Disclaimer; I own nothing. Both Reborn and Pokémon belong to their respective owners.
Author's Note; A silly idea, I know. But odd looking animals. Boxes. Odd looking animals and boxes. Odd looking animals coming out of the boxes with flash of light. Am I the only one who made the connection. This is an one-shot by the way. I might make more.
Warning; AU, Randomness, some ooc moments and author's crappy English (it's not my fist language and boy does it show from time to time.)
Summary; It's every child's dream in the Sky country to become Pokémon Master. Everyone else's except Tsuna's. He's perfectly content staying at home. A letter from his dad is unfortunately is going to change things. (crossover, RebornxPokémon)
The very best No-good
The sky was dark that day.
Angry wind was rustling the leaves of an old tree, just behind young boy's window.
The boy was still sleeping, eyes peacefully closed, single, escaped lock of hair swaying in the rhythm of his even breathing.
"Tsu-kun, wake up and come downstairs!"
Thirteen-year old Sawada Tsunayoshi groggily scratched his nose and lazily shifted under his blankets. He sleepily opened his tired eyes, only to start blinking when sleep refused to leave them. His mother's cheerful voice could be heard from the kitchen and for some reason she sounded more exited and chirpy than usual.
Curious of his mother's mood, he slowly pulled his jeans over his boxers and threw his orange hoodie, with red twenty-seven sewed on back over his shoulders.
"Tsu-kun, are you awake?"
He walked down the stairs and slumped on his seat before the table. His mother was already making breakfast over the stove. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled when she noticed him.
"Tsu-kun, good morning." She set a plate full of curry rice and a glass of water in front of him, "Did you sleep well?"
"Fine," he mumbled while trying to stifle a yawn. "I saw some strange dreams though."
"Oh," his mother took seat across him and watched him with her brown eyes. "What kind of dreams?"
He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to remember the fuzzy details. "Something about babies, boxes and flames." he shrugged, "About silly stuff."
His mother giggled joyfully. "My, Tsu-kun, you have always had such a great imagination."
Tsuna blinked and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. Something was weird. Mother, while being a very happy-go-lucky person by nature, seemed to be even more so this morning.
She however, didn't notice his questioning stare and continued to chatter with him about everyday stuff. How her Oran and Pecha berries weren't growing as well as they should this time of the year, and how she had bought him some new clothes yesterday.
Starting to feel like he had imagined the whole "weird feeling" thing, he carefully sipped some water and almost dropped the whole glass when his mother's skitty (Nene-chan) decided to leap on his lap.
"- and it's good thing I happened to go shopping yesterday, because you are going to need your new clothes soon enough."
"I am?" Tsuna asked distractedly, eyeing the feline on his lap with great suspicion. The damn cat had a habit of whacking him with it's tail whenever he wasn't paying attention.
"Yes," his mother answered with big smile. "You see, I got a letter from your father just a hour ago."
The "weird feeling" was back again, except this time it had turned into 'a very, very bad feeling'.
"He said he had worked things out with his friend so that you could get a trainer's license." his mother said with almost delirious joy. "You will be finally able to become pokémon trainer!"
Tsuna was utterly speechless, he could only stare at his mother as she started to dance around the kitchen, her mouth running a mile in minute about things his ringing ears didn't seem to be able to hear. This couldn't be happening. Not to him.
"Ho-how," he finally managed to force out of his mouth. "How's that possible, I failed trainer's exam. Repeatedly!"
Not that he had ever felt sorry about it. But his mother didn't need to know that.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that anymore." his mother picked a white letter from her apron's pocket and scanned it for a moment.
"Your father says here, that his friend is a very famous pokémon Professor and would be more than happy to help you." she stuffed the letter back to her apron's pocket and gave him a blinding smile.
"It seems he's coming all the way from another continent, so remember to thank him properly."
And then, to his utter horror his mom fetched a large blue backpack with a green tent attached to it. He quickly rose (skitty falling from his lap in the process) - either to flee or defend against his mother's insanity- he couldn't decide, and in the end didn't even need to.
"Now then, I have put your travelling clothes in there, as well as a first aid kit, cooking tools, a map, your sleeping bag, berries and lots, and lots of food for you and your pokémon."
"Bu-but mom-!" he tried feebly protest, but his mom was far too exited to listen.
"You can have your father's old fishing rod too, he doesn't use it much nowadays anyway and-" his mother suddenly snapped her fingers. "You are going to need 'those' too!"
She quickly ran out of the kitchen. Tsuna could clearly hear how she searched for something in her room.
"Mom, what are you-"
"Found it!" the victorious voice proclaimed and his mother appeared back to kitchen, with something in her right-hand.
Orange shaded goggles were hanged on to his neck and his mother was now looking at him with almost tearful expression.
"I used to use these all the time when I worked as a pokémon coordinator," she sniffed wistfully.
"They protect your eyes in sand storms and blizzards, and if you ever fly on your pokémon's back, they'll protect your eyes from the wind as well."
Tsuna started silently panicking when his mother began gently but firmly push him toward the door. This was happening way too fast, and way too suddenly. He needed to make his mother stop somehow.
"Bu-but mom-" he hastily tried when his mother handed him a pair of running shoes. "We don't know anything about this Professor guy. We don't even know his name, so-"
"He's your father's old friend," the voice left no room for argument. "And his name is Reborn."
Cold chills were suddenly running over Tsuna's back. Why was it, that he now had even worse feeling about this.
His mother opened the door and gave him the final, gentle push.
"If you manage to catch anything that flies teach it to carry mail. That way you can send letters no matter where you are."
They were now in front of the front porch, Tsuna was standing numbly while his mother placed her hands over his shoulders.
"You are supposed to meet Professor Reborn in Professor Dohachiro's lab at ten a clock."
Tsuna didn't feel like he could actually speak from his silent panic, so he just nodded.
His mother lowered her head so that they were staring each other eye to eye.
He willed her to see his utter reluctance, how he didn't want to go to some stupid pokémon journey.
She just stared at him for a moment, face completely blank.
But soon she was smiling again and hugging him with all her strength.
"Catch lots of awesome pokémon, make lifelong friends, and honey," she broke the hug and stared him straight in the eyes again.
"Have fun."
Stupefied. Horrified. Petrified. Terrified.
Tsuna couldn't quite decide how he felt after getting thrown into this 'amazing' pokémon journey. Most of his old classmates would have been absolutely thrilled, every child in the whole Sky country wanted to become a Pokemon Master, or otherwise work with said creatures.
But not Tsuna.
The whole idea of him, No-good-Tsuna, travelling around the country by himself felt ridiculous. He was prone to tripping over his own feet even on the flat surface, and getting lost in his own home town. So how the hell would he survive in the wilderness all alone.
Tsuna's mood darkened just a little bit more and he started kicking a small pebble while he walked towards the lab. Even the sky seemed to agree with his mood, as dark clouds were gloomily blocking the sun and it felt like it might rain soon.
Tsuna sighed.
Usually young pokémon trainers left with a friend or two, travelling simply wouldn't be as dangerous, or scary, or lonely if you were with someone else.
Tsuna viciously kicked the pebble again.
But he would have to go alone. He didn't have any friends and even if he had, they would have already left with rest of his old class when they had passed their trainer exams.
Tsuna sighed again.
Professor Dohachiro, or Nezu-sensei, as he was known in Nami-school, was responsible for teaching all the hopeful pokémon trainers the needed skills; How to take care of your pokémon, how to catch them in the wild, how to read map and survive while they were travelling in the nature, and which berries and medicine would be useful to recover pokémon's health and stats.
Needless to say Tsuna had failed all his tests. Repeatedly. He had absolutely no talent for- anything really. He was stupid, he wasn't good at sports and he didn't even have any friends. Thus he had earned the nickname 'No-good-Tsuna' and become Nezu-sensei's most hated student.
But as bad student as he was, and as much as he lacked in social skills, he had one big fault, that separated him from others completely and made him secretly relieved every time he failed trainer's exam.
He was afraid of pokémon.
When he was little, he had seen Sky country's Pokemon Tournament's final round battles from television. While all the other kids had cheered excitedly when the monsters fought each other Tsuna had watched in horror how monsters as big as their garden shed attacked each others with gleaming claws and fangs. Not to mention, caused earthquakes or chopped rocks apart like they were made of butter.
Even the small, harmless looking ones could spit fire or give electric shocks if they wanted. Nezu-sensei's old rattata had been more than happy to tackle him every time it had crossed paths with Tsuna.
And now he was supposed to catch them. and train them. And battle with them.
Impossible. Completely, utterly, impossible. He just wasn't the kind of person who could do such scary sounding things.
He hoped he had little more courage, so he could tell his mother he didn't even like pokémon nor did he want to train them. But his mother adored those creatures with all her might and had always dreamed sending her son on to adventure. It was almost a tradition in their culture to send child with pokémon to see the world and all that crap.
With one last kick Tsuna sent the pebble over Mrs. Takahashi's white fence and froze when he heard a sharp yelp.
Mrs. Takahashi's fence gate was slightly ajar and was pushed fully open by a growling black poochyena with a bump on it's head.
Oh crap!
Finally, after a mad dash and some zigzag swerving he had finally reached professor Dohachiro's lab in one piece. The canine pokémon had thankfully given up on chasing him.
He observed the old, white building warily for a moment and toyed with a thought of just turning back home.
But it was no use, if he did that his mother would be horribly disappointed. He would just have to suck it up and bear with it.
According to his wristwatch he was little late, hopefully this 'Professor Reborn' wouldn't be too hard on him.
Carefully, he raised his hand and knocked the old wooden door.
Tsuna nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot and waited, but no one was coming to open the door.
Maybe he didn't hear me.
He knocked again this time louder.
"Um, Professor Reborn," he tentatively put his hand on the door's handle. "Are you there?"
The door was surprisingly unlocked.
"Professor Dohachiro?" he stepped inside and looked around. "Anybody here?"
"You are late." Something hard hit the top of his head and he ungracefully fell on the floor.
"Gyah!" his eyes watered immediately from the pain as he clutched the forming bump on his head and faced his attacker.
Pitch black eyes stared back at him.
"Ciaossu," came oddly childish sounding reply "My name is Reborn."
The man was holding hard covered book ( he had blatantly hit Tsuna on the head with it) and didn't look anything like Tsuna had expected Professor to look like. He was young and didn't have that 'bookish and old' atmosphere Tsuna had learned to connect to Professor Dohachiro and some of his colleagues.
Well, to be fair, this man tried to look old, if his obviously fake beard was to be judged.
Tsuna tilted his head in confusion. This person was… strange, there was no other word for it.
He had lab coat yes, but under it he was wearing very expensive looking suit that would not have been out of a place in some fancy restaurant. It had a tie and everything. And perched on his shoulder was a green lizard-like pokémon.
And he had a fedora. Must not forget the fedora.
Tsuna slowly stood up and backed away couple of steps. If he remembered correctly, that pokémon was called kecleon or something. They could change their shape, or was it their colour? He was bad with this kind of stuff.
The mystery person - Reborn - had apparently grown bored with Tsuna's silence and whacked him with the book again.
"Ouch!"
"So, you're Tsuna," Reborn said almost lazily. " Well, let's get started."
A single "Eh?" managed to escape from his lips before he was roughly dragged from the back of his shirt and literally thrown in to a chair.
Scary!
"I'm not really a Professor, my true line of work is assassination." Reborn with a matter-of-fact tone.
"My real job is to make you a Mafia boss." he finished by pointing Tsuna with his book."
"Eh," Tsuna blinked, stunned. "Eeeeeehhh? Are you serious!"
Reborn acted like he hadn't even heard Tsuna's doubtful cry.
"The method is up to me." he narrowed his black eyes. "So, I've decided to send you on a journey."
Tsuna could only stare for a while. There were so many things he wanted to ask, "What the hell are you talking about!" definitely. "Wasn't it mom and dad's crazy idea to send me on a journey?" that too.
But instead what came out of his mouth was.
"Why are you wearing a fake beard?"
"…"
Tsuna had a sudden urge to bash his head against the wall. This wasn't the time to be spouting stupid questions! He should be running home by now to warn his father about this utterly mad friend of his.
"Oho," the mad man sounded vaguely pleased. "so, you can see trough my disguise."
There was really something wrong with this man. Tsuna could only gape completely speechless for a second, before quickly remembering the more pressing issues.
"Of course I can see- it's a fake beard! Not some super spy mask. But never mind about that." he took a breath and continued, "What do you- I mean, mafia boss. I don't-" Tsuna struggled to form his question in some way that didn't sound completely mental.
"I don't understand." he lamely finished.
Reborn gave him blank, somewhat amused look.
"I was assigned by the Vongola family's ninth generation boss to raise you to become a mafia boss. The ninth is getting old and he was planning on passing on the boss status to the tenth generation."
Tsuna felt like he was still missing the much needed piece of information.
"The most qualified was killed by enemy's pokémon," Reborn continued ignoring Tsuna's scared look and even showed him a picture of the body.
"the young number two, Matsumo was drowned." now Reborn added second picture.
"The favourite child Federico, was found reduced to bone."
"You don't have to keep showing them!" Tsuna yelled, desperately trying to cover his eyes.
"So, the only candidate left to be tenth is you."
"But that doesn't explain anything. Why does it have to be me!" Tsuna exploded, "and isn't Vongola the name of this continent? "
"It is," Reborn said but didn't elaborate further. " The Vongola family's First Boss retired early and crossed over to Sky country. That is your great great great grandfather. So, you are a part of the Vongola bloodline and a legitimate boss candidate." Reborn finished with a shrug. Like he had only told Tsuna that two plus two is four.
Tsuna felt dizzy and was very glad he was sitting. Mafia. Vongola. How come he had never heard anything about this. It had to be a bad joke.
So," Reborn continued while watching Tsuna's distress with expressionless eyes. " I will make you a good mafia boss but to do that you need to become pokémon trainer too." there was an almost invisible smirk on his lips. "Strength is important in our trade of work and training pokémon is a perfect way to achieve it."
Reborn picked something from his white lab coat's pocket and threw it to Tsuna.
Tsuna who had been sitting still and trying to suppress his ever growing sense of surreal horror failed to catch the small capsule and ended up picking it from under his seat.
The small innocent looking pokéball, about the size of an golf-ball stared right back at him. Tsuna held it between his forefinger and thumb, unsure what to do. After couple of seconds he carefully pressed the middle part of the capsule. It grew bigger and now he had to hold it on his palm.
Tsuna frowned at it. The pokéball was a normal looking one with red top and white bottom. They were sold in almost every store and the common ones like this were reasonably cheap. His mother had some expensive custom made ones for her most favourite pokémon. She had sometimes made Tsuna carry them to pokécenter, but they had felt somehow different than this one…heavier.
"It's empty." Tsuna finally said befuddled. Ignoring the mafia story, didn't trainers usually receive their first pokémon from the local pokémon laboratory. Granted, Reborn wasn't a real Professor and he wasn't a real trainer but what was the point of giving him an empty pokeball.
"What, you thought I was going give you a pokémon?" the almost smirk was back again.
" That would be against the law. As you have never passed the trainer exam I am not permitted to give you one."
Tsuna had a strong urge to ask why a member of mafia cared about following a law so obediently but he felt too relieved to actually care. If he couldn't get a starter pokémon he also wouldn't be able to start his journey. He now had a perfect excuse to go back home and hopefully convince his mother to forget the whole 'let's make Tsuna a pokémon Master' at least for a little while.
It all would have been perfect if Reborn just had kept quiet.
"However, I am willing to give you a temporary license."
Tsuna felt his eyebrows give a violent twist. He really didn't like this strange, strange man with black eyes and kecleon on his shoulder.
Feeling like he shouldn't, he asked, "What's a temporary license?"
" Temporary license allows person to catch and train pokémon and even earn real license as long as said person acquires three or more badges." Reborn explained with indifferent tone.
"You are already thirteen and have never owned even single pokémon." came almost pitying sigh. "You are quite pathetic No-good Tsuna."
"Hey!" Tsuna retorted angrily. "I don't even want to become pokémon trainer nor mafia boss. So just leave me alone."
"Why not?" Reborn asked. "Don't all kids want to train pokémon."
"I don't," Tsuna immediately responded." I don't even like them. They are scary. And I'm weak and clumsy and not very smart, so how could I ever train pokémon without getting killed in the process?"
"You sure have a strong loser complex." Reborn snorted. Tsuna was taken aback, surprised. This man didn't seem like the type that would snort. And why was he still here having a conversation with this mad person. So far he had heard a crazy story about him being successor of a mafia family and received an empty pokéball.´
With a tired sigh he stood up and fastened his heavy backpack.
"I'm going home." he mumbled. "Here." he tried to hand the empty sphere back to Reborn. "I don't need it."
"Oh, but you do," Reborn said in s cheerful voice. "How else are you going to catch your first pokémon?"
Tsuna froze and stared incredulously at the fake Professor.
"I thought you needed to tire pokémon first in the battle to catch it." he said little unsurely. "Isn't that how it usually goes?"
"Yes, usually." Reborn nodded. "But this is not the usual situation so we have to do things little differently."
Tsuna had a foreboding feeling. "I'm not going to like what you say next, am I?"
"Good intuition," Reborn smirked. "You are going to catch you first pokémon by yourself without help from anybody. Not even from another pokémon."
"Impossible!" Tsuna panicked. "Impossible, impossible, definitely impossible!"
"Be quiet." Reborn seized Tsuna from the back of his shirt again and started dragging him to the door. "Only say it's impossible after you have actually tried."
With those parting words Tsuna was tossed again - albeit this time in more violent manner- outside and left to stare at the closed door.
Pokémon training. Assassin. Mafia. There was so much to be confused about that he didn't know where to start. How could a perfectly good morning turn into this.
And as if to add insult to injury it started raining.
After getting hit by a branch twice, tripping over his feet four times and getting poured by the rain, Tsuna was quite ready to quit his fruitless pokémon searching crusade and go home. Why had he even listened that stupid fake Professor, let alone obeyed him. Sure he was quite scary even with that comical fake beard of his, but really what could he have done to Tsuna. Shot him? Not very likely.
And besides, he couldn't even find any pokémons. The local forest was usually filled with normal types, like pidgey and rattata but because of the weather none of them could be found.
Tsuna turned around determined to go home and beg his mother to let him inside, only to realise he had no idea where he was.
Oh no.
He had thoughtlessly marched into forest without any particular plan or direction in mind and now he was lost.
Great. This is just brilliant. Can't believe how stupid I am!
He was getting really cold and water was seeping into his shoes. He sneezed and rubbed his running nose with his sleeve, he needed to find shelter from rain somewhere.
He settled under a big oak, it's large branches gave at least some protection from the rain if not from the cold.
He shivered and tried to warm his hands, this was all dad's fault. If he hadn't sent that stupid letter none of this would have happened. Tsuna watched sourly at the dark sky. At least there was no thunder, otherwise he wouldn't have dared to stand under such a huge tree.
Suddenly he caught some movement in the branches and warily stepped away from the tree.
Don't be a beedrill. Don't be beedrill. Don't be a…
A small, green caterpillar drowsily crawled from one branch to another. It didn't seem to notice Tsuna and started happily eating one of the big green leaves.
A Caterpie.
Tsuna blinked. Caterpies were small green creatures, they were slow and didn't own sharp claws or fangs. They didn't even have poison and this particular specimen looked very sleepy. Maybe sleepy enough to get caught by Tsuna?
Tsuna squeezed the empty pokéball ín his cold hands. Maybe if he caught it Reborn and Mom would be pleased enough to leave him be, at least for a while.
But it was quite high up, what if he missed?
"Only say it's impossible after you have actually tried."
He would try.
He aimed very carefully. He would have to put some strength into his throw, otherwise it would not reach the caterpie. Taking a deep breath he waited for a moment completely still. The caterpie moved couple inches now it was even easier target.
Go.
Tsuna threw his pokéball with all his might, it sailed trough the air almost in slow motion and neared the green worm with deadly accuracy.
Yes!
Only to pass the caterpie by hairs breadth and fall to the ground.
No!
It didn't end there, the oak was standing on a small hill so the red and white sphere started rolling away with increasing speed.
"Wait! stop! Come back!"
His yells made little difference and he cursed under his breath as he started running after the ball. If he lost that thing Reborn would probably hammer him to death with hard cover book.
After at least ten minutes of mad running, he was panting heavily and almost fell over again from the sheer exhaustion. He was now standing near some sort of small river and the pokéball was sitting innocently near it's edge.
He scowled heavily at the sphere and reached out his hand to pick it up. He was now even more lost and had failed to catch the caterpie. As one could expect from a no-good.
He was startled out of his depressed thoughts by a panicked cry.
Squeezing the pokéball he started to look around, trying to see what had caused such an loud noise.
He heard the cry again and let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. The cry was coming from the river. Was it some sort of water pokémon?
He surveyed the steep, rocky bank with his eyes. There! Something moved near the water edge. Small, muddy, something was trying to climb up from the river but it kept sliding down the slippery river bank and was obviously distressed.
His first thought was to fetch his mother, or Reborn, or someone who could help. But of course, he was still lost and the muddy thing would certainly drown before help came.
That left only one thing to do. He removed his wet shoes and socks and carefully slid down the bank into the water.
It was freezing. His clothes were now covered in mud and he was desperately trying not to fall. slimy rocks under his feet were making it very difficult. The muddy thing had noticed him and was now very still. He picked up his space, worried, had it died?"
He reached out his trembling hand - from the cold or from the adrenalin, he wasn't sure - and tried to touch the small thing.
"Um, are you okay?"
Needle-sharp teeth flashed and bit his hand in a very painful way.
"Ouch!" Tsuna backed away, nursing his bleeding hand. "I'm just trying to help!"
The thing hissed at him and Tsuna noticed pair of angry eyes glaring at him.
So that's how it was going to be, eh?
Tsuna felt very frustrated. Here he was; wet and dirty. Standing almost waist deep in freezing water, trying to help a pokémon who obviously didn't want his help. It was almost too miserable to be true. But he wasn't going to leave the creature here. Oh no, not after all that trouble.
But how to take it into safety. He had a strong suspicion that if he tried to carry the creature it would bite his head off. So how the heck was he going to move the muddy thing without getting injured? If only he had a pokéball…
"…"
Oh, that's right… he had one.
Moving quickly he managed to dodge sharp claws and press the red and white sphere against the creature's back. It was drawn into capsule and Tsuna quickly started climbing up from the river. It would be a bad thing if the small pokémon would managed to break the ball and escape while Tsuna was still carrying it, he would get his face clawed off.
His worries were proven unnecessary however, when a soft 'bling' noise was heard and the ball stopped moving.
He slumped down next to his shoes and brought his left hand over his racing heart while the other hand clutched the sphere.
He had caught it. Seriously caught it. He had never caught anything, it felt… strange.
Not that he was going to keep it, Tsuna quickly reminded himself. He had just wanted to carry it to safety! That's all! There was no way he was going to keep anything as dangerous and violent as this thing- whatever it was. His hand was still throbbing painfully.
But…
The creature seemed really tired. How long had it been trying to get out of water. If he just left it here some other monster would surely come and eat it. Or it would die from cold or…
They usually had healing machines in labs, didn't they?
Well, there was an idea. With a determined nod he stood up, pokéball in one hand and his shoes in other, he started walking bare-feet in the rain towards a direction he thought would lead back to civilization.
Surely he would find way out of this god forbidden forest soon.
After walking about half an hour he let out an frustrated growl. Why? Why couldn't he just find his way out like a normal person. Why did he have to be a no-good and get more and more lost.
With detached wonderment he noticed that it had stopped raining.
Feeling miserable and helpless he turned his face up to sky.
His eyes widened and his breath hitched, the sun was shining almost delicately between the dark rain clouds and a beautiful rainbow was colouring a small patch of the sky with it's seven colours.
It was a very lovely sight, he smiled what felt like first time in a long time and felt a bit disappointed he hadn't brought a camera.
Something gold and red flashed between the clouds. Tsuna squinted his eyes trying to see what it was.
A majestic looking bird glided from the clouds. It flew towards the rainbow, it's golden feathers shining magnificently in the sun. With a serene flap of it's wings it rose higher and higher into clouds, until it disappeared from Tsuna's sight altogether.
Tsuna blinked dazedly and shook his head. What a beautiful pokémon! He couldn't remember ever seeing one like it and wondered what it was called. Maybe Reborn knew.
With a content sigh he started walking again. This time he felt peaceful, like he couldn't get any more lost. He walked trough the trees, sun shining on his back. Finally spotting a familiar trail he started walking faster and after a surprisingly short time he was staring at the white door of Professor Dohachiro's lab.
Thank god, I made it.
"So," Reborn looked at him with his usual blank expression. "What did you caught?"
"Um" Tsuna sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Something?"
"Something." Reborn repeated with raised eyebrow.
There was a tense silence for a moment, during which Tsuna kept smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of his head. It was finally interrupted by Reborn's long suffering sigh and sharp movement of his hand when he hit Tsuna with a book, again.
"How can you not know what you caught. Were you running around eyes closed."
"No," Tsuna whimpered clutching his head. "but the thing was so covered in mud I couldn't even recognise what it was."
Reborn crossed his arms over his chest and looked pointedly at Tsuna.
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" When Tsuna only looked at Reborn quizzically he sighed. "Go clean it up, there should be towels in bathroom."
With that said the fake Professor walked casually to the other side of the room. Tsuna hadn't noticed a door there before and wanted to ask where it led. He wasn't fast enough though and Reborn managed to disappear from his sigh.
Now, back to the main problem.
Tsuna lowered his eyes and gazed fearfully at the small sphere in his hands. Clean it up? No way, absolutely no way. He liked his face where it was, thank you very much.
But then again, if he didn't clean the thing up, Reborn might try to knock him out with that damn book.
Very reluctantly he dragged his still bare feet towards what he assumed was a bathroom. As Reborn had said there were some towels hanging on a hook on the wall.
He grabbed one of them and sat on the floor, dropping his shoes next to him. He held the red and white ball, hesitatingly for a few short moments until he resolved himself enough and recklessly opened it.
With a flash of light the muddy creature appeared before him. It was shivering and looked scared. When it's eyes met Tsuna's it let out an angry hiss and bended it's back, trying to look bigger
"Ah, it's okay, you are safe," Tsuna quickly started chant soothingly, more to himself than to small muddy pokémon. "Nothing bad is going to happen. I'll just clean you up a little." he inched closer slowly. "So, if you could, you know, stay put and not bite me I would appreciate it."
The pokémon had stopped hissing and was now merely watching Tsuna warily. When Tsuna finally touched it with the towel it hissed once but thankfully quieted down. Perhaps it was too tired to put up a fight. Tsuna didn't want to test his luck so he rubbed the mud off as quickly and gently as he could.
To his amazement, a black ear emerged from the towel, closely followed by cream coloured fur and… a oval shaped gold coin?
The muddy pokémon was no longer muddy. It started licking it's brown paw completely ignoring Tsuna.
"A meowth, eh?" came lazy sounding voice from the doorway.
Tsuna turned to face Reborn's smirking face. The man tilted his fedora and walked right past Tsuna to grab the small feline from the back of it's neck. Uncaring of it's hissing he brought it slightly closer to his face and stared at it's oval coin thingy. The poor cat started shake under his black eyed stare.
"Hmm, this seems to be a little damaged."
Tsuna blinked and stood up to see what Reborn meant. Just as he had said, the cat pokémon's coin had two long scratches running over each others. They formed an X right middle of the coin.
"How appropriate." Reborn said quietly.
Tsuna looked Reborn questioningly but he just kept daggling the cat pokémon from it's neck fur.
"Come along then." Reborn tossed the meowth to Tsuna's unprepared arms. He thankfully managed to catch the small feline but received few angry scratches also.
Back in the main room Reborn unceremoniously handed him a blue, right-angle shaped device.
"What's this?" Tsuna asked.
"Obviously it's a pokédex." Reborn answered with a stare that meant Tsuna was an idiot for not knowing.
Tsuna glanced back at the 'pokédex. "No. it's not. Pokédexes are normally red, not blue. And they don't have pictures on them." he finished with a firm tone. This much even he knew.
And what was up with that picture. It was painted white and formed a rather magnificent looking picture on the front side of the pokédex. Tsuna frowned slightly. Were those guns. And vines. And… a winged clam?
"Your pokédex is slightly different looking but it works like normal." Reborn petted his kecleon distractedly. "You can take these too." he handed Tsuna five small pokéballs.
Tsuna suddenly remembered why he even was here.
"I am not keeping this one." he hurriedly explained and pointed at the meowth in his arms.
"Why did you bring it here then." Reborn asked without sparing Tsuna a glance preferring to pet his lizard.
"Um, I-" Tsuna glanced at the feline that was tiredly laying on his arms almost sleeping. "This pokémon seems so beaten up so… I wondered if you could heal it." he asked hopefully.
Reborn tilted his head finally looking at Tsuna. "First of all, it's 'him' not 'it' Tsuna, and secondly we do not run a free healthcare for injured wild pokémon."
Tsuna wanted to object, Reborn being fake Professor and all, didn't really get to decide whose pokémon gets healed but kept quiet. He himself had no idea how those healing machines were used so he needed Reborn's help.
"But then again," Reborn continued mock thoughtfully. "If that pokémon was owned by someone I would have no problem healing it."
Tsuna glared angrily at the stupid fake Professor, but quickly turned his eyes back to small feline. It's- His eyes were almost closed and it really looked rather sickly.
"Fine." he finally gave up. "What do I need to do?"
Reborn gave him a smirk under his tilted fedora.
"Give him a name and return him back to ball, then I will heal him."
Reborn turned and started walking towards the healing machine. Tsuna listlessly followed and carefully petted the now sleeping cat.
Tsuna returned the feline pokémon back to his red and white capsule and handed it over to Reborn.
"His name?"
Tsuna paused to think for a moment.
"Natsu."
I wonder if mom would let me come back home now?
Author's Note; Hah, not a change Tsuna. Done! Finally. This thing just kept getting longer and longer and I still have loads of ideas. Checking this for mistakes was really annoying. I feel awkward reading my own text for some reason. Sorry for all the possible grammar mistakes, me speak no good engrish.
Heh, Getting meowth is the first step into mafia world in pokémon world. Ask anyone. Reviews will make this author very happy. Flamers will be eaten.
Those who are concerned about my other fic; Messing around with time again, I'm sorry to say it's currently on hiatus because of my lack of interest in continuing it.