Lee
It’s so weird to see his family for the first time ever since he made Genin. Their disapproval is already heavy on their faces, with his mother’s first words to him in over a year being, “Your hair is short. Mind telling me why that is?”
He has to fight the urge to be proper in front of his beta mother. Proper meaning no eye contact unless if ordered to and holding himself in a bow until ordered to kneel, “I cut it because I figured long hair wouldn’t make me beautiful anyway and I didn’t like it on me.”
He stood tall, no bowing, with his eyes meeting hers and it was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do in his life.
Her tone is dismissive yet her eyes are full of wrathful judgement for the very way he is speaking to her, “Oh, how interesting. Mind telling me why you are wearing that jumpsuit?”
“Because Guy sensei gave it to me. He said it would help with my training and it has. It doesn’t get in the way like my old outfit did and I can move with much greater ease than before.”
The snort he hears is as dismissive as her last reply had been. The only difference is this time, it’s met with a rebuking of him for wearing what he wants, “Wearing something that tight and revealing is a sure way to make yourself a target of rapists, don’t you think? Ever thought of showing some modesty? How are alphas and betas supposed to control their primal urges around you when you’re out there tempting them like this?”
His father isn’t saying anything. Then again, his father wasn’t ever the one who had equal say in the relationship. All he could do was nod and hold his tongue because his mother had come from a family with slightly better social standing and more wealth than his (though her family was on the lower middle class end, which was not much better than his but still better enough to mate her). If they wanted her family to keep supporting them, he’d have to be submissive and let her take the reigns on all things.
This is not to say his father is any better than his mother. On the contrary, his mother is vocal and extreme whereas his father is a silent enabler of everything she says and does. When alone with him, he hears much of the same, “Your mother may have gotten a bit too intense, but she was right…” before hearing how his mother is simply following her and his father’s clans’ traditions, how he should be happy and grateful to have such a ‘good mother who loves him very much’.
Sometimes Lee thinks if his mother were to ever die or find some way to leave him, his father would become just like her towards him but maybe a bit softer spoken with less harsh wording to make it appear as though he’s better when he’s not.
“Mother, I am not attractive enough for any alpha or beta to want me. They don’t even know I am an omega most of the time—most people mistake me for a beta because of my scent and most people don’t find me attractive.” Lee would defend himself a bit here for the first time ever in front of his mother, “Besides, this suit isn’t revealing. Most people don’t look at me and think of me in a sexual light in this. All they see is a student of Guy sensei, nothing more. Plenty of alphas and betas have controlled themselves around me in this in the past, I don’t see why they can’t now.”
“You can say this even though some foreign alpha left a mark on your hand after being exposed to you in such revealing attire? Have you no respect for yourself or your future mate?”
“That was a mistake on Gaara’s end! If he wanted to mate me, he would have. He’s very blunt like that, which you would know if you got to know him like I have.” he does his best to not tremble in front of her, to not grovel for her forgiveness by kneeling down and begging for it, “I do have respect for myself. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be standing up for myself now and I wouldn’t be telling you all of this and I certainly would not be telling you I am not ready to be mated to anyone.”
Her eyes narrow and Lee is left to feel as though he’s incurred her wrath, which is the last thing he ever wanted to do in this visit.
She stood up from her position and walked up to him, immediately backhanding him when she got close enough. She turned around after this to smile at Hiashi and bow, “I am so sorry, Lord Hiashi. It seems my son is speaking out of turn again—omegas are not to challenge alphas and betas of authority in our clan. It seems being away from home made him a tad bit too rebellious and whorish for it to ever be acceptable. If it would please you, he could live with us for a while before Neji mates him. You know, to relearn how to be proper to his mate.”
Hiashi wasn’t the one who spoke in this instance. Instead, it is Neji who rejects this, “That won’t be necessary. After Lee and I are mates, he will have to learn how to be proper by Hyuuga standards, not yours. I’d rather he not be anywhere away from myself or my clan for the time being.”
“Of course, who am I to stop you from being together as one?” she laughs whereas Lee can tell she is bubbling on the inside with enough rage to tear down a whole village.
“Right. Now, Lee, take off the bandage on the hand where Neji left his mark on you.” Hiashi ordered him and the omega did as he was told, seeing no point in starting conflict with this man when his family was already enraged with him.
The reaction was not what he had been expecting.
Neji immediately stood up from his spot, his anger barely contained as he gave a momentary glare to the mark on his hand followed by a harsh question to Lee, “What happened? The mark was never this grayish color in the past. Did that other alpha do something with his sand when I wasn’t looking?”
Lee didn’t want Gaara to get in trouble with him yet all the same, lying would only make it worse because then Neji would believe Gaara is forcing him to lie for him and he doesn’t need that, “He did, but I don’t think he meant to. I think he can’t control his sand at times and that’s why things happen when he doesn’t want them to.”
Neji seethed, not buying it for one moment, “Lee, that is the most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard from anyone, let alone you. Stop defending him and tell me this now—does he or does he not have any intention to mate you?”
“He has none! He would’ve told me if he did! Gaara’s not exactly subtle like you are, Neji.”
“An alpha is an alpha! This is the second time he’s interfered with our mating process; he clearly wants to mate you if he can do all that he can to keep me from being with you.”
He was about to challenge this when Hiashi spoke up, his eyes showing he had been using his byakugan to take a closer look at his hand, “Neji, calm down. The mark is not gone, but it is neutralized by the presence of another chakra that managed to weave itself into it.”
“What?”
“Whoever neutralized the mark is very skilled and powerful. While it’s not gone, certain things have changed. For example, the chakra point on the hand that connects to the major one on his scent glands no longer has your chakra weaving between them to enable you to make him your mate should he lose to you in battle. The other chakra point you weaved your chakra in that connected to other major points in his body has been severed as well, which means you can no longer make him bend to your will.”
Hiashi’s explanation is delivered with a certain nonchalance which only serves to make Neji angrier about the whole issue somehow, “Is there any benefit to my mark left?”
“The only benefit this mark has to you is one which benefits Lee as well; otherwise, all other benefits that only benefitted you are all gone.” Lee would learn what this is and be fine with it after hearing him tell them what it is, “There is only one thread of your chakra left on his chakra points. This one connects from his hand to the second major point on his scent glands. This chakra thread protects Lee from being raped, forcibly mated, or mated against his truest will.”
He stands up after this is said and announces to all in the room, “It appears Neji is not his future mate. Since no clan here in the room practices arrangement by tradition, Neji will have to win over Lee with his own charm and skill without the aid of a mark to keep all competition away.”
His mother wasn’t ever going to have it. Lee knew she’d be fighting this announcement with the default offer forever stuck on the tip of her tongue, “He can still be his future mate as long as you’re willing to pay a dowry price for him. I can give you the amount needed right now if you wish to proceed.”
Hiashi gave what had to be the coldest of stares Lee had ever seen in his lifetime when rejecting this offer, “Nonsense. We are Hyuugas; buying a mate is beneath us and to insinuate otherwise is to insult our prestige and wealth. Leave before you insult me any further and incur my wrath on you and your greedy, wretched, bottom feeder clan.”
Lee’s mother and father bit their tongues, refusing to get him madder at them than he already is. They leave without another word being said to him, yet his mother had one final thing to say to him in a whisper, “Don’t you dare come home without the Hyuuga boy as your mate. If you do, I will sell you off on auction and you won’t ever see Konoha again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, mother, I understand.” he’s never heard his mother saying this to him before, but he has heard of people in his clan resorting to selling their omegas on illegal auctions to wealthy alphas and betas who cannot get mates for themselves in order to make as much money as possible. Typically these auctions attract foreign alphas and betas who take his omega relatives away only for him to never see or hear from them again.
“No, I don’t think you do.” she hisses when giving him her final threat, “Maybe I should make myself clearer… Mate that boy after the Chunin exams are over and I won’t sell you off on auction.”
With this final threat being made, his mother left him behind as her and his father left. Then he heard Neji asking Hiashi, “Can I not restore those broken threads?”
“You could, but it would kill him with systemic shock seeing as how those threads were entwined with his heart and nervous system chakra points.” the head of the main branch would give him the only advice he could in this situation, “You’re an attractive, intelligent prodigy, Neji. You should be able to win him over quite easily without the need of any money being spent or a mark to keep away the competition. You’re a Hyuuga. Hyuugas always win in pursuits of the heart.”
Neji doesn’t say much of anything to this, but he does approach Lee to make a vow of his own, “I know most of my mark’s effects are gone but it doesn’t matter. I will become your mate no matter what, Lee, even if it means I have to take the redhead alpha down from his pedestal.”
While this does make Lee feel as though there is bile rising up in his throat due to the threat his mother made only moments earlier, he shakes it off to be confident enough to reply, “I know you’ll do your best Neji, but I am not ready to be mated yet. All I ask is for you to leave Gaara out of this: he’s an innocent bystander in all of this whose sand is too much for him to control. Starting fights with him would be pathetic and beneath you, don’t you think?”
“I can’t make any promises on that, but I’ll do my best to respect your wishes.” he relaxes suddenly, taking his hand as he asks, “Do you want to go somewhere with me? I know today has been intense, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go somewhere relaxing.”
“I don’t think I can right now. Guy sensei is waiting for me, and I don’t want to make him worry.”
“Another time then? I’m sure you and I can do something together on another day.”
He remembers what his mother said about being sold off and he’s already tensing up. He doesn’t want to date Neji, but he feels he has no other choice in the matter.
The idea of being auctioned off and never seeing Tenten, Ino, Naruto, or Guy sensei again is too true of a reality for him. Before his clan had deemed him too ugly to get a mate on his own, let alone get one interested enough to buy him at auction, but now they know Neji’s interested in him he can’t hide behind his less than impressive looks to prevent such a thing from happening. Being auctioned off is a very real risk now and it’s something that scares him more than facing his mother did just now.
He doesn’t want to lose anything he has here in Konoha, which is why he is able to swallow down his apprehension to agree, “Yeah, another time would work better for me. I’ll see you later, Neji. I really shouldn’t keep Guy sensei waiting.”
“I’ll see you later, Lee.” Neji would walk him out of the home leading him to where Guy sensei stood.
He left him to be alone with their teacher, figuring he’d be able to spend time with him later. He needs to blow off a lot of steam from everything the devious alpha did to nullify his assured guarantee at mating Lee.
Guy hadn’t been too happy when he saw Lee’s parents again. To be fair, they weren’t the most excited to see him either, with his mother already taking the first shot, “You’re ruining our son!”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, whoremonger! You with your loud, flashy, immodest dress are ruining my son! He’s so rebellious now, challenging me, not speaking in a bow with no eye contact, wearing that whore suit, and daring to talk back to me in such a disrespectful manner! If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume you were making a criminal prostitute out of him like the Yamanaka boy!”
He took an exhale to calm himself to stop himself from getting really mean to her, “Okay lady, you and I have never gotten along. I’ve never cared for the way you treated Lee, I never cared for how you raised him, and I certainly never liked how awful you made him feel about himself for daring to go against your expectations of him. I can say what I despise most about you now is the fact you care so little about the poor boy you’d actually complain about him standing up for himself and being brave when he’s terrified on the inside. If I could take him from you, I would in a heartbeat because it’s obvious you’re not grateful in the slightest bit to have a kid as good as him in your life.”
He swore he saw money signs appearing in her eyes as something clicked in her head, “You know…if you want to mate him, all you have to pay is a healthy dowry fee and he can be yours.”
It took everything within Guy to not strike at her, “I would never want to mate Lee! He’s still a kid, a person, not property! You cannot sell him off like that!”
“I can as long as it’s clan tradition. You know Konoha law; clan tradition must be respected at all costs.”
Sad thing is, she’s not even wrong about it.
Omega rights activists have tried to get the laws changed. However, conservatives like those found in Lee’s clan have fought this, claiming that the need to respect the ‘freedom’ of the clan to exercise their traditions would be limited by allowing laws aimed at protecting omegas and giving them their rights to be passed. The fight was won by the conservatives at the cost of the safety and wellbeing of the omegas. Because of this, Lee’s clan can get away with selling him so openly as long as they claim it’s all a part of their tradition. It’s also how they get away with abusing and discriminating against omegas as well.
“You’re right it does say that, but know now if you try to sell Lee off so openly like this again, I may have to strike you myself.” Guy warned her, which led into the beta woman scoffing, “Like you would. Consider my offer and let me know if you’re interested in three days. Any day after that and all consideration will be null and void.”
He struck her hard enough across the face to send her flying across from him into some bushes nearby, his growl barely concealed, “You better not offer him to anyone so openly ever again. If I ever find out about it, I will do far worse to you and your entire clan for trying to hurt him. Now, leave, and don’t upset him more than I know you already have.”
His father scrambled to get her out of the bushes and with a whisper, was able to get her to leave without another word being exchanged to him.
Guy is only lucky their clan is poor and widely hated by Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans. They have enough pull to stop them from trying to get him in trouble, though Guy wouldn’t care if he did get in trouble over what he did just now.
He did it to protect Lee and there’s nothing to be ashamed about that in his eyes.
After waiting a little bit longer, he saw Lee exiting the home with Neji by his side. Luckily for him, Neji did leave after getting him outside.
Lee practically ran over to Guy’s side, his eyes bright despite the bruise forming on his face, “Guy sensei, I did it! It was really hard and very terrifying, but I did it, I finally stood up for myself to my parents like you’ve been telling me to! Now I’m not going to be arranged to Neji and thanks to what Gaara did to his mark, if he does beat me in battle, I won’t be his mate automatically. I feel really good about everything, sensei, like I finally conquered something I didn’t know needed to be done till now.”
He’s not lying when he says this. Standing up to his mother did feel good despite the bruise forming on his face, but it couldn’t ever be enough to mask the growing fear forming in him at the idea of being auctioned off to some alpha or beta from another nation.
Guy, in the meantime, cannot stop himself from smiling despite the fact he cannot look away from the bruise he knows the omega had to have gotten from his mother, “That’s great, Lee! Let’s go out to celebrate, my treat!”
“I’d love that, Guy sensei!”
He needs to speak to someone about getting the poor boy away from his clan. He has a bad feeling they will only get worse if they are allowed to continue on undeterred for any day longer than they should.