"What's he want?" Tsuna asked blandly, trying to control himself. Kyoko was standing silently a few feet away from them, watching the conversation as she touched her lips where he'd kissed her.
"He didn't say, 10th," Gokudera answered faithfully, "but he's waiting for you in the classroom."
Irritated, he led Gokudera from the roof. Kyoko didn't follow. Tsuna sighed, he had probably crossed the line in several ways, he thought. He hoped she would forgive him.
Tsuna opened the door to his classroom, getting an immediate surge of dread when he saw his father. The reason was obvious, since the tall, blonde man was wearing a black suit instead of his normal work clothes.
"D-Dad?" Tsuna said, faltering to a stop inside the door. His father turned from where he had been speaking with Tsuna's teacher and smiled. As the class watched, Iemitsu pulled something out of his jacket. Again, Tsuna's emotions flared as he saw a white roll of paper tied with gold.
Tsuna noticed the sadness in his father's eyes as he handed over the parchment. "I'm not here as your dad today, Vongola the 10th." Tsuna was shocked when his father answered him so formally. "These are orders," he continued, "from Vongola the 9th. He has requested you invoke the Omerta after you read it."
With trembling hands, he opened the parchment. The class watched in silence, curious about what was going on. The orders had been written so he could read them without aide and he could tell with a glance that it had been signed with the Dying Will Flame.
Dear Sawada Tsunayoshi,
Three more Families have been completely wiped out by an unknown enemy starting with the heir to the Family's Boss. As my heir, I must take precautions where your safety is concerned. Therefore, I order you to present yourself to me in Italy. You will leave tonight under the cover of darkness in custody of your father, Sawada Iemitsu. Your school records and belongings will be transferred at a later date. For your own safety, it is imperative that you let no one know that you are being moved, else the enemy might try and strike before we have you in custody here in the Headquarters. Hence, I order that you invoke the Omerta on all that you have read.
Signed,
Vongola the 9th
"And if I refuse?" he asked after reading it through a third time.
"You will be marked as a traitor and the Vendiche will be sent," he said. Then, leaning over, his father whispered coldly in his ear so no one else could hear, "and possibly your whole Family punished for your refusal. The Boss' will is the Family's will after all."
Tsuna looked up at his father. Although his voice had been cold with the truth, he could see how hard it was for his father to tell him that. They looked at each other, both knowing they weren't allowed to shed tears.
"Remember the Omerta," his father said, nodding down to the parchment still in Tsuna's hands.
Tsuna was in shock, but he knew what the Omerta was. It was the vow of silence. He wasn't allowed to tell anyone. He wasn't allowed to even give them a clue. Failure to do so would be seen as treason, resulting in possible harm coming to his Family. Tsuna nodded, sending a flare of flame through his glove and incinerating the page in an instant. The class gasped at the sudden sight.
Iemitsu finally put a hand on Tsuna's shoulder, trying to give comfort as a father. Tsuna bowed his head, trying to get his emotions under control. He wanted to weep at the thought of being forced to leave Japan. This was his home and this was where everyone he cared about was. For this to happen so suddenly, after he had come so far...
Feeling himself on the edge of a breakdown, he fanned his inner flame a bit, using it to fortify himself. A sudden calm passed over him as he put walls up around his emotions. His father felt the change in him and backed away.
Tsuna looked up. "I will follow the 9th's orders, Outside Advisor," he said formally.
Iemitsu looked worriedly at him, but merely nodded and left. Figuring that leaving early was safer than staying in class and being questioned, he dashed back to his seat and grabbed his bag. Quickly packing it up, he started to leave the room when he ran into Kyoko. She had finally come back down from the roof, having missed seeing the incident between him and his father. "Oh, ah, Tsuna," she blushed. "Did your father already leave?"
Tsuna's heart clenched as he realized he couldn't say goodbye. He couldn't chance any failure in carrying out his orders. So, doing the best thing he could think of, he leaned over and whispered, "Forget I said anything," before turning and leaving. Kyoko just stared after him, a hurt and confused look on her face.
After Tsuna left, with a harried teacher chasing after him, the class broke out in loud chatter, wondering what had just happened. No one noticed Yamamoto and Gokudera were standing deathly silent at the back of the room.
"He did it again," Yamamoto finally said through clenched teeth. "He didn't even think of relying on us for a second, did he?"
"Ah," Gokudera said blandly.
"And we stood here and let it happen again, didn't we?"
"Ah," Gokudera repeated blandly.
"Are we going to follow him?"
"Ah," Gokudera said for a third time. That's when Yamamoto noticed the blank look in Gokudera's eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Gokudera blinked, "Whatever it is, it's bad. The Omerta isn't something to be invoked casually."
"Lets go," Yamamoto said, snatching up his baseball bat carrier that had his Shigure Kintoki inside.
Gokudera nodded and led the pursuit.
They didn't have to go far. They tracked Tsuna to where he'd hid himself in the boy's bathroom. They could hear the sound of his quiet sniffles from the door. Gokudera was about to charge in when Yamamoto pulled him back.
"I got a copy of the orders," Reborn's voice echoed.
"Why?" Tsuna cried, relieved to be able to finally say it out loud. "Why did he send orders like that?"
"Oi," Reborn said, "pull yourself together. It can't be helped."
"But..." The sound of Tsuna's voice was in anguish. Peeking around the corner, the two onlookers saw Tsuna tensely leaning over a sink, his shoulders shaking from the effort to control himself.
"10th..." Gokudera whispered.
Apparently a breath of his voice reached Tsuna, because he whirled around into a defensive stance and yelled, "Who's there?" The two came out of hiding. "Oh, it's you guys," he said, squelching his emotions again. He turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face, coldly and pointedly shutting his friends out.
A hand on his shoulder spun him around and the next thing he knew, he was flying backward as a fist hit his jaw. He landed in a heap against the wall, seeing stars. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked up. "Yamamoto?" The swordsman was standing over him with a very un-Yamamoto look of anger on his face.
Looking over, Tsuna was even more surprised at Gokudera's reaction. The dynamite specialist had his hands behind his head as if to restrain them and was pointedly looking away and gritting his teeth. "Goku-dera?"
He looked back at Yamamoto, who had advanced without him realizing it. Tsuna found himself being held up by his collar with a very angry swordsman in his face. "I've had it," Yamamoto yelled. "Ever since you decided to do your trial, you've been like this, and I'm sick of it. You purposely closed us out back then and you're closing us out again now. But I'm not going to sit here and let you hurt yourself anymore, be it mind or body."
"What would you have me do?" Tsuna asked darkly, his head bowed and face shadowed as he hung limply from where Yamamoto held him. "Would you have me break the Omerta? Or maybe disobey my orders? Let me warn you that the price for either is higher than you're willing to pay."
Yamamoto set Tsuna down, unable to respond. This time, Gokudera stepped up though. "You don't have to do either, 10th. But it doesn't break the Omerta to lean on our strength a bit, even if you can't tell us why you're leaning. And doesn't break the rules to have your Ring Guardians at your side while you're following orders. No one said you had to follow orders alone. That's one of the reasons a Boss has a right-hand man in the first place."
Tsuna's shoulders began shaking. "I..." he put his hands on his face and sank to the ground as he thought about what his orders entailed. "I couldn't ask that of you," he said as he tried to stop the tears from flowing.
"10th," Gokudera said in a soft voice, so unlike his normal self. "You can ask anything from Family. That's what makes you more than just friends."
Yamamoto agreed, "It's give and take with Family, but lately you've been giving without taking. It's about time you realized that Tsuna. We know that you want to protect us, but let us protect you, too."
Suddenly feeling so small, Tsuna looked up at his friends. The caring and protectiveness he could see in their eyes was more than he could stand. He realized how foolish he'd been. He'd forgotten why he had let them protect him for so long. The true reason hadn't been because he was weak, but because they had always been so strong.
He began to ask himself, "When had he made himself believe it was only his fight? In the ring battles, hadn't they all fought together? Yet he was the one that had been silently trying to fight alone. Why had he been so blind?"
Tsuna looked up at Reborn wordlessly. "No helping it. I'll get them amended to the orders. Until then, you three go find somewhere you can hide out. If you go home, the girls are sure to come question you after school." He gave Tsuna a look that told the boy he knew what had happened. Tsuna's heart clenched at the reminder.
"We'll go to Black Glove Mountain," Tsuna said, heart-sore and weary. "The top floors are still empty, so no one will find us there if I pass word to the staff."
Reborn nodded and disappeared. Tsuna stood, picking up his bag. Halfway to the door, Gokudera let out a mournful groan. When Tsuna looked back at him questioningly, the older boy was overflowing with regret when he said, "I let someone hit you, 10th. I'll never be able to forgive myself..."
The lament and requests for forgiveness followed Tsuna all the way to the facility.
The top floor of the facility was stark and barren. The only notable feature was the wall to wall windows on one side of the room. The view was truly amazing.
Tsuna didn't care.
He still couldn't talk to his two friends about what was going on, so the silence was thick between them. Because of the silence, he couldn't keep thoughts of Kyoko out of his head. "Kyoko probably hates me now," he found himself saying as he sat slumped against a wall.
"What happened, 10th?" Gokudera asked, glad to finally have something they could talk about.
"I kissed her then asked her out," he groaned.
"No way!" Yamamoto said, honestly surprised. "Good for you! I was wondering when you were going to make a move. You can't get off of home base if you don't swing, after all."
"But why would she hate you, 10th?" Gokudera was curious.
Tsuna raised his head, showing them the dead look in his eyes. "The last thing I said to her was to forget I asked." He slumped back down, looking at the floor.
"10th..." Gokudera and Yamamoto looked at each other worriedly as the silence sprung back up. They both knew that for Tsuna to do something like that, it had to be serious business.
Finally, after about two hours had passed, Reborn showed up. "The 9th has made an allowance for you two. You can tell them Tsuna."
Tsuna sighed and began talking without raising his head. "Three more Families have been completely wiped out, starting with the Family's heirs. So, for my safety, I have been ordered to leave Japan tonight and present myself at the Vongola Headquarters in Italy. Also for my safety, I'm not allowed to tell anyone that I'm being moved."
"That means you didn't tell Kyoko you were leaving," as Tsuna shook his head, Yamamoto suddenly understood why he had such a dead look in his eyes.
"This is bullshit," Gokudera said. "Do they think we can't protect him ourselves?"
"That's not the problem, Gokudera," Reborn said. "The problem is the methods that were used." The two Guardians looked up in interest. "Hostages." He couldn't cover the look of disgust on his face. "Non-combatants related to the heir of a Family is used as a lure so that they can kill the heir with ease, then they kill the non-combatants to cover their trail. The same method is used for the Boss and as many Family members as possible. Then, when the Family is weakened, they swoop in and clean up what's left."
"Then why is the 10th being sent to Italy?" Gokudera yelled. "There's all the more reason to keep him here!"
Tsuna's head popped up and he realized what was really going on. The fires in his eyes revealed shock and anger. "That bastard..." Tsuna stood up.
"So you realized," Iemitsu said from the elevator doors.
"Yes, I did," Tsuna replied, his eyes blazing.
"You have a responsibility as Vongola the 10th."
Tsuna made his way to the elevator, his two friends at his side. "You can tell the 9th I said to go to hell. I'm staying here."
"Tsuna!" His father yelled in shock as Reborn jumped on the boy's shoulder.
"What's going on?" Yamamoto asked, faithfully following in Tsuna's wake.
"I thought it was odd," Tsuna explained. "If the 9th wanted me safe, he could have just sent reinforcements to watch over me. Instead, he wanted me to leave the country. But the real reason is because he knows that if I'm here, I'll put my Family's safety before my own. So, he wants me in Italy where they can restrain me by force if needed. He's putting my protection over everyone else's."
Tsuna turned and looked his father coldly in the eye and said, "I'm not going to go hide and leave my Family to be slaughtered so that the 9th can have someone to to sit on his damn throne." Tsuna's allowed the Dying Will Flame to sprout on his head as he warned, "Be sure and tell him, too, that if he decides to send the Vendiche, I won't go quietly."
The elevator doors silently slid shut on the shocked look on his father's face.