Sigh. I couldn't even last the week before updating again. How very pathetic. "OTL But I am no longer allowed to allow the evil plot bunny to run me into the ground. I'd like to avoid having my doctor yelling at me again for disregarding my health...again...

Anways~ A BIG thank you to: Tsukuyomi-chan, anna the viking XD, sourapple2000, xxtoushirou, Yellow-Sama, skidney, FreeHugs0009, TheKawaiiStar21, xxOMGgalxx, and Preppy-Stealthy-Ninja! It's great to see this many reviewers and helps feed the plot bunny sedatives so that I can sleep properly!

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter as well! The next one will be coming later today as well!


Target 8

This….was giving you a headache. You stare at Reborn, refusing to give him the satisfaction of receiving an uncharacteristic reaction from you. That and you're not really sure how to react, except for being tired.

"Eh…?" You finally manage. Wide vocabulary you had there, huh?

"You're taking them to the zoo," Reborn reiterated.

You blink. For some reason your brain isn't processing what the other hitman is saying. Maybe you should just go back to bed.

"I would suggest you not follow through with that thought process or you'll be hard pressed to get any more sleep until the day you leave." Reborn said this in an undertone so that the other two wouldn't be able to hear, his lips barely moving.

"Are you really taking us to the zoo?" Tsuna asked excitedly, his eyes sparkling. You could practically feel the stray glitter around him bouncing off your head.

You turned away, breaking out into a light sweat. That was close. You mustn't look directly into those eyes or you would be trapped. In fact, don't look anywhere within five feet of the child. This is just a hassle and you don't want to agree, but if you look into his eyes, he'll have you doing backflips for him. Don't look. Don't look. Don't look! You squeeze your eyes shut and cover them with your hands. There was a sniffle and your resolve wavered. Crap! You forgot to cover your ears too!

You feel Reborn tap your shoulder. "That's not's going to work, Reborn."

"Ara? What's going on?" Nana asked.

You turn around to look at the woman, only to have a face full of puppy eyed Tsuna shoved in front of you. You could feel the remnants of your will to say no die like a pitiable vampire in sunlight. Its ashes blown away by the wind created from fate whispering 'sucker' repeatedly.

"You are taking us to the zoo today, aren't you Nee-chan?" Although the sentence sounded like a question, you could hear the command behind it as clear as day.

Damn. Reborn had more influence on this boy than you had thought. You should have never let your guard down around him, especially knowing that he was around a manipulative bastard long before you met him. And now you were stuck.

You release a gust of air and press a hand to your forehead. "Heeeaaaaadaaaache~," you growl quietly. Your eye twitches when you see the hitman's triumphant smirk, but you push your thoughts of murder aside and look back up at the waiting boy. "Yes, I'll take you."

"Yay! Thank you Nee-chan!" Tsuna cheers and hugs your neck before running off to his room to get ready.

Giotto smiles as well. "This should be a lot of fun!"

You just bury your head into your arms and mutter curses of death and destruction on the smug idiot still seated beside you. May whatever deity that may or may not exist, better hope you don't get your hands around its neck, or it'll wish it never even met you.

The four of you head out moments later, dressed lightly since it was hot outside. Though, you still wore your regular dress shirt and slacks, like Reborn wore his usual suit, just in a lighter material and colors (lighter colors was only on your part though). Tsuna skipped merrily, caught in between Reborn and Giotto, their hands tightly clasped around then child's.

You didn't like it. Yeah, it was an innocent action on the outside, the two boys were merely protecting the smallest one, but their aura's said otherwise. Their wish was to keep the brunette to themselves, to control him. It was coming off in waves, making your heart rate increase and your stomach churn. It made you feel sick. The possessiveness, the tightfisted hold they were exercising over the child, the greed for his presence. Your hands felt clammy and suddenly you feel desperate to escape. This sort of aura was dangerous. It would result in unseen pain and despair for the victim, and you didn't want to be around when it happened. It was already difficult enough to breath, and you weren't even the intended target. You didn't want to watch another fall to a fate similar to your own.

So you vanish. In a jump unseen by anyone else, you arrive on top of the roofs. The air is crisp and clear up here, and you can no longer feel the horrible auras. But this isn't right either. Guilt, an emotion you hadn't associated with in a long time, but you think that's what you're feeling right now. You feel guilty for leaving Tsuna behind like that. You know that Tsuna could sense it as well. Maybe not to the extent you could, but enough to make him feel scared and have nightmares. His intuition is stronger than the others give him credit for.

You take a deep breath and jump back down, landing in front of the trio. "Tsunayoshi, come here."

It takes a few tugs before the boy manages to free himself and stand before you. You crouch down so that he didn't have to strain himself. "Where'd you go, nee-chan? I looked behind, but you had disappeared."

"I like to be up high," you point up to the roofs.

Reborn snorts lightly. "Just like the stupid bird nickname that you continue to deny."

You glare a little, but overall ignore the teen. You turn around so that your back faced the child. "Climb on."

Tsuna tilts his head in question.

You smile the slightest amount. "I'll carry you on my back to the zoo." The child lights up like a Christmas tree and scrambles on, much to your amusement. "Hold on tightly."

Before the other two could argue, you jump up again and run over the roofs. You thought that the small brunette would scream in fright and beg you to slow down, but he squeals in delight instead. The child's laughter and giggles are contagious, and you find yourself smiling as well. The air was your domain. It offered you the freedom and peace that the people on the ground did not.

"Nee-chan, how come people can't see us?" Tsuna asks.

You could almost laugh at the child's bluntness. It truly was amazing how much his intuition could tell him sometimes. "I'm using an illusion to hide us. Even Reborn can't see us right now, though he would still be able to find us if he really tried." You jump down from the roof tops and let the two of your appear in the crowd at the zoo entrance.

You feel Tsuna's arms tighten and look over your shoulder. "Thanks you nee-chan."

Your eyes soften. Tsuna's intuition probably told him the reasons behind your actions, which would explain why he didn't question you. You turn away to look for the hitman and his student, muttering, "it was no problem," back softly so that he would be the only one to hear.


To say that Reborn was displeased with your actions would be a major understatement. However, you didn't care. Instead, you respond to his scolding and glares by pulling down your lower eyelid and sticking out your tongue. Normally, this could have nearly killed you, but at that moment you still had Tsunayoshi on your back. Reborn hand twitches in the obvious, 'I really want to shoot you' action, so you give the proper reply by sticking out your tongue again and giving him the peace/victory sign. You knew that Reborn found it irritating when you made faces without any emotions behind them. He was always telling you that one day another child would pick it up as well, but that was a ridiculous notion in your opinion (which is why you both put a thousand euros down as a bet).

After a short argument, consisting of whispered shouts, Tsunayoshi was returned to the ground and placed (trapped) in between his older brother and godfather once more. You purse your lips, but can do nothing about it right now, so you'll have to let it go. You can read from the youngest one that he wants to make the other two happy, which is why he doesn't complain, but he really wanted to run around as he pleased. It really wasn't fair to him.

So you do what any other caring illusionist would do, and switch the little one with an illusion of himself and runs away with the real one. You just had to wait till they were moving away from the reptile room, then 'bump' into the two, where you performed your little magic trick in the safety of darkness and ran like hell was after you, which it probably was with how mad Reborn was going to be. You two only had about a five minute head start (if you were lucky) before Reborn would notice, and then it would be a very dangerous and maybe even suicidal game of cat and mouse. The majority of your thoughts from that point were, 'Run bitch, run!'

But Tsunayoshi, being the kind and overly caring (to the point of hurting himself) one, decided that they shouldn't disobey Reborn and just get ice cream and wait for the hitman and his brother to come. The little one sat on your lap and chatted away about everything and anything while licking his strawberry cone. Sooner than you had hoped, Reborn arrives. But he decides to be nice and let Tsuna walk around the zoo with you.

To which you reply with you gun raised (covered in mist flames so that only the four of you can see it), "who are you and what have you done with Reborn. Scratch that. I congratulate you and wish to offer you a reward for ridding me of the bane of my existence."

Reborn scowls and flicked your forehead. Sadly, with Tsunayoshi on your lap you cannot evade such a simple blow. "You should learn how to offer gratitude correctly when someone is being nice."

"I do. Just not to you." You shake your head. "You probably want to 'train' Giotto and find the animal that fits him best, right?"

Reborn smirks. "We'll meet you in front of the fountain in two hours."

You sigh. Poor, poor Gio. It may not be enough that he took off running the moment Reborn and training were uttered in the same sentence. "Just be sure that you don't drag the two of us into your mess. You owe me at least that much for waking me up without the required amount of sleep to rebuild my barrier."

Reborn nodded then headed off with obvious sadistic-Spartan-demon-tutor-enjoying-the-hell-out-of-torturing-his-student glinting in his eyes.

"Should we follow to make sure Gio-nii will be okay?" Tsuna asks worriedly, looking up and over his shoulder at you.

You wave the child's words away. "No way. It would be way too troublesome and Reborn might take that chance to 'train' you as well."

The small brunette shuddered. "Good point. Then can we go see the lions next?" Tsuna asked cheerfully, completely setting his big brother's wellbeing to the very back corner of his mind.


It was nearing the two hour mark, so you and Tsuna head back over to the fountain. Tsuna plays around, chasing after the birds, while you sat on the fountain edge to watch. It was peaceful and a nice break from the everyday world of attacks that you had grown used to. Then again, by the suddenly half empty zoo and sense of foreboding entangling in your stomach, perhaps you spoke too soon.

A familiar shift of movement to your right was all it took for you to dive forward and pull Tsuna into the safety of your arms. You hide your forms in a coating of mist flames and take off running to the set of bushes, hiding the child there.

"Don't come out until I come to get you alright?" You whisper hurriedly, barely waiting for the boy to nod. "And don't make a sound. Stay hidden."

You make yourself appear a distance away from the bushes, just in case, and take out your guns. It's a simple matter to take out these wannabe assassins. None of them are even close to someone of your caliber. These idiots really didn't have any choice but drop like the flies they were. Several were incapacitated with a quick flick of your wrist, which led to their arms and legs being broken, so that you could interrogate them later before sending them back to their boss as a warning. It helped that the remaining civilians had run away, so you didn't have to hold back or fight in a way that would keep you concealed.

"Drop your weapon!" You turn around to face the fountain, where one of the few remaining thugs stood, too see one of the assassins holding up Tsuna in front of him. "Drop your guns or I'll shoot this kid, and you wouldn't want to draw any civilians into this would you?"

You glare at the man, your eyes darting between him and the child as you assessed the situation. The man was holding Tsuna up to hide his head and chest, while pointing a gun at the child's head. You could always just shoot his legs, but the guy could squeeze the trigger in pain, resulting in Tsuna's death. You narrow your eyes. Well this sucked. Where the hell was that idiot when you needed him? You take a deep breath and raise your heads, guns disappearing to who knows where.

The man smirked, but didn't lower the child. "Good. Now you're going to come with us nice and quiet."

A couple of thugs come up hesitantly and bind your hands. You can tell that they fear you, but that fear stems from your recent display of abilities and not your reputation. None of them have any clue as to who you are, and are just taking you captive as a precaution. However, they also don't know who the child they are kidnapping is either. This confuses you because why else would they be here? Giotto and Reborn weren't nearby, otherwise you wouldn't be stuck in this position right now, so who were they trying to kill?

You're tempted to sigh again. This was such a pain. And this is exactly why you hate 'family' outings.


Oh dear! What ever shall happen! You'll find out pretty soon actually.

Reviews are lovely!