Lee
At the tower, Lee had been feeling rather…isolated, in a sense.
Maybe it’s because when he did find Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, he didn't feel any better about his situation with Neji. If of anything, all that visit did was remind him of the pressure on his shoulders to handle the Neji situation by himself so he and his team can pass the Chunin exams. He also has been feeling rather stressed lately as well. Maybe it’s because he is still confused on what the alpha who used the sand was trying to do when they spoke or maybe it’s because he has so much to get off of his chest that he feels as though he’ll implode at any given moment if he doesn’t get to speak to someone soon.
He’d love to tell them all about it too but if he did, then Neji would either get in trouble and he’d never get to defeat him in battle or he would be let off the hook without any consequences for his actions and Lee would still be forced to mate him somehow thanks to his clan having more money, power, and prestige than his does.
He will tell Tenten after everything is over—he’s not one to go back on his word after all—but he can’t tell her now, not when his team needs to be on good terms with each other in order to pass this exam!
He only got lucky when he found her, the one omega he had heard so much about—Ino Yamanaka, the younger sister of the notoriously difficult and unmateable Deidara.
“Ino Yamanaka, it’s so nice to finally meet you!” he almost fanboyed out as he approached her, “I’m Rock Lee and I am so happy to see another omega passed the second part of the exam! I cannot wait for us to pass this exam and become Chunins together, it will surely be the best thing ever!”
Truthfully, he had heard of Deidara—everyone always talks about him as the ‘world’s worst omega’—and he had heard of her as being on her way to being just like him. He didn’t really care about this, though, or the fact his clan thought of the Yamanaka omegas as being too ‘loud and rude’ to alphas. No, all he cared about was finally having another omega to talk to here before he really lost it.
She smiled at him, immediately doing something he didn’t expect her to do, “It’s great to finally meet you too! Congratulations on beating Sasuke, by the way. If one of us can defeat an Uchiha alpha, then that means I have every reason to believe I can one day kill one for myself.”
Lee pauses, not sure what she meant by that, “Kill an Uchiha? Wait, what? Why would you want to do that?”
“Because that stupid Itachi stole my brother from our home and made him into a criminal against his will.” Her aura grows darker around her as she snarls, “I will find that Uchiha bastard and I will kill him for doing that to Deidara.”
He pauses and nods slowly, finding this to be…interesting to say the least. Mainly because while he doesn’t know too much about Deidara’s case, he has a hard time believing Itachi actually forced him into that life or that he stole him from his home.
Deidara was said to be extremely strong willed, minded, and stubborn. There’s no way he would have left just because of an alpha, especially one he openly despised, and there’s no way said alpha could have forced him into anything without killing him.
Of course, he won’t tell that to her. He does want to get this whole Neji situation off of his chest to her before the final people make it to the tower first and foremost before he really does snap under the pressure, stress, and anxiety of it all.
He really hopes Naruto will make it too…he has a feeling that Naruto would be of great help to him right about now with his sunny disposition and the willingness he knows he would possess to help him get answers out of Neji.
“Well, if that’s what you desire, then I say ‘go for it’.” she eyes him up after he said this, asking suddenly, “Are you okay, Lee? You seem tense and your distress pheromones are starting to come out of nowhere. Did something bad happen to you here? Is there an alpha nearby who’s giving you trouble?”
It was a great relief for him to have her bring this up, “Actually, yes, there is. You see, there’s no alpha nearby us know who’s giving me trouble, but there is an alpha on my team by the name of Neji Hyuuga who has been the cause of some grief to me.”
She places a hand on his shoulder, her eyes full of pity when informing him, “I know of the mark on you, Lee, and what all it does. I was behind some bushes when you were defending Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke in the forest. I saw those ninjas getting mummified and I know—”
“Mummified? No, my mark isn’t supposed to do that—it’s supposed to either go away after I defeat Neji in a battle where I give it my all or leave his mark on my scent glands should I lose to Neji in a battle where I give it my all.”
Ino blinks, amazed because she thought he knew, “Wait, you didn’t know your mark could kill people by mummifying them alive and reducing them and anyone who tries save them to dust if they tried to mark you by force? What about the other part, where it will make those who try to rape you or show too much romantic interest in you die from a long, painful death caused by an incurable illness?”
“No, I never knew that! Are you sure got that right? Neji isn’t the easiest one to get along with, but I don’t think he’d go that far over me or anybody, really.” Now Lee is starting to panic because he never knew his mark did that to people!
How many have died because of him?
How many have suffered…all because of him?
It kills him on the inside to even think about it. The idea that people were dying all because of the mark on his hand…it horrifies him deeply to the point of it being nightmare inducing.
“I’m sorry, I really thought you knew!” she insisted, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from panicking further, “He was going to have me spend his first rut with him just to learn that! I never wanted people to die over me—I know I may have to kill people in battle someday in order to survive a mission or for a mission, but I don’t want people to die over something I should have been quick enough to prevent!”
“Lee, please…calm down.” Ino places her other hand on his shoulder, “None of this is your fault. I know you think it is now, but I promise you it isn’t—it’s all Neji’s for ever putting that mark on you to begin with.”
“No, I should have been quick enough, I should—”
“He shouldn’t have ever had that reaction to begin with! If that was his first reaction to do upon learning of you being an omega, then that means he was thinking of doing it to you for a long time, plotting it, planning it out, and obsessing over it…no one does that naturally unless if they’ve fantasized about it over and over in their heads.”
Lee doesn’t fully buy this, but Ino does reassure him, “Lee, none of this truly was your fault. It’s all his for ever thinking about doing that to you in the first place and seeing nothing wrong with it.”
He can tell she is a bit wary on something, so with whatever shred of confidence is left within himself, he decides to ask about it, “Is there anything else Neji said about the mark? I’d like to know everything so I don’t have to share his first rut with him.”
“Well…there is one last thing you don’t know about.” he braces himself for what he is about to hear next and yet he was still caught off guard by this, “Lee, he embedded that mark with his own chakra. He can use it to inflame your chakra points to make you submit to his will whenever he pleases.”
…It’s all so much to take in. He’s having a slightly harder time digesting everything he’s heard about the mark on his hand.
He takes a few moments of silence to collect himself. When he feels able to speak, he is able to meet her eyes with a calm, “Thank you for telling me that. I had no clue the mark came with so many side effects and a way for Neji to control me. I didn’t think he would go that far over me, but…knowing is a great relief because now I know what else the mark does, I can rest easy without any guessing. That’s what I really need right now—I haven’t been able to sleep well for a while now because of this…I should be able to sleep tonight though, at least, I hope I will.”
She takes in her fellow omega at the moment, feeling nothing but concern for him.
Though his distress pheromones have gone down, he appears to be a bit tired despite his smile, and he seems to be rather anxious somehow despite there being no hostile alpha anywhere near them inside the dingy, grey hallway.
She could rant about Neji and how gross he is for trying to get Lee to spend his rut with him in exchange for information about the mark on his hand (which he should have told him the full scope of without making such an offer in the first place). She could confront Neji, but Lee seems to need distraction and someone to keep his mind off of the issues he has to face.
Then Lee speaks and it catches her off guard as she takes her hands off of his shoulders. He’s smiling with his eyes closed and a hand behind his neck, the pure picture of calm in that moment despite what she knows has to be going on inside of him, “I know you probably want to rant about Neji and how everything he did was bad, but there’s no need to. I know how bad it is, I really do, but I want to beat Neji on my own with my taijutsu someday. If he gets in trouble now, I’ll never be able to do that. So I’m sorry for not telling anyone, Ino. I hope you can understand why I didn’t do it.”
Hearing his sincerity, she cannot be mad at him for not telling anyone about this. Then again, she wouldn’t be mad at him in the first place for not telling anyone about this, so she’s able to shrug it all off, “I can, but you didn’t need to tell me why you didn’t tell. I would have figured you had your own reasons anyway.”
There is a Neji related issue he wants to discuss with her that he hopes she will know the answer to, “Ino…is it normal for alphas to kiss omegas as a way to silence them?”
“Does Neji do this to you?”
“He does, a lot more than I’d like, actually.”
She hums, her hands on her hips and surprising Lee with a fun fact he had never known, “Deidara said Hyuuga’s typically do that to omegas to not only shut them up, but to remind them of their fated destiny as being a pup making machine. I always thought he sort overexaggerated the Hyuuga clan’s issues because Hinata was always so nice, but I guess I was wrong to do that one.”
“Oh great, just what I need!” his hand is now in his hair and he’s already starting to vent when he knows he probably shouldn’t be, “It’s already hard enough to pretend to be okay with Neji and not be uncomfortable around him, now I have to deal with knowing what he means whenever he kisses me to shut me up! I already am struggling to keep this a secret from Tenten—I feel so bad about it, but I can’t tell her, not when we’re in the Chunin exams, not when teamwork and not killing your teammates is the most important thing! I keep training to distract myself from it, but it’s too awkward to do it anywhere Neji can see me because I feel too exposed doing it now around him…all I want is for things to go back to normal. That’s all I really want more than anything else.”
With the way his voice got so small at the end, she had to strain her ear pretty hard to hear it. When she did hear it, she felt more than awful for the poor young omega who wanted nothing more than for things to go back to the normal he knew as opposed to dealing with what he is now with his own teammate, the one who is supposed to be his friend or acquaintance, his ally in battle—only for it to all disappear when he came out as an omega.
In that moment, she gives Lee a tight hug, allowing the omega to chance to collapse in her arms and try to keep his breathing even to the best of his ability.
With this one hug, Lee felt able to relax as he felt the burdens bothering him being lifted off of his shoulders after his venting to the other omega. He feels a bit energized, though his tiredness is slowly winning out right now.
“Ah, Ino? Do you mind if I sleep in the room at the end of the hall? It’s the only one Neji never goes to.” he does stiffen as he immediately backtracks on the offer, “No, wait, I can stay up! It’d be wrong of me to leave a potential friend like you all alone here without any other omegas to talk to.”
“No, it’s fine, Lee. Go get your sleep, I won’t stop you. I think you actually need it more than I need to talk to you.”
He glances down the hall at the door, feeling a bit guilty as he nibbled on his bottom lip, “Are you sure? I can stay here and keep you company. It won’t be any problem for me either—I am more than ready to do just that if you need me to.”
She shook her head, her orders simple enough, “You need to go down that hallway, enter that room, and get your sleep. You shouldn’t be going without it at the Chunin exams just for a chat with another omega.”
He would like to since he is pretty tired, but, “I don’t want to ruin my chance to be your friend! Omegas need to stick together more than ever in the ninja world. There’s so few of us in it and so many who don’t want us there, that it would be beneficial to have other omega friends who want to be a shinobi as well.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” the shorter omega made him feel a lot better when she announced, “I’m more than willing to be your friend and ally, Lee. I won’t leave you alone to deal with everything you’ve got going right now. If you ever need to talk about Neji or just vent about anything, don’t be afraid to come to me, okay?”
Lee grinned, “Of course I will! Who else would I go to except Naruto or yourself? You two are the only other omega Genin, you know.”
“Yeah, I know that very well.” Ino managed to get through teeth that were starting to grit together, “Anyway, come find me when you get done with your nap. I’d like to talk to you more if I can.”
“I will do just that!”
Despite the proclamation being in a happy, upbeat tone, Lee is actually deeply relieved. Knowing he has an ally he can go to whenever he feels overburdened by being with Neji for far too long, he can always go to Ino and get it all off of his chest.
As the two parted ways, Ino couldn’t help but to feel something watching them…no, something watching Lee specifically.
The chakra wasn’t Neji’s, but it didn’t feel like any of the others she’d seen who had passed the second half of the exam.
Looking around the hallway, she doesn’t know exactly where this person is, but she is choosing to keep a cautious approach for now and leaving while she still can.
As for Lee, he only felt the strange chakra when he was about to pass out on the bench in the room he has come to rely on as a sort of safe space from Neji. He knew the chakra, though…it felt like the same chakra of the same alpha who had approached him before!
Wherever he is, Lee cannot see him and as tired as he is…he doesn’t really care.
Sure, the alpha who can control sand seems to be a bit scary, but he didn’t actually hurt him. Okay, he did make a comment about how he should be mated, but that’s not too bad considering what he’s faced in the past from other alphas and betas who used to bully him back in the academy. He may have been a bit creepy for him to be by as well…but he didn’t try to trap him in a mating relationship like Neji did with the mark on his hand, so he cannot complain too much about the alpha.
With his eyes sliding shut, he falls asleep in the room…moments later, a red head alpha who can control sand is standing over him, watching the omega sleep out of curiosity to see what all it was that was drawing his demon to this one particular omega.