fool the enemy. I would like to see Lee come back better than ever, but as long as he is only Taijitsuist he'll never be able to compete against monsters like Naruto and Garaa... not that anyone really can