Henchmen

-x-

Tsuna had always wondered how Yamamoto ended up with subordinates. It was truly a wonder, and there was many of them too. They were all built with strong muscle tones and could run any distance for what you wanted. They were also very energetic, so very feisty and passionate. So Tsuna always wondered how Yamamoto recruited such men and so many of them too.

"Oh, haha." Yamamoto laughed heartily. "It's a long story."

"Really?" Tsuna chuckled. "Seems like no one has time nowadays."

Yamamoto paused and thought to himself, feeling somewhat guilty suddenly. "Ah, sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

The brunette shook his head. "It's alright. I'm not any better." He then elbowed his fellow. "So tell me. Where did you get all these guys anyway?"

Yamamoto blinked and looked out before them. The view was of all these tall men, with great powerful arms and legs being put to work, training in front of them. They were running, jumping, and all looking as if they were having the time of their lives. Of course, baseball was in that picture too.

"Heh, maybe you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Tsuna raised a brow. "I wouldn't know until you tell me."

"They are actually my baseball teams."

Tsuna looked at him blankly, then to the men, then back at him. "What?"

"Yeah, I know. I'm surprised too. But they are and sometimes we still play baseball for old times sake." Yamamoto nodded, his expression earnest as ever.

"So…" Tsuna scratched his head. "How did you get them… like this and you know.. Into the whole mafia business?"

Yamamoto thought to himself again, stroking his chin. "If I am correct, it all started when I joined the whole mafia with you guys, thinking it was a game. I sure was dense back then huh?"

-x-

Flashback.

"Good morning, everyone!" Yamamoto flashed his trademark happy-go-lucky smile to his fellow teammates as he walked across the field toward them. The baseball team had always noted of how he just seemed to get brighter, stronger, faster, and cleverer every passing day. It always threw them off too. Their practices were repeatedly boring and nothing seemed to improve, only more boredom and no passion. So they questioned why it was that Yamamoto Takeshi seemed to be getting by so well.

And thus they finally decided to ask the smiling baseball player.

One teammate, Satoshi, was up to ask first. "How do you do it, Takeshi?"

"Hmm?" Yamamoto set down his backpack and his sports bag on the bench. "Do what?"

Another piped in. "How is it that you can smile and be so happy?" Then another added. "You also seem to be getting better at everything lately too."

Satoshi nodded. "So what are you doing? How is it that you are doing all the same practices as us, and yet you seem to be five steps ahead of us? Are you taking special training?"

Yamamoto blinked. "Ah, not really. I guess I've just been doing more than I expected."

"How so?" Another teammate asked.

There was already the whole baseball group gathering around Yamamoto like kindergarteners gathering around the teacher for story time. They really wanted to know.

He put it quite bluntly though. "I've been playing a game with some friends of mine."

Satoshi looked at him in disbelief. "A game? With Dame-Tsuna?"

"How is that helping you when Tsuna is in it?"

"Is he taking rigorous training too, and just making himself look stupid in school while in the outside he's like an ultimate superhero that every bad guy wants to kill and he could totally pwn them any day?" Everyone looked at the person who said this and pushed him out of the huddled group.

Yamamoto grinned. "Maa maa. Calm down. It's just a game."

Satoshi frowned. "What kind of game?"

"Mafia." Too blunt.

All of them gasped in disbelief.

"Haha." Yamamoto reassured. " It's a game. I'm sure the baby and the others is just holding some new advanced toy guns and play weapons and that all the rest is just really good acting, like Tsuna and Gokudera, with all the fighting and talking. It's like they all cosplay with wacky hair colors and random accessories for no occasion, but I find it cool anyway. And plus, it's exciting since my friends are all in it too."

Satoshi could not register how this was all being put together in a puzzle. "So you're playing a game of mafia?"

Yamamoto nodded. "There's a lot of running and screaming (from Tsuna) and bombs (but I'm sure they were planned) and awesome sound and special affects that seem so real (like guns shots and fire). You always seem to be moving and thinking in the game. Like one time, I had to do training here in the baseball field with Dino-san, another friend in the mafia game, and he chased me around with this tank shooting spikes at me, telling me that if I don't dodge them, it would hurt. It felt so real; it was amazing and fun."

His teammates were all silent, and Yamamoto decided to continue.

"There's also this talking baby who holds this green gun and he was teaching me how to use a sword by letting me swing my baseball bat. And the special affect is so cool when I use my bat too. If I swing fast enough, it turns into a sword. After that, my swing speed went faster than I had ever expected to go." Yamamoto chuckled with delight. "It's really fun and everyone seems so high spirited and energized in the game. It's as if our lives depended on it!"

"So, this is what makes you … better?" Satoshi asked.

"Well, I think that may be the case. I noticed that my levels seem to be higher now that I joined in with them." Yamamoto answered, surprised that even he noticed such a thing.

…

"We should play the mafia game too!"

"Yeah! Yamamoto, show us what they do!"

"We could totally be awesome and dominate!"

There at that moment, everyone agreed that they wanted to play this mafia game that Yamamoto was talking about.

What followed after? History.

End of Flashback

-x-

"Ahh.. So that's what happened.." Tsuna began laughing.

Yamamoto scratched the back of his neck embarrassed. "Man, I was so dense back then."

Tsuna smiled. "Heh, but I'm glad that you were. I mean, you were the only one who actually made logical sense with me. Both you and I had no idea what was going on then."

"Now we do."

"Unfortunately."

There was some easy silence between them.

Tsuna then asked. "So if these were your teammates -"

"Some of them really." Yamamoto interrupted. "I finally broke to them that there was more to the whole mafia game when they wanted to continue. Most decided to stay to my surprise, even when I told them there was a chance they could… die. And I told the whole biggie to those who stayed."

"Then, who are the rest of these guys?"

"Them?" Yamamoto smiled. "They're my baseball teams and other kids from the other leagues."

Tsuna's eyes grew wide. "What?" His face clearly said, 'Don't tell me you're getting them involved with the whole mafia ordeal too.'

Yamamoto shook his head. "Some of them are from my older teams and they all know the whole fiasco and still wanted to stay. The younger ones who don't know a thing about the mafia are just here to have the same training that some of the best baseball players they heard of had."

"The best for sure." Tsuna agreed. Then a thought hit him and he looked at Yamamoto hard.

The other had noticed this and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Tsuna looked down at Yamamoto's subordinates, all having smiles and playing baseball for it was free time. "I probably should apologize huh?"

"For what?"

"You know, for making you have to give up your dream… of being a baseball player. You loved baseball. You would have been an awesome player and played in international levels. But I asked you to be my Guardian."

"I believe that what I am now is better than what I wanted to be though." Yamamoto replied quickly, with no hesitance in his tone at all. "I find it much more fulfilling. Now that I look at it, sure, baseball was my passion, but I think being your Guardian suits me more." He grinned now. "It's more fun… and that I get to hang out and fight along side my friends any time any day."

"But still -"

"It was my choice, Tsuna. I could've declined, but all this time I didn't. I wanted to be a international league baseball player, playing against the strongest of my time and in the fields where the most famous players played." He then closed his eyes. " But I preferred what you had to offer. I aspired to become your Guardian instead. I chose to be your Guardian because I wanted to be. And lookie here, I'm having the time of my life, probably better than what I would've been, should I had chosen being a baseball player."

There was another pause, until Tsuna felt a hand ruffle his hair roughly.

"There's no need to apologize, so no 'apology accepted', but will you accept a thank you instead?"

Tsuna smiled, feeling the hand lift off his head. The feeling was weird, as he hadn't had anyone ruffle his hair in a while. "Yeah, thank you also, Yamamoto."

Suddenly, a loud exasperated sigh escaped Yamamoto's lips, being followed with a frown. "It's been a little over ten years now, Tsuna. The formalities can stop."

"It would be too rude and awkward and I wouldn't dare to live like that."

"It would be nice if you could just stretch out your legs and relax, making the world yours for once."

"Sadly, I'll have to refrain from that."

Yamamoto smiled. "You haven't changed a bit."

Tsuna smiled also. "Likewise."

That's when they realized that Yamamoto's subordinates were all watching the them and that all movements had stopped long before. They all had that dreamy look in their eyes and seemed to be moved emotionally.

"Err, how long have they been watching us?" Tsuna whispered. Yamamoto shrugged, also quite surprised.

Satoshi stepped out of the crowd, now bright and with a big smile. Him leading the group, they all suddenly yelled, "WE ARE YAMAMOTO'S HENCHMEN, AND THANKS TO VONGOLA TENTH AND BOSS, WE ARE ALL HAVING AN AWESOME TIME!" A long "" followed after.

"Henchmen?" Tsuna repeated. "Isn't supposed to be subordinates?"

"Yeah, I really didn't get the difference between the two, so we just went along with henchmen." Yamamoto sweat dropped.

"It makes you sound like one of those bad guys in movies with your two pathetic henchmen trying to take down the good guy." Tsuna mused.

"Yeah, it really does doesn't it?"

"But this time, it's a thousand men."

-x-

This has got to be one of my favorite chapters.