Hey guys:) I'm back with a whopper, this time in the form of an AU story. I'm not going to write so much here because sometimes it's a bore to read prologues. So, read the story to find out for yourself!

All characters belong to Amano-sensei, never forget that.

Chapter One:

We're the walking targets

or, more conveniently known as,

You got it wrong: Loserville has a population of TWO

The wind blew gently as a large branch from a tree fell and hit an unsuspecting kid walking in the school fields, causing his face to hit hard gravel and his worksheets to be scattered all over the floor.

Letting out a groan, he rubbed his head. Well, at any rate, there wasn't any blood, thank god for that. It hurt like hell anyway.

It wasn't really the branch's fault, though. This type of thing always happened to him; he was already kind of lucky that it had been only a branch and not the whole tree that had fallen on him.

It was just him that was very, very unlucky.

Introducing Sawada Tsunayoshi. Turning fifteen. Self-declared the unluckiest guy in the whole of the area. All the time, no matter what he did, something bad was bound to happen. I mean, who would trip on his own shoelace sixteen times in a row while on the way to school? Who COULD? He was damn certain that he was the only one that could allow that to happen to him. Yes, there was probably something out there that eternally cursed his luck, and one day he'd find it. And destroy it.
And, well, make it curse someone else if it couldn't be destroyed.

Suddenly, he heard someone approaching. He stiffened for a moment, then quickly began picking his things up and dumping them into his bag. He had to leave.

"Oi, Dame-Tsuna!"

Frantically, he sprung up, grabbing his stuff, searching for the nearest exit in panic. The older kid approached, cracking his knuckles menacingly, a rather sadistic smile plastered to his face.

"So, wanna continue the fun we were having from recess?"

Mochida. Captain of the Namimori Kendo club. Enjoyed showing off his guts and manliness in the form of harassing and cursing at helpless little kids.

That conveniently included Tsuna.

In his head, the smaller-sized kid screamed NO in extreme protest. Fun was just a paraphrase of "let's see who can beat Tsuna up the worst first without any reason", and he hated it. Out of the whole school, he was probably the only lucky kid that bore the privilege to be subjected to this 'fun', and he didn't know why at all.

After all, this wasn't his first. He'd been bullied in middle school, and even in Kindergarten he'd been the class' punching bag.

Facing the bully, Tsuna squeaked, "N-no! I-I have to g-go!"

And he ran as fast as his legs could take him, dashing out of the school and the bully's grasp.

And that concluded Tsuna's fifth day in Namimori high school.

xxx

Heaving a sigh, the brown-haired teen flopped onto his bed, his hair still damp from the shower he had taken earlier. It felt great to be back in his room. After all, the only place he felt safe in was here, his house; where it was just him and his parents, and since they were on a long vacation in Italy, it was just him and him alone...oh wait. Cross that last bit out.

"Dame-Tsuna! I just received some interesting articles in the mail from your ex-teachers back in middle school. They're math papers and they're not looking pretty. AT ALL."

Not to mention his cousin aka tuition teacher. He made a face. Okay, so it wasn't all peaceful and relaxing in his house. Running his fingers through his messy hair, he headed downstairs to the kitchen, where his cousin sat, holding out multiple tests that meant that Sawada Tsunayoshi of class 3D was in deep shit.

"A-ah... I can totally explain this-"

The other taller male shook his head sternly and jabbed the papers with his finger. "Explain why there are so many red marks on this sheet of paper ALONE."

"Uhh...actually, some of those are ketchup stains." Tsuna twiddled his thumbs.

The older male sighed. "If you keep on failing, you know what's going to happen."

"...Become a loser?"

"No, you already are. What I mean is this-" Swiftly, he pulled something out of his jacket pocket, a HOLY COW green gun.

Tsuna ducked behind the sofa as the gun tip was pointed in his direction. "W-WHAT! Is that even a real gun?"

His cousin smirked. "Wanna find out?"

He screamed as a finger reached for the trigger. "REBORN! PLEASE, HELL NO!"

Reborn. His real name was unknown, and so was his age, except that Tsuna knew that he was at least nine years older than himself.

Reborn was from Italy, a much older cousin from his father's side of the family. He was fluent in multiple languages: English, Italian, German, French, Russian; you name it, he spoke it. He was a genius at math, and even knew Morse code, sign language and how to handle weaponry. Not to mention that he was pretty good looking.

In other words, Reborn was very much cooler than Tsuna, who was a klutz, sucked at math and didn't really know how to do anything well.

Putting away the gun (was it a toy?), Reborn smirked and stood up, leaving the miserable-looking math papers on the desk. "I'm going for a meeting now. Behave and stay at home. Do your homework or else. You MUST not leave the house. Got it? Sure you do. See you."

And before he could even respond, Reborn was out of sight.

Tsuna, still quivering slightly from the earlier shock, stood up from behind the couch and walked back to where his cousin had sat. He pouted. Meeting my foot. He was probably sneaking away to meet his girlfriend, Bianchi. She was the other Italian in town, and was known as the poison scorpion due to her affinity with the little creatures (she kept them as pets at home) and her supposedly deadly charm. Apparently, rumors had spread that her last boyfriend had died of food poisoning…as well as the one before him, and the one before the one before…

He shivered. Dangerous woman…Collecting the papers from the table, he began climbing the stairs back to his room. He'd worry about Reborn getting food poisoning some other day; besides, his cousin would be able to take care of himself if anything happened. He had to worry about himself and his grades for now.

Placing his tests on his table, he sat on his bed. Guess he'd start by taking out his homework file.

That…was not in his bag. Or anywhere in the house, for that matter.

Oh shit. Tsuna slapped himself. He'd dropped his file while running from school.

That meant he'd have to go back and search for his file, potentially getting a scolding from Reborn and an ambush by bullies.

On the other hand, if he didn't take his file back home, Reborn would probably shoot him.

Back to school it was.

Sighing, he lay back into the comfort of his bed. He'd get his file later, when there was nobody in school so that he'd be left alone when he retrieved his file. Not that Reborn would notice him leaving the house or anything…right? Leaning to his side, he rubbed his left shoulder, wincing as it still ached from the impact of the stupid tree branch that had fallen on him just about an hour ago. Lifting his sleeve and looking at the sore spot, he frowned.

His birthmark. His ugly, creepy birthmark. It was black-no, deep purple, and it took the form of a…spiral…. a freaking spiral.

He hated that mark on his shoulder. It had been there ever since he was born and he downright hated it. Every time he looked at it he could feel chills running down his spine, like it was a bad omen or something.

A bad omen? On him? How fitting. It would go perfectly with his theory about him and his bad-luck curse.

But it was a birthmark, his mother had told him. It was just a special birthmark.

Or was it? Perhaps it was more than just that…

Tsuna tore his gaze away from his birthmark and shook his head frantically. No way! Why am I even THINKING about it? Geez!

Frankly, it was hard to believe either way. For one, that mark was definitely not ordinary. On the other hand, why would he, of all people, be involved in mystical stuff?

God, he needed to stop thinking about it.

Shivering, he sat up and took a glance at the clock.

It was nearing six. Time to go get his file, huh. Getting up slowly, he patted his left sleeve down and looked out of the window. The coast was clear.

xxx

Five minutes later, he was panting as he slowed down while reaching the nearest shelter: a tree.

Drenched from head to toe, he leaned against the trunk. School was just a block away; maybe he'd make a dash for it, get his file, and run all the way back. He rolled his eyes at the sky.

Oh fine; rain the moment my shoe comes into contact with the pavement! It was true: the moment he'd stepped out of the house it had begun drizzling, and it wasn't long before it had turned into a thunderstorm.

Speaking of thunderstorms…Tsuna looked up. Perhaps he should continue running. He screamed as a lightning bolt struck not so far away and began running for his apparent life.

Reaching the school, he suddenly realised something.

If he'd dropped his file in the school fields, it'd be thoroughly soaked by now.

Which meant that he would still be in deep shit even after finding the file.

If he could even find it.

Well, he couldn't. After combing through the area, he came to a conclusion that maybe Mochida had torn it up or burnt it or something of the sort, which sucked. Wanting to give up, he walked into the school building, getting shelter from the persistent rain…

"HEY, YOU!"

Mochida-sempai again? He jumped and turned, instinctively squeezing his eyes shut and shielding himself with his hands as he heard the sound of a swing of an arm. "I-I didn't do anything! Spare me!" He squeaked.

Only then did he realize that those words or the punch hadn't been directed to him. Feeling that there was nobody in front of him at all, he lowered his arms and opened his eyes. The sounds had come from just around the corner. Quietly, he took a peek and gasped at what was taking place just a meter away.

Oh, was he glad they hadn't heard him.

Just round the bend, a kid with red hair had his back against the wall, cornered by two seniors: Mochida and a member of the Kendo club. Blood dripped from his nose and he held a hand over his blackened right eye as he stammered, "I-I'm sorry…"

"Sorry? Sorry, you say?" Mochida barked, causing the redhead to tremble. "It's not going to fix this shirt! This shirt's new, you know!" He crushed the can he was holding, threw it aside and sneered into his face. "And you had to bump into me while I was drinking coke. Now look! It's got this fucking large stain down the front!"

"I-I didn't mean to…at all."

The bully glared dangerously as he raised his arm again. "What did you say, son of a bitch?"

"STOP!" Oh shit! Tsuna clapped a hand over his mouth as he realised that he'd just spoken out loud and invited murder. Mochida spun around, eyes narrowed, and the boy with a nosebleed glanced up, shocked.

"Dame-Tsuna, eh? Here to join in the fun?"

"U-Uh…I mean…" the brown-haired teen panicked. "What happened to my file?"

Oh god, what was he blurting out? He slapped himself for asking for even more trouble. The kendo captain took a step forward. "It's in the damn dustbin. What, going to search for it?"

"U-Um-" Tsuna gulped, swiftly grabbed the redhead's wrist and pulled him up. "RUN!" He screamed.

His first ever great act of bravery totally deserved a standing ovation. But, of course, with the audience being an intimidating guy who knew Kendo and his crony, clapping really wasn't a choice.

With that, he made a run for it for the second time that day, this time with another teen trailing behind as Tsuna pulled him away from the aggressors and into the school building, past the staffroom and into an empty classroom. Tsuna let go as the other kid leaned against the wall, catching his breath.

"H-Hey, are you alright?" Tsuna panted, turning to face him.

"I…" He turned slightly pink and looked away. "I'm fine…you're wet…"

"I got caught in the rain…looks like you didn't, though…"

There was silence for a minute.

"Thank you."

Eh? Tsuna stared at him. "Y-You don't need to thank me! I didn't do anything!"

"No!" The boy blinked. "You…helped me out back there…"

"Oh." He scratched his head. "It's nothing! I just didn't want you to get bullied too…'cause Mochida-sempai is really, really mean." He looked at his feet awkwardly, playing with a loose thread from his pants.

"You get bullied too?" The other teen's eyes widened, and Tsuna looked back up to see him wiping his bloodied nose on his sleeve and staring at him.

"Well, yeah…look at me! I'm a mess too, aren't I!" Tsuna smiled sheepishly as he pointed at his bruises and his black eye. "I'm like a walking target!"

"If you're a walking target, I'm a billboard that screams "Bully Me"…" The redhead sighed, sitting down and huddling his legs together. "I get bullied everywhere I go."

"Me too! You're not alone!" Tsuna sat down next to him. "It's like this awful…"

"Curse?" His eyes lit up as Tsuna nodded. "I was thinking of that about me too…"

He turned a bit pinker as his lips curved upwards slightly. "I haven't seen you around…in this school…"

The brown-haired student rubbed his neck. "Oh, it's okay…I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi from class 1C. You can call me Tsuna! What about you?"

The other boy stared at him. "That means we're from the same class."

Blink.

What? "Oh no, I'm sorry!" Tsuna gasped. "I don't know anyone in the school but the seniors that ambushed me on the first day of school!"

He shook his head. "It's okay. I didn't know you existed until today either…"

Silence filled the air again before he spoke again.

"My name is Kozato…Kozato Enma."

He stretched out his hand slowly, giving him a small, shy smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Tsuna-kun."

Smiling back, Tsuna took his hand and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you too, Enma-kun."

And as he shook his hand, he could almost feel a tingle running through his arm from his left shoulder. It jerked.

So did Enma's right knee, which was covered up by a huge bandage.

But it was nothing.

Right?

"Anyway, Enma-kun…what happened to your eye?"

"…I fell over a snail before bumping into Mochida-sempai today."

"Oh…it's okay, a large tree branch fell on me today."

"…That happened to me last week."

"It sucks, right."

"Tell me about it…"

xxx

"…and he's really unlucky, just like me! Reborn, it's so amazing it's almost unbelievable!" Tsuna flopped back onto his bed as his cousin stared at him in mild amusement.

"He's the first friend I've made since kindergarten…which makes him my second friend." His smile faded away slightly.

"That kid you were talking about when I brought you to see that piano concert last month? The one that worshipped you?"

The brown-haired teen sighed. "Yeah…he didn't worship me! Just, respect me and call me his boss! It's been so long, I can barely remember what he looks like anymore. Wonder how he is…"

Only that he had silver hair and bright green eyes…

"Oi, Tsuna."

He sat back up. "What?"

"You lost your homework file, didn't you?"

"E-EH? I-I did not!"

Reborn glared. "So…where is it, then?"

"…At school…in some dustbin."

"Okay. Then go get it."

"NO!"

xxx

NOOOOOOO. I DON'T WANNA GO BACK TO SCHOOL, Tsuna mentally screamed.

Yet, he stood outside his house, locked out by his dear cousin.

Remembering how he had gotten there, he made a face.

"Okay. Then go get it."

"NO!"

"Yes. It's not raining anymore."

"But it's going to be dark out, and-"

"Yes."

"B-"

"YES."

And the power of his glare was more than enough to make Tsuna stutter a "Y-Yes…"

"Good. Bring Leon with you, though. Today's the fourteenth, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

"Okay. Good. Make sure Leon's with you. I don't want you dying."

As he rethought about what his cousin had mentioned about him dying, he turned to the direction of his house indignantly. "I'm not gonna DIE just because I'm alone in the streets in the evening-EEK!" He screamed as he ran away from a barking dog. "LEON! SAVE ME!"

The chameleon crawled from his head to his left shoulder, tail circling the spot where his birthmark was. Silently, it tapped Tsuna's head gently.

"Sorry, Leon. Panic attack."

Leon. A chameleon, and a very smart one, too. Reborn's pet, and Tsuna's buddy. Reborn made him bring Leon around like some protective charm when Tsuna needed to run errands by himself.

It helped, though. Leon's presence was comforting, and he was glad that he had his company.

Suddenly, as he reached a crossroad, he bumped into someone.

Someone holding a bottle of beer with a large dragon tattoo and a large scar down his left cheek.

And wearing a stained shirt.

Ohh shit. Again.

"What'ja think 'yer doing, eh, idjit?" The guy growled. "Bumpin' inter me like that...yer wanna die?"

HIIIEEE! "N-Not at all!" He squeaked, backing away. "I didn't mean to! At all! Please spare me!"

"Oh, Boss isn't going to spare you after messing his shirt up like that~" Panicking, he spun around, only to see a woman with long, blue hair and a tattoo down her leg grinning sadistically at him.

"We were just passing this town to get to somewhere else, but nobody just spills stuff onto Boss' shirt and gets away with it!" She narrowed her eyes wickedly.

"Boss' favorite shirt."

"ASSHOLE!" The man with the stubble roared and struck his arm out to punch Tsuna, who screamed.

"Tsuna-kun!" Out of the blue, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner and across the street, allowing him to escape from the two tattooed people. The woman pouted.

"Boss, are we going after him?"

"Nahh, we're gonna be late, and Kikyou's go'nner get all angry and shit. Don't wanna miss beer hour at the next stop, idjit!"

And they continued walking as the sun set behind them, marking nightfall.

xxx

"W-Wait…"

The brown-haired kid gasped for breath as his savior slowed down and stopped.

Breathing heavily, he let go of Tsuna's hand, turned around and put the filled paper bag he was holding onto the floor.

"T-Tsuna-kun…are you okay?"

It was Enma.

He sort of wanted to hug him in joy, but his head hurt. Slightly.

"Enma-kun!" He breathed. "Thank you for saving me back there, I thought I was gonna die!"

The redhead blushed. "I-I didn't do anything…you don't need to thank me. I was just doing an errand for my sister."

"Of course I have to thank you! Who were those guys, anyway?" Tsuna shivered. It was cold.

"Oh…They're Zakuro and Bluebell…they're part of some gang from Kokuyo. It's near Namimori…" He took a deep breath. "That was for saving me from Mochida-sempai today, so…we're even, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Glad to be alive, he smiled at Enma, who timidly played with the bottom of his shirt. "Thanks, Enma-kun…"

His vision was blurring. Steadying himself, he felt his forehead.

Crap. It was hot.

"Tsuna-kun?"

He felt feverish. His head hurt more than before.

"I-I'm alright…"

Stumbling on his own feet, he winced, clutching his left shoulder. It hurt.

And then he realised.

Leon wasn't with him.

"Hey…Tsuna-kun, are you okay?"

He felt his body temperature peak.

"I…"

Another sharp pain from his shoulder, and he gasped.

Was this happening because Leon wasn't around?

"Tsuna-kun!"

Giving in to the pain, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Crap.

And...that was the first chapter! How was it? Anyway yeah, as you can see, everyone's related to each other differently! Hope you're not confused, 'cause this is the first of many long chapters to come!

Man, I'm nervous after writing this! I've actually planned out how I want the story to go, and I hope it works out!

So...please review! I'm not going to make it compulsory or anything, but I'd really love it if you reviewed and shared your honest feedback! I take everything into consideration!

Will update by the 25th^^ Pinky swear! If I don't make the deadline I'll pick out a username and that lucky person can request any type of oneshot fic, okay:)