Katekyo Hitman Reborn! 1. Chapter 1: Normal Day, Weird Students

**Author's Note: I wanted to reupload this to see how it goes. Since Katekyo Hitman Reborn ended a few months ago, it should be easier for me to analyze, and organize the plot line for this story. But, I tend to give up on stories a lot even though I have these great ideas that could go great with the plot. **

**For The Woodbender: War and Peace, I'll upload the chapter on Wednesday or Thursday. Right now, it's being peer reviewed by several of my friends; they're pretty lazy if you ask me.**

**So, tell me what you think of this. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Katekyo Hitman Reborn"**

* * *

**Chapter One: Normal Day, Weird Students**

* * *

"Did you see the game yesterday?"

"Yeah, I did. That first year, Yamamoto Takeshi, must be a genius at baseball or something."

"I know right! His home-runs make me want to swoon like a girl." Both students snickered at the joke, their laughter echoed in the hallways.

"But seriously, that loser who lost all of those catches." A frown marred one of the student's faces, disgusted by the lack of masculinity he couldn't find in the brown-haired student he was thinking of.

"Ha-ha, I know who you're talking about. Isn't it-"

"SAWADA TSUNAYOSHI!"

The two students jumped in fright from the furious sounding voice. They turned back where the plain doors of the cafeteria was and gave each other mischievous smirks. Knowing who was behind the entrance, they walked backwards towards the lunchroom, never missing the chance to see "Dame Tsuna" humiliated.

Their hands reached out and swung the two doors open, their smirks transformed into wide grins. They looked around the cafeteria for their target. They noticed the student body looking in one direction and walked towards their destination. However, both bumped into a tall figure, and immediately apologized to their baseball star: Yamamoto Takeshi. They watched as the first-year laughed off the apology and rubbed the back of his head. One of them decided to start a conversation, as he asked, "Are you going to watch Tsuna again?"

His friend rubbed his hands together in a villanous distingushed way, "It's hilarious to watch him get punched by Mochida-sempai and the others."

Both of them cackled and never noticed how Yamamoto's eyes dimmed to a dull sort of shade of brown, his smile turned into a grim line. However, he hid his displeased expression with a happy façade, and said, "Maa maa, there's no need to make fun of Tsuna-san."

He looked at the two shorter students and asked, "Besides, what happened to him?"

The two teenagers looked at Yamamoto with slight disbelief and shook their heads in mock disappointment. One of them laid a hand on his arm and said, "C'mon, I'll show you Takeshi. God, I can't believe you never keep up with the school's grape-vine."

His friend shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you know Takeshi; he's always the nicest student in this school."

They walked to the other side of the cafeteria, where they noticed a large circle of students crowding around two people. The two students looked on with excitement and pushed Yamamoto inside of the crowd. However, what Takeshi saw was horrible. It was his senior Mochida standing over an injured student with a malicious smirk on his face. His hands clenched into fists and caked with dried blood and saliva. His shirt was spotted with dark red stains on his shirt. His sneakers were covered with remnants of the school lunch, scarlet pudding splattered on the floor.

He spat on the brown-haired teenager, allowing some of the other students to do the same.

"There Dame-Tsuna, that should teach you not to mess with me," said Mochida arrogantly and walked away with several of the random people from the crowd by his side.

The two students beside Takeshi started to laugh with their hands on their stomachs, their boisterous laughter bouncing off the walls. Most of the student population started to whisper within the background and some began to ignore the commotion, going back to their lunches or doing whatever they were doing in the first place. Yet, Takeshi looked at the wounded student and softly whispered, "Tsuna…"

He watched Tsuna stand up with feeble legs and wiped a trail of thin blood from the corner of his mouth. His usually spiked hair was messier than usual and his cheeks were bruising with purple blotches. Takeshi moved one step towards his friend and stopped when Tsuna looked up with a frightened expression. His amber eyes bright with tears and his whole body seemed to tremble in Takeshi's eyes. He stuttered with one of his arms covering his face, "Y-yes Yama-moto-san?"

Takeshi felt like consoling his best friend from the moment he heard his voice, but he couldn't destroy his disguise so early in the first stage of the plan. He shook his head and worriedly asked, "Are you okay Sawada-kun?"

He was then touched by the two students who were wiping their tears of mirth. The tall teenager was pushed towards the exit by them as he reached out for his friend.

"Why're you trying to help Dame-Tsuna?"

"Yeah, he doesn't need any at all."

Takeshi continued to watch Tsuna limp over to the exit of the lunch room with a depressed frown. He gritted his teeth in anger and turned around with a fist planted on one student. He flew back several feet and crashed against the cemented wall with a crack. Every girl started to scream as several jumped from their seats and boys began to shout in astonishment.

The other student backed up with his hands in the air. "Yo, calm down Yamomoto! What's your problem?"

The baseball player ignored the remaining student's pleas as he turned to face him; his leg kicked the student's stomach. The student flew just like his friend and landed on top of him.

Both of them groaned in pain and several teachers gathered to investigate the new incident.

'And coincidently ignoring Tsuna's injuries with Mochida,' Takeshi angrily thought to himself, never noticing until now how ignorant he was about Tsuna in his teenage years.

Oblivious to his angered thoughts, everyone stared at their baseball star in shock; they've never seen this side of him during the whole year before.

Takeshi exhaled each breath deeply. His eyes took on a shine of promising torture for the two imbeciles, chuckling with a smile on his face. He rubbed the back of his head with an "ashamed" expression.

"I'm sorry guys," Takeshi said, walking away to where Tsuna exited. "I guess I hit you guys a bit too hard."

He left the lunch room with a long silence behind and the teachers silently picked up the injured students to the infirmary.

* * *

'I wonder why Yamamoto-san would help me,' Tsuna thought, limping for a moment before he leaned against the wall with a slight moan. He lifted his arm with slight difficulty and winced at the amount of bruises that strayed on it. He looked at the other arm and saw the blood that trailed down to the floor and collected itself into tiny puddles.

'Stupid Tsuna...' He thought as he collected himself and continued the rest of his trip towards the infirmary. However, he highly doubted that he would receive any treatment, since the nurse didn't care much for him at all.

Tsuna continued to wince at each step he tried to take, but then the pain became too much for the fragile teen. He slid against another wall and grabbed his right ankle weakly. He could feel it throbbing with each second passing.

He knew there was something wrong going on as Mochida-sempai kept kicking his legs with his lackeys present.

"Sawada-kun!" The injured boy heard a familiar shout from his left and turned to find Yamamoto running to him. Tsuna swallowed a bit of saliva and tried to curl up, trying to protect himself from another bully attempt. Yet, he felt a large hand gently touching his shoulder and Tsuna let one brown eye peek. He let out a small gasp when the baseball player took out wrappings and started to treat his arms with gentle care.

He observed Yamamoto's expression with slight curiosity as it turned more serious with each bruise he saw. Tsuna hissed in pain after the older teen gently pressed against one of the wounds and backed off slowly. He heard himself ask, "Wh-why are you doing this?"

Yamamoto looked up from his treatment and gave a small comforting smile. His own brown eyes soften at the cautious stare and said, "I can't help it if I ignore a friend of mine, right?"

Tsuna dropped his arm from Yamamoto's touch and stuttered, "W-what do you mean by friend?"

Letting out an unusual sigh, Yamamoto looked down and attempted to look for any more injures on the teen's body. Finding none, he allowed Tsuna to bring his legs closer to his chest.

"Well you are my friend…"

All of a sudden, Yamamoto swiftly covered his ears and clenched his eyes shut, as if he heard a horrible sound. Tsuna blinked for a second and screamed, "HIIEE! I-is there something w-wrong?!"

Falling back, Yamamoto shook his head and jokingly replied, "I'm alright; there's just something in my ear." He stood up from his fall and lent a hand outwards.

He watched Tsuna looked at it as if was a dangerous weapon and said, "Maa maa, my hand's not going to hurt you."

Slowly, Tsuna took his hand and got up with little or no strength. Takeshi wrapped his arm around Tsuna's midsection and his other held onto his arm. He took the first step towards the infirmary and waited the smaller teen to follow his footsteps. Tsuna complied with the support and they walked to the room with an air of silence.

Tsuna concentrated on his feet and making sure he didn't step onto his support. He didn't need to mess up what Yamamoto was doing for him. Yet, what he couldn't understand was his reason for doing this. Though they were near the infirmary's entrance, Tsuna stopped and looked sideways. He brought his hair to cover his eyes and asked, "Is this a prank?"

He looked up, seeing Yamamoto look shocked and thought, 'I knew there was a hidden intention.'

Tsuna shrugged himself away from the taller teen and harshly replied, "W-well Yamamoto-san, I need to get to class now."

"Wait Tsuna!" Yamamoto got over his sudden shock and rushed towards the limping boy with one outstretched hand.

However, Tsuna was able to enter his next class as soon as the bell rang, and students leaving the cafeteria by blocking his path as well. Yamamoto felt himself being pushed away from the hallway and looked down with a frown.

Then all of a sudden, several girls started to come towards him, pushing themselves against his arms and body. Some of them looked worried from what occurred at the cafeteria, while the rest had sly smiles plastered on their faces.

"Nee Takeshi-kun, why'd you stand up for Dame-Tsuna?" asked a bleach haired girl with her dress shirt unbuttoned that showed her cleavage. Other girls nodded along with the question and started to repeat it to satisfy their curiosity.

However, Takeshi only created another fake smile and said, "Well, he was alone when Mochida-sempai started to beat him up."

The bleached girl continued to push herself up and grabbed his arm with a deadlock. "Oh I see now…"

She turned her head to face her entourage with a conceited smirk. She raised her head up and said, "I told you girls that Takeshi-kun doesn't associate with junk like that." All of the girls let out high pitched giggles and the surrounding boys jealously sighed at the amount of attention that Takeshi was receiving.

On the inside of his mind, Takeshi was getting tired of the annoying girls and was about to excuse himself until he heard a squeaky voice singing the anthem.

"Midori tanabiku namimori no,

Dai naku shou naku nami ga ii,

Itsumo kawarnu,

Sukoyaka kenage,

Aah, tomo ni utaou,

Namimori chuu!"

"Who's the loser singing that terrible song?" The girl screeched, looking around for the nerd who dared to sing in a terrible pitch at that as well. But, there was no one left in the hallways, as she was left with Takeshi and her girls.

The hallways were cleared of the rest of the students. She continued to survey the area until she felt several chills down her spine. Then, she felt the immense killing intent that flooded the halls, collapsing on her knees.

The rest of the girls fled once they heard the solemn clicks of the shoes eerily becoming louder and coming closer to where they were.

She shivered in fear and hugged Takeshi's leg tighter with her eyes darting back and forth. Footsteps were heard as each heel made a small clicking sound. She looked up to her crush and asked frightened, "T-Takeshi-kun… Do you know what that is?"

She waited for him to reply, but was too late when she felt someone giving a chilling glare on the nape of her neck. She turned around to see a tall handsome individual with a pair of tonfa clutched in his hands. Narrowed grey eyes matched with her blue ones and the girl thought she could swoon at the attention she was getting, but the thought disappeared once she noticed the dark red stains on the weapons.

She looked up to the baseball player, scared of what was going to happen to her. "Aren't you going to do anything?"

Yamamoto looked down with a weird expression on his face. He smiled with a semi-worried glint in his eyes. "Well, I wish I could do something about it…"

He removed himself from the girl's grasp and shook his head. "But, since you insulted Namimori and Tsuna…"

His brown eyes started to shine and his smile turned a bit crooked and psychotic. "I'm sorry; I can't help you with anything now."

Yamamoto walked away from the girl and hid behind one of the corners of the hallways. With ease, he waited for the annoying pleas to end, and the beating to begin. His adrenaline levels went higher and his blood started to pump once he heard the deep voice that belonged to the one and only: Hibari Kyoya.

"You dare disturb the peace and ritual of Namimori?" Yamamoto heard Hibari asked his newest prey. He could imagine the girl crying crocodile tears and pitifully acting out a distressing scene.

"I-i-it wa-wasn't me, Hibari-san!" The girl's voice cracked at the end and Yamamoto thought of her going on her knees. Yet, he knew the (only) conclusion of this sob story.

"I'll bite you to death."

Yamamoto held a stoic face, hearing the deafening cries of the girl and the sounds of metal hitting flesh. Each scream was accompanied with a sickening crunch and sobs were wracking from the victim. For a few minutes, the beating continued and no one came out to support her. Finally, Yamamoto felt a sticky substance on his skin and he looked straight at the steel grey eyes. He laughed as he waved at Hibari and asked, "Was that good enough for you?"

Hibari let out a grunt and walked away with his bloodied tonfas held by his side. Though, the perfect was about to leave the corridor, he stopped and said, "The baby wants you in the Committee room after school. Do not go to baseball practice herbivore."

Yamamoto began to calm down, his laughing spree coming to an end, "Sure, thanks Hibari for the notice."

With no reply, the perfect walked away elegantly, his jacket flapping with the non-existent breeze. Yamamoto leaned forward and erased the smile he had plastered on his face.

He walked to a nearby window and stared at the ominous grey clouds littering the sky. The sun was blocked and the whole school seemed to be trapped in a black dimension. There was nothing bright to light up the sky and the whole mood screamed 'depressing'.

Yamamoto rested his chin on his palm and wistfully said, "We'll do anything for you Tsuna. Please try to remember us."

* * *

"As we will learn later on, there are some theorems that you would need to memorize." A pair of black eyes looked at each student in his class, before landing on his usual target.

Nezu-sensei looked on with a ferocious smile and cleared his throat. After getting the class' attention, he lectured everybody with a pompous tone. "Well everyone, since there is someone here who doesn't appreciate my lesson..."

The forty year old teacher moved his eyes towards the dazed Tsuna and threw his chalk at his forehead. There was an immediate impact and Tsuna fell out of his seat. Many of the students started to laugh, including Nezu-sensei. He let out a small groan at the pain and he listened as Nezu-sensei continued to speak.

"This here is an exhibit of a student who will never succeed in his academic life." He pointed at Tsuna and walked to the front of the classroom. He waved his hands around as his glasses reflected the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.

"Dame-Tsuna will probably be sent to summer school and will always be a loser when he reaches adult-hood." Nezu-sensei concluded his statements; the bell rang for the end of the class. He waited for the students to bow for gratitude and left the classroom, never noticing the two pairs of glares that were pointed at him.

Just as the idiotic teacher left, the two pairs of eyes, amber and indigo, turned in the direction of Tsuna. They watched the majority of the baseball team crowding around their friend and was about to fight for him, but stopped themselves after two seconds. They knew that they couldn't go against Reborn's orders or else chaos will erupt.

"Why're you bothering Takeshi-san so much?" One of the rookie baseball players asked, placing his hands on the desk.

Tsuna cowered in his seat, intimidated by all of their taller heights and bodies. "W-wh-what do you mean Ishao-san?"

His brown mousse eyes looked up and met each menacing glare from the crowd. However, the rookie grasped a bunch of Tsuna's shirt and lifted him up carelessly. He leaned closer and whispered, "What you did to bother Takeshi-san so much that he got so stressed and hit two of his buddies."

The rookie dropped him off and Tsuna collided with his desk, letting out a shocked yelp. His elbow made contact with the edge of the desk and his back strewed on the middle of the desk.

"C'mon boys, let's rough him up a little!" The rookie shouted to his friends and they agreed whole-heartedly with a yell of "Alright".

They gradually got closer and was about to land the first punch when they heard a yell.

"TO THE EXTREME!"

A fifteen year old boy entered the classroom, punching the air with increasing speed. His black eyes focused on the group of baseball players and noticed fluffy brown hair. Hearing a pained moan, Ryohei ran towards to the group and screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE EXTREME?"

The group separated in fear of the ferocious boxer, except for the rookie who continued to punch Tsuna's stomach without a care. Ryohei's mouth curled to a snarl and rapidly punched the rookie against his face. The bully collapsed against the wall with his eyes rolled up, before going into unconsciousness.

He turned around to face Tsuna with worried eyes as he shouted, "ARE YOU ALRIGHT SAWADA?"

Tsuna coughed up a bit of blood and two gasps were heard from the background. However, he ignored them in favor of responding back the loud question.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine…" Tsuna croaked out and steadily stood on the floor.

Ryohei was about to make a move when a hand slapped away his efforts and he stopped to watch.

"I-it's alright senpai…" Ryohei heard Tsuna say as he retrieved his bag from the floor. "Y-yo-you don't need to help a person like me."

"But SAWADA," Ryohei was about to continue his efforts when he stopped with a rigid stance, seeing blood trailing down from Tsuna's mouth. His mind started to repeat that distant memory that made him strike in fear.

_"Don't worry… I know… You guys can fix this…"_

"Onii-chan!" Ryohei turned around from his stupor and saw his younger sister, Kyoko, running towards him with their friend, Chrome.

"Tsuna-kun left already; are you sure you told him you could help him?" Kyoko asked and Ryohei shook his head dumbly with his inwardly punching himself in the face. He forgot to stop Sawada!

He was led by his comrade, Dokuro Chrome, to the hallways as he heard her say, "Let's go to the reception room... Reborn-san said he wanted us there."

And for the rest of the time there, the group walked off in silence.

'What do you mean by that Sawada?' Ryohei thought as they reached the doors of the Reception Room. 'He couldn't be thinking of himself like this before we met each other?'

* * *

"Geez, what's everyone's problem these days?" Tsuna muttered, opening the door to his house. He was greeted with a warm welcome from his mom, and he smiled at the comforting aura. Tsuna walked to the stairs and greeted back his mom, while tripping mid-way through.

Eventually, he reached to his room and opened the door to find a typical, disorganized, teenager-styled room. He kicked several bundles of clothes away and landed on top of his bed gently. He gently touched the recent bruises he received and winced at the painful throbs.

He closed his eyes slowly and slept off the pain of his wounds, never knowing what fate has laid out for him.

* * *

"Stupid cow, stop hogging the damn camera!" A rough voice was heard as forest green eyes glared at a bushy-haired boy. He turned around to face the computer screen and he said, "I'm sorry Reborn-san!"

Hibari clenched his tonfa handles with obvious restraint of frustration and turned to face the other side of the reception room. Ryohei was confused with the situation and screamed, "WHAT'S GOING ON TO THE EXTREME?"

A gun shot was heard as everything became silent and everyone looked at the miniature hit man, Reborn. His curled side burns bounced slightly as the assassin lifted his head to look at all of the guardians. His obsidian eyes glinted with a light of forewarned danger as he threatened, "Everyone needs to shut up and we can get this meeting started."

The rest of the occupants, excluding Hibari, swallowed deeply and Gokudera said via online, "A-alright, well, did any of you try to talk to Juudaime?"

The room continued to be silent as Yamamoto spoke out, "We tried Gokudera... But, it seems that Tsuna is very different from ours."

A soft voice spoke the next turn, "It looked like boss didn't want to live at all..." Chrome twiddled with her fingers as she continued to speak, "And we couldn't do anything..."

Kyoko rubbed her back with tears in her eyes and Gokudera let out an annoyed grunt. "You are such idiots; how can you leave Juudaime like that?"

"I said enough," Reborn shot another bullet to the ceiling and debris fell from the impact. Gokudera became silent and the curly haired boy, Lambo, held onto the older guardian tighter.

"Now, are you getting ready to come here Gokudera?" Reborn asked at the computer screen and Gokudera nodded rapidly as he stood up; the only thing that the rest of the guardians could see was the storm guardian's pants.

"Yes Reborn-san! We're coming to Namimori tomorrow morning by the latest." Gokudera threw Lambo at the back once he heard several whines for "Maman". He searched for Yamamoto and said, "Baseball freak! You better make sure that Juudaime is safe once I come there."

Yamamoto nodded with an unusual silence. "Alright Gokudera, I'm not going to be stupid as I was from before."

The mood started to darken with everyone thinking about the word "stupid" and how their actions defined the word.

Then, Gokudera disconnected the connection and Hibari faced the rest of the crowd. "Get out of here before I bite you to death."

Chrome and Kyoko became frightened by the Cloud guardian and followed his orders. They went outside together, holding onto each other's hands comforting the other person. At the same time, Ryohei gave a worried look at the remaining guardians, and left the premise for the two girls. However, Yamamoto stood ground and asked with furrowed eyebrows, "Hibari… Did you know that this was going to happen?"

Hibari faced the clear beautiful view of Namimori, his beloved hometown. "The herbivore has sent us without my permission."

"And why did he do it?" Yamamoto asked again and threatingly stepped forward, but Reborn stopped him with a click of his pistol.

"Stop Yamamoto, get some rest and we'll begin to fix this past tomorrow." Reborn said, hopping onto Yamamoto's shoulders and directed him to turn around. The Rain guardian wanted to disobey; however he complied with the Acrobaleno's request and left the room.

Hibari was left to his own devices as he gingerly touched the purple stone of his Vongola ring. He let a small smirk reached his face as he muttered, "Tsunayoshi became an omnivore."

* * *

"Shou-chan~ Can you please tell me where the Vongola rings disappear to?" A sugary voice asked towards a bleeding figure that was chained to the wall. Momentarily, the voice stopped to nibble a small marshmallow treat. However, it continued to direct the slashes on the figure's body.

A small painful grunt was heard as Shoichi struggled to hold his screams and his consciousness. His vision was blurry and he couldn't make out the towering figure over him. But, he knew it was his ex-leader Byakuran, with his snow white hair and twinkling violet eyes; Shoichi shivered in fright. However, he needed to stay strong for the Guardians to help the past Tsunayoshi.

'Itai…' He thought as another monstrous bruise formed on his stomach; he watched the blurred figure laugh at his pain.

"One second here equals a minute there…" Shoichi whispered, darkness taking over his vision.

'Save the cielo, save the sky Vongola guardians.'

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Past and Future (Moment 1)

**Author's Notice****: Here is the next chapter. I'm thankful for all of the alerts and reviews I've received. **

**The next chapter for "The Woodbender" is coming out next week or so. I've been busy with some private issues last week and had no time to start writing. **

**This is unbeta'ed, like the rest of my other stories. **

**Diclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.**

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**Chapter Two: Past and Future (Moment 1)**

* * *

It was a typical habit for Tsuna to wake up quite cheerfully when his mother would say good morning to him. Her doe-like eyes would shine brightly only for him. Her slender hands would gently shake him awake and her warm voice would soothe his ears. But as he woke up, clutching his head in pain, Tsuna knew it wasn't going to be a normal day.

He opened his eyes, blinking back tears that started to form. His vision started to clear, focusing on a distorted image, and noticed something unusual.

He saw a suit clad infant holding on a hundred pound hammer as if it was light as a feather. The infant smirked while the hammer morphed into a green chameleon. It rested on the infant's dashing fedora, quietly snoring into sleep.

His curly sideburns bounced slightly as the baby raised his head and cutely remarked, "Ciaossu!"

Tsuna let out a girly shriek and rushed towards the corner of his room. However, he tripped onto his crinkled uniform and bumped his head against the wall. Once again, he clutched his head and let out a small moan of pain. He could see through his squinted eyes that the infant was sighing and jumped off from the furniture.

Tsuna leaned back as far as he could and yelled, "Okaa-san! W-what's a baby doing here?"

For a few seconds, the fourteen year old listened to the clashes of the pots, and sighed in relief as footsteps frantically ran up the stairs. The wooden door opened to find his mother's face looking around panicked. However, she noticed her son crouching at the corner of his room, and an adorable infant settled on his squealed in delight as she jumped over the strewn clothes and hugged him with tender care. She turned around to face Tsuna and she asked with a curious tone, "What's wrong Tsuna?"

Tsuna was struck with a flash of panic as he watched the infant snuggle into his mother's bosom and he stood up in anger. He snatched away the toddler gently and rested him on top of the soft bed coverings. He turned to face his mother and asked, "What is he doing at our house? Did you let him in?"

His arms waved frantically and he never noticed the infant's eyes shadowed by his fedora. A gun shot rung from the silence and Tsuna practically looked at the smoke that arose from the gun hole. He swallowed dry air and stuttered out the obvious question, "W-wh-who are you?"

The infant looked up with gleaming devious eyes. "My name is Reborn."

Hearing a slight yelp of astonishment, Tsuna looked from the corner of his eyes, and saw his mother recovering from a small slip.

Then, he looked back to the mysterious baby, and found the infant holding a bright piece of paper. Slowly, he maneuvered his body to a crouch and approached the baby with apprehension.

He looked down to look at the poster and saw it was labeled in bold, red letters that spelled out into a sentence, and it said, 'Will raise your kid to be the new leader of the next generation. Grade and subject doesn't matter. Reborn.'

Tsuna turned his head slowly towards Reborn, who was still holding onto the paper, and looked with a patient expression.

He snatched the flyer and waved it in front of his mom. His face turned a bit red as time passed and he screamed, "This is all a scam!"

Tsuna pointed at Reborn, who walked closer by the second, and had a threatening glint in his eyes. "Okaa-san, do you really believe this 'Reborn' can save my grades? I mean look at him!"

The fourteen-year-old boy continued to gesture at Reborn's miniscule size. "He's only a baby and I bet you that this is a candid camera show or something like that!"

Reborn gave an annoyed glare that made Tsuna stopped his rant and the little infant pulled out another sheet from his small pockets. Tsuna and his mom leaned closer than last time and saw it was a mathematics test that was marked with a big fat zero. The mom moved her hands to her mouth to hide her surprised gasp and Tsuna face-palmed his forehead when he looked at his name on the test sheet.

"This is one of the reasons I'm here to help you and I assure you that this isn't some prank show." Reborn smiled at his mother, who gave an embarassing smile back. Tsuna was left hopeless between the two people and waved his arms once more.

"Okaa-san! I can raise my grades perfectly fine on my own. I don't see the point of getting a toddler to teach me algebra."

His mom sighed in confusion as she watched her son panic and shrugged her arms in defeat. She gave a sheepish smile to him as she stood up to leave his room. "Well Tsu-kun, I already asked him to stay for the rest of the year because I thought it would help you better than you were already doing. But I see that Tsu-kun isn't doing his best as I thought he was."

Tsuna looked at his mom with disbelief as she opened the door and turned her head to give another apologetic smile. "It's not going to be that bad. I'll make some toast for you, so hurry up and get ready for school."

She closed the door and didn't notice when Tsuna ruffled his hair messily and was given a sharp kick to the ribs. He coughed up a mouthful of saliva and collapsed to his knees in an attempt to breathe normally. Looking up to find the infant giving the tiniest of smirks, Tsuna heard him say, "Dame-Tsuna, you're going to be late for school."

"How do you know about my ni-" Tsuna angrily asked, but stopped once he looked at his alarm clock. White numbers stood out from the black shades of the clock. It said '8:00'.

Tsuna gave a hurtful shriek as he stood up and rushed around his room, looking for his uniform in a panicked state. Reborn sighed, shaking his head from dealing with his pathetic student once more, and kicked the uniform at his brat's face. Surprisingly, Tsuna caught the clothes and began to pull them on, when he realized that the suspicious 'Reborn' was still here.

He found himself asking, "How can you teach me when you're only a toddler?"

The mysterious baby didn't reply back and Tsuna decided to confront the issue later; He ran down the stairs, tripping on the last step, and ran to his right. He snatched the piece of toast that his mother was holding and waved her good-bye.

He stopped to take a nibble of his toast and putting on his shoes. He started to run once more when he saw Reborn at the end of the stairs.

Tsuna unlocked the door and went out in a few seconds and was about to face the corner when he bumped against a firm chest. Tsuna jumped back from shock and gave a nervous yelp. However, two strong arms held onto his shoulders and Tsuna looked up to find it was Yamamoto from yesterday.

His brown eyes narrowed in anger since he remembered the incident clearly and removed himself carefully from the taller boy's arms. Then he asked with a semi-cautious tone, "What are you doing here Yamamoto-san?"

Said boy started to laugh as he rubbed the back of his head in what seemed embarrassment, "Maa, don't call me with an honorific; just call me Yamamoto. Besides, I wanted to walk with you to school."

Tsuna watched carefully as Yamamoto tried to reach for his shoulder and he rushed forward, moving away from the taller teenager and collapsed against the wall. He cowered and raised his arms as Takeshi tried to walk towards him. However, he felt a spell of dizziness as his vision started to swirl before his eyes and his mind couldn't comprehend what was right and left. Then all of a sudden, he started to hear several gunshots and frantic voices in his head.

_'Come on Tsuna, I know you can make it!' A deep voice sounded urgent as two large hands started to shake his shoulders. His body felt an immense shock of pain and his heart was slowly thumping._

_'TSUNA!' He continued to hear the voice screaming at him, asking for him to return to them. He lifted his hand and slowly ran through the figure's hair and wondered why it was so soft. He barely flinched as droplets of water landed on his cheeks and he knew it wasn't only the rain that was falling. He dropped his arm to his side and slowly whispered, 'I know you can make it guys... I believe...in you...'_

"Tsuna?" The hands were shaking him once more and he dropped to the floor, gasping for air in his lungs. He can feel sweat rolling off his face and on the floor. His mind was deluding the sounds of concern around him. His amber pupils widened in disbelief. He wrapped himself around and trembled in fear as the voices whispered in his mind, begging him to stay alive. However, Tsuna only could break out in a cold sweat.

**SLAP**

Tsuna grabbed his forehead in shock. He felt a horrendous sting from somewhere and looked up to find Reborn with a green ruler that had wide yellow eyes.

His eyes were staring into Tsuna's own and Yamamoto could be seen by the side, looking worried for his life. Yet, he could only pay attention to the infant as he heard the squeaky voice. "Why aren't you getting to school, Dame-Tsuna?"

Realizing how much time has passed, Tsuna quickly ignored the weird hallucination and yelled in obvious anxiety for a few seconds. Picking himself up from the ground, he moved past Yamamoto and avoided the barking Chihuahua, who was in his neighbor's front yard.

He crossed the street and avoided several collisions with people by a slight chance of luck. And somehow in five minutes to spare, Tsuna made it past the Namimori gates in success. However, when he left the entrance and took his first step into the courtyard, he knew it was obviously going to be a long day.

Up ahead, several large figures were headed towards him with all-knowing smirks glued onto their faces walking with ease. Tsuna looked at the rest of the other students that came in and walked towards the school's door.

"Look at that boys, we found our tuna just in time!" The boy in the middle of the group remarked, looking at Tsuna from top to bottom. The rest of the group that were by his side started to howl in laughter.

They congratulated their friend for picking such a delectable choice. Tsuna continued to watch them carefully, wanting to run away like the rest of the student population that snuck away into the building. The only exception was a select group of the injured baseball players that failed to beat Tsuna up the other day. All of them wore malicious smirks, cheering for the three teenagers.

"Hey Dame-Tsuna, we need your money since we're giving you some service." The bully continued to aggravate as him and his buddies took a threatening step forward. Tsuna took a step back and attempted to bring his bag in front of his chest, but only felt air. He looked down where his bag was supposed to be and saw that it was his right hand that was in mid-air. Panicking, Tsuna paced back and stifled his breathing when he felt his back against the entrance's brick wall.

"Oi Dame-Tsuna, c'mon and let's get the show on the road!" That was the final straw for the young teenager as he closed his eyes.

Then, he dropped to the bare ground and curled into a fetal position with his hands covering all of the soft spots, including his head and chest. Then, he waited only a few seconds before the pain arrived on his back and traveled to the rest of his body with a burst of shock.

His legs felt as if they were cracking from the immense pressure and gave a pained moan when one of the bullies' feet stepped rather harshly on his ankle. He heard a 'crack' sound as he gave out a soundless scream when his ankle fractured. Tsuna could see spots in his black vision behind his closed eyes and noted that he could also hear the laughter in the background.

He felt numb from the pain.

He wanted to fight back, despite his fragile stature, and show them all how much their punches hurt. He wanted to show how much their words break apart his mind, tearing it in pieces.

He wanted to sleep off the nightmare when all of a sudden the pain stopped.

There were no kicks or stomps on his body and Tsuna wondered if they've gotten tired of abusing his body, and attempted to open his heavy eyelids. He felt a comforting sensation, similar to rain washing away the sores and pain that covered his body.

He could feel himself being lifted from the ground and was carried by gentle arms. And as he was lulled to a gentle sleep, the last thought that ran through his mind was how the arms felt like they belonged to Yamamoto-san.

* * *

"I ask you again Shou-chan… Where are the Vongola Rings?" Byakuran asked as he kicked Shoichi once more on his bruised stomach. The corners of his lips lifted up as he saw his ex-subordinate cough up blood from his torn lips and his arms were shaking feebly.

He crouched down, avoiding any dirt and lifted Shoichi's chin with a gentle touch. However, the red head spat out residues of his blood onto Byakuran's cheek and glared back in protest.

Releasing a small giggle, Byakuran slapped Shoichi without a shred of regret and watched the pale cheeks turn a bright red. He let go of his chin and nested his head on top of his two shuffled arms. His violet eyes twinkled with insanity. His giggles morphed into cackles that brought him to his knees.

Shoichi watched with fearful eyes as the once sane leader was now reduced to a megalomaniac.

The redhead knew that it was because of the collaboration of Yuni and Tsunayoshi, Byakuran lost his life in one of the parallel worlds.

He also knew that it was partially his fault as well that Byakuran was morphed into this insane person. But, he needed to perform the act for this world's Vongola guardians to be sent back to the past.

"C'mon Shou-kun! It's not fair when I'm the only one talking. It's making me sound like a crazy person, you know?" Byakuran asked nasally, his lips pursed into a pout.

Shoichi mentally cringed and lowered his head to stop the trembles that raked his body. He didn't want to show any weaknesses that Byakuran could take advantage of before his plan could fail.

"The Vongola rings… were destroyed altogether when... you murdered the guardians." Shoichi answered. His voice sounded raspy, a horrible symptom from screaming after each beating he took from the Millefiore leader.

Byakuran rubbed his chin as if he was considering the idea and gave a curious hum. Then, he shook his head with a playful smile. "Shou-chan, you know that's a lie. I've been watching you with the Vongola guardians sometime this year and might I say I was a bit surprised when I saw the idiots."

'Vongola…' Shoichi thought, his head whirling from the lack of blood and began to feel the hammering pain in his head. Finally, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into unconsciousness.

_"Juudaime is dead? He's been dead for the last three years and it was all because of you! You were the one who killed him in cold blood!" Gokudera Hayato yelled at Shoichi and attempted to run at the tech-genius with a raised fist, but was restricted by his fellow guardians, Yamamoto and Ryohei. His furrowed eyebrows and his bright green eyes made the storm guardian look fierce and furious. His hands were clenched into tight fists and his breathing turned deeper; his protests began to die away._

_Shoichi shuffled his feet, looking at the other guardians, and saw that they were all glaring at him, except for the cloud guardian. Hibari Kyouya was leaning against the wall with his tonfa gleaming under the fluorescent light and watched the interaction. Then as if he felt Shoichi's stare, he looked back with his steel grey eyes and the computer genius rapidly turned back to the storm guardian. _

_By that time, Gokudera-san was done with his protests and told both of his comrades, "Stop… I'm done now…"_

_Yamamoto and Ryohei gave a look at each other and released their friend from their grasp and the silver-headed man stepped on the marble floor gracefully. __His bright green eyes to a dull forest green. _

_He straightened his wrinkled suit and tie as he walked back towards the thunder and mist guardians, Lambo and Chrome. The storm guardian inserted his hands into his pockets and said, "Takeshi, Ryohei, come back here. We need to figure out what happened when we disappeared."_

_Both of the guardians nodded and walked back to their positions, almost completing the Vongola guardians. But, Shoichi can see that they were leaving a bit of space in the middle as if there was an invisible person that stood there. However, he realized that the position belonged to Tsunayoshi and shook his head with minimum movement. _

_He didn't want all of the guardians to think that his head movement was a ploy. So, Shoichi looked back to the crowd and was about to speak what happened to defend him and Tsunayoshi's decision, but felt a cold metal touch on the back of his neck._

_Goosebumps crawled through his skin and the red head slowly turned his head and was confronted with Hibari's grey eyes once more. He looked in the ferocious stare and backed up several steps with his hands in the air as he cried out, "H-Hibari-san, don't try and hurt me! I'll explain what happened!"_

_Hibari lowered his tonfa down momentarily to analyze the herbivore in front of him. Sweat was trailing down the redhead's face as he cowered under his stare and shuffled his feet together. Brown eyes were dilated behind the crooked glasses and red hair was ruffled. _

_He glanced at the crowd of guardians, his mind disdainfully retorted they were all so weak, and raised his weapons back up. He smirked at his victim and crouched down to stabilize his position. _

_Then, he dashed to the computer genius and used his right tonfa to connect his hit at Shoichi's stomach. He heard the satisfying pained gasp and stood up as the redhead flew to the back wall of the laboratory. _

_He ignored the sudden protests from the other herbivores and walked towards the semi-conscious red-head. He stopped in front of the laid man and crouched down to meet eye level. The cloud guardian can see the shine of fear that covered the technician's eyes and gave an inward smirk. _

_But, he didn't have time for this as he had an instinctive feeling that the annoying pineapple would soon arrive. He leaned forward and ignored how the weakling flinched back and whispered in his ear for the second time._

_"Fix this herbivore or I'll bite you more than what you already got." Shudders raked the tech-herbivore's body and Hibari stood up, satisfied with his discipline act._

_"Oi bastard, I said that we need to figure out what happened, not beat up the enemy!" The ill tempered herbivore shouted out to Hibari, but he ignored the scream. Instead, he cleaned the blood from his weapon and stored it away in his inner pocket of his suit._

_"Teme, listen to me when I'm speaking to you!" The herbivore continued to yell and was then muffled by the other one._

_Shoichi coughed up a bit of blood and weakly wiped it away by his sleeves. He gave a good look at the Vongola guardians as all of them were aged ten years older than their past counterparts. He didn't know what happened to their younger selves since they vanished after Tsunayoshi was killed by Byakuran._

_'Byakuran,' Shoichi angrily thought and was too deep into his thoughts to realize that the commotion stopped and everyone else was staring at him. After a few seconds of silence, Shoichi moved his knees underneath him and used the remaining strength to raise himself up. His hand touched the adjacent wall and steadied his breathing._

_He gazed seriously at everyone._

"Shou-chan~" Tiredly, he woke up from his momentary sleep and met those damned violet eyes that never seemed to stop twinkling.

"Well, I need to go." Byakuran whined and Shoichi took all of his will power not to cringe from the horrid expression that was plastered on the white haired man. With the crazed eyes and irritating pout, the once calm and care-free leader looked more like a rabid serial killer than anything else.

'But, the fact that he is a serial killer is true.' Shoichi thought to himself warily.

Byakuran gave a wave goodbye and left the exit, which was the only spot that was cleansed of blood and other bodily fluids. The twenty-five year old Shoichi stared down at the scarlet puddle that was made up of blood and saw the blurry reflection of him.

Half of his face was covered with scratches that ran deep into his skin, drawing more blood by the minute. His glasses were missing, leaving his eyes and his vision vulnerable to the Millefiore leader.

'Shit,' Shoichi couldn't feel most of his body and attempted to move his arms, but it was no use. His hands were chained to the wall and his legs were bounded by a strong piece of rope.

He tried to thrash against the chains, but it was useless as he rapidly got tired after a few minutes. He leaned his head back against the bloodied wall and looked up to the gradient ceiling.

At that instant, Shoichi heard faint steps coming in his direction and by the clicks of the heels; he knew the culprit was a girl. He waited with his limbs bounded and controlled his breathing as the steps stopped in front of his cell door.

_**Inhale**_

He could see the shadow of the person standing outside and noticed one of the parts of the shadow shuffled behind the other.

_**Exhale**_

A loud grumble could be heard on the other side of the door. He realized that the shadow didn't correctly slide the card into the communication slot. Shoichi weakly raised his head to stare at the center of the door when he realized that he recognized the sound of that voice.

_**Inhale**_

The communication system finally accepted the card and opened the door. The shadow disappeared as the figure stepped into the darkness and Shoichi hissed at the brightness of the hallway and stopped once the door closed behind the person. Once he adjusted his-already- blurry vision, Shoichi finally took a good look and widened his eyes.

_**Exhale**_

"Nee-san," The red-head breathed out as he took in his sister's luscious brown curls that were tied up to a long ponytail. She wore the White spell uniform and she carried a tray of food that smelled delicious from his perspective. His mouth watered with saliva as he faintly saw the steam from the soup and main dish. However, his attention was mainly focused on his sister, who wore a contempt frown.

She dropped the tray and kicked it in his direction, where the puddle of blood splashed over his torn pants and food.

"I don't care anymore," is all what his sister said before she promptly turned around and exited the door.

Instantly, his cuffs were unlocked and he fell to the ground ungracefully as he gently picked himself up with all the care he can try, and moved one hand towards the food. There were utensils right next to plate of steak, but the twenty-five year old man didn't care as he used his hands to stuff the meat right inside of his mouth.

The flavor exploded in his mouth as Shoichi chewed on the tender meat and enjoyed the sauce that accompanied with the dish. After finishing the dish in less than five minutes, he swallowed the entire contents of the soup, ignoring the burn in his throat. He devoured the cooked rice with his hands and greedily drank the glass of water without a single thought. And before he knew it, tears started to pool and dropped to the filthy ground.

Shoichi dried his tears with the back of his hand and moved the tray away with a stronger push than before. He leaned against the wall and looked at his legs, which were covered in bruises that ranged from small to large. His left ankle was twisted in an unusual degree and Shoichi winced at the reminder of the horrific shock.

'I have to endure it.'

For what seemed like hours, Shoichi finally pushed himself together and gathered enough energy in his hands to make it glow with beautiful yellow flames.

'I have to.'


	3. Chapter 3: Transition to the Present

**Author's Notice****: I don't know what I'm doing right now. I'm supposed to be uploading "The Woodbender", but there's something up with this writer's block. I hope I can get through this. **

**Anyways, I don't know if I wrote this in the summary, but this story is going to somewhat follow the canon storyline. Besides, I can guess some of you understand what the Guardians are like, personality wise, right? Haha, Tsuna's not going to be weak like this. He's going to receive training once the shock of becoming a boss is over in the next two chapters. **

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.**

* * *

**Chapter Three: Transition to the Present**

* * *

_"Okaa-san, are you okay?" He rushed down the stairs to the kitchen once he heard sniffling and cries from the only other person that lives with him. _

_He tripped on his own right foot while he tried to land on the last step. However, he was able slide through the kitchen entrance, and stopped in front of his beautiful mother, who was rubbing away the salty tears with the back of her hand._

_Carefully, he sat on his knees, and gently touched his mother's knee with one of his chubby hands. He repeated his question once more and watched his mother lifted her head and gave an uneasy smile. Her long brown curls covered half of her slender face and her eyes were red from what he guessed was sobbing._

_He continued to stare at her face, watching the smile disappear, and let the tension disappear from his body. _

_A larger, more delicate hand than his own touched his left shoulder. His mother bent forward, where she easily hugged him around the waist, and rested her chin on his other shoulder. _

_He felt a shiver down his spine when his mother exhaled softly near his ear, his feet shifting slightly to not agitate her. It was useless though as he could feel his body tense once more when he heard her breathing hitch in an uneasy pattern._

_He removed himself from his mother and stared directly into the same eyes that looked exactly as his own, finally seeing the **worry**, **anger**, and **apprehension**. _

_"What happened?" He asked, unsure of what was going on with his only precious person. _

_He allowed his mother to place her head on his soft, fluffy hair. The only time his mother did that was when something was stressing her out, making her feel clingy to anyone. She was unable to respond calmly when a dire situation occurred and needed her mind to be distracted from the mess. _

_It took a few minutes for him to receive an answer, but as he listened to his mother's mournful voice; he wanted her to stop. _

_"Tsuna's acting just like his father. I feel happy that you're just as caring and-" His mother stopped talking. Her breath hitched one more time._

_He couldn't lean his head back with his mother's face on the top of his, yet he knew that she was wearing such a melancholic expression._

_He can imagine the firm lips that wouldn't smile, unfocused eyes that told everyone she wasn't in this world anymore. _

_But no, she's trying to protect herself. He consoled himself, knowing it's the only way that he wouldn't become mental either. _

_She was only coping. _

_He used his opposable thumbs to rub smooth circles around his mother's hand and waited in silence for her to calm down._

_The weight on his head lessened and he finally looked up to where his mother gave a false smile. She looked off into the distance and eventually her face smoothed into a blank expression. That was another symptom that he knew was a "coping" technique._

_He felt a surge of anger rush through his tiny body. He wanted to smack, hit, beat the person who made his dear mother cry just like the awesome robot in his favorite television show. _

_Yet, he knew there's another person that can make his most precious person feel better in an instant, and it was his papa._

_'Papa's a strong person.' He thought, while he stood up, and wavered when he felt an itchy sensation in his calves. He ignored it and let go of his kaa-san's hands in order to get her attention by jumping up and down repeatedly._

_'Papa's better than Roboto-san. He hugs okaa-san and she laughs so much.'_

_He patted her lap softly and got her attention. She gave a curious gaze with her eyes dull and empty. He tightened his hands into fists and stood determinedly. "Papa is coming home soon. So, don't worry too much Okaa-san!"_

_Then as if he activated a trigger, the tears started to form in his mother's eyes, and dropped to the ground. _

_He panicked and waved his hands around like there was a chaotic fire instead of his mom tearing up, and started to lean on his mother's chest to wipe away the tears._

_"I'm really sorry; did papa hurt you or something?" He questioned and started to imagine his brave and courageous father with an evil smile and black cape. _

_'It's impossible. Papa would never do that to okaa-san.'_

_Papa was one of the most amazing people on the Earth; he could do anything. He was like a superhero._

_He was always saving his okaa-san and him from danger. He can still remember the time when his father rescued him from that raving __Chihuahua__ a few months ago._

_He was playing with his red ball while his okaa-san was with his papa and a strange old man in the living room. _

_Then, he left his ball in the middle of the backyard, while he went to get some juice for a few minutes. But when he came back, he saw the __Chihuahua__ chewing on his favorite ball, and started to bark at him. Even though he asked for it back kindly, it kept barking and growling with its beady eyes. _

_The rest of the dangerous memory disappeared in his mind and the only thing that he could remember after the panic were strong arms holding him. It belonged to his father, who started to bounce him up and down. _

_The sun was shining brightly; his papa smiled widely that ceased his crying and he grinned back._

_He returned back to reality as his mother stood up from the chair and moved towards the sink. He walked by her side and waited for an answer. _

_He didn't have to wait as long as before. _

_She bent down to look directly at his eyes and she clutched his shoulders in a vice grip. Tsuna winced a little and his mother stopped, but nonetheless Tsuna could still see his okaa-san was deadly serious._

_"Tsu-kun…" His mother said his name._

_"Hai?" He waited for the reply._

_His okaa-san sighed and brushed back his hair with a gentle touch. "It seems that Papa's going to be a little late coming home. He said that he's going to keep his promise later."_

_He stopped listening after he heard the words of 'papa' and 'late' together and tried to understand what the two meant together. His papa definitely promised him that he wouldn't be late anymore. _

_So many times he was rejected along with his mother. They were left behind with only a confident grin and tough posture from their only reliant figure. Now, his papa didn't only break his mother's heart, but tore his apart._

_He moved himself away from his mother. He took a step back with wide eyes. _

_He didn't want to throw a childish tantrum that would upset his mother even more than what she's already dealing with, and tried to stop the little pauses that made his throat feel swollen. So, he gave a weak smile his mother would buy. _

_She ignored him while she dealt with her momentary disappointment and grief. Nodding along with her words, he turned around to exit the kitchen, and was about to leave to do something distracting; he thought of something that could give him a bit of hope for a few more days._

_"Okaa-san, when is he coming home?" He asked and then he heard nothing else._

_"Well Tsu-kun, it's going to be hard for me to tell because Papa wants to go on all these adventures for us." He turned around and saw his mother going off into her own world again with her brown eyes glazed. Her arms were by her side while she stood there in front of the sink with a dazed expression. _

_Using his chubby legs, he walked towards his mother and grabbed her right arm with both of his small hands. And though it took a bit of effort on his part, he was successful of leading his precious mother outside of the kitchen and into the living room, where a creamy-colored couch was placed at the back of the room. _

_Tightly gripping on one of her sleeve while the other was still holding her slender pale hand, he continued to lead her to the piece of furniture, and softly pushed her to the soft cushions. Then, he let her lie down and counted down from thirty._

_She closed her eyes, and drifted off until he could see her chest move up and down calmly._

_'Papa,' he thought as he got out of the kitchen and went up the stairs to his room. He was sure that his mother was going to be alright for a few hours and opened the door with a tuna sign._

_'Papa's gonna come back for me and kaa-san.' He stubbornly thought and walked to a little desk that had multiple drawers. He opened one of them with slight difficulty. He heard a slight creak from the friction of the wood and metal. Moving some of the useless drawings that he made, he searched through the drawer._

**_CRASH_**

"Kaa-san!" Tsuna screamed out, looking around the room for his mother. But, he wasn't in his house.

He stared at the row of clean beds that were separated by white curtains. The rest of the room was colored white, including the floor, and he turned his head to the right to find a wooden desk placed in the corner.

"You're awake now?" He heard the squeaky voice that he only knew it belonged to the persistent devil-in-disguise, Reborn.

He switched the direction so he can stare at the suit-clad infant, who was standing on a wooden stool with an irritating smirk he kept seeing. The infant was holding the same ruler that Tsuna was smacked with and gave a yelp when the utensil transformed to a green chameleon with a bright glow.

The reptile flicked its tongue to lick Tsuna's cheek and climbed up Reborn's sleeve and jumped on his shoulder. The toddler gave a small smile that Tsuna saw as he petted the chameleon's head with a single finger.

However, he didn't care about the cute display and pointed an accusing finger at Reborn. "What are you doing here? How did you enter in the school in the first place?"

Reborn smirked, hopping from the stool to the bed and listed off each of his answers. "I'm here to help you Dame-Tsuna and I have secret passages hidden in the entire school."

Tsuna had a shocked expression, his mouth wide open, and he brought down his finger. "B-but, what about Hibari-san? Doesn't he know that a baby slipped through his gates and now-?"

"Shut up Dame-Tsuna, you're ruining the peace." Reborn muttered as he covered his tiny hand onto Tsuna's mouth and the teenager did nothing, but gave a glare at him. A few minutes passed; the silence stretched before Reborn released his grasp on Tsuna's lips. However once he let go, Tsuna continued to rant on.

"I had it with you! I don't know why you started to scam my mother into this con-act of yours and I don't know how a baby like you can talk. But, I'm not going to follow or listen to you just because you said so!" His voice rose higher and higher until Tsuna could only hear himself in the entire room.

When he stopped to take a deep breath, he saw that Reborn was staring at him with a gaze that said he should continue talking. However, that was only what Tsuna's intuition felt as he decided to go against his gut's feeling and stayed quiet.

"Sawada-san, if you're healthy enough to scream out non-sense in my office, then I'd suggest that you should leave my infirmary." Tsuna heard a strict voice right next to the exit and saw it was the school's nurse. She crossed her arms and wore a strict frown to make a point as she walked across the room to give a more potent glare.

"Sawada-san?"

"O-oh hai sensei, sorry about that," Tsuna apologized.

He removed himself from the covers and found his standard student slippers that were placed underneath the bed. He gave a wince once he felt the soreness return and bowed to the nurse in politeness. The woman seemed to ignore his greeting as she ripped the blankets and bed covers from where he lied down.

"Nasty little gaki," Tsuna heard her whisper under her breath and he visibly flinched at the insult. Shuffling his feet, he gave another hasty bow and left the room, knowing that the baby was right behind him.

Opening the door and closing it behind him, he let out a visible sigh and felt a light slap to his cheek. Automatically putting a hand on where he got smacked, he looked down and found that Reborn was giving an uncharacteristic frown at him.

He found himself becoming annoyed at the expression and asked with a grouchy tone, "What?"

The infant was silent and continued to stare until Tsuna felt like he was being analyzed. "What Reborn?"

He took awhile to answer and only replied to his question. "You should get some lunch Dame-Tsuna; otherwise how can I teach you to become Decimo of Vongola?"

Reborn walked to the stairway, where it would lead to the roof of the school building.

Tsuna began to open his mouth to give a protest on listening to a one-foot sized human, but was interrupted by a smooth voice.

"Is that you Tsuna?"

The teenager turned around and found it was Yamamoto-san, who was with two girls that he recognized: Sasagawa Kyoko and the new transfer student, Dokuro Chrome.

He gave a glance at the purple-haired girl and politely bowed to her. As he raised his head, he noticed that the girl returned the greeting, and took it as an unusual occurrence.

'She doesn't know about my nickname yet.' Tsuna thought, turning his attention to his crush since his first day in this wretched school.

He couldn't get the confidence to speak out a 'hello'. He was enraptured by her gentle beauty. Her amber eyes stared at him warmly just like an angel from heaven and her posture would be as confident as a popular student can be.

But without the arrogance, she was kind to everybody and can make anyone to be her friend with a blink of her eyelash. Yet, Tsuna knew that he can never be her friend- or even boyfriend- since he doesn't have a chance like the other boys in their school.

"Tsuna, do you want to have lunch with us?" The brown eyed teenager snapped out of his gazing and returned his attention to the baseball player. He was holding out an orange-colored bento and had a wide smile that was cheery and sunny.

He gave a mental sneer at the offer. 'It's nothing but a trick… they even got the transfer student and Kyoko-chan to get involved.'

Tsuna ignored Yamamoto's voice, giving a timid refusal and turned around to the end of the corridor.

He was about to take a step when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to make a protest, when he saw it was the transfer student.

Her violet hair was tied up in an unusual pineapple style with one of her amethyst eyes covered by a skull eye-patch. She let down her hand when Tsuna stared at her with a kin of wonder and caution as she opened the flap of her bag.

'What could it be?' Tsuna thought, taking a step back, but stopped once the transfer student brought her stare towards him. She extended her arms and Tsuna looked down to see it was a bento that was wrapped with an orange cloth.

"Bos- Tsunayoshi-san," She said his name and pushed the bento in Tsuna's hands.

"Please have a nice meal." Hearing her soft voice, he almost dropped the lunch box to the ground when he felt something moist on his right cheek. Looking at the corner of his eyes, he saw that Chrome was kissing him with her eyes closed, and clumsily fell backwards.

"H-hai," he answered as he brought his free hand to his cheek, discreetly checking if Kyoko was watching them. And she was, but was staring with somewhat a joyful look on her face.

Yamamoto-san was holding the rejected bento in his hand with a death grip, and he looked somewhat wistful and jealous.

Rapidly shaking his head in dismay, Tsuna collected himself and held the lunch box as he continued to walk up the stairs with confusing thoughts.

He reached the final step of the stairwell and opened the doors of the roof top. Beams of sunlight brought warmth to his body.

He lied on the floor and listened to the sounds of chatter from the students down below. He placed the bento near him and watched as the clouds moved on peacefully and the breeze brought peace within him. Tsuna smiled, closing his eyes and thought back to the meeting five minutes prior.

Yamamoto's always there coincidentally to where he's around ever since that incident with Mochida-sempai. Tsuna frowned at the realization and asked, "What does he want?"

"What do you think that he wants Dame-Tsuna?" A squeaky voice rang in his ears and Tsuna shouted in fright. He sat up quickly and saw it was only his "home-tutor" sitting on the top of the wired fence.

"Can you stop popping out of nowhere like that?" Tsuna clutched his chest and started to breathe in deeply to stop the blood racing.

Reborn ignored the question as he jumped down and on Tsuna's lap as he continued to talk. "Can't you see when he asks you if you're alright or hurt?"

Tsuna scoffed, remembering that happy smile plastered on the baseball player's face. "He's going to be like all the others. I bet you it was only a prank for the rest of the student body to talk and laugh about later."

Reborn softly frowned at the pessimistic behavior and pursued on. "Dame-Tsuna, his intentions were good. Can't you see that he wants to be a good friend to you?"

'And how would you know?' Tsuna thought as he stared at the wide onyx eyes that belonged to the infant.

"I would know because you can see the honesty shining brightly in his actions." Reborn retorted as he jumped off and cocked his pistol at him. Tsuna shrieked and covered himself for protection. He moved his knees inside and covered his face with thin arms.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING?" Tsuna asked, peeking from a gap that was made from his hands. He used his knees to move himself backwards from each step that the intimidating infant made and felt his back against the rusty fence.

"Because I can read minds," Reborn smirked and then suddenly shot a bullet to the right as a twirling tonfa was headed towards Tsuna. The fourteen-year-old yelled in fright as the perpetrator arrived to the scene as it was the one and only: Hibari Kyoya.

He fainted and collapsed on the floor, never noticing that a faint frown was on the prefect's face.

"Why did you do that Arcobaleno?" Hibari asked.

He retrieved his tonfa and kicked Tsuna's body at least three meters away from the rusted fence.

Reborn raised an eyebrow, seeing the hidden intention of protecting the brunette from possible accidents and walked towards his unconscious student. He sat right next to Tsuna as he let his pistol transform back to Leon and watched Hibari inspect the slight dent on his tonfa.

"It was for Dame-Tsuna's protection. Did you need anything Kyoya?" Reborn replied back.

Hibari furrowed his eyebrows and turned to the staircase. Reborn smiled at the concern that the cloud guardian was giving to his student.

'But, this isn't going to work if we keep stalling on Tsuna' training. We have to tell him sooner or later. But first,' Reborn thought and raised a tiny hand.

He listened to the sound of the footsteps stop and waited for the guardian's attention. Once he heard the slight huff that only professional assassins can hear, Reborn spoke with a serious voice that was contrasting for a baby's.

"Gokudera and Lambo will be coming to Japan in two weeks. By that time, I want you to get all the information on where Mukuro is, and you can possibly get that through Chrome."

He could just imagine the perfect change his almost relaxed posture against the entrance door to a rigid stance. Reborn heard an affirmative 'hn' and waited till the fifteen year old walked down the stairs and to his office.

The infant turned around and looked at the unconscious Tsuna and asked himself, "How will this ever work out?"

* * *

"Mukuro-sama," a soft willow voice spoke out in the blank canvas of his mind and he imagined himself reappearing in front of his favorite toy.

He waited for his body and clothes to re-materialize as he spread out his hand in front of him. Then as if he knew what happened, Rokudo Mukuro closed his hands and a sharp trident appeared in his closed fist.

"Yes my dear Chrome?" His velvet-like voice spoke out in the dark space and listened patiently to the hesitance in his toy's voice.

"When are you coming here?" Her question makes him smile, taking note that the girl is still dependable on him, even though she could match with one of the other Vongola guardians with her own strength.

"Don't worry my dear Chrome. You shouldn't worry about me just yet." He reassured her, feeling a positive vibe in his chest and smirked. He knew for so long, his words can comfort the girl and her fears about anything.

There was a minute of silence before the female mist guardian began to fidget. He continued to look around, disdained at the bleak appearance of his old hideout.

"Hmm, my lovely Chrome?" He asked.

He gathered himself and then waited for the blank canvas to be painted with an explosion of colors. Soon, the white walls began to shift and swirl, colors blending with the white, and lines started to form shapes.

"Are you okay Mukuro-sama?"

He looked around seeing the canvas was finally turned to the same room it was before ten years ago. He smelled the dusty scent of the abandoned amusement park and laughed as he partially listened to Ken screaming his name in endearment.

"I'm perfectly fine."


End file.
