"Dame-Tsuna, what are we doing at a library?" Reborn asked. They were supposed to be heading home after the fight, not to a dusty old library. She paused in the middle of pulling out a book and looked up at Reborn who was sitting in an empty area on the shelf.

"I noticed something in my fight with Mochida." She said as she finished taking the book out, looked at it, and then placed it back. As she continued sifting through the shelf Reborn gave her a look as if to silently say 'And that is?' "I noticed that I'm pathetically weak and it's about time I fix that. After all, my tactical retreat strategy won't always work." Reborn gave her a bland stare.

"You mean running away." It was not a question. She gimaced.

"Tactical. Retreat." She said back obstinately.

"You ran away. He had to chase after you. You tripped. You got caught. Sounds like running away to me." He smirked down at her. Tsuna slammed the book she had just grabbed back into the book shelf as she ground her teeth in anger.

"Just drop it." She said finally. There was silence for a bit before Reborn began talking again, much to Tsuna's annoyance.

"You still haven't explained to me how you plan to fix your problem at a library." He said as he watched Tsuna take out another book and look through it. This time she nodded in satisfaction and placed it with the few others she had chosen in her arms.

"Because the library has things like this." She said as she held up three books for Reborn to see. She had a big grin on her face as he read the titles.

"Everyday Strength Exercises, Basic Defense Techniques, and Parkour For Dummies? This is really all you came here for?" He asked, faintly annoyed. He could easily teach her all these things and yet she decided to rely on books instead of him. Also, not many people can learn something just by reading about it. They would not only have to be able to understand it but they would also have to be able to apply it in real life.

"Reborn, come on." She said as she patted her shoulder for him to sit on. Reborn gave a smirk before jumping on top of her head. She grumbled a bit at him purposely ignoring her invitation before continuing on to the checkout. As the walked home Reborn couldn't help but think that, if anything, it would be fun to watch her try.


(Tsuna's house; Morning)

The next morning Tsuna woke up early and, after changing in to some work out clothes, sat stretching in front of her house. The exercise book, which she had tucked inside her clothes, had said that a daily jog, in the morning or afternoon, was perfect to help her stamina. So there she was, at 5:30 AM, ready to do morning exercises before she came back at 7:00 to take a shower and get ready for school. As soon as she finished stretching she did as many push ups and sit ups as she could before she took off down the road, her route already predetermined the day before.

Ten minutes later and she was already tired and leaning against the wall, drinking water and catching her breath. It was actually kinda sad. When she was Kross she could go about thirty minutes before she had to stop from exhaustion. Of course, that was mostly because the last three schools that she had went to before chose running several laps around the school as punishment. Needless to say he had lots of experience with running. And getting in trouble. Especially getting in trouble.

Tsuna shook her head and pushed off the wall, it was time to get back to her jog. Normally she wouldn't be doing anything like this without the proper backing of the school to force her into it, but that just shows how much she feels she needs to do this. After all, if she learns to defend herself early she might not get beat up as much... Maybe.

She was knocked out of her thoughts when she heard the pounding of footsteps against the ground and a familiar yell of 'Extreme.' Tsuna quickly began to look for a side street that she could hide in as a feeling of dread washed over her. Like she was about to get in over her head. But there were none for a while longer and it was to late. Ryohei was here.

"Ouuh!" He yelled as he slowed down his pace to keep up with hers. "To meet a fellow jogger here on this EXTREME morning is a surprise! I haven't seen you around, are you knew to the jogging scene?" He asked. Tsuna looked off to the side as she tried not to let Ryohei see her fully. He had been there to see her fight Mochida and she just knew that he would try something. She mumbled a bit and shrugged her bangs over her eyes, wishing that she hadn't pulled her hair up for her work out. She began to sweat as Ryohei leaned in, eyes narrowed as he scrutinized her. "Ah! You're Sawada Tsunako!The way you defeated Mochida was EXTREME! Join the boxing club!" he said excitedly. Tsuna stared at him. She knew it was going to happen, but, still...

"Um... Senpai, I'm a girl." Ryohei stared at her in obvious confusion. Apparently he couldn't understand the problem of a girl joining an all boy boxing club. Tsuna sighed. "Uh, I'm kinda participating in something... outside of school." She said, being as vague as possible. Ryohei seemed really depressed after learning that, which for some reason made her feel guilty. "But, since I can't join your club, do you want to run with me in the mornings? And by the way, what's your name?" Not that she didn't already know. However, he did seem to cheer up.

"My name is is Sasagawa Ryohei, the EXTREME captain of the boxing club!" He yelled as he pumped his fists. "And I would be super excited to help you in your EXTREME training!" And with that he grabbed hold of her and sprinted off with his usual pace, dragging poor Tsuna along.


(At school)

Tsuna slumped against her desk and sighed. Her work out with Ryohei was exhausting and she had been relieved when it was ten minutes to seven and she was able to tell Ryohei that she had to go get ready for school. He was slightly disappointed but cheered up when she said that she would meet him at the same spot the next morning at 6:00 after her morning stretches and warm ups.

Tsuna stretched out as she lay on her desk and tried to waker herself up. She would probably get detention if she fell asleep in class. Someone approached her in the middle of her stretch and she looked up to see a boy, who was from the next class over.

"Sawada-chan, do you mind filling in for a regular in a boys volley ball game this afternoon?" He asked quietly. Tsuna was dumbfounded. Why would they want a girl to play on the boy's volley ball team?

"I'm a girl." She stated, repeating the same line that she had told Ryohei earlier that morning. The boy blushed and fidgeted a bit.

"I know, but you were able to beat Mochida-Senpai and Yamamoto-kun suggested you as well." he said quickly.

"Um, do you mind if I get back to you on that? Like around lunch time?" She asked. She really didn't want to do it and she she hoped that someone would step up and take her spot by then. The boy gave a hesitant nod and, after several glances back at her, he walked out of the room.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. People had been staring and whispering about her as soon as she set foot on campus. Even now her classmates were talking about her. She pointedly ignored them and was glad when the bell rang and the teacher started class. Then a sudden thought came to her.

Since when had Yamamoto been in the volley ball team? He wasn't there in the manga, maybe he was there in the anime? She shrugged. It didn't really matter anyways.


(At school; Lunch)

As soon as she laid out her bento to eat for lunch the boy from before appeared, this time with two others.

"Will you help us?" He asked in a pleading voice. Whether they meant to or not they all began to give her puppy eyes. For some strange reason, even though they were all male and taller then her, she felt the puppy dog eyes winning her over. Her resolve crumbled and she gave them a resigned nod. How had their puppy dog eyes won? They were men! Big, bad, volley ball playing men! She snorted. Okay, that might have been the reason. But, still...

"We're going to have to work on that Dame-Tsuna." He said as he popped out of the chalk board.

The chopsticks that she had just picked up dropped from Tsuna's hands. She stood up and was about to say something when she stopped and snapped her head around to look at the rest of the classroom. The others had cleared out to eat elsewhere already and Tsuna let out a sigh of relief before turning back to Reborn.

"Don't just pop out of nowhere randomly! And work on what?" She asked as she watched Reborn hop onto the desk in front of her own.

"If you're going to be a successful mafia boss then you need to stop giving into everyone who asks for help. You can't help everybody." He gave her a knowing look before smirking. "But at least you can try out your new parkour abilities. And I would have made you participate anyway." Tsuna gave him a dirty look.

She had surprised Reborn by reading all of her books that she had gotten but it hadn't been as smooth when she tried applying some of the parkour stuff that she had read. After her morning stretches yesterday she had tried to do a handstand and utterly failed. It had left her winded and a little more then wary to try it again. That's why she had decided to start running first and gain some strength by doing stuff like push ups and sit ups before doing it again.

"What does parkour have to do with volley ball." She muttered miserably. She was sure that he had enjoyed her first try at a hand stand if his amused smirk had anything to say about it. He ignored her complaining and had instead opted to steal things out of her lunch box. Tsuna went to go steal her food back but as soon as she got close Reborn pinched her hand. She yelped and brought it back to nurse the wound. She really hated Reborn. Even if he is cute.


(School;after school)

It was after school now and the volley ball game that she was to participate in would start any minute. However, that wasn't Tsuna's biggest concern at the moment. Her biggest concern was trying to figure out how to change in the oh-so-tiny girl's bathroom stall without killing herself. Tsuna twisted her P.E. Top around and accidentally bumped her elbow against the side of the stall. She cussed under her breath in English and Spanish, she didn't know much Spanish but she sure knew all their cuss words, as the familiar tingle of hitting her funny bone raced through her arm.

Finally done, she left the bathroom and headed towards the gym. Tsuna purposely sought out the gym's side door so she wouldn't be caught up in the crowd. She didn't like all the attention and going through the side door would help a bit. No one noticed her come through the door and she sneaked over to the team, who were looking worried.

"I wonder where she is. The game is going to start soon." The boy who had asked her to come said. They shifted around nervously and glanced towards the entrance frequently.

"Don't worry guys, Tsuna will definitely come!" Yamamoto said with a bright grin. Tsuna gave a wry smile. At least someone believed in her. She sneaked up to them and tapped Yamamoto on the shoulder. As soon as he saw her his bright smile doubled and Tsuna could literally feel herself being blinded. "See? She's here just in time!" He said jovially.

The others brightened up too but when the referee said it was time for the teams to get to their spots it faded into nervous twitches. Apparently it was very important that the win this game. 'Well then,' Tsuna thought, ''I'll just have to try my best. Even if I'm not to sure what the rules are...'

Her team started out with the ball and as soon as it was served she had a strange urge to move a few feet to the right of where she was placed. She shrugged and followed her instincts. She got there just in time for the ball to come straight at her. She bumped the ball forward and one of her teammates set it so Yamamoto could spike it over the net for the first point of the game.

Tsuna stared in slight disbelief at what had just happened. Had that really just happened. Why had she known where the ball had gone before it was even heading there? As soon as the opposite team had bumped it she had known where to go, which was weird. Well, you couldn't really know until it was done again. Feeling the same urge she had felt earlier she moved to the place her instincts told her to go and sure enough the ball came straight at her. Yet another point went to them and it was confirmed.

The rest of the game went pretty much just like that where Tsuna would run off to some part of the court, the ball would magically come straight to her, she would bump it, another player would set, and Yamamoto would spike. Every now and then they would lose a point when Tsuna in her clumsiness bumped the ball of to the side where no one could get it or would trip and fall as she ran.

In the end they won the first game, lost the second, and won the last. Each game was barely won by the minimum two points, mostly do to the fact that her arms really hurt from receiving the hard spikes from the other team over and over again on her soft, un-callosed arms.

As soon as it was announced that they had won the crowd converged on them to celebrate. Apparently they had played, and won, against the rival school of her school. During the commotion Tsuna was able to sneak out of the side door again and headed towards the dreaded bathroom stalls again to get changed out of her sweaty uniform. A sudden thought hit her when she walked out of the bathroom later and she took a quick glance at her surroundings. Wasn't Gokudera supposed to have been watching her during the game?

She turned to the side so she could look more carefully and had to stifle a gasp as a tinge of dull pain went through the shoulder that she had landed particularly hard on during the game. She even had a bruise on her face when she bumped the ball wrong and it hit her directly in the face. She sighed and walked home as she tenderly touched at the many bruises that littered her skin. She knew she was going to hate herself tomorrow when not only this but what she had done that morning with Ryohei would catch up with her.

While Tsuna was worrying about the pain that she would feel in the morning Reborn was contemplating his student. He was wondering about the fact that she had seemed to know exactly where the ball would go. After a bit of thought he confirmed his suspicions. It seemed that her hyper intuition was really kicking in.