AN- Me: Muse Kitty...

Muse Kitty: Meow?

Me: What did you do?! You kidnapped wolfsrainrules's muse again!

Muse Kitty: Meow

Me: Well- yes I had fun with it.

Muse Kitty: Smug Meow

Me: I hate you

Disclaimer- I don't own Reborn

Prologue

"Enemies will attack you along the road and when you're traveling by car," Reborn lectured, and Tsuna shivered at the idea. The two of them were sitting in his room, the rest of the house empty for the day. Nana had taken the kids shopping and Banchi had disappeared to Reborn knows where. His guardians had learned the hard way not to interrupt one if Reborn's lessons unless it was an emergency.

"When that time comes, you have to have a plan with how to deal with it," the sun user continued. His black eyes were immensely focused on Tsuna, making him feel like the bug he was currently to the Arcobaleno. "A boss must be prepared for every eventuality. Multiple plans are ideal, ordered down in terms of safest to the most dangerous."

"Vongola cars are enforced," Reborn said, "But there are times enemies can get through them. Nothing is certain, technology is always advancing, cockiness will get you killed."

"B-But I thought you said that Vongola had the best scientist?" Tsuna asked.

"Dame-Tsuna," Reborn scolded, and grinned pulling out his Leon-mallett. Tsuna shrieked, trying to dodge.

Reborn continued talking as if his student wasn't nursing a new bump on his head. It wasn't like he was hitting the middle schooler as hard as he used to anyways. The brat had grown on him.

"What did I just say?" Reborn asked, then continued on ruthlessly before Tsuna could answer, "Technology is always advancing, The people making the technology are always changing. Vongola may have the best scientists now, but no one knows about that in even five years. By the time you become boss, Vongola may be the strongest in power, but the weakest in terms of technology, struggling just to keep up."

Tsuna furrowed his brow as he tried to work through the statement in his head. Reborn whipped out a book from wherever he kept it, and placed it down in front of the future Decimo. It landed with a heavy thump, and Tsuna jumped, working not to shriek again.

"I want you to read through this in the next week," Reborn told him, relishing in the horrified look his student gave the heavy book. "It outlines all of the basic plans that have already been made for situations regarding the road and cars. Once you have a general idea of what works and what doesn't, we can move onto how to create your own plans."

He smirked. "Of course, you'll have to keep up with your normal school work on top of that."
Tsuna whimpered, and quickly pulled the book closer to him so he could get started. If he got a decent amount done today before school tomorrow, he might not have such a large workload for the next week. The glint in Reborn's eyes told him that it was a futile hope though. (And a small part of him crowed at the fact that he could finally start truly reading the hitman.) He wasn't looking forward to it, but he knew that Reborn would push him to his limits, and past them, but never more than Tsuna could truly handle.

He ducked at the gunshot, and Reborn's smirk grew.

"Less thinking and more reading Dame-Tsuna."


"Reborn?" Tsuna asked quietly a couple of days later. The hitman glanced at his student and then the book in his hands. He took note of where the bookmark was, and his face hardened. Ah. That one. "W-why is the Roadrunner page blank?"

Reborn gestured for him to sit down, and he noted that his student's frame relaxed slightly. The brat still hadn't seemed to learn what Reborn considered stupid questions, which were questions he had already answered and knew Tsuna could understand if he actually put some effort into it. Everything else was considered valid questions. After all, a good boss had to know how to admit to the people he trusted that he didn't know something.

"Because if you find yourself in a true Roadrunner situation, then you're most likely going to end up dead, and the author thought his readers should except that now."

Tsuna's face turned dead white, and he looked down at the book as if it were the one about to kill him. Normally, Reborn would have scolded him about it, but this one a moment that he needed Tsuna to understand just how serious he was being.

"Look at me, Tsuna," he commanded, and the don to be glanced up, whether from surprise at the use of his actual name, or because of his tutor's tone of voice Reborn wasn't sure, but it didn't matter as long as the boy paid attention to him. No student of his was going to get killed by a rookie mistake like thinking going Roadrunner was ever a good idea except in the most dire situations.

"The Roadrunner page is in there because a few people have managed to pull it off in the last half century," Reborn said, and Tsuna opened his mouth to ask a question but Reborn cut him off. "By a few I mean three." Tsuna's mouth snapped shut, his eyes widening.

"One was a group of two," Reborn continued, "A sun user and a mist user. And even then, they only managed it because of sudden bad weather, a sloppy mistake on their enemies part, and a hell ton of luck." The hitman could still remember that fog and rain filled night, flame depleted with a panting Mammon next to him, and the ever enclosing footsteps of the people after them.

"The other one," Reborn shook the memories off smoothly, not a hitch in his speech, "was a lone mist user. She only survived because she didn't have to use her flames for anything except throwing her pursuers off."

He tilted his head, studying Tsuna's dumbstruck expression. "But those were true Roadrunner situations. There are several conditions that must be meet for it to be a true Roadrunner. Other families argued that any situation on foot along a road is a Roadrunner, but they're all idiots.

"The situations they're talking about are simply pulling a runner. Anyone can do that correctly and get out alive if they're skilled enough. Roadrunners are entirely different.

"First, they have to be a complete surprise. You can't have known the attack was coming, which already leaves you at a disadvantage, and usually with an injury that will slow you down in a situation that you already can't afford to lose speed in"

Ducking and rolling out of the way from the shot that even he hadn't noticed, cursing as it clipped him in his shoulder, and whatever was on it started to drain his flames-

"Second, you can't know who or how many people are after you. It becomes a situation that you can't trust anyone outside of your own people, and sometimes not even then. The danger increases exponentially as you lose the ability to ask for outside help."
Mammon bursting in with a their lips in a grim line as they hauled him to his feet. "We've been sold out. We need to leave. Now or-

"Third, you have to be on foot. Alone, against an unknown enemy with no quick way out of the situation, and no guarantee that the person walking down the street isn't helping whoever attacked you. That is what pulling a Roadrunner means."

The two of them ran hard, their feet pounding against the concrete of the twisting maze of alleys with Mammon leading the way, doubling back when the heard footsteps, but the feeling of encroaching inevitability wouldn't go away-

Tsuna looked vaguely sick, and Reborn let the grim silence fall, his small legs crossed in front of him. He sat there staring at Tsuna to let the idea of that situation sink in, for him to realize just why no one did it except as a last resort.

"Hopefully," Reborn said softly, "You will never end up in such a situation. However," his black eyes bore into his students. "I want you to promise me that you will leave it as a last resort."

Tsuna nodded frantically, and Reborn let himself relax, smirking at his student. "Your spar with Hibari is supposed to start in five minutes."

Tsuna shrieked. "I'll never make it in time! Reborn! Why didn't you warn me earlier?!"

As Tsuna sprinted out the door, Reborn gave a soft smile that he was sure no one else would see.


Years later when in the middle of a mission Reborn got a call from the Varia, telling him his student, his boss, the one person who he tied himself to, his Sky, Tsuna and his driver were pulling a Roadrunner, he bent his head so his fedors shaded his face and hung up.

"Dammit Tsuna," he grit out through his clenched jaw. "You promised."

And he stalked off to catch the soonest flight to Italy.