Lee
Waking up against a wall at the place where Neji’s battle is commencing isn’t something Lee thought would happen to him in the exams. Waking up next to Gaara isn’t as strange as this in his eyes at least, having already done it in the hospital after the first time the exams were put on hiatus, “Gaara? What are you doing here? Is our battle put on hold?”
“No, our battle wasn’t put on hold. You passed out after your last attack and I was declared the winner.”
Lee is disappointed, just not for the reasons anyone would think he is, “Oh, I guess I should’ve seen that coming.”
The alpha beside him isn’t usually so tuned in to the emotions of others, yet in Lee’s case, he is, “You’re disappointed as well, aren’t you?”
“You’re disappointed with the outcome?”
“I am, but only because I have a feeling that other alpha—Neji—handed me my victory over you when I wanted nothing of the sort.”
“That really bothers you, doesn’t it? If it were someone from Konoha I’d been fighting, I highly doubt they would have cared about such things because a victory is a victory no matter what.”
Gaara shoots a glance at him then due to his own disbelief at what he heard, “They actually would?”
Lee doesn’t sugar coat it for him either, “Yeah, I’ve had plenty instances of that happening back when I was in the academy and on missions. Why does it bother you? It really shouldn’t.”
He’s right when he says this. It really shouldn’t bother him at all and yet here he is, being bothered by it. Gaara tries to explain it to Lee in a way he thinks is easy to understand, and if the omega doesn’t get it, then he’s leaving it to Temari or Kankuro to summarize it better than he can with far greater patience than he possesses, “You’re right, it shouldn’t bother me at all. A victory is a victory, but I was raised to believe that if an alpha needs another alpha to hand them a victory, then they aren’t a real alpha. I never believed it because I thought it was nonsense from my father…then I had a victory handed to me by the smug looking alpha and I’ve never been more humiliated in my lifetime.”
The omega beside him rejects this thought, “I would think losing to an omega or having to fight one as an alpha would be far worse. At least, that’s what my family tells me whenever we speak and they learn of how I defeat alphas and betas in battles. Those conversations are never pleasant because they’re only mad at me for winning against an alpha or beta and good, proper omegas don’t do that.”
Gaara gives him the most apathetic response possible to this tidbit of information, “You’re strange, but your clan is backward. To me, fighting an omega is no different from fighting an alpha or beta. If I were to ever lose to anyone, their gender wouldn’t make it more or less humiliating.”
He’s not lying when he says this. Man, woman, child, alpha, beta, omega…if he has to kill them, then he has no qualms against it. No one ever protected him in the past, so why should he care? Similarly, if he were to ever lose to any of the above, gender, age, or occupation wouldn’t make it more or less humiliating. The only humiliation for him would be found in how he lost as opposed to who his opponent is.
To him, hearing how Lee’s clan gets angry with him over defeating alphas and betas in battle because it ‘humiliates’ them to lose to an omega is incredibly strange. It leaves him wondering just how backward these Konoha clans are to be so stuck on gender to the point where they cannot think of anything else in a situation.
“That’s actually good to hear. I didn’t think there were any alphas or betas out there who think like you on this issue. I’ve encountered so many alphas and betas who act all offended or get madder when they learn when they’ve lost to an omega in battle. After a while, it gets depressing to see many people thinking like my clan does, but knowing you’re different makes me happy somehow.”
It’s a messed up thing to be happy about. Gaara won’t comment on it any further than this because if he does, then he won’t ever get his question answered, “Do you believe the Hyuuga alpha caused you to lose the battle against me?”
Lee looks at his hand—the one with Neji’s mark on it—sighing as he gives Gaara an answer he didn’t want to give him, “Please don’t be mad at Neji. All of it was my fault…I shouldn’t have delayed our match for as long as I did and now you’re paying the price for it. I’m sorry, I never intended for that to happen at all—“
“Quit apologizing for him and answer my question.” Lee is stopped by Gaara’s harsh growl, “I don’t know why you always apologize to me, I don’t know why you defend that alpha after all he’s done to you, but I want to at least know if he did something to steal my victory from me.”
It was a harsh thing to say to the omega and yet Gaara felt as though he needed to hear it at least once in his lifetime.
On Lee’s end, it felt like a harsh slap to the face. A sort of reality check he needed to hear so he could finally give Gaara the answer to his question, “All I remember is after I opened my first chakra gate, I felt this sort of tensing of my muscles all over that I tried to fight and the more I fought it, the worse it got until I was too worn out to stand or stay awake any longer. I do think Neji played a role in it because the mark on my hand started to hurt really bad and I know I wasn’t feeling tired or worn out during our battle before then.”
Gaara cannot stop himself from seething in the slightest bit to the news he’s hearing from the omega, “I see…so he did hand me my victory. Can you think of any reason why he would do such a thing?”
He truly is the strangest omega alive because he already is answering this with a rather personal answer, “It’s probably because my clan wants to speak to me after this is over. Hiashi contacted them about my condition after Guy sensei did all that he could to keep them in the dark about it.”
“They know about the mark then and what all happened to make the exams go on hiatus for the time it did.”
“Yes, they do.”
If he sounds resigned, it’s only because he is. He knows his clan well enough to know they will make him fight Neji right away so he can become his mate. Being mated to Neji was what they wanted for him ever since he made Genin and wound up in a team with him. Now they know he has a shot at being his mate, they’re going to do everything in their power to make him it.
He can already hear the scoldings, the insults to his person, and the pressure now. They already sounded angry in the letter he received from them. He can only imagine how much worse it will be in real life when he has to actually be by them again for the first time in a long time.
Oh well. He should’ve done more to deal with this in the first place instead of trying to deal with everything on his own for the sake of the alpha in his team. In the end, this is all on him, “It’s alright though, I think they may be happy in the end when they see the mark for themselves…I don’t know if they’ll allow me to put off the fight with Neji any longer, but I know I’ll be fine if Neji passes to the next round of the exams. That way I won’t have to worry about losing everything so soon.”
Gaara himself has nothing to add to this. He’s not particularly interested in the omega’s personal life, but his stupid jinchuuriki is already making a move for him that he doesn’t want to happen.
Much like the previous mark he left on Lee, his jinchuuriki acted of its own volition and struck the hand where Neji’s mark was. Lee only felt it as a mild burning sensation that led him to unwrap the bandages to check on it.
Upon the sight of the mark on his hand, he’s stuck wondering what happened to make it so…grey now, “The mark on my hand changed color! It used to be a pure lavender now it’s a greyed down lavender.”
Yep, Shukaku acted of its own free will again and once more, Gaara is stuck paying the price for it!
Neither one of them got a chance to comment on it any further. The battle between Neji and Hinata ended horribly, with far too many adults having to stop Neji from killing Hinata, and Sasuke having to stop Naruto from trying to attack Neji over it.
Lee didn’t know what happened, but he felt a bit relieved after hearing about Neji’s being declared the winner of the battle. At least this way, he will have some time to delay his fight with Neji that could end in him being mated to him.
Gaara, on the other hand, wasn’t looking forward to hearing about what the rules for the exams would be from here on out. He knows the others who passed—such as Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino—all believe he doesn’t deserve to be in the next round of the exams, while he knows his siblings believe he does. As for Neji…he’s not sure what he will do when he sees that alpha again.
After the battles are announced and they are told to train for a month, those who passed the exam are more than ready to head on out to start on this training.
It doesn’t stop Gaara from approaching that infuriating Hyuuga to demand some answers out of him, “You handed me a victory against the omega.”
Neji’s back had been to him due to the fact he was heading over to the door to the exit the building with his team. It didn’t stop him from being rather inconsiderate in his reply, “So what if I did? A victory is a victory, is it not?”
“It’s not when you emasculate me like that. Are you insinuating I am too weak to win on my own?”
“No, not at all. All I did was ensure Lee stayed away from you.”
Gaara really hopes this isn’t going where he thinks it is…
“I don’t want you anywhere near him for as long as I live.” Neji then looks over his shoulder, his byakugan heavy on him, “I handed you your victory, be grateful for it. I didn’t do it out of concern for you; I did it to prevent you from trying to leave another mark on him again. Despite what you claim, your actions show some interest in Lee and as a Hyuuga, I refuse to allow you to ever have him without a fight that ends in your demise.”
Gaara doesn’t bother talking to him about this any further. No matter what he says, Neji will keep wanting to hear what he wants to hear from him. All he can logically do is let him have this, “I couldn’t care less about any of this mating nonsense or whatever. All I care about is knowing if that is the only reason why you gave me the victory you did.”
He doesn’t bother to give Gaara any other answer outside of, “I did it for the reasons stated. I don’t want you near my future mate ever again and I couldn’t trust you to not mark him again, so I did what I had to do to preserve our future mating. Don’t act as though you would’ve been any different from me if you were in my position.”
“Why would you need to fear me getting close to him now? If you were so afraid of that, you would’ve done more to keep him away from me when he was at the hospital.”
Neji ceases his walking for a brief moment to better explain, “I see you aren’t getting it yet…I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but I suppose this is what I get for dealing with an alpha from another village.”
Gaara was stunned when he heard it from Neji himself, “Hiashi Hyuuga is the head of the main branch of my clan. He is the one who took it upon himself to better handle my situation with Lee. As such, in order to get Guy sensei out of this matter, he contacted Lee’s clan in a letter telling them of the mark I left on his hand and the one you left on him when describing why he was in the hospital as well as why the exams were put on hiatus. They weren’t happy in the slightest to see Lee keeping such big secrets from them, so they wrote him a letter that he just received early this morning telling him to meet with them, Hiashi, and myself today after the matches were done to speak about his future as my mate.”
Gaara is not bothered by this in the slightest bit.
“Before this month ends, Lee and I will be mated. Then he can end this ridiculous notion of being not only an omega shinobi, but one who makes it solely on taijutsu alone. He can start his life anew as my mate, living in luxury as he should’ve been this entire time, and being taken by someone such as myself so he won’t ever make the mistake of mating someone like you.”
Nope, not bothered.
Neji faces forward and keeps walking, allowing himself time to rue in his victory, “Not only did I humiliate you in front of everyone, I emasculated you in front of Lee all while showing him who he will one day belong to. Don’t be mistaken: you didn’t win, I did.”
As he walks further away after this is said, Kankuro had to hiss underneath his breath when approaching him, “That was harsh…you okay, Gaara?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Kankuro eyes him up and down, pointing slightly to his sand, “You seem a bit pissed off, that’s all. Look at what the sand is doing.”
The sand is creeping towards Neji as his angered pheromones begin to slowly fill the air, the scent of blood intensifying as it does so, “I’m not going to kill him now and jeopardize our mission any further. He got on my nerves a bit, that is all.”
Kankuro firmly believes ‘a bit’ is the understatement of the year. He won’t argue Gaara on it despite his own thoughts on the matter. He doesn’t want to be on his bad side, after all.
Though it doesn’t stop him from trying to make this tense situation lighter than it actually is, “I get it—you have a thing for the omega he was talking about, don’t you? You wanna be his mate someday and he’s standing in your way! Well don’t worry, I’ll teach you all I know about how to seduce a person and—”
“It’s nothing to do with that.” Gaara interrupts his brother, “I’m more mad that he emasculated me over something so petty than anything else. Besides, he can ramble on and on about mating the omega, it won’t happen at this rate.”
Kankuro is a bit suspicious of his confidence on the matter, “What has you saying that? You didn’t leave another mark on him, did you?”
He shrugged, admitting to his brother, “I didn’t leave another mark on him, but Shukaku did something to the mark left on him by the Hyuuga. I don’t know what all he did, but whatever it was, it had to be something pretty severe to alter the color of the mark to a grey tone.”
Kankuro doesn’t know what is going on here, but he knows if Gaara doesn’t know what fully happened there either, then it must mean something bad for the Hyuuga alpha.
Not that he would ever tell him this anyway. The guy’s a pompous ass and he deserves to lose all chances he has at mating the nice omega. After what he did to Gaara today, he’s pissed at him with a firm desire to do nothing more than to put him in place.
Lee gave a desperate gaze to his sensei, wanting nothing more than for this to not happen, "Do I really have to see them again? Can't you get me out this, Guy sensei?"
It killed Guy on the inside to tell him otherwise to the point where he felt like crying over the kid, "I'm afraid not, Lee."
He didn't mind leaving him alone with Gaara at the battle today. From the way Ino and Sakura were acting, he knew Neji was going too far during his fight with Hinata. He knew he'd be needed eventually to keep him in line, yet Gaara didn't do a thing to Lee the entire time he was unconscious. All he did was sit beside him, patiently waiting for him to wake up. It was commendable in his eyes since any other alpha would have taken advantage of Lee in the vulnerable state he was in. It really spoke highly of the character of the young man who he left to sit beside Lee while keeping a strong eye on him from over his shoulder.
In comparison, he does mind leaving Lee alone with his clan. He knows all too well what they are like...he knows what awaits his student when he's alone with them again.
His clan is strict, conservative, and verbally abusive towards the omegas in it, treating them as nothing more than second class citizens. While Lee never gave any indication of being physically abused, it always stunned him how he could make comments when on missions and people reacted negatively to Tenten's methods of waking him up with a happy go lucky, "It's okay, I can take a punch!" as though it were nothing serious. He's tried asking Lee about it only to be stone walled by the omega who never wished to speak much on his clan. Whatever details he has of them from Lee, they're few and far between. He knows of their views, he knows of their politics, and he knows they treat all omegas there harshly. Omegas are expected to live up to incredibly unrealistic standards of beauty, be quiet, compliant servants to alphas and betas in the clan, and most of all do all that they can to put the alphas and betas first in their lives. Lee has said numerous times in the past how lucky he was to have never met his clan's standard of beauty for if he had, he wouldn't have ever been allowed to join the academy. No, he would have mated off very young instead to someone far older than him.
The very idea of Lee, sweet innocent Lee, being mated young to someone far older than him was enough to make him ill. Thinking of him with his wide doe eyes full of life and joy being stripped bare of all of that by someone far older than him physically, verbally, and sexually abusing him made him nauseous. The fact such a thought never obtained such a reaction from his own parents has him wondering if they see Lee only as a ticket out of poverty and nothing else to be so flippant about who they would've mated him off to.
(Lee has always said the only requirements to mate him by his family's standard are wealth and prestige; as long as one comes from a wealthy, high class clan then they can mate him. This has always left Guy particularly convinced they don't love or care about him and never have to be as superficial as they are about the requirements. When asked if one needed to at least be kind in order to mate him, Lee stared at him blankly, giving him a slowly spoken response of, "...No. Does that matter in a mating relationship? Because no alpha or beta treats any omega kindly in my clan." This only left Guy deeper in his belief of Lee's clan.)
He wants nothing more than to protect him from his home, but Guy isn't his father and Lee isn't up for adoption. As such, there's nothing he can do to stop this, leaving him in a position of powerlessness he has never felt in his life.
"I wish you were my dad like how Iruka sensei is Naruto's. Then I wouldn't have to think about class or money or mating Neji even though I'm not ready to be mated..." Lee stares blankly ahead of him at the building where his family wants to have the meeting at, "Are you sure you can't come with me?"
"I'm sure I can't. This is something you'll have to face on your own, kid." he said to his student, his hands on his shoulders as he pulled him into a hug, "Don't worry, you'll do just fine in there! You're a strong young omega and you're only going to get stronger the harder you work. Don't let them get to you too much in there, okay?"
"I won't, sensei."
Sensing the tension in his body, Guy comes up with something to hopefully cheer him up, "Don't worry, after you come out of this, I'll be right here waiting for you. We can go get something to eat if you want or go anywhere you please! That will be fun, won't it?"
Lee gives a forced grin that leaves him wanting to take the omega far away from these awful people for all of eternity, "I know it will be. I won't let you down: I will go in there and come out of this without so much a scratch on me!"
As he enters the Hyuuga home, he swallows down his anxiety to face his family with a brave front. Meanwhile, Guy sticks true to his word: he's waiting for Lee the entire time until he comes out of there without so much a scratch on him.