Hello! So I'm back earlier than I thought I would be! Last week was a bit rough for me, but I got through it! Anyways, here's the next chapter! Chapter 3 should be up before the end of the month, too. Read and review!

Thanks to tofldh and Spiral Reflection for reviewing!

Tsuna took a step backward, astonished at who his brain was telling him this was. It couldn't be. And yet...

"Reborn...?"

The man—because it couldn't be Reborn; Reborn was his violent infant tutor, not a tall, European man that looked scary enough to excite Hibari—took another step forward, rapidly closing the gap between himself and the Tenth Generation. Tsuna stiffened as the man came closer and closer, slowly making his way towards Tsuna and his friends until he was right in front of the brunet, looking down upon him with a cold fury burning in his shadowed eyes.

Tsuna squeezed his own eyes shut as the man lifted a fist, punching down on the brunet's head forcefully, but in a very familiar manner. Tears pricked at the corners of Tsuna's eyes as he rubbed the top of his head, looking up at the man with a pout on his face.

"Reborn!" Tsuna whined automatically. "Why did you do that?"

"Felt like it," came the man's response, moving to step away, and Tsuna's heart could only ache at the familiar words. Looking closer, Tsuna could see the similarities start to match up. The suit, Leon sitting on the edge of the fedora, the side burns; all of it was Reborn.

"Ah, Reborn!" Tsuna called out, stopping the man from moving back a step when small hands came to clutch at a suited arm. Reborn looked down at him, amusement dancing in his eyes. That smirk was in its rightful place as he gazed at his baffled student. Was this really his tutor?

"What do you want, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked, carefully removing Tsuna's hand from his suit. It was too late, though. Reborn sighed when he saw that Tsuna had already wrinkled the suit jacket. "A boss shouldn't act like a four year old child in these situations. Stop whining and come with me."

Stunned, Tsuna waited for words to make it past his dry lips, but they refused to come. Reborn turned around in a very businesslike manner and stepped through the open the door that led deeper into the mountain. After meeting the semi-amused gazes of Gokudera and Yamamoto, Tsuna could only wonder what the heck was going on here.

"We...should go," Yamamoto finally said, a small smile on his face. "If we wait too long he might end up trying to shoot Tsuna again."

Gokudera snorted while Tsuna internally screamed in frustration and trepidation at that mental image. Again?! Didn't Yamamoto know that Tsuna faced that threat almost every single day of his life? But one look at Yamamoto's troubled amber eyes was enough to get Tsuna moving. After all, he was two years into the future and he had no idea what the heck was happening around him anymore.

The trio—Tsuna rather reluctantly—followed after Reborn, trailing a few feet behind the man. Yamamoto walked on Tsuna's left, giving the troubled boy a reassuring smile whenever Tsuna looked over at him while Gokudera stayed on his right, staring straight ahead and refusing to meet Tsuna's questioning gaze.

They passed several people who lingered in the hallways, and almost every single one of them looked at Tsuna with strange, curious eyes. Shivering after meeting a young Italian woman's accusing stare, he decided to keep his brown eyes forward, refusing to look at those they passed in the wide halls.

"I had hoped I could get the Tenth to Reborn without the whole base knowing," Gokudera muttered testily, scowling at the floor and Tsuna couldn't help but agree with the bomber. The silver-haired teen's sharp gaze soon snapped to Yamamoto, as if a thought had just occurred to him. "Hey, sword freak! Why the hell were you in the entrance hall?"

Tsuna hadn't noticed the nickname change before, but wisely kept his mouth shut. He had a feeling if he asked, he wouldn't like the answer. Besides, he was just as curious as Gokudera.

"Reborn told me to go look for you guys since you were supposed to come back last night," Yamamoto said, a small smile playing on his lips. "But what's up with you? You're usually not this testy until at least dinner."

Tsuna gazed at Yamamoto, speechless. It was true that Gokudera hadn't seemed as easy to anger as his Gokudera did, but Tsuna had figured that the scowl was kept in place because Yamamoto was here. The baseball player was known to ruffle the bomber's feathers every time he opened his mouth. Tsuna had assumed that Gokudera had just mellowed out a bit, never once guessing that this wasn't normal.

"Ignore it, Yamamoto," Reborn called over his shoulder. "Gokudera's just on edge because he didn't realize he could just walk in without trying to be all secretive."

"What do you mean?" Tsuna asked, immediately regretting opening his big fat mouth. He shrunk in on himself as all eyes seemed to snap to his face. If he had known that would happen, the brunet would have just kept quiet and let the conversation run its course.

Reborn chuckled, turning back to face the hallway. "Well, Dame-Tsuna, I hate to break this to you, but you're just as much of a loser in the future as you are now. I doubt anyone but your guardians would have noticed that you weren't the Tsuna of this time."

Tsuna winced, remembering the woman's accusing stare. "Then why is everyone looking at me like I assassinated the president," he muttered, crossing his arms protectively over his chest and ducking his head as they passed through another crowded hallway. This was getting to be troublesome.

"If Gokudera had told you to walk in here with your head held high, not a single person would have blinked at your entrance. They would have thought it was the future you coming back after a successful mission, an inch shorter or not," Reborn revealed after they had passed the group of people. "The problem is, you don't have any confidence in yourself and your subordinates are noticing. Even if they don't know you well, they know that you aren't the one who leads them. Step up and be a boss, Dame-Tsuna."

"I'm not going to be a mafia boss!" Tsuna bristled, turning to scowl at the floor again as they walked.

Reborn just smirked as he looked back at Tsuna again. "You say that now, but just look at where you are. If you keep denying it in front of the people you lead, you aren't going to have any of their respect. Who would want to follow someone who doesn't want to be a leader, after all?"

Tsuna sighed and bit his lip. As much as the brunet wanted to just concede and admit Reborn was right, he didn't feel comfortable giving in to this tall, scary man that acted so much like his tutor, and yet wasn't. Tsuna wasn't cut out for the mafia, and to give into it now, despite years of denying Reborn's words, it would probably kill something within him—a part of himself that hoped to stay normal, even with the chaos that ruled his life.

"I don't really care what you think about being a mafia boss," Reborn finished, tilting his fedora down to shadow his eyes—a move that Tsuna remembered quite well. It was what Reborn did when he was unable to completely mask his emotions. "But don't say anything that would suggest that you aren't really you to the people here. You may not be from this time, but these people don't know that. Tsuna is supposed to be leading them in a war, and anything you say to upset the delicate balance of this place could cause a riot. For now, stay out of the spotlight and let your guardians handle everything until we can get you back to your own time."

Tsuna didn't say anything, wincing at the jab at his uselessness. What could he say? Reborn was right when he said that he shouldn't draw attention to himself. Tsuna wasn't from this time, and anything he did could cause problems that he had no idea how to clean up by himself, which would lead to trouble for everyone else.

"What's the situation with Hibari that you mentioned? Is he beating his trainees half to death again?" Gokudera asked, surprising everyone by the topic change.

Yamamoto looked relieved at the change of subject and hurried to answer the bomber's question, the tension in his arms relaxing. "Ah, it's not entirely Hibari's fault," Yamamoto said, scratching his cheek. "You know how irritated he can get when the trainees act out against him."

"The problem is being taken care of," Reborn said smoothly, stopping in front of an elevator and placing his palm on the doors' surface.

The base—as Gokudera had called it—looked almost exactly like the one Tsuna had stayed in for months ten years into the future, the only difference being the entrance hall he wasn't familiar with. Secretly, Tsuna hoped that the layout was as similar as the style. He didn't want to have to memorize a new map and silently prayed he didn't find himself lost during his stay.

Metal doors opened with a whoosh of air and Tsuna and his companions stepped into the large space. Again, Tsuna was surprised by the base and its spaciousness. The elevator could easily hold twenty to thirty people if they all squished together. There was more than enough room for Tsuna to give Reborn some berth as the doors slid shut. The hitman punched the button that Tsuna read as seventeen and the elevator began to move.

"Does Hibari-san cause a lot of problems?" Tsuna asked, tentatively breaking the silence. He blinked when all he got were strange looks. Stepping back as if to get away from the odd gleams in his friends' eyes, Tsuna could only wonder what it was he had said. "What?"

"Hibari...-san..." Gokudera said, a contemplative look on his face.

Yamamoto laughed, looking a little uneasy as he fingered his necklace again. "Look Tsuna," the baseball player started uncomfortably. "It's probably best if you don't call Hibari that."

"Shut up, sword freak," Gokudera said, although his voice didn't hold much ire. The bomber turned to Tsuna, an apologetic tone to his voice. "As annoying as Yamamoto is, he's right. I don't think it'd go over well if you called that damn prefect Hibari-san."

Tsuna blinked at the unnerved looks in his guardians' eyes. What was so wrong with putting the honorific at the end of the skylark's name?

Reborn turned toward Tsuna, smirking at the brunet. The hitman's eyes twinkled mischievously as he looked the small brunet over from head to toe. Tsuna shrunk back, unused to the tall man's scrutiny.

"I say let Tsuna do it," Reborn said casually. "If I remember correctly, Tsuna's a stuttering mess in front of Hibari at fifteen since the head of the Disciplinary Committee still rules Namimori Middle School with an iron fist. It'd be amusing to see how Hibari would take it right after dealing with those two idiots."

"Re-Reborn!" Gokudera protested. "I don't think that'd be funny at all! The Tenth may be able to take Hibari on no problem usually, but right now he's injured!"

Tsuna's hand flew to his side, lips parted and eyes wide in astonishment. He hadn't thought that the bomber had caught on to his injuries. They hadn't bothered him much since arriving in the future and he had tried to keep Gokudera ignorant of their existence. He had had some trouble climbing over the boulders and cliffs, but that had pretty much been the extent that they had bothered him. They hardly even hurt now. Gokudera hadn't made a fuss, so neither had he.

Both Yamamoto's and Reborn's eyes sharpened in an instant, skeptical eyes looking the brunet over and again. Reborn's gaze immediately settled on his torso, where his hand clutched at his ribs, while Yamamoto's amber eyes roamed over his face, seemingly noticing the bandages on his cheeks for the first time.

Tsuna flinched and clutched at his side harder, side-eyeing the bomber. Gokudera looked guilty, but didn't take back his words. Tsuna could only wonder why, if the bomber knew that Tsuna was injured, he didn't insist on taking Tsuna to see Ryohei or to the infirmary to get checked out as soon as they entered the base.

Reborn scowled, stalking over Tsuna. The hitman yanked up the brunet's shirt, ignoring Tsuna's squawk of protest. A myriad of black and purple bruises mottled Tsuna's ribcage outlining each broken rib and fracture and it took all Tsuna's determination to not attempt to flee from that narrowed obsidian gaze.

To Yamamoto's credit, he was keeping his surprise to himself, looking at the brunet's torso with blank eyes. From the corner of his eye, Tsuna could tell the baseball player was trying to keep himself together, hiding his emotions in order to grapple with the new development. The brunet wondered if it was something Yamamoto had learned from Reborn. Tsuna decided to give Yamamoto some time and turned his attention back to his tutor.

"What is this?" Reborn hissed, not at Tsuna, but at the bomber. Gokudera flinched at the harsh tone, but didn't turn his eyes away from the cold harsh glare of Tsuna's tutor.

"It's-"

"I-It's not his fault!" Tsuna exclaimed, mortified that the hitman had blamed Gokudera so easily. "This is from the fight with Byakuran!"

Cold, furious eyes turned back to Tsuna, and the brunet tried not to flinch away again. "Why didn't anyone heal you after the fight? There were plenty of sun flame users there. I was there."

"They t-tried but-"

Tsuna's heart clenched in his chest as the onslaught of memories from the final fight with Byakuran suddenly slammed into him. He swayed dangerously on his feet, his body trembling. Eventually, trying to keep himself from falling into those memories was too much effort. Tsuna's knees finally gave out and buckled beneath him, the world slipping from eyes.

Gloved hands trembled as he struggled to keep his flames from getting sucked in by the enemy's abilities. It was a clash of wills; one that would determine whose abilities succeeded the others. Tsuna's flame flickered as foreign flames began to get sucked into his technique.

This was wrong. Why was he not able to feel the flames? Where would they have gone if they weren't absorbed by the Zero Point Breakthrough: Revised? His intuition was going off, warning him of another danger. This wasn't over. Byakuran was here.

He was helpless to do anything. Even as he struggled to breathe, he couldn't help but wonder why he was always such a failure. It wasn't as if he weren't trying—he was, desperately—but that didn't seem to make a difference. No matter how much he hardened his resolve and let his flames engulf him, Byakuran easily matched him.

And then he dragged Yuni into his fight. Guilt washed over him, but he kept struggling. He could save her. He had to. He just needed to escape-

That's when everything went dark.

He only felt crushing darkness as he was blanketed by that obscurity. He couldn't breathe. Pain burst through his chest as he tried to pull much needed oxygen in, only to find that his lungs had refused to work. His ribs had cracked and his Dying Will Flame had abandoned him.

He could no longer feel the warmth of his flame. It was gone, leaving Tsuna to wallow in that cold, lonely helplessness that he couldn't seem to overcome, no matter his resolve. Where was his determination?

You're not capable of being a hero, Reborn had said, and Tsuna couldn't help but find the words truer than ever. Byakuran was going to hurt Yuni and Tsuna could do nothing to help her. He was trapped in this darkness and there was no way out.

He really was Dame-Tsuna.

It was the glow of yellow sun flames that brought Tsuna back to the waking world, eyes fluttering open to stare at the metallic ceiling above him. He felt warmth grip his bruised body, but the pain didn't fade from his chest. If anything, breathing became harder when his short, panicked breaths refused to even out.

"Calm down, Tsuna," he heard Yamamoto say from next to him. Wild brown eyes snapped up to meet amber, looking into those reassuring eyes of one of his best friends. Yamamoto grabbed one of Tsuna's hands, guiding it to the baseball player's chest. Tsuna used that, trying to time his breaths to the slow rise and fall of the rain flame user's.

Eventually, Tsuna's breathing slowed, the panic and tension fading, and the brunet found himself surrounded by his kneeling friends and tutor. He was on his back, but as soon made to sit up, his tutor pushed him back down with a frustrated growl, sun flames still surrounding the hands splayed against Tsuna's ribcage. The brunet could tell by Reborn's furrowed brow—the hitman must have been really distracted to let any emotion take over his usual mask of emotionlessness—that he was having trouble healing the broken ribs, just like he did in the future.

"Reborn, it won't work," Tsuna finally said, pushing away the offending hands and sitting up against the cool metal of the elevator wall. Reborn's face was blank again but his eyes held frustration and anger that Tsuna knew stemmed from his failure to heal. Reborn didn't tolerate failure. He was a hitman, and to him, failure wasn't an option.

"How long?" Tsuna asked, staring blankly at the floor.

"Fifty-two seconds," Gokudera quietly informed him.

As surprised as he was that it hadn't been longer, Tsuna didn't question it further. The less time he spent thinking about his uselessness the better.

"Hey," Gokudera said, worry scrunching up his brow. "Maybe you should rest a little longer. We can take you to the infirmary to get you checked out."

Tsuna shook his head. The pain in his ribs was gone like it had never been there in the first place. Tsuna knew that he should be somewhat affected by broken and fractured ribs, but the fact was, he just wasn't. It might twinge painfully whenever he turned too fast or moved too quickly, but the pain never lasted longer than a few seconds.

"I'm fine," Tsuna insisted, pulling himself to his feet. Reborn and his guardians followed suit. Reborn turned back to the panel and slammed a fist into a green button. Instantly the elevator lurched and Tsuna could hear the mechanics begin to whir. They must have stopped the elevator when Tsuna had collapsed, Tsuna assumed, unsure why he was troubled by that fact.

The rest of the ride to the seventeenth floor was hushed. No one spoke more than a few words before falling quiet again. Tsuna tapped his fingers against his pant leg agitatedly. The silence was driving him crazy and it was taking forever to get there. The group had to have been riding in the elevator—at least, while it was moving—for a good while. It seemed to be taking forever, although he could just chalk it up to his wanting to get out of the stuffy contraption and away from the tense atmosphere.

Finally, the doors whooshed open and Tsuna was met with a sight similar to the hallway they had just left, the only difference being the lack of people and the sparse amount of doors, each at least a good fifty or so feet from the last. Above each door was either a green or a red light, probably to signify occupation.

"Where are we?" Tsuna asked, peering at the boring hallway in bemusement. It looked like this wasn't going to be anything like the base ten years into the future.

"The training rooms," Yamamoto said. "The seventeenth floor is reserved for training new recruits in using Dying Will Flames."

"What do the lights mean?"

"Red means occupied," Yamamoto explained, proving Tsuna's guess right. "If a training room has a green light above it, then it means no one is in there. Though, if you see a yellow light, call Reborn or one of the other guardians for help."

"Why? What does it mean?" Tsuna asked, automatically searching for a door with a yellow light. Seeing none, he turned puzzled chocolate orbs to gaze at Yamamoto's warning amber ones.

"Our training rooms have sensors, and if someone is seriously injured in one, it will immediately set off an alarm and the light will turn yellow."

Tsuna's eyes widened in surprise, looking at the doors with new eyes. "Really? Who came up with that?"

"The Tenth did, of course!" Gokudera said, for some reason slipping back into the excited persona of a proud right hand man. Tsuna smiled at the familiarity of the statement. "The Tenth was the one who helped Giannini, Irie, and Spanner design this place!"

"That's enough," Reborn commanded, and when Tsuna caught the obsidian gaze, he winced. Reborn had still not completely forgotten about the elevator incident like Yamamoto and Gokudera had seemed to. Fury still blazed blatantly and Tsuna knew that he was in for a rough beating later on.

The group stopped at the third door on the right. Tsuna noted the red light glaring at them from above, but Reborn didn't hesitate to step through the door of the supposedly occupied room. Gokudera and Yamamoto followed the hitman and Tsuna hesitantly trailed after, hoping he was not going to regret this.

He was immediately met with the sight of Hibari whacking a blond kid across the face with a steel tonfa. Tsuna winced in sympathy as the boy crashed into the wall, leaving a large person-shaped hole in the plaster. Next to Tsuna, Gokudera sighed in defeat while Yamamoto's carefree laughter rang throughout the room.

"Hibari is lively today," Yamamoto said, taking in the scene fondly.

Tsuna guessed that this was an everyday occurrence that his guardians were used to seeing. The brunet, however, had spent days being thrown around by Hibari in the future, so he could only sympathize with the two trainees as they were thrown around like rag dolls.

Gokudera huffed, throwing Yamamoto an annoyed glance. "You do know why we're here, right?"

Yamamoto just shrugged, laughing as he flashed that cheerful smile in Gokudera's direction. Tsuna sighed and tuned his guardians out, too used to the banter to keep listening.

"Hey, Reborn," Tsuna called softly. Yes, he was afraid of the hitman, but the man was still his tutor, adult form or not. He waited patiently for Reborn to glance at him out of the corner of his eyes.

"What do you want, Dame-Tsuna?"

Tsuna gazed uneasily at Hibari's training session, watching as one of trainees almost burst into tears when they weren't able to light their Dying Will Flames. The dark-haired boy slumped in defeat, but Hibari was too busy trying to bite the other one to death to notice. Tsuna frowned, but didn't move closer, knowing it wasn't his place to interfere.

"You said you took care of the problem," Tsuna said, still watching the defeated looking trainee. "But what was the problem in the first place?"

Reborn, even though he still looked troubled, smirked, mischief dancing in those obsidian orbs. "Hibari likes to take things too far with the new recruits and sometimes gets a little rough with them. I got a report today that one of the trainees was getting too rowdy and Hibari got pissed off enough to bite him to death."

"And is that him?" Tsuna asked, pointing at the blond one who was doing their best to duck and dodge Hibari's tonfa, smiling all the while. "The rowdy one?"

Reborn nodded. "That's him. And if you don't stop Hibari, that little trainee might not live to see his next birthday."

Tsuna groaned. Of course Reborn had been planning to make Tsuna solve the problem. Reborn made Tsuna do everything in the guise of training. Tsuna mentally snorted. Even mundane tasks like walking to school became overly complicated when Reborn got involved. Tsuna somehow always managed to find himself injured or in trouble.

"I thought you said you took care of it," Tsuna stressed, not liking this situation one bit.

"No," Reborn said, signature smirk still prominent on his Italian features. "I said the problem was being taken care of. That means you," Reborn yanked Tsuna by his collar and flung him towards Hibari and the trainees, "have to stop Hibari from killing your subordinates."

Tsuna barely caught himself before he could land flat on his face and embarrass himself in front of the occupants in the training room. Tsuna glanced up and noticed that he had caught the attention of everyone in the room and they were now staring at him with varying emotions. Reborn in amusement, Yamamoto cheerfully, Gokudera in concern, the trainees in wonder, and Hibari in anger. Tsuna paled and took a step backwards as he watched Hibari's mood shifted from anger to rage.

"What do you want?" Hibari asked.

"U-Um, Hibari-"

Tsuna ducked as a tonfa passed over his head, barely managing to suppress a squeak of surprise. The brunet rolled away, managing to buy some time so he could pull his gloves and pills from his pockets. He pulled the blue and white mittens out and shook out two pills, relieved that he hadn't left his only means of attack in the past—or the future, if one wanted to get technical.

"Hibari-san, wait!"

The tonfa came down at him with even more force. Tsuna jumped over one swipe that Hibari aimed at his legs in an attempt to trip him. He stepped backwards a few steps and closed his eyes, gaining a few precious moments of time to swallow the blue pills.

Tsuna opened his eyes to a world of flames. In his Hyper Dying Will state, internal as well as external limiters were removed enough that Tsuna could only marvel at how much more clearly he could see and assess things. His Hyper Intuition worked overtime to track Hibari's movements, anticipating what he would do before he actually did it.

"Where's the omnivore?" Hibari hissed, swinging a tonfa at Tsuna's head. The brunet ducked, seeing the tensing of Hibari's muscle and sensing the swing before the skylark could even move. That was one part of his Hyper Intuition he would always appreciate.

"Omnivore?!"

Apparently Hibari didn't like that answer, for he came at Tsuna from above, descending down upon the brunet with all the fury of a blood thirsty lion. Tsuna rolled away, leaping up into the air and over Hibari's next strike.

"He's talking about you, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn called, smirk still prominent on his sharp features. Tsuna stared at the hitman for a moment, orange eyes wide at the implications. Him? An omnivore? But that would mean that Hibari recognized the other Tsuna as someone who was considerably strong, and after constantly being beat down by a Hibari—granted, it was a future version—who only fought at half power, Tsuna seriously doubted that he was strong enough to be considered an omnivore.

He didn't dwell on the matter much longer, a steel tonfa interrupting his thoughts. Hibari aimed at his stomach, and when Tsuna stepped backwards to dodge, Hibari twirled into his guard, striking downwards with both tonfa. Tsuna cursed himself at his carelessness, realizing he had no room to make a move. Hibari was too close to him for Tsuna to do anything but attempt to grab the skylark's weapons.

It was a painful impact that jarred his arms all the way up to his shoulders, even while wearing his gloves. He bit his lip to keep from crying out, unable to feel much more than tingling in his appendages, but he wrestled with the temptation to engulf his gloves in Dying Will flames. As much as it would help, this was only hand to hand combat, Hibari proving that himself by not using his cloud flames.

Hibari didn't give Tsuna time to recover, instantly pulling the weapons from out of Tsuna's loosened grip just to swing back at his head. Tsuna gritted his teeth as he ducked, feeling more than seeing the tonfa sweep over his head. Tsuna spun around, copying Hibari's movement from earlier and getting under the skylark's guard as soon as he was halfway turned. With Hibari's tonfa still in the air, Tsuna completed the turn, slamming an elbow into Hibari's half guarded stomach and making his first offensive move of the fight.

The skylark hunched over himself slightly and stepped back, glaring at Tsuna with steel gray eyes. Tsuna didn't move, his arms still struggling to regain feeling and get the blood flowing right.

"Where is the omnivore and why are you here, herbivore?"

Tsuna ignored the gasps from the trainees, instead gazing at Hibari with calm, orange eyes. He didn't dare release Hyper Dying Will mode now. If he did, he'd probably collapse from the pain that wracked his body, and then he'd have to face Hibari's wrath while being unable to fight.

"I can't tell you," Tsuna murmured, very aware of the ears that were listening to this conversation. That didn't seem to deter Hibari, though.

"Tell me," Hibari hissed, his eyes blazing. "I don't like herbivores that refuse me, and if you don't tell me, I will bite you to death."

"Hibari, I can't tell you. If you want to know, it'll have to wait," Tsuna said, trying to placate the skylark some.

"I don't like waiting."

Tsuna internally groaned. If Hibari was going to keep asking, Tsuna didn't know what he would do. His confidence was diminishing as he slowly started to fade out of Hyper Dying Will mode. Orange flickered as he struggled to keep the mode from slipping through his fingers.

A boss can't lose face, Reborn would say. He wouldn't leave something unfinished because it was too hard. As a boss, he would do it with his Dying Will. Tsuna mentally snorted. What the hell kind of advice was that anyways? All his mental version of Reborn was saying was "Come up with something quickly and act confident about it because a boss can't storm out of the room or throw a tantrum. You have to finish what you started." How was that any help at all?

"They don't speak Japanese, Tsuna," Yamamoto called to him, waving a hand to the brunet. Tsuna sighed as he glared at his relaxed tutor. Well, at least someone was helping him make his decisions.

"I came here from the fight ten- no, eight years in the future," Tsuna revealed, his eyes flickering from orange to brown and back. His body was protesting his actions. "I'm guessing something went wrong with Shoichi-kun's invention. I-It sent me to the past, but I was almost immediately transported here."

Hibari looked at Tsuna with penetrating gray eyes before the skylark turned away indifferently, heading for the door.

"Wait, Hibari! Where are you going, you damn prefect?! You still have to train the new recruits!" Gokudera yelled, scowling at the skylark. Hibari didn't say anything as Gokudera trailed after him, yelling at him to "step up, you bastard" and "take this training seriously" even as the door clicked shut, leaving Tsuna, Reborn, Yamamoto, and the trainees behind.

Tsuna exhaled slowly, dropping down to one knee as his Dying Will Mode threatened to slip from his grasp. It wouldn't, if he had anything to say about it, not with the trainees still in the room. Reborn had told him to act capable in front of them, so that's what he would do.

"Tsuna!" Yamamoto yelled worriedly, running over to kneel next to the exhausted teen. "What's wrong? Is it your ribs?" Tsuna shook his head, flame flickering dangerously.

"You better knock it off before I decide to shoot you. You've already proved yourself by standing up to Hibari and not tripping over your own feet, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn said, rare venom lacing his words. Tsuna winced but complied, wondering how Reborn always managed to read his mind.

Orange faded to brown as the flame on his forehead flickered into nothing. He caught himself on shaky arms before he could fall into Yamamoto's arms. He'd already had enough of being carried for the time being, ears burning as he remembered how Gokudera had held him last night. Tsuna could do without passing out, too, as he had had enough of that as well.

"Did you sleep last night?" Reborn asked. "Eat anything?"

Tsuna shook his head, chocolate brown eyes blinking tiredly at the hitman standing next to him. Reborn sighed and wrapped a large hand around the brunet's small arm to pull him to shaky feet.

"Come on then. We'll stop by the infirmary to check out those ribs, too."

And with that, Yamamoto and Reborn carefully led Tsuna out of the training room, leaving behind two bewildered trainees who didn't understand a single word of Japanese.

Like I said before, the third chapter should be up before the end of the month, so keep an eye out! Let me know what you thought