Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn! I just wish I did.

Beta: the lovely Midnight-Kitsune11.

Pairing: At this time there is NO pairing for this fic!

A.N.: Thank you all for the lovely reviews! They mean the world to me! And they helped motivate me to write this chapter! XD so keep them coming ;)

Ch 12: Stormy surprise

Tsuna sighed as he was finally alone in his apartment. At least for a little while. While he absolutely adored having people around since they kept his attention far away from any issues he was having (and kept him from overthinking them), he did need some peace and quiet every once in a while to simply process.

And the last couple of days had given him enough to work through.

Good things had happened. It wasn't all bad. His whole team had survived the second part of the exams and a long lost family member had found him, when he'd thought he didn't have any blood family left. Karin's current situation, unfortunately, wasn't very good and needed to be changed but trying to fix that had brought him some very unexpected news, both good and bad. Good, because he wouldn't need to worry about allocations for everyone who wanted or needed a new place to stay (and he'd be able to keep them close this way and not at the other side of the village) and bad because of what his found out about his supposed landlord. Tsuna was never one for revenge, but he couldn't find it in himself to let the man just get away with it either. He really hoped the Hokage could provide a solution here that wouldn't make him hate himself.

Of course he'd need to talk to everyone to see if any of them wanted to be adopted into the clan (Karin already being an Uzumaki, he only needed one volunteer to be able to start establishing the Uzumaki clan.)

And minutes after that he'd been seemingly ambushed in the streets by a man who could as well have been made to teach him. Jiraiya had certainly started their conversation as if he'd rather have been anywhere but there. He had looked so insulted when Tsuna told him 'no', that Tsuna had wondered how long it had been since someone had told him that… The man had cheered up later on and had eagerly joined them all during their dinner to talk about anything and everything, so that reassured Tsuna a bit. Still, someone had clearly made him take the job. Was this the council again? Or was this the guy Kakashi had pawned him off to?

And yes, he was still bitter about that. But who could blame him. Neither his sensei or Sasuke had gotten in touch since their last talk (or maybe fight in Sasuke's case) which hurt. A lot!

The bond with his Storm was straining and Tsuna felt prickly all the time now. Their connection was still so new and Sasuke was the only guardian he had at the moment that was somewhat flame active. It was really taking its toll on him.

But, maybe it was time to change that? Time to step up and stop pretending he knew nothing about flames just to keep everyone from suspecting things that probably weren't true. (How many would guess reincarnation before spy after all?)

Maybe he could try and activate Zabuza's and Iruka-nii's flames? They trained together as good as every day now, in preparation for the third part of the chuunin exams. He'd never done something like that before, but he remembered Reborn telling him how Skies could coax other flames into becoming active, so trying probably wouldn't hurt. They were already bonded as Sky and guardian after all. Though he'd have to talk to them both about that before he did anything. He'd never force this one them. No way. But if they were willing… they'd both need time to train to use those flames. Time they were now dedicating to helping Tsuna train…

Not for the first time, Tsuna wondered if he could withdraw from these stupid exams.

But no, between the council's meddling and Gaara's presence… He just couldn't.

Still, his plans for Zabuza and Iruka and his own prospects of training himself to perform his old techniques (without any added technology), gave him a plan to look forward to the next few weeks. This helped him calm down a bit and honestly, he was so grateful he had those two bonds to counter the loss he was feeling in Sasuke's absence. Honestly, it would be so much worse without them. He could only hope Sasuke was faring better than he was…

He took a deep breath and focused on the last thing he'd promised himself he'd take care of before he threw himself into his training.

Talking to the Kyuubi...

Tsuna sat on his bed, taking another deep breath. He had postponed this long enough, so now, he would take the time to talk to his tenant. Last time he had accidentally summoned the Kyuubi, Tsuna had been too shocked to do much. Especially since he hadn't expected it to be able to talk.

And a talk between the two of them was long overdue.

He eyed the ring briefly, before putting it on his finger and channelling flames through it.

The same small chibi fox creature from before appeared just in front ofhim. It looked startled and flailed around for a second.

Tsuna couldn't help but smile. It was strangely adorable for a demonic creature known for causing natural disasters.

"What do you want?" The fox snarled in a deep voice as he sat down in front of Tsuna.

"I'm not sure, but since we're stuck together, I thought it might be a good idea to talk." He rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin.

"Why would I want to talk to a runt like you?" The Kyuubi grumbled in anger.

"Really? You're going with that?" Tsuna arched a sceptical eyebrow and a sarcastic tone. "You got something else to do right now?"

The Kyuubi muttered something he couldn't make out.

"Fine. Then what do you want to talk about?"

"What's your name? I'm Uzumaki Naruto." He smiled brightly at the Biju.

The Kyuubi looked at Tsuna had hit him over the head with a fish. "My name?"

"Well, yeah… Everyone has a name right?" Tsuna shrugged and studied the being before him. "I mean, I'm sorry, I sorta assumed you had a name when I found out you could talk. Talking usually means someone has some form of intelligence, though that can be debated in the case of certain individuals." He though at the majority of the idiots that inhabited this village. "But if you don't have a name, I could always give you one, if you want. Hmmm, Inari could be a nice name, or-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" the Kyuubi roared as he leapt towards Tsuna and clawed up the arm Tsuna raised in protection of his face. "Of course I have name, you brat!"

The Kyuubi jumped away again and Tsuna shakily took a deep breath, only now realising he'd held it in. His arm was scratched badly, but strangely enough, it just looked like a cat had taken its anger out on him. He'd excepted more damage from the Biju…

"Just tell me what you want..." The Kyuubi sighed tiredly.

"I just... I thought you might like some company? It seemed very dark and lonely in the seal and I just thought that you might want to come out, sometimes. You know, when no one else is around." He admitted sheepishly.

Of course, the fact that he missed Natsu, his cuddle buddy, probably had something to do with that as well…

"You would let me out? Like this?" The Biju looked stunned, before anger overtook it again. "Who do you think I am?! Some sort of pet?!"

"No it's just, I thought it might be nice. For both of us. We are going to be stuck together for as long as I'm alive. It might be nice to make the best of it." Tsuna shrugged. "And I assumed you'd rather be out of there, either way."

"And I don't suppose you want something in return?" Kyuubi sneered. "You're doing this out of the goodness of your heart, right?"

"Well, it would be nice if we could be friends, maybe even fight together, but I'm honestly not sure how much you could do in this form..." He gestured at his scratches.

The Kyuubi snorted and spoke arrogantly. "I'm the most powerful of all the Biju! Don't think that my looks influence the power I possess. If I really wanted to I could maul you without problems, even in this form."

"Oh, does that mean you care about me already? Since you didn't?" Tsuna asked with a bright smile.

The Kyuubi spluttered and Tsuna had to fight not to laugh at the adorable sight. Who'd have thought he'd ever think of the strongest of the Biju as adorable?

"Of course not you idiot!" The orange fox yelled in outrage.

For some reason all Tsuna could see was the Kyuubi's resemblance to Hayato when he yelled at Takeshi in an outrage. It only made the Biju more endearing to him.

Probably the opposite of what the fox had hoped for.

"You still haven't told me your name…?" Tsuna said hesitantly.

"And I'm not going to." The Kyuubi turned his head away in a huff.

"Fine, but I need to call you something, so how about I call you… Fluffy?" he proposed, feeling mischievous. "At least until you give me your name, a nickname only seems reasonable."

"Fluffy?" There was that stunned look again, like the Biju couldn't believe Tsuna had just told him the earth was flat.

"Yeah, why not? Your tails look very fluffy!" Tsuna declared cheerfully.

Maybe he could annoy the Kyuubi into sharing his name? he certainly seemed annoyed enough right now.

The Kyuubi stewed a few seconds, as if restraining himself, before he launched himself at Tsuna again with a roar.

This time though was different. Not only was he using his teeth as well, but something else had Tsuna straightening in attention. He grabbed the mini Kyuubi by the skin in his neck and held him away from himself. He eyed the Biju attentively.

"Those are Storm flames!" He realised.

The Kyuubi snarled at him. "PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!"

"Will you attack me again?"

"OF COURSE!"

"Then sorry, but no." Tsuna reasoned logically. He gently reached out with his own flames and brushed against those of the Biju.

The Biju stilled allowing Tsuna to change his grip on the fox, so that he'd had both his arms under his front paws.

The Kyuubi fell silent. "You're a god-damned Sky." It whispered in stunned shock.

"Yeah, didn't you know?" Tsuna asked curiously.

The flames feel different than any storm flames he's ever felt. Wilder, which shouldn't be a surprise if he thought about it.

"Correction, you're the Sky that's been feeding me his flames for the past few months." Kyuubi spoke still stunned.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I hadn't realised I was doing it." Tsuna trailed of sheepishly.

"Unbelievable." Kyuubi muttered with an I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that look on his face.

The Biju wriggled in his hold.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Kyuubi asked grumpily. "Will you set me down already?"

"Huh?" Tsuna blinked warily at the Biju as he cautiously put him back on his four paws.

"More Flames, idiot."

Tsuna couldn't help but smile at the adorable grumpy kitsune. He coated his hand in soft sky flames and gently dared to pet Kyuubi's head. The most fearsome of the Biju fell against him in pure bliss. If he could purr, Tsuna was sure he would have.

They sat in silence like this for what could have been hours, simply basking in each other's flames.

It was only when someone knocked on his door, that Tsuna gently shook the Biju to wake him up. He smiled brightly at the creatures grumpy muttering before dismissing him again.

He stretched as he made his way to the door, which honestly was only a few feet away. Yeah, his apartment was very small…

Turned out it was a random shinobi he didn't know. The man didn't speak to him, he simply handed Tsuna a folder filled with a lot of paper, nodded at him and walked away.

Tsuna blinked after the man, not sure what to think. In the end, he shrugged and took the folder inside.

Iruka-nii would be here soon, he saw as he looked at the clock, so he set the folder on the table and started going through the papers. He'd give it a read through while he waited.

But the more he read, the wider his eyes opened. Was this real? Because if so, then Tsuna didn't only own a practically empty building, he also had more money than he could ever need. What had his mother done? Raided Uzu before she moved here?

Oh, no wait… The Hokage was making his old 'landlord' pay him back everything he owed Tsuna, plus a very serious interest. The guy would be paying Tsuna back 'til he died… and while the man had spent most of Tsuna's money, he'd actually invested in into some popular businesses here in Konoha. So somehow Tsuna now as good as owned three shops and two restaurants and he'd get a monthly check from all of them…

Dear kami, he had enough money to bulldoze this old apartment building and build something entirely new! Wow…

He was still studying the papers when Iruka-nii arrived, coming into the apartment with the key Tsuna had given him.

"What has you so serious, Ruto-kun?" his Mist asked with amusement.

Tsuna couldn't get any words out, all he could do was hand his nii-san the papers.

A creepy smirk grew on Iruka-nii's face the longer he read. "Wow, this is very good news."

He actually almost purred out the word 'very'.

They didn't need to wait long before the others arrived. Somehow in the last few days, they had all made the unspoken decision to come over every evening for dinner. This evening wasn't different. Zabuza arrived with Haku and Karin. Apparently, the former Kiri duo had taken the girl under their wing.

Tsuna smiled brightly at them all.

Zabuza grinned ferally back, and he seemed delighted about the look on Iruka-nii's face. Tsuna's Mist still had a slightly disturbed smirk on his face.

"I bribed the Sannin into buying us take-out for dinner." Zabuza said as they all sat around Tsuna's little table. "He'll be here later on though. He still had an errand to run."

"Good because there is some stuff I want to talk about first." Tsune sighed and organized his thoughts for a second. What first?

"Ruto-kun got some very interesting papers from the Hokage." Iruka-nii started.

"True, that's part of what I wanted to talk about." He took a deep breath before he started. "I went to the Hokage to ask what needed to be done to have the Uzumaki acknowledged as a Konoha clan. Turned out, that wouldn't be hard to do at all. I'd need at least two people who'd agree to take on the Uzumaki name." He turned to look at Karin. "You already have the name, but I have no idea how closely we are actually related so it'd be best if you signed the papers anyway. As an official part of Konoha's Uzumaki clan you'd be protected against anything you wouldn't want to do. Kusa wouldn't be able to make you do things. They'd need my permission before they could force you and I'd make sure that Konoha held Kusa to that. If you want, they wouldn't even be able to stop you if you handed in your resignation."

The girl smiled at him with tears in her eyes, clearly feeling grateful and overwhelmed. "Thank you."

"Just to be clear, if you leave Kusa and officially move into Konoha, no one here would force you to be a shinobi either. The choice is completely yours." Tsuna wanted to make that clear because no one had ever given her the option of not being a shinobi. Whatever she wanted, he would make sure she had it.

"Of course that means we still need someone else to be adopted into the clan. Now, I don't want anyone to feel-"

"I'll do it, if that is alright." Haku cut him off.

Tsuna blinked in shock. He'd hoped the boy would agree, but he had honestly not expected this to go this quickly. "Of course, if that's what you want."

"It is. It would be nice to have a family again, especially after what happened with the last one. My father killed my mother because of Kiri's policy on bloodlines and I'd like to think I know you well enough to know that you'd never agree with or do something like that, Naruto-kun. Not to family."

"Never." Tsuna vowed with a dry voice, surprised to hear Haku's story so casually mentioned.

"Good." The ice user smiled at him.

Tsuna eyed him briefly. "I know I've said I see the people I flame bonded with as family, but just because such a bond or blood ties don't exist between us, doesn't mean I don't see you as family either way. You know that right?"

Haku's smile grew softer. "I know. Still having a name again would be nice."

Tsuna nodded at him and handed Haku and Karin the papers they'd need to fill out. "Make sure to read everything on there before you sign them. I haven't had the time to read the fine print yet, but it seems to be alright."

He turned to look at Zabuza and Iruka. "Also, it's not because I have the required two people to join that no one else can join as well. If either or even both of you want..."

"Yeah, yeah, we know." Grunted Zabuza. "I don't see the need, personally, except maybe if doing so will give me special privileges I'd want in the village." The man gave a very Squalo-eque grin.

"We'll see." Iruka-nii grinned at the man.

"Alright, next apparently I own this building and the ground it stands on. I plan on throwing the only other person living in it out." And yeah, he was. There was no way he wanted his old 'landlord' anywhere near him. "I plan to register it officially as clan property and you'd all be welcome here. However work needs to be done to make living in it better."

Zabuza gave a snort at that and Tsuna shot him a grin.

"I know but I wanted you guys' input before deciding what to do with it. As far as I see it, we have two options. We either bulldoze the whole thing and start building something new or we have some serious work done on it. It might be nice to make a communal floor on one story and then rooms or even apartments in the rest of the building."

"That last bit sounds nice." Iruka-nii's smile finally lost its demented vibe.

"Do you have enough money for all that?" Haku asked concerned.

Tsuna grinned. "Oh, money shouldn't be an issue. Except if you guys want the building completely done in gold, but honestly that doesn't seem to be practical at all. The glare from the sun alone would be bothersome."

Karin giggled.

Tsuna let out a deep sigh. "Though I have no idea when I'll find time for this."

"Well, if you want I can speak to a professional to see just what is possible to have done in this place?" Iruka-nii proposed.

"That sounds nice." Tsuna smiled relieved.

"I-if you want," Karin started hesitantly, "I'd like to help with that."

"Me too." Haku agreed. "Karin and I could come with you, Iruka-san. To help things move along."

Zabuza snorted again. "Yeah, give Haku any say in this and he'll have the whole building redone, decoration and furniture included."

"Really?" Tsuna asked with wide eyes. "Because that actually be something I'd agree to."

"You mean it?" Haku asked with a startled smile.

Tsuna smiled at the boy. "Of course, I have honestly no idea where to start or what I even want, so that'd be a great help. Maybe you and Karin can take care of making this place a home for all of us."

The girl had been fidgeting, clearly wanting to say something but not daring to. Haku turned towards her and smiled. "I'd like that. This will be so much fun. Let's do our best, Karin-chan."

She smiled and nodded in delight. "Un."

"Good." Tsuna smiled brightly. He was so glad they'd take care of it. That was one less thing to worry about for him. "Now, there is something else I'd like to discuss before Jiraiya gets here. As you know, I flame bonded to both Iruka-nii and Zabuza, as my Mist and Rain respectively. You might not know that I have a bond like that with Sasuke as well."

"Sasuke?" asked Karin softly.

"Uchiha Sasuke, my team-mate."

She nodded in understanding.

"Sasuke, however, managed to become flame active during the second part of the chuunin exams. Flame active bonds are tighter than non-active bonds. The strain of having such an active new bond is … making me very miserable the last few days. New guardians shouldn't be separated from their Sky, but Kakashi took Sasuke away without even thinking or asking what might happen."

"What is happening?" Zabuza asked with empathise and a heavy frown.

"The bond is being stretched thin. And there is a constant ache." Tsuna said as he rubs his chest where he could feel his bonds. "It hurts and it makes me moody and grumpy. The longer this goes on, the worse it'll get, ntil the bond snaps."

He really didn't want to think that might happen, but he had honestly no idea how long their bond could stand such a lengthy separation, and he had no reassurance that he'd see Sasuke before their month training was done.

"Is there anything that can be done?" asked Iruka-nii worriedly.

"We could hunt down Hatake and take the boy back." Zabuza suggested casually.

Tsuna shook his head. "No, we'd waste too much time trying to find them. Kami knows where Kakashi took him, but there might be something we can do. If you agree that is."

They all waited for him to elaborate.

"Having other flame active bonds could possibly ease the symptoms on my end. This would do nothing for Sasuke, who should be experiencing the same things I am. I feel bad about not being able to help him, but part of me is very glad to know that Kakashi is suffering because of his thoughtless decisions."

His two guardians smirked at that.

"But, getting both or either of you flame active would help me, and it would also help to show the village exactly what the Uzumaki clan can contribute to the village. It's all good and well to offer to teach people about flames and their uses but if no one else can use them, that seems a bit like a lost point, really, so…"

"But it would be mostly for you, right?" Karin asked.

"I'm in. Screw the village, I want to use those flames." Zabuza grinned, exposing his sharp teeth to them all.

Iruka-nii didn't say anything but mirrored his grin.

Those two would be even more terrifying with flames, but Tsuna honestly didn't see that as a reason to not do this.

Someone knocked on the door.

"That will be the Sannin with our food." Zabuza was still smirking.

Karin, who sat closest to the door, got up to let the man in.

"I have arrived!" Jiraiya dramatically waved his arms around as he walked in.

The bags that were draped over said arms dangerously danced around with him.

Both Haku and Karin immediately tried to grab the bags from him, to prevent their food getting spilled.

The group fell into an easy chatter as they sat down and started eating. Tsuna started drifting off, lost in thought. He was glad he'd gotten to address everything he'd wanted to talk about. And honestly, simply having his family around like this, relaxed and enjoying themselves, soothed the ache inside him from his straining bond with Sasuke a bit. Just enough to be able to pretend to himself that everything as it should be.

He did briefly look back up when he heard what Jiraiya and Karin were talking about.

"It's true that the best seal masters of the Hidden countries were Uzumaki, before the village was destroyed." Jiraiya explained her.

"But why?" Karin interrupted. "If they were so focused on flames and how to activate it, then…?"

"Ah, but they hadn't been very successful with that in the last few generations, now were they? No, no see, I've been told that the Uzumaki only started inventing seals as an alternative for flames. For those in the clan who didn't manage to go active. Over the generations, the people who did manage to unlock their flames dwindled and seals became much more important."

"So, they made seals to mimic flames?" Tsuna interjected in their conversation.

Jiraiya smiled at him. "To mimic the effect of flames, mostly. Like the Hiraishin seal. That one is ancient even if it made the Yondaime famous. It's a seal that supposedly makes the user teleport all over the place but it actually mimics Rain Flames and slows everything except the user down."

"Wow." Breathed Karin in awe.

Tsuna couldn't help but agree with her.

"Or another example…." Jiraiya enthusiastically continued on.

TBC.

Tsuna sasses the Kyuubi! O.O I had not expected that when I started this chapter, but I love it ! 3

Next up: Chuunin exams! I need help! Anyone any suggestions of how Tsuna could tackle his fight against Neji? Let me know what you'd like to see happen ;-)

Please leave a review/comment on the way out ^^