A/N: boring filler chapter

Things were awkward and tense when Tsuna came back to his room later that night. He looked apprehensively at Reborn, like he thought the baby still wanted to interrogate him.

And Reborn did want to, but he didn't know how well that would end. He couldn't understand anything and he needed the answers that Tsuna had but wouldn't give. His mouth curled down in displeasure.

"I've made notes on the questions you still get wrong." said Reborn after five infuriating minutes of the boy waffling around. Tsuna jumped in surprise. "Get them done. I'm going out for a walk."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and jumped out of the window. He won't be coming back home again tonight. He needs time to think.

He ended up going to a fairly desolate location with lots of trees, just the perfect place to let out some steam. The Namimori Shrine was by no means abandoned, but it was still uncommon to find people there outside of special ocassions.

Reborn contemplated praying at the shrine for a brief while. He didn't believe in any higher deities, but he was about to go mad from his current situation. Maybe praying would help?

'Nope,' he ended up deciding as Leon shifted. He was the world's greatest hitman. He could handle anything.

X

So Reborn might have overestimated his ability to overcome any challenges and difficulties, but he'd rather shoot himself than admit that out loud.

Tutoring sessions with Tsuna had been stifling, to say the least. Even though Reborn made no effort to ask about the boy's Flames again, it seemed he'd grown unnecessarily wary that he would.

Reborn had taken to staying in the house for longer periods of time, subtly questioning Nana about Tsuna's Flames, and though the woman claimed to be ignorant, he didn't miss the way she eyed him calculatively afterwards.

'What a mess,' he thought. What was supposed to be a simple job ended up being not so simple after all.

"This is a mess. Your family is a mess," Reborn told Sawada Iemitsu through the phone. He finally succumbed and called to ask the man what he knew about his son, but he was completely clueless.

"Hey, don't talk about my family that way." Iemitsu whined. "And it's not my fault I don't know, I haven't even seen Tsuna since he was a kid!"

Reborn clicked his tongue in annoyance. "That's why I say you're a big idiot. If you ever visited them then you'd know. But no, you had to always refuse when Nono offered you vacation."

"You know I can't even if I want to. We never know who may be on our tails. Staying away from them was the best way to protect them. You understand, don't you?"

Reborn huffed. He did understand, because it wasn't like he was a stranger to seeing innocent friends and family of mafiosi murdered just because, as immoral as it was.

"What do you plan to do now?" Iemitsu asked.

"What else can I do?" Reborn shot back distastefully. " I need to find out why and how he's acting like this. What do you think I'm going to do?"

There was silence on the other end for a short moment before Iemitsu sighed, the sound clear through the phone. "Don't put them in danger."

Reborn rolled his eyes. As if he could kill the heir candidate for the tenth boss and get away with it (he actually probably could but that's not the point). "Whatever, loser."

He hung up without waiting for a reply. There were other things he needed to think about at the moment, things he needed to think through, and how he should let happen.

Even though he was feeling uncharacteristic doubt at the plan that was forming in his head, he knew there would be no faster way to do things than this. He had to wait four rings before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hurricane Bomb Hayato." He could hear the loud, surprised exhale through the line. "I have a job for you."

X

When Reborn finally made it home in the evening, he walked in to Tsuna and Nana huddled in the kitchen, whispering quietly to each other. The hitman resisted the urge to lift an eyebrow. What was such a big secret that they had to whisper when only the two of them were in the house?

Reborn was more than a little curious.

"I'm home," he said. The mother and son jumped apart almost immediately, and Nana whirled around to give him a smile as Tsuna excused himself.

"Welcome home, Reborn-chan!"

She sounded like she usually did. Tsuna just shot him a wary glance before brushing past him to go up to his room.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour. Is there anything you'd like?"

So confusing. Sawada Nana acted like there was nothing out of the ordinary, like they hadn't been whispering suspiciously just a little while ago. Was Reborn really just being paranoid? He shook his head. "No thank you, Mama. I'll be up in Tsuna's room if you need me."

He made his way to Tsuna's room silently. The door was closed, and the infant took the opportunity to shift Leon and stick him under the crack to spy on his student.

Surprisingly, he was videochatting someone. A boy with red hair. They're talking about school when Tsuna abruptly pauses. "I need to go," he told the boy on the screen. "I think... I think I'm being watched."

Reborn had enough presence of mind to hide Leon and feign ignorance just as Tsuna opened the door, squinting. "Oh, it's just you." The way he said it more than offended Reborn, but there were more important matters to think about for now.

Is this the famed Vongola Hyper Intuition?

This could be a problem.

X

The next day went about as normal as it could go. Though Tsuna did get up earlier since he felt compelled to check on Yamamoto. His plan to just swing by the family-owned Takesushi was promptly ruined when he ran into Sasagawa Ryohei on his morning jog, who immediately recognized Tsuna.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, jogging in place. He pointed a finger at Tsuna. "You're Sawada Tsunayoshi aren't you? I saw you on the roof! That was an EXTREMELY good job you did! Very manly!" he praised.

Tsuna did not want to be on the receiving end of any sort of attention though, so he pretended to be clueless. "What are you talking about?"

Ryohei frowned. "What do you mean? The whole school saw it! You fell from the roof and survived! That was really EXTREME! I saw in you the energy of a fighter! Would you like to join the boxing club?!" He clapped a hand over Tsuna's shoulder. "We need some strong-willed people like you!"

Helplessly, Tsuna held up his hands. "I. Um. Thank you, Sasagawa-senpai, but I'm not really cut out for boxing..."

"Nonsense!" Ryohei boomed. "I can see your energy! You're exactly what we need!" He then went on to urging the brunet in all ways he could to join the boxing club. Halfway through, Tsuna started tuning out and Yamamoto appeared behind Ryohei, commenting about how he never saw the older student jogging at this time, sending him into a state of panic thinking about being late for school and then running off.

"Hey, Tsuna!" Yamamoto turned to him with a grin. "I haven't been able to catch you these past couple of days. Thanks, I meant to say. For that time on the roof."

"No problem." Tsuna replied, eyeing Yamamoto's arm. It wasn't in a sling anymore, but...

The baseball player took notice and lifted his arm a little. "It's recovering well, see? It actually wasn't as bad as it looked." He paused, glancing at Tsuna. "That time... how did... what even happened? You can fly?" Tsuna tensed so visibly, Yamamoto quickly amended, "I won't tell anyone I swear! I'm just really confused. Are you a superhero or something?"

Tsuna let out a startled laugh at this. "No, nothing like that," he says. Yamamoto gives him a skeptical look. "Well, it's a little complicated, I don't think I can explain well."

Yamamoto shrugged, still smiling. "I don't mind. We can hang out after class, and you can tell me. I want to know. You don't mind telling, right? Let's be friends, Tsuna."

For a long moment, Tsuna just looked at him, like he was trying to see into Yamamoto's mind and decide whether he was being truthful or not. Yamamoto had no clue what Tsuna saw, but he felt relieved all the same when Tsuna looked away and agreed to tell him.