I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

This new story is a collab from NightmareAx7 and me! This is for LAXUSDRAYER2324. It was supposed to be published in August, but well.. school. Anyway, on to the story!

Beta-ed by NightmareAx7!


"Okay class, the main point of this lesson is that you should never mix water with any large amounts of alkali metals." Nezu, for once, was properly teaching the class. Normally, he goes on and on about how elite he was 3 minutes into the lessons. It was a miracle that he was teaching properly today. To the others, it was completely new but nothing weird.

To Tsuna though, it seemed fishy.

Not to mention, Nezu kept occasionally glancing at the door. And his voice sometimes faltered, as if he was waiting for something. Or someone, for the matter. And, there was that slight shaking of his hand. 'Too fishy,' Tsuna's intuition said. (Well not exactly said but you get what it means.)

Tsuna looked over at his friends and saw Gokudera reading what seemed to be an explosives magazine hidden underneath his textbook. Tsuna sweatdropped, Gokudera probably swapped the covers so that he could read it... Tsuna turned his head and looked at Yamamoto. He was sleeping and was using his textbook, too, as a cover. Tsuna looked at Chrome's seat and noticed that there was no Chrome, only mist flames. Chrome was getting too influenced by Mukuro... Tsuna sighed. His friends never changed, and he was not sure whether to be happy about that or not.

His thoughts were interrupted when the speaker near the top of the board suddenly sprang to life, and out of it, came a voice he completely didn't expect.

"Ah. Ah. Mic test, mic test. Is this thing working? It is? Okay, thanks! Um, they said it's working. Ah, hey, don't just suddenly-"

"Listen up all 2nd years," a smooth, suave voice came out from the speakers. "Come to the courtyard immediately. Any late class will be automatically disqualified from tomorrow's program, and trust me, you don't want to be disqualified. So, I suggest you start running."

People were stunned to silence by the suddenness of the announcement, but Tsuna's silence had a different cause.

His head was full of 'Holy- wasn't that Dino-san?! And- and REBORN?!' and 'Why the hell are they here?!' and the like.

Again, the speaker sprang to life, but this time, the voice had become dark and threatening.

"Didn't you hear me idiots? Get to the courtyard or you'll be swiss cheese!"

At that, everyone snapped out of their trances and started running to the courtyard. The corridors became congested, with students rushing to get to the designated place.

Tsuna and his friends weren't caught in the pandemonium, so they were able to exit through a backdoor and get to the courtyard faster than the others. But when they got there, Tsuna almost wished they hadn't.

After all, standing atop a stage, was Reborn in all his glory. Beside him was his first student, and Tsuna's self-proclaimed brother, Dino with, of course, Romario. If that was all, then there would be nothing to worry about. But not when Reborn was smirking and releasing a mischievous aura.

Soon, all the classes were in the courtyard. Some of the faculty staff for the 2nd years arranged them by class, so that everyone was with their classmates.

When everyone had settled down, Reborn began speaking.

"Since you're all here, let's start. I'm Professor Reboyama, and I have called you here regarding an announcement. Tomorrow's classes for 2nd years will be cancelled and replaced by an event."

At the announcement, many students cheered and kept on chattering, making more and more noise. Reborn tried to speak again, but couldn't be heard. Soon he got fed up and fired a blank. Now that got the students to shut up.

"As I was saying, your classes will be cut tomorrow and you will be participating in an event held by the Vongola Corp-"

"Vongola Corp?! THE Vongola Corp?!"

"No way! Why?!"

"But isn't Vongola Corp the world's largest corporation?!"

"Why us?!"

BANG!

"SHUT UP AND LISTEN. The event mentioned is held by the Vongola Corporation to test out new inventions. What are they? You'll find out at the event tomorrow."

"The event itself, will be an inter-class battle royale. The class that wins will be given the chance to do whatever they want to do for the school festival. Vongola will be sponsoring them."

"That's all. The rest of your day will be used to plan your strategy for the battle royale. The principal has already given his permission for you to do so."


[TimeSkip~ Back in the classrooms~]

"Okay, so for tomorrow's event, we will need a leader, the strategist." The class representative said. "And since I'm the class rep, I think I wou-"

"I nominate Juudaime for the position of leader!" A silver puppy interrupted.

"Wha-! Gokudera-kun, please don-"

"Hahaha yeah! Tsuna'll be a great leader!" seconded a happy-go-lucky dog.

"Yamamoto-kun... Please don't sec-"

"I agree with them. Tsunayoshi-san will be a good leader for tomorrow's event." said a purple owl who was, for once, in the classroom on her own volition.

"Even you, Chrome?! Ple-"

"Wait! I think that Jirou-kun will make a good leader! Plus, he's the class rep!" said Nakano.

"If that's the case, then Gokudera-kun's best in terms of intelligence!" said Kusanagi.

"Juudaime is smarter than me!" claimed Gokudera.

"Gokudera-kun, please do-"

"Ha?! Sawada has average grades and everyone knows that you're smarter than him, Gokudera." retorted Kusanagi.

"No, Tsuna IS smarter than Hayato." said Yamamoto.

"Sawada is just average. It'd be better to make the Yukinari twins the leaders than Sawada." said Fujikata.

"Huh?! Don't include us in the list! And if anything, Sawada's a better leader!" came the voices of the Yukinari Twins.

"Wait! Don't I have any say in this?!"

BAM!

The door to the classroom slammed opened and the main cause of Tsuna's soon-to-be annoyance came in.

"I have a solution to your problem, idiots. I'll appoint a leader." Reborn said. He turned to Tsuna. "Oi, Dame-Tsuna, you're the leader." He finished and then went out after throwing a map at his student.

The class was silent, most of them couldn't believe the turn of events. Until Tsuna screamed bloody murder, that is. [That's what I wanna do today. Scream bloody murder because of school.]

"Alright! Shut it, Sawada!" The class rep yelled. "We have no choice, so you're now our leader. What's our plan for tomorrow?"

Tsuna sighed. Damn that Reborn… He took the map left by Reborn and examined it.

"Luckily for us, the map is an actual topographic map, so we can get a general idea of the kind of terrain we'll be competing in," he began. "Gokudera-kun, why don't you tell us what kind of terrain we'll be up against?"

"Sure thing Juudaime!" Gokudera yelled, eyes sparkling at the idea that he could be useful to his beloved Juudaime. He coughed and went into lecturer mode. "A topographic map has many features, prime of which are the legend, scale, coordinates, contour lines and intervals."

"The legend is used to help the topographer represent, and for the map reader to identify, certain features which are present in the terrain. For example, this legend uses triangles to represent trees. Hence, we can conclude that an area with a lot of triangle symbols represent a forested area. We can thus identify the general terrain we will be facing in this manner."

"The scale is ... We've all learnt how to use scales in Math so I shall skip that. So the next feature is coordinates. Coordinates help us pin-point the exact area we are referring to on the map such that everyone knows which area we are referring to. A map can be read to 4-figure or 6-figure coordinates. Essentially, the numbers at the bottom of the map are called Eastings while the numbers at the sides are called Northings."

"As a general rule-of-thumb, we read Eastings then Northings. That gives us a 4-figure coordinate. A six figure coordinate is derived when each easting and northing is further divided into 10 smaller divisions so the reading is written as the coordinates of the easting, followed by the number of the division closest to the right of the point we're taking reference from, then the coordinates of the northing which is followed by the value of the division closest to the top of the reference point."

"Contour lines and contour intervals are used tell us the elevation of the land. The larger the value of the number beside the contour line, the higher the elevation of the area. Hence, we can find out whether the ground slopes up or down or if there are cliffs and whatnot."

By then, most of the people in the class were falling asleep. The only people who were paying any attention to Gokudera were the Guardians present in the room, Tsuna and the Yukinari twins.

"JUST GET TO THE POINT!" yelled Jirou, startling everyone who was asleep, wide awake.

"YOU FUCKING BAS-" started Gokudera as he leapt over the table in front of him, dynamite in hand.

"Hayato!" Tsuna shouted. "Swear jar!"

Everyone in the room froze. Tsuna had never raised his voice against anyone before. They always thought that he was a meek, no-good idiot who couldn't even stand up for himself, let alone have the guts to yell at someone. They all looked outside. Nope, the world hadn't ended.

Gokudera, on the other hand, was on cloud nine. 'Juudaime called me by my name!' he swooned as he practically floated over to Tsuna and handed him 2 $1 coins, which were promptly added to his UMA sticker-covered swear jar.

'EH?!' yelled their classmates in their heads. They double-checked their surroundings. Nope. Still no apocalypse.

"Can we please just get on with our strategy planning?" sighed Jirou. It was simply better to not think too much about the weird relationship Dame-Tsuna had with his friends. Less headaches that way.

"Focus Hayato," Tsuna gently reminded him.

"Right," nodded Gokudera firmly, going into his 'right-hand man' mode.

"First things first, the entire playing field is a circle with a radius of 3km. That gives us a playing area of roughly a little more than 28km2."

"Analysing the map, we can see that in the centre of the arena, there is a group of flags, arranged in a circle numbered 1 to 5 in a clockwise direction. At the edges of the map, there are areas numbered with our classes, in an anticlockwise direction to our respective flags. I assume that we are supposed to collect our flags and bring them back safely to base and try to capture other class flags and maintain possession of them as well."

"The kind of terrain we will be moving through also changes. The base camps are backed up to the edges of the playing field. The area immediately around the bases is clear of any vegetation and obstacles. However, about 500m past the bases, the area is forested, for about 2km. Nearing the centre of the arena, we need to climb a plateau, 10m high, to reach the flags. The plateau takes the shape of a square with sides 1km long. This is what we are up against."

'Wah! So tough!' was the only thought that ran through the minds of the non-mafia class members.

'What on earth is Reborn thinking?!' exclaimed Tsuna mentally, knowing better than to show his inner turmoil to his classmates. 'This isn't a course civilians can run!'

"So, oh great leader," drawled Kusanagi. "What's your plan?"

"Why you..." snarled Gokudera.

"Hayato," Tsuna warned.

"That's wasn't very nice of you," Yamamoto said, his smile taking a razor-sharp edge.

"You shouldn't talk to Bossu like that," admonished Chrome, her eye flashing with tightly-controlled anger.

"Guys..." said Jirou nervously, "Let's try to work together to win tomorrow's competition, ok?"

All of them reluctantly backed down. But that didn't stop them from shooting nasty glares at each other or making rude and/or threatening hand gestures.

'Children...' Tsuna sighed mentally.

"Okay. Our goal is to get to the flags and make off with as many as we can. However, gaining and maintaining possession of our own flag is our top priority," said Tsuna. "Our class happens to have the largest number of Track members. Could I have a show of hands of those in Track?"

11 students raised their hands.

"Ok, how many of you run cross-country?"

Everyone except for 2 boys and a girl put down their hands.

"Ok. You guys are the class's best chance of bringing back the captured flags to base, fast. Your cross-country training will be a great asset as you guys will have enough stamina to run to the cliff and back quickly."

The 3 students nodded in acknowledgement and pride. They had decided, that ideally, the boys would take 2 flags each while the girl took 1.

"Takeshi and I would be the best choices for climbing the cliff and bringing the flags to the edge to drop them down to you guys for you to head back to base first. Both of us have gone free climbing before so if there is no other way for us to get to the top, we can safely scale the cliff."

"Hahaha. What a joke! Dame-Tsuna, free climbing? You trip over thin air and fall down the stairs! How will YOU of all people be able to scale the cliff?" sneered Nakano.

"Would you rather scale the cliff instead? A 10m cliff without safety equipment, on your own?" asked Yamamoto, his eyes as cold as the winter frost.

All the non-mafia class members shivered. This side of Yamamoto was one they had never seen before. The look seemed so foreign yet fit so well on the baseball star. The look of a natural-born hitman.

"Anyway," Tsuna intervened. "Takeshi and I will try to claim as many flags as we can, and will drop them to the bottom of the cliff so that our cross country runners can pick them up. How many 400m runners do we have?"

Another 3 students raised their hands.

"Perfect. Our cross-country runners will pass the flags to you at the edge of the forest leading to our base. Do we have any 100m sprinters?"

This time, there were 5 students who raised their hands.

"Excellent!" Tsuna exclaimed, pleased with the results. "Each 100m sprinter can take a flag each and speed back to base, taking over from the 400m sprinters. We can thus reduce the amount of time we are exposed, mainly the 500m back to base, and our runners have a clear path."

"What about defence? Of our base and the runners?" asked a student.

"I was just getting to that," Tsuna smiled gently, his charisma doing the rest. Because of said charisma, his classmates couldn't help but believe him, rely on him. "I was thinking that we split the culture and sports club members in half, with one half each of the sports and culture clubs staying at the base. Hayato and Chrome can help organise them on the day itself to maximise our defence. Do you have any issues with that?" asked Tsuna.

Everyone shook their heads. All of them knew just how cunning Chrome could be, and no one could deny how excellent a strategist Gokudera was.

"The rest of the students should pair up, preferably one culture club member with one sports. The entire group should initially follow the attackers, and have one pair drop out of the group every 400m of the forested path, and have them rejoin the main group as they come back. We can thus reduce the numbers in the main group as they proceed to the centre hence making it easier for the attackers to run to the flags and still provide cover, while increasing the numbers on the way back to make it harder for the opponents to take out our runners. Are we all good with this plan?" Tsuna asked.

The class was pretty satisfied. Before dismissal, the class split into their respective groups and finalised any extra details. When the bell rang, the students rushed out, all looking forward to the event. All except for one person of course.


"Reborn!" Tsuna yelled. Once he got home, he greeted his mom and went straight to his room. "What the hell is with this so-called Vongola event?"

"Ah, Dame-Tsuna. Nono said to organise it. Anything wrong with that?" Reborn answered, his eyes hinting pain if Tsuna answered with an unwanted response.

"But why? Why so sudden?" Tsuna asked.

"Who knows?" Reborn said. [You Reborn.]

Tsuna sighed. Of course Reborn wouldn't tell him. And his intuition informed him that Reborn won't let him know, just for the hell of it. Anyway, since Reborn wouldn't tell him, he had no reason to fight seriously, right? Right.

"Dame-Tsuna, if you don't fight seriously tomorrow, I'm gonna increase your training."

'Ugh… More training… But at least that's better than having my identity exposed…'

"And I'll tell Nono to send more paperwork for you to do"

'Paperwork…? Ughhh… Still…'

"And I'll get Xanxus, Hibari and Rokudo to train you."

'…'

"Along with the Arcobaleno."

" ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! No need to triple my training, or add more paperwork to my current load, or more training with those three and the Arcobaleno. I'll fight seriously."


Okay, I'm back. FINALLY!

Any reviews, follows, favorites given are appreciated! Thanks for reading and good day!