Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

A/N: Thanks for the Reviews!

One of my reviewers said they don't want caught in a nightmare of my making. That right there made me grin! I'm not sadistic, but, to be honest, it would be quite fun making nightmares for people and just forcing them on people when they sleep. That's what it made me think of. Really, I'm not a sadist. Honest.

"Talking"

'Thought'

Most Wanted

Chapter 11

Reborn…betrays me…Reborn…traitor…Reborn…Reborn…kills me…

Tsuna just continued to stare blankly at his tutor, but, on the inside, he was like a little mouse running around in fear and trying to escape from his predator. He wanted nothing more than to get away from Reborn, but seeing as they were in the middle of a lesson, he was stuck here with the hitman.

Reborn, for his part, was staring at his student with a frown. Ever since the family entrance exam, he had been very quiet, barely interacted with his friends, and was just generally more difficult than ever before. It was a chore just to get the boy to leave for school. But, he supposed it was best that this happened now. The boy was to be the future boss of the Vongola. He would face horrible situations because of that. This was something that he needed to overcome.

Still, though, he shouldn't be spacing out in the middle of their lesson.

"Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn snapped, bringing down his leon-hammer on his student's head.

The pain caused Tsuna to refocus on his tutor, but at the same time it caused him to flinch back terribly in fear. He pulled his knees up to his chest and held them there by hugging them, staring at his tutor without his usual neutral look.

"The mafia is not a game, you know that, right?" Reborn asked, frowning at his student. He was so used to a cocky, witty boy that seeing this scared one was bothering him. In fact, he didn't like this scared student one bit.

Tsuna tightened his arms around his legs. He knew how scary and dangerous the underground world was. No one in the underground world played around. They shot to kill, not injure. All of them were after power and control. There was a reason why he hid behind his computer as Erebus. It was so he didn't have to get directly involved with Mafiosos. Hiding as a hacker was his safety net, but with Reborn and him being the heir to the Vongola everything was just becoming completely messed up!

"Of course I know how dangerous the mafia is." Tsuna said quietly, avoiding looking at his tutor. How could he betray him like that?

"Then you know I am preparing you for the worst, as is my job. You need to suck it up, whatever you saw in that nightmare, and work your ass off so it doesn't come true. Sitting around and moping will just help that nightmare happen." Reborn growled, hoping to snap some sense back into his student, who was completely worthless when he was like this.

'I know that! I know that moping isn't going to get me anywhere, but I'm so damn scared. I am a hacker. Isn't that enough to get me in trouble with the mafia and you? My friends know nothing about my job. Does that put them in danger or safety? Danger of not knowing can give them trouble. Safe because they won't know anything about me so no one will come after them. What the hell am I supposed to do?' Tsuna dropped his eyes from Reborn. The hitman was his tutor, but he wouldn't tell him the answer he needed. He needed to figure things out for himself. Plus, he couldn't very well explain the situation to him without giving something away. Damn, what was he going to do?

"Well, this is a waste of my time." Reborn stood up from the computer chair. "Go figure yourself out and don't return to this house until you got yourself figured out."

Tsuna watched the hitman disappear from his room. When he was gone, he got up to close his door then went around his room gathering his things. He grabbed a laptop bag for his laptop then grabbed another bag to fill with his clothes. If Reborn wanted him out of the house for a while, he would gladly oblige. After all, he needed some time away from the scary hitman. He couldn't think clearly with him around and figure all this out.

"Now, where should I go?" Tsuna pondered as he stood in the middle of the park. When he was done packing he ran from the house and to the park. At the time, he was eager to get away from everything going on at the house so he didn't stop to think about where to go. "I could go stay at….No." He shook his head furiously. He wanted to avoid his friends. With no direction as to what to do about his secrets and friends' safety, he couldn't see them, not yet anyway. Until he knew what to do, he couldn't see them, lest he broke down and told them. That couldn't happen.

"Wha–" Tsuna cut himself off when he saw the children on the swings that he was staring at began to fade away. "What the hell?!" He spun around, only to be met with happily chatting adults that were also fading away into nothingness.

This couldn't be happening. People didn't just vanish like that! It wasn't possible. Nothing in this world had the power to make people suddenly disappear. Unless…

A sense of dread filled Tsuna. There was one such thing that could make people disappear. It was something that he didn't have any experience with, but knew about it from his hacking of the Vongola servers. He wasn't sure if it was truly possible with that or not since all the mafia Famiglias that knew about them kept very little information about them on their servers. There was so little information that Tsuna barely knew anything about them, but there was a slim chance that this was the work of a mist flame user.

"Kufufu."

A shiver ran down Tsuna's spine. Not only was that laugh creepy but it sounded like it was coming from all around him, like he was surrounded by enemies and that didn't bode well with the hacker who was already scared enough. Hasn't he been traumatized enough by his own tutor?

"Who's there?" Tsuna demanded, forcing the fear from his body. He would not show fear here or to anyone for that matter. He was not someone that people could push around to do whatever they wanted. He was his own person!

"Kufufu. So this is Erebus?"

'Oh, this is bad, very, very bad.' Tsuna subconsciously took a step back, only to find himself hitting something solid that was not there before. Without meaning to, he felt himself flinch terribly at the contact. Whether from fear of this person behind him, and he knew it was a person, or because he's been afraid of contact since that nightmare drug, he didn't know at this point in time.

Not wasting a moment, Tsuna jumped away from this person and spun around, only to freeze once more when he saw heterochromia eyes staring at him. One was a normal blue eye. That didn't bother Tsuna. What bothered him was the right eye which was blood red with a black six shining it. That just shouldn't be possible. Besides his eyes, he had blue hair that was styled in a way that made it look like a pineapple and he had his ears pierced in a few places with black and dark blue studs. He was dressed in black trousers with two white belts, a dark blue shirt with a black jacket that stopped a bit above his waist, black fingerless gloves, and black boots that had belt straps on them. Around his neck was a chain, but Tsuna couldn't see what was hanging on it since it was tucked under his shirt.

"Who are you?" Tsuna demanded. "And how do you know about me?"

"Kufufu, well, aren't you demanding, E-re-bus." The boy, who looked no older than fifteen, teased, grinning playfully.

"Damn it!" Tsuna growled, hands tensing. His eyes were trained on his capturer, but, even he was completely shocked when the boy disappeared right in front of him. What the hell was this? Was this really the power of a mist flame user?

"Now, now," A voice whispered in Tsuna's ear, causing him to jerk back in surprise, which caused him to hit the chest of the boy behind him again. "I'm not here to fight."

Swallowing his fear, Tsuna replied as calmly as he could, "Like I believe that. You have me trapped in this….what the hell is this anyway?"

"Kufufufu, for such a skilled hacker, you know very little."

Scowling, Tsuna stepped away from the boy so he could turn and glare at him since his pride was getting in the way. "It's not my fault the mafia is so tightlipped about these 'flames.' I can't very well learn about them if they don't put more information on their damn servers."

"Excuses, excuses, E-re-bus." The boy mocked, leaning over the shorter boy. "Isn't it that you could have learned from one of your contacts, but never did because you were afraid?"

"Afraid?" Tsuna parroted.

"Scared like a little mouse about to be eaten." The boy said, smirking as he took a step towards Tsuna, who took another step away. Forget his pride, he was damn right scared of this boy. He had such a menacing aura around him and that playful smile was not helping because he could tell it was all just for show. This was not someone to have as an enemy. "Yes, you are afraid of the mafia world. You work as a hacker, but hide your identity behind a computer screen because you are too scared to face it head on. Anything you fear, you hide or run from it. You don't understand the flames so you ran from the possibility of learning about them. Now if only you learned, you wouldn't be stuck in this illusionary world with me."

"I don't understand." Tsuna said, frowning. "What is the point of all this? And who the hell are you?"

"Kufufu. It is difficult to talk to you when you have the number one hitman watching your every move." The boy said.

Tsuna scowled. Reborn? He told him to leave the house, but he still seemed to find ways to spy on him.

"It seems we will have to continue this another time."

Browns eyes watched cautiously as the boy began to fade away. Not trusting him to just leave because Reborn might be coming, Tsuna scanned the area, and to his surprise, he saw the illusionary world begin to fade as well since he saw the people in the park begin to reappear. None of them gave a single look to him, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Once he was sure that the boy was gone, Tsuna collapsed to his knees, bags falling off his shoulder and dropping to the ground with a thud. That boy's aura was far worse than Reborn's and Reborn was a professional hitman, but at least he kept his killer intent under wraps. That boy had no such restraint and he knew exactly who he was. If that boy found out he was Erebus, then he must know his real name and where his family was. How else could he know that Reborn was with him?

Oh, dear god, they were all in danger because of that boy and none of them knew it, and if they did, they would have no idea because they didn't know who he was!

But, that boy was right about one thing. He was scared.

He was scared of all of it. The mafia and the flames they used. It all scared him so he hid and ran from it all. That's all he ever did because he didn't want to face them. He wasn't strong enough to handle them. And he had no reason to. There was never a reason for him to get involved with Mafiosos in person and he liked it that way. But, now, they were all coming to him because of him being the heir to the Vongola.

What the hell was he supposed to do?

He acted strong, but he wasn't all that strong. Inside, he was just scared and unsure of which direction to take.

Well, he knew one thing. He wasn't going to sit around here and wait for Reborn to come find him. This was his time to wander around without the hitman around and he needed it. He needed this time to think. He was scared, scared that the boy would come back and find him, but he was done running. That boy shoved the truth in his face, and it was time that he faced it. He now had friends, friends that he had to protect. He avoided people before Reborn showed up. Now, he couldn't do that. He was a future boss, or at least, he was the heir to the Vongola. If he ever became the boss, he had to look out for his friends and subordinates. And that meant trusting them to watch his back as well.

Walking away from the park, he pulled out his phone and hit speed dial.

"Hello?"

"It's time for a meeting. Do not inform Reborn and we meet at Hayato's apartment in an hour." Tsuna informed in an authoritative tone.

"Understood, boss."

*K.H.R*

Stepping out of the shop, Tsuna pushed his shopping bag into his black duffel bag, stopping momentarily to do so. In that moment of pause, his ears picked up the sound of feet slamming into the ground speeding towards him.

Groaning, he glanced up, only to laugh since his worry was completely worthless as it was just his over energized senpai from school.

As if seeing Tsuna, Ryohei came to a stop in front of him with a worried frown. "Are you extremely alright, Sawada?"

Blinking, Tsuna tilted his head a bit to the side in confusion. "Of course. Why would you think something was wrong?"

"You haven't been your EXTREMELY cheerful self at school these past few days." Ryohei shouted in concern.

"O-oh?" Tsuna stuttered. He hadn't expected anyone besides his friends to notice. "Well, that is…."

"Were you that scared over the kidnapping experience?" Ryohei asked.

"What?" Tsuna shouted. "You know about that?"

Ryohei blinked. "Of course, I EXTREMELY know! I was the one to give you the medicine."

Tsuna scratched his head, a bit frustrated. Why did no one mention that Ryohei had helped? Sure, he had been a bit out of it the past few days, but surely they could have informed him of this. "Um, why did you help? You have no obligation to help me."

"Because you are an EXTREMELY awesome person and protected my sister!" Ryohei shouted. To Tsuna it looked like his eyes were alit with flames with how excited the boxer seemed to be. "You are an EXTREMELY strong guy!"

"Thanks, I guess." Tsuna replied, pulling his phone out to check the time.

"Sawada."

Blinking at the suddenly serious tone, Tsuna glanced up from his phone to get the surprise of a suddenly very serious looking Ryohei, which was something he had never seen before. "Sasagawa-senpai? Is something wrong?"

"That is what I would like to know." Ryohei said, frowning. "That nightmare drug. I've never heard of it before, but I know it is not something easy to get. It is dangerous. Are you and your friends involved in something dangerous?"

'Dangerous?' Tsuna thought, taking a step away from his senpai without realizing it. It was incredibly dangerous, and here he was, involving his friends in it. Did knowingly dragging his friends into this danger make him a horrible person?

"Sawada." Ryohei called, planting a hand gently on his shoulder. "If you need help, you can talk to me. I will EXTREMELY help you."

"No, no, no." Tsuna replied, shaking his head before turning away from his senpai so he could leave. He could not–would not–involve any more innocent people in his life. None of them deserved this hell.

"Sawada," Ryohei said, frowning at the younger boy's back. "If someone is offering you help, it is because they want to help. You are not forcing them to do anything. You don't have to EXTREMELY feel responsible all the time."

'You are not forcing them…'

"You really are the Tenth! And I will devote my life to being your right hand man! I am at your service, Tenth!"

Hayato….

"I will train with you in secret to help hone your skills, but when you have enemies, I want to be a part of it so I can fight them."

Kyoya….

"Tsuna, I'll take up my sword and spend my life protecting you. I will be a sword at your disposal. I will be a shield that will guard you from everything that wishes to harm you."

Takeshi….

"You're my family, just as much as them. We've known each other for six years and have become great friends. And I wasn't planning to leave the Bovino Famiglia completely, but I'm sure they would be proud of me to take up a position where I could help and protect Vongola Tenth. I can make my Famiglia proud and help my friend."

Lambo….

Not once did he ask them to join him. In fact, he always protested it. He didn't want any of them getting hurt for his sake, even though he was scared of facing the mafia world in person and felt comfort from them just standing by his side. And he excluded them from vital knowledge that could destroy their friendship or make it stronger if it ever got out.

And Sasagawa. Tsuna glanced at his senpai. He got involved in the family entrance exam when he had no reason to and was the one to give him the medicine. Before this, he has never spoken to his senpai, but heard about him from Kyoko. He was loyal, trustworthy, a bit of an idiot, but was there when it counted.

"Sasagawa-senpai," Tsuna said, turning back around with a worried frown, but determined eyes. "I have something to tell you, then I want you to make a choice."

*K.H.R*

"He's late." Takeshi commented, looking out the window of Hayato's apartment which just showed the walkway since they were on the third floor. The apartment was pretty small and didn't have much in it as Hayato was fending for himself and probably couldn't get much money.

"We know that, idiot." Hayato snapped at the sword freak for pointing out the obvious. He was already worried about his boss not arriving on time, especially since he has been acting strange ever since the family entrance exam. He hoped nothing happened to him on his way here. Oh, he should have gone to pick his boss up.

"Hn." Kyoya mumbled from the corner of the small living room. How dare that omnivore ask him to meet here for a family meeting then be late? He knew that he hated crowds. "He is always late."

"Always. Always." The little yellow bird on Kyoya's shoulder chirped.

Three sets of eyes stared at the little bird in absolute amazement and confusion. First, where the hell did the bird come from? Second, how has it not be killed yet? And third, why did Kyoya not mind it on his shoulder and making noise?

What was the world coming to when the bloodthirsty prefect didn't feel the need to kill whatever was making noise or crowding him?

"Hahaha, well that is true. Tsuna is not good with time all the time." Takeshi said, grinning slightly now.

Knock. Knock.

All eyes snapped to the front door before the silver haired boy moved over to it and opened it a crack to check who it was. To his surprise, he saw his boss standing there, but the real surprise was who was standing behind him: Sasagawa Ryohei. Closing the door to unlock the chain, Hayato pondered over why the boxer was with his boss before reopening the door for them.

"Tenth, why is he with you? I thought it was just the five of us." Hayato asked, watching carefully as both boys stepped into the small apartment.

Tsuna stopped, staring around the small living room. Besides an old couch, a coffee table, a dark maroon carpet, a t.v., and a t.v. stand, there wasn't much in the room. On the left wall was a rectangular hole that showed the kitchen on the other side, which allowed Tsuna to see a table, a microwave, and fridge from his angle. Was his friend really struggling that much or was he just being careful with his money? "I told him everything." Tsuna said, glancing at each of his friends out of the corner of his eyes in a subtle manner. "He chose to join us."

Takeshi, who was glancing out the window again, frowned at his friend's zoned out tone and looked at him as he removed his shoes and stepped into the living room. "Is there something the matter, Tsuna?"

"There's something you all need to know, but you must not tell anyone else, and that includes Reborn." Tsuna said, voice taking a hard tone now as he pivoted on his feet to stare at his gathered friends, who now gave him their complete attention.

"What is it?" Hayato asked, frowning in worry. "Is it anything dangerous?"

"In the underground world, there is a famous hacker. No one knows who he is or where he lives. He never makes a mistake and never gets caught. He has spent his years as a hacker stopping the worst of the worst mafia Famiglias." Tsuna explained, watching as Hayato's and Lambo's eyes widened in recognition of this hacker. "His name is Erebus. And, I am he."

A/N: What do you think of Mukuro? I have difficulty writing him.

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