Warning: Swearing, OOC-ness (kind of), awesome Pandora Hearts reference (which I do not own, by the way!)

Happy reading! :D

Chapter 10

Nonsensical Aliases

"Reali…famiglia?" Tsuna stumbled over the unfamiliar Italian pronunciation, inwardly grimacing at the thought of having to learn the language in the near future. Sure, he knew the basics (ciao, addio, grazie) but it had taken him about two hours to pronounce those three basic phrases at a level that was up to Reborn's satisfaction. Italian lessons with that Spartan tutor of his were going to be hell.

"Your diction is pathetic." Reborn watched his student wince over the rim of his coffee mug and sighed. "At least your coffee is up to scratch."

"After you tried to shoot me and made me remake it three times!"

"And after all that, it's only passable. You still have a lot to learn, dame-Tsuna."

Tsuna scowled. "Anyway, back to the topic. You were talking about the Reali famiglia? So far I only know their name."

"Well, yes." Reborn sighed, right hand placed on his gun as if contemplating shooting something any minute. "The Reali famiglia, founded around the same time as the Vongola. In our world they are allies with us, but here history has obviously taken a different path.

"Their specialty lies in strategy and intelligence gathering. All ten generations have used that trait to their advantage, and during allied operations Vongola has heavily relied on them to assist in planning out missions and gather information on enemies. Their biggest weakness is that most of the time, they are not coordinated, sometimes to the point where different teams on the same mission even attack each other in confusion."

Tsuna blinked as his brain was steamrolled by the long string of information coming out of Reborn's mouth. "Wait, wait, wait, this is way too fast."

"As a boss, you should be able to absorb all information quickly and efficiently."

"I know, I know, but still this is-and how do you know so much about them anyway?"

Reborn's eyes narrowed. "I'm the world's greatest hitman, dame-Tsuna. What did you expect of me?"

Tsuna sighed. An infuriating but nonetheless typical answer from Reborn.

"And in addition," A grip tightened around the handle of a gun. "The Reali Decimo of our world was a former student of mine."

Tsuna's eyes widened at the words. What? Ok, wait, just…what? This is…wow. Just, wow.

"Close your mouth. You look like an idiot."

Tsuna closed his mouth abruptly and cleared his throat. "W-well…" He honestly didn't know what to say. Of course he knew that Reborn had lived many many years, and had gone through lots of things before Tsuna was even born. And obviously if both Dino and he were tutored by him, it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that he had had other students as well in the past, right? But somehow, the news that they would be fighting Reborn's ex-student-or his parallel self, anyway- surprised Tsuna more than it should have. And Tsuna knew why.

Because, at the end of it all, Tsuna really didn't know all that much about Reborn, his Spartan tutor from hell.

And this bit of news simply served to drive that point home.

Reborn couldn't help but smirk at the shell-shocked look on Tsuna's face. "You still look like an idiot."

"Well, this is kind of…surprising? I mean, why haven't you mentioned him before?"

Reborn's smirk was replaced with a scowl. "Why would you think I ever needed to mention this to you?" Tsuna winced and inwardly berated himself. Smart, Tsuna. Like this is something you just drop into a conversation over coffee.

"Um, well, I mean…"

Onyx eyes averted his gaze to stare at a nearby vase of flowers. "Innocenzo Reali. The last time I saw him was when he was fifteen. I had to leave to settle some business for Nono. An hour later he was caught in the middle of an ambush by some enemy Mafiosi. Outnumbered severely, probably three hundred men against him alone."

Tsuna stared, mildly surprised at how talkative Reborn was being. "Umm…I see. But why would you tell me all of-oh! Oh."

The air had long grown cold, and the sudden silence made it freezing. Tsuna stared down at his lap. Onyx eyes were still fixed firmly on the vase.

"Since he was an orphan with no next of kin, Nono wrote the obituary. I was too pissed off; the first time I had ever failed a mission, and it was all due to a fifteen year old brat who couldn't even fight decently."

Reborn was the cruel Spartan tutor from hell, who had no qualms about torturing him mercilessly in order to get what he desired. He was selfish, calculating, infuriating, sadistic and way too much of a perfectionist when it came to coffee, or anything else for the matter. Even so…

I'm an idiot, Tsuna thought glumly. After all these years, I'm still an idiot.

Tsuna opened his mouth, to apologise, to ask more questions, to excuse himself. Reborn's eyes were still fixed very firmly on the vase. Fuchsia and gold, it was. With an oriental design. Probably cost close to four hundred thousand yen.

Shion and red spider lilies. Purple and crimson. (1)

He closed his mouth.

Tsuna, or rather Satou Hensou, stood in front of the whole class, his smile very forced and very faked, as the whispers started to break out.

"Satou Hensou?"

"How is that written?"

"Such a strange name."

"He doesn't look like much."

Nezu-sensei forcefully slamming a thick file on the wooden desk caused everyone to shut up. "Satou-san will be observing our lessons from here on out, and he will also be assisting me in various matters. I trust that all of you will treat him nicely, regardless of his," he sneered. "Aptitude. Do I make myself clear?"

No one protested, which was as close to a 'yes' as you could get from a class of fifteen year olds.

"Right. Now we will be having a pop quiz." A collective groan rolled through the classroom. Yamamoto scowled and redirected his murderous glare to the teacher. Tsunayoshi looked like he was about to slam his face on the desk.

Tsuna wondered if he was imagining the sadistic grin on Nezu-sensei's face.

"Satou-san, please distribute the test papers."

"O-of course." A thick stack of documents was dropped into his outstretched hands, and Tsuna paled at the weight. This was thirty-five copies?

"All of you have thirty minutes. Satou-san, if you do not hurry up, I will start the timer before you even give out the first copy." Cue thirty-five glares of varying degrees of murderous intent as he rushed to start giving out the tests.

It was going to be a long day.

"Time's up! Pen's down. Satou-san, collect the papers." Nezu-sensei waved his hands dismissively, eyes still glued on his laptop. He had spent the past thirty-minutes at his desk, leaving Tsuna to invigilate. If the test had been any longer, Tsuna would have lost it halfway through. As it was, he was very tempted to ask Nezu-sensei in front of the whole class if he could please take his porn and watch it at home, after school hours.

It was a very, very tempting idea, but he restrained himself.

He walked through the columns of desks, picking up the test papers as he went. Tsunayoshi, too preoccupied by yet another predicted failure, had his head buried in his hands and didn't even glance at him. Yamamoto was glaring at the paper as Tsuna went to pick it up, as if he was trying to burn a hole through it with sheer willpower. As he passed by Gokudera's desk, he caught the phrases 'ribulose biphospate', 'thylakoid membranes', and 'photolysis' muttered in the same sentence, and realised that he really didn't want to know. (2)

Once Tsuna was done collecting all thirty-five copies, he neatly organised them and placed them on Nezu-sensei's desk, careful to keep the computer screen out of his line of vision (and really, did he have no shame?). "Here, Nezu-sensei."

"Huh? Oh. Alright." With a deep sigh (as if he was doing anything worth sighing about) he heaved himself up. "Ok, class, last thing before I leave. Since this test was relatively easy," cue thirty-five incredulous looks. "I did not think that mentioning this prior to you taking it was of much importance, but the grades for this test will be counted towards your final grade. Ten percent, actually."

You could hear a pin drop.

Then Yamamoto leapt up, slamming his hand on the desk, face a mask of pure fury. The whole room erupted in loud protests. Tsunayoshi was slowly slinking down in his seat. Gokudera was still muttering under his breath, and Tsuna's basic lip-reading skills allowed him to make out the phrases 'Calvin cycle' and 'Rubisco'.

"Ok. That's it. Bye." And with that, Nezu-sensei high-tailed it out of there, Tsuna quickly scrambling to follow him.

"Ah, Nezu-sensei," Tsuna attempted to start a conversation once they were out in the hallway and heading for the next class.

"Hm?" Nezu-sensei gave him a condescending look.

"Well, I'm just wondering whether that was alright. I looked through the paper, and that was testing on photosynthesis, right? They don't learn that for another two years." In high school. If they even choose to take Biology, and God knows why anyone would.

If it was possible, Nezu-sensei's look grew even more condescending. "Now, now. As you're still young, you might not understand this, but it's better to weed out the useless when their still young. Nip the problem in the bud, you know? Like that Sawada Tsunayoshi, for instance. He shouldn't even be allowed to step in to the building, he's that stupid."

Tsuna could feel a vein throbbing in his temple, and resisted the urge to punch the science teacher in the face.

"Juudaime!" Tsuna spun around to find Hayato running towards him, a happy smile on his face. His lips quirked up into a smile at the enthusiastic greeting from his usually moody right-hand man.

"Haya-! Ah, no. What was your name again?" Tsuna laughed sheepishly, rubbing his hand against the back of his head.

Hayato's eyes glimmered with pride. "It is an excellent name befitting an important undercover mission such as this, Juudaime. My alias at this moment is Suzuki Chuusei, Suzuki being the second most common surname in Japan. The kanji for Chuusei is written as-"

"Ah! I know this. Loyalty, right?" What's with the weird names Reborn is choosing? Isn't this supposed to be an undercover mission? Why not, I don't know, Yamada Tarou or something stupid like that?

"As expected of the boss! This name encompasses my loyalty to Juudaime as his right-hand man, and-" I think he's trying to make a point with these names…

"Ah! Tsuna! Haya-chan!"

Hayato's puppy-dog look was immediately replaced by a scowl. "Quiet, baseball idiot! This is supposed to be an undercover mission! You're blowing our covers!" Tsuna found Hayato's double standards quite comical, but kept quiet.

"Haha, I forgot about that!" Takeshi grinned. "So what are your names, then?"

"Satou Hensou."

"Tch. Suzuki Chuusei."

"Mine's Takahashi Yorokobi!" Tsuna's eyes twitched. That's it; he's definitely having some fun coming up with these nonsensical names. "Haha, all of us have such unusual names!"(3)

"Could you shut up, baseball idiot! Now you're really gonna blow our covers!"

"Maa, maa…"

"Hey guys," Tsuna spoke in an attempt to stop the ensuing argument. "How about we go up to the roof to eat? I don't know about you, but I'm actually quite hungry!"

"Of course! My apologies, I did not realise that Juudaime was famished."

"Haha, sure! It's lunch time, after all!"

Tsuna sighed, but he had a small, contented smile on his face.

Tsunayoshi wanted to melt into a puddle.

Not only did he confirm that no, the whole hi-I'm-your-clone-from-a-parallel-world-nice-to-meet-you thing had unfortunately not been a dream, that depressing revelation was followed by a very depressing science test, which he could swear was something near college-level (if Gokudera muttering many different scientific-sounding equations was anything to go by).

Needless to say, it was not turning out to be a good day.

The trio were currently on the roof, where they always had lunch. Yamamoto was glowering, whether because of the previous days' incidents or the test Tsunayoshi didn't know. Gokudera was trying to engage him in conversation, unsuccessfully, of course. After a few moments he gave up and offered Yamamoto half of his bento ("You forgot to bring money again, right?") which was grudgingly accepted with a grunt, and a small 'thanks'.

Gokudera's eyes widened and Tsunayoshi even interrupted his moping to swivel his head in their direction. Yamamoto, seeming to regret what he just muttered, merely scowled and avoided their surprised gazes.

Yamamoto Takeshi never said thank you. Never. Never ever. The closest he ever got was…no, wait, scratch that. He'd never even gotten close to those two words. The very fact that he had finally said it was a miracle in itself.

Gokudera smiled happily, and Tsunayoshi realised that he hadn't seen his Storm Guardian's smile since yesterday.

"Ah, Juudaime!" Gokudera turned towards him, his eyes practically sparkling. "Do you want the other half? My mother made it, but I'm not really hungry, so if you want…"

Tsunayoshi blinked, before shaking his head. "Nah, its fine. My mom made me lunch too, but thanks for the offer." He proffered his tuna sandwich as proof, and Gokudera, satisfied, turned back to Yamamoto again in the hopes of coaxing another miracle out of him.

Tsunayoshi, meanwhile, returned back to his moping. Ah, today sucks. That stupid Nezu and his test. It's like he picked today to give it to us on purpose, just to spite me. If only Kyoko-chan were here. At this he pouted. But she's at club activities! I thought we'd manage to spend more time together…after all, I've already confessed and everything, and we're already going out, kind of.

But wait! Wait, wait, wait! That's not the main problem! The main problem is-

"Hayato-kun, please don't take out your dynamite, and Takeshi-kun, don't provoke him. Yes, I know he blew our covers, but I'm also-ah! I'm sorry; I didn't know there were other people-oh. Erm, hi."

Speak of the devil.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments. Neither side knew what to say, although this was to be expected. What do yu say to yourself from a parallel world anyway.

Then Yamamoto snorted and looked straight at Tsuna. "Had a good time yesterday?"

Hell came in the form of one furious Gokudera Hayato.

The girl peered out the window, her palms pressed flush on the glass. "So this is Japan, huh? I was thinking that it would be more impressive."

There was a snort and a rustle of paper. "Right. And what were you expecting? This is Japan we're talking about, not some ancient and undiscovered Atlantic city thousands of feet under the sea."

She spun around in her seat to face her partner, green eyes blazing in irritation. "Loreto Tradimento," she hissed through gritted teeth. "You are officially the most infuriating, annoying, self-centred prick I have ever had the misfortune of meeting."

"Thank you. I appreciate the compliment, Clara."

"Ok, that's it!" She reached into her pocket for her box weapon, green lightning flames crackling to life around her ring. "I'm gonna fucking kill you now, you-!" With swiftness and agility she had forgotten he possessed, Loreto reached forward to snatch her box weapon and returned to his seat, twirling the cube between his thumb and index fingers.

"Great, now you made me lose my page. Thanks for that, too."

Twitch. "OK, YOU KNOW WHAT, I WAS TRYING TO STOP MYSELF, BUT HELL TO PATIENCE! I AM PERSONALLY GOING TO DISEMBOWEL YOU EVEN IF I HAVE TO BLOW UP THIS WHOLE FUCKING PLANE TRYING!"

More rustling of paper. "You do that, then. Just remember that I was personally assigned by the boss to observe you here in Namimori, seeing as how you screwed up that last mission in Spain. If you screw up this one," emotionless dark orbs flickered to meet her flaming green ones. "Well, can you afford to do that, Ms. Clara Monouso?"

Their gazes met for a few moments, neither side wavering, before Clara gritted her teeth and sat down.

"I'm only doing this because I don't want to disappoint Boss."

"Of course."

"Not because you frighten me, you bloody bastard."

"That's fine." Loreto threw her box weapon into the air where it landed neatly in her lap, and leaned down to pick up his fallen magazine. "Though," he flicked through the pages of the magazine. "Let me give you a word of advice.

"A loyalty that holds fast will become a blade, and will pierce someday those you hold dear. So open your eyes wide."

The box slipped from her fingers. "What are you-"

"As," Loreto interjected quickly, "Said by Xerxes Break, from the manga Pandora Hearts." He held the magazine up so that it covered half his face, and Clara could clearly see the words 'GFantasy' emblazoned on the cover. "Wanna read? I can lend you the previous issue-"

"Loreto?"

"Hn?"

"Shut up before I seriously change my mind about disembowelling you."

(1) First person who gets the meaning behind this paragraph gets a shout-out and a virtual cookie.

(2) I learn this stuff in school, and really, you do NOT want to know what goes on in a plant, because it will give you a major headache of tremendous proportions. I barely scraped through for my EOYs *sobs*

(3) Names:

Tsuna: Satou Hensou. Satou is the most common surname in Japan. Hensou is written as 'disguise' or 'transformation'.

Hayato: Suzuki Chuusei. Suzuki is the second most common surname in Japan. Chuusei is written as 'loyalty' or 'allegiance'. [Hayato's pseudonym was originally gonna be Suzuki Chuugi (a variant on Chuusei), until I Google searched it and it gave me a very hilarious result…I shall say no more, but damn, Gokudera, you have the worst luck XD And lesson learnt: always do your research.]

Takeshi: Takahashi Yorokobi. Takahashi is the third most common surname in Japan. Yorokobi is written as 'joy'.

Yamada Tarou: Japanese equivalent of John Smith.

The reason why there are comments on the strange names is because these aren't actually typical Japanese names. For example, people don't usually name their child Loyalty or Disguise right? Same concept here. And yes, Reborn is trying to make a point with these names XD I think they're quite obvious.

Hope this isn't too confusing o.O

Anyway, we've reached the tenth chapter. I'm actually kind of proud of this, so the first reviewer for this chapter gets to request an omake for this story, as long as:

-It doesn't mess up any established pairings

-It's not too complicated, because my brain can't really take all the complicated-ness…

If the first reviewer doesn't make a request because didn't read the author's note, then the second reviewer gets to make a request. Of course, if the first reviewer comes back and realises this, he/she is free to PM me to request :D

Of course, it may be that no one ends up reviewing, but ah well.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank everyone for their support! Everyone's reviews/favourites/follows have made me very very happy, and though this might not be the most popular or the most well-written fanfic out there, it really is a joy to write and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as well! :) I hope you'll keep reading until the end.

R&R! :D