A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed! They really meant a lot to me! I hope you guys like cracky humor, because I swear half of this chapter is. This chapter is based on the pole knocking chapters that can only be found in the manga, so those of you who read and only have watched the anime, you'll be slightly confused. I don't know why the anime didn't air these chapters, but since the show was changed a bit to make it more, 'child friendly' I guess it was the violence in the pole knocking chapters that caused them to not be aired. Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter from Gokudera's POV.

Also, I should note that I had to make a change in the manga version, because the anime version beat the manga in giving the boys a classroom assignment. I don't know why, but in the anime, the boys are in class C, and in the manga, they're in class A. Since I already wrote the boys being in class C, I had to change the translation of the manga and some little scenarios around.

Another thing before we begin; it was brought to my attention that Hibari's eye color wasn't right in the last chapter. I looked at the pictures I have of him again and found out that I wasn't exactly correct in judging the color. I still believe that his eyes can look violet depending on the light, but his eyes, to me, look more blue-violet, or indigo now that I look again. So, from now on, I'm going to refer to Hibari's eye color as blue-violet, with maybe some variation depending on what lighting he's in. I noticed that as I did some more research on the color of Hibari's eyes that the color varies greatly depending on who the person is. Every wiki page I found on him varied his eye color from black, to grey, to blue, to purple, and it doesn't help that Hibari's squinting his eyes all the time, too, and making it difficult for us XD So, hopefully, if you guys care about the color of his eyes, you won't mind my interpretation of them. I seriously believe now that the eye color is up to interpretation based upon what screenshots, art, or media you watch Hibari in, and how your own eyes depict the colors you're seeing. I know quite a few people that think that Yamamoto's hair is actually brown instead of black, so, to each their own.

The only warnings I have for this chapter is that Gokudera swears like a sailor XD This is the edited version so I want to thank GStorm59 for putting in so much effort to get this done for me before the holidays =3

Pole Knocking

It was the second week in September, and the fall season was slowly looming upon us. It was because of that fact that Namimori Middle School was in high spirits. It just so happened that the last sports festival of the year would be taking place this weekend. This was not how I wanted to spend my birthday…

That's right, my birthday was just around the corner and I would be 14 years old pretty soon. I wasn't too happy (actually, I was downright fucking irritated) that I would be spending it with over-pumped sports jocks as they battled things out in order to win completely pointless events, but it wasn't like I was going to do anything special for my birthday anyway. I didn't want to bring it up, because I didn't want to seem like I was begging for special treatment or attention, I didn't want to bother the Tenth (since he was already scared out of his mind for the sports festival), and I had a feeling that Yamamoto would become more irritating than usual if he heard.

Thus, here I was walking down the hallway after school beside the Tenth (with Yamamoto tagging along like a fucking leech, of course), completely silent about my useless birthday to come. That didn't hide the annoyance I felt, though, because not only was the stupid sports festival interrupting my birthday, but it was also interrupting my day to day activities. All the classes were joining together to decorate the school and practice for the events, and there tended to be after class meetings. That's where the Tenth and I (and Yama-stupid-moto) were heading now.

The whole school was divided into three teams, with the first, second and third years of each letter class making them up. Since we were in class 1-C, we were teamed up with classes 2-C and 3-C into one, huge C Team. Each team had a representative from one of the classes that would best represent their team, and that representative was usually designated the leader in special team events. Of course, that's what I had learned over the course of the week from these dreadful meetings. I really wasn't looking forward to another annoying team conference, especially whenever I saw our meeting room door.

Speaking of the atrocious piece of boarded wood, I was in front of it now with the Tenth. Huge signs were taped all over the door. One just contained the capital letter, 'C' over the door's window, while there was another one taped diagonally across the door. That one said, "Team C's hasty meeting," and there were two more under that saying, "Team C Only!" and "The entrance of anyone besides the C Team is forbidden!"

I just rolled my eyes at the stupid signs and opened the door for the Tenth, quickly cutting in-between him and Yamamoto after that, so that the stupid jock wouldn't think I was being courteous to him as well.

When we entered the room, most of the students from the other classes were already seated. The room was set up like a typical college lecture hall, with the floor slanting downwards from the top of the room to the bottom in the form of steps. There were long, full-bodied, wooden desks placed upon these steps on the left and right side of the room with chairs behind them. I had always guessed that this room was used for higher level classes or for debates among the student council or faculty members.

As the three of us took our seats (I sat between the Tenth and Yamamoto; my boss to my right and the idiot to my left), I remembered that this was the first time the Tenth had been to one of these meetings. Several instances had occurred where he got hurt while helping to decorate the school, which caused him to miss them.

Well, the Tenth was definitely in for a surprise, because he didn't know who the team representative was. As soon as the person in question entered the room and walked up to the desk in front of the class, I could see how the Tenth's eyes widened exponentially in surprise. Yeah, that's probably how I looked when I noticed who our representative was the first time, too, but I probably had more disgust on my face.

"Extreme will to win!" Sasagawa-san's demented older brother screamed at the top of his lungs from the desk as he pumped his fists, effectively hurting my ears and causing my growing headache to worsen. Fuck…

When the loud-ass jock was done having his screaming aneurism, he lowered his voice to a loud shout and continued to talk to the team.

"This will be the slogan of Team C for the sports festival tomorrow!" Sasagawa-san's brother stated as he slammed his hands down onto the desk for unneeded dramatic emphasis. "Unless we win, everything is meaningless!"

As most of the C classmates cheered, I glanced towards the Tenth out of boredom to see a look of understanding dawn on his face.

"I see, so Kyoko-chan's brother is in the same letter class as us, and that's why he's here now," my boss mumbled to himself as he gave a slightly annoyed sigh afterwards. "Like always, he's so passionate…"

At the end of those words, it seemed like the Tenth realized something else, so he quickly swiveled his head around and scanned the room until his eyes fell upon a certain Sasagawa Kyoko. I smiled softly to myself as I watched my boss silently fawn over the honey-brunette girl. He really was fond of her, wasn't he?

That smile turned into one of annoyance the next second, though, when Sasagawa-san's stupid brother started shouting a fighting mantra and the rest of the team started joining in.

Leaning back in my chair then with a scowl on my face, I also leaned to the right so that I wouldn't crowd the Tenth. Sadly, that meant I was leaning pretty close to Yamamoto, and the knee that I had brought up was almost touching his arm. I scowled even more at our close proximity, hoping that the idiot had had the decency to bathe recently.

"That boxing freak is so annoying," I muttered in irritation as I appreciated the fact that I could smell soap coming off of Yamamoto and not some disgusting body odor.

After my little comment was said, though, I heard the Tenth scream, "Wha?!" in astonishment, as Yamamoto sent me a sheepish look out of the corner of my eye and muttered a jokingly light, "Oh, come on."

I don't know why they were reacting so negatively to my comment (okay, Yamamoto's was more modest then negative, but still), so I continued to complain, hoping they'd see reason and agree with me.

"Can't he speak with a normal tone?" I asked with a slight whine as I rubbed my temples to try and ease the pain of my on-coming headache. "Damn it…"

All I got in response, though, was a strained smile from Yamamoto, and a freaked out look from the Tenth. I don't know why the Tenth was so worried about me complaining so loudly, because I sure as hell didn't care if the boxing bastard heard me!

Speaking of the incompetent jock (well, all jocks were incompetent, but that's beside the point), I just realized that he was always wearing a white bandage over his nose. It was probably because he was always getting punched in the face for his sport. If that was the case, I was surprised that his face wasn't more deformed…although…now that I looked a little closer, I could see a long scar going diagonally across the edge of his left eyebrow…

"The pole knocking competition is the key to winning this year, once again," Sasagawa-san's brother spoke up again in a more indoor-like voice (I was actually surprised that he could achieve such a low decibel).

Confused as to what he was referring to, I turned my head towards the Tenth and asked him, "Pole knocking?" in a questioning tone.

"I heard it's where our class representative climbs onto a long pole and battles against the other classes. Only the guys in the classes participate" the Tenth quickly explained while the boxing freak rambled about something else. "The last leader to still be sitting on top of the pole is the winner, while the ones that get knocked off are disqualified. It's really scary, but we first years are just there to assist the second and third years, who have more strength."

Cocking an eyebrow at this explanation, I wondered if there was some merit to this sports festival after all. Pole knocking sounded like unconditional violence, and animalistic in a sense, so maybe that wouldn't be too bad. There was nothing more refreshing then beating the living shit out of someone and throwing them off the top of a pole.

"…It's been a tradition that the team's representative is the leader of the pole knocking competition," I overheard the boxing freak say as I tuned in again, "which means that I should be doing it…"

There was a short pause then as the whole class waited on baited breathe for the boxing freak's delivery. It was a second later that Sasagawa-san's brother finished his sentence as he pumped one of his fists and screamed in our faces.

"…but I will resign!"

Gasps and incredulous cries filled the room then as the whole of Team C were thrown into confusion. I wasn't reacting like the rest of the class, but I was still curious as to what brought this decision on.

It was only a moment later that I received my answer.

"Rather than being the leader," the screaming boxing captain explained as a look of dead seriousness overcame him, "I want to battle as a soldier!"

Grumbles and irritated looks were the loud-mouthed jock's answer. I was one of those people as well, and I couldn't help but feel how selfish Sasagawa-san's brother was being. He seemed to be too…extreme…of a guy (holy shit, I had just used the bastard's catch phrase!) to be afraid of being the leader for the pole knocking competition, so that was the only explanation. He just wanted to be the one to do the punching, like the fist-pumping junky he was.

I saw Sasagawa-san's brother calm down slightly the next moment as he bowed his head and placed his hands back on the desk; leaning into them.

"There is nothing to worry about, Team," the Boxing Club Captain addressed us. "I've prepared someone else who is better than me to be the leader."

I sighed then as the loud-mouthed jock's words sent the team into more confusion. I overheard a couple cries of, "Eh?!" (one of them being from the Tenth), and some fat guy down in front mutter, "A guy who is better than Sasagawa to be the leader?".

Sadly, I had to admit that I was a bit curious as to who the dumbass was handing off his title to. It made sense if it was another jock, since this was a sports festival after all, but I was quick to find out that wasn't the case.

In the next instant, Sasagawa-san's brother was pointing at the row I was sitting in and shouting, "Sawada Tsuna from class 1-C, you will replace me as leader!"

Resounding gasps and screams of, "What?!" echoed throughout the room as I stared at the boxing freak, flabbergasted. Had he really just designated the Tenth to be the leader?!

When I heard Yamamoto making a surprised, yet happy noise beside me, and saw him glance beyond me to send the Tenth a congratulatory smile, I realized that what I had heard hadn't been a figment of my imagination. That boxing jock had actually designated the Tenth as the leader of Team C!

"The Boxing Freak knows the greatness of the Tenth!" I exclaimed triumphantly as I leaned forward again and slammed my fist on the table in happiness. Maybe Sasagawa-san's brother wasn't as stupid as he first appeared to be. After all, he was smart enough to know that the Tenth was the perfect leader!

Right beside me, though, I overheard the Tenth cry out, "Wha?! Eh?! Why?!", and when I turned my attention towards him, I could see that he was frozen in fear, his eyes wide with disbelief. The Tenth was so modest! He was afraid to become the leader in fear he wouldn't live up to everyone's expectations. What a great guy!

Sasagawa-san's brother broke me out of my thoughts the next moment, though, as he raised his hand high and shouted, "Those who agree, raise your hand! We'll decide by majority vote!"

Alright, so we were doing things properly to make it a team effort then? I eagerly raised my hand to inaugurate the Tenth into the leadership position, not really caring about the team, but knowing the Tenth would do a spectacular job as always (and it might make the sports festival actually worthwhile). To my irritation, though, it seemed that the rest of the class didn't agree with me. As I glanced around, I could only see Sasagawa-san's (Kurokawa was begrudgingly raising her hand beside her, and probably only doing it because of her friendship with Sasagawa-san; that bitch!), her brother's, Yamamoto's, and my hands up for the Tenth, but the rest of the team was grumbling and groaning about the idea.

"It's an impossible position for a first year to fill…" a second year student grumbled in the front as the fat kid from earlier out right stated that he refused to vote for the Tenth!

As I contemplated if marshmallow stuffing would fly everywhere if I stuffed some lit dynamite down the fat-asses throat, some whiny bitch in the second row complained, "We don't want to lose…" and then some buck-toothed weirdo on the opposite side of the room snickered out, "You're kidding right?"

I was beyond enraged by the complete lack of respect they were showing the Tenth, but when I glanced to the side, I could see that my boss was sighing in relief at the protests. This wouldn't do. The Tenth had to see what he was capable of, and train the best way he could in order to become the next Vongola leader. If he let his fears and the words of other's bring him down, then our training up till now would be for nothing! As the Tenth's right-hand man, I wouldn't allow it!

It seemed that, for once, Sasagawa-san's brother and I were on the same page, because his face contorted in anger and his eyes burned with a passionate fire as he commanded the class, "Raise your hands!"

Che! If that crazy jock was going to try to get his way through fear, he would have to do better than that! Wanting to help the Tenth out and show Sasagawa-san's brother how to rightfully scare people into submission, I abruptly stood up from my chair, turned around, and slammed one of my feet down on the long desk behind me.

Leaning against my suspended knee, I continued to hold my right hand high as I glared menacingly at the students behind me.

"There's no one in our class that's going to refuse, right?" I growled out dangerously as I heard Yamamoto protest quietly about my actions.

"HeyGokudera..." The Baseball Freak whispered out in a slightly scolding tone that I did my best to ignore. Where was this fucker getting off on scolding me?! Sasagawa-san's brother was doing it too!

Yamamoto's annoyance with me (…I'm actually a little surprised now that he was acting in a way that wasn't…stupidly happy…) was in vain, though, because with the fear the team was feeling now, more than half the students were raising their hands. Even the crazy girls, who had started up a fanclub about me (Ugh…that was beyond creepy…), were squealing and jumping up and down as they raised their hands. I sent a major death glare their way to warn them about staying away from me, but they just squealed in a higher octave and one of them even fainted! What the fuck was wrong with those girls?!

Slightly disturbed now, I just sat down in my seat as Sasagawa-san's brother dropped his hand and announced, "It's decided then! The leader of the pole knocking competition is Sawada Tsuna!"

"What?! No way!" I heard the Tenth scream beside me in fright. "What do you mean?!"

A little disappointed that I had misinterpreted the boxing jock's intentions (I thought he was handing over his whole leadership position), but still glad that the Tenth would be able to show off his strength (despite how worried he was at the moment. I'm sure he'd get over it), I turned to the Tenth with a huge smile on my face.

"Impressive, Tenth!" I exclaimed as I shook one of my fists in victory.

"Wow, Tsuna, you're going to be the first ever first year to be the leader of the pole knocking event!" Yamamoto laughed out happily beside me, his seeming annoyance with me gone for the moment. How was it that this stupid jock had scolded me for scaring everyone into agreeing, yet he was happy that the Tenth got the position anyway? Yamamoto made no freaking sense!

Trying to ignore my growing annoyance, I noticed how horrorstruck the Tenth seemed to be then as he stared blankly towards the front of the room, his eyes practically rolling into the back of his head as he looked about ready to faint.

Before I could ask him if he was alright, or if he needed to go to the nurse's office, a new voice made an appearance right next to us.

"That scared me," the young, nasally voice of the newcomer spoke up.

When I looked slightly to the left, I noticed then that Reborn-san was there standing on the desk in front of the Tenth, but he wasn't wearing his normal mafia gear. Instead, he was wearing a miniature version of the Namimori Middle School spring uniform. The tiny hit-man's hands were stuffed into his pockets, and he was sort of slouching like he was a cool kid or something, but what caught my attention the most was his crazy hair. His hair was a pitch black and spikier then the Tenth's and Yamamoto's combined; not to mention it was thicker than both of theirs' too. If I thought about it, the height/length of Reborn-san's hair was taller than his body.

"That's so unnatural!" The Tenth screamed once he noticed Reborn-san too, but I wasn't sure if he was referring to Reborn-san's outfit, or his crazy hair.

The tiny hit-man didn't seem to care that the Tenth was freaking out over him, because he just glanced mine and Yamamoto's way and uttered a, "Ciaossu."

Before I could ask him if he had really been scared earlier (I'm guessing he had said that to try and fit in with the scared students around him), Reborn-san turned his attention towards the Tenth.

"When you talk about the leader, that has to be the boss," Reborn-san stated knowledgeably as he pointedly stared at the Tenth, his next words coming out as a threat. "If you don't win, I'll kill you."

Seeing how serious the Tenth's mentor was, I knew that I would have to give my all to try and make the Tenth succeed in winning the pole knocking competition!

I don't think the Tenth took it seriously, though, because he quickly agreed to the proposition (instead of crying in fear like he usually did), and put his hands on Reborn-san's head to try to push him down.

"Okay, just hide!" The Tenth whined in worry and embarrassment as he tried to get Reborn-san to do as he asked before people around us started to ask questions on which class the midget was supposed to be in. "You're not supposed to appear in front of everyone…"

But just as the Tenth pushed one final time, Reborn-san really did disappear. Feeling just as confused as the Tenth did in that moment, I saw my boss lift his hands to see Reborn-san flattened against the desktop like a pancake!

"A dummy?!" The Tenth shouted incredulously as I gawked at the image before me. How in the world did Reborn-san make a realistic, inflatable dummy talk and move without help?! Was I missing something?!

Just as I thought this, though, a hole popped open in the inflatable dummy, sending whatever was left for air out, and making the dummy fly up over the students' seats. As the students stared in confusion and awe at the spiraling flap of rubber hissing through the air, the Tenth and I could only gawk at the spectacle, not sure on what to believe.

Something told me that this was a premonition for the rest of the day's events.


When the crazy meeting was over and done with, our team left to sign up for the events we'd be taking place in tomorrow. Everyone was required to at least sign up for one event, but the boys had to at least sign up for two, because of the required pole knocking competition. Since I didn't want anything to do with the sports festival to begin with, I just signed the Tenth and I up for a three-legged race. I smiled at the thought, as I wrote our names down, because I would be able to show the Tenth just how much he could depend on me!

After I did this, though, I saw that Sasagawa-san's brother was forcing the Tenth to take on more events then what my boss wanted. The white-haired kid was shouting about how the Tenth should show off his strength by being in more competitions, but I couldn't stand how he was forcing the Tenth into something (even though I agreed that the Tenth should showcase his power to the other teams). When I went over there to shout at the boxing freak for forcing such things on the Tenth, I was able to narrow my boss down to two competitions (the 100m race, and the pogo stick race) instead of the ten the fucking crazy-ass jock was throwing at him.

As Sasagawa-san's brother walked away from us then, I heard the Tenth sigh out in relief and thank me for my intervention. Smiling proudly for my good work, I chuckled easily and rubbed the back of my head, but when I heard my boss ask what events I had signed up for in the next instant, my laughter immediately died to be replaced by fear. I had completely forgotten to ask the Tenth about doing the three-legged race with me!

Stuttering like an idiot, I was lost between actually lying to my boss (which was horrible to do, by the way), or actually tell him what I had done. But, if I told him the truth, he'd see me as no better than that retarded boxing freak!

To make my situation even worse then, I heard Yamamoto come up behind me, laughing like an idiot.

"Haha, I saw you signing up for the three-legged race, Gokudera!" The most fucking annoying bastard on the planet chuckled out playfully as he gave me an inquisitive look. "So, are you racing with Tsuna then?"

"Ah, no!" My boss immediately answered with a sort of flustered look. "Gokudera didn't ask me at all about that, so he couldn't have. Besides, he helped me convince Kyoko-chan's brother to limit the number of competitions I'm in, thank goodness."

The Tenth looked so tired then and thankful, that I couldn't bring myself to tell him the complete truth. It didn't help that he practically made it impossible for me to ruin the great impression I had made.

"Oh?" Yamamoto hummed in confusion. "So, if he didn't sign up with you then who did he sign up with?"

As both of their eyes fell on me, my mind started working in desperation. Before I could figure out what I was going to say, the words just shot out of my mouth before I could stop and think about them.

"I s-signed myself up with Yamamoto!"

There was an awkward silence after that as the Tenth and Yamamoto stared at me like I had just gone insane. I actually felt like I had in that moment, because how else could I have fucking come up with that idea?!

The awkwardness that surrounded the three of us dissipated the next instant, thankfully, when Yamamoto laughed happily.

"Haha! Well that's a surprise! Were you too embarrassed to ask me?"

I stared at the stupid jock like he had just asked me over to a slumber party at his house.

"No fucking way!" I screamed at him in outrage, my body seething with anger from my embarrassment. What did the Tenth think of me now? Yamamoto made me sound like I was inconsiderate for not asking. Hell, he even made me sound like I was one of his obsessed fan-girls! "I just signed you up because I had no other option to! I wanted to show the Tenth that I'm a good right-hand man by cooperating with an idiot like you!"

Yamamoto just laughed like I had said the funniest thing in the universe, which only made me want to kill him all the more! Before I could suffer any more embarrassment, I muttered something about signing up for more competitions and disappeared into the sea of students towards the sign up area again. I hated what I had to do next, but it was necessary now that I replace the Tenth's name with Yamamoto's for that race. I didn't need the Tenth to find out that I had lied to him twice (I hadn't meant too!).

After cutting in line and threatening some people, I was finally able to rewrite my teammate's name. My stomach turned in nausea as I finished writing the kanji for Yamamoto's name beside mine. Holy shit, this was going to be the worst birthday I had ever had! That was saying something, since I had lived on the streets for most of my life or spent my birthdays with Dr. Shamal!

No…it would be my second worse, now that I thought about it. Nothing could top my third birthday…Nothing.

Clenching my hands into fists as I bit my bottom lip, I tried to suppress the intense anger I felt then as I walked away from the sign up area. No matter what I did, the memories always seemed to resurface and remind me of the reason why I had run away from home in the first place.

"Haha, so are you done changing Tsuna's name to mine?" The annoying voice of Yamamoto broke me out of my thoughts the next instant, causing me to freeze up and push my dark memories to the back of my mind again. What the fuck did he mean—?

—No…fucking…way!

"You knew what I had done all along?!" I shouted at the overly tall jock in an incredulous fashion. How had he known?!

"Yep!" He bluntly answered with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face, his eyes shining with what looked to be amusement. "I figured that out when you blurted out my name. Haha!"

Something in my brain snapped then. Yamamoto had known my plight, yet he hadn't played along to save my ass in order to cover up my mistake to the Tenth. No, instead, he purposefully made the situation worse for his own fucking amusement!

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" I screamed as I quickly brought out four sticks of dynamite in each hand, my anger so mind consuming that I completely forgot that I didn't have a cigarette in my mouth to light them.

"Now, now, Gokudera, it turned out alright in the end, didn't it?" The Baseball Freak muttered as he brought his hands up in a placating manner. "I didn't expect you to say that you teamed up with me, though! I seriously didn't know how you were going to react, haha! I really thought you signed up with Tsuna first!"

My eyes twitched at that. So that bastard had just wanted to make a fool of me in front of the Tenth in every possible way?! Screw the three-legged race! My birthday present would be Yamamoto's untimely demise!

Yamamoto must have had a freaking guardian angel, because before I could effectively kill him for being a douchebag, Sasagawa-san's brother ran up to us using his usual, loud, indoor voice.

"Hey guys, have you seen Sawada around?" Annoying jock number 2 asked as he stopped before us with a look of excitement on his face.

"What the fuck do you want with the Tenth now?!" I shouted at him in irritation, my dynamite still held between my fingers since I didn't plan on putting them away soon (I still needed to kill Stupidmoto). "Haven't you annoyed him enough today?!"

"You extremely need to chill out…" the boxing club captain told me in a serious tone, like a doctor would use when he was informing a patient of a serious illness. "I've noticed you're always screaming about something. You know, that's a sign of extremely high blood pressure. You should get that checked out…"

"I don't want to hear that from you, you fucking hypocrite!" I screamed in absolute rage to the point that I was surprised I wasn't salivating at the mouth like a rabid dog, and wanting to rip the two jocks beside me to shreds with my bare teeth. What the fuck did I do to deserve this torture?!

"Hey! I'm extremely not a hippo!" Sasagawa-san's brother shouted back angrily at me as he shook one of his fists in my face. This stupid idiot had completely missed what I had actually said!

"Haha! Now, now, let's calm down," Yamamoto spoke up in a soothing tone as he tried to be the peacemaker. "Gokudera didn't call you a hippo, Senpai; you just misheard. And Gokudera doesn't need to see a doctor—"

I felt a glimmer of appreciation for Yamamoto's words that I almost calmed down enough to reconsider killing the idiot. Of course, I thought this too soon.

"—he just needs to drink more calcium!"

Fuck you Yamamoto! Why were you bringing that up again?! What is with your obsession with me drinking milk?!

"Now what did you want Tsuna for?" Yamamoto continued as he asked the retarded boxer with a big smile on his face.

Seeing the older teen visibly calm with Yamamoto's words, I just continued to glare at the two banes of my existence with my dynamite ready to throw (even though they weren't lit, they could still hurt if I threw them hard enough). I just wanted this stupid conversation to be over with so that I could continue on my quest to kill.

"Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to Sawada about doing some after school training!" Sasagawa-san's brother exclaimed as his prior excitement relit. "Master PaoPao, told me that we should do it!"

I just stared at the white-haired boxer like he had taken too many punches to the head (he probably had). Who the hell was Master PaoPao?

As if to answer my question, a little man popped up out of nowhere and jumped onto the annoying boxer's shoulder. The little man was wearing red boxing shorts, black boxing boots, dark blue boxing gloves, and a weird, light blue elephant hat. As I stared at the weird get-up, I finally recognized the silly-looking man. He was that guy that had showed up at the boxing club when we were watching the Tenth fight Sasagawa-san's brother!

"Pao~n!" The tiny man called out in greeting as he pumped one of his gloved fists in the air. "I think you guys should train for the pole knocking competition down by the river. Better practice means better chance at victory!"

"You're so right, Master PaoPao!" Sasagawa-san's brother shouted in passion as he brought his fists up to his chest and clenched them in determination. "Extreme practice makes a better man! Victory will be ours!"

Ugh…I felt a headache coming on…

"Haha! That's true!" Yamamoto called out in his usual, jovial fashion. "But if we're going to practice with Tsuna, we'll probably have to head to his house. I think he already went home."

"Ah, okay!" The boxing club captain nodded in understanding, seemingly coming down from his blood-pumping high. "I'll meet you guys over there then. The school won't allow me to use their pole knocking equipment off school grounds, but I have a spare pole we can use at my house!"

What the fuck?! Why the hell did this crazy boxer have a pole knocking pole at his house?! He couldn't do anything with it unless he had people to support the pole, right?

Before I could ask this question, Sasagawa-san's brother and Master PaoPao were off and heading towards his house.

Sighing to myself in complete exhaustion, I just placed my dynamite sticks back from where I had gotten them. I had no more energy to kill. Who would have thought that stupidity could drain you?

"You know, you shouldn't have told him that the Tenth went home," I mumbled out tiredly as I gave Yamamoto a sideways glance. "We have no idea if he actually went back or not."

"Yeah, but it's our best guess, right?" Yamamoto stated simply with a shrug, an excited smile lighting up his face. "But this situation is good! We can prepare ourselves for the competition tomorrow, and it will help boost Tsuna's confidence. He was pretty scared about being nominated as the leader, you know?"

"Che!" I scoffed in return, although I found myself agreeing to the other's points. "The Tenth is just worrying over nothing! He'll show everyone how amazingly strong he is tomorrow—but training doesn't hurt, I guess. We're going to have to support the pole and defend it at the same time, right?"

I actually smirked as these last words left my lips. This was actually starting to get pretty interesting. If what I heard about the competition was correct, the swarms of students from the other two teams were going to be trying to get through our team and to the pole. This meant that the people supporting the pole had the most important job of keeping it balanced, and protecting it from the blood-hungry students who tried to climb it. The thought of actually getting into another battle was kind of exciting at the moment.

As Yamamoto laughed and confirmed my question, we both set off to look for the Tenth.


After convincing Yamamoto that the competent thing to do was to actually check the school grounds to see if the Tenth was still there, we did as I had suggested. When we came back and reported that were no sightings of him, we started heading towards the Tenth's house…together….

My irritation knew no bounds by this point in time. I wanted nothing more than to separate from the stupid-ass jock and find the Tenth on my own, but I knew such a thought wasn't practical. Yamamoto and I had the same goal in mind, and we'd be training together later for the pole knocking competition anyway, so there was no point in going our separate ways. Still, even though that was the case, my toleration levels were reaching an all-time low. I swear if he fucking laughed one more time and worsened the headache I already had from today's colorful events, I was going to strangle him and hide his body.

"You seem a little crankier than usual, Gokudera," Yamamoto commented in concern as I saw him glance my way out of the corner of my eye. "Are you sure you're drinking enough calcium?"

…Screw my last thought! I was just going to kill him now!

"What am I, a fucking baby?!" I screamed at him as we continued walking towards the Tenth's house. "You might be surprised, but the world's answers for everything aren't baseball and milk! I know that might be hard to comprehend for you, since that's all your idiotic-mind can comprehend, but this is the real world! Take fault for your own actions you bastard!"

I let out an aggravated huff as I stomped forward, not wanting to look at the imbecile walking behind me, who had been the cause of most (okay, more like half) of my stress throughout the day. I was glad for the short silence that accompanied my long awaited rant, but, sadly, Yamamoto scared it away with his voice.

"So…are you still mad about screwing up the three-legged race sign up, or is this about Senpai saying you have high blood pressure?" Yamamoto questioned in the most oblivious fashion I had ever heard.

Visibly seething by his complete lack of remorse for ruining my day, it was no surprised when I turned my head in his direction and screamed, "Both of them!"

Yamamoto just stared back at me a bit perplexed before a light chuckle left his lips.

"Well, I don't know why you're angry with me about that. Wasn't it your own fault for lying to Tsuna in the first place?"

…Rage…reaching…limits….

Although Yamamoto's words rang true in my head, I refused to believe myself in the wrong. That annoying Baseball Freak had been on my nerves the whole fucking day, so it wasn't my fault that I wasn't thinking straight anymore!

Before I could completely lose myself to my murderous intent, I heard Yamamoto call out the Tenth's name.

As I faced forward, I realized that we were finally closing in on the Tenth's house, and that my boss was standing outside the gate with Reborn-san, and talking to Sasagawa-san on the sidewalk. Almost immediately, all my anger vanished to be replaced by relief and happiness. Right before me was salvation; a trip back to the land of sanity. As I ran eagerly over to my boss then, I knew that everything would be alright again, because he could do no wrong. It didn't matter that he was surrounded by a vindictive little man, his crush, and his crush's brother (he had just made his way over from the opposite direction), and it didn't matter how much I wanted to blow Yamamoto up, or shove that long pole Sasagawa-san's brother was carrying up the retarded boxer's ass and throw him in the river. All was right with the world again, because the Tenth could make it better!

"Where have you been, Tenth?" I questioned happily as I ran up beside my boss, my eagerness to please, and to get away from the stupid jocks surrounding me, increasing with every second.

The Tenth just stared at me in disbelief and continuously glanced between me and Yamamoto.

"I can understand why Kyoko-chan's big brother is here," my boss started out in a frazzled tone, "but why are you guys here?!"

"We were invited to train for the pole knocking competition," Yamamoto answered as he stepped up beside me.

"Yeah," I butted-in swiftly after that, trying to keep the Tenth's attention on me: the better right-hand man! "I thought it was a good idea to win tomorrow."

To my surprise, the Tenth seemed terrified by my reply, because he turned towards Sasagawa-san's brother and screamed, "What?!"

The boxing club idiot wasn't fazed by my boss' reaction, and simply stated, "I didn't really invite them; the old man did."

"…Old man?" The Tenth questioned in complete confusion, not seeming to understand what old man would be involved with a middle school pole knocking competition. Hell, I barely understood it…

"Yeah," Sasagawa-san's brother proclaimed as his eyes glanced up towards the long pole he was using (which towered over our heads at about 14 feet), "the Thai elder, Master PaoPao, invited them!"

As I followed the boxing freak's eyes I noticed that Master PaoPao was actually a foot above our heads, clinging to the pole. When the hell did he get there?! I hadn't seen him when we first arrived. The only little man I had seen was Reborn-san—Wait! Where did Reborn-san go?!

…What the fuck had just happened? Did I miss something?

Before I could question the craziness happening in my life at that moment, Master PaoPao broke through my thoughts with a loud greeting of, "Pao~n!"

I just glared up at the tiny man and muttered, "What a weird, old man…"

With our objective of inviting the Tenth to train now fulfilled, Sasagawa-san's brother started carrying the pole (holding it safely upright, since it was so tall it would bang into everything if he didn't) towards the river bank.

"Let's go to the riverside!" The annoying boxer called, Master PaoPao shouting out another, "Pao~n!" as he was carried away on the beam.

Shrugging to myself, I just followed behind with Yamamoto beside me again. I heard the Tenth shout, "Wait! We're seriously training?!" before I heard his footsteps dragging behind us. Glancing back, I could see my boss was slumped over in defeat as he lagged behind. Wow, he really was worried about the competition. I guess that meant we had to boost his confidence, like Yamamoto said…

…Holy shit, did I just agree with Yamamoto's advice?! Ugh…I'm forgetting that ever happened.


After falling back to walk with the Tenth the rest of the way, because I couldn't stand Yamamoto's and the Lawn Head's constant jock talk (I had come up with that nickname just recently, because his hair reminded me of mowed lawn, and because his brain power was the equivalent of grass as well), we finally made it to the river.

As we stood by the riverside, the boxing freak moved forward and set down the end of the pole, while Master PaoPao jumped off.

"Okay, climb, Sawada!" Lawn head exclaimed as he looked at the Tenth expectantly.

"Eh?!" The Tenth cried out in surprise before a deadpanned expression took over his face. "U…Um, I…can't even climb a tree…"

…Well that was going to be problematic, since trees usually had limbs or foot holds you could use to climb them. The pole that Sasagawa-san's brother was using was completely smooth, so if the Tenth couldn't even climb a tree, how could he climb a bare 14 foot pole?!

"Then let's start from there," Yamamoto chimed in simply as he sent a reassuring look the Tenth's way. I saw our boss visibly calm then, and I couldn't help but relax a bit too. As long as we could train with a tree nearby, we might be able to get the Tenth onto the top of the pole by the end of the night.

"Yeah, let's get this started, Tenth!" I cheered my boss on as well, because not only did I want to give him encouragement, I didn't want Yamamoto getting all the glory for cheering the Tenth up!

Whatever positive mood I was in for those few short seconds immediately disappeared the next instant, though, when Lawn Head decided to add his own voice to the mix.

"Don't be so easy on yourself! It's all about the spirit!" Lawn Head shouted in rage, his eyes lighting up like intense fires of determination as he held the pole upright. "Climb up with your spirit, Sawada!"

I…I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Not only had the retarded boxing jock said something that was completely and utterly stupid, he had yelled at the Tenth in an uncalled for manner!

"You bastard," I growled out menacingly, completely sick of the white-haired idiot's stupidity as I stalked my way up to Sasagawa-san's brother. "If another crazy word leaves your damn mouth, Lawn Head, I swear I'll beat the crap out of you…"

Lawn Head just blinked at my threat before a smirk came over his face, his eyes shining with acceptance.

"Do it if you can, Octopus Head," he answered back with determination, a challenge dripping in his voice as he stared at me expectantly.

O…Octo…pus…? Octopus?! Did he just compare my amazingly sexy and unique hair (I did not base it off Shamal's, damn it!) to a fucking deformed tentacle fish?! That's it! I've fucking had it with these damn jocks!

"I'll kill you!" I screamed bloody murder as I lunged at the annoying bastard, but, to my surprise, I felt two arms come up and over my shoulders to hold me in place. I didn't let that stop me, though. Growling like a caged animal, and trying to squirm my way free so that I could finally kill Sasagawa-san's brother and make the world a better place, I heard the Tenth shouting at me to stop and nervous laughter by my head.

Fucking shit! Yamamoto was the one holding onto me! Let go of me you dick, because you're fucking next!

While I sporadically tried to break free from, 'Yamamoto prison', I heard Master PaoPao shout, "I agree with Sasagawa," before I heard a resounding shot. Stiffening in surprise from the sound, I glanced behind me to see the Tenth fall onto the ground with a dead look in his eyes.

It was only a second later that a familiar, light-orange flame appeared on the Tenth's head, and my boss was jumping to his feet and ripping his clothes off. What the hell? When did Master PaoPao get a Dying Will Bullet? Was he connected to Reborn-san in some way?

"Climb as if I were to die!" The Tenth let out in a mighty roar, which affectively interrupted any thoughts I had previously. At least this way, the Tenth was more likely to succeed in his training instead of wasting time…

As I thought this, the Tenth ran towards the pole Lawn Head was holding and started bounding up it. With a few cries of, 'Hup!' he made his way up the pole and shouted, "Climbed it!" as soon as he landed on the platform on top.

Seeing the pole lean sideways from the Tenth's weight, and realizing that Lawn Head couldn't hold the pole by himself, Yamamoto and I rushed forward and put our weights against the beam. Sighing in relief then, I noticed how all of us looked up in awe as the Tenth balanced easily on top of the platform 14 feet above the ground.

"I knew he could do it," Lawn Head commented with a confident grin.

"Good job, Tsuna!" Yamamoto chimed in after that with a supporting smile.

"Impressive, Tenth!" I shouted out then in excitement, completely amazed by my boss' skills.

It was then that I saw Sasagawa-san's brother give me a pointed look out of the corner of my eye.

"See, that's climbing with the spirit."

I just growled out in irritation and looked away from the exhausting boxer. I had to support the pole, so getting into a fight would put the Tenth in danger, and no good right-hand man would ever let that happen!

Feeling that my stress levels had reached beyond their normal peak, I just gave a, "humph!" to Lawn Head's statement, reached into my pants pocket with one of my hands, and brought out a cigarette. Making sure to keep my one hand steadily on the pole in order to support it, I placed the cigarette into my mouth, and then reached into my other pants pocket for my lighter. Just as I found the said lighter, brought it up to my cigarette, and promptly flicked it on, a hand shot out to slap both the lighter and the cigarette away from my mouth.

"Quite that!" Lawn Head practically screamed in my ear as I saw my cigarette and lighter fall to the ground by my feet. I stared down at them in disbelief for a second, feeling the hand that had been slapped ache from the force it had been hit with. When I brought my head back up, and my hurt fist was shaking with anger, my eyes were narrowed into slits.

"You…" I murmured in a dangerously low tone as I glared menacingly in Lawn Head's direction. "What the hell are you doing?"

The stupid boxer's response was just as quick and loud as his slap had been as he brought one of his fists up to his chest in a form of statement.

"Your cigarette can be a threat to my health!" The older teen shouted in my face, his eyes wild as his features contorted in anger.

"Hahaha…" I heard Yamamoto laugh out nervously then as he held onto the pole between Lawn Head and I, trying to speak peacefully and calmly. "…Sasagawa's bro is a funny guy…"

There was nothing funny about this situation! I really wanted to scream that, but I found that the rage I felt then was keeping me from doing so. It was a dangerously calm rage I was feeling then, the one I would usually feel before an assassination. I was dead fucking tired of being around these people to the point I really couldn't stand it anymore (Tenth not included, of course!). Not only were they as annoying as shit, now they had tried to stop me from the only way I could relax myself. Well, fuck that!

"Dammit," I growled out mainly to myself in a shaky, aggravated voice as my hands twitched beside me, ready to jump into action. "There was that disciplinary jerk from last time, and now everyone is taking out my cigarette…"

Just the reminder of my horrible loss against that black-haired delinquent sent me over the edge then. I was going to fucking kill someone, and I was going to do it now!

"Argh! I can't hold back!" I screamed out in furry as I quickly swiped my lighter off of the grass and brought my other hand into the pocket containing the cigarettes. "I'm going to beat the living shit out of you!"

And with that, just to mock the stupid fucker that had been annoying me more than Yamamoto (which was a shocker by the way. Only a few could accomplish that), I placed five cigarettes in my mouth and lit them all with one swipe. As I placed my lighter in my pants pocket, my hands swiftly roamed around my person until four dynamite sticks were held within each of them.

Jumping back from the pole, I sent Lawn Head the deadliest glare I could manage as I readied myself for battle. I wasn't surprised when the boxing captain stepped back from the pole as well and got into a boxing stance, his fists positioned right below his face.

"Funny," Lawn Head smirked as he returned my challenge with a confident air, "my blood's actually boiling."

As we stared each other down, looking for any openings in our opponent's defenses, I saw Yamamoto struggle in holding the pole by himself, but couldn't bring myself to care at the moment.

"Come on guys, you're supposed to be helping me support this!" The Baseball Freak exclaimed in worry and, surprisingly, irritation, as the pole wobbled a bit in his grasp. As long as he continued to hold it upright, I wasn't too worried. All that concerned me at that moment was wiping an insignificant speck from the face of the planet.

Since I didn't know how well Lawn Head could dodge against dynamite, and since I couldn't wait any longer, I was the one that made the first move. With a shout of, "Double Bomb!", I threw my handfuls of dynamite towards the awaiting boxer, the air soon illuminated by clouds of fire and smoke as they exploded.

I watched the smoky residue around me for any signs of life, and barely dodged a right hook to my face. Jumping back a couple of spaces, I readied another volley of Double Bombs, and threw them at Lawn Head, who was rushing toward me. After that, I continued to move, knowing that staying in one place would become dangerous if the other could dodge my attacks so well.

These exchanges of attacks continued for a few minutes with neither of us landing a direct hit until I saw a strange movement out of the corner of my eye. Since the constant explosions were affecting my hearing, I didn't notice how Yamamoto had jumped away from the pole when one of my dynamite sticks landed too close to him, and that the resulting explosion and lack of support had sent the Tenth careening into the river at top speed.

"Tenth!" I shouted out in worry as I rushed for the river bank. Thankfully, the water was shallow in the area we were practicing in, but the early fall weather had made the water colder than normal. It was no surprise when I saw the Tenth sitting in the shallows in complete confusion and holding himself while he shivered.

After helping the Tenth out of the river, practice was deemed over by Master PaoPao, since the Tenth didn't have a change of clothes with him; nor did we have towels to dry him off. I wanted to walk home with the Tenth, but my boss deemed it more important to run as fast as he could to his house instead, since he was indecent and extremely cold.

Saddened by the fact that I didn't even get the chance to say sorry, since my actions had mainly caused the Tenth's pain, I made my way home in dejection before Yamamoto could follow me. I wondered if the Tenth would even consider making me his right-hand man now after I had put him in danger like that. Why couldn't I control my temper?


I was walking down what seemed to be the deserted business district of some big city, and feeling uncomfortable with the constriction of the three piece suit I was wearing at the time. I didn't know why I was wearing it, but I did know that the Tenth and Yamamoto were wearing them, too.

Now that I thought about it, the three-piece suits weren't the only things that seemed out of place; the Tenth and Yamamoto seemed to be as well. They both still looked like they were in middle school, and the Tenth was walking quite a distance ahead of me on the left side of the sidewalk, while Yamamoto was walking a little bit in front of me on the right side of the sidewalk. I couldn't fathom why we were positioned like that, and why we weren't walking closer to the Tenth. He needed protection!

I tried to will my body to move closer, but it seemed that no matter what I did, I stayed in the same position as I walked behind my two classmates. Why couldn't I get closer?! I felt a little irritated then as I stared at Yamamoto. He seemed to not care that he wasn't beside the Tenth, because he was staring determinedly off to the side as he walked, like he saw something I couldn't…or maybe he didn't want to be there period? I don't know what the reason was, but what I began to realize instead was that Yamamoto seemed to be inching closer to the Tenth's position, to his right side, and I was left to walk my regular pace with the both of them leaving me behind…

I should have felt alarmed, and I should have given my all to catch up, but for some reason, I didn't, and just dejectedly bowed my head and averted my eyes to the side. Who was I kidding? What person, in their right mind, would want me beside them?

As I turned my eyes slightly upward then, I saw that Yamamoto still had his head turned to the side, but he was staring at me out of the corner of his eye in expectation. Almost immediately, I could feel my heart seize up in surprise—


—Gasping for air, I abruptly sat up in bed; the dream I just had running through my mind at a mile a minute.

As I sat there rubbing my hands through my bed-hair in aggravation, the information in the dream slowly began to fade until all I could remember were little parts and images. Just what had that dream been about?

Thinking this over, I glanced towards my alarm clock to notice that it was almost time for school to start, and that the alarm hadn't gone off…

Fuck! I forgot to set it last night!

Jumping out of bed like a fire had been set to my ass, I rushed around my crappy apartment until I was dressed for school. Not caring about a morning shower (I would be taking one later today after the stupid sports festival anyway), and seeing there was no time for a quick bite to eat (it wasn't like I had food anyway), I just started running to school. When I was halfway to the school grounds, I remembered that I had forgotten to pack a lunch and grab my money...

Double fuck! Not only did I not get to eat this morning, but I didn't have lunch or money to buy myself cafeteria food or something from the vending machines! Happy fucking birthday to me! It's not like I was going to need the nourishment today! Not at all!

By the time I arrived at the school, I was in a very sour mood. That only worsened when I went to the meeting room and Lawn Head yelled at me for almost being late. After promptly flipping him the bird, I went over to one of the student council kids who was handing out our team jerseys. I swear they chose the color and design for the stupid thing when I wasn't paying attention. It was a stupid, golden yellow color with a big, black, blocked letter C in the middle of it. This was going to be fucking horrible…

After our team headed to the locker rooms, changed into our gym clothes, and slipped our team jerseys on, we all went our separate ways to different areas of the school yard for the events we signed up for. There were bulletin boards with the event schedules scattered everywhere throughout the yard, and parents, faculty, and other students were gathering to watch the events unfold. Seeing as the Tenth and I were only signed up for running events, we made our way to the track. The 100 meter run was first, and the Tenth would be competing.

The Tenth looked like a nervous wreck, and not to mention a little sickly, as he got in line with the rest of the competitors. When the race started, I couldn't tell if it was because of his condition, or the fact that he wasn't usually athletically fit that he horribly lost. Still, even though I noticed my boss was losing, I continued to cheer him on until he reached the finish line, and I encouraged him afterwards that he'd win the next race.

Even though the Tenth didn't believe he would, he nodded to me gratefully and wished me luck in my upcoming event. I tried not to visibly blanch at the thought as I noticed some very familiar voices behind me, calling for my boss. As I turned around, I saw the Tenth's mom, the Stupid Cow, I-Pin, Reborn-san, the Stupid Woman, Haru, for some reason, and my sis…

"Gah!" I shouted out as I wrapped my arms around my stomach and turned away. Fucking hell?! What was she doing here?!

As the Tenth went over to great everyone, I just kept my back turned and hoped my stomach ache would go away soon. This was bad. If my sister was going to be here the whole day watching me, that meant I had to be very careful. If I carelessly scanned the crowd and my eyes met hers, then I would become completely useless. That's the last thing I needed; especially for the pole knocking competition.

Making my way to the track then, since that stupid three-legged race was up next, I overheard the Stupid Woman and my sister cheer me on, much to my undying hatred. As I stood around at the starting line, one half of me hoping I'd be too sick to compete, and the other half hoping Yamamoto wouldn't show up, the Tenth made his way over to me and wished me luck. I gave him my best smile and told him I wouldn't let him down, but just when I said it, I heard another voice chime in and say the same thing.

Growling in irritation, I turned towards Yamamoto and shouted at him, "Stop copying me, you Baseball Freak!"

"Haha, come on Gokudera, we're supposed to be working together. There's no need to start a fight," the retarded jock laughed out easily as he held up his hands in a placating manner.

Worry immediately seized me as I heard his words. Shit! I had told the Tenth I was doing this race with Yamamoto to show him how well I could work with others!

"Ah! I mean…what took you so long?" I laughed out nervously as I tried to speak in a friendly manner. Man, just acting friendly towards Yamamoto made me want to throw up. Hopefully, the Tenth couldn't tell I was forcing this.

As I glanced back towards the Tenth quickly, and smiled like nothing had happened, I noticed the deadpanned expression he was giving me. Quickly turning away, I faced Yamamoto again, like I actually wanted to hear what he had to say. Fuck! He was on to me!

"Haha, sorry I took a little long getting over here," Yamamoto started out with that stupid, sickening laugh of his as he rubbed the back of his head. "I was wishing some of my baseball teammates good luck for their events. How well did you do in the 100 meter, Tsuna?"

Upon hearing the despairing groan, Yamamoto just chuckled nervously and patted the Tenth's back.

"Uh…maybe in the next event, ha…ha…"

Hearing a whistle go off nearby, signaling that the racers for the next event had to start getting prepared, the Tenth just bade us good luck again and moved off towards the crowd to watch, his form slumped over in depression. I growled in irritation when I saw some of our teammates giving my boss some mean looks as he passed by them.

"Stupid assholes, they're taking this competition between the teams too seriously…" I muttered more to myself than anyone else as I crossed my arms and glared menacingly at the guys who looked at the Tenth funny.

"Yeah, I agree actually," Yamamoto answered me as he stared off after the Tenth in worry. "I'm all for winning myself, but the point of a game is to have fun with it along the way, right?"

I hated to admit that I actually agreed back, so I huffed and marched off to get the stupid band to tie our legs together. The last thing I wanted Yamamoto to think was that I was actually trying to be friends with him. This race was for image purposes only.

Once I receive the band in our team color (What was up with this fucking yellow motif? It was too happy of a color! I'm sorry, but yellow doesn't come off as menacing or imposing!), I made my way back to Yamamoto and handed the stupid band to him. I really wanted nothing to do with it.

"This is your first event, right?" The Baseball Freak asked me as he glanced between the band and me. "It's mine too. We should stretch and limber up before we tie ourselves together."

I shuddered in disdain then, but not from the thought of stretching. When Yamamoto said, 'tie ourselves together', it sounded like something completely different.

Nodding silently, I just went into the warm-up stretches we'd always do before gym class, trying to ignore the cheering of the Tenth's cheer squad, the squeals of mine and Yamamoto's fan-girls, and the rest of our teammates. I also tried to ignore how Yamamoto was rambling off about how fun this event would be, and how good of a warm up it would be before he did the 400 meter run. I was not looking forward to this at all.

Finally, the dreaded moment came, and Yamamoto and I were lined up at the starting line. After Yamamoto tied the band around our legs, and the judges made sure they were secure so they wouldn't fall off, it was almost time to start. I hated the feeling of being so close to Yamamoto. There was no such thing as a personal bubble between us now. At least I could be thankful that it was Yamamoto's first competition, so he didn't smell nauseatingly sweaty.

It was here that I noticed that the other competitors were starting to put their arms around their teammates for better stability for when they would start to move. Fuck no, I'm not doing that! I sent a knowing glare Yamamoto's way to tell him that the only physical contact between us was going to be our bound legs, and even then, I didn't even want that. The stupid jock just smiled uneasily, gave a nervous chuckle, and then muttered something about making our task a little more difficult. I personally didn't care, since I didn't want to be in this position anyway. If Yamamoto couldn't race without my body for support then that was too fucking bad. As long as we got this stupid race over with, with minimal touching, I'd be a happy guy.

…Oh wait, I was supposed to show the Tenth how well I could work with others…well fuck…Why do I keep forgetting that?

"This should be easy Gokudera," Yamamoto commented after getting over my previous glare as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "All we have to do is run in synchronization."

"Che! You make it sound so easy!" I growled at him before I waved and sent a big smile the Tenth's way, hoping that he could see I was at least trying to get through this. I still wasn't going to allow Yamamoto to touch me more than necessary, and I sure as hell wasn't going to put my arm around him for support! I was going to show the Tenth how I could work with others but that I was still strong enough to get through things on my own!

"Well, we've combi-played before, so I think we will be able to," Yamamoto answered back simply, like what he was suggesting was the easiest thing to do.

"Combi-play isn't even a word!" I shouted at him as our fan-girls started swooning on the sidelines. Seriously, what the fuck was up with them?

"And it's not like I willingly wanted to partner up with you in the first place—on both accounts!" I added as I remembered our joint fight in the reception room the other day.

I didn't know what to think next when I swore I saw a sad smile on the other teen's face. It was only there for a split second, though, before he sent me a challenging look. Maybe I had just been hallucinating?

"Alright then, I guess we'll both run and see how this goes," Yamamoto spoke up then, his voice carrying a challenging tone just like the glint behind his eyes. "How about if we win this, the one whose leg crosses the finish line first gets to be Tsuna's right-hand man?"

I stiffened automatically at those words before anger consumed me. There was no fucking way I was going to let the other best me out on his one!

"You're on!" I growled out with a sneer as I planned on tripping the bastard at the last second.

As Yamamoto nodded his head in acceptance, we both leaned forward a bit as the countdown for the race began. When we heard the bell by the judges booth ring, I pushed forward at a fast walk starting with our tied feet, Yamamoto easily keeping up with me much to my chagrin. I didn't care that this was supposed to be a teamwork event; I didn't want to give that bastard the satisfaction of taking my rightful position from me!

Sending him an annoyed glare, I picked up the pace, walking faster and passing most, if not all, of the other contestants with Yamamoto keeping up easily beside me. When I saw that smug look on his face, something snapped within my head.

"How about we make this a real race," I growled out in suggestion as I glared angrily and challengingly at him.

Yamamoto just blinked in confusion for a second as we continued to walk at our fast pace before his eyes widened in understanding. Seeing the challenge being returned by the look he gave me then, it was a second later that the both of us sprung forward in a run.

I couldn't believe how easy it was, despite our bound legs. Since we both knew that our inner arms were too close together to be of any use, they hung limply beside us as we used our outer arms to pump, our legs falling down on the pavement in perfect synchronization. I tried not to think of this, though, as I saw the finish line approaching. I wasn't going to let the other win this challenge between us!

As the finish line neared and I thought about tripping Yamamoto up, I realized that we were moving so fast that, if I tripped him, I would seriously hurt myself in turn! I knew at the beginning that tripping him in the first place would cause me to fall too, but at least, at a slow speed, I could angle my body in a way to get over the finish line first, but at the dead run we were going at, it would be suicidal!

Cursing at the top of my lungs, the both of us made it over the finish line at the exact same time (fucking synchronization!), completely leaving the other competitors in the dust.

As I stooped down and panted for breath to the cheering of the crowd, Yamamoto just laughed beside me like he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

"I told you we had good combi-play!" The annoying leech at my side chuckled out as he stooped down as well to untie our legs. "And what a coincidence, our challenge ended in a draw! I guess we'll have to keep competing, huh?"

Glancing to my side then, my eyes widened in surprise when I saw a knowing smirk being sent my way. Yamamoto had known we would tie all along, and had taken advantage of my quick anger to stop me from thinking clearly so I could take on his challenge!

All I could do was gawk at the jock in shock as he stood up with our leg band in his hand, and waved to our cheering teammates. Yamamoto, the stupid jock who couldn't pass a test to save his damn life, had tricked me…Yamamoto Takeshi had tricked me

Standing up slowly with my bangs hiding my face from view, I wanted nothing more than strangle the bastard to death, but when I realized how the Tenth was making his way over to us with a pleased smile on his face, I had to hold myself back. I shook my head to clear my thoughts then. I was still under the influence of my anger, and of the tie, so I was probably still thinking unclearly. Also, the fact that my stomach was growling from lack of nourishment meant that I had probably been hallucinating when I saw that look Yamamoto had given me. Yeah! That had to be it! Yamamoto was too stupid to plan anything out, and too stupid in general in order to do anything involving his brain! What was I thinking? Besides, if Yamamoto wanted to trick me then, what would have been the point? There was nothing to gain from tricking me into competing with him!

I inwardly laughed at myself for thinking such crazy thoughts. Yamamoto was too much of an annoyingly nice guy to want to trick someone in the first place, so I had probably just misinterpreted that look. It was as simple as that!

Pushing these thoughts to the back of my head, I just greeted the Tenth and boasted about my skills that he saw in the race.


Around mid-morning, the 400 meter run commenced. I wasn't surprised to see Yamamoto come out on top after having raced with him. I hated to admit it, but the stupid Baseball Freak was crazy fast. I knew he had to be, because how else could he always get away from my bombs? Nonetheless, when the race started, he had kept himself even with the other players, but when the last 100 meters approached, he put all of his energy into sprinting the rest of the way. Needless to say, it looked like Yamamoto hadn't even broken a sweat, while the rest of the competitors, who were mostly on the track team by the way, looked exhausted by the time they reached the finish line.

As Yamamoto pumped a fist in the air in victory, and as our teammates flocked over to him to worship the ground he walked on, I just internally gagged, rolled my eyes, and went over to the Tenth, who was getting ready for his next competition. Yet again, my boss looked nervous, but I tried to encourage him the best I could.

When the pogo stick race started, and the Tenth fell flat on his face after the first hop, I tried not to face palm and continued to cheer him on. The Tenth was really letting his nerves get to him. If he just relaxed, he should be fine, right? Either way, I continued to cheer for the Tenth with the rest of his, 'cheering squad', (I was nowhere near them, though. Like hell I was going to subject myself to the Stupid Cow, annoying Haru, and my demented sister!). I was also glad that Yamamoto was in a different track and field competition during the Tenth's race, so I wouldn't be forced to stand beside him. He probably stank to high heaven now with everything he signed up for.

It was no surprise to me when the Tenth came in last place again for his second event. This knowledge didn't surprise my boss either. I really didn't know what to think, since it looked like the Tenth hadn't really been trying to win in the first place…

Wait! That was it!

"I see, so that's how it is," I muttered mainly to myself as I made my way over to the Tenth while I placed a cigarette I had snuck into my short's pocket into my mouth, and lit it with a lighter. "Impressive, Tenth."

My boss just looked at me with surprise and confusion, "Eh?"

"You're saving your strength for the pole knocking competition!" I exclaimed happily as I winked at him. If the Tenth wanted to keep this a secret, and make the other teams believe he was weak, than I would keep that secret with me to the grave. The Tenth was so smart!

At least…that's what I was thinking before I heard someone come up behind me and scream in my fucking ear!

"You fool!" Lawn Head screamed at the top of his lungs, effectively causing my hair to fly forward from the burst of wind behind me, and for my cigarette to fall out of my mouth. Oh, and did I mention that I couldn't hear anything in my left ear now? In fact, I think it was bleeding! Holy fuck!

"Always give it your best, Sawada!" Lawn Head shouted as he moved towards the Tenth then with that imposing, extreme, aura of his. "The victory for Team C is at risk!"

That…That fucking bastard! He didn't care about the Tenth at all! He was just worried about winning a stupid middle school competition that would mean absolutely nothing in the fucking future! He was just like the rest of our damn, psychotic teammates!

"No…umm…" I heard the Tenth mutter pitifully as he tried to explain himself to the retarded boxer before him, but I knew that nothing would be able to get through that thick, demented skull. Well…maybe a well-deserved punch in the face would.

"It's you again," I growled out menacingly as I approached the retarded jock after putting out my cigarette with my foot. I wanted nothing more than to pay the bastard back for screaming full blast into my ear and giving me the greatest migraine. I was too hungry and fed-up in general about this sports festival to put up with this shit! "Shut the fuck up, Lawn Head, before I make you shut up for good!"

It seemed that the demented boxer had a shorter fuse today as well for some reason, because I actually saw one of his eyes twitch at my words.

"What?" He muttered dangerously low as he narrowed his eyes in irritation at me.

"You heard me, you fuck up," I answered with a sneer as he approached me then. "Or does your screaming actually damage your own hearing along with everyone else's' in the vicinity?" Holy shit, my head hurt…

"Wait, Gokudera-kun…!" I heard the Tenth call out to me then, but I couldn't listen to him this time; I just couldn't. I still couldn't hear things clearly out of my left ear, and that stupid bastard had been bothering me since yesterday. If my dynamite had no effect on him, then I had no choice but to go the direct approach.

I could see the same dangerous glint in Lawn Head's eyes as he finally approached me. We stared at each other for a split second before we both made our move. I swung my left fist towards the boxing bastard's face with all of my might and felt it make contact with Lawn Head's right cheek with a sickening thud…or maybe I was confusing that noise with the one that came from my own face when I felt Lawn Head's right hook slam into my left cheek at the same time. Now not only did my left ear not function correctly, I wouldn't be surprised if my jaw had become dislocated from the force of the blow.

All I could feel was a searing pain as I wobbled back from Lawn Head, refusing to look at the stupid bastard as disorientation came over me from the sudden movement of my body. Shit, my ear drum was probably messed up from the scream earlier, and after getting punched in the head, my equilibrium was a complete fucking mess. I was still surprised I was standing up, but that's what happens when you've grown up most of your life on the streets; you tend to become stubborn for the sake of survival.

"That…That didn't hurt," I heard Lawn Head grunt out, his voice sounding a bit muffled but I didn't dare look at him to see why (I hoped it was because his right cheek was swelling).

"Did a mosquito just fly into me?" I mocked in return as I tried to discreetly spit out the blood that accumulated in my mouth. I guess I had bit my inner cheek when the boxing bastard punched me.

As I tried to get a hold of my bearings and stop the world around me from spinning, a deep, mysterious voice rang through the air.

"Hyohohoho!" This mysteriously deep voice laughed out in sick delight as it came near us. "Fighting in the team~? Hyohoho! Pole knocking is all about teamwork. It looks like there's nothing to fear about the C Team~!"

I heard the Tenth shout out in surprise then, so I glanced up and focused on the person who approached us. The Tenth looked like he recognized the guy, but I sure as hell didn't! This guy was gigantic! He was extremely fat, and rather tall (like the build of a sumo wrestler), and barely had any hair on his head (which was black, and made him look even more like a sumo wrestler).

"It's none of your business!" I heard Lawn Head shout out in intense anger towards the fat tub of lard, and strangely enough, I couldn't help but agree.

Wiping the blood that had started to dribble down my mouth from my earlier spit-take, I sent the fat guy an indifferent look as I irritatingly murmured, "And who the hell are you?"

When the fat ass just smirked at us, I took it upon myself to show him I wasn't in the mood to take any of his shit.

Storming up to the bastard, I could distinctly see Lawn Head following beside me out of the corner of my eye. Not really caring at the moment, I just did what my instincts told me, and that was to bring my leg up and slam my foot into the fat asses' face!

"Back off!" I shouted as I did this, noticing that Lawn Head shouted the exact same thing as he took the liberty of punching the fat guy in the chest at the same time as my kick.

When the fat guy fell face down into the dirt with a cry, he didn't move afterwards. Smirking in satisfaction at the fact the guy had been showed up and knocked unconscious (I tried to ignore how Lawn Head had helped me in that), I overheard shouts from our teammates and opposing teams alike.

"Hey, over there!" I heard a few teens from Team A shout out as they ran up to us, the whole team eventually surrounding us along with the unconscious fat guy.

"Oh crap!" I heard the Tenth scream in fear as a look of pure horror crossed his face. I blinked in confusion to his reaction (hadn't I protected him from that fat-ass bully and showed him how strong our team was?), and noticed that Lawn Head looked just as confused as I did (I was also disappointed to see that I had not, in fact, made his right cheek swell with my earlier punch).

"This is the leader of the A Team, Takada-senpai!" The Tenth shouted out in the next instant as he grabbed his head and started freaking out. I didn't see what the problem was. Not only did I not know the guy, but if he was the leader, he wasn't much to cry over if a kick and a punch took him out.

"It doesn't matter who he is," I heard Lawn Head proclaim beside me as he slammed one of his fists into is other hand for added emphasis, "if he insults our team, I'll beat him up!"

I didn't want to admit that I agreed with the retarded boxer (why was it that I was finding myself agreeing with these moronic jocks in the end?), so I just commented with a huff and shake of my head, "What a weak guy."

"What did you do to our leader?!" I heard some of the A Team members, who wore black jerseys with white letter A's on them, shout at us as they flashed their hand made signs incorporating their emblem (A red letter, 'A' surrounded by orange flames). I still didn't see what the problem was. I actually felt like I had done the A Team a favor. If that tub of lard was their leader, it was more than likely he was the leader of the pole knocking competition as well. Not only would it be impossible for his team to support that fat ass on the top of that 14 foot pole, he's just probably snap it in half from his weight alone when he tried balance on it.

But no matter what I thought, the members of Team A didn't seem to think in that manner. In fact, as we continued to stay silent, their members became more rowdy; screaming at us and threatening us. Well, if that was the case, then bring it!

Just as I thought this, I was completely surprised to hear Lawn Head shout out my very thoughts as he stared defiantly into the crowd of angered Team A members.

"If anyone has a problem, then bring it!" He shouted out confidently as he pointed to himself. "Sasagawa of Team C will take you on!"

Not wanting to be seen as weak in comparison to the jock, I also spoke up with a confident, "I'll take fights from anyone, anytime!" And what I said was true. I didn't really care who it was, or what they wanted, but if they wanted to start a fight, I would gladly give them one!

Just before someone stupid enough could take us up on the offer, though, some random kid from Team A came running from the school crying, "Oh no!"

As everyone stared at him in confusion, the flustered teenager immediately went into an explanation for his behavior as he pointed back towards the building he came from.

"Oshikiri-senpai, the leader of Team B, was attacked by someone in the bathroom!" The flustered Team A member shouted in worry, although he should have been glad about the opposing team's loss.

"What?!" Most of the Team B students shouted from nearby as they stared at the Team A messenger in horror.

"According to the witness," the flustered Team A member continued with a look of shock on his face, "it was done by someone from Team C!"

"That Team C again?" I heard one of the Team A members shout as the group eyed the body of their unconscious leader and glared at us, while some of the girls whispering amongst each other in worry.

"This person is the witness," the Team A member said as he kneeled down and pointed to a very small, old-looking, mountain hermit. That's strange. Why would a mountain hermit be at the school?

"It's true what you saw, right?" The Team A messenger asked as the old mountain hermit nodded his head with a, "Yes."

"Reborn?!" I heard the Tenth shout out in surprise, but I couldn't tell where he was getting the idea that the old hermit was Reborn-san. Sure, they were both about the same height, but this guy was wearing historical Japanese attire, and he had a white goatee…

"The one who attacked the leader of Team B said it was under the orders of the leader of Team C, Sawada Tsuna," the tiny, old hermit stated with confidence (now that I thought about it, he sort of sounded like Reborn-san, too)

"Wha?! What are you saying?!" The Tenth screamed out in absolute horror as I stared at my boss in awe. What a true mafia boss in the making! The Tenth was only freaking out because he had been found out!

"You're greedier about victory then I thought, Sawada!" I heard Lawn Head compliment from behind me as I continued to stare at the Tenth with admiration.

"Brilliant strategy, Tenth!" I praised my boss excitedly to show that I supported his plan.

As I heard the Tenth freak out and exclaim how his idea wasn't brilliant as I had claimed, the members of both Team A and Team B began to scream and shout in protest.

"That's cheap, Team C!" Most of them shouted, while others screamed, "What an unfair leader!" But it didn't matter to me. It was their fault for picking horribly weak leaders. They should have been better prepared, so they had no one to blame but themselves!

It seemed that Lawn Head thought this way, too, because he just smacked his fist into his hand again and smirked.

"Do you see that?!" He questioned out loud as that confident smirked stayed on his face. "This is how we do things!"

"Please, don't agree to it!" The Tenth shouted out frantically with tears practically in his eyes, but I knew he probably didn't want these incidents to be the cause of the other teams going against us. I understood why he wouldn't want to make enemies of the other teams, after all, that was good protocol to have in the mafia world, but if he had instigated a secret attack on one of the leaders already, this outcome was to be expected. This would be good future training for the Tenth!

"Then it was also Sawada who ordered to attack our leader!" One of the members of Team A shouted out indignantly as his teammates encouraged him with battle cries. I could only smirk since what they were saying wasn't the case exactly, but it was close enough. My actions reflected the Tenths' in the end, but I'm sure he wanted to kick that fat guy in the face, too.

"You cheap bastards!" The enraged members of Team B shouted at us in time with the members of Team A. Some other's even shouted, "Make the leader of Team C resign!" Che! Now these guys were getting annoying! What was with all this stupid whining about fairness? Guess what you babies, life wasn't fair! The people who strive to be on top have to sometimes use unorthodox means to get there, and that's just how things were. If they couldn't handle it, then that was tough!

Before I could tell them this myself, one of the sports festival coordinators (who must have overheard the ruckus we were all making) came over the intercom.

"May I have your attention, please, ladies and gentlemen?" The female voice over the intercom spoke calmly and professionally. "We will debate about the issue of the pole knocking competition during lunch break. Each team's third year representative, please come to the main booth now."

As Lawn Head made his way over to the main booth as directed, everyone dispersed to go and meet up with their families or grab their own lunches for the lunch break. I tried to follow the Tenth and calm him down, but as soon as we came closer to the Tenth's 'family', I remembered that my sister was with them.

Coming up with an excuse that I had to use the bathroom, I ran off towards the school building and tried not to look back and see the expression on my boss' face. He was probably smart enough to know I was avoiding my sister.

As I made my way to the school building, I heard a very familiar, feminine voice from nearby.

"Hayato~?" I heard my sister call out for me, but I wasn't going to stick around until she found me. Quickly, before she could spot me, I hid along the side of the school building between the gymnasium and the bushes lining the path. As I crouched down in the foliage, I could see my sister's body come into view. I was thankful it wasn't her face for a second, but that was before I noticed what was in her hands; a disgustingly purple, birthday cake.

Oh, fuck no! Why did she have to remember?!

Trying to keep my screams of fear, and whatever stomach contents I still had from yesterday in my mouth, I covered it quickly with both of my hands in hopes that my sister wouldn't notice me. The next few minutes were nerve-wracking as I saw my sister move around the main area, until I saw her walk back towards where the Tenth's, 'family', was eating.

Letting out a sigh a relief, I carefully made my way out of the bushes and walked towards the back part of the school building. While I did this, I kept checking over my shoulder to make sure that my sister wouldn't reappear. It was because of this, though, that I bumped into someone.

Cursing slightly to myself, I turned my head back around to see who it was that I bumped into, only to blanch a second later. Why him, of all people?!

"Oh, Gokudera, what are you doing back here?" I heard Yamamoto chuckle as he eyed me in curiosity. Seriously, wasn't it bad enough that I had to deal with both jocks this morning? Why did I have to deal with one of them again so soon?

"It's none of your damn business why I'm back here!" I shouted back at him as I glanced from side to side for an escape route.

Yamamoto just laughed at my reaction before he responded, "Well, I just finished up with the long jump, so I decided to meet my dad back here for lunch, since it's less crowded. I'm surprised you're not eating with Tsuna."

"Like hell I would bother the Tenth for food!" I shouted back, insulted by Yamamoto's statement. "It's bad enough that those stupid kids, that damn, loopy woman, and my sister are freeloading off of his mother's food, I don't need to add my presence to the mix!"

The tall jock just blinked down at me in stupefaction before a look of understanding shone in his eyes.

"Oh, I see. So you don't want to eat with Tsuna because your sister was there, haha!"

…Son of a bitch, how did he find me out?!

"N-No!" I tried to cover up his spot-on deduction. "I seriously don't want to encroach upon the Tenth's…'family'…time…"

"Oh?" Yamamoto smiled in a knowing fashion (I so wanted to punch him in the face like I had with Lawn Head). "Does that mean you're going to eat by yourself? Where's your lunch?"

"Y-Yeah! That's what I'm going to do!" I proclaimed as I jumped on the excuse, so that I could get away from the insufferable Baseball Freak. "I was just going to get my bag."

"Hmm? But then why are you heading towards the back of the building?" Yamamoto questioned with an amused grin. "Aren't our lockers and food dispensers at the entrance?"

…Son of a bitch again, I didn't think this through!

"Well…I was just going to go…" I wanted to say, 'to the cafeteria', but I realized I had to go through the entrance to get there as well, so it wouldn't make sense for me to head towards the back of the building, too! Shit! I dug myself into a hole!

"…I was just going to go somewhere and wait the lunch break out," I finally finished as I crossed my arms and looked away. "I'm not that hungry anyway."

It was here the world decided to screw me over again, because right after I said that I wasn't hungry, my stomach decided to let loose a really loud growl.

Cursing everything imaginable under the sun, I hesitantly eyed Yamamoto's again to see a stupid look of concern on his face.

"You seem hungry to me…" The stupid jock started out as his eyes narrowed at me. "…and not to mention, you did arrive at school late…Did you eat breakfast, Gokudera?"

"Who the hell are you, my mother?" I growled out in irritation, hating the fact that I just insulted my mother by saying that.

The Baseball Freak must have taken my answer as confirmation, because the concern on his face increased.

"Skipping out on breakfast is a bad thing to do; especially if you're going to be doing physical activity all day," Yamamoto murmured, almost in a scolding manner, like I was some stupid, little kid. I swear, if he kept talking to me like that, I was going to find where he lived and blow him up in his sleep.

It was here that I noticed the taller teen staring at me; giving me a good, long hard look that made me feel beyond uncomfortable.

"You know, how about you come and eat lunch with my dad and me?" The idiot finally asked as his face converted back to its normal, stupid-looking self, and he laughed. "We have plenty of sushi, and he makes the best in town! What do you say?"

I growled in irritation, more to myself than anyone else, as I looked away from the eye-sore in front of me. Free sushi? Really? Wasn't that stuff pretty expensive? Why the hell would he be willing to share it with someone like me for free?

…But it was free food, and I was hungry…

With another growl of my stomach, I realized I couldn't stand it anymore. If there was free food to be eaten, then I couldn't turn it down. Besides, I needed all the strength I could get in order to protect the Tenth during the pole knocking competition.

"…Fine…" I finally answered under my breath before I sent Yamamoto a pointed glare. "…but I'm only doing this because I need my strength for the pole knocking competition. Sitting with you for lunch is going to be just as tortuous as sitting with my sister."

Yamamoto just blinked at me a couple of times before he decided on laughing uncomfortably, "Well, I'm sure you'll still like the sushi anyway. My dad is an expert with it. You know, we actually own and live in a sushi shop, haha!"

…Not really sure on how to take this new information, I just followed Yamamoto in silence as he led me in the direction of his father. So, did that make him a sushi freak, too? If you're surrounded by sushi all the time, why would you want to make some for yourself to eat?

It really made me wonder of Yamamoto's dad would be just as annoying as his son.


I seriously wasn't expecting what I saw.

When Yamamoto finally sat down on a picnic blanket underneath one of the trees behind the school, the man beside him, his father, looked exactly like Yamamoto. As I sat down, and as I heard the Baseball Freak introduce me to his dad (who laughed and greeted me with a big smile that were practically replicas of Yamamoto's, too…or more like vice versa), I couldn't stop staring at the man. I seriously wouldn't be surprised if Yamamoto ended up looking like his father twenty some years down the road.

As the older Yamamoto handed me a bento of sushi he made at his restaurant (it was here that I noticed that Yamamoto Senior was wearing a typical sushi chef uniform), I hesitantly pulled apart the chopsticks that came with the set and picked up a sushi with fatty tuna on it. I stared at the delicious looking ball of rice and fish as my stomach growled hungrily again before I glanced up to see both of the Yamamoto's anxious expressions. Holy shit! How do they expect me to eat when they're staring at me like that?!

Deciding that I was too hungry to care too much by this point, I plopped the sushi in my mouth and practically died of bliss the next second. How…? How was it possible for something to taste so good?! I had no idea if it was my hunger that was making me salivate now, or if it was the actual quality of the sushi, but all I knew then was that I couldn't get enough.

As I devoured the delicious sushi and steamed vegetable side dishes like a starving man, I could distinctly hear the Yamamoto's laugh at my behavior before they dug into their own bento. When the last grain of rice was devoured from my lunch box, I sighed and leaned back, rubbing my stomach in satisfaction.

"Haha, you really enjoyed it that much, Gokudera?" I heard Yamamoto chuckle out beside me as he sent me a pleased smile. "I told you my dad was the best!"

I was silent for a moment, not wanting to admit that the other was right, but I couldn't be rude to Yamamoto's father, who had given me food when he didn't need to.

"Y-Yeah, it was really good," I stated softly in appreciation as I stood up and bowed to the older Yamamoto. "Thank you so much for the meal, Yamamoto-san."

"Haha, it's no problem at all!" I heard the older man chortle out before he added with an amused smile. "I got too excited this morning and made too much food anyway, so you helped us out by taking some off our hands! If you come by our place sometime, I can probably give you some free samples as well!"

Free samples?!

Before I could jump on this amazing offer (I barely had enough money to pay for my rent, nonetheless food), I heard the tone of the intercom come over the outside speakers.

"Thank you for waiting," the professional female voice announced as our lunch break came to an end, "a decision has been made in the pole knocking debate."

Glancing up towards the speakers, I waited to see what the decision was.

"Upon debating with the representatives," the lady over the intercom continued in her calm fashion, "this year's pole knocking competition will be Team C versus a Team A and B union team!"

"What?!" I called out in shock, unable to believe what I was hearing. I heard Yamamoto exclaim in a similar fashion behind me as I also heard a chorus of happy cheers from the now unified teams around the school yard.

"All the boys from each team, please prepare for the pole knocking competition," the lady over the intercom commanded in a slightly excited tone before the connection to the intercom cut off.

I could only blink up at the speakers in confused silence as I heard Yamamoto walk up next to me. This was certainly going to be interesting…

Glancing to my side to see that Yamamoto had a worried, yet intrigued expression, I just sighed and started heading towards the front of the school again. While Yamamoto followed behind me, I could hear Yamamoto Senior calling out his good luck wishes behind us, and for Yamamoto to not break an arm again. I was a little confused by his words, but I soon remembered that Yamamoto had broken his arm during baseball practice the first month I was here, and had almost committed suicide over it, or something. Wow…what an idiot…

…Feeling my stomach turn for some reason (I assumed it was from eating raw fish, because I wasn't used to it), the Baseball Freak and I made our way over to our team, and needless to say, most of them seemed to be in a panic. The guy who had carried our team's pole over to us was shaking in fear as he scanned the other teams nearby, who were having a conjoined group pow-wow and were sending sadistic looks our way. I tried to ignore the blood-thirsty glares as I scanned the crowd for the Tenth.

Seeing him up near the front of the group I noticed that Lawn Head was making his way towards the front as well after coming back from the main booth. I listened in as I made my way over there as well.

"Sasagawa-san!" I heard one of the third years ask as Lawn Head came closer to us. "Are they serious about the two against one?!"

"What did you guys talk about?!" Another random teen with freckles questioned as Lawn Head stopped before the team, his eyes dead serious.

"I-I bet it was majority rules and you were forced, right?" The kid with the pole stuttered out as the Tenth, who was standing beside him, shouted out a, "No way! That's cheap!", in response.

I was beginning to wonder that the joint team thing was a little cheap myself, but I couldn't deny we had it coming with our sabotage and all. It seemed that Lawn Head thought in a similar fashion (although I seriously doubt he thought as deep as me concerning the situation), because he finally responded to our team's inquiries.

"No," the boxing fanatic answered towards, what I supposed was, the pole-holding guy's and the Tenth's comments before he raised his voice and his eyes became inflamed with blood-lust, "I suggested it and forced it on them!"

I could only gawk like a helpless bystander as I stopped in my tracks and stared at the hopelessly retarded boxing captain. Who…Who seriously did that on purpose?! Did he want us to lose?! Fucking jocks and their love for challenges…

As everyone seemed to internally ask themselves, "Why?", at that point, Master PaoPao came out of nowhere and jumped onto the pole, so that he was visible over everyone's heads. This random action scared the living crap out of the guy that was holding the pole to the point he almost dropped it, though.

"If you're wondering why, it's because getting rid of all your enemies at once is obviously the fastest way to deal with things," Master PaoPao stated in a knowing fashion, like he didn't notice how the pole he was holding onto was precariously wobbling back and forth from the incompetent teenager holding it.

"Exactly, Master!" Lawn Head shouted out in admiration as he stared up at the tiny, and weirdly-dressed, man. "I completely agree with you! We will defeat all that come towards us!"

Master PaoPao's only answer was his trademark, "Pao~n!" as our whole team stared at the two crazy boxer's in absolute fear. I wasn't, of course, but I did feel slightly apprehensive. It's true that if we could defeat our enemies, it would make things easier in the end if they were all together. But that didn't stop us from being vastly outnumbered, and our teammates from being vastly inferior when it came to fighting a massive crowd. I wasn't too bad at fighting multiple people at a time, and I knew from experience that Yamamoto and Lawn Head could, too, but if we were the only ones that could effectively protect and hold the pole, we wouldn't be able to use our full abilities because of the lack of freedom our positions gave us. I hated to admit it, but in order for us to win, we were going to have to depend on teamwork.

I shuddered in dismay at this thought, not liking the idea that I had to work with these losers as I finally moved forward and stood beside the Tenth again. But if it was to protect the Tenth, I couldn't let him down like I had yesterday at the river. I had to show the Tenth I could protect him and be reliable!

While I thought of this, I heard the murmurings of the union team increase beside us a few feet away. Glancing to the side, I saw the A and B Team glance between each other nervously now, and I think I overheard them mumbling something about who their new leader would be. Raising my eyebrows in intrigue, since I was certain that whoever they picked wouldn't stand a chance against my amazing boss, I was shocked to see the A and B unified team gasp in fear and move away from each other. Wondering why they were giving each other such a wide birth, I then saw a familiar mop of black hair make its way through the partitioned path.

Growling low under my breath, I recognized the familiar, smug face of Hibari Kyouya, the eyes I used to think as an imposing violet color, shining a dark blue in the afternoon sunlight as I overheard him declare himself as the leader.

"I'm surprised Hibari is even here…" I heard Yamamoto mumble out beside me, and when I glanced towards him out of the corner of my eye, I could see how he was staring at Hibari in slight worry (wait, had Yamamoto followed me the whole time? I guess I was so focused on Lawn head's stupidity that I didn't notice). "...I heard he usually doesn't like crowds, or festivals, for that matter…"

Taking in Yamamoto's words, I realized that he might have been right. I now remembered that I had met Hibari Kyouya before that fateful day in the reception room. It was months ago when that Stupid Cow had shown up for the first time. I remember how he had showed up in the hallway we were standing in and how the students that were watching us parted and made room for the prefect when he appeared. It seemed that the reaction was instinctive for most people, because it was common knowledge to give the psychopathic disciplinary president a wide berth.

That still didn't change the fact that he pissed me off and that I wanted to get back at him for making a fool of me, though.

As I watched the prefect actually jump up and start walking on the head of the crowded teenagers before he jumped onto the pole (I also noticed he was wearing his school uniform and a jacket on his shoulders instead of a jersey), the urge to pay him back rose within me until it was practically suffocating. There was no way I was going to lose now!

Watching as the weight of Hibari's jump caused the pole some of the students were holding to bend sideways, and thus, allow the prefect to run alongside the diagonal pole until he was easily on the top platform, I tried to stir the Tenth into action.

My boss made a fuss, because he was afraid to climb the pole after seeing Hibari, but after a while, he attempted to climb the 14 feet of pole to get to the platform. As this was going on, I could see how the A and B Team were righting the pole Hibari had climbed. When Hibari was finally facing upright again, he simply demanded his troops to not let the pole be knocked over. Almost immediately, the members of the A and B Team raised their hands in assent as they all shouted, "Yes, Sir!" in unison. What the hell was this, Nazi Germany?

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I then saw how one of the coaches climbed onto a nearby table with a megaphone.

"We shall now start the pole knocking!" The coach shouted into his amplifying system as he surveyed the school lot. "Please get into position!"

Turning around towards my team again, I noticed how the Tenth hadn't made any progress in climbing up the pole, but he had tied a long, black headband around his forehead (I later learned he had received it as a lucky charm from Sasagawa-san). After a moment of contemplation, we finally settled on laying the pole on the ground and having the Tenth hold onto the platform on the end. When the Tenth was certain he was holding on tight, a good portion of our team helped in lifting the pole up until it was standing straight again with Yamamoto, Lawn Head, and I supporting it.

As the Tenth cried out in fear once he was 14 feet off the ground, he let out another exclamation as he observed the other team who were already ready and in position.

"Eeeeh! There's such a huge difference in people!"

Although I couldn't see the other group too well, since I was supporting the pole, and the rest of the C Team were surrounding me for added protection, I could imagine the vast difference set before us. And, now that Hibari was the opposing team's leader, it was going to be even harder to win.

While I thought this over, and tried to come up with a plan in my head, I overheard the Stupid Woman, and Sasagawa-san shouting their encouragement from the sidelines nearby. Hopefully, my boss could gain some courage from their words.

It was only a moment later when I heard the coach from before shout, "Go!" over his megaphone, and then the chaos began. Instantly after those words reached our ears, bodies started rushing at each other, pushing, punching, and climbing in order to get to the opposite team's pole. Our team practically became overwhelmed as a good portion of our team members made their way to the opposite pole, leaving the rest to protect ours. Needless to say, it wasn't enough to keep the overwhelming numbers of the other team at bay.

Despite my efforts in punching, elbowing, and kicking any bastard that came close to our pole, with the amount of chaos surrounding me, it wasn't any surprise when one member from the A Team got past our defenses and was able to climb the pole and out of our reach.

"Eeek!" I heard the Tenth scream in fear as he saw the opposing team member climbing towards him. "They're already here!"

As I continued to keep the other team's away from the pole, I glanced up in horror to see the Team A member grab onto the Tenth's leg and try to drag him off the platform.

"Wah, I'm going to fall!" The Tenth shouted out in horror as he desperately held onto the platform he was now straddling. "Stop! Let go!"

Knowing that my boss wasn't going to try and get the other off him any time soon, I knew I had to jump into action.

Grabbing one of my teammates nearby, I made him take my place in supporting the pole. I saw Lawn Head and Yamamoto do this too, since they felt they would be better being able to fully attack the onslaught of people trying to beat us to a bloody pulp. With the little room I had, I jumped up with all of my might and brought one of my legs up and bent it at the knee. With all the force I could muster, I slammed my foot into the Team A member's backside. The opposing member cried out in surprise and pain as he fell back down towards the ground with me; thankfully, I landed on my feet instead.

With hordes of students trying to attack me and get past me now that I was down on the ground again, I tried my best in pushing them back as I spared a glance up towards the Tenth.

"Are you okay, Tenth?!" I shouted out in worry as I kicked and punched as many of the opposing team away. I only heard my boss call out my name in worry before my attention was distracted towards Yamamoto a few feet away. He seemed to be in a similar situation as me, but he was strangely smiling, albeit a little uneasily.

"This is tough!" The Baseball Freak called out as he had one guy in a headlock under his arm and another's jersey fisted in his other hand, before two other's jumped onto his back. "There's too much of a difference in people!"

Thank you for stating the obvious, idiot!

As I slugged a random guy across the face, I glanced to the opposite side of the pole to see Lawn head was bogged down with opposing team members as well.

"Damn it, let go!" I heard him shout out as I saw strange excitement shine in his eyes (how could that retard be enjoying this?!) before he called up to the Tenth. "Even if we want to attack, we can't get anywhere!"

It was here, due to my distraction, that I felt some random guy use his momentum to climb up my back and then jump onto the pole from my shoulders.

"Ah! You!" I cried out in surprise as I felt the random person's shoes dig hard into my unsuspecting back. If I could be thankful for anything in that moment, it was that the guy hadn't been fat.

As I turned around to grab at his pants leg, I realized that even more of the opposing team had gotten past our defenses and were climbing up the pole. Before I knew it, the guy that had used me as a spring board was past my reach and punching the Tenth in the arm, while some random team member from Team B was kicking the Tenth in the face!

I stared in horror as the weight of the people on the pole caused the pole to start swinging downwards. Where the fuck were the people who were supposed to be holding it?!

"Waah! I'm going to fall!" I heard the Tenth cry out in horror as the pole started falling.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion then as I heard the resounding sound of a gun go off in the distance. It was then that I saw my boss' eyes glaze over as he lost his grip on the pole platform and started falling towards the ground. I saw then how the guys who were on the pole reached for the Tenth on reflex and grabbed onto his pants. It stopped my boss' descent for a second before I saw the familiar orange flame of the Dying Will Bullet sprout from his forehead. Surprisingly, the Tenth's clothes were ripped off in that instant, leaving him to free fall in his boxers.

"Mid-air Reborn!" The Tenth shouted out menacingly as he glared down at the mass of opponents below him. "Win the pole knocking competition as if I were to die!"

And with that, one of the Tenth's feet slammed into the face of a member from the A Team, and he propelled himself back up into the air again. I could only stare in confusion then as my boss started hopping off of people's heads. Just what was he trying to do? Since he was knocked down from the perch, didn't that mean we had lost?

"He's jumping on other people!" I overheard one opposing team member from Team B shout out as one of his other teammates tried to attack me from behind at the same time. As I quickly brought the Team B member into a head lock in front of me, I overheard another opposing team member shout out in dread, "I see! As long as the leader doesn't touch the ground, he isn't counted as out!"

My eyes widening at these words, I saw Lawn Head punch out a guy beside me with a look of understanding on his face. I smirked as well as an idea started forming in my head.

"In that case…" I murmured out as I let go of the guy I had in a headlock and he dropped to the ground unconscious. If the Tenth needed a platform, then we only needed to make another one!

Yamamoto seemed to know what I was thinking, too, because he made his way over to Lawn Head and me (Lawn Head seemed to have an idea of what we had to do as well) and called out to the Tenth to make his way towards us.

"Okay!" The Tenth shouted out with a battle cry as he started jumping his way towards us at a rapid pace. With the precious seconds we had left, I saw Yamamoto position himself in front of Lawn head and me and bend forward a bit as he brought his arms out behind him; his hands cupped. Taking the initiative, I cupped my left hand, and placed it within Yamamoto's left hand with my palm facing up while my right hand came out to rest on Yamamoto's left shoulder. Glancing to my right, I saw Lawn Head follow my lead and place his right hand facing up in Yamamoto's right hand, and his left hand on the other jock's right shoulder. Bracing myself then, I saw the Tenth finally arrive at our destination. With one final jump, his feet landed in our hands before he crouched down and placed his weight onto mine and Lawn Head's outstretched arms as a makeshift seat. It was a little shocking at first at the quick change in weight, but I was able to adjust rather quickly and support the Tenth as best as I could.

"What?!" I heard a random opposing team member shout out in confusion nearby as another of his teammates shouted, "They made a cavalcade?!" in fear. I just smirked in anticipation at this. Payback was such a bitch, wasn't?

"Go!" I heard the Tenth declare with a mighty roar then as he pointed towards the opposing team's pole. "Aim for the leader!"

With cries of assent, the three of us ran forward, Yamamoto charging straight ahead as the Tenth (who was standing completely on our hands now and no longer sitting on our arms), Lawn Head, and I defended ourselves by kicking our opponents away (sometimes the Tenth would use one of his fists, while his other arm gripped Yamamoto's shoulder for support). Our mighty attack force left groaning bodies in our wake, and the opposing team members, who were standing before us protecting their pole, were now crying out in fear.

"That's like an army tank!" One terrified pansy shouted out as he started running away.

"We can't stop that!" A random fat guy cried as he shivered in fear. Wow, these guys weren't as fierce as their teammates who attacked us.

As I thought this, I distinctly felt something hook the back of my leg and almost cause me to trip. Catching my balance at the last second, I glared heatedly directly to my left at Lawn Head.

"Hey, Lawn Head!" I shouted at the retarded boxer, who I noticed was glaring at me as well. "You just hooked my leg, didn't you?!"

"Quit joking with me, Octopus Head!" He shouted back in contempt. "You're the one who kicked my leg!"

…What? What?! This bastard had the fucking nerve to almost trip me and make it look like that I was the reason we had almost dropped the Tenth, and then he blamed me for being the clumsy one?! That fucker had no right!

"What did you say?!" I shouted back in fury at him, hating how he was still referring to me as a fucking octopus of all things, and that I was at fault for his problems. Also, I just noticed that he was on the Tenth's right-hand side. That really got my blood boiling…

As I shouted, I had unconsciously moved my body closer to Lawn Head's, so that caused the balance of our cavalcade system to shift dramatically. As I heard Yamamoto call out to Lawn Head and me to calm down, I tried to right myself to my original position, but I was so angry and pissed at the stupid boxer beside me, all I could do was think about how much I wanted to punch him again.

It seemed that Lawn Head was thinking the exact same thing again, because as I fell victim to my rage and ended up taking my right hand off Yamamoto's shoulder in order to sock the demented upperclassmen across the face as hard as I could, he had taken his left hand off of Yamamoto's shoulder to give a swift uppercut to my jaw at the same time. With my head reeling backwards from the shock of the blow, and since I had already taken one of my supporting hands away from the boss, it was no surprise how my whole body flew forward from my running momentum, and thus, the hand that I was using to support one of the Tenth's feet was taken away.

As I tumbled head over heal into the dirt, and lay face down in it when my body finally stopped, all I could do was groan and wonder if my jaw would ever be the same again. Lawn Head punched me in the jaw twice today, and I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose by this point. It was then that I realized that because I had lost my temper (even if I hadn't, I still would have probably gotten punched anyway, so it technically wasn't all my fault), I had probably dropped the Tenth.

Wondering if I should just stay lying in the dirt out of humiliation, I heard some guys screaming, "Go on, do it!" nearby. Soon, an eruption of blood-thirsty calls echoed through the air, along with familiar screams of pain. That was the Tenth!

Quickly snapping my head up, I noticed how the entirety of the A and B Team were joining together to attack the Tenth, even though he was on the ground and we had officially lost!

"What the hell are you doing?!" I screamed in fury despite the fact that my jaw hurt like hell.

As I dragged myself to a standing position, I winced a little from the scrapes I had accumulated all over my skin from my fall, but I ignored them in favor of running to the Tenth's rescue.

"I'll fucking kill all of you!" I roared out in my rage as I started running towards the mass of students attacking the Tenth. Lawn Head seemed to be anxious to fight, too, because I saw him jump up from the ground (my punch must have made him fall over as well) and run ahead of me.

"Yeah! Those who want to fight, bring it!" I heard him shout out as he jumped into the fray and started punching anyone near him.

With today having been the most infuriating day I had probably every experienced in the longest time, I wasn't going to hold myself back. When I jumped in, too, I gave everything I had as I punched, and kicked my way through the crowd, and even threw some students around and used them as shields. I could see Lawn Head nearby slugging an unsuspecting guy in the face with a shout of, "Extreme!", and I even saw Yamamoto, too, although he looked completely taken aback by all the carnage going on around him. He just continued to smile that hopeless smile of his as he tried to knock his opponents unconscious before they did so to him.

As I continued to travel through the mob of students towards the center where I had seen the Tenth last, I beat anyone who got in my way to a bloody pulp. When I reached the center, and couldn't find my boss, I was beyond pissed. I hoped that he had gotten away from the crazy students, but knowing I hadn't been able to save him was yet another blow to my already thoroughly bruised ego. I just kept on failing over and over again, and people kept on irritating me to the point that I was seconds away from completely blowing a fuse. When that next second past, and I felt and saw some crazy-ass guy from the B Team bite into my shoulder like some rabid animal on crack, I finally snapped.

Bringing my fist up to smash the back of it into the crazy student's nose, I then reached over my shoulders, grabbed onto the student's shirt, and threw him over my shoulder into the mob with a ferocious roar.

"That's it, you're all dead!"

I was no longer thinking at that point. All I wanted was to see everyone disappear, so in a matter of seconds, a lit cigarette was in my mouth and multiple sticks of dynamite were in my hands. Like a mad man, I threw Double Bombs after Double Bombs into the crowd, not caring who got in the way. When the dust cleared after my mad onslaught, and I was left panting for breath, the unconscious and slightly burned bodies of teammates and foes alike lay on the ground. Lawn Head (who was pumping his fists in the air and roaring like a beast over the fallen bodies of our foes), Yamamoto, and the Tenth looked the most unscathed as I noticed them out of the corner of my eye, but whatever relief I felt at the Tenth's general safety and the disappointment I felt an not hitting the two jocks thoroughly enough, I fell back onto the ground exhausted from my injuries and out of breathe. My jaw hurt like a bitch, my shoulder smarted, every part of my body was covered in some bruise, I had failed the Tenth on multiple occasions today, Hibari just passed by looking bored out of his mind (I swear I heard a comment on how weak I was too), and to top it all off, I was certain that the violence I had just dished out throughout the entire day wasn't anywhere close to satiating the irritation I felt.

Happy fucking birthday to me…


A/N: Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed this relatively cracky chapter! There wasn't much 8059 moments in the actual manga, so the part with the three-legged race was an add-on of my own creation, and so was Gokudera's lunch with the Yamamotos. In the manga, Yamamoto actually reprimands Gokudera in class for threatening the students, which is a different behavior that we normally don't see from him. In fact, Yamamoto only lets his true emotions out in front of Gokudera I think, because the only times he shows anger or irritation is when he's facing an enemy, or when he's talking to Gokudera sometimes. Yamamoto got really fed up with Gokudera's and Ryohei's bickering in the manga chapter, though. I could tell XD Anyway, the only other moments I noticed was that Gokudera was actually leaning towards Yamamoto in the classroom, but I had no idea why, so I just came up with the thought he didn't want to crowd the Tenth. My inner fangirl wants to think he wanted to be next to Yamamoto, though, lol. Another one was that Yamamoto held Gokudera back again (his favorite past time, I swear lol). Also, the chapter art I used in the dream sequence was another moment I considered. In the picture, which is shown in the first part of the pole knocking chapters, Gokudera is walking behind Yamamato and is nowhere near Tsuna (which is odd), and both him and Yamamoto seemed pensive about something. The dream sequence in this chapter was just my take on what could be possibly happening in it.

Okay, next chapter will be in Yama's point of view again and we get introduced to Moretti. The next manga chapter will be First Time Killing, and there is an anime version of it as well, so I'm not sure if I'll just write that chapter in Yama's POV, or if I'll write more than that. I'm on Christmas break now, so hopefully I'll have the time to write more and update a little sooner lol.

Also, for people that are interested and have read my 8059 roleplay with Ethelwyn, we just uploaded our newest roleplay for the couple Spanner and Shoichi (4851). If anyone is interested in reading that (we update a chapter every Friday) it's uploaded onto Ethelwn's account, so just either look her up in the search options or go to my author's page and click under her name under my favorite authors tab =3 Hopefully that will tide you guys over until I can get the next chapter out to you; if you like that couple that is lol.

The Fan-girl Theater is rated a high T…or maybe a low M? Well, hopefully it's not descriptive enough to be considered the latter lol.

Fan-girl Theater:

The three-legged race had finally ended with Yamamoto and Gokudera coming out on top. The two boys were at the finish line with Yamamoto smiling knowingly at the silver-haired teen, while the other teen in question gawked at the other in surprise. Could it be that Yamamoto had actually tricked him into competing for his own amusement?!

Wanting nothing more than to wipe that smirk off the Baseball Freak's face, Gokudera lunged sideways at Yamamoto before the other could until their leg band. With a cry of surprise, the taller teen fell down with the smaller on top of him, the pissed-off Italian's hands immediately forming fists to punch the living daylights out of the other.

Gathering himself, Yamamoto swiftly brought his hands up to restrain Gokudera's blood-thirsty fists before they could strike.

"Gokudera! You're making a scene!" Yamamoto called out uncertainly as he struggled to keep his attacker's hands restrained.

"I don't care!" The feisty Italian shouted out as he tried in vain to wriggle his hands free so that he could pommel the daylights out of the jock below him. "I'm sick and tired of you messing with me! This ends now, Baseball Freak!"

It took all of Yamamoto's willpower to not get distracted by how drop-dead sexy Gokudera was when he was pissed-off, but even then, he couldn't stop the reaction he got out of his own body when Gokudera started wriggling his whole body to try and get out of the dark-haired teen's grip. Yamamoto had to wonder if the silver-haired teen realized that his butt was basically over his crotch.

It seemed that Gokudera finally realized what was going on, because all of his movements stopped, and his face contorted into horror at feeling something against his lower half.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" The smoking bomber screamed in surprise as he stared down at Yamamoto's slightly flushed and embarrassed face.

"Well…if you wouldn't move so much…" Yamamoto tried to explain as quietly as he could, because their actions were definitely attracting an audience right now. The taller teen swore he saw both his regular set of fan-girls, along with Gokudera's, ogling them from nearby.

Despite Yamamoto's attempt at explaining himself and hopefully calming the other down, Gokudera decided that, in his startled state, it was best for him to flee as far away from the scene as possible. Too bad for the unlucky Italian that his leg was still tied to Yamamoto's, because all his actions resulted in was him attempting to stand, and then promptly falling back down onto the poor jock, their lower bodies ramming into each other's suggestively.

Gokudera could only stare in horror as Yamamoto tried to suppress whatever noise he wanted to make then. Thankfully, both of them had only grunted at the contact, but Gokudera could distinctly feel his body beginning to react in a similar fashion…

Holy shit, this was not happening!

Panic-stricken, Gokudera attempted yet again to flee the scene and the curious onlookers, but yet again, he forgot his leg was bound, and fell back onto Yamamoto. With desperation taking hold of the taller teen now (because even though he was slightly enjoying the physical contact, it still hurt a bit when Gokudera's body fell down on him), the both of them tried to stand at the same time on several occasions, but their legs continued to fumble along with their balance, and they would end up in the same position as before with the both of them trying to hold back their perverted vocal reactions.

When the two tried it again for the umpteenth time, and instead of having Gokudera fall on Yamamoto, the reverse happened with the silver-haired teen pinned down on the ground next, Gokudera was practically dead from embarrassment.

"Just fucking untie us already!" The feisty Italian shouted out in complete desperation, his face becoming as red as a ripe tomato.

"Ah! Yeah!" Yamamoto exclaimed like he just remembered the reason behind their predicament (Gokudera half expected the other conveniently forgot), and did as he was told. As soon as he felt his leg being freed, Gokudera pushed Yamamoto off of him with all his might, jumped to his feet, bowed in apology to Tsuna, and hastily made his way through the crowd and towards the school. Yamamoto was just left to stand there in his complete embarrassment as he tried to laugh off what happened to the crowd.

"Hahaha! That was weird!" The jock laughed out. Thankfully, most of the audience seemed to buy his surprise and not realize he had thoroughly enjoyed what had just happened. Speaking of thoroughly enjoying…

Eyeing the leg band in his hand, and glancing up towards the school building where Gokudera had run off too, Yamamoto turned his attention towards the judge's booth then.

"Can I borrow this for a sec?" The taller teen called out as he lifted the leg band in the air. Before the judges could even grant him his wish, the young baseball player was running off towards the school building in hot pursuit.

Tsuna could only stare after Yamamoto with a completely deadpanned expression as his best friends' fan-girls started swooning in high pitched voices. He really didn't want to know…