Disclaimer: Naruto does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Kishimoto, etc. Likewise, KHR! does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Amano, etc.


Learning Curve


03.

Kakashi manages to doze off several times, the sky becoming progressively lighter until Tsuna's alarm goes off in the morning.

Beside him, Obito sits up abruptly, right eye wide. And staring straight at Kakashi.

"You-"

Kakashi throws himself to his feet, staggering slightly when he puts too much weight on his damaged knee. That's probably what saves him from getting anything more serious than a slight graze where one of the handful of shuriken that Obito hurls at him clips his bicep.

A shot suddenly deafens him, causing both of the shinobi to freeze. It was a warning, Kakashi presumes, because the projectile lodges itself in the wall next to Obito's head rather than in his skull.

"Ah, good morning, Obito-kun," Reborn says, chipper.

"Reborn, it's too early in the morning to be shooting," Tsuna complains, not quite a whine, as he rolls out of bed.

Kakashi wonders what kind of lives they lead, that the teenager barely bats an eyelash at a fight in the morning.

"I'll call Ryohei-nii and get him to stop by," Tsuna adds, rubbing a hand through his hair. In the light of the morning, with less pressing things on his mind, Kakashi's a little surprised to see that Tsuna's hair sticks up as much as his own.

"How do you know that name?" Obito demands, his glare switching from Reborn to Kakashi and back to the tiny figure.

"Your comrade told me," Reborn says, smirking.

"I'm going to take a shower!" Tsuna says loudly, stumbling between Kakashi and Obito on his way to the door, every bit the pampered, privileged civilian.

Kakashi still has no idea what to make of the strange duo.

"He's not my comrade!" Obito snaps, ignoring the teenager's exit.

"Oh, so he did take that left eye by force, then," Reborn remarks. "Shame on you for lying to me, Kakashi-kun." He shakes his head in a disappointed fashion, though his dark gaze never actually leaves Obito.

A conflicted expression flashes across Obito's face, before the furious mask slips back into place. "I was stupid and young. I didn't know what I was doing," he snarls.

"Not much seems to have changed since that time," Reborn observes.

"If you want to die so badly, I'd be happy to oblige you," Obito sneers.

"Will that be before or after I plug a bullet in your skull?" the child inquires.

"If you didn't have that weapon-"

"-a gun, Obito-kun, it's a gun," Reborn says patronizingly; Kakashi ignores the tone and files the foreign word away for future examination. "And that changes nothing; I still have the power here. Even though Kakashi-kun seems invested in your wellbeing, I somehow doubt he'd alienate one of the two people who knows what this world is like to take your side against me."

That child is far too observant and perceptive for his age.

"That brown-haired kid doesn't want you to shoot me," Obito snaps, but it sounds to Kakashi like he's grasping at straws.

"There are other means of killing a person. I'm the world's greatest hitman, after all," Reborn says.

The title should sound like childish boasting, but it... doesn't. Reborn is too serious and mature for it to be anything but a simple statement of fact.

"Tch. Then kill me!" Obito spreads his arms, eye narrowed in challenge.

"He's- he's joking, Reborn-san," Kakashi says hurriedly, stepping forward. "People like us are hardly used to being defeated by, ah-"

"-a mere child?" Reborn asks, sounding... wry? Rueful?

"Shut the hell up," Obito snaps. "I don't want your useless words, Kakashi."

"I don't think I will," Reborn says thoughtfully, returning to Obito's taunt. "If you want to die so badly, isn't it worse punishment to leave you alive?"

Kakashi goes cold and looks at Obito. Does he really-?

Obito snarls wordlessly, glaring up at Kakashi. He looks like a cornered, feral animal. "What's with that pathetic look?" he demands harshly.

Kakashi looks away. "I don't want you to die," he says, inadequate. There are so many things he wants to say to Obito, but he doesn't even know where to start.

"Well, I didn't want Rin to die," Obito spits.

Kakashi flinches.

"Who's Rin?" Reborn asks sharply.

"None of your business!"

Kakashi can feel the child's gaze on him, but he doesn't look up. He has no interest in revisiting memories that, before last night's fight, he'd managed to successfully avoid for almost twenty years.

"Tch, fine. If this Rin person is dead, I suppose it's not important," Reborn says offhandedly.

Obito's got to be aware of how Reborn is manipulating him, but he rises to the bait anyway. "Don't talk about her like that!"

"A childhood friend, perhaps? Female, so... a crush? Were you two rivals for her, or-?" Reborn muses.

Obito lunges to his feet, seemingly through sheer force of will given the state of his knees. "Shut up," he says, low and furious, clutching at the desk for support. "Just shut the fuck up."

"I agree," Kakashi says, surprising himself. "Please don't talk about Rin like that, Reborn-san."

Reborn looks from one to the other. "Hm, as you wish." He hops down from the hammock, landing lightly on the floor. "You shouldn't be exacerbating injuries like that, Obito-kun," he adds, adjusting that strange hat on his head. "Maman has made breakfast, you're welcome to have some if you can make it down the stairs."

And he just walks out.

Kakashi glances at Obito. Only the left side of his profile is visible, so all Kakashi can see is the empty eye socket.

"Sawada! Where are these extreme strangers that you wanted me to look at!?" someone bellows from the first floor, in a tone startlingly reminiscent of Gai.

Reborn can be heard answering the bellower, though his exact words are hard to make out. A moment later, someone comes stomping up the stairs and bounds into the bedroom.

The loud boy - young man, really - takes in Kakashi, leaning awkwardly against the wall, and Obito, who's holding himself up on willpower alone, and goes, "You got shot in both knees and you're still standing? EXTREME!"

Kakashi takes one look at the expression on Obito's face upon hearing this pronouncement and starts chuckling. He slides down the wall, unable to stop the hysterical laughter from escaping.

"He seems to be extremely unstable," the young man remarks, a strange mixture of boisterous and confused.

"Really, Ryohei? You're faced with a one-eyed, scarred boy who is managing to stand with two shattered kneecaps, and you think the other one is unstable?"

In all the ruckus, Kakashi hadn't even noticed Reborn perched on the man's shoulder.

"Chrome-chan only has one eye! Maybe she can give him eye patch advice. Then you would look really extreme!" Ryohei, apparently, adds to Obito.

Obito turns to Kakashi. "Please kill me," he says flatly.

That draws Kakashi up short. "Don't even joke about that."

Obito narrows his eye, then abruptly turns back to Ryohei and Reborn. "Aren't you here to heal us?" he asks curtly.

"Yes! I'll heal you to the limit!" Ryohei agrees. "By the way, do either of you participate in the extreme sport of boxing?"

Kakashi makes the mistake of asking what boxing is in an attempt to lighten the heavy atmosphere, and he and Obito are subjected to a lengthy lecture about the extreme sport while Ryohei healed them with his Flames of the Sun.

It was hardly a great first impression of Tsuna's guardians (not that Kakashi or Obito knew about that, at the time) but it was, sadly, indicative of things to come.


A/N: Was Ryohei too extreme? Please don't hesitate to tell me if he was. I don't want to go over the top with him.