Guest - I don't have Tsuna join because he wouldn't have conceivably done so, seeing as he wouldn't have wanted to. Basically, it'd be kind of OOC. I can understand that this sort of stance would not satisfy you or others reading this, but my own priorities are different, and I can only hope that's fine. Whatever the case, I appreciate the input so thank you for reviewing!

Target 11: Tsuna's Improvement

While his tests had practically the same results as when Squalo wasn't around, Tsuna would be lying if he claimed he hadn't improved physically at all, especially when he was being one of the best students at anything requiring stamina. At first, he had been surprised when out of his whole class, he had been one of the last three still running around the school without getting tired; so had the PE teacher. Other classmates even speculated he had taken breaks while doing those laps, but that hadn't actually been true as the other two were witnesses to his achievement.

Afterwards, he started to realize that going up many staircases, doing laps around whole neighborhoods and regular morning jogs like Squalo had told him was improving his stamina a lot: before, just half a lap around the school was enough to get him out of breath. His class, picking up on that, had been even more hesitant to call Tsuna by his usual nickname, still greatly surprised themselves.

At the ending of a particular PE class, a classmate approached him with a cheerful smile. "Yo!" he greeted, making Tsuna flinch; he hadn't noticed him at all. Confused, Tsuna turned around, only to find that one of the most popular students in his class, Takeshi Yamamoto, had been the one who started talking to him. "You were awesome back there, Tsuna! I could barely even breathe by the 10th lap, but you still kept going!"

Admittedly, Tsuna was surprised: he had realized (faintly) he wasn't as bad as usual, but he wasn't expecting other people to praise him, No-Good Tsuna, regardless. Even so, it was true that, somehow, he had started to surpass even Takeshi Yamamoto in terms of stamina; a notion he had never once considered. "Th-thanks..." Unable to hide how flattered and flustered he felt despite his attempt, Tsuna smiled with barely any awareness he was doing so.

Having to get to the top of buildings with over 20 floors by using the stairs over 15 times can make you do that... With time, the numbers had really increased, though Tsuna hadn't even taken note of that; they were still big no matter how they changed. Besides, Squalo would make it look so easy whenever he would have to accompany him throughout (to make sure he wouldn't take breaks). Yamamoto chuckled. "You're welcome! You know, I've been hearing you're friends with Ryohei Sasagawa from 2-A. Is that true?"

It was still greatly strange to Tsuna that he had someone he could consider a friend, especially in someone as eccentric as Ryohei. He was appreciative of that fact, but even now, it hadn't truly sunk in, so being directly asked about it warranted a slightly surprised expression and some thought from Tsuna before speaking. "Well, uh, yeah," Tsuna awkwardly answered, wondering what Ryohei would be doing: something extreme, he deducted... Whatever it happened to be.

While Ryohei was known throughout the school, it was mostly because of how he would invite anyone he thought was good enough to join the Boxing club, and was rather persistent about it: in other words, he was more infamous than famous. "Cool! You didn't look like you had any friends before, so that's good to know. I heard he's kind of eccentric, but he doesn't look like he's a bad guy," Yamamoto said, "Anyway, I got club practice now, so I gotta get going!"

With that, Yamamoto grinned cheerfully and left while waving at Tsuna, resulting in Tsuna nervously waving back. I've never talked to Yamamoto like this before, he thought, Was he... looking out for me? Somewhat in awe, Tsuna stared off at Yamamoto as he left and only when he was no longer in his line of sight did he stop.

Before focusing on what he was doing before, Tsuna smiled, having a feeling that wouldn't be the last he'd hear of Yamamoto...

Author's Notes:

Since the last Target, this story got 6 favorites and 7 followers; thank you! As you've probably noticed, I'm referring to the characters in narration the way I'm most familiar with them rather than by first name. The writing style in this story is a bit more casual, so I'm hoping this is forgiveable. Anyway, Yamamoto's here, and Tsuna's assumptions over his intentions are his own, so I'll confirm or deny nothing!