Ino
Sakura sighed as she realized Iruka sensei wasn’t going to answer his door. Naturally she had assumed he’d be available to talk to today since she had heard today was supposed to be his day off, but she supposes she got unlucky on this end.
In pure defeat, she decides to head outside in the hopes of seeing Guy sensei for some much needed advice. She didn’t really want to go to him—she had wanted to speak to an omega about this as opposed to an alpha or beta—but she figured she had no other choice.
She got lucky to go out when she did, too. He was almost a block away from the apartment by the time she was outside, leaving her to do a jog to catch up to the man who is quick even when walking, “Guy, wait! Guy sensei!”
He paused in his step to turn around and see her for himself, not being the least bothered or annoyed by her presence despite his potential tardiness for Neji’s training, “Sakura? What’s going on, did something happen to your sensei? Is Naruto okay or is he in trouble?”
“No, not at all. I actually…I…” she takes a second to catch her breath, her eyes hardly meeting his when she finally gets it out, “I need some advice. I was going to ask Iruka sensei, but he wasn’t answering the door. I saw you when I was coming up the stairs to his apartment, but I didn’t think to ask at first.”
“What is it you need to ask?” he is curious because he’s never had the young alpha come to him for anything before and he’s hardly ever interacted with her.
“It’s a question about omegas…mainly, how to tell if they’re ready to date or not.”
Now he’s pretty stuck on one issue ringing through his mind, “Why wouldn’t you ask your family about this? The Haruno clan isn’t as backwards on omega rights as Lee’s clan is. I’m sure they would be able to give you suitable advice for your problem.”
She huffs while crossing her arms across her chest, glaring to the side in pure bitterness, “My parents’ advice was to keep finding new opportunities to ask the omega out until they say ‘yes’. I can’t do that with Ino, she’ll think I only talk to her for dating and mating purposes only! Then she won’t ever want to date me when she says she is ready.”
He is amazed at how bad that advice is, yet he’s not too shocked given how her clan is, “You’re right there—that advice won’t work on a Yamanaka omega. They’re the types to jump to the conclusions you’ve voiced concerns about. Ino does hold Deidara in high esteem and he was the type to try to blow a person’s arm off if he thought they were trying to use him, so I can imagine her being similar enough to him on that issue with a difference in how she handles it.”
Sadly enough, Sakura knows what he said is true. Deidara was the type to use his jutsu to attack those who he thought were trying to use him for heat sex or take advantage of him. Ino always defended him on his extreme reactions and while she does know she wouldn’t ever go as far as Deidara, she knows if she keeps asking her out whenever it feels right she will come to the conclusion she’s only speaking to her to get a date or heat sex out of her. She won’t react violently, but she will be chewed out and any and all progress she’s made will have been for nothing.
“So what can I do? How can I tell if she’ll be ready to date me or not?”
Guy does have a solution to this: “Simple, ask one of her omega friends if she’s showed any interest in dating or not. If she has, then make your move. If she hasn’t, then wait a while longer. If she never tells any of her friends if she’s interested in dating or not, then wait for her to ask you out. She’s a Yamanaka omega, they’re raised to buck the societal norms and be more assertive in getting dates with the people they like.”
His advice does make a lot of sense…Naruto can’t keep his mouth shut so naturally he’d be more willing to spill if she asked him if he heard Ino say anything about being ready to date or not while she can’t see Lee doing the same. He also does bring up another great point: Ino comes from a clan where the omegas are not devalued or mocked if they ask an alpha or beta out on a date. If of anything, her parents always taught her and Deidara to do whatever it took to achieve their dreams—whether that meant being an artist, becoming the first ever omega kunoichi, or getting themselves a date with someone they like. On that end, waiting for her to ask her out makes a lot of sense if she doesn’t want to come off as being nice to her only for selfish purposes.
“That makes a lot of sense…thank you so much, Guy sensei! You really are the best!” she cheers with a polite bow and her arms at her sides.
Guy gives her a thumbs up with his shiny smile, “Don’t mention it, kid. I love giving advice to those looking for it, but you could’ve gone to Kakashi about this as well, you know.”
She is taken aback by this sudden admission, finding it to be random to the point of it being off topic, “You can’t be serious…Kakashi sensei? I would never go to him for relationship advice! All he does is read smut. What good would going to him do for me?”
“You’re right that he’s a bit of a pervert…and shameless about it.” he can own up this about his friend, but it doesn’t stop him from defending him nonetheless as he points a finger at Sakura, “Despite this, he’s not a completely lost cause. He is a good man, but he’s terrible at expressing it which is why I can correct you on this. Young alpha, you are wrong about your sensei! Believe it or not, he’s dated and bedded more omegas than anyone I’ve ever known! In fact, he was quite the player for the longest time with a successful love and dating life whenever he felt the need to get serious about someone.”
Now Sakura’s positive he’s lying to her about this, “Uh huh…sure…like anyone would date that guy, let alone have him touch them during their heats and ruts.”
“That’s where you’re wrong! When he was in the ANBU black ops, Kakashi was the most desired alpha of them all alongside yours truly. Of course, he was a bit colder back then so he tended to stick to one night stands most of the time. He had relationships in the past, but they never went anywhere because he wasn’t as invested as he should’ve been in the other person. He is, as I call it, omega dumb.”
This is a term she had never heard of before in her entire life so far.
“Omega dumb? What’s that?”
“You know how there’s book smarts and streets smarts? Well, I call Kakashi omega dumb because while he’s very intelligent and skilled in many different areas, he is dumb when it comes down to omegas.”
She’s willing to hear him out on this end because maybe hearing her sensei’s faults in the past could benefit her in the end. She could learn what not to do with Ino moving forward from Guy’s cautionary tales of her sensei’s failed love life.
(Yes, she’s confident in calling it failed because if he can’t get a date with Iruka sensei, then he’s obviously not as good with omegas as he sees himself as being.)
He takes a breath to explain something to her he thinks she will need to know, “Kakashi is a guy who, when he did date omegas instead of having one night stands with them, would give them amazing heat sex while giving them nothing in the romance, affection, or emotional connection departments. Obviously, none of his relationships last beyond three or four months because of this. He used to always tell me great sex could fix everything, but I never bought it since my past relationships were far more meaningful than his because I focused more on romance, affection, and building an emotional connection with them.”
Sakura could connect the dots then, coming to her own takeaway of this cautionary tale, “I get it…Kakashi sensei wasn’t the most considerate person towards the people he dated. He thought all he had to do was the bare minimum and nothing else. He didn’t think about them or what they really wanted, while you did and that’s why you were more successful. I guess he learned nothing from his experiences if he can still mess up with Iruka sensei as badly as he does.”
“His inconsiderate nature wasn’t a choice. He comes from a liberal clan who taught him the wrong way to approach omegas: they literally had him believing that all he had to do was pleasure an omega and nothing else, leaving the omega in complete charge of all other aspects of the relationship without any interference from himself. Naturally, he took this to mean that showing respect for an omega meant giving them the best love making, but then leaving them to their own devices in all other areas of the relationship. To be fair, no one outside of myself really corrected him back then—there were a lot more openly sexist alphas and betas at the time so he thought he was being progressive and doing the right thing when he wasn’t.”
This is interesting to Sakura for a different reason than it would’ve been before.
She comes from a fairly conservative clan and has always wondered for years if Ino would have been more receptive to her affections if she had come from a clan as progressive as hers or the Naras. Even after what happened in the Forest of Death, she always thought that when it came down to getting any omega to date, the only ones who stood a chance of this were those from the progressive or liberal clans. It was easy for her to hold them to a standard of perfection for so long that to hear of such a flaw now has her a bit more optimistic about her prospects with Ino.
“Is that why he sucks at getting Iruka sensei to date him? Has he really not changed?”
He shot this down right away, “Kakashi is still omega dumb…nowhere near as bad as he was a few years ago, though. He knows what he did wrong back then and he’s trying to not make the same mistakes again. Sure, his flirting is cheesy, over the top, and unsettling at times, but that’s him trying to be romantic without falling back into his old habits.”
She mentally gags at the idea of Kakashi being seductive since all she can see when the image comes in her head is one of him acting like a drunken sleazy pervert looking for anyone to have sex with.
Nevertheless, what he said next did catch her off guard, “I know you cannot see it for yourself since you’re so young and haven’t known him for long, but Kakashi has grown a lot. He just doesn’t know when to quit when it comes to Iruka.”
She knows he doesn’t know when to quit with Iruka. He has never shown any signs of stopping his attempts to flirt with him in the hopes he will show some interest. Though this doesn’t stop her from realizing that Guy is right: she hasn’t known Kakashi long enough to know if he’s changed or not and maybe there is something she isn’t seeing that she will someday when she’s older and more experienced.
On that end, she can admit this conversation did her good. Guy did give her a fascinating insight into her sensei she didn’t receive once from him all while being patient enough to take time out of his day to properly explain it. Overall, she can see why Lee and his teammates think highly of him.
“Now, if you excuse me, I have to meet with Neji for his month long training before the final part of the exams begins. I’m already going to be late as is and I can’t afford to be more than thirty minutes late or else he’ll think I’m losing it.” he tells her when his back is turned to her, “I know he’s a bit eccentric at times, but you can go to Kakashi for advice, Sakura. He may not be the most romantic, true, and yet he’s learned a lot more over the years than you give him credit for.”
She has nothing else to say to him as he leaves in a rush to meet up with Neji. Though she can say she is now more curious about her sensei and what he’s like as a person when he’s not being their sensei.
Ino has today off from working at the flower shop, so she thought she would bring something nice to Hinata while she recovers in the hospital. She had chosen some white roses and calla lilies to give to her friend, hoping she’d be awake to see them.
She tries not to think of Neji because if she does, she’ll only be filled with the urge to hurt him for what he did to her at the exams yesterday as well as what she thinks he did to Lee to make him lose so quickly and easily when it’s not like him at all to do so.
No, today is not a day to be angry! She needs to be calm when seeing Hinata. The poor girl has already gone through enough, she doesn’t need to deal with her being mad when she sees her.
She had barely gotten down the street when she happened upon her omega friend out on a run, “Lee, you’re here? I’ve never seen you around this area before. Are you going to see Hinata too?”
“Oh, I was going to get some groceries. I would like to check on Hinata though, just to make sure she’s okay.” he glances to the ground then, his next words catching her off guard, “I can’t help but to feel guilty for how Neji acted. I should’ve done more to keep an eye on him during the battle—”
“What could you have done to stop him? Neji wouldn’t listen to you anyway. He clearly has no respect for you to treat you the way he does and he doesn’t bother to try to make things right with you either. If you ask me, I think there’s no need for you to feel guilty over something an alpha you know does. It was his decision to act that way towards Hinata and nothing you could have said or done could have stopped him.”
She didn’t notice it at first—Lee’s bright smile is enough to hide a lot on him—but when she did see it, her immediate reaction was to lean in closer as she asked, “Did that alpha jerk hit you, Lee? Why do you have that bruise on your face?”
He instantly covered it with his hand, shaking his head when insisting, “No, Neji didn’t give this to me, no alpha did!”
“Then who gave you this bruise? How did you get it?”
He appeared to be somewhat shaken by this, shaken enough to where he could mutter, “I don’t really want to talk about it, Ino. Not in public anyway…can we go see Hinata now? I don’t want to anyone to focus on this for too long.”
Knowing that it must have been pretty traumatic for him to not want to talk about it—Lee is an open book like Naruto is—she complies to his wishes, not wanting him to feel more uncomfortable than he must be, “Alright, we can do that. I still want to know what happened. If any alpha or beta hurt you, my clan can help. You can always come to me for help, never forget that, okay?”
“I promise I won’t.” he’s smiling yet his hand is still covering the bruise on his face. It’s only when they are a block away from where they first spoke that he takes his hand off of his face, “Have you seen Gaara around here?”
“No, why would you want to know that?”
“Because I feel the need to thank him for what he did to Neji’s mark yesterday.”
She’s curious as to what that is considering how much pride Neji seemed to take in it, “What did he do to Neji’s mark?”
He seems so happy when regaling it to her that she cannot help but to feel optimistic herself as he speaks with a pep in his step, “I don’t believe he can control his sand that well at times, but it worked out for the best. I found out that his sand changed the mark Neji left on me by making it so he cannot bend me to his will any longer using the threads of chakra he made that were connected to different chakra points in my body and it worked the same way on my scent glands as well, so even if I lose to Neji in battle, I won’t become his mate automatically!”
“Whoa, really? His sand did all of that? Now that’s impressive! I want to thank the guy myself now for ruining that jerk’s hold over you.” she beams at him as they continue their walk down the street.
“You should, he deserves to know how wonderful of an impact he’s had on me.” he gazes up to the sky for a moment, peaceful in the moment as he says, “I know Neji doesn’t like Gaara, but I don’t think he’s a bad person at all. I know I don’t know him all that well…but I think if I had been able to keep the mark from him to be his mate, I wouldn’t have minded as much.”
Ino doesn’t say much to this since in her eyes, anyone is an improvement from Neji, who quite frankly, doesn’t deserve him.