Naruto
“No, I won’t let that happen!”
The nurse gave him an imploring look, hoping he’d listen if he just listened to her side of things, “His clan needs to be notified of what happened here. He has two different marks on his hands from two different alphas—one who’s from a hostile foreign village on top of all of that! We cannot take this situation too lightly, so please just let me—”
“No, I’m not letting that happen.” Guy stood his ground, refusing to back down in a moment Kakashi found to be perfectly admirable.
If he were in his shoes he would be fighting equally as hard with the medical staff. He wouldn’t be as nice about it though and his angered pheromones would have slipped out past his façade of calm, but nonetheless, he would be fighting for Lee as hard as Guy is at the moment if he were in his position.
“But you should consider—”
“I already told you I won’t and no argument from you is going to change my mind.” Guy doesn’t mince words, his usual upbeat quality to his voice gone when speaking in all seriousness, “Lee comes from a very strict, conservative clan that is poor, combine this with their conservatism and all you have is a recipe for greed. They don’t see Lee as a person solely because he is an omega; they only see him as a failure for not living up to society’s beauty standards—a failure with potential to make them money should he stand a chance of being mated to Neji.”
Kakashi cannot blame him for being shorter than usual, for trying his best to remain calm when he knows all he wants to do is wring both of those alpha boys’ necks for what they did to Lee. He is amazed he is doing so well under the pressure of the situation being thrust upon him, but he has carried himself very well here to the point where Kakashi couldn’t deny his awe at how well he is handling all of this.
“That’s no reason to not tell them.”
“It is a reason to not tell them! Don’t you understand? If you tell his clan about this, they will turn this into a bidding war against Lee’s will and whichever alpha is the richest is the one who will get to mate him. They will go out of their way to invent a dowry on the spot to get as much money as they can out of Lee’s mating and then they’ll expect him to go through with it, even if he doesn’t want to.” he doesn’t waver when meeting the nurse’s gaze, making it clear to her, “Lee is a good kid, but he’s been taught to put himself and his wishes last in all situations. I’ve been trying all that I can to break him free from that mindset of putting an alpha or beta’s feelings, wishes, and well being above his own, but he still has that tendency ingrained into him. If you dare tell his clan about this, I will step in myself and I will do whatever it takes for Lee to have a shot at the dream he has always had.”
She could sense his seriousness—hell, Kakashi could without trying—and as such, acted accordingly in response to the situation at hand. She took a deep breath, allowed herself a moment to process all that she’s heard, and eventually ended up giving him the answer he had been hoping for: “Fine, I won’t inform them, but it will be your duty to tell them before he gets marked by one of those alphas. With the way those chakras are fighting in his body, I don’t think he’ll be waking up anytime soon.”
“I know Lee; he wouldn’t let this take him down that easily—”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” she cuts him off, making Kakashi’s interest pique when her brows furrow and her gaze falls to the clipboard in her hand, “You said he was raised to prioritize alphas above himself, correct? Well, that’s what happening in his body right now. He’s using his chakra not to protect himself but to protect the foreign chakras from attacking each other. Because of this, he’s constantly wearing himself out, meaning he won’t be waking up any time soon, not until we can restrain the foreign chakras within him.”
Guy frowns and Kakashi offers, “Can I use a curse sealing jutsu on him? Would that work in this situation?”
“The problem is, it’s not a curse on his hands. What he has on his hands are basic intention marks. They were given to him with the intention to mate him one day by these alphas. The doctor is doing her best right now to handle this, but we don’t know how long it will be until he wakes up.”
“I see…” Guy whispers in response, his demeanor appearing to be down for a brief moment before he announces out of what feels like nowhere, “No point in getting upset over it now! Lee will need me there when he wakes up and when he does, I will have his favorite things here for him.”
As he heads on out, Kakashi follows him, wondering if he really is okay or not. Appearances can be deceiving, especially with Guy.
“You seem to be handling this very well. If I were you, I’d be wrestling the urge to punch Neji too much to properly handle everything going on with Lee.”
Guy shrugs it off—taking in the fresh air when they were outside—allowing him to know that, “I am wrestling with that urge, but every time I think about it, I remember how I failed Lee…and I lose that urge every single time my own mistakes are played in my mind like a constant reel.”
Kakashi finds this hard to believe for one reason only, “What mistake could you have made there? You couldn’t have known Neji would have done what he did and Tenten should have told you everything going on immediately instead of letting this affect him however he pleases.”
Guy shakes his head, holding his hand up to him, “No, Tenten did what Lee requested her to do. She isn’t in the wrong here; all she did was respect his wishes as a teammate instead of ignoring his request as though he were some helpless omega needing to be saved.”
“That aside, what else could you have done?”
“I was the one who told Lee what to do in the first place. I told him to come out to Neji as an omega because I thought he had done enough to earn his respect—hell, I gave him the confidence to go forward with it! It was the stupidest idea I ever had. I should’ve paid more attention to how Neji treated Lee, I should’ve noticed all of the signs of attraction he had for him…I should have done more to help Lee in his goal of coming out as an omega to Neji. Instead, I failed him, and that’s all on me.”
Kakashi doesn’t know what else to tell him. In his eyes, Guy did nothing wrong. Neji appears to be the type to be subtle about things, so maybe he would be more likely to be able to hide his intentions and affections better than the average Genin, even Chunin.
He was about to point this out to him when he heard someone else speaking up, “Guy? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, Iruka!” Guy flashes him a smile, making Kakashi wonder just when the omega decided to come around here and why, “I’m just about to get some of Lee’s favorite things for him… When he wakes up, he’s going to be in a world of emotional turmoil, and I want to lessen the blow for him.”
“That’s so generous of you.” Iruka smiles so easily around Guy and he doesn’t get why, really. What is there about the green clad man that could be good enough for him to get a smile out of him when he can’t get so much as a laugh is beyond him, “You really are a good man, Guy. I’m amazed you’re still single.”
Guy clicks his tongue, explaining as he heads over to a small store, “When you’re catnip for betas and omegas everywhere, it can make an alpha a bit picky. Weeding out the ones genuinely interested in me for who I am as opposed to my body is the most difficult task of all and all the time it takes is enough for me to remain single as often as I am.”
“That is rather unfortunate… To think, you could have someone interested in you right in front of you and never see it because of your own guard.”
…Guy?
Iruka has a thing for Guy? The Might Guy?
Why him? Why not Kakashi himself? Why would he choose someone like him over Kakashi?
These questions are going to keep him up at nights whether he wants them to or not.
“I suppose that could be a downside, but oh well! Love can take a backseat for the time being. I need to focus on Lee now.”
Iruka follows him, commenting, “I can help if you need me to. I do need to get Naruto more ramen; you’d be amazed at how much ramen we can through in a week because of him.”
Guy grins, doing all that he can to hide the worry for Lee, but then Kakashi has a feeling Iruka must know this as well if he can spot it out from anywhere, “Great! I’m amazed you don’t have any plans yet.”
“Well, I do, but Naruto is out of ramen, and I don’t want to leave him hungry.”
Kakashi isn’t commenting, but he is watching from a safe distance, listening, taking in the scene happening in front of him…
It horrifies him to think Iruka could actually be attracted to the Might Guy of all people on this great green earth.
“You finally have plans for tonight? This is great, Iruka! If you need to hurry, don’t feel burdened to stay with me and hurry home with the ramen.” Guy cheers to Iruka’s dismay, “No, it’s okay! My plans are flexible; I can work something in.”
(Iruka does mean this; his plans are flexible and if Guy would like to go somewhere alone with him, even for one night only, he wouldn’t protest against it.)
“No, I could never take you away from your plans!” the green clad alpha insists to him, which Kakashi is grateful for seeing as how he’s made it pretty clear that he is interested in Iruka and has been for years now.
“No, Guy, it’s alright, I truly do not mind! I’d love to help you with Lee…Naruto told me a brief summary of what happened today and I am so sorry that those alphas had the nerve to do that to him.” Iruka goes on to say, “As the only omega Chunin, I remember what those exams were like for omegas like me. It was horrible and I’d never wish what I saw then on anyone, especially a boy as sweet as Lee.”
He pauses in all movement as he thinks about it more, wiping a small tear from his eye when he spoke, “…He really is a sweet kid, and a good natured one too. He’s far too considerate of the alphas and betas around him, and that’s what is doing him in right now. I need to do more to help break free of that conservative, traditional mindset so he can learn to put himself first for once instead of denying himself everything good in his life.”
“Guy, stop. You’ve already done so much for Lee and I find it to be extremely admirable. I know I would have liked it if I had been as lucky as to have such a considerate, strong, and handsome sensei by my side when I was starting out.”
He. Just. Called. Him. Handsome.
Iruka just called Guy handsome—and he already feels as though his world is falling apart.
He almost intervenes when Guy stops him, “Thank you for the praise, but I didn’t do enough for Lee and now he’s in the mess he is in because of my lack of guidance regarding this issue.”
The omega Chunin is about to argue with him when he hears it from the green man himself, “Oh well, no point in arguing about what’s done! All we can do now is get Lee all of his favorite things to make this somewhat better for him!”
“Tell me what it is you need and I will get it for him.”
“Excellent, now let’s start with the snacks because I know Lee will be hungry when he wakes up!”
Kakashi doesn’t understand. Every fiber of his being cannot allow him to grasp this.
How can Iruka like Guy but not him? He cannot grasp this, he cannot understand…when did this happen? How? Why? It literally makes no sense.
Maybe Naruto will know? Yeah, he would; he lives with Iruka after all. Surely he would know something…wouldn’t he?
He’ll find out when he pays his student a visit later on tonight when Iruka’s gone with whatever plans it is he is going to be attending to.
When Iruka was gone, Naruto had felt free as a bird.
Then he heard a knock on the door right when he had his ramen, which was annoying. At first, he was going to ignore it, but the knocking wouldn’t stop so he felt annoyed enough to answer it in the utmost short, grumpiest way possible, “Alright, quit your racket! What do you want, can’t you see I’m trying to enjoy my ramen here!”
He pauses when he sees who it is standing in front of him, “Oh…wait…what? Kakashi sensei, what are you doing here? Are you here to steal my ramen because something happened to your stove again? Because I’m not giving you my ramen for anything!”
“Hello Naruto, I’ve missed you too.” Kakashi looks around the apartment to be sure Iruka isn’t around when he begins his interrogation of Naruto, “Do you mind if I come in, Naruto?”
“Sure, why not?”
Kakashi uses this to come in right away and make himself at home, “So, tell me, have you ever heard Iruka mentioning anything about Might Guy to you?”
Naruto pauses, humming as he thinks of the answer to give Kakashi regarding the strange question, “He’s never told me much except for that Might Guy is the only Jounin he’d ever date, and that he thinks he’s a great person because he truly cares for his students and he’s been amazing to Lee.”
“Really now? He said that to you?”
“Yeah, he used to tell me that he wished I would end up with a sensei like him because he’d be a great teacher for me to have.”
Well if Kakashi doesn’t feel the least bit slighted about now…
“Okay, I get it. He thinks Guy is…perfect…somehow. Where is he, by the way? I was wanting to talk to him about something important.”
“Oh, he’s out on a date right now with some Chunin named Izumo.”
Now that’s the extra insult to injury that he cannot get over.
Seeing Iruka crushing on Guy was hard enough to swallow, but at least Guy is a respectable Jounin struggling with the situation he’s facing with Lee. Izumo is nothing more than an errand runner for the hokage, not someone struggling with the same situation Guy is in!
(At least this is how Kakashi sees him as being anyway.)
Normally, he would be doing all that he can to track them down and sabotage their date.
However, having seen Iruka fawning all over Guy today has him realizing that if he wants the same fawning from the omega then he needs to do all that he can to do what Guy does best: treat his students as though they are his own children.
“…Naruto, would you mind if I stayed with you while Iruka is gone?”
Naruto blinks to this, not liking where this is going or what his sensei is implying here, “I dunno…I don’t wanna be stuck with some pervert reading his porn all night long, eating the rest of my ramen, and doing nothing with me the entire time.”
Kakashi looks at him with a raised brow, “I don’t intend to do such a thing.”
“Like I can trust that! You’re always late and you’re always reading your smut books, what else can I think? Can’t you do this stuff alone at your place instead of bothering me?”
Naruto is starting to test his patience here, but that’s okay. Kakashi knows of something he can do to obtain the young omega’s favor, “You know, we could be training right about now.”
The moment his student pauses, he feels a sense of pride filling himself at his wide eyed reaction, “You mean it? You’ll actually train me?”
“Of course I will. Why wouldn’t I? Now would be the perfect time, wouldn’t it?”
A wide grin appears on his face as he agrees with the most enthusiasm he’s seen yet in his student, “It would be now that you mention it! Come on Kakashi sensei, let’s go train!”
“Nuh uh, not until you finish your ramen.”
Naruto grumbles and sighs, “Oh, alright, I’ll finish my ramen…but you better train me!”
Kakashi is smiling from behind his mask, commenting, “It’s okay, I will train you, I promise.”
As he heads back to the table where he is eating his ramen, Kakashi is wishing this plan will work and help him get into Iruka’s good graces. Maybe doing something different than what he’s done in the past when he did date other alphas (scare them away in as many different ways possible) will work this time around and he will finally get him to see he’s a decent human being underneath it all.
“Ah, Kakashi sensei? Your porn book is showing from your pocket again.”
Okay, he has work to do on himself, but who doesn’t?
The point is, he’s good enough for Iruka and tonight he will show he can be just as good with kids as Guy is.