Summary: Somehow I have ended up in a parallel world, in someone else's body, not to mention the fact that now I'm apparently in the same class as the famous Dame-Tsuna. Yup looks like I've ended up in the KHR world, with no way to get back, well this is going to be fun.

Disclaimer: *sighs*

Words: 8,943

Chapter 21

Two poles stood across from each other, each being held up by the pure determination of the two battling groups. One of these two groups was twice the size of the other, and all the members were burning with the desire of revenge for their two fallen leaders, both which had been taken out by the other smaller group. They would have their victory, all of the members knew this with a complete certainty, for their new leader, who stood upon his pole, had never once been defeated and they all knew no mere mortal ever would. For this was Hibari Kyoya, the leader of the Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee.

The signal was given and the two opposing forces collided with each other with brutal force. The second team was already crushing under the sheer number they had attacking them, their pole was already shaking causing their leader to tremble in fear. Tsuna Sawada, the future tenth boss of the strongest and most powerful mafia famiglia in the world, the Vongola family, was their leader. But despite the impressive name, Tsuna was in fact not all that impressive.

He was a scrawny thirteen year old, who had trouble passing any of his classes, hardly ever made it to school on time, and was referred as by most of the school as Dame-Tsuna, because the fact of the matter was; Tsuna was pretty useless. But despite all this, as he looked down below him at the students of the opposing force clawing their way up to him, and saw the way his three friends fought with all their might to protect him even though it seemed like they were going to fail helplessly. As his pole started to fall down taking him down with it, he came to the realization that did not want to fail his friends

It was at this moment that a specially made bullet was shot through the air to impact him in the middle of his forehead. As he fell off the pole, falling through the air, he suddenly combusted, exploding from his own skin as he was reborn with a flame flaring to life where the bullet had impacted him and causing his eyes to change to a glowing orange. With his he was given a strong determination to succeed, he would defeat the supposedly unbeatable prefect, it was his dying will.

He jumped onto someone before he could touch the ground, and continued to do this, jumping from one person to the next so he wouldn't be disqualified. His friends soon realized what he was doing and called out for him. Together the three of them held on to Tsuna as they charged across the battlefield not caring if it was friend or foe that got in their way before trampling them.

Tsuna could see them coming close, there was nothing here that was strong enough to stop them besides maybe Hibari Kyoya himself, but he just watch them from where he stood, perfectly balanced on top of his own pole smirking down at them in amusement, excited to finally see some real competition.

It was at that moment the the teams two most violent members started to argue with each other. Gokudera and Ryohei suddenly found themselves battling each other causing their formation to collapse sending Tsuna and Takeshi flying. Tsuna landed on his face, getting scraps all over his body, while Takeshi landed much more gracefully, landing crouched down on both his feet with one hand on the ground to help his balance.

Suddenly everything stopped. Team A had lost, Tsuna had lost, his friends had been defeated (even if it had only been by themselves). Tsuna looked around the crowd nervously as they all started to circle around him, their evil intent obvious. Hibari just looked down at the depressing event with disappointment at the easy defeat, he had been wanting a real challenge. He just jumped down from his perch and landing dexterously, then walked off his black jacket billowing behind him.

Meanwhile Tsuna was wondering what he had done in his life that caused him to get in this situation as he looked at the gleefully terrifying faces. He flinched as they suddenly lunged toward him, only to be stopped right away by the two boys that had caused him to lose in the first place. The two of them decimating anyone who even approached Tsuna, completely ignoring the the shrilling whistle of the referee, signaling them to stop, who was, by the way, me.

I had stood on the side lines -despite my protests saying that I didn't even wanted to be here in the first place- as I watch the spectacle play out. I had been given just a whistle and a metal pole almost as tall as my self with a flag on the top of it, and been told to just not let anyone be killed, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be for an athletic fest.

When the bombs started to go off I knew I needed to do something. So bringing up all my courage I dropped my whistle and readied the pole in both my hands and started whacking my way to the middle to find Tsuna. Takeshi joined me not much longer after that, both of us sharing a brief grin at the other as we made our way through the crowd.

We found him not to long after that. He was right in the middle of the chaos -as usual- curled up on the ground his hands pulling at his hair and completely covered in cuts and dust. The two of us were able to pull him out of the horde, him barely responding besides flinching whenever another bomb went off. The entire time all I could think about was the complete impossibility of all of this.

The same thought continued to play over and over in my mind for the rest of the day after that as I ran around distributing medical supplies (that I had to sneak out of the nurses office to avoid Shamel) to everyone. How the hell was this my life now?

I walked Tsuna home with Takeshi and Gokudera after that, neither me or Tsuna saying much but for different reasons. I just couldn't stop thinking about how unbelievable this all was. I had a brief thought that maybe I had gone crazy, that all this was illusions my insane mind had produced, but I shook that off quickly. If I started to think I was crazy, I might start act like I was. To be honest I started to worry that maybe I was already acting a little insane with being surrounded by all these other strange people everyday. Maybe if I spent too much time with them, I might forget how to cope with being around normal people, I may forget what its like to be my boring, completely normal self, which I was kind of missing at the moment.

I had to get my head together. I had to come up with some way to clear my head, maybe I should start meditation or yoga? That's supposed to calm people down, to help them clear their head and help them think straight and focus.

Okay got a plan down now. I'm going to go home, look up meditation music, then youtube some videos to teach myself some yoga. Then after that I'm going to do normal things like play on the internet, read a book, or watch T.V. I just need to be normal for just one day, please.

. . .

I probably hadn't been the greatest of friends to Tsuna. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I did anything bad to him or anything, but I could probably be a better friend when he is going through so much in his life at the moment. I did have excuse, sure, it's not like we were all that close and we have only known each other (in real life) for a short period of time, but that didn't make me feel better.

And the fact that I forgot Tsuna's birthday really didn't earn me any points on the best friend scale. I'm pretty sure at this point I'm below Lambo on that scale, he actually attended Tsuna's party (which had actually been Reborn's). I had heard Gokudera and Yamamoto arguing about what they were going to do for Reborn's party, but I had completely forgotten that Tsuna's birthday was right after Reborn's! Why would I have even remembered that!

I had been planning on going but last minute I had to call and tell Nana I wouldn't be coming because my parents needed me to stay home to clean the house because Akiyama's dad (I refuse to think of him as my dad) was having business associates over, and I had to stay for dinner to meet all of them. Before hand Akiyama's mother had dressed me up in an itchy dress, and had done my hair and makeup and told me to be on my best behavior because this could end up being a big deal for Akiyama's father. I ended spending the night listening to things I didn't even understand, and having all of them talk about my recent accomplishments in school, when I would have much rather have been at Tsuna's.

That was my excuse for missing Reborn's birthday, I didn't have one for missing Tsuna's. The next day I had just gone to school early and spent the time in the reception office, so I didn't see Tsuna till class started. I didn't eat lunch with him either, and had stayed after school to do my homework in the library. It was only when I was walking home with Takeshi -who had stayed after to practice batting- that I realized my mistake.

"Man, I still feel pretty guilty." Takeshi said, though he didn't look like it since he was still smiling as brightly as usual.

"What did you do?" I asked looking over at him suspiciously.

"You know, for not knowing today was Tsuna's birthday. It's a good thing Reborn's was yesterday and we ended up combining the two together or no one would have celebrated it." I suddenly felt like there was a rock in my gut and my heart seemed to contract, squeezing painfully in guilt.

"Today is Tsuna's birthday?" I asked, shocked.

"Uh yeah?" Takeshi said, confused looking down at me with his eyebrows scrunched together. "I thought you knew?"

I stood up on my tip toes so that I was tall enough to smacked him on the back of his head, he yelled out an 'ow' but I doubted it hurt him considering his silly smile. "I can't believe you didn't tell me! I'm such a terrible friend, he probably thinks I don't care about him now!"

"Don't say that Tomoko, I'm sure he will understand. Just call him and tell him happy birthday when you get home." I looked down at the sidewalk and kicked a rock making it bounce a few feet ahead.

"Okay," I murmured sullenly. "You're going to have to remind me a week before it's your birthday so I don't forget yours either though."

I didn't take my time getting home after that, I said goodbye to Takeshi and walked home quickly. I opened to door quietly and listened to see if anyone was home -I heard some faint laughing from the kitchen but it seemed like Mrs. Akiyama was only on the phone- before slipping off my shoes and dashing up to my room.

I had to plug in my phone and wait for it to get some charge before I pulled up Tsuna's home phone number -he didn't have a cell- and called him, unsurprisingly it was his mom who answered.

"Hello, this is the Sawada residence."

"Hi Mama, this is Tomoko. I was wondering if Tsuna was there?"

"Oh Tomoko! It's so nice to hear from you, we all missed you yesterday. Just one second, he is up in his room. Tsuna! You have a phone call! Okay he is coming. Be careful on the steps, ouch, never mind. Here you go it's Tomoko."

"Hello, Tomoko? It's me."

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Oh, uh, t-thanks."

"Sorry I didn't tell you at school, I didn't realize it was your birthday, I feel terrible about it."

"N-no, it's fine, really, I mean, it's not like I've ever had anyone celebrate my b-birthday besides me and my mom before, so this is fine."

"Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean you don't deserve it."

"Oh, well thanks, I'm sorry you couldn't come yesterday. But it you p-probably wouldn't have enjoyed it, Reborn made us do some crazy things."

"Yeah...that sounds like something he would do. God I still feel so guilty, I should make it up to you."

"N-no, really you d-don't have to do anything."

"I want to though. Hmm… let's see, how about this Saturday? Are you doing anything?"

"Let me ask my mom, she may need me to baby sit Lambo and I-pin."

"I-pin?"

"Yeah, she's the same age as Lambo, at least I think, I could be w-wrong about that, I mean I thought she was a boy as first so…"

"And your mom just took in this random little kid, that you guys don't even know who her parents are?"

"Yeah… it was Reborn's Idea."

"Of course."

"Yeah, one moment. Mama!"

"Yes?"

"Would it be alright if I hung out with Tomoko this Saturday?"

"Sure! I will be able to watch the kids, what are you two doing?"

"Uhh, I don't know, let me check. Hey, Tomoko?"

"Yes?"

"What are we going to be doing?"

"Uh… something really fun."

"Okay?"

"Something really fun outside, we will… be going into town, yes, and then… it's a surprise so I can't tell you!"

"Oh, I don't know if I like surprises."

"Trust me, it's not going to be anything that surprising, not like anything Reborn would do."

"Okay, I guess you are right, you are the n-normal one."

"The normal one?"

"I d-did not m-mean for it to c-come out that way."

"It's alright, I guess compared to everyone else I am the normal one."

"O-okay, hold on. Mama, she says it's a surprise, but we are going to be going out."

"Sounds like so much fun!"

"Yeah. So Tomoko? Is anyone else going to be going?"

"No, I thought the two of us could hang out alone and get to know one another. Besides, not trying to sound rude or anything, when everyone does things together things get weird."

"No, you're right, my whole life has been p-pretty weird lately."

"Yeah, so I'll come round your house, say, 12? And then we can get lunch out."

"Sure, sounds good."

"Okay, bye, Happy birthday again!"

"Bye, you too, I mean, thanks."

"Bye Reborn."

"Ciaossu."

"REBORN!"

At that I hung up the phone chuckling to myself. Okay so now that that was settled I just had to figure out what we are going to do on Saturday.

. . .

Saturday ended up being a nice, but chilly, October day. I wore black tights with a plain dark blue dress and a fuzzy white cardigan, matched with a deep purple scarf, black combat boots, and a grey purse that I swung over my shoulder.

Nana opened the door when I knocked, looking very excited, but before I could come in when she offered I saw Tsuna stumbling down the stairs pulling on a very thick jacket. He didn't stop his run when he made it to the bottom of the stares though, he just took off out the door grabbing hold of my wrist as he went with a quick shout of bye to his mom.

I waved with my other hand as I let myself be dragged along by the brunette. Nana just smiled and returned the wave cheerfully. It wasn't until we were out of sight of the house that Tsuna stopped running, much more out of breath that me.

"So do you want to tell me what that was about?" Tsuna, still panting, just wordlessly shook his head, his eyes looking fearful. "Okay?" I accepted, still bewildered by the whole situation. Tsuna then looked around, staring at a few random objects intently as if wondering if they were going to come alive, then he leaned in towards me and whispered.

"Were you f-followed?" Confused, I looked behind me almost without thinking about it.

"I don't think so, but I wasn't really checking. I hope not." I said, suddenly worried.

"I think it's okay then." Tsuna admitted, nodding to himself.

"Why did you think I was being followed?" I asked, suddenly suspicious.

"N-no reason." Tsuna said too quickly, his voice going high in the way I knew it did when he lied.

"Okay, I guess we should get going." I shrugged, letting it go. "Any idea where we should eat? I'll be paying of course."

"N-no, you d-don't have too."

"Tsuna, we are going to be celebrating your birthday, I get to buy things for you, and besides I have plenty of pocket money, especially with all the chores I've been having to do lately."

"I guess it's f-fine then, but the last time someone said that they ended up running away from the shop and I got a d-debt of 300,000 yen." Tsuna conceded timidly.

"Holy shit, what the hell happened?" I blurted disbelievingly.

"Reborn…" Was all that Tsuna said, sighing as he looked down at the ground.

"Of course… so how are you paying that off?"

"Well, Yamamoto has me w-working there now."

"Wait,Takeshi's dad?"

"Yeah, him."

"You just keep getting yourself it to trouble don't you? I'll talk to Mr. Yamamoto, see if I can help pay off your debt."

"No you d-don't have to, really."

"Tsuna it's fine, really."

"Well, that's very nice of you b-but the last time I was offered help to pay it off, they ended up increasing my d-debt of three times the amount, and also poisoned Takeshi's dad." At that, I really couldn't find any words to describe what I was thinking, and just left my mouth hanging wordlessly open.

"Tomoko?" Tsuna questioned, looking concerned about my lack of answer.

"Tsuna, you really have the worst luck ever."

"Yeah… I know…" Tsuna affirmed, kicking a small pebble.

"It's a good thing then that I've been working at the restaurant for a while now. Mr. Yamamoto knows me and I can actually do good work. It's not like I get paid -unless you count leftovers- and I'm still going to end up working there again anyways, so if it helps you why not." I said nonchalantly.

"T-thank you so much, you're amazing."

"I know." I confirmed, my lips rising in a teasing smirk that Tsuna responded back with his own wide grin.

We ended up going to a Thai restaurant, I got the red curry with tofu and Tsuna the pad thai. It was a little awkward at first because we had never really been left with only the two of us before and didn't know much of what to say. Also Tsuna was extremely shy, but eventually I got him to start talking.

He told me about what happened when he went to Yamamoto's restaurant and how he ended up with a 300,000 yen debt, what happened at the birthday party, how Reborn had set up a rigged contest to make Tsuna Lambo's babysitter even though he hadn't wanted to be, how he met I-pin and how her and Lambo had fought, as well as when both Kyoko and Haru had come over. And even though it would have been terrible being part of the stories, they sure were funny when being told about them, especially from Tsuna perspective. Tsuna was a little put off that I was laughing at first but eventually I got him to see the amusement in it and he was laughing along.

The only weird thing about lunch had been the way Tsuna had made sure to sit on the very edge of his seat and would continuously tug down at the bottom of his jacket, or move his hand to pat the back his jacket nervously, but I soon dismissed it and the two of us were soon leaving and looking at the shops around.

"You mean it?" Tsuna asked, looking up at me unbelieving.

"Yes I do, I wouldn't have said it otherwise Tsuna." I said exasperatedly, but couldn't help the tug at the corner of my mouth as I watch him worry his lip between his teeth as we walked down the sidewalk.

"So anything I w-want, you'll get for me?"

"Well, yeah, but I hope you won't get something outrageously expensive."

"I wouldn't do that!" Tsuna protested, as if he really thought I was worried about it.

"I know, so is there anything you want?"

"Well, I don't know what I want, I d-didn't really think about it." He disclosed shyly.

"How about we just get some clothes then, can't go wrong with that."

"Okay, that sounds fine."

We soon found a place that had boy clothes, Tsuna just followed me around looking around nervously. He ended up admitting that he had never really been shopping for clothes before, and that it had always been his mom that had picked out his clothes, which I just answer with a roll of the eyes and a muttered 'boys'.

So I ended up piling clothes up for Tsuna to try on, tossing them into his arms. It was by complete accident that I found it. I had been going through one of the racks when something orange caught my eye. It was stuffed in between the fake leather jackets as if by accident.

"Tsuna, come here." I called out as I pulled out the orange and white jacket, Tsuna's trademark jacket.

"That's c-cool." Tsuna remarked quietly, as if not sure his opinion was wanted.

"You don't already own this?" I asked.

"Uh no, I've never seen it before." Tsuna replied.

"Interesting." I said to myself, ignoring Tsuna's confused look. "Well put all that stuff down and try it on." I said tossing it to him so the it would land over his head. He put all the other clothes down, and started to unzip his jacket, but then suddenly stopped himself and pulled the zipper all the way up again.

"I'm going to go try it on in the changing room." He said, avoiding my gaze as he shuffled to the changing room.

"Okay, just show me what it looks like when it's on." I said, making sure to remember to ask him what he was hiding later. He came out about five minutes later shyly tugging at the bottom of his sleeves.

"How does it look?"

"Oh my god." I said just staring at him, Tsuna seemed to think this was a negative reaction and turned to look at himself in the large mirror.

"What? Is it that b-bad?" He asked looking at himself so worriedly in the mirror as if he were trying to find something hideous, that he was completely startled when I swung my arms around his shoulders and rubbed my cheek against his.

"You are so handsome!" I squealed, squeezing him tightly to me before letting him go to look at his face which gone to a deep shade of red.

"R-really?" He asked, staring down at his worn sneakers.

"Yes really, I'm getting you this jacket no matter what! Go change." I directed him, spinning him around and pushing him to his stall. He came out few minutes later his heavy jacket zipped up all the way, and self consciously patting his back.

We bought the jacket, and I took the bag with my left hand and started to drag Tsuna out with my right hand tugging on his sleeve telling him I wanted to get some ice cream. And we would have gotten our ice cream, had we not noticed Takeshi and Gokudera arguing in the middle of the street earning themselves a lot of murderous glares from parents who had children with them.

"Shit." I murmured to myself before turning to look at Tsuna. He looked apprehensive, obviously not wanting to get caught up in what was going between the two of them, so thinking quick -before either of the two boys could spot us- pushed Tsuna over to a little side street that no one was using and was dark enough so others couldn't see the two of us.

The both of us leaned up against the wall so we were out of sight, I took a risk and looked around the corner. The two boys were still there shouting at one another, well, when I say shouting I mean Gokudera was cursing and Takeshi was laughing -as usual.

"Looks like they aren't going to be leaving anytime soon," I said as I turned back to Tsuna. "You want to just go ahead and just join up with the two of them, it's fine if you do."

"I don't know, things always get pretty crazy around those two, and it was just supposed to be the two of us today." He said not meeting my eyes, before he frowned and brought his hand up to rub his temple, "I also have this weird feeling."

"Whatever you want," I shrugged, then looked closely at Tsuna wondering if I should bring it up now. "So, Tsuna, you want to tell me what you're hiding in your jacket?" I asked, causing Tsuna's head to snap up quickly looking fearful.

"W-what? I'm not hiding anything…" But he stopped making excuses when I raised my eyes brow at him. "Am I t-that obvious?"

"Yeah, kind of. You're not a very good liar, which is a good thing." I quickly reassured him. "So what is it?"

"Um… well, see, uh. Don't miss judge me when I show you this." Tsuna pleaded. I nodded, becoming even more curious. At my nod Tsuna leaned in closer, so the two of us are facing each other, only a few inches between us. He looked around to make sure no one could see us before moving his hand behind him and taking something out of the back of his pants and moving it quickly to the small space between us to help conceal it from anyone else who may come around.

"Why the hell do you have a gun?" I asked, not sure if I should be scolding him or not.

"It's not mine, Reborn gave it to me." Tsuna quickly said. That didn't make any sense to me, why would Reborn give him a gun?

"Why would Reborn give you a gun? Does he want you to accidentally shoot yourself?"

"I hope not." Tsuna said looking queasy.

"Then why?" I asked again.

"Well," Tsuna started, blushing, but continued after gulping. "He said if I didn't take it with me you could end up getting killed tonight." I thought about this for a moment, there is no reason why anyone would ever want to kill me, so this had to have been something set up by Reborn. Was this some kind of test?

"Is that why you asked if someone was following me?" I asked, to which Tsuna nodded. "Okay, well, how about we just go home, then we will know neither one of us are going to get killed wandering the streets."

"I think you spoke just a little too soon, sweetheart." Someone said from behind me in a disgustingly nasal gravelly voice and I felt my self freeze along with Tsuna in front of me, staring over my shoulder with fearful eyes. I turned around slowly, keeping Tsuna behind me, for the first thing I see to be shiny switchblade only inches from my chest. My breath hitched and I felt panic rising in me.

"Back up both of you," The man snapped at the two of us swinging the blade back and forth dangerous and mad manner, making me drop my shopping bag in fear.

"O-okay." I stutter out, Tsuna, whose face was deathly pale, stayed behind me frozen to the spot. So I grab hold of his upper arm and start to pull him back with me trying to keep him behind me as much as I could, never taking my eyes off the knife or the man. We move backwards farther away from the knife, but also farther away from the busy street, filled with people to help us, with Takashi and Gokudera, and into the shadows where it would be harder for anyone to see or hear anything.

"We don't want any trouble, will give you our money, just let us go." I said, my voice coming out shaky.

"I said back the fuck up, bitch. I'll be taking everything you own, but you ain't gonna be getting out of 'ere alive, neither one of yah." The man said, his voice sounded hoarse as if he had screamed it raw, had yellow teeth and small black beady eyes that looked crazed, and was Caucasian. I could smell his stench from where I was, and he was dressed in dark but torn up dirty clothing.

This man did not seem sane, and even if he hadn't been pointing a knife at me and telling me that he was going to kill me I would have thought him dangerous. There was only one thing I could do, and I was doing it before I even processed the thought fully.

"Run Tsuna!" I screamed, stepping right out in front of the brunette arms spread wide to block the man as much as I could. The man looked suddenly furious, his teeth bared into a snarl before he lunged, but before his knife could impact me the was a loud deafening crack, that echoed in the small street and made my ears ring.

I opened my eyes, which I had closed reflexively, to see that the man's knife only a few inches away from me. I looked at the filthy man, to be met with a blank stare before he collapsed right where he was. I stood frozen in place, arms still up in the arm, not able to process clearly what had happened within only those few seconds. The only thing that made it to the forefront of my mind clearly enough was the fact that there was a bullet hole right in the mans chest. And the only way for him to have been shot that way would have been from the front or the back. But there was no one else in front of me.

I looked down to see a trembling arm come into view from underneath where my right arm was raised, and holding a gun. I turned around slowly, bringing my arms back down to my sides, my ears still ringing. Tsuna stood there trembling all over, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

I placed my hand on his wrist and he flinched at first but didn't move away. I slowly took the gun away from him, not wanting him to drop it and set it off. I slowly put it down on the ground. I looked up at him to see that Tsuna had opened his eyes, which were chillingly dull, and his arms were hanging lifelessly at his sides.

"I d-didn't want you t-to g-get hurt." Tsuna stammered, his voice coming out harsh and raspy. I stepped closer to him, bringing my arms up slowly to give him time to move away before I wrapped my arms around him and brought him closely to myself. I rubbed one of my hands over his back to give, as well as trying to receive, comfort.

"It's okay Tsuna, it will be alright." I murmured softly into his ear, before slowly breaking away from him, squeezing his hand before letting go completely. It was the last thing I wanted to do at that moment, but I had to see if the man was really dead or not.

I turned towards the man, and walked over to him, kicking the knife out of his hands just in case he wasn't as dead as he looked. I didn't know how I felt about being part of a murder, even though I hadn't really done anything. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that we wouldn't get in trouble, it was clearly self defense, but at the same time I felt the need to grab Tsuna and run the hell out of there and never look back.

I looked up fearfully at the sound of two people running into the alley. I couldn't tell for sure if I was glad or terrified that it was Gokudera and Takeshi.

"Boss! Boss! Are you okay!" Gokudera asked as he ran past the body, barely glancing at it before going up to Tsuna.

"N-no, I don't think so Gokudera." Tsuna said, it barely coming out as more than a whisper. Takeshi walked up to the three of us, looking around confused but still smiling. I wondered if he realized that that was a real dead body next to him or not. Ignoring what was going on I bent down near the mans face, his eyes were wide open and staring blankly at the sky. I put two fingers down on his neck, then put my hand in front of his mouth to feel if he was breathing or not -it was a negative for both.

"Is he dead?" Gokudera asked.

"Yeah." I said letting out a shaky breath and stepping away from the dead body.

"Good job, Tenth! Your first kill!" Gokudera exclaimed, smiling and patting Tsuna on the back, who was now staring at the dead body in horror.

"B-but I never wanted to kill anyone! What will my mother think! Oh my god, I'm going to jail."

"Don't worry tenth you won't have to worry about going to prison, we just have to hide the body and no one will ever know." Gokudera exclaimed cheerfully, trying to cheer his boss up, but that didn't seem to be working for Tsuna, who was, by the minute, becoming more panicked.

"How the hell are we going to hide a body?" I asked in disbelief, not even wanting to touch the body.

"Well, you could always call Hibari." Takeshi offered brightly.

"What? Why?" I asked confused.

"Well, there are all those rumors." Takeshi offered with a shrug, not looking weirded out by this conversation like I was.

"Yeah, he would be a guy who would know how to hide a dead body wouldn't he." Gokudera grudgingly added, looking strangely sullen at this idea. My mind still seemed to be hit on pause, everything felt so surreal.

"Oh, okay. I'll call him." I said numbly, trying to ignore Tsuna's panicky state that he was working himself up into as I took out my phone and dialed the prefects number. It was answered after the second ring.

"What?"

"Hibari, I need some help." My voice did not come out as calm as I would have like it.

"Why are you calling me?"

"Please Hibari, I can't say it over the phone. Just know it's a matter of life and death." I said stressing the word death as much as I could. It was silent over the phone for a second before he replied.

"Where are you?" I rattled off the location before he hung up.

"So? Is the bastard coming?" Gokudera asked.

"Oh, yeah, he was in the area so it won't take him long to get here." I said, looking blankly at the wall so I wouldn't have to look at anyone else. Both Gokudera and Takashi were both occupied with Tsuna freaking out to bother with me.

Like I had said, Hibari was there within a few minutes. The only surprising thing about it was the fact that he showed up riding a motorcycle, which I hadn't known he owned. He jumped off it quickly before striding over to us. He didn't pay us any mind as he he went over to the dead body, just using his foot to move it so the he could see the bullet wound.

"Hmm… Good job. You got the heart in one shot." He commented, as he observed the body, before looked over at us, smirking. "Okay, I can dispose of this corpse for you."

"What!" Tsuna shouted. "What! What are you saying?" Tsuna questioned disbelievingly, I was having trouble believing as what he was saying as well.

"I will send someone over from the disciplinary committee latter."

"You are using the committee to cover up murder!" Tsuna said incredulously. Hibari payed him no mind before spinning away from us and walking away, only to stop after a few feet to turn his head to look to his right smirking. I follow his gaze to see Reborn standing there looking far too smug.

"You owe me one." Hibari said to Reborn before walking over to his motorbike and hopping back on. "See ya."

"I can't be at peace until I take revenge on him." Gokudera shouted as he brought out his bombs, obviously angered at the way the prefect had ignored his boss. He ran after him flinging his dynamite. Hibari just swung his tonfa once and sent all of them right back.

"Don't be so eager to die." He said glaring at the bomber. I ducked down and covered my ears in time before the bombs went off filling the alley with smoke. I could distantly hear the sound a motorbike driving away.

All of us opened our eyes once the smoke had been cleared enough for us to see. I looked around to make sure no one was hurt, Tsuna was still looking pretty worse for wear, but then I noticed we were one body short.

"It's already fall, yet you're still carrying around fireworks?" Yamamoto teased Gokudera.

"It's not fireworks!" The bomber protested.

"Hey, guys? Where's the corpse?" I asked, interpreting Takeshi and Gokudera.

"Man, I thought I was going to die. That was close." All four of us whipped our heads around to see the man that we all had seen dead standing like he was perfectly fine, despite the fact that there was still blood dripping down his shirt. That's when Reborn decided to step in before any of us did something rash.

"This is Moretti, a pro in being assassinated. Moretti can use a technique called "Addio" to stop his heart at will and achieve a state of apparent death. He's a specialist of the Vongola family."

"Eh? S-so you weren't dead?" Tsuna stuttered.

"He was just playing dead." Reborn answered.

"B-but the gun." Tsuna protested pointing at the gun still on the dirty road.

"A fake." Reborn answered simply.

"What!"

"Of course the blood is fake, and I was just pretending to be thief. Its not everyday I get to visit Japan, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show "Addio" to the Tenth." Moretti explained, his voice and the way he held his body completely different from when he had been threatening to kill us.

"There are other ways of showing it to me!" Tsuna shouted, before a look of relief crossed his face. "But I'm glad." He admitted before falling down to his knees, the adrenaline and the stress of the event catching up to him, I was feeling much the same but while I was glad that none of this was real I felt myself start to grow angry.

"Gez, Reborn, this guys hilarious!" Takashi said, bending over to hold his stomach as he laughed. I wasn't finding the situation as amusing as Takeshi, quite the opposite in fact.

"Was this all just some sick joke to you?" I said, my voice coming out much more calmer than I felt at the moment. That got Reborn's attention, for he turned towards me, hands casually in his pockets as he tilted his head up at me curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you can't just go playing with peoples lives like this! It's fucking sick! Death is not a joke, and making someone believe they're a murderer is not funny." I growled out, trying to make sure not to raise my voice, I did not need to start screaming and make myself seem irrational.

"I never thought of it as a joke." Reborn answered honestly, not looking at all bothered.

"Then what the hell was this! You can't just go around doing these fucked up things for your own amusement!" I let my control slip a little, raising my voice at the end, my hands were clenched into fists now and shaking.

"It was a test."

"A test for what? To see if Tsuna could kill anyone?"

"To see how he -and you as well- would react in a life or death situation, as well as to gauge everyone's reaction to handling death." I bit my lip to stop myself from just shouting, I just was so angry I felt like hitting or breaking something, but what Reborn was saying made sense. "You all handled it much better than I thought you would."

"It's still wrong." I grounded out petulantly.

"Then we have different opinions of what is wrong." He answered calmly, making me realize for the first time that this was an assassin I was talking too. "In the future something like this will happen, but then there may not be a chance to run, or a gun to stop the man. Something like this will happen again, and now you have the experience to deal with it. The first time is always the worst, and now you have had your first time."

I looked down, still bitter, still wanting to lash out, but knowing that he was right. Tsuna was going to get into a situation like this again, maybe not a mugging but I knew he was going to be a in a lot of life and death situations. And if I'm going to stay with him the whole time before I go back home (or if I don't ever get back home) I'm going to be in these situations as well. It made me sick thinking about it, I didn't want to ever be part of anyone's death.

"Now I know what to train Tsuna on, and you now know what you need to work on."

"What do I need to work on?" I asked, feeling the resentment slowly withdraw from me, leaving me exhausted.

"I know Hibari has been teaching you defense, and you have been practicing it on your own as well," I nodded in affirmation. "So why didn't you use any of it?"

"I..." I started, but then stopped, not having any words to say. It hadn't even crossed my mind to use anything Hibari had taught me (which still wasn't much). I did have the book I had been practicing out of, and there was a part that explained how to disarm someone with a knife or a gun. But I had been doing it all by myself, its not like I had any practice with a real life situations.

Reborn just looked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking about, so I just nodded. He was right, my lingering anger didn't make him not.

I couldn't help but feel glad that none of this had been real. I hadn't had to cover up a dead body, I hadn't actually been in a life or death situation, and most importantly, Tsuna wasn't a killer. And that was what broke through the remaining shock, anger, and confusion, that one thought becoming the most important thing like if it had been an epiphany. Tsuna was still innocent. With that thought I knew there was one thing I had to do.

So I turned to Tsuna who was still kneeling on the ground looking completely worn out, and went over to him kneeling in front of him and putting both of my hands on his shoulders to make him look into my eyes.

"Tsuna." I said clearly, in the best controlled voice that I could muster.

"Yeah?" Tsuna asked, looking at me confused.

"You have to promise me Tsuna, and I will do whatever I can to help you with this, that you will try your hardest to find an alternative to killing so you won't be responsible for anyone's death." I said looking intently into his eyes.

"That's a bold statement." I heard Reborn saying cautiously, but I didn't move my gaze away from Tsuna. I didn't say anything else, just took one of my hands off his shoulder and held it out, all my fingers pulled into a fist besides my pinkie which was pointed towards him. Tsuna looked at my hand for a moment, a look of concentration on his face, before he nodded and interlaced his own pinkie with mine.

"Promise." He said looking back up at me with the same amount of emotion as I was feeling. I nodded, accepting his promise, but when I made the move to untwine our fingers, his hold tightened, so I paused wondering what he was going to do. He just looked into my eyes with the most intense expression I had ever seen him wear. "But you have to promise it too."

I couldn't help myself from grinning. "Promise." I said back, and Tsuna responded with his own bright grin. It was then that Takeshi tackled us, wrapping both his arms around us in a hug laughing, and Gokudera coming to kneel by us as well to tell him not to touch the boss, only to find himself being forced into the hug as well. I couldn't help myself from laughing and hugging them all as well.

I looked over my shoulder, nodding my head absentmindedly at Takeshi's request that we all get some ice cream, to inspect the hitman. I wondered what his reaction would be. But as the two of us made eye contact, my blue eyes meeting his black ones, all I saw was approval and satisfaction as he smirked in our direction before he turned around, walking out of the alley with his hands in his pockets.

As I watched him leave, the light hit him just the right way that his shadow cast upon the alley way wall looked like a much older man. I stared at in opened mouth, recognizing the way Reborn looked in his adult form, but when I looked back over at where the baby should have been, he was gone.

. . .

A/N: Okay so this chapter was harder for me to write than my other ones for many reasons. Before I had been having everything pretty much happen exactly like in the show/manga just interjecting Tomoko into whatever was happening. I didn't want to continue doing that though, first, because it took so much time, and second, because it was so unoriginal.

Now everything that happened in this chapter did occur in the manga, I just changed things up, so still maybe not that original but I'm trying. Also, I know this chapter may have come out dark and serious unlike they do in the manga/anime but this was all from Tomoko's point of view and she is supposed to be the sane/normal one so if she thinks someone just died she is going to act like normal person would and I hope I was able to portray that well enough.

This entire chapter covers all of volume 3 - wow, we are not far into the story- which is 9 chapters. The reason why this was going so slow is because I just really wanted to introduce all the characters (I'm sorry for not doing so with I-pin, I'll do something for her later if you want) and also because I wanted to start to develop the friendships between everyone. So things should start to go faster after this.

Results on what flame you guys thought Tomoko should have:

Sky-1

Cloud- 1

Rain- 5

Mist- 4

Storm- 0 (So everyone agrees at least that she is not a storm)

Thunder- 4

Sun-1

So I had an idea of what flame I wanted her to have, but so many of you had such good explanations for why you thought she should have one type of flame that now I don't know which one to pick.

I really like the idea of her becoming a healer and helping to improve peoples powers - and really wouldn't it be perfect for her to be healing Hibari after a fight. They also use their body to protect their family, which Tomoko kind of did in the chapter. I read that sun flame users get along best with sky and cloud users, and get along least with storm users -which you have to admit is like Tomoko. Also I think it would be awesome for Reborn to help her with flames because they both have the same kind.

Rain users are known for their ability to 'ease conflict', which I also see her having. Her and Takeshi would work well together to try and settle conflicts and calm people down, because Tomoko is not a violent person and wouldn't resort to fighting to fix a problem. They also get along with cloud and sky users.

Then there's the cloud flame users, they're supposed to stay separate from the group -not necessarily emotionally- and work apart from the others but still do things to help the family. And that's kind of how Tomoko is, she is working with Hibari and isn't going to really be apart of the group when fighting. They also get along with sky, rain, and sun users -so again a reason for her and Reborn to work well together.

Then there's mist. I'm not considering mist because I think Tomoko is mysterious or likes to trick people, I considering it because an illusion itself is a lie and that's what she has to do all the time, lie, and she is going to have to continue doing it. Having illusions would also make it so that she didn't have to fight hand-to-hand combat very much. I also think it would be interesting to see her use her use her illusions as a distraction and a way to help defend people (by hiding them or shielding them). And although mists don't seem to get along with others, they may get along with cloud users because mist can also be called fog and clouds are made out of fog.

I got my information off of this link ( art/So-You-Want-to-Make-a-KHR-OC-2-Flames-339572171), it was the best site I could find that had what the personality traits are for people with certain flames. If you know of a better one please let me know, and I'm sorry if you liked the idea of her having lightning flames but I didn't think it sound anything like her.

٩(●˙▿˙●)۶…⋆ฺ

Q: I would still like your guys input what you think would be her flame should be, even if it's not one of the four I mentioned above, I would like to read your reasons because I still haven't picked which one to use yet. Also if you have any creative ideas on what she could use her flames for I would love to know.