A/N: If I knew you guys would make 400 reviews barely 24 hours since I posted I would have made the goal higher... As it is, I'm crying here (from happiness). Ugh, I love you guys.

As promised, another chapter! Whoo!

"Speaking in Italian" - The most annoying thing I had to do this chapter was italicising everything.

Chapter 11

If Tsuna thought having Colonnello-sensei as their teacher was bad, having both Fon and Colonnello was much much worse. It wasn't because they were particularly cruel or mean, they were very nice actually, but the combination of Colonnello's 'you can do anything as long as you have the motivation, kora!' And Fon's Confucian 'life is a journey riddled with unexpected obstacles, obtaining any skill, regardless of use, is an advantage' made any protests impossible.

And Tsuna very much wanted to protest as he felt his muscles creak and on the verge of collapsing as he tried his hardest to hold onto the only thing that was keeping him from dropping into the piranha infested pool below him. (Where had their teachers gotten it from anyway?)

Two weeks in and Tsuna decided that trying to juggle all his jobs and this ninja training was perhaps the most difficult thing he'd ever done, it was on par with convincing Ryohei that no, he didn't want to be part of the boxing club. At the very least Tsuna stood his ground when it came to making time to do his jobs, and Fon and Colonnello were at least lenient enough about it to let him do so, thankfully. And it wasn't like his friends didn't have other things to do too; Takeshi still had kendo with his father, Shōichi and Spanner still had inventing/hacking or whatever else those two got into at the labs, and Ryohei had to take care of his sister.

Luckily it was summer break because having school at the same time would have probably killed him.

Though he was sure he was going to die anyway. Especially when the pink grenade came flying at him. He watched in dread as it blew up, scorched him, and he inevitably let go with a yelp.

He sobbed to himself as the air flew past him. He was going to die as fish food.

Tsuna would tase Colonnello-sensei if he ever got the chance to.

The little boy stood at the top of a very tall and shiny building that almost blended in with the other surrounding very tall and shiny buildings. He was smack bang in the middle of a city, in Italy. If he read the words on the building across from his correctly.

When he woke up, he'd been pleased to see that he was not dead and then started wishing he was when he discovered he was on a jet being flown by his baby sensei. Apparently he'd lost whatever ridiculous competition they were having when he let go -even if it was due to outside interference- and now he had to do his sensei a favour.

"It's easy, kora. You just need to deliver these flowers while singing this."

Tsuna stared at the large extravagant bunch of carnations and piece of paper. "...And who am I delivering this to?"

"The most beautiful lady in the world, of course!"

That told Tsuna absolutely nothing and he was pushed out of the jet before he could even get another word out.

And so, clutching the large batch of flowers the boy sighed and entered the building.

"STOP!"

"Hiieee! I'm sorry!" Tsuna yelled as he jumped up and out of the grip of the man trying to grab him.

The building was too big!

He had been wondering aimlessly for over an hour. He got a few funny looks from people that looked very much like office workers but no one had stopped him, at least until that one man walked into him as he'd been sneaking around a more restricted area and he accidentally knocked him out by habit.

It was just unfortunate someone else had been there.

He turned the corner, noted it was empty, whipped out his taser gun, and quickly knocked that guy out too.

Tsuna waited with bated breath for anyone to come along and quickly breathed a sigh of relief as silence continued through the corridor. He grabbed the two men and, with much struggle, put them in the janitor's closet while apologising under his breath the entire time.

Retrieving the flowers, he scampered into a new area and wondered where to go next.

"Are you lost?"

Tsuna shrieked again, heart pounding, before turning to find a blond boy about his age with blue eyes. Tsuna scratched his cheek, blushing fervently. "Um, yes. I'm trying to find, um, 'the most beautiful lady in the world'."

The boy appeared as confused as Tsuna felt but smiled and introduced himself as Basil. "May I ask what she looks like-"

"Basil!" A blue haired baby with a red visor barked, as she dashed into the room. "Your stupid oaf of a master is- Who is this?"

"Ah Lal, this is... Um, I didn't get your name."

"You mean he's a civilian? How did he get in here?!"

But Tsuna was too busy connecting the dots to pay much attention to the conversation. Colonnello was a baby that didn't feel like one, this Lal was also a baby that emitted an aura and knowledge far beyond her physical years.

Well, that made things much simpler.

Smiling, because he'd finally found the 'beautiful lady' and he would be rid of this large bunch of flowers now, he bowed and presented the carnations to Lal.

Lal blinked and barely got a 'what' out before Tsuna opened up the piece of music and started singing.

"'Your eyes sparkle brighter than all the stars

Your voice sings clearer than all the larks

Your beauty and passion are truer than the sky is blue

As long as it is you, I will always love-'"

Midway, Tsuna is grabbed and dragged out of the room by a distraught Basil, whom promptly shuts the door.

And just in time too.

"COLONNELLO, YOU- YOU- IDIOT!"

Tsuna's ears rung and he swore steam streamed out from under the door.

The boy blinked and tilted his head. Basil, once again, saves him as he was dragged to the side just as the door blew right off its hinges and a demon appeared with an impressive amount of firearms and weapons on her person.

Lal, face bright pink, shredded through the corridor in a hunt for the blond.

Basil turned to Tsuna again as the corridor became silent. "So... How did you get in here and through all the security?"

Tsuna blinked and thought back. Right... He might have broken through the security without realising it. Spanner had a habit of scattering random pass-codes, scanners and cameras throughout Tsuna's life. Like the 'kitty' incident didn't teach him enough about being wary of surveillance materials. Usually the cameras were rendered useless by his phone which automatically emitted interfering electromagnetic waves, the pass-codes and scanners Tsuna got used to cracking so much so that it became almost natural to do it.

Tsuna rubbed his head sheepishly and let out an awkward laugh. "Um-"

They were interrupted once again, and thankfully for Tsuna, by the appearance of a teenage blond girl with glasses. "Basil? What happened with Lal?"

"Oregano," Basil greeted. "This boy was looking for Lal and delivered flowers and a serenade from..." He turned to Tsuna with a curious tilt of his head, long blond bangs brushing against his face. "Colonnello?"

Tsuna nodded and offered a shy smile.

The smile is wiped as Lal appears again, guns blazing. "You! Kid! Come with me!"

Hiiee! Tsuna thought as he started to run from the very scary looking baby. He leapt out of the closest open window just as Lal was about to grab him.

Tsuna lands safely in the jet and scowled (pouted) at the grinning blond baby.

"How was it, kora?"

"COLONNELLO!" Ah, Lal had jumped after Tsuna.

"Whoa, Lal! You're more beautiful every time I-"

BANG! BANG!

"DON'T FIGHT ON THE JET!" Tsuna shrieked. And got a few bullets for his effort.

Back at, yes, the one and only CEDEF headquarters that Tsuna had just left, a buff blond in a suit finds Oregano and Basil peering out of a window at the wildly dancing army jet outside.

"Hey guys, what's going on? I just got a call from downstairs about malfunctioning cameras."

"Colonnello visited, Master." Basil replied, is if it explained everything. Considering that it was the rain Arcobaleno, it probably did.

Iemitsu nodded and grinned at the jet outside. A sound from next to him takes his attention and he opened the door to the janitor's closet. "... Turmeric, what are you and Hawthorn doing in here? Did you know Colonnello came by?"

Tumeric rubbed his head and shook it. "So that's why there was a random kid with flowers," he mumbled to himself. Speaking up, he replied, "it's nothing, boss."

Iemitsu grinned in relief, helping the man up before putting a hand on Basil's small shoulder. "Ohh, you know I thought I heard my adorable son's voice today! I've got to get you two to meet sometime, Basil, I think you'll like him."

Basil smiled up at the blond man. "Of course I would be honoured to meet your son, Master!"

As they all headed back to the main offices, behind them, the jet went down in flames.

Hayato Gokudera was a stubborn silvered haired boy. That stubbornness had gotten him this far; away from his family of liars and closer to his goal of making a name for himself, or of finding someone worthy that he could trust and follow to the ends of the world.

That last option had only been opened up due to an incident almost two years ago.

If only he could find that person again.

Two years ago, he ran away from home after he'd discovered just how many lies he'd been fed since birth and why he was treated with scorn among his... 'Family'. He still mourned the loss of the piano teacher who had actually been his mother.

He'd also been caught and almost taken back, kicking and screaming, had his Saviour not appeared. The boy had the most unruly fluffy brown hair and the clearest and most honest eyes Hayato had ever seen. But at the time he'd been too full of grief and anguish, too busy nursing his own wounds, to pay attention to anything else. And his own pride had gotten in the way when he'd pushed the boy away as he always did to anyone who got too close.

It was a long while after he'd gotten away, that he thought back and realised that he might have missed an opportunity then. That his Saviour had not jumped to his rescue for any sort of profit in mind other than wanting to help; and that was exactly the sort of person Hayato wanted to follow if he were to follow anyone.

So the silver haired boy had backtracked, found some of the street kids who described the boy as amazing for beating down the adults -as if Hayato didn't know that- but they had no clue where the brunet had gone despite trying to recruit him.

"He was with this other blond kid, and they got away really fast, you should have seen them! They even ran into an officer you know, and we thought they were done for! But he did it again -you know, that flashy thing- and the officer got knocked out before he even saw them."

As fascinating as it was to hear this, Hayato's first priority was to find out where they went.

"Nope, we stopped our chase because one officer down, draws others." The grimy teen picked his nose and shrugged. "A pity, those kids would have been real good on our team."

So he got nothing.

Hayato scoured the city for months, taking on a few regular civilian jobs between trying to build his own reputation as a hitman and expanding his information resources. He grudgingly admitted that it was thanks to his reluctant mentor back at his 'family's' place that he knew how to survive in this harsh world. Over a year passed before he even realised it and he was on the urge of considering giving up his search when he found him.

His Saviour emerged from the burning wreckage of a jet that had crashed into the construction site near Hayato's apartment.

The brunet sat on top of one scorched and broken wing, flaming bits of metal raining down around him, muttering under his breath and looking rather upset with the blond baby that sat on one shoulder. On the other shoulder was a blue haired baby who wore a scowl on her face.

"That was great steering, kora!"

Tsuna blew. "Why did you have to fight on an airborne jet! What if we crashed into a building and hurt people!"

"But we didn't," Colonello grinned and turned to Lal. "What do you think of Tsuna here?"

The blue haired baby blinked. "He's pretty good..." She said very carefully, eyes narrowed at the blond suspiciously at the topic change. The brunet had taken over the steering when the petrol tank burst from a stray bullet and they were busy fighting. She was rather surprised he'd managed to, not only steer the thing, but land -or rather, crashed- in the only place that had no people in the busy city.

"Awesome, because I was thinking that if we had a kid, I would want someone like Tsuna, kora."

Lal flushed and attempted to slap the blond on the other shoulder. "Don't go suggesting something so presumptuous, you idiot!"

"What? You don't want a kid like Tsuna?"

Lal took a good look at Tsuna who blinked back with his large eyes and pink cheeks, appearing rather embarrassed with this entire conversation.

Lal blushed and scowled at the blond. "I didn't say that, you shameless idiot!"

"Great!" Colonnello crowed and Tsuna suddenly had a very bad feeling...

"We can adopt Tsuna as our son, kora!"

Tsuna's mouth flopped open. "I have parents, you know!"

His protest was drowned out by another shout, this time, full of awe.

"THAT IS... SO COOL!" A silver haired boy stood at the edge of the wreckage, much closer than the rest of the building crowd dared to venture. His green eyes practically sparkled as he looked at Tsuna.

"I can't believe you're the adopted son of Master Colonnello and Master Lal!"

The Colonnello and Tsuna shared a look that showed neither had any idea who this was.

The silver head quickly kneeled and prostrated himself rather enthusiastically. "My name is Hayato Gokudera! Please let me follow you!" He looked up, eager green eyes shining.

It took a few seconds of stunned silence for Tsuna to realise the boy was talking to him. And another full minute for him to start panicking. "Wait, what?!" As the green eyes took on a pleading sheen, he quickly agreed. "Okay, okay! But... Why?"

"Because Master Tsuna had been the only one to save me in my time of need!" Hayato chanted with vigour. And judging by the conversation just now, his Saviour also had a big heart, to care about the civilians of a city he did not even personally know. "I will follow you anywhere!"

While Tsuna was dealing with this new crisis, Lal, on his shoulder, was trembling with suppressed anger, which finally burst just as Tsuna felt himself click, his honey eyes widening.

"You're... that boy..."

"Colonnello! Don't just adopt a kid for us when we're not married!" Lal leapt for the blond baby.

Tsuna ignored the fight as he leapt onto Hayato and hugged him tightly. "Thank goodness you're alright! I was really worried since you just ran off that time!"

"M-master T-Tsu-n-na." The silveret, for the life of him, couldn't stop his stuttering when he found his arms full of his brunet saviour. He was on the verge of fainting from the blood rushing to his face.

Tsuna was ecstatic, he had been worried at the time and the silveret stood out among the blur of craziness that the entire trip two years ago consisted of. He had no idea why, but meeting this boy again made him feel as if he got back something that had been missing from his life this entire time.

"But Lal! I've been asking for years for a date, a marriage, and a honeymoon! At least Tsuna can be proof of our love!" Colonnello was still going at it with Lal, desecrating what was left of the plane.

Tsuna's eyes snapped toward the duo. "Don't use me as a symbol!"

"You're cute, Tsuna," Colonnello called in all seriousness as he dodged another deadly barrage of bullets from his love. "And since I know Lal likes cute things, it all works out, kora!"

"It does not, IDIOT!"

"Don't fight!" Tsuna pleaded.

"A-ah, M-master T-Tsuna, m-maybe we s-should m-move..." Hayato gasped between hyperventilating. Tsuna was still clinging to him.

Tsuna realised that they really were drawing way too much attention and he could see police uniforms making their way through the crowd. Digging into his pockets he found the smoke bombs and quickly put them to use as he ran off with this new boy in tow and the two babies still arguing on his shoulders.

The awesome exit did nothing to deter Hayato's hero worship.

"This is Smoking Bomb Hayato," Lal stated after she'd calmed down. Tsuna had eventually managed to get them to stop by resorting to taking the role of their 'son' and reasoning that he didn't want to see them fighting all the time, complete with cute teary eyes and endearing pout.

"Smoking bomb...?" That was strange nickname, Tsuna thought as he handed an ice cream to the silveret. They were a nice distance away from their wreckage and had stopped at an open market place.

"Yes, a new hitman that just started out."

Tsuna's eyes widened. "What? Hitman?!"

Hayato was blushing, he had a bad case of mafia fanboy syndrome around all these important figures and was honoured to be known by one of the infamous Arcobaleno, no less! "I haven't made a hit though..." He mumbled, flushing. "Mostly reconnaissance."

"Oh yeah, Tsuna's a civilian." Colonnello commented. The blond grinned, just as usual, but with an edge that made Hayato shiver. "So if you want to be his follower, you might want to give that up."

Tsuna stopped lapping his gelato to frown a little. "I don't want to be the reason you stop something you want to do," he told Hayato sincerely. As dubious as a 'hitman' job sounded, Tsuna understood very well the attachment someone could develop for their occupation. Sure, he complained, but he truly loved his jobs, as stressful they were; he kept every fan mail he got from his books, took all compliments for his design work with a bemused but lofty flush to his cheeks and enjoyed being depended upon at the company. Even his less grand jobs, whether one he got temporarily or like his paper delivering job, had it's own perks and one thing Tsuna discovered was that he enjoyed being of use, no matter how small (or large) a part he played.

The silveret flushed and shook his head vehemently, he had only become a hitman because he wanted to make a name for himself; to separate himself from the only status he had as the bastard son of his father to someone who could be recognised and revered in the mafia. But now Hayato was beginning to realise that perhaps what he really wanted wasn't that. The mafia didn't have to be part of his life just as it wasn't for this boy who obviously knew people from that world but at the same time wasn't part of it.

And Hayato already knew that this boy, who wore his heart on his sleeve, hadn't changed since that time almost two years ago. That was why his eyes flashed determinedly as he claimed, in the only way he knew how, "I will follow Tsuna-sama to the ends of the earth!"

The brunet felt déjà vu come over him and rubbed his head in exasperation. "Why," he asked as he turned his eyes skyward, and promptly bought everyone and himself some panna cotta having finished his gelato because sweets always helped with his stress levels. Then he turned back to Hayato and said, "...you know, I don't really want a follower."

Seeing the flash of hurt cross Hayato's eyes, he smiled reassuringly, with a hint of cheek. "I want a friend."

Hayato's eyes widened impossibly before he started to blush bright red. He'd never had anyone say something like that to him before... And was his sav- no, Master Tsuna teasing him?!

Tsuna hugged the silver head as he released an awkward smile. Both full of wry humour and entirely too grateful as he blinked back tears. Hayato let his arms wrap around the other's warm presence, allowing himself to lean on someone for the first time since he ran away from home.

Colonnello turned to Lal. "Aren't they just adorable, kora?"

Lal scowled. "They need more backbone!"

"Hm, that reminds me, where are we, kora?" Colonnello asked as Tsuna continued to lead them who knows where. Tsuna suddenly stopped and they all stared up at the tall shiny building with a large extravagant fountain in the middle of the courtyard leading to the entrance.

The name 'TAKARADA' could be seen in large gilded metal at the top spitting sparkling streams of water.

Tsuna scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Sorry, since we're in Italy anyway I thought I should give the branch a check up."

And check he did. He had never been to this branch before, so many of the workers didn't know him. Which was okay in Tsuna's books until they wanted to enter the more restricted floors. Well, they already made it ten floors beyond the restriction point before Tsuna realised what he was doing. And it was only due to Colonnello, Lal and Hayato's rather disconcerting stares that he even realised.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"Do you always do that?" Lal asked, looking pointedly at what Tsuna was doing with his hands.

He looked, and blinked at the opened card scanner panel and the assortment of wires he was fiddling with. "Eheh," he laughed nervously as he unlocked the door and put all the parts back in place. "Sorry, bad habit."

"So cool," Hayato murmured in awe.

"Hey! Who are you kids!?" A rather strict looking man sporting a few scars spotted them. To Tsuna's dread, Hayato went on instant defensive mode, a string of explosives appearing in his hands as he stood forward.

"Master Tsuna can go wherever he wants!"

"No, wait-!"

BOOM!

Tsuna tried, he really did. But chaos seemed to love him and somehow or another, Hayato managed to blow up the room and those surrounding it. Luckily, it didn't look like he managed to kill the man, only knock him out.

But the sounds drew more people and the security guards who looked more like experienced thugs. Of course that just made things worse. Just how many explosives did Hayato have?! But what made it even more worse was when Colonnello and Lal jumped into the fray.

"Hey, don't touch Tsuna, kora!"

"Idiot! You have to let him get some experience! Or he'll be a pipsqueak for life!"

"You saw his crying face, Lal! Are you sure you want to see that again?"

"Man up and stop spoiling him!"

Tsuna just sighed and ducked as a man tried to grab him. He shot him with his taser-gun. Better that than the bullets Colonnello and Lal shot.

"Just what is going on-" Oh, the president of this company branch had appeared. The woman, a lady with vivid red hair in her mid thirties, saw Tsuna and paled. "Tsuna-sama!" She gasped, instantly reverting back to Japanese. As she rushed up to the boy everyone stopped and just stared.

"I wasn't expecting a visit!" The woman said enthusiastically, sounding not at all offended at the wreakage they made of four entire floors of the nice shiny building. "I apologise for all these unruly men, they don't know what you look like."

"It's nice to see you again, Laura-san," Tsuna said politely. "It's fine." After all, many of the men lay on the ground unconscious, and plenty of furniture and walls had been broken, while his companions remained unscathed. He could see an eager sheen in the woman's eyes and he very reluctantly relented to the silent plea. "...and you can hug me."

The woman squealed and glomped him. Tsuna resisted the urge to squirm. She turned and glared at the remaining men. "This boy here is very important, so you can't hurt him, understood?" She ordered in Italian. Getting nods, she smiled again and ordered them to clean up as she gave Tsuna one last squeeze and led the guests upstairs.

Hayato watched in fascination as Tsuna-sama discussed an assortment of Very Important Business Deals with the lady who was obviously in charge of this company. He'd concluded that the brunet was definitely Japanese, especially with the accent in his Italian. So calling Tsuna, Tsuna-sama was much more appropriate.

Somehow, through the short journey up the floors of this building, his Tsuna-sama had managed to isolate the individuals that were either ill suited to their current position, needed a raise, or were actually spies from another company altogether. And he'd barely seen the boy do more than watch those people as they were making their way up. Masters Colonnello and Lal seemed just as interested, not arguing/flirting at all as they watched the interactions.

Two hours and one grand dinner later, and they were on a private jet, being flown home.

"Where do you live?" Tsuna asked Hayato.

The silver haired boy grinned and said, "I'm following Tsuna-sama!"

"You do realise I'm returning to Japan, right?"

"Yes!" Hayato replied in Japanese. "No need to worry about language barriers, I taught myself Japanese!" After he learned his mother was half.

Tsuna tilted his head and sighed as he rubbed his temples and reverted back to his home language. "Okay, but eventually you'll have to face your family problems, Hayato..."

Hayato blinked in surprise. He hadn't said anything about his family situation.

Tsuma smiled sadly. "But it's nice to get away for a while."

Hayato broke out in to an eager grin. "Thank you, Tsuna-sama!"

The brunet pouted. "Call me Tsuna."

Ugh, cute face. But Hayato couldn't. "It would be disrespectful, Tsuna-sama!"

Colonnello patted Tsuna's head from where he sat on the brunet's shoulder. "Let him, it's all good fun, kora."

Tsuna sent a dry look at the blond before turning to the only other person who may be able to stop the silver head.

Lal snorted from her seat and smirked. "I thought you had a good handle on being called respectfully."

Tsuna's shoulders slumped in defeat.

Lal left when they flew over the building she worked at with a few strict words about not spoiling Tsuna unnecessarily. Colonnello had grinned, a hint of triumph in his posture as he suggested a fun family outing between them, which got him a bright red hand print on his cheek.

Tsuna just wanted to know how he got another set of parents whom were half his size, well, at least he had Hayato now. And as Tsuna watched the silveret doze off in the seat next to his he couldn't help but feel more complete.

Original A/N while writing the first half: AHAHAHAHAHA I JUST HAD TO I'M SORRY AHAHAHAHA WHEEZES.

E/N: Hayato! Yes! Finally! I love our resident storm! And CoLal will be the only official pairing (aside from Tsuna's parents of course), any others are up to your own imaginations/how deeply you read into situations. Next chapter will be up the usual time, though I'd be happy with lots of reviews too. 8) I don't mind if you can't write in English, hell I love foreign languages, so feel free to write one in your own language. (Google translate may be bad but it does give me the gist of what you're saying. XD)