Note from the Author: Hello, Echan again. My Word Document is still being messed up so I still cannot properly check the grammar and spelling errors. This chapter's short too, it was only written to introduce a pivotal (or something along those lines) character and to also introduce the next arc for Skywards. Hopefully you will all like the next arc...

~8~

Two high-heeled shoes walked across the Shopping Center of Namimori, eyes were glued to the owner of the shoes as she walked with an air of dignity that suggested that she had far more money than you could ever hope for in your life time. The pin-stripe suit she was wearing did not seem to affect her body temperature at all on this hot Summer's day. The woman stepped her way across Namimori before stopping in the middle of the street to take off her sunglasses and set them on the opening of her suit jacket.

"Japanese Summers are in no comparison to Italy's," she stated before being hit by a bike.

"What?" Hide asked, he was in his bedroom doing the homework that had been assigned over the summer.

"Did I say something?" Reborn asked, he sat on Hide's bed sipping tea rather comfortably.

"Yeah, you just said 'Oh' like you remembered something," he said, he was slightly getting more and more annoyed at Reborn as the home tutor had been slurping the tea noisily this whole time.

"I did, did I?" the hitman-infant said thoughtfully before slurping his tea again, "Well, if you must know I think I remember someone from the Vongola Family is coming to visit and check on your progress."

"What? You mean another hitman!?" Hide shrieked in horror.

"You shouldn't be scared," his tutor shook his head, "although this person will most likely be a hitman, this person will also have taken an oath to not harm nor endanger you."

The boy blinked and leaned in cautiously towards Reborn, "S-so, you mean that they will be on their best behavior? They promised they won't kill anyone, right?"

"Yes," Reborn nodded, "if by anyone, you mean just you, then yes."

That's not good either! Hide thought, luckily his mother was going to be out doing errands all day and Adam went out to 'buy books', Hide was a little suspicious about this since Adam had left with a giant bag and an overcoat on but he honestly didn't want to be caught up in whatever horrible mess Adam was involved in.

"So when are they coming?" Hide dared to ask.

"Today," Reborn replied and slurped his tea.

Hide practically fell out of his chair when he heard this, "Wha-What!?"

The door bell rang, "Looks like that person's already here."

Hide fell out of his chair (successfully this time) and stumbled down the stairs, he ran towards the door and put his hand on a pad on the wall for the door to open. And click, the door went and opened outwards. A woman in a pin-stripe suit was waiting for him, she had in one hand a clipboard and was looking down on Hide. She had wavy pinkish-purple hair and sharp hazel colored eyes, the woman looked about thirty or so but she still looked like she could be a model for some magazine.

"Sawada Hideyoshi, I presume?" she said in an indignant tone.

"Y-yeah," he nodded, the woman walked straight into the house and gave each and every piece of furniture a scrutinizing look.

She got out a pen and ticked something on the clipboard while shaking her head in disapproval. The woman then walked into the living room and ran a finger over the coffee table before ticking something else off the list that was on the clipboard. She almost entered the kitchen when Reborn had finally decided to appear from the entrance of the living room.

"Hello Rosario," he said.

The woman turned around and acknowledged the existence of Reborn by nodding towards him.

"Are you still not saying anything to me?" Reborn asked.

She shook her head. There's obviously something between them...Hide observed.

"You realize that this is a mission from the Tenth, I had to come to Japan to teach Hide," the infant continued.

The woman named Rosario shifted a glare towards Hide. It's all my fault!?

"I don't hate the young Twelfth for it," Rosario finally spoke and turned her glare towards Reborn, "I do however hate you, father!"

Father!? Hide gawked, the obvious age difference between Reborn and Rosario suggested more of the opposite.

"Rosario, you shouldn't speak that way towards your father," said Reborn.

"You just left me and mom with even saying anything!" the woman yelled in frustration, "I had to find out from Gokudera-oji that you were off training the next Boss! And in Japan no less!"

Hide perked up when he heard Hanabi's first name, Gokudera?

"Then I am sorry," Reborn apologized, Hide was a little shocked at this because Reborn never apologized for anything, "But I did tell your mother, she must be forgetting things in her old age."

Rosario was silent for a few seconds before asking, "Do you mean that, father?"

"Yes."

"Oh papa!" she leaned in and hugged the infant.

Meanwhile, Hide was confused as to whether this whole thing was a joke or not. It certainly seemed that way, but the two players were being far too serious to actually take it so far as a joke. Hide was beginning to wonder if this was not some sort Benjamin Button-effect that was going on.

"Anyways, Hide this is my daughter, Rosario," Reborn introduced in his always calm manner, "She is apart of an outside organization for the Vongola called CEDEF, she was also the supervisor for the Eleventh's children which is would mean that she is your supervisor as well."

"Wait, I have a supervisor?" Hide asked.

"Supervisor is probably not the best word to describe what I do," said Rosario thoughtfully, "It's more like an…Observer, I basically just observe what you do and where you go."

"So you're going to follow me around everywhere now?"

"No, it's just something that needs to be done every once in awhile," she said and procured her clipboard, she scribbled some things on it before continuing, "You'll probably only see me for important events or once a month, but this is just something that the Tenth established so that future Bosses don't become corrupt or inept. Don't worry about it though, the examination is mostly done by opinion and it decides whether or not you are capable of becoming a Boss or not."

Hide realized something and said, "So I can't become Boss if I fail?"

"That is correct!" she nodded cheerfully.

The boy was immediately whacked on the head by Reborn, who threatened, "Don't you even try to fail this examination, I'm not going to have one my own students fail."

"Ow! Ow! Alright, alright!" Hide nodded.

"Listens to tutor..." Rosario said while writing down and added after a few seconds, "Bruises easily."

"Don't write that down!"

"Very bossy," she said while writing.

~8~

The examination was long and torturous to Hide, Rosario would write down almost everything that Hide did while saying them out loud. For one thing, when she wrote down that the way he walked was like he had two left feet and that he sounded and looked like a girl, he would feel extremely embarrassed and even more self-conscious.

"Extremely self-conscious," she said out loud, the pen on the clipboard made scribbling sounds as she wrote, "And short."

Hide felt like an arrow went through his chest when he heard this, but kept trying to do his best with ignoring the comments. Finally the doorbell rang, a distraction from the over-critical Rosario.

"Oh good, now I can see how you interact with other people," Rosario said with delight.

"Oh good," Hide muttered miserably as he pressed his hand on the wall-pad for the door to open.

His eyes met with Hanabi and Suzuki, Hanabi looked pissed off that Suzuki was around her while Suzuki looked as happy and cheerful as ever. Hanabi quickly changed facial expressions when she saw Hide and bowed apologetically to him.

"I'm sorry Twelfth, but for some reason this idiot followed me," she said while eyeing Suzuki with disgust.

"Yo Hide!" Suzuki waved.

"Hey Suzuki, Gokudera-san," the boy nodded and invited them in.

"What's wrong Hide? You seem a bit down," Suzuki asked.

Hide looked around until he spotted Rosario from the door way, he jerked a thumb towards her and said miserably, "She is what's wrong."

"Who?" Hanabi looked over to the woman and immediately went pale, she covered her mouth and ran out of the house quickly.

"Gokudera-san!" Hide said worriedly as the girl was now making very colorful noises in his front yard.

"Gokudera?" Suzuki questioned, he ran over to the girl and helped pull her hair out of the way.

Once she was done with...you know, she was lying on the grass while clutching at her stomach as if incase her guts decided to fall out. She was deathly pale and was muttering, "A-Aunt Rosario...?"

"Yes?" Rosario popped her head out to the door and noticed Hanabi's sickly form, "Hanabi? So you really did go to Japan despite your poor health? You're so brave."

"Y-yeah, poor health," Hanabi nodded weakly while resisting the urge to throw up or faint.

"Let's get her onto your couch, Hide," said Suzuki, "She probably had something bad to eat."

"No, I-I'm fine," she said while trying to stand back up.

"You really should get some rest Hanabi," said Rosario, she now stood right in front of the girl.

"Flarghljaeb!" Hanabi fell back to the ground while groaning.

"Gokudera-san!"

"Gokudera!"

~8~

Hanabi opened her eyes weakly and saw the swirling fan on Hide's living room ceiling, she moved her head, which was feeling much better, and saw Hide and Suzuki sitting on the ground. They were both watching her carefully and quickly stood up when Hanabi woke up.

"Gokudera-san, what happened? Are you still sick?" her Boss asked.

"Wha-? Um, no," she shook her head and sat up, "No...there was something that made me sick here...what was it...?" And then she remembered and grimaced, "Her."

"You mean Rosario-san?" Hide asked.

"Aunt Rosario..." Hanabi said grimly, "My father's cousin, Rosario...for some reason when ever I see that old hag I just get sick; my father's the same way as well, to both Aunt Rosario and Great-Aunt Bianchi. It's like some sort of inherited trait or something..."

What kind of inherited trait is that!? Hide gawked.

"That's sort of messed up," Suzuki commented.

"For some reason, that hag always thinks that both mine and my father's health are poor, and that only makes her visit us more!" she continued.

"Wait, isn't Reborn Rosario-san's daughter?" Hide remembered, "So...doesn't that mean he's your...?"

"My Great-Uncle? Yeah I guess it sort of does," she nodded as if it was no big deal.

Why isn't anything making any sense today!? the boy wondered.

~8~

Hanabi quickly left when she had heard from Hide that Rosario was staying the whole day. Hide still had to undergo Rosario's examination until it was evening, and then she had announced her results.

"You take good care of your subordinates, Twelfth," she said, she looked over to Suzuki and nodded towards him, "And you pick really good friends. Good judgment and knowing the value of people is important to become a Boss. You pass."

"I do?" Hide gawked, he had expected himself to fail since Rosario kept on making such negative comments the whole day.

The sound of a phone ringing was heard and Rosario took out of her pocket a small, black bead which she put inside her ear. She was silent for a few moments before she took the bead out and put it back in her pocket. She had now procured a messenger bag which she put her clipboard and pen in hurriedly.

"Where are you going now?" Suzuki asked.

"I just got a message from the Main Branch," she said busily, "Something seems to have come up, so I'm going back to Italy. Good bye father, and I'll see you again soon Sawada Hideyoshi."

She left through the front door and shortly after, Hanabi came back to the house after she had left and was wondering if Rosario had left or not. Suzuki had brought a new video game that he said Hide would probably like. And so they played video games all night and ordered pizza, Adam came back from his 'errand' and joined them after changing his, for some reason, stinky clothes. Hide's mom didn't come back until it was late at night and by then they had all fallen asleep.

Hide's mother smiled and put blankets over them to keep them warm, and then she would call Suzuki and Hanabi's parents to tell them they would be spending the night at their house, but for some reason Hanabi's parents would not pick up their phone. And she would go to her own bed, and Hide would sleep in the living room with his friends, waiting for another summer's day...

~8~

NEW ARC: WHAT HIDES IN THE SHADOWS

~8~

It was cold. Almost piercing cold. There was no wind, only the dampness and the only warmth that could be relied on was the warmth your own body brought. But the cold, wet stone walls only pulled any heat away and the only source light was from the small cracks inbetween the cobbled walls. If you closed your eyes and quieted all the natural sounds from your mind, you could possibly hear a scratching noise along with the panting and mumblings of a person.

If you went towards the noises, you might possibly have found a young girl with short, blonde hair that had been dyed a rusty color with old, crusty blood, her blood. If you went closer to the girl, you would have found that she was pulling and scratching at the rocks desperately and while making slightly more coherent mumblings. And if you went even closer, but you really shouldn't since the girl's mind had probably been long since gone, you would have seen that the girl was crying and that her fingers were bloody from pulling and scratching at rough, cobbled rocks.

"Boss," Anna cried, "I need to tell Boss!"

~8~

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Amano Akira, not me

Neither does Benjamin Button, but it was a really good movie