A/N: Frustrated to admit that this is a rather short chapter. Not as bad as when I started writing fanfic (try 1200 word chapters :D), but less than I would like. Just one of those cases where I wrote everything that I wanted to complete the plot, and while I supposed I could have combined parts 2 and 3 of Rainbow Curiosities into one chapter, while the theme is similar enough (what some of the former Arcobaleno are up to four months after the curse was broken), the tone, topics, and events are so far divorced from each other it just wouldn't feel right.

In this chapter, it's mentioned that Namimori is in Kanagawa Prefecture. The capital of the Kanagawa Prefecture is Yokohama, which is like a half-hour drive away from Tokyo. I kind of agonized over this placement, because I didn't want to just put in the same area as Tokyo, but at the same time with the geography of Namimori as given in the series-within biking distance of both the beach and a mountain, but still pretty flat overall-I felt like I didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. As a note: when it comes to distances, I'm probably going to be using miles instead of kilometers because I cannot visualize kilometers like I can miles, and according to the traffic page it's mostly Americans reading anyways. Call it artistic liberty.

Wanted to give a quick thanks to everyone who's followed or reviewed or favorited, I haven't had a lot of success with my writing lately and it makes me giggle with joy when I get a follow alert.

Target 7: Rainbow Curiosities Part 2

If there was one good thing with no strings attached that came out of the Rainbow Conflict, it was certainly that Tsuna discovered his love of flying. Back and forth between the forest hideaway in Nara Prefecture where Talbot had been hidden away, and all over Namimori afterwards, it was a lot of time for thinking, and even better an opportunity to go simply as fast as he could with no restraints. And it wasn't slow, either—if the readout on his contacts was correct, he had briefly broken the sound barrier on the way back from Nara.

He didn't reach nearly such speeds on this trip to Yokohama. Part of it was that it was a far shorter trip—Namimori was located in the western part of Kanagawa Prefecture, about 200 miles away from the Nara Hideout, but only about 35 miles away from the capital city of Yokohama. The larger part of it was Skull desperately clinging to his shoulder for dear life. Tsuna had promised him that he would catch him if he fell, but that had been of little relief. He was only just short of screaming.

Even as they flew over the city, Tsuna tried to get more detailed information out of him to no success. He rolled his eyes and said into his headphones "Navigation."

"Understood, boss."

"Yoko-Q Building." A marker appeared on the map projected into the contacts. That last upgrade Spanner sent is absurd… "Thanks," he said. Thank god Skull's too out of it to ask about thanking an AI.

The Yoko-Q Building was a mix of apartments, lofts, and a few private offices on the uppermost floors. Tsuna briefly considered going to ground level, but even at 2 AM there could still be some peering eyes wondering who that kid outside the window was. He took a moment to make sure the roof was empty, and landed easy—he could have landed much harder with no trouble, but Skull sounded about ready to throw up inside his helmet.

Skull fell off Tsuna's shoulder, and Tsuna took a deep breath to suspend Hyper Dying Will Mode. He kept his gloves on, and made sure that the Dying Will Pills were easily accessible. He looked over at Skull, who seemed a bit unsteady. "You okay?"

"Mm-mm."

"If you say so. You know what floor this, what was it, Alavari? What floor his apartment's on?" Tsuna asked, as he checked the time on his watch. Not for the first time he wished he had a cell phone.

Skull shook off the last bits of the motion sickness. "Apartment 2724."

"You want a ride? No flying this time."

Skull tried to figure out whether Tsuna was laughing at him before taking the offered shoulder. Tsuna pulled open the door that gave roof access—even in his normal state, he could easily break the rusty lock that held it closed. He made a mental note to leave a message at the manager's office after this was taken care of.

They were on the 40th floor, but the one thing Tsuna and Skull could agree on was to keep away from security cameras, which would be far more difficult in an elevator. There were far fewer video cameras in the stairwell, and Skull knew how to navigate blind spots—and where there were no blind spots, Nuts could leap from Tsuna's outstretched arm and obscure the camera with his mane of sky flames.

At the 27th floor, Tsuna pushed out into the hallway. The hallway lights were on, but all was quiet. It was a pretty bleak place, the walls all white and with no special features on the doors besides the apartment number in Arabic numerals. "Twenty-seven forty-eight…" Nuts vanished back into his ring, and Tsuna walked quietly, shushing Skull every time he counted out the apartment number. They went all the way through the building, past the elevator, and to the opposite end before coming upon room 2724.

Tsuna looked either way, then put his ear against the door. He closed his eyes, and emptied his lungs. Nothing…nothing…nothing…no, that's a keyboard! He whispered "There's somebody in there, typing."

Skull lurched, nearly falling over, then leaped off Tsuna's shoulder straight at the door. Tsuna could just perceive a wave of Dying Will Flames emitted by Skull as he knocked the door right off its hinges and storm inside. "You no good traitor ruining my good name!" he shouted out, pointing a finger accusingly at the man inside.

Oh my god that was his plan are you kidding me this guy really is an idiot. He downed the Dying Will Pills that he had tucked into his palm, and the Vongola Gear was equipped in a flash of light.

The man inside jumped up, pulled a gun out of his waistband, and fired straight at Skull. The bullet went straight through his visor and into his frontal lobe, and Skull was down just like that. The gunman turned his aim on Tsuna, but he wasn't nearly fast enough to keep up with Vongola's Tenth.

Tsuna leaped forward, grabbed the muzzle of the gun, and yanked it out of the man's hands. "Are you Alavari?"

The light of his dying will flames reflected in the gunman's eyes. There was no fear in those eyes. As Tsuna's eyes flicked to Skull, the gunman expertly flipped backward, kicking up on Tsuna's chin and yanking the boy's head upward. The gunman landed his flip and ran to the window while Tsuna was still stunned. He pushed the window open, gave Tsuna a mocking wave, and flipped himself out from the twenty-seventh story window.

No no no this is just a normal person! He ran to the window and nearly threw himself out after the man, but noticed just in time that it hadn't been fanatically suicidal leap—there was a balcony two stories down that the man had landed on safely, and he was gone.

Tsuna was nearly tempted to go after him, but forced himself to remember why he was here—and that Skull had gotten shot in the head.

The former Arcobaleno had already yanked his helmet off and was moaning on the floor. His face was covered in his own blood, but the wound was already healing. "Ooooh, I haaate getting shot…least the exit wound is clean…"

"The stuntman hated by the grim reaper, I guess Enma wasn't kidding," Tsuna said, somewhat amazed by this superhuman ability of Skull's. He shook his head, and his Dying Will Flame faded as he walked to the computer.

"Uuugh…I need to kick that guy's ass when I'm…uh…what's the word?"

"Taller?"

"Yeah."

The gunman hadn't had time to lock his computer, and it was still open to his email. The one he had been composing was asking some transporter about a fake passport. Tsuna saved the draft and went to the inbox. Junk mail, junk mail…come on, instructions or an informal contract…oh hey, that looks interesting.

Near to the bottom of the inbox was a pair of emails, one from a bank confirming a wire transfer into the recipient's account for an amount that made Tsuna nearly start yelling in frustration, and the other from a "JohnDoe909" with a subject reading "Re: Carcassa Shipping Group" and a short message in the body that said "For services rendered." Just after both was a confirmation email for a plane ticket from Palermo, Italy, to Tokyo.

"I guess you were right after all. Look, 'for services rendered', that's code for industrial espionage, right?"

Skull wiped off his face on his sleeve, leaving his destroyed helmet on the floor, and hopped up onto the desk, squinting to look. In spite of getting hunted across half the world, dragged at high speed across Japan, and getting shot in the face again, he lit up. "This is it, Vongola! I'm not gonna die yet!" He pushed Tsuna aside and rapidly started printing out copies of the emails. He started muttering to himself in…German, Tsuna was pretty sure.

"Right, glad I could help," Tsuna said, although Skull didn't seem to be paying attention any more. He rubbed the back of his head. "So, do you need me to stick around? Or you want a lift back to Namimori?"

Skull shuddered at the very suggestion.

"Right, well, see you around, I guess." I guess I went from prospective Tenth to…a stuntman's lacky? Great…wait did I just help Skull perform counter-espionage? Oh god. No favor is worth it.

He was out the window and away before he could continue thinking about it too hard. Just as he was going over the city limits, he said into the headphones "Time trial."

"Understood, boss. Beginning time trial at your mark."

He reoriented himself with movements of his hands that were, by now, instinctive. "Mark." The timer started, and Tsuna flew like a meteor through the night sky.

Tsuna didn't pay much attention to what time it was on the way back home. He snuck back inside the house as quietly as he had left, jumped in the shower, and grabbed a late-night snack before falling into bed.

It felt like he had no more than blinked before he was getting the daily assassination threats to get out of bed. It had been more like two hours, but after flying back and forth to Yokohama overnight, he could barely open his eyes.

When he finally pulled himself up, he grimaced when he saw that Reborn was looking at the note he had left on the desk the night before. "Hey, like I said, I got back before school."

For once, Reborn seemed at a loss for words. After hesitating a few long moment, he finally asked "How is Yokohama this time of year?"

"In my experience? Cold, but I was at about a thousand feet up and over the ocean for part of it." He started pulling on his uniform. "The word of the day is industrial espionage. Skull had been suspicious of the guy but wasn't able to find any proof of ill-intent before he got fired—did you know that that involves literally setting him on fire? I hope that's only the Carcassa, but even for a drug cartel that's disturbing." He shivered. "He tracked the guy to Japan with security footage. Showed up here last night—Skull, not the spy—and asked for my help. The guy jumped out his apartment window to a balcony but left his computer open to emails with payments for 'services rendered'. At least Skull seemed confident that it would save him from the Vindice."

Reborn frowned, and looked at the note again. "I'm surprised the coward would come anywhere near this town. He seems to think I'm strict when it comes to the law of the mafia."

"He did seem a little terrified of you," Tsuna said, biting back any comments about exactly how strict Reborn was. "But, knowing you, I'm pretty sure he would have been fine. You'd lose your favorite lackey otherwise."

"You need some more brain cells shot out, you're getting too smart."

"Shouldn't a boss know how his subordinate's thought process works?"

There was dead silence as both Tsuna and Reborn registered exactly what Tsuna just said.

Did I just call Reborn my subordinate?

Tsuna was out the window faster than you could say 'shotgun'. Reborn shook his head, sighed, and said "So much for intelligence." He scooped his hat off the desk, and examined it before putting it on. The edge of the brim was becoming worn, and the band was getting a touch frayed in the back. He made a mental note to get it replaced the next time a courier came.

A/N: Next time, another weirdo? The Back-Alley Doctor Kappa Appears in the conclusion to Rainbow Curiosities!