Chapter 1

There are many words that one could use to describe the life of Sawada Tsunayoshi, but normal is certainly not one of them.

In fact, Tsuna wasn't entirely certain as to what 'normal' even was. Of course, he knows what its definition was- 'the usual, average, or typical state or condition'- but he had never actually experienced it for himself.

It all started when he was around seven or so. The neighbor's dog, a loud, violent little chihuahua that had haunted his childhood since he was five, had recently passed away. Of course, that should've meant that he was free of this torment, right?

Wrong.

The day after the menace passed away Tsuna had gone outside to play, innocently expecting to finally be able to play ball on the sidewalk without being scared to death by the small, annoying creature- only for the thing to be exactly where it had been the week before. The chihuahua was right there, growling at him and yapping away from its spot tied to the fence of Tsuna's neighbor's yard.

Terrified- because holy crap, didn't Mama say that it was gone and that it wouldn't be scaring me anymore?- Tsuna had run to his neighbor who had been sitting on the back porch of her house.

He told her all about what he had seen, only for the pudgy woman to burst into loud, nerve-wracking sobs and hit him over the head, declaring him to be a cruel little child, how dare he speak of the dead like this!

He had run away then, desperate to get away from the hysterical woman. He stumbled back into his house, ball forgotten, running into his mother's arms, blubbering about what he had just experienced. She had held him then, laughing gently and assuring him that it's okay, don't worry Tsu-kun, it was just your imagination.

Except, well, it wasn't. The dog never went away, no matter how much he tried to convince himself that it wasn't real. And it wasn't as though that dog was the only thing haunting his daily life either. That old lady down the block that was always sitting on her front porch? Yeah, he had been to her funeral already, three years ago. The mail man that came by every Saturday at eight o'clock sharp to deliver the same letter, over and over again? He died in a car accident four months ago.

But do you know what the worst part of it all was?

No one else could see any of it.

Tsuna had always been so very confused. He saw all of these people and animals that he knew were gone and yet no one else ever noticed. He tried telling them, really, he did- but every single time they would always just laugh him off. Call him crazy and go back to ignoring him.

Tsuna was terrified. Of the ghosts. Of the people who never believed him (even his own mother thought he was just imagining it all). And most of all, of himself. Because it was so obvious that he was different, that he wasn't good enough compared to the others. He always saw things that weren't there, he could never do anything right, his grades were dismal and his athletic skills were nonexistent.

He was dame, 'no good' and he knew it. He had always known it, ever since he was a child and no one had ever hesitated in reminding him of it.

Fast forward to Tsuna's second year of middle school, nothing had really changed. He was still scared to death by the supernatural, still bullied and basically friendless. His average test score was around thirty percent and he could hardly even make it through a single phys ed class without landing himself in the nurse's office.

To be honest though, he was fairly certain that the nurse was getting sick of seeing his face and that there was a sign above the second bed to the left in the infirmary with his name written on it, though that may have just been a hallucination caused by a rather nasty hit to the head via dodgeball.

Today was just another ordinary day, or at least, that's what it was supposed to be. He had awoken to an extraordinarily messy room, as always. A quick glance to his clock informed him that he only had about half an hour left to get to school before he was late.

Jolted into alertness by the new observation, Tsuna quickly set to getting ready. Messily putting on his uniform, Tsuna quickly ran out of his room and down the stairs- only to trip and fall on the way down in his haste to avoid being bitten to death by the resident prefect.

His mother checked on him for a moment, before deeming him to be okay and going back to setting the table for breakfast, carelessly making a comment on how no-good her son was. Tsuna ignored the feeling of hurt that had blossomed in his chest, already used to being called dame by everyone, even his own mother.

Despite the fact that yes, it hurt him to hear her say such things, Tsuna still loved his mother more than anyone in the world and he didn't blame her for any of it. After all, Sawada Nana was still the only person in the world that Tsuna had, that loved and cared for him and plus- how could she not call him dame?

He was nothing but a disappointment in every way that counted. He never brought home any good grades nor did he ever have any friends over for her to cook for either. His mother was always looking after him, fixing up all of his injuries and generally keeping him in good health, but he had never managed to return the favor, to make her proud.

Gingerly getting up from the familiar landing at the bottom of the steps (this wasn't his first time falling down the stairs like this, not by a long shot), Tsuna made his way to the breakfast table as well, sitting down for a rushed breakfast.

"Tsu-kun, I saw your grades up online this morning," Nana began and Tsuna already knew that this wasn't going to end well for him. While it was definitely true that his mother wouldn't punish him or anything like that, the disappointed look on her face was more than enough of a punishment as it left a feeling far worse than the hurt left by her careless comments.

Tsuna sighed, looking down at his plate. As nice as the internet was- after all it did let him read as much manga as he liked and provided him with all the anime and other things that he desired- it also made it impossible to avoid having his mom know all about his terrible grades as the online gradebook was always accessible to parents.

"So," she continued, taking note of the expression on her son's face- though she didn't move to comfort him, "-you'll be starting a home tutor as of today!"

Tsuna immediately perked up. "But Mama, I don't need a home tutor!" Well...that wasn't necessarily the case. It was more like he knew he needed the extra help, but he also knew that it wouldn't help him at all. It would just be a waste of money because no matter what Tsuna did, he never improved at all.

"Now, now Tsu-kun!" Nana said, wagging a finger. "It says here that the tutor will teach you for twenty four hours for free so long as we provide him with food and a place to stay. This is a great opportunity!"

Okay now that just sounded way too good to be true. "It's probably just a scam. No real tutor would come in to tutor someone for free."

Nana shook her head, placing a few small omelettes into Tsuna's plate. "I have a really good feeling about this Tsuna, just wait and see."

Tsuna only nodded and began to eat his breakfast, knowing that he wasn't going to win this argument. His mother could be very stubborn at times and when her stubbornness did rear its head then it was nearly impossible to get her to back down. Quickly finishing his food, Tsuna hurriedly bid his mother farewell and rushed out of the kitchen, only to be greeted by a baby in a suit.

Wait, what?!

"Ciaossu," the infant said, his high-pitched voice, betraying nothing but cool confidence.

"What's a little kid doing here in our house?" Tsuna asked incredulously, ignoring the voice in the back of his head telling him to take the child seriously. After all, this was obviously just a strange child, right?

"You're Sawada Tsunayoshi, correct?" he asked, completely ignoring Tsuna's previous question.

"Yes...but how did you know that? And don't just ignore my question like that!"

"Information gathering is a basic skill that you will be using a lot in the future, Dame-Tsuna," the infant informed him.

"Wait, how do you even know about that nickname?!" Tsuna was starting to get the feeling that he wasn't going to be getting any sort of straight answer from this kid…

"Starting from today I will be taking over your studies," the child continued on as if Tsuna hadn't even spoken.

"What do you mean by that?! Who are you anyways?" This was starting to get really weird… And for Tsuna, that was really saying something.

"I'm the home tutor, Reborn. I've arrived early so that I could start on your assessment, Dame-Tsuna."

The home tutor?!

"But that's impossible, you're just a kid!"

"Lesson number one, Dame-Tsuna- there is no such thing as 'impossible' and the sooner you learn that, the longer you live," the child- Reborn- said in a rather casual tone, though his obsidian eyes said that that statement was anything but casual.

"The longer I live? What do you mean by that?" A child as his tutor? And why was he talking as if he was some sort of an adult? This wasn't making any sense!

"I mean what I mean, Dame-Tsuna. I don't think that I was being unclear in any way," Reborn answered.

"That just raises more questions!" Like why exactly something like that would be relevant for one, or why Reborn had decided that giving Tsuna some sort of weird life lesson was more important than answering Tsuna's questions for example.

"Save your questions for later, Dame-Tsuna. You're going to be late for school, aren't you?"

Oh crap.

"Hieeeeee!" Tsuna screamed. "Hibari-san's going to bite me to death!"

Forcing the situation out of his mind- Tsuna was getting rather good at the whole pretend there's nothing wrong with your life for like five minutes so that you don't get killed by people that are probably crazier than you are thing, especially since most of his encounters with the supernatural tended to occur in the mornings or late at night- Tsuna grabbed his bag and hurriedly put on his shoes. After narrowly avoiding tripping over the carpet in front of the door, Tsuna was well on his way to school with around twenty minutes to spare.

Of course, life wasn't always quite that simple. If Tsuna wasn't inconvenienced by one thing, then it was always up to the next obstacle to screw him over. Case in point, Tsuna's lovely (please note the sarcasm here) neighbor decided to leave her front gate unlocked. And without a gate to hold it back? This just meant that the current bane of Tsuna's existence was free to attack him as it pleased.

The ghostly canine pushed its way through the unlocked gate with ease, beginning a maddened sprint towards the terrified brunette. Tsuna stiffened and opened his mouth to scream, only for Reborn to jump down from atop Tsuna's head- when did that kid even get up there?!- and land in front of the small dead thing (Tsuna had long since stopped referring to it as a dog. Pets were supposed to be friendly and cuddly, not undead miniature psychopaths.).

Reborn put a small hand onto the top of its head, instantly calming the creature down.

"W-when did you...how did you-" Tsuna stuttered in shock, before realizing that something was definitely wrong with this already fantastical image. "Wait, you can see it too?!"

"I'm a hitman," Reborn responded, steadily stroking the spot between the ghost's ears. Tsuna immediately opened his mouth to express his incredulity at the statement, only to be cut off by the increasingly alarming child's continued explanation.

"However, I also specialize in dealing with the supernatural on the side. The fact that you were incapable of dealing with such a weak and harmless spirit tells me that you're even more pathetic than my last student."

Tsuna's heart plummeted at the explanation. Even someone of whom he barely even knew could tell that Tsuna was worthless… Though, it was very exciting to know that there were others who could see the dead, who wouldn't think of him as insane or hallucinating, he was also faced with the unsurprising realization that he was dame even by their standards.

Even so, Tsuna tried to cheer himself up with the thought that maybe someone else could understand what he was going through, that maybe Reborn's arrival would mean that he wouldn't be so alone anymore. An involvement with the supernatural was a perfectly reasonable- if a bit vague- explanation as to why a child like Reborn could possibly be able to speak and dress so maturely.

Though… it was a bit worrying that he declared himself to be a hitman...did that mean that he was going to assassinate Tsuna?! But he also said that he was Tsuna's home tutor so-

"I am not here to kill you, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said flatly, cutting into Tsuna's thoughts as if he had read the brunette's mind. "I am here to teach you how to be a demon hunter."

A demon hunter? Demons exist too?! "But what does demon hunting have to do with ghosts?" Tsuna asked, already knowing the answer but he did want an explanation nonetheless. He had long since learnt to not run on only his assumptions, no matter how spot on they often were. The times when he was wrong had only served to make the bullying worse so it was best not to take any chances.

"The answer should be obvious, Tsuna. A demon hunter is a person that keeps the general public safe from supernatural beings such as spirits, demons and other supposedly mythological creatures using their dying will," Reborn explained as if it was an everyday sort of job, not something that sounds as if it came straight out of a fantasy manga.

"Dying will…?" Tsuna asked, curious about the unfamiliar term. The rest of what Reborn said made some sense, all things considered. Did that mean that demon hunters always fought as if they were going to die? Probably...but something in the back of Tsuna's mind told him that it wasn't quite as simple as that.

"You'll just have to wait and see to find out what that means. For now, you need to go to school before you're late," Reborn pointed out.

"Hieee, you're right!" Taking out his phone to check the time as he began to run in the direction of the school, Tsuna nearly had a heart attack as he realized that he only had about fifteen minutes to spare.

While that would normally be a more than adequate amount of time to get to Nami Middle, Tsuna didn't quite trust himself to actually be able to get there without incident.

Running past the now placid canine spector, Tsuna encountered his next obstacle only a block later in the form of his crush, the beautiful school idol- Sasagawa Kyoko.

Now, it should be mentioned that Tsuna's crush was entirely inevitable. After all, despite the fact that Kyoko-chan was entirely out of his league, there was one major factor that had decided Tsuna's feelings before he even knew they existed.

She had smiled at him.

It hadn't been anything big, not really, but Tsuna would never forget the way that she had once helped him up after a particularly bad encounter with the bullies, a comforting smile on her face as she gently inspected his injuries all those months ago… She had put a bandage on his cheek, telling him to "Be more careful, Tsuna-kun! It's not good for you to get hurt so often like this!"

He remembered the way that his heart raced when he realized that she had not called him 'Dame-Tsuna', that she had cared enough to be so kind to him even though he was the least popular student in their grade who had never even succeeded at anything.

She hadn't seen the way the bullies had actually attacked him, having arrived after they had left, so she had attributed the whole thing to Tsuna's klutziness. It had been naive of her not to realize exactly what had happened, but Tsuna didn't really care. Her kindness was more than enough for him.

Ever since the incident Kyoko had taken to greeting Tsuna in the hallways, sending smiles his way when she was too busy with her other friends to actually talk to him. It made the bullying worse, actually, what with the bullies deeming him unworthy of Kyoko-chan's attention, but Tsuna thought that it was more than worth the extra cuts and bruises.

Kyoko-chan made his days better just by existing, so it was perfectly fine to deal with a bit more violence in exchange for having at least a tiny bit of her affections. They weren't quite friends per se, since they hadn't spoken often enough for that, but Tsuna thought that it was more than just close enough.

"Ohayo, Tsuna-kun!" Kyoko greeted, her smile bringing a blush to Tsuna's face. Spotting Reborn next to Tsuna, she eagerly turned her attention to the infant. "And who's this cute little baby? Is this your little brother, Tsuna-kun?"

Though he was a bit disappointed by Kyoko's sudden shift in attention, he quickly opened his mouth to deny the notion only to be interrupted by the infant in question.

"No, I'm from the mafia," Reborn answered casually.

Tsuna's mind reeled at the answer. Mafia?! Tsuna thought incredulously. Didn't he just say that he was a demon hunter?!

But then again Reborn did also say that he was a hitman…

Kyoko meanwhile, was entirely unphased by the response. "Oh, how amazing!" Turning back to Tsuna, she shot him another dazzling smile.

"I should hurry before I end up being late to school. I'll see you in class, Tsuna-kun!" she said cheerfully, turning away and heading towards the school.

Tsuna could only nod in response and wave weakly, his mind unsure of whether he should be thinking about his crush or his new tutor's revelation.

"You have a crush on her, don't you?" Reborn observed, cutting into Tsuna's thoughts.

"That's none of your business," Tsuna said defensively. Okay, Tsuna could totally deal with all this supernatural business, it has been his life since he was a child. But he definitely drew the line at bringing his crush into this mess.

"As your home tutor it's my job to know these things about you, Dame-Tsuna. Understanding your relationships is an essential part of teaching you to be a demon hunter."

"Keep Kyoko-chan out of all this!" Tsuna nearly shouted, surprised at his own guts.

Reborn responded with a kick to Tsuna's head, causing Tsuna to reel back in both surprise and pain. How could a baby of all things be so strong, involved in the supernatural or not?! "Do not doubt me, Tsuna. You should confess to her."

"N-no way!" Tsuna responded indignantly, rubbing at the area on his head where a new bruise was sure to form.

Reborn frowned momentarily before taking the chameleon from his hat into his hand, where it glowed and transformed into a small green chameleon (what). "Confess with your dying will," Reborn commanded calmly, shooting a bullet straight into Tsuna's forehead.

Suddenly, Tsuna could feel his body falling, shock taking over his senses. He was dying, he knew it.

But...Tsuna didn't want to die, not yet.

He hasn't had a chance to make his mother proud.

He hasn't made any friends yet.

He hasn't been able to deal with his spooky little problem.

I didn't get to tell Kyoko-chan how I feel yet.

And then he suddenly felt alive again. No, he was more than just alive. He could take on the whole world! There was a fire burning in his chest and he was no longer weak, he wasn't dame anymore!

"REBORN! CONFESS TO SASAGAWA KYOKO WITH MY DYING WILL!"

The next couple of minutes were a bit of a blur to Tsuna. In fact, he couldn't really remember much of it at all…

But something had to have happened just now, after all, it's pretty impossible to go from walking to school, fully dressed, to being in front of said school clad in only his underwear.

And then it all came flooding back with a start…

He had just confessed. To Kyoko-chan. Aggressively. Without most of his clothing.

WHAT?!

Tsuna had absolutely know idea as to how the hell any of that happened. First that...that baby shot him with a fucking gun and then he died. Then, after a moment of pure regret, he had suddenly felt as though he was on top of the world, streaked down the road in his underwear- where did his clothes even go?!- and confessed to his beloved Kyoko-chan, only for her to understandably run away screaming.

Great. Tsuna could already feel the bullying levels skyrocketing, but now he didn't even have Kyoko-chan's smiles to get him through the day.

Why couldn't he have just stayed dead?

"Tsuna."

Tsuna turned around, only to find the menace of the day landing right in front of him with a parachute of all things? Where did that even come from?

"What the hell was that, Reborn?!" Tsuna demanded angrily.

"I shot you with a Dying Will Bullet. The bullet kills whoever it's used on, only to resurrect them in Dying Will Mode if they have any regrets. This state will then last for five minutes before going back to normal."

"Wait...is this what you meant by 'dying will?!' Is this how all demon hunters fight?! By shooting themselves with some weird bullet then running around killing things in their underwear?!" Tsuna asked incredulously.

Reborn responded with another kick to Tsuna's chin. "Don't make such stupid assumptions, Dame-Tsuna. Dying will comes in many forms and this is only one of them."

A thought struck Tsuna. "Wait, but what would happen if I didn't have any regrets?"

Reborn's expression didn't change at all before his alarming answer. "I am a hitman. What do you think would happen?"

Tsuna suddenly felt very, very cold. Sure, he had been thinking about wanting to die after the incident with Kyoko, but he wasn't actually serious about it!

"B-but I thought you were a demon hunter! Aren't you supposed to save people?!"

"The mafia and demon hunting worlds are but two sides of the same coin. It isn't uncommon to be a part of both, though I usually prefer to stay on the mafia side of things. You will be balancing both soon enough, Tsuna."

"Hiee! I don't want to be a criminal of any kind! Just teach me how to deal with these ghosts then leave me alone!"

Screw finding other people that were in the same boat as him. He wanted no part in this mafia business, it would only lead to a life of drugs, alcohol and prison.

"A coward has no place in being the next boss of the Vongola Demon Hunting Company. As the next boss, you have to accept both the light and dark sides of the company in order to rule over it to the best of your ability."

"Boss?! Who said that I could be the boss of something like that?" Tsuna demanded.

Even if it were somehow possible, the very notion of it was absurd. He was Dame-Tsuna. How could someone as useless as him lead an entire company of demon hunters and mafiosos?

The school bell then decided to ring, cutting off any reply from the baby hitman. Tsuna nearly jumped in surprise, having forgotten about school in light of current events.

"Herbivore."

Tsuna looked up in horror. "Um...yes Hibari-senpai?"

Hibari Kyoya could be described as nothing less than intimidating. The tall senior was the leader of Namimori Middle's disciplinary committee and had a reputation for 'biting to death' anyone that broke the rules.

While Tsuna didn't have any problems regarding the grey eyed teenager- actually he kind of admired Hibari for taking down a few of his bullies every now and then- Tsuna was still more than terrified of being on the receiving end of his ire.

"You're late," Hibari drawled, pausing a moment to look Tsuna over, raising an eyebrow at the brunette's attire. "Get dressed and get to class. Now."

Tsuna nodded fearfully, hurriedly picking up his bag and taking out the extra uniform that he didn't even know he packed. Seeing that Tsuna didn't require any further...persuasion, Hibari merely nodded to the strange baby and turned around, heading back towards the school.

Letting out a sigh of relief at the close call, Tsuna quickly got dressed and ran to school, putting the current situation to the back of his mind.

The situation in class was even worse than what he had expected.

"Look, it's Dame-Tsuna!"

"Here comes the exhibitionist~!"

"'Sasagawa, please go out with me!' Ha!"

The taunts and laughter assaulted him full force the moment he stepped into the classroom, numbing him to the core. I'm used to it, Tsuna thought, trying to put on a brave face.

Tsuna instinctively looked over to Kyoko, only for her to avert her gaze almost shamefully. Tsuna's heart plummeted, knowing that any chance that he had with his crush had just died a miserable death.

Then, just because Tsuna's life wasn't miserable enough as is, someone decided to mention that Mochida-senpai had challenged him to a kendo match after school for the sake of Kyoko's honor.

Tsuna cringed at the statement, wondering how exactly that had managed to slip his mind as he walked over to his desk and sat down, barely managing to restrain the urge to just put his head down and cry.

There was absolutely no way he was going to accept that challenge. Mochida-senpai was the captain of the kendo club for a reason. Not only did Tsuna suck at anything and everything involving actual exercise, but he had never held a bokken in his life.

This match was literally set up just for Tsuna to lose within the first two minutes.

Tsuna couldn't do this. He wasn't brave, not like the way he was in Dying Will Mode. He should just run away.

No, he had to run away. This would only lead to him getting even more injured than usual and an increase to his already wimpy reputation.

Every single drop of his meager intelligence screamed at him to flee. If this was the natural 'fight or flight' reaction that his biology class had gone on about a few days ago, then he was definitely going with the 'flight' response.

Soon enough class began, but Tsuna just couldn't focus (not that he ever could anyways). There was too much weighing in on his mind. Becoming a demon hunter? A boss? That was more of a fantasy than a real goal, no matter what that strange baby said.

Kyoko was so far out of reach to him now that it was hardly even funny. Well, maybe it was funny to someone else. Okay, yeah, correction- it was more than just funny to pretty much everyone.

Anyways, it seemed as though Tsuna's nonexistent social life had finally committed suicide. Seppuku, probably.

Tsuna's thoughts continued on like this for the rest of the day, anxiety-ridden and borderline depressed. Sure, there were a few good things here and there. Like how everyone was too busy gossiping to really pay him any attention for one.

Soon enough it was the end of the day and time for Mochida's little quote-unquote 'challenge'.

Better known as hey everyone let's watch the super awesome senpai beat the crap out of Dame-Tsuna~ time.

Yeah, Tsuna was going nowhere near that hellhole of a gym. No. Just...no way.

"And just where are you going Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn's voice came out of nowhere.

Tsuna didn't even bother with turning towards Reborn. "Somewhere that's not the gym."

"Running away isn't going to save you from monsters," Reborn pointed out.

"It's not supposed to save me from monsters," Tsuna countered. "It's supposed to save me from Mochidas."

"A good boss would never back down from such a challenge."

"Well I don't want to be a good boss. I want to be a nice, living, uninjured Tsuna."

"And what of Sasagawa Kyoko? Did you know that she is being used as the prize for this little battle of yours? Are you really willing to just let your crush be treated as some sort of an object by one of your bullies?" Hook. Line.

...on second thought…

"Well… I guess it would be really pathetic of me to just run away like this without even trying. Not that it's for Kyoko, I mean, just on principal. You shouldn't treat girls like that…" Tsuna trailed off.

Reborn smirked. And sinker.

The gym was more crowded than Tsuna had expected…

Well that was a lie, but Tsuna liked to think that at least some people had enough decency to not come and laugh at his pain. It probably wasn't true, but he had some hope.

"So you actually decided to show up?" Mochida sneered at the center of the gym, decked out in kendo gear.

Tsuna nodded, totally intimidated but mostly unwilling to show it. "I won't let you parade Kyoko-chan around as some kind of prize!"

Kyoko herself looked rather uncomfortable, though her eyes visibly widened at his declaration. "Tsuna-kun…"

Mochida laughed mockingly. "The prize is a date with her, not Kyoko herself. What's wrong Dame-Tsuna? Too dumb to be able to understand something as simple as that?"

Regardless of Mochida's retaliation, the damage was already done. A quick glance around the gym revealed that many people were beginning to look very uncomfortable at Tsuna's words, particularly Sasagawa Ryohei- Kyoko's older brother.

The older boy's face was set in a grim expression, the same thoughts as Tsuna's having been running through his mind already. Ryohei may not have been the sharpest crayon in the box, but he was by no means stupid. He was smarter in life than he was in books and the meaning behind Mochida's actions failed to escape him.

"GO SAWADA! DEFEAT MOCHIDA TO THE EXTREME!" the boxing club's captain shouted.

Tsuna jerked up at the sudden encouragement. Someone was actually...cheering for him?

His vigor renewed, Tsuna turned to Sasagawa-senpai and gave him a sharp nod before setting his attention to Mochida again.

Mochida took a moment to glare at the boxer. "Oh, shut up. Anyways, Dame-Tsuna. Since you're such a wimp I'll even the odds out for you, 'kay? All you have to do to win is land one hit on me!" he laughed. "Not that you'll even be able to do that much!"

Tsuna narrowed his eyes, putting on his brave face in spite of the raging butterflies in his stomach. He had to do this. For Kyoko-chan and his senpai.

"Okay," he agreed.

Moments later Tsuna was outfitted with his own kendo gear. It was too heavy for him and the bokken itself didn't seem to fit right in his hands.

But that was okay. He only needed one hit, while Mochida needed three.

Tsuna could do this.

...possibly.

The obviously biased referee began the match. Mochida immediately ran towards Tsuna, using the momentum to his advantage. Tsuna ducked, barely dodging the strike.

"What, is that the best you can do, pervert?"

Tsuna shook his head, trying to ignore the taunt. Mochida charged again, this time getting in his first hit.

The referee gleefully announced the strike, leading to some scattered cheers throughout the gym. However, it wasn't nearly as loud as Tsuna had expected it to be, causing Mochida's lips to quirk downwards in a slight frown.

The next round started much like the previous one did, though this time Tsuna was more prepared. Tsuna twisted away from the charge, moving as much as the gear allowed him.

Tsuna attempted to move in for his own hit, only for it to be blocked by Mochida's bokken. The upperclassman easily overpowered Tsuna, causing Tsuna's bokken to fall out of his hands giving Mochida another easy opening for an attack.

"One more and I win!" Mochida gloated gleefully.

Tsuna shook his head. He still had a chance. He couldn't give up just yet, not when Kyoko-chan was at stake!

Round three began and as per usual, Mochida went straight for the hit. This time however, something was different…

Tsuna felt a sharp pain in his back...and suddenly, he was dead again. He knew it, he could feel the life leaving his body. But he couldn't die yet! Not until he won for Kyoko-chan!

"REBORN! DEFEAT MOCHIDA-SENPAI WITH MY DYING WILL!"

The world became a blur once more, but when he came to his senses not only was he in his underwear with fistfuls of hair in his hands- ummmm, okay?-, but people were cheering! Laughing, but cheering too!

"Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna immediately turned to face Kyoko, dropping all the hair. Oh no...what was she going to say?

"I'm...really sorry about this morning! I didn't really mean to laugh at you," Kyoko apologized, her wide golden eyes staring into his.

Tsuna didn't quite trust himself not to faint. "Um...it's okay Kyoko-chan!"

"Really? I'm so glad that everything's okay! I don't really want to lose your friendship like that…"

Oh. Ouch. The friend zone… of course Tsuna would end up in it.

"Anyways, thank you so much for what you did today! I don't know what I would've done if I had to go out on a date with senpai…"

"It's no problem," Tsuna said, pushing the depressing thoughts out of his mind. "I'm glad you're alright, Kyoko-chan!"

Hm...maybe life wasn't so bad after all.

A/N

Hey everyone! This is my first time writing for this fandom, so hopefully it turned out okay. Please review, I'd love to know what you guys think about it!

P.S. This whole thing is dedicated to my best friend and beta Natripper. Not only did she sit with me today, making the whole writing process go a lot smoother, but she has somehow been putting up with me for the past five years. So hurray for friendship! Love you Nat-chan!

Edit 9/11- Ugh, for some reason the line breaks decided not to show up? Oh well, they're there now. Sorry if it got confusing at any point before the line breaks were added.