Ino
When Ino took full notice of Neji's presence, her first reaction was to say, “What are you doing here?”
Neji’s response to this was to pause in his movements and raise a brow, “I’m here to train with Guy sensei and hopefully see Lee if I can. Of course, I am not here to mate Lee, but if I was then I’d like to think you’d accept it and see me as the best option I am for him if he consented to it.”
“Neji, you’re just on time!” Guy begins when opening the door, “I thought I heard you out here—” he stops midsentence to change the subject abruptly when glancing at the new visitors, “Ino, Naruto, what are you two doing here?”
“We’re here to see Lee.” Ino answers simply, “I haven’t seen him in a while and I want to be sure he’s okay.”
The alpha man doesn’t object to this, moving aside to let them into his home, “Go ahead then! Kami knows the poor kid needs his friends now more than ever…”
“Sensei, I was thinking I could train with him today.” Neji began only for his sensei to shoot it down, “You can train with him any other time! Let him have this time with his friends.”
The Hyuuga doesn’t fight his sensei on this, yet it does nothing to stop him from mentally cursing the omegas for showing up right when he was going to finally make a move to try to court Lee properly.
On their end, Ino and Naruto were happy to see Lee when they made it to the kitchen. However, this happiness faded when they realized he wasn’t eating and he had aura of resignation neither of them had seen to such an extent before, “Hi, Lee…sorry I didn’t come to see you, it’s just—everything with Deidara…it’s been a lot harder to take in than I thought and being right about his disappearance hasn’t made things easier for me.”
She would love to tell them all the truth, but the possibility of this getting back to Danzo if too many people know is high. The last thing she wants is to endanger Deidara by having their homeland send ninjas out to bring him back for the sake of execution; as such, she has to lie to her friends no matter how badly it kills her on the inside to do so.
“Ino, you’re here!” he suddenly beams with excitement, leaving his friends deep in shock as they realized he had been too deep in whatever it was on his mind to actually notice their presence, “What happened with your brother? I’ve heard it wasn’t good, but Guy sensei said you should be the one to tell me.”
“Well, turns out I was right: he was forced to leave the village, become an Akatsuki, and mate Itachi thanks to that stupid Sharingan of his. He wanted to come back, but he couldn’t—not when he knew the risk of him coming back with a vengeance would be too great.” she frowns, not because of the scenario she spoke of, but because she’s still upset over what happened to Deidara to make him leave, “It’s been a lot on me and Sakura’s been the only one I could really turn to since she knew Deidara almost as well as I did…I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have ever left you alone to deal with the whole ‘being sent back to your mom’ situation by yourself. I promise I’ll—”
“No, it’s alright! I don’t mind, I think anyone would need some time away after learning all of that.” Lee stops her from apologizing, seeing it as pointless. As long as Ino got some comfort that helped her through a traumatic time, then that’s all that matters to him, “I bet it will really be a great motivator in your shinobi journey! You’ve always wanted to bring him back home and prove his innocence—now you have more fighting spirit to make it happen.”
She doesn’t know how to tell them about her motivations changing without giving away the truth. All she can do is nod, her smile forced at that point, “You’re right, it really does… I will bring him back home no matter what and he will be found innocent of everything, just like I know he is!”
Saying it now feels so wrong because Deidara is innocent in her eyes, but she doesn’t want to live her whole life putting him first anymore. Before she spoke to him, she wouldn’t have minded this, but after everything she’s learned? Declaring such a thing felt wrong—not only to her brother who doesn’t want to come back, but wrong to herself as well since there’s no need to put him first anymore when she has her own life to live outside of him.
A life that includes being by her friends’ side through thick and thin, such as now with Lee, who still is acting oddly in the sense that he’s trying too hard to be unaffected by what is going to happen to him soon, “Awesome! Now, Naruto, what’s new with you? Anything going on with you and Sasuke? How about—”
“Why are you acting weird?”
Leave it to Naruto to cut to the chase, “I think what he means is, it feels like you’re forcing yourself to be your typical self around us and it feels weird. Are you okay?”
“I am, really—oh, is there something you guys want to do? How about—”
“Lee,” Naruto cuts him off firmly with a no-nonsense glow in his eyes, “aren’t you worried about going back to your mom? Aren’t you afraid she’s going to force you to mate Neji or something? Aren’t you afraid of anything at all?”
Lee stops in his act, his shoulders slowly slumping while a tired expression came over him, “I don’t want to go home…no one from my sort of clan would if they were me right now. I love being here with Guy sensei: here, I am free to do as I please like any alpha or beta in my clan could without any fears of being punished and I am a true equal here too. I don’t get told how ugly I am compared to Deidara, I don’t have all these expectations to act or look a certain way, and I can do things for myself I could never do at my old home.”
There are a few tears there when he goes on to say it, “Yeah, I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here with Guy sensei because he makes me feel like a normal person for once. Here, there’s nothing to be afraid of or dread—with my mom, I have everything to fear and dread. I don’t want to go home, I want to stay, but…I…I can’t.”
Ino goes over to his side to hug him tightly, releasing calming pheromones all the while, “Oh, Lee…I always knew it was bad, but that bad? I’m so sorry I never looked into it more, I’m sorry I never asked, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t apologize. I never would have said anything about it to you or Naruto had you asked.” he hugs her back, finding comfort in the familiar pheromones of his dear friend, “I don’t like people knowing too much about my clan. It makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed, like I can’t be taken seriously as a ninja because of where I come from. I would love to come from a clan like yours or Iruka sensei’s because then I’d be seen as more respectable than what I am now.”
Sadly enough, Ino and Naruto both know exactly what Lee is saying and understand all too clearly what he means by it. What makes it sadder yet is knowing they cannot deny any of what has been said by him just now because it’s too true: no one in the village does take him seriously as a ninja ever since the whole incident with the Chunin exams being postponed happened.
With this incident, everyone learned of Lee’s being an omega and the talk about his clan spread amongst the people once the truth of the matter was revealed to far too many after the attack on their village happened. Many started to blame him for Gaara’s role in the attack on their homeland, saying that if he had done more as omega from a poor conservative clan should to subdue and seduce him into a mating, then this whole thing could’ve been prevented somehow.
(Far too many believe that he could have changed Gaara and gotten him to tell the truth about their plans before they went through with it had he mated him. No one involved the situation believes this, but far too many in the village love to lay blame on the omega even when there is no logical way to.)
Those that did not blame him saw his being a ninja in a different light. Hell, even those who did blame him wound up seeing his being a ninja in the same light as those who didn’t.
Lee’s clan was notorious for being poor and Lee himself has had to prove he’s as intelligent, skilled, and worthy of being a ninja as anyone else from a better off clan long before anything Chunin exam or Gaara related happened. Simply put, far too many believe him to be ignorant, having no skills, and being allowed to be a ninja simply out of pity by far too many senseis with too soft of hearts.
This was before his being an omega was as widely known. Back then, he could at least fall back on people thinking he’s a beta because of his scent and not have to face as much flack.
Now they know he’s an omega and this has made it far worse than it ever was in the past.
They firmly believe that being a poor omega means he is only trying to become a ninja to land himself a wealthy mate (a great example of this is the far too many jealous omegas and betas who believe he only became a ninja to mate with Neji Hyuuga). There’s also the prevailing belief that such a poor omega shouldn’t be thinking about becoming ninja in the first place: no, he should be focusing on getting mated to Neji or another wealthy alpha or beta to provide for him since that’s all a greedy, poor omega would ever need to be happy. Then there’s the whispers that he only got the chance to become a ninja out of pity by the senseis who want to see him mate his way out of poverty; that Lee himself definitely could never be as skilled, intelligent, or worthy of being a ninja like anyone else from a better off clan because he’s a poor omega and poor omegas only exist to mate rich since they have no other skills otherwise.
Guy sensei has defended him so much and honestly, seeing his passionate defense made any insecurities he had vanish into thin air knowing he had someone in his corner—an alpha, at that—who saw such worth, value, and talent in him to be so intense about it.
His mother would never defend him in such a manner. Neither would his father, or any of his other alpha and beta relatives. All they would’ve done is used the mutterings of those in the village to insult him further yet when they got the chance. He’s never had any alpha in his life to be in his corner, on his side before he got Guy sensei as the captain of his squad.
“None of that matters, though…not much does when I know things will never change or improve no matter where I live, what clan I am from, or who’s care am I under. I will always be an omega first and that means my life will always be terrible in some way or another no matter what I or anyone else does to try to change it.”
Naruto joins the hug then, his own tears starting to burn in his eyes as Lee goes on, “I know when I go back to my mom, things won’t get better—and I know when I do, I’ll probably never get to write Gaara like I wanted to and I’ll never get the chance to have my own future with her in my life. I want to stop it, but I can’t, not without Guy sensei getting in trouble…and I can’t do that to the only alpha who ever believed in me enough to defend me no matter what.”
“Dammit Lee, let’s runaway together!” Naruto blurted out, “I’ll get that damn sage to go along with it and we’ll leave right before you have to go back to your mom’s place!”
Ino, despite being devastated over Lee’s predicament, has to stop him there before he does something that could get the both of them in deep trouble with the village elders, “Naruto, if you do that then Lee will only get in more trouble—and besides, you of all people cannot run away! Sasuke would find you in five minutes, Sakura and Kakashi sensei would have your head, and what about poor Iruka sensei? Could you really break his heart like that?”
“I could if it meant saving Lee from his awful fate!”
Now she’s annoyed with him, “I get wanting to help him, but what about the people who care about you? Aren’t you thinking of them?”
When he has nothing to say, she presses further with the topic, giving them some insight she had never shared with them before, “Deidara leaving tore my family apart—my parents couldn’t be in the house for years after he left for anything other than eating, sleeping, showering, and getting a change of clothing. My dad and mom’s mating was pushed to the brink, I was left to deal with everything bothering me on my own to keep my family together—how can you be that selfish to hurt everyone who cares about you?”
She knows the intention is good, but it doesn’t stop her from being any less frustrated with Naruto for wanting to make such a plan in the first place! To make it worse, it would only set omegas in the village back farther thanks to good ol’ sexism kicking in and saying the omegas need to be taught a lesson as opposed to looking at what, exactly, is wrong with their society that it makes omegas runaway in the first place.
“…Ino, I never knew that. Why didn’t you say anything to us?” her friend’s blue eyes are now wide with understanding and shame, to which she gives the best answer she’s got, “Because I didn’t want to talk about it too much and let it distract me from my goal. Also, I was afraid that if anyone overheard me telling you guys, they’d be attacking my family with their rumors and taunts more than they did when he first left us. I couldn’t put my family through that again, not after what happened the first time around.”
“I wouldn’t want to runaway anyway, Naruto. It wouldn’t solve anything; all they’d do is send ANBU or ROOT on us to bring us back by force. Then some new law restricting omega rights would get passed and more people would suffer…I would never want to be responsible for that, not for one moment in my life.”
Ino soon released Lee, with Naruto doing the same and the taller omega following suite. When the hug was ended between all three of them, Lee wiped at his eyes, and a small, genuine grin overcame him, “Oh well, I cannot change my fate, but that doesn’t mean today cannot be a good day spent with my friends! What do you say we stay here and let me give you guys a full tour. Oh, then we can brew some tea and head out to the backyard to catch up with each other! Then after that, I can cook this really good dish for us Guy sensei taught me to make—well, if you want to, that is.”
Ino doesn’t object to it, seeing it all too well that Lee wanted to spend his last day here before being inevitably sent back to his horrible home with his equally horrible mother, “I think that sounds great. What about you, Naruto?”
Naturally, this escaped him, “I dunno…are you sure we can’t go out and get some desserts while we’re at it?”
Her eyes are as cold as ice, sending a shiver down his spine and making him cave with one look, “But that can always wait until after we’re done with everything else, right? Let’s do what you want, Lee!”
He is beaming with pure joy at his friends’ decision to do something he wants to do at least once before he is sent off to the end of his future, “I’ll start the tour then! Trust me, Guy sensei’s place is very fun: I think you’ll like the indoor training room, Naruto, and Ino, the garden may not be one of flowers but there are plenty of wonderful foods growing there you’d like!”
Naruto is now the one who is beaming, “No way…Iruka sensei told me it isn’t real…he has a real life, indoor training room? Where is it? Can I see it right now?”
“Sure thing! Let me lead the way; I think it’d be fun to use the training room with you guys.”
Ino is happy to see her friend in a better mood—well, not completely better; more like improved. Still, an improved mood is better than nothing, “I wanna this training room too! Training with fellow omegas is a dream come true of mine and getting to train with you two is one of the best things to happen to me in a long time!”
It's not what she had imagined would happen, but as long as Lee is happy and Naruto isn’t trying to make haphazard, poorly thought out plans on the spot, then all is fine with her.