BRRIINGG!

The last bell of the day woke up Tsuna from a nap on his desk. Like any other school day, Tsuna gathered up his bag and headed for the door. The only thing different about today was that his two best friends, Yamamoto and Gokudera, were absent from school. He was so used to the typical antics between the three of them that he missed it. Of course, his two friends had good reasons to leave school. Yamamoto had to go to with his traveling team to an extreme baseball camp in Korea. Gokudera had to help his father with a local mafia feud back in Italy.

Of course, Gokudera wouldn't budge until Tsuna said it was alright for him to leave at least fifty times.

"JUUDAIME! PLEASE EXCUSE MY ABSENCE! I PROMISE NEVER TO LEAVE YOU AGAIN! EVER! I SWEAR ON URI'S CATNIP!"

Gokudera's words echoed annoyingly in his head, but he carried on outside. It had been a couple of days since they had left. But during the time back from the inheritance ceremony, he looked at his Vongola ring with a new perspective. He questioned what kind of future laid ahead. He never wanted any of this, the death, the war, the fighting. While Tsuna was consumed by his thoughts, he unknowingly bumped into someone who had just run out from a nearby alley at his right.

"UMMPH!" Tsuna was startled by the force of the petite figure. He was been knocked down by the running person.

He looked over and saw a small boy about his age had fallen across from him .

He seemed pretty pissed.

EXTREMELY PISSED. So much so that Tsuna could see his startling blue eyes burn with such hate that could even compare with the coldness felt from Hibari's gaze.

"HIIEE! I'm sorry!" Tsuna said as he inched away from the guy. As the boy began to snarl, they both turned their heads to some rough sounding voices from the other side of the alley.

"OI! BOY WHERE YOU AT? COME ON OUT HERE YA PUSSY!"

Great, Tsuna thought. Another pair of thugs. All of a sudden, the boy grabbed his collar and swung him behind a bunch of storage crates next to a shop in the alley.

"HE-" Tsuna's objection was cut short by the boy's gloved hand.

"HEY BOY. COME ON OUT HERE. YOU'RE REALLY PISSIN ME OFF NOW."

Tsuna could hear very serious and threatening voices emanating from behind the tall stack of crates. Grunts and the sounds of rough footsteps. Not the description of someone who is trying to give you something other than a knuckle sandwich. Tsuna's heart was beating fast as the boy held his mouth. He could see that he was observing the thugs as well. Then, the boy gave Tsuna one quick glance and in a split second, threw him in front of the three thugs.

"HEY THERE YOU ARE SHRIMP."

OH SHIT. Tsuna was not pleased with this situation.

But the boy instead used him as a distraction, and continued to knock down the crates onto the standing gangsters. The crates toppled the two shorter and closer thugs, but the tallest one, and the presumed leader, lunged at the mysterious boy. He attacked with a switchblade in his right hand, but the boy countered by grabbing the blade with his own right hand. The thug smirked evilly, thinking the boy had made a stupid decision, and moved his hand and body forward into the boy to make a gash. Unfortunately for the thug, the boy used simple physics to his advantage. He proceeded to grab the thug's right hand, grabbed his stomach, turned him, and plunged his head into the cement.

The end result was the disgusting sound of crackling bones as his skull hit the pavement with a deafening THUD. The man didn't suffer any FATAL wounds, but there would sure be a nasty scar and a nicely sized concussion left on the top portion of his head.

Tsuna was shocked as he observed the aftermath of a very short fight. The contents of the crates had created a huge mess of broken glass that had knocked out two men lying amongst the trash of the street. The third man was lying on the now red cement with a deep and bloody gash in his head. The sight of the blood made Tsuna shiver a bit.

Then, there was the boy standing above it all. He turned and gave Tsuna a definite look of rage, one that burned his own face to the point where he couldn't meet his gaze.

He began to walk over to Tsuna, who was still frozen on the ground.

"Um..umum.." Tsuna quailed in the boy's demeaning presence. Tsuna saw his hand reach out and he squealed in response, thinking that he would get punched.

He opened his eyes to see that the boy offered his hand to get up.

"Oh. Um. Thanks." Tsuna mumbled as he was brought up by the stranger.

Upon further observation, he noticed the boy's clothes. They were pretty old fashioned, with a pair of black slacks, black loafers, and a white collared shirt with a navy blue sweater vest. He noticed the boy's face as well. It was small and pale, but his features were soft and almost delicate looking. Above his face, his ebony black hair was sticking out oddly from beneath a newsboy cap. But what really struck Tsuna from their first encounter were his eyes. His eyes were a brilliant blue that contrasted the thick, dark eyelashes and eyebrows surrounding them.

"What are you staring at?"

Tsuna was startled to hear his voice. It bore a foreign accent which Tsuna couldn't distinguish and the pitch was also relatively high. But, then again, so was Tsuna's.

Maybe he hasn't gone through puberty?

"Ah!N-Nnn- Nothing!" Tsuna stuttered embarrassingly. Even after all his battles, Tsuna still had a terrible stutter in front of strangers. Well, threatening and thug beating strangers that is.

"Well," the boy looked at him, "you caused me to lose those idiots. I guess I should thank you." He stuck out his left hand.

"Oh. Um.. Your welcome?" He shook hands with the stranger.

"I'll be going then." He turned to walk away, but Tsuna noticed the red liquid dripping from his right hand.

"Hey! Wait! You're hurt!" Tsuna grabbed his shoulder.

The boy looked back, a little startled by Tsuna's abruptness.

"So?"

So? Your hand is basically crimson now! Tsuna thought.

"Well.. Since you did save my butt back there.." Even if you did through me out as bait.. "I should at least repay you back by tending to that gash in your hand at my house!" Tsuna stated.

The boy looked at Tsuna with a quizzical and skeptical look, as if he was thinking Is this boy crazy, we only met, like what, five minutes ago?

But the boy's expression relaxed, and he closed his eyes and nodded.

Tsuna took this as agreement.

"Eh.. Okay, then. My house is this way." Tsuna pointed down the street.

Tsuna knew it was a last minute idea, but he couldn't leave an injured person like that.

Right?