Lee
Normally, he’d find Naruto annoying. Though because Lee is here, he makes it somewhat tolerable to be by the abnormally loud, unnecessarily cocky omega. He may have seen Tenten’s defeat coming, but watching Lee panic as he did over her felt a bit reassuring in an odd way, like Lee hasn’t come to hate omegas like that poisonous Yamanaka does. It also makes him feel that if he were to get hurt in the same way that Lee would come to his defense no matter what.
…He really shouldn’t be attracted to him when he acts like this, but then again, it’s all part of that loyalty to Lee he has found himself liking the longer they are on the same team together. Loyalty is very prized in omegas looking or wanting to mate a Hyuuga, almost as much as fertility and resilience.
What he couldn’t handle was the way the redhead across the room couldn’t remove his eyes from Lee and how oblivious he was being to it. He knows Lee is smarter and more in tuned with his surroundings than this, so why isn’t he doing anything about this person?
He knows it must be bad when Naruto—the densest of them all if he cannot notice Sasuke’s very obvious fondness of him—can remark out loud, “Whoa, that redhead guy sure is glaring at bushy brow! Does he have a thing against him or something? Why won’t he stop staring at him?”
“Who cares if he does or not. It won’t matter in the end. Fate doesn’t change for anyone, even him.”
This did catch Naruto off his guard, but he didn’t care because what he said is true: this guy is going to either die a horrible death or a quick one by Neji’s own hand.
Now, the animalistic side of Neji wants him to confront this guy, but the rational side of himself is calm for good reason: Lee’s mark, the one he gave him before all of this happened, will do away with this guy and soon enough, he may be out of sight, out of mind for good if he messes up once.
With Lee back up here, he sends a knowing smirk to the redhead across the room, not caring if he sees him or not.
He takes the omega’s hand, amused by the way redhead is looking at him with a blank stare for once in the entire exam, finally acknowledging him as Lee’s future mate for the first time since he’s been here.
Which is why when Lee’s name came up on the screen next to the name Gaara, he didn’t think much of it. If of anything, this was the sort of outcome he wanted right when he caught that creep staring at Lee.
This guy is going to be out of his hair now and that’s all that matters to Neji.
The moment Lee’s name is brought up on the screen, Naruto finds it strange that Neji walked away then and went back to where their senseis were. It’s enough to make him take Lee’s hand with a question that’s been burning on his mind ever since Neji last spoke to him, “Lee, are you sure you should be going out there? That redhead guy has been staring at you a lot and well…Iruka sensei did tell me that alphas or betas will be more likely to try to force a marking on an omega Genin in a time of battle or sparring during exams than anywhere else.”
Lee blinks to this and shrugs it off with a laugh, “Naruto, the only one who wanted to mark me was a creepy older guy! There’s no way a good looking young guy like him would ever want someone like me!”
“Yeah, but I bet you didn’t think that way about Neji and look what he did when he learned you were an omega!”
He looks at his fellow omega curiously, finding this sudden worry of alphas and betas to be strange, “I never heard of you being the type to distrust alphas and betas…didn’t you once claim we were all equals now and the sexist mindset is out of date?”
“It is, and I still think it is—at least, I’d like to think it is…” Naruto isn’t sure how to properly word how much he’s forcing himself to set aside to avoid the harsh crash of reality that sexism is still a problem omegas face to this day. He honestly hasn’t begun to process it yet or let it sink in. He’s kept himself in battle mode this entire time and as such, has repressed all emotions relating the eroding of his views in the deepest corners of his mind for now, thinking he can talk about it to Iruka sensei after this is all over to begin to make sense of it.
He does do his best to give Lee a very, very watered down summary of what he has been repressing this entire time, “Look, I don’t know what to think anymore, okay? I didn’t think any young alpha like Neji would hold sexist views of omegas like that or go as far as to mark a person like they’re property and then treat them like it afterwards. I didn’t think sexism was a problem among the current generation of alphas and betas, but maybe I was wrong on that. Maybe Ino was right and it’s still a problem that we have to face. I don’t know anymore. All I know is, I don’t think you should take this match because we don’t know what that guy’s intentions are.”
Lee has a few problems with this, one of them being, “We don’t know if he is an alpha, we don’t know if he would be the type to force a mating on someone or not…and we don’t know for fact if he was staring at me this whole time or not. Just because he might have been staring at me doesn’t mean he’ll automatically do anything bad to me.”
“Dammit, bushy brows! You have to stop letting your bad opinion of yourself cloud your judgment here!” Naruto snapped, “If Neji saw it and I saw it, then I don’t know why you can’t! Also, what about that mark? What will you do then if he tries to mark you by force, just let him die an awful death or something?”
“No, I will forfeit the battle because I refuse to win by Neji’s means.”
Naruto’s outrage and frustration cools down in response to this, “What? Why?”
“Like I told you, I don’t want to win by Neji’s means. I want to win by my own merit and skill, not because of a mark on my hand from Neji. I will do the right thing before the battle and show this mark to my opponent so he understands what he is getting into, so he can avoid a horrible fate. If he’s not going to believe me on it, then I will forfeit the battle all together and try again.”
He’s amazed that Lee came up with this out of seemingly nowhere, especially given how distressed and stressed he has been for so much of the time he’s been here, “Lee, you came up with that? When?”
“When we were watching Tenten fight and I realized that even if I don’t get to tell Guy sensei today of this mark on my hand because of Neji, then I at least want to tell my opponent before battle. I think that’s what has been bothering me most about Neji’s secrecy around this mark. I like to win by my own merit and skills. Knowing three people—if not more—died because I wasn’t able to warn them about this mark and its effects…it feels like I was complicit in them dying from a horrible death no one deserves, even if I didn’t know about it at first. Because of that, I can’t help but feel like I cheated somehow by not knowing or telling them and that bothers me more than you know.”
Lee then gets on the rail and tells him with a smile on his face and a thumbs up sign, “Don’t worry, I’ll be just fine, Naruto! If I’m blunt and honest with him everything will be fine!”
Naruto hopes so but with everything going on, he’s not too sure if it will be or not.
In the meantime, Lee got on the ground and approached Gaara, telling him right to his face the instant he saw him, “Gaara, as your opponent, I feel the need to tell you something you should know before pursuing a battle with me.”
Gaara doesn’t get where this is going, or why the omega is actually prettier awake than asleep, but he doesn’t care. Whatever it is the omega the jinchuuriki wants him to mate wants to tell him, he’s positive it won’t change anything in battle. Like these other Konoha nin, he’s confident in believing he’ll be someone he can easily defeat.
“What is it, then?” he watches as the omega unwraps the bandages on his hands, showing him how bruised, cut up, and damaged the overall skin on his hands were before finding a lavender colored mark on his skin, a clan name that Gaara didn’t recognize off the bat, “You’re showing me how damaged your hand is? Why? What good would that do you?”
“No, it’s this mark on my hand.” Lee explains it to him as calmly as he can without getting the alpha across from him worked up too much over it, “My teammate is Neji Hyuuga and he mistook me for a beta for the longest time because of my scent. I came out as an omega to him right before the Chunin exams because I thought I had done enough to earn his respect and prove his sexist views of omegas wrong, but…well…that didn’t happen. Instead, he left this mark on my hand and—”
“And what? You’re supposed to mate him now or something? What does that have to do with the battle?”
Lee looks to the floor in a brief moment before shaking his head, “No, this mark’s rules are simple: if I win in a battle against Neji where I’ve given it everything I’ve got, then it will go away. If I lose to Neji in a battle where I’ve given it everything I’ve got, then it will leave Neji’s mark on my scent glands, making me his mate. It’s not these rules to getting rid of the mark that matter, it’s what it does to other alphas and betas you should know about.”
Now Gaara’s curious…as well as confused because that alpha has to be incredibly undesirable to resort to such lows to get a mate, “You see, if you try to mark me by force or rape me, you will die a horrible death where you and everyone who tries to save you will be mummified away before withering away into dust. If you show romantic interest in me, you will die a horrible death from an incurable illness.”
Okay, he’s not getting this at all: “Why would you warn me of this? Don’t you want me to die?”
“No, not at all! I don’t want you to die like that, it’d be a horrible way to go and no one deserves it in my eyes!” the omega is nothing but sincere (or so his jinchuuriki whispers in his ear) when he stresses it to him, “I don’t want you to die. I don’t want you to suffer like others have because of my ignorance to what this mark actually does.”
“Why? I’m an enemy in battle; you should be wanting me to mark you or show romantic interest in you so I can die a horrible death.”
“Neji may want that for you, but I don’t! You don’t deserve a fate like that, no one does, and I think it’d be wrong of me to fight you when I know what could happen if you didn’t know what this mark does.” once more, with sincerity in his voice and eyes, he says, “I want to win on my own merit and skills, not by Neji’s hand. I cannot accept a victory from you if I win because of a mark he gave me because then it’s not my own and I won’t accept it.”
Gaara is wide eyed to this, not used to people not wanting to kill him under any and all means necessary. Even now, it’s impossible to believe this omega is actually being this way out of the kindness of his heart and earnestness in his own drive to win by his own merit.
“…No, there’s no way you actually want to protect me from dying an awful death… There’s no way…” he mutters low, with Lee barely being able to capture what he’s saying.
He tried to reach out to the sand ninja, commenting as his blood scented sand comes out to surround him in a small circle on the ground, “Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?”
Gaara shakes his head, the sand moving as he forced out, “How could you want to protect me? Why would you want to prevent me from dying?”
“…You’re the same guy who spoke to me in the hall that one time, right? You’re also the same guy with the strange chakra that was in the room where I went to sleep away from Neji and everything bothering me.” he doesn’t get what this has to do with anything, but then the omega continues talking, “You could have hurt me at any given chance and you didn’t. You could have tried to mark me by force or do who knows what else to me at any given point in time and you didn’t. I was a vulnerable omega at times around you, yet you did nothing to hurt me or take advantage of me. I don’t know you, but you can’t be that bad of a person if you can respect me enough to not use my secondary gender against me.”
This was all it took for Gaara to have a breakdown as far too many memories came flooding back in his mind, seeping into his head, reminding him of his very cruel existence—
On Lee’s end, he had already wrapped up his hand and he was concerned because he didn’t think Gaara would take the news or his reasoning this badly.
“Gaara, are you okay? Is there something you need?” his opponent is panicking so severely, it has him wondering, “Should I forfeit? I don’t want to win by default—”
He didn’t know that his consideration is making things worse for Gaara. He doesn’t know the more considerate he is, the worse it becomes for the alpha who wants nothing more than to make all of this go away.
That being said, it didn’t stop his jinchuuriki from acting out.
In the midst of his breakdown, his jinchuuriki made the first move it couldn’t get Gaara to do: make a move on Lee to counter whatever it is this Neji person has done.
His jinhcuuriki is a jealous creature and the idea of losing such a viable mate with the perfect body for birthing pups didn’t sit well with them—as such, a move was made, one that Gaara probably won’t like but will happen regardless of what he thinks or has to say on the matter.
Before anyone else could react to Gaara’s breakdown, Lee shouted as a beam of sand came over to mark the back of his other hand.
When the sand was gone, the omega fainted from the rush of two conflicting chakras from two conflicting marks fighting for dominance over him.
At that moment, Neji came on the battlefield to collect Lee but it wasn’t without protest, “What’re you doing, Neji!”
He glared at the insolent blonde omega, not budging on his stance as he took Lee out of the battle area, “I’m taking Lee out of here and to a medic. How do I know this alpha here didn’t do anything to him that could get him killed?”
“Yeah right, I know better than to trust you! If you could leave a mark on his hand that kills all competition interested in him, then you are messed up enough to mark him by force in his sleep!”
Guy’s glare is firm on Neji when he gets back up to the viewing area, “Naruto, how did you know of this mark?”
“Bushy brow told Ino and me all about it.” Naruto said but it wasn’t met with pure acceptance, “Why didn’t you tell me about it sooner? Lee is like a son to me, you can’t keep secrets like this from me!”
He feels bad, he really does, but, “He didn’t want anyone to know and I promised him I wouldn’t tell, so I didn’t. I’m sorry I didn’t, but he was so stressed and everything happened so fast—I didn’t know what else to do.”
It’s at this moment where Guy remembers that despite their choice of career, these are still kids. These kids never would have known how to properly handle such a complex situation and from the looks of it, they did the best they could under such stressful circumstances.
He can’t fault them for it, though. They are Genin and they still have a lot to learn about life and the shinobi way.
“No, Naruto, it’s okay. You did what was best for Lee in the moment by respecting his wishes like a good friend would.” his gaze is firm on Neji as he goes on, “I bet it wasn’t any easier with Neji hanging around you three, causing problems—I shouldn’t have been so distracted by the battles. I should have done more to step in and stop the fighting as opposed to thinking it was something small and petty you kids could have sorted out on your own. For that, I am sorry.”
He went over to Neji then, being blunt in his orders, “Unwrap his hands, Neji. I need to see this mark for myself and whatever it is the sand guy did.”
He did just that and one hand was a lavender mark clearly from Neji, while on the other was a blood red mark with Gaara’s name on it.
Kakashi is by Guy’s side suddenly, looking over his shoulder and giving him the grim prognosis no one wants to hear, “Guy…these marks on his hands…this isn’t a good sign. The chakras are clearly fighting a waging war within his body. He needs to see a medic right away to at least ease the inner fighting, but the fact this comes from a foreign village isn’t good. You know what will happen when we learn more about these marks.”
“I know, but if has to be done, then so be it.”
Naruto is asking when overhearing this, “What’s going on? What has to happen?”
“Gaara is from a foreign village, a village that at times has been hostile to our own. Because of the fact he marked an omega from our village, there are diplomacy issues that can arise from this. If not handled carefully, a war could break out.”
Naruto didn’t get what was going on—that is, until Kakashi announced, “With Orochimaru coming here and infiltrating our exams, combined with the marks on Lee’s hands, the Chunin exams may be forced to go on hiatus until we get these issues sorted out. We won’t know until the hokage announces it, but don’t be disappointed if it happens.”
It’s easy to want to be mad or shocked, but at the moment, Naruto is simply tired after everything that’s gone on.
All he wants is for today to be over with already so he can go home and eat some ramen to clear his mind from everything that he’s seen and heard today.