Greetings :)

Sooo... In case someone reads this: This is not the chapter I wanted to post as the third. Originally the third should have been one that starts where the first stopped, but... I just can't get it I post this, the original fourth chapter and hope that I'll get an inspiration for chapter three.

Just to clarify things, this plays in the past, the time of Sora's Legends.

Personally I like this chapter. I had fun writing it and I hope you have fun reading.


Destinies

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Hayato weaved his way through the people with practiced ease, his precious cargo hid under his ratty clothes, tightly pressed against his skin. His dagger was strapped onto his underarm. Easily accessible but not visible.

It would only hinder him in his quest to get though the crowd.

He evaded the spiked club one of the men was waving carelessly as he hurried past, eager to get to the place of action. Hayato was sure the man would die today.

As he continued on his way a few of the men turned to look strangely at the boy who went the wrong way. Hayato made sure to lose their stares quickly, before someone caught him and forced him to fight.

He was old enough with his fourteen years, but he didn't want to. Tsuna-sama was waiting for him and he couldn't leave Tsuna-sama alone for so long. And he had to warn him, so that they could leave this town before it was razed to the ground.

And anyway, he didn't fight. He knew how, of course, and if they were attacked again because someone thought that they had something of value, then Hayato had them groveling on the floor in pain within seconds, but he'd never fight in one of those inane battles.

Tsuna-sama was against it and Hayato would follow Tsuna-sama into the deepest pits of hell if necessary.

As he skidded around the corner of one of the sturdy but battered brick buildings that were so popular in this town, he remembered how he had met the boy that had changed his life so much.

He had been eleven, too old to be considered a child and therefore enjoy a minor protection from all the thugs and pugnacious men that made a third of the population, but too young to be a real fighter.

It had been two months since he fled his father's house because he just couldn't take it anymore. He had been alone, hungry, somewhere he had never seen before and he had been desperate.

He had been surprisingly good at wandering around without being seen - having it practiced since he was old enough to recognize the stares of disgust and disdain he had been given at his father's house as what they were - and therefore had tried himself at theft with some very good outcomes.

That time he hadn't been so lucky and the four thugs had noticed him and then chased him into a dead end, where they had cornered him. He had been intelligent enough to recognize his defeat and had tried to give them the food back in the hoped that they would leave him alone, but the men had decided that the little boy needed to be taught a lesson.

Hayato didn't know how long they had beaten him, but he was pretty sure that they would only have stopped when he would have been dead.

As it was they had only gotten so far as to break a few of his ribs, his nose and two fingers (not counting all the bruises) before someone had stepped in. Because he had been lying in fetal position on the ground did Hayato not notice him until someone had flung themselves over him like a shield.

He had been confused but had written it off to hallucinations, especially as the thugs had started beating the other for getting into their way.

After the men had obviously lost their fun and had disappeared again Hayato got a view of his savior.

It had been a little boy, around his own age, with brown, soft eyes, equally brown and soft hair and features far too fragile to live on the streets, who had introduced himself as 'Tsuna'.

Hayato wasn't proud of what had followed and would Tsuna-sama allow it, he'd apologize every day anew for it.

Because instead of thanking him, Hayato had shoved the boy aside, not caring for the pained yelp as he fell onto a broken wrist, and had then stormed out of the alleyway with a last "Don't you dare follow me, bastard!"

He had gotten around two corners before he had collapsed.

When he had woken up again it had been in a small cave just outside the town, enveloped in blankets. Tsuna had been cooking on a small campfire and, as he had noticed that the other boy had woken up, had asked Hayato if he was feeling better, had checked his wounds, given him the broth he had cooked…

Hayato, not used to being cared for like that, hadn't answered and tried to ignore the boy and went even so far as to try to escape, but again he hadn't gotten far.

It had lasted three days; On the fourth Hayato had broken down, sobbing and asking why Tsuna was so nice to him, when all he ever did was being hostile. Why would this stranger care about him more than his own family had done?

Tsuna had only smiled and let the boy cry into his shirt until the sobs had died down to hiccups. Then he had asked if he was feeling better now and if he still wanted that stew he'd been making and Hayato had had to stop himself from starting to cry again.

That moment he had resolved to never leave Tsuna's side again. Where his own family had shunned and scorned him had this boy, a total stranger, protected him and cared for him with a friendliness that usually didn't exist in this world. This boy was special and Hayato would care for him like the treasure he was and maybe someday he could repay him.

Since then they had traveled across the country, never staying long at the same place, as the war and the destruction seemed to follow them. Hayato had found out early that Tsuna despised violence to a level that it made him sick. Hayato had taken great care to keep him away from the battles and fighting around them, but it was impossible. Not in their world, where egoism and violence where the only things the people knew.

So Hayato had taught Tsuna how to fight. Despite his resolution not to leave Tsuna alone, Hayato just couldn't stay by his side all the time. Hunting for food was much easier alone; one little, dirty boy got little to no attention at all, but two? No, they couldn't afford attention, so they were forced to split up more often than Hayato liked to and Tsuna had to be able to protect himself.

He had refused vehemently and they actually had a fight about that matter, but in the end Tsuna had relented. So Hayato had gotten him a dagger and them taught him were to put it if someone thought a little boy was an easy target.

He hadn't liked it one bit, and although he had some really good reflexes if needed, Tsuna was still clumsy and his fighting skills were meager at best. But still, Hayato felt better knowing that his comrade hat at least little means of protecting himself.

It had always only been the two of them. Except for this one boy, Takeshi, the son of a restaurant owner that sometimes gave them sushi for free, who lived in Tsuna's hometown, Namimori, which they visited more often than the other villages, they never had any real contact to other people.

Hayato loved Tsuna like a brother and he couldn't imagine his life without the brunette anymore. He didn't even want to imagine it. His life would be hollow, without purpose and it sent shivers down his back just by thinking about it.

Leaving his family and then being found by Tsuna was the best that had happened to Hayato in all his life and he couldn't help but wonder sometimes if the gods had been pulling the strings at that time.

He couldn't be happier about it.

He turned right into a small alleyway and hurried on.

They had camped in the outer edge of the village in one of the house- ruins. Normally they wouldn't camp so close to the people, but it had gotten colder in the last night and in the ruins they had still a few walls and a little bit roof to take shelter beneath.

Spying the house they had chosen as their temporary home he slowed his steps and called "Tsuna-sama!" as to assure the other boy that it was indeed him.

He got no reply and cautiously stepped through the half crumbles doorway. Maybe Tsuna-sama was sleeping.

They hadn't had much time for relaxation in the last few weeks as their region was once again the arena for a three-way clan-war. Two of the villages they had stopped in last month were shortly after completely burned down and this one was to be the next. Hayato had seen the first buildings burning on the other side of the town.

They would eat, maybe even nap for a few hours and then they had to leave. Fire always destroyed everything in its way, leaving behind only ashes and mourning people.

"Tsuna-sama?" he called again stepping into the area they had selected to sleep in.

There were blankets lying on the ground and a prepared fireplace for cooking, but no trace of the brown haired boy he was searching.

Fear spread through Hayato and he let the bread he had been clutching all the time fall to the ground with a dull thump, whirling around and sprinting out of the ruin.

"Tsuna-sama!" he called once again, fear now evident in his voice, as he raced down the street, searching for any trace of brown hair between the debris.

No, it couldn't be. Tsuna-sama would never leave just like that, without giving Hayato a sign as to where he went. But there hadn't been any signs of a struggle so maybe get some fresh air or relieve himself? But what if he went outside only to be surprised by someone? Several people would easily overpower him and could take him captive without much effort. But why would…?

Hayato skidded around a corner, almost slipping on the mud, but he caught himself again and continued scanning the ruins – only to sink to his knees as he was met by a sight that he would probably never forget in all his life.

There, standing on a pile of debris, here and there a half-destroyed wall still peeking out, was Tsuna. Except for a small, bleeding cut on his left hand and a lot of mud on his clothes he seemed to be fine, if a little unsure of himself, but he had this analyzing expression in his eyes that had Hayato sometimes wondering just what kind of mysteries exactly were hiding behind the façade of the meek, clumsy boy Tsuna displayed to most.

And there, standing before him, with and equally calculating look, was one of them.

He looked like a child. Small features, a head shorter than Tsuna, fragile limps, wind-blown black hair, ripped clothing…

But Hayato knew that was nothing more than a disguise, hiding the raw power, the wisdom and immortality behind mortal flesh and bones.

As he looked upon these two figures, staring into each other's eyes as if they hoped to find all the answers of the world within them – that was the moment Hayato could feel the universe shift.


Tsuna had busied himself with building a cooking place, trying to ignore the screams, the smell of smoke and blood that were carried over from the battlefield on the other side of the town.

It didn't work, but then again, it never did.

He had never been one to just overlook injustice and violence, as something within himself always screamed and clawed to be let out an change it, but there was little he could do to stop a full-blown battle between clans. Besides, even if he could, the true problem lay somewhere far deeper.

So he had suppressed all urges to do something and had instead tried to make their camping place as homey as possible with the smell of death and destruction in the air.

He had just finished stacking the wood into a neat pile and had been about to start with their bedding, as another feeling made him stop in his tracks, freezing with Hayato's blanket in his hand.

It had been faint, barely there, but it was so unnatural that Tsuna knew it was there. It was not from this world.

Like leaves swirling against the direction of the wind or water droplets flying to the sky instead of falling to the ground. It felt as if the air itself had ripped. As if reality suddenly started breaking and he whirled his head around to stare through the holes in the roof towards the sky, searching for the fine crack he was sure had to be there.

But there was nothing. Just the usual fiery, bloody red.

He once again looked around him, searching for anything unusual, but he couldn't detect anything.

Tsuna furrowed his brow. He had very sharp senses and normally noticed things nobody else did. He had realized that early, even before his mother had died and he had started living on the streets, where his sensibility had been the only thing keeping him alive most of the time. No one had wanted to burden themselves with yet another mouth to feed, but even at that age Tsuna hadn't expected them too. In this world one learned to think of oneself first to survive.

It made him sick.

Taking a last sweeping look around him Tsunan started laying out the blankets again.

Maybe the stress finally got to him. It probably wasn't good for one's mental health to be constantly on the run for six years. Hell, this whole world probably wasn't good for one's mental health.

Tsuna shook his head and focused on his work again. Hayato should come back soon and he would like to have the campsite ready by then.

The second feeling wasn't as otherwordly as the first and not at all faint.

It felt as if he was hit by lightning: Hot and with searing, white pain that shot through his head and made him cry out and double over, clenching his eyes shut. With it came a strong sense of change, despair and urgency.

All his senses started screaming at him to move, to search. He couldn't stay here; he had to go, now, to find something.

Tsuna was stumbling out of the door before he could process the fact that he had thrown the blanket to the ground and sprinted like a madman down the slippery road. He tripped over the debris and slipped on the mud several times, but each time he was on his feet again before he was really on the ground, running onward, following the pull that tugged on his soul, that urged him to continue and not to stop, lest he lose it.

He had to hurry.

He rounded a half-crumpled wall and suddenly the pull disappeared. Tsuna was shocked enough to freeze midstep, stumbling over his own feet and just barely avoiding another headdive into the mud. he caught himself and looked around frantically, as if he could find the feeling again that way, panting in exhaustion.

He only spotted ruins and debris, scorched wooden beams and half-crumbled brick walls, but the pull didn't come back, leaving him confused and lost.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm his rapidly beating heart Tsuna again looked around and tried to sort his thoughts.

Never before he had felt something like this. Sometimes there were sudden inspirations, like when he just knew where his opponent would punch or when he had bad feeling shortly before they had a run-in with another group of thugs.

But never before had he felt this need to do something and follow his feelings. It had felt as if something else had invaded his mind, spurring him on, telling to run without permitting him to voice protest.

Still a little bit shaken Tsuna took another calming breath and then decided to climb a nearby pile of rubble, consisting out of the remains of another house to try and orient himself and then look what to do next. Although the strange pull had disappeared its aftertaste still lay in the air, a tang of exitement, change and destiny.

It felt like fingers on Tsuna's spine and had him shudder. No, he was sure that something was going on here. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it was.

Climbing the last boulder on the top of the pile he sighed and dusted his trousers off (noticing that he had somehow managed to cut his hand during one of his falls) and turned to look around and get back his sense of direction.

Tsuna's gaze met black and he froze.

He was not alone.

There was a boy, standing just a few feet away from him, unmoving like a stature.

He looked to be about five or six years old, wearing tattered, dirty clothes like all children living on the streets. His feet were bare and he had messy hair that had the color of raven-wings.

He looked like a normal little boy but Tsuna instinctually knew that he was all but.

Maybe it was in the way that he held himself, like a king, straight-backed and confident.

Maybe it was in the raw power that thrummed in the air around him like a halo and that tasted strangely like determination.

And maybe it was in the way how those, dark, bottomless eyes seemed to scan Tsuna to the deepest part of his soul, calculating, judging and knowing, behind half lidded, almost lazy lids.

Tsuna felt himself straightening under this gaze, suppressing the shudders that itched to chase down his back. He felt as if someone was rummaging in his mind, stripping his soul bare and reading all his secrets, fears and hopes as if they were a book.

Tsuna had the urge to flee, to turn around and run, but instead he was sucked into this black gaze, not able to rip his eyes away and falling deeper into the darkness.

What he saw there was frightening and awe inspiring. First there was a great nothing. Then, in a flash of multicolored light, a beginning, an ascension and a fall. He saw power so great that it burned him like a white, hot sun. He saw timelessness and at the same time an age older than than the earth. And finally he saw destiny.

Tsuna gasped and stumbled back, not able to stand this gaze much longer, else he had a feeling that he would loose himself.

And once again there was the urge to run and never look back, to flee and hide away somewhere safe from this piercing eyes.

Tsuna didn't know why, but he stayed, gaze carefully fixed on the face of the stranger, avoiding his eyes but not backing down.

The smirk that thereon appeared on the other's lips sent ice-cold shivers all the way into Tsuna's bones, but it had a hint of approval and for a moment Tsuna could feel the universe klick into place again.

"Not as wimpy as you look, I see." the not-boy drawled, dark eyes now taking in Tsuna's lanky form.

His voice was the high pitch of a little boy but there was a dangerous undertone to it that didn't fit to his physical appearance at all. It sounded like a lord, holding a knife onto someone's throat and asking, just because it was custom to, if there were any last words.

Tsuna gulped, but although he was shaking all over his body he felt strangely firm.

"Who- Who are you?"

The other's smirk widened.

He regarded Tsuna for another moment before he replied, amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"You can call me Reborn."

Tsuna just dared to nod and then stood still, as the smirk on Reborn's face faded and he continued to examine him.

He flinched as suddenly Reborn snatched his left hand that had been hanging at his side, clenching and unclenching from nervousness. Reborn's fingers were as strong as steel as he held the appendage at the wrist and regarded it with the same thorough look he had been giving Tsuna earlier.

There was a light scowl on his face as he released Tsuna's hand and once again gazed at the boy, this time skeptically.

"Tch, it's really you, isn't it?"

"W-What?" Tsuna managed to stammer but he was ignored as a predatory grin stretched over Reborn's face, making him look like a panther that decided to play with its prey.

"I was right. Viper owes me."

Tsuna thought faintly that he didn't envy whoever this Viper was before the grin vanished as fast as it had appeared and Reborn looked at him menacingly.

"We have a lot of work to do. Go find the others, then we'll start training. Do you understand?"

Tsuna gulped again, feeling a sudden weight settling down onto his chest, and nodded.

"Y-Yes."

"Good."

Reborn turned around and started walking away but stopped after a few steps. Looking over his shoulder at the other boy he glowered, the warning evident in his gaze.

"And don't you dare slacking off or wasting your time dillydallying around, you hear me? I'll know if you do."

Tsuna just nodded again, this time more forceful and the menacing look changed into something more pleased with a hint of pride as Reborn turned around again, and a sudden wave of warmth flooded Tsuna.

"Good. And don't you forget it."

Then there was a flash of bright yellow and Tsuna stared at broken wood and stone with no trace of the not-boy that had been standing there not more than a few seconds ago.

As Tsuna's mind raced with more questions than he cared to process, he lifted his hand absent-mindedly to rub his chest, where the heavy warmth was still sitting, giving him a strange comfort.

He couldn't help but feel as if he had been just part of the beginning of something too grand to comprehend. Like watching the pebbles start falling that would soon cause a whole rock slide.

The noise of someone clambering up the pile of rubble interrupted his musings. Tsuna turned his head and was greeted by the sight of his silver-haired friend stumbling his way, messy haired and wide eyed.

"Tsuna-sama!" Hayato seemed to be relieved enough to start crying.

"Hayato?" Tsuna asked, confused, but was interrupted by his friend hugging him desperately.

Too shocked to react Tsuna just stared dumbly over his friends shoulder and tried to make sense of the situation.

"Hayato?" he asked again, hesitantly.

Said boy let go of him hurriedly as he seemed to notice what he did and instead grabbed his hand as he stared into Tsuna's eyes with his own suspiciously bright.

"Tsuna-sama! Are you alright? Did he do something to you? What just happened?!"

Tsuna, more confused with every passing minute replied: "I-what? I'm not hurt. Why do you ask? Wait, how long were you here anyway?"

He was ignored as Hayato seemed far too preoccupied with checking him for injuries. At the sharp intake of breath from his friend Tsuna looked down onto the hand Hayato was examining.

Puzzled at first about what was so special about it he quickly noticed what had shocked his friend like this. It was his left hand, the one Reborn had been inspecting and the skin was smooth and unblemished. The cut had disappeared.

Tsuna stared at his perfectly healthy appendage.

"What… how-?"

At this Hayato looked up and Tsuna felt scared by the fear, awe and uncertainty he saw in the green eyes.

"Tsuna-sama, do you know who that was?"

"He said his name was Reborn." Tsuna replied, unsure about where his friend aimed with the question. "But how would he-"

"No", Hayato interrupted him. "I didn't mean his name. Do you know who that person was?"

Tsuna, unnerved by the severity his friend displayed, shook his head.

"That," Hayato said and he seemed to fight with each word. "Was one of the Arcobaleno. One of the Ancients."

And all of a sudden Hayato's behavior made sense. Tsuna felt his knees become weak as his mind tried to grasp the meaning of this whole situation but bulged at the idea. There was a rushing noise inside his ears and warm and cold waves went through his body.

No. It just wasn't possible. It couldn't be!

"Tsuna-sama?" Hayato asked worried, but Tsuna could only stare at nothing, trying to wrap his mind around what he had learned.

"It can't be." He breathed, slightly desperate, feeling panic starting to rise, his vision blurring at the edges.

Hayato seemed to notice this and gave a tug to his firend's hand that he was still holding onto, to try and get him to focus again.

"Tsuna-sama!"

Hayato waited until the brown eyes had stopped looking so glassy and fixed onto his own green ones.

"What did he say?" he asked as he was sure that the other boy listened.

Once again Tsuna's eyes got a faraway look as he replayed his conversation he'd had with the – for a lack of a better word – with the god just minutes before.

The warmth in his chest flared a little as he remembered and Tsuna felt his heartbeat calming down.

"He said…" Tsuna replied, focusing on Hayato again, his gaze sharp this time. "He told me to go find the others. And that we could start training when I found them all."

Hayato felt his own eyes widen as he understood what the other boy had implied.

"Training? Training for what? And which others?"

"I don't know." Tsuna mused. "But I guess we'll find out soon."

For a long time both boys just stood there, all thoughts about food, rest and war forgotten.

Hayato felt as if he was drowning. This wasn't supposed to happen. He and Tsuna-sama were supposed to travel around, alone, without a care in the world but about where they should sleep next and how to fill their stomachs. There wasn't supposed to be ancient, omnipotent beings popping out of thin air and giving them quests, like finding an undefined amount of people to then start training for whatever purpose. This wasn't right.

"Hayato?"

His attention snapped to Tsuna, who was smiling gently and heartwarming at him, so that all his worries suddenly seemed a lot less grave.

"Let's head back to our place and eat. Then we can decamp and start searching. We have to leave this place anyway."

"Do you have a plan where to go?" Hayato asked, calming himself. He had sworn not to leave Tsuna-sama's side, to follow him everywhere. So he would do just that.

Tsuna's inner eye was filled with images of a dark haired boy with a cheery smile that washed away worries like a gentle rain.

"Yes," he replied, feeling a strange determination. "We'll head to Namimori first."

Yes, he thought as he moved to rub his chest again, the warmth in there responding by flaring a little. He was sure this was the right path to take.

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