Hibari was annoyed.

At this point annoyance was pretty much his constant state of being.

That damn pineapple head (he could already hear Tsuna laughing at the nickname he came up with – god he missed his sunshine already) had beaten him easily. Too easily. But it hadn't been very long since one of his lackeys had picked him up and thrown him into this dark room. He was very good at tracking time – he estimated that it's been about an hour or so.

It had taken him a while to wiggle out of the rope they had tied him with. Idiots. It would take more than just rope to keep him down. (A memory flashed in the back of his mind, his sunshine glaring up at him as he smugly told him that there were techniques to easily get out of binds. It amused him that the idiot didn't remember something so basic, but of course he didn't. It was him after all.) The last he checked the only thing that could really keep him locked in place were chains.

Still, just getting out of the rope had taken him more energy than he was willing to admit, and he was pretty sure these wounds wouldn't just fully heal in 5 minutes. He couldn't move around all that much without wasting energy he would need to kick that arrogant asshole's face in. He relished in the thought of beating down that pineapple that somehow knew his weakness. No one knew about that, not even his mother…he hadn't even had the opportunity to tell Tsuna about it.

It was odd, and there was still the fact that around him, his senses still felt muddy. It was familiar like…

He pinned him to the wall, forcing him to look into his red eyes. He was thrusted back then, into that time…seeing all that blood. Having to watch over and over as everyone was-

He forced himself out of the memory, shivering. Nope. No. Not now. This was not the time to remember how he had…forced him to see images he didn't want to.

Wait.

Fuck.

Hibari felt like kicking himself. Or kicking the asshole pineapple. Was that an option? Even if it wasn't he would make it an option.

Illusions. The damn fucker was using illusions.

Hibari was no stranger to illusions – he had quite a few memories where he used them effectively against enemies. The memory where illusions were used against him haunted him every night!

Once again, he wished he still had his past abilities. They would be awfully useful in a situation like this. He could feel and imagine lightning at his fingertips, destroying the wall before him.

For now, all he could do was plan an escape.

Or at least hope for a path towards one.

The injured teen stood up, holding his side (he was pretty sure that one of the pineapple's kicks had broken a rib) and he began to look for any kind of weakness on the cold, bumpy walls. He could hear things break under his feet – wood, possibly from desks, and some glass are the most prominent.

There were no weaknesses in the walls, though he could tell one was connected to a hallway. That was noteworthy for the future, but it didn't help him much at the moment.

He kicked around the room for a bit as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. His tonfa weren't here either. All he had was some small, insignificant pieces of broken glass, broken piles of wood, and the rope from earlier.

Great.

Perfect.

Wonderful.

Hibari grimaced. Despite his annoyance he had to admit, these thugs were far smarter than he thought they would be.

With a sigh, he slid onto his knees, and leaned against the wall. There was no use in wasting his energy by standing. He'd have to wait until one of the pineapple's lackeys came for whatever they were planning. He would be able to fight them at that point…

But…he hated waiting.

Closing his eyes, his mind wandered where it was bright, where Tsuna was smiling and laughing and looked at him with those bright brown eyes. With a frown, he suddenly realized his last memory of him was one of worry, where Tsuna was running towards the hospital…

He really didn't want that to be his last memory of his sunshine.

He began to whistle softly, trying to calm himself down. No, he would see Tsuna again. And when he did, he would have already kill-beaten that pineapple and Tsuna wouldn't have to worry.

O~O~O

A small bird, one of yellow feathers and filled with absolute loyalty for their master, sang their song as they circled the area their master was trapped in.

Hibird would find help. Hibird couldn't let their master down.

O~O~O

"Whoa…" Tsuna muttered, standing in front of a gate upon an area caked in dried mud and rocks; an old Centre that was long abandoned for years. The highway was eerily quiet, and without the usual comfort of cars or civilization nearby, Tsuna felt a shiver run up his spine. "That's…really ominous…" He offered weakly to the group that seemed unaffected and said nothing at his comment. He felt almost like they were all in a horror film but only he was the one who could hear the scary background music.

"Is the whole area just ruins?" Gokudera asked from behind him, looking up at the area with a vague sense of awe.

"Yes…long ago, this was all a complete entertainment resort called Kokuyou Centre." Reborn, who had climbed onto Yamamoto's shoulder moments before, informed them.

Kokuyou Centre…? The name was familiar, and for a moment he had a memory of when he was small, cheerfully holding onto his mother's hand as well as his – anyway, he could remember how popular the area was. He would often see teenagers who would hang out in front of the cinema, a karaoke club his mother adored, and a garden zoo he begged to go to whenever they visited.

But the last time they had gone, he was around five or six. It was also around the time that guy started sporadically visiting…

Reborn went on to tell them how the Centre was widely popular up until a mudslide ruined the area completely. There were no plans to repair it, so they left it in the sorry state it was in now.

The story caused a sinking feeling in Tsuna's chest, who did have some fond memories here. But, the nostalgia didn't stop the uneasy feeling he had. It was like looking at the entrance of a haunted house.

Gokudera walked past him up to the chains keeping the gate locked. He inspected it for a moment before frowning. "The lock's all rusted…it doesn't look like they used it as an entrance. What should we do?" He glanced at Tsuna. The brunette blinked before letting out a surprised yelp. He wasn't exactly "leader material" after all, no matter the fact that he was supposed to become the future mafia boss.

Bianchi, luckily enough, "saved" him before he was really given any time to come up with a "solution." She easily melted the lock with her acid-like cooking (the look of it eating through the rust made Tsuna sick to his stomach) and they went through.

Tsuna shivered as the uneasy feeling intensified. He stepped closer to the others who were acting like this was just a walk in the park. The familiar sense of someone watching them made him extremely paranoid, and every slight noise around them made him jump.

Then there was the feeling of Hibari was close was getting stronger…

He shook away the image of Hibari, pushing it to the back of his mind. He had to focus. If they run into Hibari, that was great, but they needed to find Fuuta. That was their mission. Just thinking of what they could be subjecting the kid to made him both sick and angry.

"Tsuna."

Reborn's strangely commanding voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he glanced up at him. "Yeah…?"

"Since you've been here before, lead the way."

"What?!" His jaw dropped. "The last time I was here was a long time ago!" Not to mention he still felt disoriented from the horrible flashback of that girl dying. Mixing that with how tense he was and the feeling of being watched wasn't at all good for him right now. He feared another flashback would slam him in the face soon, especially if they were attacked.

"Come on Tsuna," Yamamoto put a hand on his shoulder. "You can try, right?" His expression formed into worry as he lowered his voice. "You don't have to if you aren't calm yet from earlier…"

Tsuna's face felt hot from embarrassment as he remembered Yamamoto had seen that awful panic attack earlier. Usually, he was away from Yamamoto and Gokudera when he would break down like that. Or, Hibari was usually the one who could realize very quickly that he had a terrible flashback and usher him away before his friends could fully see the damage. And when Hibari wasn't there, he would lock himself somewhere and ride it out as long as he had to (there's been quite a few times where he's sat in the bathroom of his house, completely drained and tears dried to his face). Was he worried he would go through another one…?

It was sweet, Tsuna had to admit, but he still pulled away. He hoped his expression was reassuring, but he never was good at acting. "I can do it…I think." He added under his breath, before stepping in the lead. With a quick glance around, he tried to dig up memories from this life.

Wasn't there…a glass building? Near the entrance…? He wondered as he slowed down slightly, staring at the path. Yeah…there was a glass building that had the garden zoo…

Sadly, the area that was supposed to hold the glass building was instead a sad site of rubble and dried mud. There was no way they could have used any of it as a hideout or even a "cell" for anyone. So Fuuta couldn't be there (or Hibari, Tsuna added to himself, dejectedly).

Still, they looked around…and Yamamoto found animal tracks.

They were huge, bigger than most dogs, and seemed to track blood. For a moment, Tsuna was reminded of a smiling boy with fangs and marks on his face, followed around by a large white dog. He suddenly wished the boy was here, vaguely remembering that he was a tracker.

Bianchi pointed out large gashes in the trees, and broken cages among the pile of rubble from the broken-down zoo that that bite marks around the edges of the bars. Matched with the sudden familiar feeling of pure animalistic bloodlust he had a suspicion they had walked right into their first ambush of the day.

His feeling was right when zombie-like feral animals suddenly attacked them, aiming for Yamamoto and Gokudera first.

As they began to run, another one – more human but still just as feral – came from underground, attacking the one nearest to him.

Which happened to be Yamamoto.

He slid on the ground, and fell into a hole, the mystery person who had attacked him followed, yelling, "Welcome!" with sick glee.

Reborn was the first to figure out that were standing on the roof of the garden zoo, but now all they could do was watch as Yamamoto was forced to fight one of the guys from Kokuyou.

Ken was fast, he was dangerous, and Yamamoto still thought it was a game.

It was getting to the point where Tsuna practically just wanted to sit him down and tell him he was in actual danger during these fights. Sure, he might lose Yamamoto as a friend (and as a Family member, but Reborn was far more concerned with that than he was) but it would be worth it not to see Yamamoto hurt…

Gokudera seemed as worried as he was, wanting to blow up the place but couldn't or Yamamoto would have been buried under the rubble.

Tsuna had to admit, it was reassuring to see someone worrying just as much as he was.

It was the point where Yamamoto admitted he had important things to do this autumn, reminding Tsuna of the tournament coming up, that he felt guilt. He shouldn't have agreed to let Yamamoto come…he had more important things to worry about. He loved baseball and not being able to play this season would definitely cause him to do something drastic.

So, to answer his fears…

Reborn decided to push Tsuna in.

He felt like cursing his "mentor" with every swear he knew, and that was including the ones he made up in his past.

Yamamoto, with the new danger of his friend getting hurt, fought seriously and won. Though, he injured his arm in the process. It was well enough that he could still keep going with baseball later that season, luckily enough.

It didn't stop Tsuna from feeling guilty.

Bianchi had brought rope ("You never know when you need it, right?" Bianchi winked. Tsuna shivered.) so they tied up Ken in the hole just in case he woke up again and decided to follow them. She had also carried some medical supplies, so she cleaned and bandaged Yamamoto's wound before Reborn gave him a new bat to fight with.

"Well," Gokudera smiled wide, relief that the fight was over was prominent on his face. "We just beat the animal freak and it looks like spectacles is still out…I didn't think bringing down Mukuro would be such a breeze!"

Tsuna grimaced. If he knew anything about opponents like these, there was no way that they were beaten this easily, no matter how hopeful it seemed at first.. He opened his mouth just to voice that when Ken began laughing from the hole he was in.

Here we go…

"There's no way you can defeat Mukuro-san!" He laughed. "All of you are going to die before you see his face!"

Tsuna got a sudden memory of multiple people with orange hair cloaked in red. He hated how familiar it felt, it just made everything all the more disorienting.

…wait. He might be close to Mukuro, right? Or at least, Mukuro must have shared information with him…

"H-Hey…" Tsuna went to the side of the hole, just as Gokudera threw sand in. He stopped Bianchi with a hand as she was about to knock Ken out with a large rock she had found. He looked down at Ken, his heart beating fast as he uneasily voiced his question. His voice wavered. "B-Before us…was there…another person who came here? Dark hair and eyes, wielding two tonfa and wearing the Namimori Uniform?"

Everything seemed to pause and the air felt thick. Ken stared at him in surprise, the others did as well. Gokudera let out an annoyed sound before standing up, stuffing his hands into his pockets and going to stand next to Yamamoto, grumbling. Tsuna heard a sigh from Reborn and Bianchi giggled, muttering something about "young love." He tried to ignore them, determination, anxiety, and anger from a previous life fueled him, he glared down at the animalistic boy, clenching his fists.

"Answer me." He practically growled through clenched teeth. "Have you seen him or not?!"

"Oh, that guy?" Ken laughed. "What, is he your boyfriend or something? Well don't hold your breath! I'm sure Mukuro has thrown him away by now! Especially if you're here after him!"

Tsuna felt the urge to punch him, tears prickling his eyes at the thought of Hibari hurt or dead. But he knew Hibari was alive, he could feel it. And he knew that it wouldn't end well if he jumped in there to try to get information out of Ken first-hand.

His mind glossed over what Ken had said once again, and he tried to ignore how his cheeks were obviously going red at the boyfriend comment (they're just friends! This was a completely platonic thing that was happening between them!) but it was hard to when Ken was laughing and the others, save for Gokudera, were staring at him.

"Tsuna…" Reborn suddenly called out in warning. "We talked about this…"

He gritted his teeth. Right. Mission first, Hibari second.

He was starting to regret "promising" that to Reborn.

("Those that break the rules and regulations are scum. But those who abandon their comrades are even worse than scum." The words echoed in Tsuna's mind. He tried to ignore it.)

With a grumble at Bianchi to drop the rock, he turned away to try and calm himself. Though, he had to admit…the sound of it hitting Ken right in the face, followed by a low groan and Bianchi's comments of him twitching was sickeningly satisfying.

No one asked him about Hibari or even mentioned him as they moved on.

A part of him was incredibly grateful, even if he felt like they were judging him for letting his emotions take over like that.

O~O~O

Tsuna is here.

The realization came suddenly, like a slap to the face or a salty wave had hit him and knocked him to the ground.

One moment, he was trying to focus on letting his wounds heal, and in another his eyes had snapped open as the feeling hit him.

It was odd, with the realization that somehow, he was connected to Tsuna on such a level that he could feel when he was nearby. It was indescribable, like an itch that wouldn't go away or the prickling feeling of something just barely grazing your skin.

He decided not to tell Tsuna this. He probably didn't feel it like he did.

Still, his heart jumped with the realization that Tsuna was probably here to look for him. And on that path, he would end up fighting the pineapple who he didn't know was using illusions for battle.

He needed to get out. Now.

Tsuna wasn't getting hurt. And if that pineapple did try to hurt him…

Well, hell wouldn't even be close to what Hibari was going to rain down on him.