Chapter Nine

Tsuna stopped running once they were at his house. He looked behind him. Huff...Good thing Hibari-san isn't chasing us yet! But I'll probably get another beating...

He still hurt from the one sided fight Hibari had with him during lunch for not being able to fight him on Saturday. He was only saved by the bell. After that, he dashed home with his friends right on his tail, zooming by Hibari without a word. Thankfully, the prefect didn't feel like chasing him.

"Good, you're back!"

"HIIIIE! R-Reborn? Stop scaring me like that!"

"Get everyone inside, Dame-Tsuna. And have Ryohei check your arm while you're at it."

Tsuna sighed. "Hai, hai...I'm home!" He yelled and slammed the door behind him.

"Hello, Tsuna." Bianchi was leaning against the wall just inside the entrance. Tsuna blinked foolishly. He turned to his right, where he could see Gokudera's face twist in pain.

"A-Aneki..." Gokudera groaned and turned green as he collapsed.

"Bianchi...what are you doing here?"

"Hey, lil' bro!" came a shout from further in the house. With a glance, Tsuna saw Dino sitting on the stairs. Romario stood beside him. He smiled and nodded at the teens.

"Dino-san as well?"

"I thought I'd stay for a while. Your dad went somewhere with that pupil of his and asked me to protect you. I'll be hanging around town for a few days but I need to go back by Friday."

"A-Ah..."

"But he's mostly here for Mama's food," Reborn said. He tilted his fedora up and grinned.

"Reborn..." Dino said with a nervous laugh. "Always joking—but I wouldn't mind having dinner as well!" he added quickly.

"Yeah..." Tsuna's mouth twitched into a slight smile. He and Yamamoto went to pick their unconscious friend off the ground. Bianchi pushed herself off the wall and walked towards them.

"I'll tend to him," Bianchi said. Reborn sat on Yamamot's left shoulder and turned to face her.

"Bianchi, bring him up to Tsuna's room." She nodded and half dragged her loving brother up the stairs. Dino stepped out of the way and said to Tsuna, "We saw your detective talking to Mama."

"HIIIEE! D-Did Kaa-san tell him anything?" Reborn whacked him on the head with a Leon-flyswatter. Ow... he thought and knew better than to complain out loud.

Reborn huffed. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course she didn't. Nothing important, anyways."

Dino shrugged. "She doesn't know about the mafia in the first place so there isn't anything for her to tell. But if he asked questions like where you have been going off to for the last few weeks, then..." He shrugged. "Oh right—I also bumped into Kyoya today."

HIIIEE...

"The director of the hospital told him that a detective went to look at the records of you and your guardians."

"H-Hold on...Hibari-san told you that and he didn't kill you?" Tsuna asked. He opened his bedroom door and sat by the table. Gokudera was on his bed with a wet towel over his forehead.

Dino rubbed his back painfully.

"We did have a fight…but because Romario wasn't with me, it was shorter than usual… and he told me to get rid of the herbivore that's ruining the peace of Namimori."

That makes sense... Tsuna thought.

"I half expected him to tell me to kill the dude!" Dino joked.

"D-Don't!"

"Calm down, Tsuna. I won't do that…" Tsuna sagged with relief. "Unless there's no other choice."

"I hope it doesn't come to that then," the brunet said. I haven't actually seen Dino-san kill someone before...has he actually...?

"SAWADA! LET'S SEE HOW YOU'RE DOING!" Ryohei was pumped with adrenaline, like always.

"A-Ah...right." He pulled up his sleeve and Ryohei stretched his sun flames to seep through the cast and onto the wound. Tsuna instantly felt a warm feeling run through his veins, recharging his energy.

"It's almost healing to the extreme," he said. "I must have guessed wrong. Sawada will probably be better in two or three days."

"Two days? Not a week?" Tsuna asked. "A-Are you sure, Onii-san?" Ryohei nodded confidently.

"Even though it heals much slower, Sawada's wounds heal faster than normal people's do. So, two days." Reborn hopped onto the table.

"That's good news. Tsuna will be able to train for a while to get ready for the attack."

"I totally forgot about that!" Reborn eyes sharpened and he kicked Tsuna beneath the chin.

"A boss can never forget important things concerning the family!"

"Let's start on our homework, eh?" Yamamoto said when Tsuna groaned, which proved he was still alive. "I'm having trouble with the math questions and I was hoping Gokudera could help us with it."

"Me too," Tsuna said.

"What are you talking about, Dame-Tsuna? I'm your tutor. If you have any problems, ask me." His student gave him a sideways glance.

But whenever I ask a stupid question I get blasted...And that is almost all the time, he thought in horror.

"If you don't finish your homework I'll shoot you."

"HIIIIEEEE! Don't shoot! It won't help!" Reborn lowered the gun. It turned back to Leon the Chameleon.

"Hn. Maybe I should have you go to school in your Hyper Dying Will Mode from now on. That way, you can concentrate in class."

"T-That won't be a good idea! What happens if they see the flame on my forehead?"

"Tsk. If you don't want to go to school in that mode, then you better pay attention to what I'm teaching you."

"R-Right..." Reborn showed them which equations to use and how to start. Once they understood the basics, he made them memorize the formula, and then shredded the example paper. Tsuna practically cried. Yamamoto laughed.

"I still don't get it to the extreme!" Ryohei said.

"You won't get it if I just show you," Reborn said. "Maybe I can substitute the numbers and variations into punches and kicks." He did just that. In just a few seconds, a battered Ryohei lay on Tsuna's floor looking dazed.

"Onii-san, are you okay?"

"Senpai looks like he was just hit by a truck, hahahah!" Yamamoto said. Tsuna looked at him and was about to say something when Ryohei sat up with fire in his eyes.

"I UNDERSTAND HOW TO DO IT TO THE EXTREME, MASTER PAO PAO!" Yamamoto and Tsuna started at the comment.

"You do?"

"Ugh..." Gokudera was coming around. His eyes opened slightly. "Juudaime?"

"Gokudera-kun! How are you feeling?"

"W-Where's my sister?"

"She said that she was going to make you a cup of tea," Yamamoto said. Ryohei was in the background punching in the air with a pencil balanced on the bridge of his nose.

"Hah...?" Gokudera's face paled at the thought. "Uh, Juudaime, I think I'm going to go home a bit early today...bye."

"U-uh...okay… Ciao..." Tsuna said absentmindedly. Gokudera darted to the window, looked down, left, right, and jumped. "G-Gokudera-kun?" He rushed to the window in time to see his friend run for his life up the street with Bianchi right behind him.

... Tsuna's mind was blank for a moment until Reborn half kicked him out the window. Tsuna screamed and flailed until he had a firm grip on the frame.

"What was that for?"

"Do your homework, Dame-Tsuna. Ryohei's already half done."

"Eh?" He looked at him. Indeed, Ryohei had stopped doing boxing moves and was scribbling numbers into his book. I-Is he even doing it correctly?

After the homework, Yamamoto and Ryohei left.

"TSUNA! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!" Lambo screamed. He barged in and jumped on the brunet's back which had them both fall to the ground.

"Okay, okay! You didn't have to tackle me!" He grumbled and got to his feet. Dino laughed.

"You're well loved by your family, Tsuna." Tsuna opened his mouth to correct him, but sighed instead. He opened the door and left with Lambo on his head, pulling his hair this way and that as if he was a horse. Dino and Reborn exchanged a victorious smirk with each other before going down as well.

"Whaa-a-a!" Dino slipped and bumped his was down the stairs. Tsuna and Lambo, who were only half way down, got caught in it as well.

"Ahh! … Egh..." They fell on the landing like a sack of potatoes.

"Oh my! Are you two playing again?" Nana asked and giggled. "You can play later. Aren't you hungry?"

Dino gave her charming smile. "I always have enough room in me for Mama's food." He helped Tsuna to his feet. Reborn was already in the kitchen sitting on a chair with about a dozen pillows so that he could reach the top.

How did he get there so fast? Dino and Tsuna blinked at their tutor for half a minute before Nana noticed.

"Eh? Tsu-kun, Dino-kun, don't you doing to sit?"

"Yeah...just...confused..." Tsuna replied. Nana laughed.

"Baka Tsuna's always confused!" Lambo spitted out rice as he spoke.

"Lambo! It's not nice to call people that!" I-pin said.

"Baka I-pin!" Lambo stuck his tongue out at her.

"Na!" They bickered. Tsuna wolfed down his dinner before Reborn could steal any. The hitman still managed to get a quarter of it.

"You need more practice," Reborn told him in Italian. Dino laughed at Tsuna's misfortune.

"You should look after your own food," Reborn said.

"You can't steal my food!" Dino challenged. Reborn smirked.

"I don't need to; half of it is already on the table." Dino looked down. Sure enough, his shirt had a few specks of rice and his side of the table had even more, plus some of the meat and vegetables.

"Where did Romario go?" Tsuna wondered.

"He said he was going for a drink with Kusakabe," Dino said gloomily.

"I-pin's not fair!" Lambo's complaint interrupted the conversation. He took out a grenade.

"L-Lambo! No bombs at the dinner table!" Tsuna shrieked. "Please—not here!" Lambo looked at him and grinned mischievously.

"Beg me."

"No!" he exclaimed. "Just don't blow us up during meal times! I'll buy you takoyaki if you don't!"

"Yahaa!" Lambo cheered. He threw the grenade away. Tsuna quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket. How many does he have in his hair? He thought.


The next day, Kenshin received a phone call which woke him up from his light sleep.

"Hello?"

"Yo, detective-san!" A cheery voice greeted.

"Hn? Who is this?"

"I work under the lieutenant. I have some good news you might want to hear." He sat up in bed.

"What?"

"There are two people available in Namimori who can help you with the case."

"Why haven't I been told of this before?"

"Well...I just found out that they live in Namimori, you know? It's a brother and a sister. Both of them are trained agents, so they can help you to some extent. They're paying you a visit today in the afternoon."

"Exactly who are they?"

"The older brother, Hitomi Masahiro is twenty-three and the younger sister, Hitomi Masami is twenty."

"They're pretty young."

"Young, but well trained. They know how to keep their cool in a tight situation. Oh—they're also carrying weapons."

"You just had to add that in," Kenshin muttered. He, as a private investigator, didn't usually have a gun on him.

"So anyways, they're about five feet eight and seven inches. Both have brown hair and green eyes—"

"Brown hair and green eyes?"

"Pfft, yeah, what do you expect? They're half Italian on their mother's side. They were born with blonde hair, but they do most of their missions in Japan, and that foreign colour sticks out too much. They sometimes wear contacts but they aren't going to in this case."

"I see…" No, I don't see, he thought. So they just happen to be Italian, eh? He looked at the clock. There was still half an hour before his target's house played their war zone sound track.

"How long have they been working with the police for?"

"Roughly…" he heard a piece of paper being flipped, "Wow. About eight years."

"WHAT?"

"Ow-w...? Please refrain from shouting in my ear?" he said in a questioning tone. "They were recruited at a young age after their parents died on their own mission—yes, they were also agents. Apparently, they taught their kids some stuff. They told the police that they knew where the druggies were hidden, but—"

"Are you talking about that huge case that took five years to arrest the entire gang?" Kenshin interrupted.

"Yes," the man was irritated. "Anyways, the police didn't believe them, and after that, they forgot about the two kids until one day Hitomi Masami dragged an unconscious and tied leader of the group right in front of the police headquarters. She threw pictures at the officer who met her at the front gate, which was evidence that he was the leader, not to mention a picture of him killing a guy. They charged and arrested the man. Then after they questioned the girl, she mentioned that her brother was still at the gang's hideout keeping an eye on the other people they tied up. And so, it was two kids who solved the case using their parents' leads."

"They…captured the ones who the police have been after for five years? If they can do it, why couldn't the police do it?"

"The gang was wary of adults, but they didn't even notice the little kids who always happened to be around wherever they went."

"So what happened to the kids after that?"

"Well, the chief in the mafia crime department sort of suspected that they might get themselves into more trouble, since they also happen to know how to use a gun perfectly and are black belts so he… recruited them to keep them out of trouble, and sent them to spy on targets when they had trouble getting information from the adult spies. They are also pretty smart."

Child prodigies, Kenshin thought. "Have they been to their mother's home country before?"

"Yeah, of course—they took advantage of that and had the siblings look into some mafia families."

"Hm…"

"I know what you're thinking. No, they aren't in the mafia. There's no way they can be in the mafia. They've helped up capture at least ten dozen gangs. Why would they be in the mafia if they were capturing them?"

"But what if they're doing that to gain your trust?"

"Seriously, at sixteen—until now? No, I just don't see that happening. Besides, the mafia don't accept anyone who has close contacts with the authorities. Huh, we've talked long enough. Good day to you and I hope you keep your sanity."

Click.

"Hmph."


"Tsuna, wake up," Reborn said.

"Nn…"

Reborn hit Tsuna with a hammer.

"Ooff!" Tsuna groaned and his eyes fluttered. "Wha…?"

Reborn cocked the gun. Tsuna's eyes flew open.

"HIIIEEE! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Reborn smirked.

"Time for school." Tsuna's eyes closed and he fell to his bed. Snoring. Reborn wasted no time.

BAM!

The Dying Will bullet hit Tsuna's forehead and his eyes turned orange with a flame visible. His pyjamas were torn off as he jumped out of bed. He wore only his boxers.

"RE…BORN! I WILL THROW REBORN OUT OF THE ROOM SO I CAN SLEEP FOR ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES WITH MY DYING WILL! AAARRRGG!" Reborn blinked and blinked again at this very brave and stupid statement. The door slammed open and Dino was there in his black t-shirt and white shorts holding his whip.

"Tsuna! What's going…?" Tsuna picked Reborn up and threw him at the door just as Dino opened it. The only thing the twenty-two year old saw before tumbling down the stairs was a pair of very familiar looking feet. Reborn used Dino's face as a landing point and kicked off back into the room.

"ARRRGG!" Tsuna roared madly. He went to get Reborn but this time, Reborn jumped away and punched his student. BOOM! He smacked against the ceiling and came back down unaffected. He charged at Reborn again, this time just aiming to land a blow on him. After five minutes, Tsuna became his normal self. Reborn stood over him, his fedora shading his eyes from the morning sun.

"U-Uhm, Reborn…" Tsuna stuttered, "I…didn't really mean it…?"


Outside, Kenshin could see the Sawada house shake as if they were having their own miniature earthquake. Added to the quake were screams fit for a horror film. He sipped his coffee and returned to his newspaper.


Reborn walked out the room with not a single hair out of place. In the room, lay a half dressed Tsuna, ninety-eight percent bruised. Reborn avoided the arm for the sake for being able to tor—ahemtrain his student more after he has become fully healed instead of having him die now because the wound reopened.

Tsuna ran out the door after having a late breakfast. Half way to school, he met Gokudera and Yamamoto.

"Good morning, Juudaime!"

"Hey, Tsuna!"

"Good morning!" He slowed to a walk.

"This baseball freak was just telling me that your arm will be fully recovered the day after tomorrow, Juudaime! Thank god for that!"

"Y-Yeah! But…are you ready for Saturday? I have no idea what we should do," Tsuna whispered to his two friends as they walked in the hall. Both of them were silent for a moment, and then Yamamoto started laughing. Gokudera glared at him.

"What are you laughing for?"

"Hahah, well, I was just thinking that everything usually works out okay in the end," he said. Tsuna looked unconvinced. Yamamoto's right long, athletic arm snaked behind Tsuna's back and jabbed Gokudera's arm. Tsuna failed to notice this. Gokudera gave Yamamoto a questioning glare. In reply, he just thrust his chin at their friend's downcast face. Gokudera's mouth made an O.

"Don't worry, Juudaime! We'll do just fine! Every single one of us has been training very hard! Even that Dokuro girl; Mukuro has been teaching her some magic tricks." Gokudera shuddered at the memory of seeing Chrome work on the practice moves Mukuro drilled into her head in an empty yard a week ago.

"Trust me on this—nothing bad will happen. We will all come back and celebrate…I'll even drag that skylark along no matter what he says!"

Tsuna's mouth twitched at the thought of Gokudera dragging Hibari down the road with Hibari digging his heels into the dirt, refusing to budge, and Gokudera gritting his teeth and pulling with all his might but going nowhere. The tableau looked very comical.

"Pfft—" he burst out laughing. "Hahaha!"

"See, everyone will do fine," Yamamoto smiled. "Put some faith in us!"

"Thanks you two," Tsuna said. He felt an unnoticed load lifted from his shoulders.

"Oh, shoot," Yamamoto suddenly said.

"Wh-What?" Tsuna looked at his taller friend.

"I forgot we are having a history test today before lunch."

"Ehh!" Yamamoto laughed.

"I've been training so hard, I totally forgot about it—ahahaha!"

"Oh, I'm so dead…"

"Juudaime! How about I get the teacher to postpone it to next week for you?" Gokudera already had his dynamites ready. All he was waiting for was Tsuna's approval before he could start "asking nicely".

"G-Gokudera-kun…I don't think that's a good idea…"

"Leave it to me, Juudaime!"

"Ahh! Don't, Gokudera-kun!"

"Now, now, Gokudera! Calm down," Yamamoto laughed. "It won't help if you blow up the classroom with your fireworks again!"

"They're not fireworks, you baseball nut! Juudaime, are you sure?" Tsuna nodded vigorously.

"It's fine, Gokudera-kun. S-So put those away before Hibari-san sees them!"


Fourth Period

Eh…Reborn's going to kill me, Tsuna thought as he tapped the end of his pencil to his head in the middle of the test. The only thing he wrote down was his name. He looked at the clock anxiously. They had until the end of the class to finish the test. He lowered his head to the desk and tried to think of what to write for the short answers. He half guessed the multiple choice ones, with only a faint recollection on what the topic was about. Arg! I don't remember where or why or how the dude was assassinated! Something about his friend warning him…and he tried to lure the assassins to a place he could outsmart them…that must be it. Tsuna nodded and wrote that down. But…didn't Reborn say that he just went to where it was hard for the assassins to group up and strike all at once…and somewhere that gave him a lot of cover? Tsuna shut his eyes and was in the process of pulling his hair out. But he still died, right? Sigh… Then his head came up.

"Eh?"' Tsuna voiced.

"Sawada, is there a problem?" His teacher sighed. The class turned to look at him.

"Uh…nothing…never mind…" The brunet ignored the laughs and thought of an idea. Couldn't we also do that with the assassins that are after me? We could fight them in the abandoned warehouses. There, we can keep others who aren't involved out of danger, and we can go all out…

For the remaining time of the test, he worked his slow brain around this idea…which probably wasn't what he should have been doing during a test.

"Time's up!" Tsuna jumped a little in his seat. The teacher's voice in the silence was like an explosion—and he knew those well. "Drop all pencils and give your test to the person in front of you!" Tsuna looked at the paper and his eyes widened as he realised that he only answered five questions and doodled all over the rest, illustrating random items involved in his mafia life with a poor artistic hand. There were the rings, pacifiers, swords, dynamites, grenades; all sort of things were messily drawn. He tried to erase them.

"SAWADA! What are you doing?"

"N-Nothing!" He tossed his paper to the person sitting in front of him. After collecting the tests, their teacher left the room to eat his lunch.

"Nnnn!" Yamamoto stretched and made his way to Tsuna's desk. "How was your test?"

"Horrible."

Enma and Shittopi-chan also appeared.

"Haha! Same here. I only answered half of the questions!"

"Che! You should have studied while you had time," Gokudera said as he sauntered over.

"How do you think you did?" Hana asked. She and Kyoko were at their seats with their lunch boxes out.

Kyoko smiled at Tsuna. "That test was sort of hard, wasn't it, Tsuna-kun?"

"A little…"

"I aced it, of course!" Gokudera yelled at Hana. "That test was so easy!"

Only Gokudera-kun would think that!

"SAWADA!" Tsuna cringed.

"Onii-chan! Are you going to eat with Tsuna-kun?" Kyoko asked her brother.

"OI! STOP DRAGGING ME! I CAN WALK MYSELF!" Aoba yelled from behind Ryohei. The boxing man ignored the cry and went to Tsuna's desk while dragging him.

"OF COURSE! Come on, let's go to the roof!"

"STUPID TURF-TOP! WE CAN'T GO TO THE ROOF! IT'S TOO OPEN!" Gokudera yelled.

"What do you mean by the roof is too open? A roof is always like that! You get fresh air to the extreme!"

"We're eating in the classroom and that's final!" Gokudera smashed his hand to Tsuna's desk as though they were in court, making Tsuna jump. When they were all settled in, Tsuna explained to them what he had in mind.

"But," Yamamoto said, "didn't that guy die in the end?" Gokudera glared as Yamamoto shot down Tsuna's idea.

"You idiot—he was by himself. Juudaime will have his six guardians with him!"

"Seven," Yamamoto corrected. "Don't forget Chrome…and Basil might join us to play this game."

After everything we've been through, he still thinks the mafia is a game…? No way…he's joking, right? "So…do you guys think it's a good idea?" Tsuna asked hopefully. He noticed that Ryohei hasn't said a word yet. "Onii-san?"

"I think it's an EXTREME idea, Sawada!" He roared.

"Definitely! Juudaime's ideas are the best!"

"It's a good one," Enma mumbled and bit at the chocolate bar.

Yamamoto laughed and agreed. "Should we tell the kid about it?"

"You mean Reborn? Yes, I think we have to tell him."

"Tsuna, you actually thought of a plan," a voice said. "But how did your test come along?" The brunet looked around. Isn't that Reborn's voice? Where's it coming from?

Whiirrrr…

"HIIIEEEE!" The middle of Tsuna's desk rose to reveal Reborn drinking espresso sitting on a couch. "Reborn! How'd you hide there? It's my desk!"

"Shut up, Dame-Tsuna."

"Reborn…"

"Tsuna's idea is a good one." He repeated Enma's comment, which caused the boy to blink in surprise.

"I-It is?" Tsuna was shocked that Reborn would agree with him.

"Of course. I thought of it in the first place. I was going to tell you all on Friday but I guess now you know."

So Reborn already thought of it? I should have known…

"Mama, Iemitsu, I-pin, and Fuuta will be leaving for a trip in Italy tomorrow. They will be back next week after everything is over. Basil is staying with us."

"Wait Reborn-san…how come the Varia isn't dealing with this assassin attack?" Gokudera asked.

"It would be easier if the Varia helped. The mission definitely has a high success rate but Xanxus only works for the ninth. Besides, he wants to see Tsuna dead, so there's no way he would help."

He didn't need to put it that way… Tsuna thought to himself. "What about Haru and Kyoko-chan?" He asked.

Reborn replied, "They should be safe. After all, the assassins are not after them. Unless they try to interfere with their plans on killing you, they are safe."

"Oi, are you extremely sure?" Ryohei asked.

"Of course I'm sure. I'm the best hitman in the world. I am never wrong." Then he kicked Tsuna.

"Ow! What was that for! I didn't do anything wrong!" He covered his bruising nose.

"We're starting some more training today in the basement."

"The basement?" Yamamoto said curiously. "Is that the room we went into under Tsuna's yard?"

"Yup."

"But that's an interrogation room!" Tsuna said. "How can we train there?"

"It's not only an interrogation room. It's also a training room, a safe house, and food storage, in case of emergencies." Gokudera's eyebrows rose.

"That's amazing, Reborn-san!" He smirked.

"I'm still injured!" Tsuna whined.

"The training you are doing today won't need you to fight back so you can take it easy." Tsuna grinned at his luck. Maybe his tutor has a beating heart after all.

"Oh yeah, Tsuna-kun," Enma said suddenly. "We were followed home yesterday. By that detective that was supposed to follow you."

"E-Eh! Did he find out you're in the mafia?" Tsuna asked nervously in a whisper. Enma shrugged.

"We need to go back to our own town soon," Shittop-chan said. "The gang there might try to take over again, and then all our hard work will be wasted."

"O-Oh…" Tsuna's heart sank. He didn't want to involve Enma and his friends in his assassinaton problem as well, but if Enma was with him, he had a feeling no one can defeat them. "When will you leave?"

"That depends," Enma said in that gloomy voice of his. "Adelheid's second in command is supposed to call us right away if something goes wrong. It might be tomorrow, next week, or never."


Ding dong!

Kenshin looked through the eye piece of the front door and opened it to admit the Hitomi siblings.

"Hello."

"Good afternoon Kenshin," Hitomi Masahiro greeted. Masami smiled and nodded. "May we come in?"

"Yes, of course." The door widened and they stepped in.

Kenshin began to speak once they were settled on the carpeted floor. "I was thinking that we will meet at my house to discuss the mission. Do you know the people here well?"

"Yes, we do," Masami said. "To them, you are an old friend of ours and we eat dinner together sometimes. That will be the excuse for why we come over all the time. We didn't come over the first week because we were giving you the time to settle in."

"Yes, that's good," Kenshin said. "What do you know of Vongola Decimo?"

Masahiro spoke. "We don't know much about him, but his nature is a kind one and he protects people he likes. He has been in fights with other groups in the mafia. Recently, he is being targeted by a family."

"What do you think of headphones? One came to him in a package a while ago just before he and his friends went missing."

The siblings looked at each other.

"I think it's normal for a teenager to receive headphones. He might be using it for music."

"We have to get our hands on that headphone. I have been in their house before and I know Decimo's mother won't suspect me," Kenshin told them. They nodded.

Masahiro asked, "When will you do it?" Kenshin looked at the clock. It was just a little past lunchtime.

"Now. The target is in school and he won't be around to stop me from searching his room."

Masami nodded and smiled. "We also heard that the listening devices you placed in the house got destroyed by them."

"Yes," Kenshin said bitterly. "Within a week, they were all in pieces. A six year old with grenades and a teenager with dynamites were the cause of it. Whether it was done intentionally or not, it seems to me they have something to hide."

"We will wait here while you go into the Sawada Residence. Here." Masahiro gave Kenshin a small, black bag. He opened it curiously.

"What is it?"

"Communication: you can just clip it to the inside of your shirt and we will hear everything. It's attached to an ear bud which will allow you to listen to what we have to say."

Then Masami dumped the rest of the contents onto the table, which were simply five black devices. "These little things are more bugs you can plant in their home! Water proof, fire proof, possibly even bomb proof!" She gleamed.

"Wonderful." Kenshin tested the com. "Right. I'll be off then." He put the tiny black devices into a pocket and stood.

"Oh wait—wear this as well. It's a camera that we can control from here. We can take pictures and record videos that are instantly saved onto a hard drive," Masahiro said. Kenshin examined the horse shaped pin and noticed a small black dot for the horse's eye.

"Who made is? It's perfect!" He said in awe.

"A friend of ours," Masami said. "She will be glad that you like it."

He pinned it to his breast pocket and walked out the front door. He paused for a moment and decided to also bring a basket full of fruit as a gift. The siblings looked at each other.

"That went well," Masahiro commented.

"Indeed it did."

Kenshin, who walked to the other side, knocked on the door. He heard a muffled "Coming!"

The door opened. Nana greeted him with a surprised smile. "Hello, Nori-san! What brings you here?"

"Good afternoon, Sawada-san. I just came to thank you for the party. I know it's a bit late, but I've been busy, fitting in and all."

"Yes, yes, that's fine! Please, come in!"

"Thanks!"

"It's Kenshin!" Lambo screamed and pointed. I-pin took a more subtle approach and bowed.

"Welcome, Kenshin-san!"

"Hello, little ones. How are you?"

"Lambo-san is doing great!" He ran off to Nana. "Mama! Lambo-san wants to eat Yakibuta Ramen!"

"I-pin wants to eat it, too!"

"It's been such a long time since I cooked that," Nana giggled and knelt to eye level with the two. "Alright! Just play for a while and I'll have it ready!" She ushered them and Kenshin into the living room. She went to the fridge to get the ingredients but instead exclaimed, "Oh, dear! I don't have any pork or noodles! But I promised to make them ramen…" Kenshin overheard this and had an idea.

"Sawada-san, what about you go and buy what you need and I'll look after them?" He offered.

"Nice going, Kenshin!" Masahiro chuckled through the com.

"Hm…but Lambo-kun and I-pin are a handful," Nana said, unsure. "And Fuuta-kun will be coming for lunch..."

"It's alright! I can handle them!" KEnshin said confidently. "Trust me!" Nana thought for another moment. She smiled.

"Alright, I'll be right back! Please take care of them!" She gathered her wallet and shopping bags.

"Lambo-kun! I-pin! Mama's going to go out to buy some things! Listen to Kenshin-kun while I'm gone, okay?"

"Hai!" They replied.

"Thank you, Nori-san!" She put on her shoes and hummed a happy tune as she walked. Kenshin felt a tug on his pants.

"What?" He looked down to find Lambo and I-pin.

"Kenshin, play with us!"

"Okay…what do you want to play?"

"Tsuna and Lambo-san were playing videogames yesterday but he's not here now! Play videogames with me!"

"And…where are the videogames?"

"Dame-Tsuna's room!" Kenshin lit up.

"Alright! Let's go!" He and Lambo made their way up stairs. I-pin wasn't interested in the videogames, but she followed anyways. Kenshin noticed Iemitsu sprawled on the ground in the living room, sleeping away muttering, "Nana~!" Kenshin raised an eye brow but followed Lambo to Tsuna's room. He helped set up the consol and Lambo began to choose the game.

"See anything interesting?" he muttered.

Masahiro and Masami who were looking intently through the fish-eyed view of Tsuna's room said, "Not yet. Maybe he put them in a drawer." Kenshin nodded absentmindedly and turned his body around.

"I'm the hitman!" Lambo announced with a scream.

"So who am I?" He turned back to the screen.

"You're my target! You have to fight or run away from me! HAHAHAHA!" Kenshin tried to play, but because it was his first time, he didn't know how to use the controls and Lambo didn't bother to explain. He lost badly.

"I-pin, would you like to play first? I want to see how it's done." Kenshin gave I-pin the control. She took it and began to fight against Lambo.

"Lambo-sama is going to crush I-pin!" Kenshin sat on the chair for the desk and slowly opened the first drawer: nothing except for scrap pieces of paper and pencils. Second drawer was the same. The third one, which was also the last one, was tougher to open as if it were stuck. He put a bit more force on it and it popped open. The sound effects from the television screen masked the sounds. He looked at the kids. They were focused on the screen. He looked into the drawer and saw red headphones. There was fluffy black felt to make wearing it more comfortable. Both sides had a red twenty seven on it. Next to the headphones was a small blue box with no engravings on it. He sat on the floor and plucked it out of the drawer and closed it. He put the small box to his right side, where his knees would hide it from view.

"Haha! I got you, I-pin!"

"No you haven't!"

Kenshin opened the lid and found a pair of contact lens. A pair of contacts and red headphones. "People usually out things that are related to each other together," he whispered.

"So the contacts have something to do with the headphones?" Masami asked.

"You don't need contacts to use headphones. And Tsunayoshi doesn't need contacts anyways. His eyes work perfectly fine." Masahiro said. Kenshin slipped the box into his pocket and stuck a bug at the bottom of the drawer.

"No fair, I-pin! You cheated!" Lambo growled when he lost.

"I didn't cheat!"

"Rematch!"

"Maybe you should take the headphones," Masahiro suggested.

"No, he might notice it's gone and ask around who's been in his room."

"'Kenshin! It's your turn to face the great Lambo-sama!" Lambo screamed. The door bell rang.

"I'll play with you in a moment," he said and went down to answer the door.

"Hello, Kenshin-nii!"

"Fuuta, is it?" He recalled the name.

"Hai!"

"Sawada-san went out to buy some stuff."

"Where's I-pin and Lambo?" Fuuta kicked off his shoes and put them together neatly.

"They're in Tsuna's room." Fuuta smiled.

"Then I'll go there as well!" Kenshin nodded and was about to close the door when he heard: "Psst!" He raised his eyebrows and turned to his house. Masami was at the door. She mouthed, "Give us the contacts!" Kenshin walked halfway to meet her and tossed it. She caught it and they went back to their business. He opened the door to Tsuna's room and stared. The television was still on, but the three children were nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd they go?" He muttered. The door closed behind him as he stepping in.

"YAAAH!" Three voiced screamed.

"Gah!" Kenshin nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise. He fell and hit his head.

"Oww!" He said.

"We got you!" Lambo screamed in his ear.


Wheeee! Masahiro winced as the sound traveled through the com. Masami walked in and raised a brow at her brother's facial expression. Then she shrugged and wiggled the box in her hand.

"Got it!"

"Great. Bring it here."

"I'm going to go out to buy something. Be right back."

"Yup. Say hi for me."

"You bet."


"What the hell are you three doing?" Kenshin asked the kids. They laughed.

"We're playing hitman!" Fuuta said. "You were supposed to be knocked unconscious, though. Tsuna-nii always gets knocked out when he hits the floor."

"Now we have to search you for secret messages!" Lambo screamed again.

"What?"

"A hitman attacks his target and takes back the messages and items the target stole from him," Fuuta explained. "So we have to confiscate any papers or dangerous objects you have on you!"

"What kind of game is this?" Kenshin squawked. He tried to get up but I-pin single handed threw him back on the floor and locked his hands behind his back.

"YAHHAHA! YOU HAVE BEEN DEFEATED BY LAMBO-SAMA, THE GREATEST HITMAN IN THE WORLD!" Lambo stuck a grenade in Kenshin's open mouth. His eyes went wide.

"D-oo—t!" He screamed. Lambo skilfully tied a thin string to the grenade. This was one thing he was good at. Kenshin noticed that the other end was already tied to a table leg before he came in.

"Hahaha! Now you can't move unless you want the room to go KAPAA!" Lambo said triumphantly.

"Lambo, don't actually unpin it," Fuuta said. "Tsuna-nii will be mad if we mess up his room again!"

AREN'T THEY WORRIED ABOUT ME? Kenshin wailed in his head.

"Search him!" Lambo ordered with a wicked grin plastered on his face.

"There's a bag full of black candies," Fuuta observed.

He tried to say, "No, don't touch that!" but it came out as, "N—mph! Dun toush gaa!"

"Haha! Gimme the candy!" Lambo yelled and hopped on Kenshin's back to snatch the bag of listening devices from Fuuta's hands. He stuffed one into his mouth and chewed.

Crunch, crunch, crunch! Lambo spit it out.

"You have bad candy! It doesn't even taste good! I-pin, you can have it!" He tossed it to I-pin.

"I don't want it!"

"Me neither!" Fuuta said. Lambo pouted and shrugged. "Then I'm flushing it down the toilet!" He announced and ran off. Kenshin went limp when he heard the noise of the toilet flushing.

"Did you find anything else?" Lambo asked his subordinates when he came back.

"No," Fuuta said. Then Lambo spotted something shiny. He plucked the horse pin off the shirt.

"This is pretty!" Lambo squealed. "Lambo-san will keep this as an apology for the bad candy!" He put it on his own cow-printed clothing and grinned at Kenshin's widened eyes.

Half an hour later, Nana returned and went straight to cooking. She asked Kenshin to stay for lunch, but he politely refused her and left hastily. She noticed that his mouth seemed redder than usual, and also a bit swollen.

"I wonder what they played while I was gone," she mused. "Oh well!"

Outside, Reborn sat on the ledge.

"Ciaossu, Kenshin."

"Hello, Reborn. Aren't you going to eat lunch with the other kids?"

"I will, in a minute." His head turned to the right, where Hitomi Masami walking towards them. Reborn raised his eyebrows.

"Hello, Kenshin!" Masami waved. "Hello, Reborn-san! Aniki says hi!" Reborn smirked.

"I didn't know you lived around here."

"We don't," Masami piped. "Kenshin's a good friend of ours!" She winked at Reborn.

"Take care of your good friend, then," Reborn said.

"Don't worry! We'll take care of him." She bowed and followed Kenshin into the house, who didn't see anything odd about their words.

"Don't go overboard," Reborn muttered. "I'd hate to have to kill two bright young agents." Masami looked at him and winked again.


After school, in the training room

Take it easy, he says—there's nothing easy about this! Tsuna exclaimed in his head as he EEP'd and jumped to the left to avoid a bullet. It grazed his check ever so slightly.

"You're not concentrating enough," Reborn said. He jumped in the air and aimed at his student for the thirteenth time since they arrived home.

"Why can't I do this in Hyper Dying Will mode?"

"Because it will tire you out with that stupid arm of yours! Besides, it's about time you sharpened your senses without needing to go into hyper mode."

"HIIIEE!" Tsuna dived to the right. He felt the air above his hair ripple. He's trying to kill me! And he's using real bullets!

"Dame-Tsuna, haven't you realised that I predicted your movements?"

He's right…he knew where I was going… Tsuna gawked.

"I'm going easy on you. What will happen if I turn off the lights?"

"DON'T TURN THEM OFF!" Tsuna screamed anxiously. Reborn smirked and fired. Tsuna ducked.

-Flashback-

"Reborn, what kind of training are we doing?" Tsuna asked as he and his tutor descended the secret staircase.

"The enemy you face excels in guns. Not better than me, but good enough to have you pee your pants. If you get even a small scratch, it has the same effect. I need you to be able to dodge the bullets even if you're half asleep or near death."

"I can do that in hyper mode…"

"If you can, then how did you get hit?" Tsuna said nothing. "Plus, even after the wound heals, you will still be tired and your reactions will be slowed." Before Tsuna could interrupt, he said, "You can easily escape the bullets by using your hard flames, but as you have experienced, you have no control over it and will most likely go flying into a wall."

"That's harsh, Reborn…"

"If you can dodge a thousand bullets without a single scratch then we can end the training."

-Flashback End-

"Ahh!"

"You don't need to move so dramatically. You're wasting strength by jumping around. Moving a bit is enough to dodge a bullet."

"But I move too slowly!

"Then move faster!" Reborn shot again. Before he did, Tsuna saw the gun twitch and moved to the opposite direction.

"Awesome!" Tsuna said.

"That was on purpose," Reborn grinned evilly. Tsuna's smile dropped. A warning shot had Tsuna hopping on his toes. He looked for his tutor and found him on top of a crate.

BAM! Tsuna ducked.

"Good job avoiding that one. Now you need to avoid nine hundred and ninety-nine more." The brunet groaned. "Focus!" He ordered and fired.

"EEEP!" He ran.

"Stop thinking nonsense and plan your actions!" He's right, Tsuna thought. My head's filled with fear…but how can it not when he's shooting at me? Um…first I have to um…stop…thinking? He thought crazily as he saw Reborn aim for him and ducked out of sight behind a metal table—what kind of training room was this?

Reborn ceased fire for a moment. Tsuna caught his breath and wiped sweat from his brow. He peeked out and let out a yelp when a bullet pinged off against the metal. He decided to run to the next shelter since Reborn's voice was getting closer.

"Dame-Tsuna can't hide for more than one minute."

"SOMEONE SAAAAVE MEEEE!" Tsuna screamed as Reborn let out a round of bullets to chase after his student.


Tsuna collapsed on his bed after Reborn stopped their training for the day. His mother passed by the door with a basket of unwashed clothes.

"Eh? Tsu-kun, did you fall again?"

"Huh?"

"You have scratches all over your face," she said worriedly. "And your clothes are a mess! Hurry and go take a shower. I'll wash your clothes."

His muscles groaned as he sat up. For training that didn't need him to fight back, he was dead tired.

Once he finished with his shower, he bumped into Lambo in the hall.

"Huh? Lambo, are you okay? Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"Baka Tsuna!" Lambo said. "A slave isn't supposed to hurt their master!"

"Nnn! Who are you calling a slave?" Tsuna exclaimed. He bent down and tickled Lambo until he gave in.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Dame-Tsuna, STOP!" He laughed hysterically. Tsuna chuckled and went downstairs holding Lambo.

"Lambo, what's that on your shirt?" He noticed the pin.

"I took it from Kenshin for giving me bad candy!"

"Kenshin-san? When did you see him today?" Tsuna asked.

"He came for lunch," I-pin squeaked and hopped into Tsuna's arms as well. She clambered onto his shoulder.

"But he didn't eat with us," Fuuta said. He met them at the bottom of the stairs. "Maybe Lambo scared him too much."

"NYAHAHA! Of course I did!" Lambo said.

"Lambo, you can't just steal things from people," Tsuna lectured. "Give it back to him after dinner!"

"Stingy-Tsuna!" Lambo pouted, but didn't refuse, which was odd.

They went into the kitchen, where Reborn was sipping his espresso. Basil sat beside him. He smiled up at Tsuna.

"Hello, Sawada-dono!"

"Hey, Basil-kun," he greeted, and then turned back to Lambo. "What did he do while you guys were here?" Tsuna asked curiously.

"We played video games!"

"Video games?"

"And also live hitman!" Fuuta said. "But we had to stop when Mama came home."

"H-How did you play hitman…?" Tsuna was afraid to know. Lambo described what they did perfectly. After all, there was no shame in saying how they knocked down a grown man. But I-pin had to correct him when Lambo said he was the one who stopped Kenshin from getting back up.

"So you guys were in my room? And you could have blown it up?" Tsuna's voice went up level.

"But we didn't," Lambo protested. Nana put a plate of food in front of him and he ate with gusto. Tsuna finally noticed that the table was covered with food fit for a king.

"Waaaa! What's with all the food?" Tsuna's eyes sparkled and he licked his lips.

"Are? We're leaving tomorrow, so this is a farewell meal!" Nana sang. "Eat up! I put all my love in it!"

"Thanks for the food!" The rest of them said before digging in.

"I wish Tsu-kun could come with us," Nana told her husband as they ate.

"A-Ah, well he has to go to school, right?" Iemitsu said. "We can't have him miss any classes!"

"Y-Yeah, you can take a break from taking care of like…eight people in the house," Tsuna said. "It must be exhausting."

"Why isn't Lambo-kun coming with us?" Nana wondered. Tsuna had no answer for this. He stupidly left his mouth opened and uttered a single note: "Ah…"

"Lambo-san wants to fight!" He said. Tsuna tried to cover his mouth but it was too late. Nana thought nothing of it, just like the time when Lambo told her they went into the future.

"Alright…Oh, I asked Bianchi to come over to take care of you all," Nana remembered.

"Ugh…you don't mean…"

"Yes! She'll be living here while we are gone!" Nana smiled.

"And does that mean…"

"Mmhmm! She'll be taking care of the cooking!" Tsuna could have fainted then and there but instead he asked, "C-Could we just order take-out…? W-We don't want to bother Bianchi…"

Reborn smirked like there was no tomorrow. But, a small part of his mind said, we can't have Dame-Tsuna eating so much poison with the deadline so close. He can eat them afterwards. True, Reborn thought.

"Bianchi won't be cooking," he said. Tsuna sighed with relief but was alert the next second.

"What do you mean?" He asked suspiciously.

"We can't have you eating her cooking this week. We'll order pizza." Words couldn't describe how happy Tsuna felt that moment. "And if you get bored of that, you can always cook your own food."

"Whaat? But the only thing I'm good at cooking are eggs!" Reborn threw a chopstick so close to Tsuna's head a few hairs were cut loose. With a dull twang, the chopstick stuck to the wall. Tsuna didn't dare move.

"Then we will have your eggs. If they aren't as excellent as you promised me…" Reborn's eye had a dangerous glint to them. "And bring back my chopstick." Tsuna obeyed without question.

But I never said that it was excellent! He thought.

After the meal, he and Lambo went to Kenshin's house. "Never take something from someone ever again, okay?" Tsuna told the baby after he rang the doorbell. "Bakaa..." He was surprised when it instantly opened.

"Oh, Tsuna, it's you," he said.

"Erm. Hi, Kenshin-san. Lambo has something to say to you!" The brunet thrust Lambo in front of him, holding the baby by the middle.

Lambo looked bored and showed Kenshin the pin.

"Here, slave of mine. I was forced to give his back to you," he said. "If Tsuna didn't promise to bring me to the All You Can Eat Buffet in Yamamoto's restaurant, I'd never give this back to you."

"When did I promise you that?" Tsuna asked, bringing Lambo back to him so he can stare at him in the eye. Kenshin took the pin and said a quick thank you.

"Good night, Kenshin-san," Tsuna interrupted himself in mid argument with Lambo.

"Baka Tsuna promised to buy me sushi!"

"I did not!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!" Tsuna opened his own door and closed the door behind them.

Kenshin sighed and looked at the pin. Good thing it's not destroyed. It's a well made bug and I'd hate to see it ruined.

"So they gave it back?" Masahiro commented. He and his sister were finishing their meal. They would go home after the target has fallen asleep.

"Yeah. I'm actually surprised."


Before Tsuna went to bed, Reborn had him do his homework. "Just because you might die on Saturday doesn't mean that I'm going to let you fail you classes."

"But shouldn't I be resting instead?" He whined. His left hand writing improved just a little, but not much and it still caused his hand to become sore when writing for over fifteen minutes.

"You can rest later." Reborn said. He jumped onto the paper and stared with coal black eyes. He spoke softly, "If you can't find out what's wrong with your room, don't expect me to let you sleep tonight." Tsuna twitched. Something wrong with his room? He did feel like someone was watching him, but no one was—he gasped.

"You don't mean—while Lambo was here—they—he…!" Reborn smirked.

"After you finish with your homework, you better start looking."

Tsuna finished the last three problems and double checked them before giving Reborn the paper so he could pass it.

"Good job, Dame-Tsuna. Only the first three are wrong. For that, you get three cheers from Leon." Reborn lifted his hand and Leon walked on. He shape shifted into a two tonne hammer.

"EEEP—no, wait a second Reborn—!" The hammer came down thrice.

"Ugh…"

"Now hurry up." Tsuna crawled around his room painfully and looked everywhere. He sighed and put his chin to the floor. He stared at the third drawer for his desk. He cocked his head to the side because he noticed something was wrong with it. Usually, whenever he closed that particular one, he made sure it was tight and stuck. Now it was loose—he can even see a gap. He sat up and pulled it open; it came out smoothly.

Looking in, he screamed.

"It's gone! My old contacts are GONE!" He ducked under the desk and felt around. What he found was not his contacts, but a tiny, black bug.


"It's gone! My old contacts are gone!"

Kenshin and the siblings were listening with headphones and winced when the device made the screeching sound it always makes when the sounds became too high pitched.

"He said old contacts, which means he has new ones. Then that means the headphones are old as well." Masahiro said.

"Shh. Listen," Masami whispered.

"What about the headphones?" They heard Reborn ask.

"They're still here. But that doesn't matter. Someone took my contacts!"

THUMP!

"Ow-ow-ow-ow, Reborn why did you do that?"

"Be thankful they aren't your new ones. Where are your new ones?"

"I kept them in my bag, with the new contacts in my pants pocket. I'm not risking walking out of the house empty handed."

"At least you learned some things since I came," Reborn grumbled. "If someone took your new headphones and contacts, you would be dead the day of."

"I know…"

"What day are they talking about?" Masami asked Kenshin.

"Something to do with Tamiko Mio," Kenshin said. Masami sucked in a breath at the name. Everyone who dealt with the mafia knew the names of deadly assassins. Including Reborn, but there was no way the baby could be the hitman. Kenshin continued, "They're being attacked by members of the Luna Family."

Masami tore the headphones off. "They are what? And you're still on this case?" She asked in disbelief. "They're being chased by an assassin and you're still investigating the Vongola Family? Are you nuts?"

Kenshin looked up at her calmly. "No, I am not crazy," he said, gritting his teeth. I hate it when people call me that. It's the third time today. "We can find out why the family is after the Vongola. It's called gathering information for future reference against the Vongola and Cavallone Family."

"I know what it's called!" she snapped back. "It's just that…you know we might get killed, right? If we see them get killed, and we're found out, we'll be killed by them."

"Why do you seem extra afraid of Tamiko Mio?" Kenshin demanded. Masahiro looked over at Kenshin, and then at his sister.

"Well, she's an assassin," she blurted out. Kenshin looked at her for another second and turned away. He pointed to the contacts that Masahiro was examining with careful fingers.

"Whatever. I'm going to have someone look into those contacts. They're not normal if he needs them to fight." He turned his back to them for another cup of coffee and didn't see the siblings exchange an anxious glance.

"When are you going to have them looked at?" Msahiro asked casually as he put a hand in his pocket.

"As soon as I can. Which means tonight."

Masami sat down beside her brother. "Sorry for yelling at you," she said to Kenshin. "I just got a bit shocked, that's all. I've seen Tamiko finish a mission before." The clattering in the kitchen stopped.

"Yes, it's not a pretty sight," he finally said. Masahiro snapped the lid shut and slid it to the opposite side of the table, where Kenshin usually sat.

"Our target is asleep now. We'll be leaving you to yourself now," Masahiro said. Masami stood again and picked up her bag.

"Good night, Kenshin," she called. He came back out.

"'Night."

They shut the door behind them and walked in silence for five minutes.

"Good save there," Masami told her brother.

He grinned. "I have the quickest hands in the world. I could have done it with him looking at us as well, but I wasn't taking any chances. He's pretty sharp." He tossed Tsuna's old contacts up in the air and caught them again before putting them safely in a small contacts box.

"Hn. If he had the real contacts examined, he'll find out about Decimo's secret weapons for sure."

"Ah." They walked for another minute without speaking. "We almost broke the omertà," Masahiro commented quietly.