The Mission

Upon arriving at Lee’s place after seeing Tsunade, he didn’t know what to say to his friend. His fellow omega who he knew would be going back to a place he didn’t want to be in no matter how much of a brave face he’d put on for anyone and everyone to see. 

He knocked on Guy sensei’s door, hoping Lee would answer soon, and just his luck the one who answered the door is the one he needed to see right now, “Naruto, hi! How are you doing today? Did you come over to see Guy sensei or did you hear anything about Ino? Is she willing to see us now?” 

“No, I’m here to see you.” he paused, taking in his friend’s too happy expression, “I heard about you going back to live with your mom. I’m sorry, Lee…I failed to get you real help. Granny Tsunade couldn’t do anything because of those stupid, sexist village elders and now…now…you’re going back to the terrible family you have.” 

Lee didn’t seem the least bit phased, if he’s being honest, “I know, but I wasn’t ever expecting anything to change! I know you and Lady Tsunade meant well, I really do, but this place isn’t going to change unless if something really terrible happens.” 

He frowned to this and before he could speak, he was hearing a calm call of, “Lee, do you prefer your tea with honey or do you like it plain?” 

“Plain, please!” he called out to the last alpha he wished to see at his friend’s place, “Sorry about that, Neji came over to see Guy sensei—” 

“And you better not be dating that guy.” Naruto is firm on this because he really does not want Lee to date Neji no matter how strongly he stands by his statements of the Hyuuga having changed his ways for the better.

Lee was frozen in his spot before chuckling and wringing his hands, “I’m not dating Neji; even though he’s changed and become a good guy, I’m not interested in him. He doesn’t really catch my eye, ya know?” 

“Yeah, I figured he wouldn’t.” 

It wasn’t so much as guessing, assuming, or figuring, it was more of, he knew he wouldn’t.

Naruto had come here two days before hearing the news of Lee being sent back to his mother. What he had overheard back then was enough to make him want to scream at the top of his lungs, grab Lee by his shoulders, and shake some sense into him because his taste in alphas is truly abysmal. 

He cannot get Guy sensei out of his head asking him right before he dared to knock on his door, “Why are you looking down? Is there something from the attack you can’t get out of your mind?” 

“No…okay, there is one thing.” 

“Go on, lay it on me! You know I can handle anything and everything you’ve got to say!” 

Lee’s voice had this strange mixture of joy and melancholy to it, sounding to Naruto as though he’d break into tears with a smile on his face all the while, “Well…I guess…I know it’s a lot to take in, because I should hate him, shouldn’t I? He did play a role in the attack on our village and I shouldn’t miss him, I shouldn’t be thinking about him, or how nice he was to me…but I miss Gaara.” 

“I figured you do—whether I approve of it or not, he did make you happy and from what others have said, he was nice to you.” 

“He really was, Guy sensei! If I could mate someone, if I absolutely had to, I would—” he stopped himself short and gave the saddest sounding laugh he had ever heard from the young omega, “It doesn’t matter anyway. I know things won’t change in this village and I know that means I’ll have to mate Neji or some other rich alpha eventually. I also know I’ll never see Gaara again and I’ll never get to tell him goodbye, so there’s no point in thinking about it so much…but why do I think about it so much? Why can’t I let this go?” 

…Lee has horrid taste in alphas, that much Naruto could never fix, and as much as he wants to scream at him that Gaara never apologized for anything, never did anything to contact him at all, and there’s a bigger, better world out there with better alphas than him—he knows he wouldn’t listen. Lee is too forgiving. He will always excuse away Gaara’s actions no matter what. 

“You’re right in thinking that you may not see him again and there’s no point in putting your life on hold for someone who can’t be here to live it with you—at least, that’s what I think anyway.” Guy sensei then moved somewhere in the home—probably closer to the door from the sounds of it—and told him, “I may be neutral on the guy, but it sounds like you really liked him a lot when he was here to be missing him so much now. If you want, I can at least help you get the proper goodbye to him that you’ve always deserved.” 

“How?” 

“Lady Tsunade would know how to contact him. If you’re really up to it, I could go to her, ask for the information we’d need to write him a letter, and have her send it off for you. After all, you really like this alpha a lot, you seem to have some sort of crush on him—why don’t you write to him if you’re feeling that glum over him?” 

As much as Naruto wanted to stop this from happening—again, he’s still angry at Gaara for leaving Lee without an apology or at the very least a proper farewell—he couldn’t deny that it would probably brighten Lee’s spirits to speak to him again in some way. If the awkward denial of feelings talk from Lee was any indication, he knew he had to have it really bad for the damn alpha. As such, he took mercy on his friend and knocked on the door then to see him. 

For however much he doesn’t like Gaara, he can admit—begrudgingly that is—he’d be better than Neji, who got him into the mess he’s in. 

“Well, we were going to go get something to eat since Guy sensei’s not here to train with us and we just got done doing some training together. Do you want to come with us, Naruto?” 

And willingly spend time with Neji? 

Nope. Naruto would rather sever his own arm than ever willingly spend time with the guy who made his friend’s life a living hell during the Chunin exams. 

“…No thanks.” 

“Are you sure? We’re eating at his place and he promised me it’d be really good!” 

“No, I’m good.” he insisted, not wanting to be with Neji at his home if he can avoid it, though he cannot help to think of this as being some sort of date between them, “You sure you’re not interested in him? Because this sort of sounds like a date to me.” 

Lee shrugged this off with ease, “No, I’m not. It’s just a dinner between two friends—why would I date Neji? He’s a teammate and friend, but not someone I’d like to date.” 

Naruto wasn’t sure how to feel about this. For starters, he doesn’t trust Neji with Lee as far as he can throw him. Secondly, the idea of him taking Lee to his home doesn’t sit right with him. Thirdly, how can he be sure he won’t use this as some opportunity to try to pressure Lee into a mating he doesn’t want or is prepared for? 

Exactly—Lee can be as forgiving and naïve as he wants to be. Doesn’t mean Naruto will fall down the same path with Neji Hyuuga after everything he did. 

“Uh-huh…sure…” he asks him then because he is curious, “What about Gaara? Have you heard anything from him?”

He would think the damned bastard would have sent at least one letter apologizing to him and giving him the proper send off his friend deserved. According to Lee, he is a good person—so why wouldn’t he have done the bare minimum with this? 

“No,” and Naruto’s back to seething against him, “Damn bastard! Why couldn’t he have done at least that for you! The freaking prick…if I ever see him again, I’ll wring his neck so hard!” 

“No, Naruto, don’t!” Lee grabbed his shoulder then, “I’m fine with it. Gaara probably has a lot going on right now. His village lost their leader and he lost his father. I’m positive he’s got a lot to think about, a lot to deal with like I do. I can understand why he hasn’t yet and if he never does, then I’m fine with it. Besides, I’m going back to live with my mom anyway: eventually, I’ll be mated off and I know it would never be to him, no matter what I want for myself. It’s no big deal; it’s the price of being an omega born into my clan, there’s nothing I can do to escape that.”

As much as Naruto wants to argue otherwise, he decided to drop it for the time being to better focus on the alpha who approaches the door, “If Lee doesn’t wish for you to harm Gaara, then the least you could do is respect his wishes, Naruto. I know that’s a rather novel idea, but it couldn’t kill you to try.”

“You shut up!” he’s gritting his teeth, his scent flaring while his hands ball into tight fists, “You don’t have any nerve to talk down to me after what you did to him… I don’t care what Lee tells me; I don’t trust you being alone with my friend.”

“Why—”

“I know and you have no reason to rationally trust me after what you’ve seen.” Neji speaks up for himself, gently stepping ahead of Lee to speak to Naruto, “I was no better than his clan was to him. I know this and I understand just how wrong I was to strip him of his freedom, to hold the idea that it was okay for me to do the same to him after what my own clan did to my father and I.”

Now the young omega is watching the Hyuuga carefully, trying to find any indication in Lee’s face or body to see if he is anxious or scared around Neji. When he finds none, he allows his fists to loosen enough to where his hands were in a natural position and the trembling within them was gone.

“I was angry over what happened to my father and myself. I took that out on Lee when I never should have; for that I will do whatever it takes to prove myself as a better alpha to him.”

He does wonder just how serious this supposedly improved Neji is, which is why he tests this out, “…So, what’s your stance on omegas? Do you think they should be allowed to be ninjas? Do you think their safety and happiness should come before tradition or not?”

Neji doesn’t hesitate on what he says, “I do believe they should be allowed to be ninjas. I also no longer believe they are only meant to be mated and pregnant any longer, with an alpha or beta to take care of them. If they can take care of themselves, then they should, no questions asked. Independence is attractive in an omega, this much I can admit after spending some more time with Lee.”

“Would you be okay with having an omega mate who doesn’t want to be barefoot and pregnant, stay at home omega with a few pups of their own?”

This is the moment of truth for Neji, the damned bastard who ruined Lee’s chances at being a Chunin. What he says next will really show what sort of person this guy has become since the events of the Chunin exams.

“I would, but I do want pups someday. Mating someone who doesn’t want the same thing as me is not something I would ever do, though if they do want it and they don’t want to be a stay at home parent, then I will accept their wishes as is.”

He jumps on this a sort of ‘gotcha’ moment because while Neji is sounding like he’s changed quite considerably on his views regarding omegas, “Okay, so you’ve gotten better about that stuff—but what about the whole tradition thing? You haven’t touched that yet! Tell me, do you think tradition should come before the rights of an omega to decide their own fate and live as they please like any beta or alpha can in this village?”

When he glanced at him with a certain level of disbelief in his eyes, Naruto had thought he would catch him slipping up. Instead, what he got was, “I don’t believe tradition should be sidelined completely for the happiness of the individual. Making some minor adjustments to it is fine but wanting to throw it out completely to make someone happy is wrong.”

The crestfallen expression on Lee’s face is enough for Naruto to know Neji isn’t a completely good guy now to actually say something like that with someone who comes from such a severely conservative clan, “But—what if the traditions are bad? What if they treat the omegas like they are not people? What about the clans out there who use tradition as an excuse to treat their omegas like shit and get away with it?”

“Who are you to say a tradition is bad? Who are you to take an omega out of their home just because you don’t like the tradition? Clans should be allowed to raise their omega children as they please.”

“Even if it means the omega is beaten or forced to mate someone they don’t know or like?”

“Yes, even through that—but what would count as being beaten anyway? Not all corporal punishment is a bad thing, Naruto, despite whatever it is you may believe.”

He was about to punch him so hard when Lee himself intervened on his teammate’s behalf, “Neji, I don’t think I’m gonna go with you to dinner tonight.”

“Why not?” Neji turned to face him yet he didn’t catch onto the obvious, “I thought you wanted to go with me. What made you change your mind?”

“It’s just…I’m feeling kinda hormonal and I’d rather have Naruto by me now than you or anyone in your clan.”

Neji didn’t fight on it like Naruto had been prepared for him to do, but he did respect his wishes nonetheless, “That’s fine, you can be by him for now if you wish. I’ll see you tomorrow for training with Guy sensei, alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.” the moment Neji turned his back to him and left, Lee’s disappointment and hurt was written all over his face while his scent became muted in the pleasant notes, leaving only the harsher ones present in a slightly less intense fashion than when he is angered or grieving.

Naruto followed him in his home when the other omega motioned for him to and when the door was closed, he couldn’t contain it any longer, “I really thought Neji had changed on that—I thought he was going to be better…I guess I got my hopes up over nothing, huh?”

“You may have, but that guy’s always gonna be jerk. It’s not your fault for thinking he’d be better by now after everything he said to you after my fight with him.” he does try to change the subject to cheer up his friend, “Are you actually okay with going back to live with your mom?”

“I mean,” Lee doesn’t meet his eyes but he is staring at this annoyingly mundane spot on the floor, “I don’t want to go back to live with her, but I have no choice—if I don’t go willingly, I will be forced out of here by the ANBU and I don’t want that. If I could choose for myself, I’d stay with Guy sensei for good, not her. I know I won’t ever be able to, not at this rate…oh well. At least I got to stay here with him for a while before being sent back.”

Seeing someone as usually upbeat and optimistic as Lee being so beaten down by what’s happened to him has his friend wanting to do something, anything at all to make this better. Ultimately he could only come up with one thing, “Alright, screw this! We gotta get outta this place with this bad energy and go somewhere more positive we can talk about fun stuff with each other. Also, I’m hungry and I know you’d love the ramen at Ichirakus!”

Had this been Sasuke there would’ve been a protest. Luckily for him, this was Lee and Lee’s response was to smile weakly and say, “I’d like to have some ramen. Guy sensei and I usually don’t eat it because he thinks it’s a bit too salty.”

He won’t fight his sensei on this comment here, but he will when they get there, “Pfft, be prepared to be proven wrong! C’mon Lee, let’s go! You deserve to have one nice thing coming out of this.”

The entire time he spent with Lee, he couldn’t help but to wonder if he was more upset over: Neji’s ignorant views or the fact he’ll be living with his mom again. He would never figure out which one it was; Lee never brought it up to him when they ate. All they did was talk about training, Naruto’s time with Jiraiya (minus the gross things said to him in battle against Orochimaru and Kabuto), and their thoughts on Shikamaru being made a Chunin.

Ino is seething after learning all this information, “That stupid jerk! He hasn’t changed one bit to say something so wrong to Lee!”

“He so hasn’t! I can’t believe Lee actually feels okay with training with that guy: I know I never could if I had to hear him say I deserved to be treated like crap if tradition called for it!”

“Does Neji still want to mate him someday? If so, then it’s beyond gross and Lee needs to know he can do better.”

“Ah, well, Lee did tell me Neji does want to court him someday with the intention of mating.”

“Like I’m ever letting that one happen!” Ino isn’t calming down, then again, Naruto’s not doing any better since he does agree with everything she has to say, “Neji is not going to mate my friend, not when he can do way better than him!”

Of course…this would have been much better if she hadn’t said it right when they arrived where Lee is located…at the same time Neji himself was in front of them.

It’s not the worst thing to ever happen to anyone, Naruto can admit, though he won’t deny he is looking forward to seeing Ino rip this guy a new one for what he said to Lee.