Lee
Right before Ino left to fight Sakura, Lee was alone with Neji and he didn’t think it would be too bad. Ino, Hinata, and Naruto weren’t so far away, so maybe it would be safe to talk to him alone without any drama between them.
“You told them, didn’t you?”
Looks like Lee’s wishes are not to be granted then!
“I did…but I felt too suffocated keeping everything to myself. You kept so much from me and I couldn’t stop myself from being stressed over it.” Lee does inform the alpha beside him, “Neji, Ino heard you talking to Sakura…she knows what the mark fully does, she heard you explain it in the forest and she told me everything. I don’t know why you’d leave me with something like this. I don’t even know what on earth would possess you to do something so…cruel. If you could just tell me the reason for all of this, then maybe I could make some sense of it.”
Neji’s answer is one that Lee is so glad Ino cannot hear right now as she heads over to the stairs to get on the battlefield with Sakura, “Simple: I only did what I had to do ensure you would always be mine. That’s the real reason why I left you with the mark I did—even if another alpha or beta came along and tried to steal you away in any manner possible, they wouldn’t be able to.”
“What makes me so special for any of that in the first place? I’m too ugly and loud and I don’t have a pleasant, stereotypical omega scent like Ino and Naruto do. How could you want me when there’s nothing to want outside of whatever hip shape, resilience, or flexibility you find desirable that can be found in others?”
“How could I not want you? You don’t have that irritating, headache inducing scent of a typical omega and I find your naivete to be completely adorable. Also, your big round doll eyes combined with your shiny hair and heart shaped face…you’re like a pretty porcelain doll but cuter somehow.”
Neji’s usually not one to be so blunt, but Lee was starting to annoy him with the questioning and he figured being honest would be enough to both shut him up as well as calm him down before his match.
He doesn’t want Lee to be poisoned by Ino either and he knows the bitter spinster of a Yamanaka would be the type to do just that. So who knows? Maybe being honest with him will help to prevent that from happening.
Lee, meanwhile, was staring at him in shock because he just couldn’t believe it, “What—You—No—there’s…there’s no way you mean any of that! I’m none of the above! There’s a reason why no one ever crushed on me, why everyone called me ugly at the academy and said my scent was gross—why my own family thought being a ninja was the only way I’d ever get a mate… You cannot possibly mean any of what you’re saying! There’s no way that’s what you actually think of me!”
The Hyuuga doesn’t hold in his annoyance as he watches the future kunoichi fight each other on the battlefield, “Believe it or not, I do. I do think this way of you, I always have. The only reason I could never express this is because I thought you were a beta and Hyuuga alphas are taught to not ever pursue any romantic relationship with a beta.”
Now he’s left feeling thrown off guard over this. No one has ever said he was attractive in such a specific, detailed manner—not even his own family. His hyper conservative family who has always made comments on how come he doesn’t make more of an effort to be a beautiful omega as opposed to training so hard to be a ninja or how come he doesn’t do enough to try to tone down the evergreen note in his scent so alphas and betas won’t mistake him for a beta and call his scent gross…
Point being, he’s heard all of his life that he’s unattractive and Lee found peace with this predicament because thanks to it, he was able to convince his parents to allow him to be a shinobi because he was ‘too ugly to get a regular alpha or beta in the traditional way without becoming one’.
(His wording there, not even that of his parents’. But they did use it to justify to their clan as to why they allowed to become a shinobi.)
It makes him unable to know what to say to this. Maybe he should ask Naruto about it, he would know how to respond! Alphas and betas are always talking about how cute he is, surely he’d be able to tell him whether or not Neji is being sincere about what he says or what all he even means by all of this.
Ino would be a good turn to as well, but from the way things are looking in her battle against Sakura…maybe she won’t be as available as he thinks she will be.
Oh well, Naruto it is then!
“Uh…okay?” Lee doesn’t know what else to say to him. Learning what all he did has his mind drawing a blank.
What Lee doesn’t know is Neji is only by his side because he’s been seeing how that redhead across the room has been staring at him this entire time. The ninja from the sand is a mystery indeed—the redhead with the two scents…one of blood and one of lavender. It’s rather contradictory since the lavender doesn’t appear to be strong enough to cancel out the blood and the blood doesn’t overpower the lavender to cancellation either. It’s almost as though they are perfectly combined, more than ready to merge at any given moment.
Lavender is not a typical alpha scent, but he has a feeling the redhead could be an alpha, just like how Lee is an omega with a deceptively beta scent.
It doesn’t matter though if the redhead is an alpha or beta. He won’t ever allow him to be stolen from him by some guy from another village who doesn’t seem to get the hint judging by the way he’s continuing to stare at his Lee.
He places a hand on top of his own and all the redhead does is blink passively. Feeling annoyed by this, Neji takes matters into his own hands by kissing Lee when he begins to speak, “Neji, I have to talk to Naruto about some—mph!”
When the kiss ends, Lee cannot contain his frustration at his continued behavior, “Neji, you cannot tell me you find me attractive and then kiss me right when I’m speaking! It’s like you have no respect for me whatsoever when you pull stunts like that! How many times do I have to tell you I don’t like it when you do that before you finally care enough to stop!”
“Lee, you’re going to lose to me in the fight anyway and you’ll be me mate then. Whether you like it or not, as your future mate, I have a right to do whatever it takes to calm you down, even if it is with kissing.”
The omega couldn’t hold in his outrage at the open disrespect long enough to stop himself from slapping the alpha’s hand away from him and leaving him from where he was once watching the match.
From across the room, Gaara raises a brow, finding this all to be so peculiar. He immediately asks the only omega expert here—his brother, since his sand spirit is the last one he’d ever go to for advice or questions on such matters—about the situation he just witnessed, “Why did that omega slap the alpha’s hand away from him after he kissed him? Do omegas do that sort of thing, Kankuro?”
Kankuro, not liking being the center of Gaara’s attention, answered him while doing his best to keep his nervousness down around him, “No, not usually. It looked like the omega was speaking and the alpha kissed him suddenly. That must’ve made him mad and caused him to slap his hand away from him before walking off to cool down from his likely anger over that.”
“People kiss each other to silence the other person?”
“Only crappy people do. It’s a complete violation of respect and trust to do something like that to another person. I really don’t blame the omega for being angry—he didn’t look like he was comfortable around that guy and he just forced his entire presence onto him, expecting him to take it without complaint.”
“Huh…”
…This is what his jinchuuriki has been demanding? How the hell could it demand such a thing when it has to know Gaara has no interest in procreating or ‘sowing his oats’ or ‘spreading his seed’ or whatever it is it loves to go on and on about at nights!
Omegas are confusing creatures he’s not sure he wants to deal with in any other form than killing them. He knows his first rut is coming up and the spirit loves to let him know it will be unbearable without an omega, but…he’s not sold on the idea.
He’s fine being alone, he’s fine with nobody else being in his life—why does he need a mate? Why does he need to procreate? Isn’t it worse to bring a child into this world, knowing it could possibly face the same cruel existence he has?
There’s no point in arguing anymore. His spirit won’t ever change its mind and it won’t ever allow him to not keep a close eye on the omega across the room from him.
Lee, of course, didn’t notice Gaara’s staring at him nor did he care to notice the way Neji had glared at Gaara after he left him behind. He was simply too distracted by everything to really, truly care about his surroundings right now.
Even as Ino and Sakura’s battle ended on a tie, he couldn’t be bothered to take pause and think on it or watch it. All he could do was focus on finding someone to talk to about Neji’s recent actions—that is, until he was stopped by his sensei.
“Lee, is everything alright? You don’t seem to have your head in the game…is it something—you know, important coming up?”
Giving the emphasis he placed on the word ‘important’, he knows already what he’s talking about, “No, sensei, that’s not happening yet. I haven’t experienced any of the symptoms lately, but I know it might come sometime soon.”
Guy sensei hums and it makes him feel a bit small at the moment given how this is usually an omen for him of something about to be called out, “I saw you slap Neji’s hand away—did he say something to upset you? Did he do anything at all to make you mad?”
He should tell his sensei the truth and it kills him on the inside to lie to him.
The only problem with telling him the truth about this is Lee’s afraid of what would come next if he were to tell him right now, right here in the middle of the Chunin exams as the sudden death rounds are happening.
Would the exams be paused because of him?
Would his clan get involved, would they force him to mate Neji anyway and kill his ninja career before it could ever get started?
Would he lose his chance to become a Chunin if everyone knew the full truth of the mark on his hand?
He wouldn’t be able to handle it if everyone had their futures put on hold because he was too slow to stop Neji from putting that mark on him in the first place. He wouldn’t be able to handle it if this was his final chance at becoming a Chunin and he failed at it. He certainly could not take it if his clan got involved with this issue, that’d be the worst case scenario for himself.
As much as he’d love to tell his sensei, he can’t, “There’s nothing wrong, sensei. I was worried over Ino, that’s all! You know what Iruka sensei said, alphas and betas aren’t above marking omegas during exams or missions when they’re still Genin.”
His smile and pep were so forced it broke Guy’s heart to see it on his student.
He didn’t see what Neji did to make Lee slap his hand away before he stormed off in anger, but he did see enough to know Neji was making the omegas go on edge and become hostile towards him. He doesn’t know the full story just yet. All he knows it has something to do with Neji.
It makes him worry because alpha on omega bullying is so prominent amongst Genin that it makes a lot of them leave the shinobi life after the pressure from society and their clans get to be too much. He doesn’t want that to happen to Lee; the kid is like a son to him—a son who has a horrible clan that would give him away to the richest alpha interested if they could…
“Lee, if you’re being bullied, you can tell your sensei or anyone else here.” Kakashi inserts himself here, finding himself to feel bad for the omega who is clearly struggling with whatever it is that is weighing him down, “Sexist bullying and intimidation is not allowed amongst students anymore, so if someone is bothering you, we can remove them from the exams immediately and disqualify them from ever becoming a ninja.”
That sounds like such a great idea, but Neji is a Hyuuga and if he wanted, he could go to his clan about the mark. He knows they would side with him no matter what and make him mate him so they could get their hands on the Hyuuga’s wealth and prestige.
“No, it’s not that.” it isn’t in his eyes, at least, but he could be wrong…maybe he should ask Ino, she knows all about that stuff, “I’m worried over my fellow omegas, that’s all!”
“You don’t need to lie or cover for anyone. You will still be allowed to be a shinobi no matter who you turn in.” Guy sensei tries, but all it does is remind Lee that in his case, it isn’t so.
If anyone in his clan ever knew about this mark…they’d be making arrangements for him to mate Neji on the spot. His ninja career would be ended and he’d never get his chance to live up to his dreams.
“I know, but sensei…I’m not facing any bullying or intimidation of any sorts. I get along well with my teammates—”
“You slapped Neji’s hand away. Tell me about that, then, if you do get along with them as well as you claim.”
“It was all misunderstanding! He acted disrespectful towards me so I stood up for myself in the wrong way. I promise it won’t happen again, sensei. I’ll try to be better.”
The thing is, Guy cannot even argue against that. Neji does act disrespectful towards Lee and he’s never been one to mince his harsh critical words around him either. While they may be able to get along just fine during a mission or a task where they need to act as a team, there are times where Neji isn’t as kind to Lee as Guy would like him to be.
It’s perfectly reasonable to believe this is another squabble that started when Neji made some sexist comment about omegas not being fit to be ninjas and Lee snapping at him by slapping his hand away, since it has happened so much in the past.
While he wants to believe Lee, he’s not sure he can and that kills him on the inside as much as the idea of his sweetest student being harassed, intimidated, or treated poorly in general by any alpha or beta here for his secondary gender.
“Don’t promise me that…there’s nothing wrong with standing up for yourself to him. You don’t need to set aside your feelings for his sake, Lee. You’re too good of a kid to have to tolerate the sort of disrespect I’ve seen him dish out on you for no reason at times.”
In response to his silence, Guy makes him an offer he believes he won’t refuse, “Why don’t we watch the battles together? I bet there’s something I can teach you from all of this that would greatly benefit your training and your own fight when it comes up!”
“I don’t know sensei, I was going to check on Ino and maybe speak to Naruto—”
“Ino’s out cold and Naruto is too busy cheering on the laziest alpha in his generation to really care. Spending time with your sensei couldn’t kill you.” Kakashi interjects yet again, but not without an appreciative glance thrown in his direction from Guy.
Kakashi knows Lee isn’t his student and it isn’t his place to intervene… That being said, it doesn’t change the fact that Lee’s behavior is worrying to himself since it caused Naruto to try to start a fight with Neji after one conversation and from what Guy has said about the kid, he’s generally the type to not let anything get him down. The fact that something is has him worried that it could be else going on…something worse than everyone here is prepared for that the kid is dealing with on his own, without any real support or anyone to turn to for help other than his fellow omegas who are children themselves—children who wouldn’t be able to properly help him at all.
“Alright, I guess we can for now.” he replies slowly while Naruto shouts, “You go, Shikamaru! Win this for your future mate!”
Shikamaru’s loud groan said it all, “Don’t call me that! It will only make more omegas interested in me and that’d be too much of a pain to deal with!”
Lee isn’t sure what to make of that response, but seeing Chouji and Shikamaru fight could be fun. At least it would get his mind off of his interrogation from Guy sensei.
At the same time, all Guy and Kakashi can do is hope Lee’s match is with Naruto. Because whatever is going on with the kid, it has to be bad and alpha or beta related to make him act like this.