He felt like he was carrying a ton of bricks, the day went a bit more stressful than usual, he mentally berated himself even thinking that he'd have at least one normal day.

Like that would happen. he sighed as he threw himself on his bed burying his head on his pillow thanking the heavens that Reborn didn't place any pressure sensitive bombs under them like the last time.

"I feel like my head's gonna explode. What the heck was Hibari thinking when he took on Yamamoto and Onii-san all of the sudden?" he groaned, for some reason the prefect decided that the two athletes were disrupting the peace during lunch.

Gokudera went to buy some water when it happened, so it left Tsuna to deal with the situation alone.

"Except for Onii-san's shouting, I don't think he did anything wrong." His brows furrowed in recall as he took in the images of the fighting guardians.

"You stupid herbivores." Said the prefect, an unmistakable glint of annoyance shined within the icy depths as he suddenly lunged at the two teens taking the three of them completely by surprise.

"Hibari-san! We weren't doing anything wrong." He half reasoned and half cried as the Cloud didn't bother to acknowledge the words and continued to attack the two.

"Come on, Hibari. We weren't doing anything wrong." Grinned Yamamoto echoing Tsuna's words as he dodged an incoming swipe.

"YEAH! WE EXTREMELY DIDN'T TRY TO VIOLATE ANY OF YOUR STUPID RULES!" shouted Ryohei making Hibari stop.

Eh? Did Onii-san really – he gaped in disbelief, could his Sun Guardian really manage to tame the infamous Hibari.

Peace rang as the prefect stood still, Tsuna almost released a sigh of relief when killing intent filled the air in full force rooting him on the spot.

Crap! What the hell did just happen? He was fine a moment ago! He asked himself as he stared at how Hibari resumed his stance and began the onslaught once more.

This answer came when he remembered Ryohei distinctly calling Hibari's rules 'STUPID'. Normally, the prefect would simply ignore such comments, however it seems that Hibari was in no mood to let anything slip right now.

"Hibari-san, that enough! We didn't do anything wrong. If we did, tell us what it was!" he said carrying hints of authority that made the three stop.

It was rare to see Tsuna assume a commanding tone outside his Hyper Dying Will mode, right now his gaze was directed at the prefect who gazed at him icily, he faltered when he noted the hint of bloodlust coming unto those eyes.

"What did we do Hibari-san?" he calmly asked, inwardly trying to keep himself from cracking under the heaviness of those blue gray depths.

"Nothing. Tweety's just in one of those bitchy moods, Tenth." The familiar voice commented, he turned to meet his right hand's gaze which seemed to be directed at Hibari, he stole a brief glance at the prefect and saw that Hibari staring at the bomber coldly.

"Gokudera Hayato." Hibari's eyes narrowed as he spoke, eyes churning in something Tsuna could not place, but whatever it was, Tsuna didn't like it one bit.

"Let it go, Kyoya." Said Gokudera, making Tsuna as well as the two athletes stare in shock.

I must be hearing things! He DID NOT call Hibari 'Kyoya'. His jaw fell a little, so far the only one that called Hibari 'Kyoya' – and survived – was Dino.

"I don't recall giving you permission to use my name so lightly Hayato." Seethed the prefect, but all the same breaking his fighting stance and glare at the bomber in an even stronger intensity.

When did they get so familiar?

"You didn't. I just figured it would annoy you enough to leave those two alone. You're troubling the Tenth." Shrugged the other, his tone turned nonchalant but his eyes spoke volumes.

He could only stare as he watched his Cloud guardian lean towards the silver Storm and whisper something that made Gokudera frown.

"Let's have a little talk, shall we?" Gokudera said leaning back to face Hibari.

"Conference room. Five minutes." Replied the skylark as he left the group not even bothering to look back to see their reactions.

"Tenth, please excuse me." he bowed to his boss, and then turned to follow the way the skylark left.

"What on earth did those two talk about?" he pondered, trying to make sense on the recent development on the two's relationship.

He shifted in his bed, turning to one side as he began to recall the events that followed.

"Gokudera-kun." Tsuna spoke out a bit worried as he watched the right hand join them.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to deal with it earlier Tenth." He bowed once more in apology.

"No it's fine. I'm just wandering, did Yamamoto and Onii-san did something to piss Hibari off?" he waved it off, his tone turning serious as he delved into questioning.

"You could say that." shrugged the other as if facing Hibari and having a conversation with him was already an ordinary occurrence.

"Let's just say he has some privacy issues." Added Gokudera, probably noticing his suspicion.

"Ahaha, we kinda walked into something by accident. We didn't know Hibari would be that mad." supplied Yamamoto, making him think that what they did was more than they're showing him.

"Yeah, it was EXTREMELY uncalled for." Agreed Ryohei.

They're hiding something. His intuition supplied and the prospect of his most trusted friends hiding something from him hurt.

They were never the type to hide something, secrecy was more on the Cloud and Mist department.

"Is there something you guys aren't telling me?" He voiced his thoughts as he watched them shift under his scrutiny.

"Gokudera." He turned to the right hand hoping to get a more precise answer.

"It's nothing Tenth, just a minor misunderstanding. Don't concern yourself, I've already dealt with Hibari." He replied.

It was not the answer Tsuna wanted.

However, before he could proceed and try to extract whatever information he could, his intuition flared in warning, telling him he may not like what he was going to hear.

"You're my guardians. As your boss I make it may concern." He spoke in seriousness, assuming a formal air as he watched them flinch at his display of authority as he tried to ignore the alarms telling to go no further.

He saw reluctance as well as the hesitance that indicated the right hand was going to tell him the truth but something held him back.

He waited.

He tried to ignore the silent messages passed between them.

In the end they decided in secrecy.

"You know what. You guys are right, this is Hibari were talking about, who knows what the heck is going on in that head of his." He turned to leave, he may want to know but he still respected his Guardians' right of privacy.

"Tenth." He heard him call out, he could note the conflicted tone.

If you want to tell me, tell me now. He wanted to say but refrained to do so.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He cut him off.

"Sawada." It was Ryohei this time, something in him still wants to demand an explanation, but he told himself he had not right to impose.

"Like I said, you don't have to tell me, okay. It's a secret between guardians. I understand, we better get to class lunch's gonna be over soon." With that he left, it was an action he regretted considering it ended up with him being all miserable.

Yamamoto and Ryohei seemed to have let it go but he noticed that Gokudera distanced himself, clamming up within his thoughts. He won't forgive himself he had contributed into Gokudera regressing back into his loner personality.

"Maybe I'm just over thinking things." He stated as he tried to divert his thoughts to other topics, namely how distracted Gokudera had been or how he seems to sink into his own world sometimes that it made Tsuna think that's something's wrong and that it's just being kept from him.

Somehow no matter how much he tries it always leads back to his right hand's recent behavior that eventually led back to a certain prefect.

"Hibari's been known for his random attacks. Why not now?" he reasoned, giving up trying to distract himself.

His intuition flared, telling him they were keeping something from him.

This is stupid, I'm just getting all paranoid. He groaned in thought as he sought justification.

He failed.

A memory came, reminding him once more of a lesson Reborn had engrained in him.

"Wrong." The familiar voice stated as he watched his student being punched numerous little boxing gloves that came from a tiny green and blue striped box.

"Gah! I really don't see how guessing games would help me become a better boss." Whined the Tsuna was he shielded himself from the onslaught mini punches that hurt more than it appeared.

For some reason, Reborn had devised yet another ridiculous form of training that forced him to play a little guessing game where he'll try to magically guess where the marble was out of hundreds of colored boxes that appeared to be seemingly harmless.

"Shut up and do as you're told." Reborn commanded, his onyx eyes glinting in unspoken threats.

"F-Fine that one." He reached out and opened a plain orange one this time.

As soon as he opened the box, a pair of giant clamps sprung from the box painfully latching on his fingers.

"Wrong again." Said Reborn, ignoring his cries of pain.

As always.

After a series of numerous failed attempts, he experienced being slapped by a giant gloved hand, electrocuted by a flower and many more of those twisted consequences his mentor cooked up.

"Damn. There are like hundreds of boxes how the heck can I find the marble." He grimaced, nursing his hand after a false assumption.

When nothing weird came out, he thought he finally managed to find the thing, but it only got is hand caught in a mousetrap when he reached to look for the marble.

He heard the familiar sound of clinking metal, he didn't have to turn towards Reborn to see him pointing his gun at him again.

"Okay. Okay. I'm picking one already." He said, as he reached out towards a floral decorated box and only to fail once more when came face to face with a carnivorous flower.

"Shit!" he swore, panting as he fought to contain the hungry plant.

How in the heck can I do this?

"Last chance. As much as I would like to see you suffer, I have a schedule to follow. You get this wrong I'll double the weights I'm going to place on you when you take a jog tomorrow." Said Reborn after witnessing his numerous attempts.

"B-But – " he protested, briefly wondering if this last attempt would land him in the infirmary.

"Hesitance shows weakness. Pick already." Said the arcobaleno, seriously contemplating on shooting him.

Okay, Tsuna you can this. Just pick one. Use your intuition. He concentrated, try to get a gist of the right box to open.

Reborn always told him to trust his intuition so why not now. He tried thinking of the possibilities on which box Reborn would choose.

He has picked the plainest and almost got roasted with its built in flamethrower.

He tried the smallest, the largest, everything.

Why can't I find the damn marble?

Then suddenly, it came.

Almost akin to a blaring gong.

You have got to be kidding. He thought in disbelief.

"You're wasting my time Tsuna. Pick a box." Said his mentor, losing patience fast.

"N-No!" he said fearfully as he saw Reborn move the gun towards him.

"What did you say?" the words tumbled off cool and hard.

"No. The marble isn't in any of the boxes." He said the words so quickly that he himself didn't understand.

He cringed for the bullet that would place him the frenzy in finding the marble no matter what.

No shots came.

"Correct. You should rely on your intuition more Tsuna." Commented the hit man, he watched his student gape at his words.

"B-But I thought a boss should think things through." Replied Tsuna, unable to believe the sheer irony of the thing.

I was right? So all those attempts we all for NOTHING?

"That's for smart bosses, Dame Tsuna. If you're going to rely on your brains we might as well have sent Vongola into destruction."

Ouch. He flinched.

"Anyway, Vongola intuition is more reliable than you think. So use it." He didn't bother to wait for a reply and left, leaving the young mafia boss to gape.

"My intuition huh." He muttered to himself, he was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the falling green anvil.

"Shit! Reborn!" he managed to avoid it, Leon returned to his natural form as he went back to the hit man.

"You're sulking again instead of doing your homework." Said the baby, ignoring whatever words Tsuna sprouted about not using Leon like that again.

Like that would happen.

"I am not sulking!" he exclaimed.

"If you really wanted to know why didn't you use your authority as boss to know?" Reborn ignored his words once more, immediately getting to the point.

"I can't force them to tell me."

"Then stop your worthless idiotic moping. Why? Is your intuition telling you that it's something you have to know?" shrugged the other, he watched Tsuna's brow furrow in thought.

"No. It's telling me, I won't like it." He replied, a look of frustration and torn upon his features was clearly written.

"There will be a lot of things you won't like to know when your boss. If you can't handle your guardians what makes you think you can handle a Family with more than a few skeletons in their closet." He reprimanded watching the boy flinch.

For some reason, Tsuna would always be a boy to him.

"They have a right of privacy." He defended, he might want to know but doesn't have right to impose.

Boss or not, he's not going to force them.

"Hmph! Then leave it alone and do something useful." Replied the mentor, black bright with knowledge.

"You know what they're hiding." He stated, waiting for the hit man's confirmation.

"Of course, unlike you, I prefer to know things, not hide when the truth gets too tough." It was sharp and true, it hit him dead on.

"Tell me then." He asked, but noticed the slight challenge in his tone.

When was he even able to do that?

To debate.

To challenge.

"I'm not going to spoon feed you. Find it out on your own efforts." Answered Reborn with slight sharpness he didn't bother to hide.

He knows Tsuna could take it.

His charge was getting stronger and getting some back bone.

Finally.

Silence followed between them, he could tell from the boy's face that be had an inner debate going on.

He kept still, watching as the shadows churn within those brown eyes.

"I think I'll leave their explanation at that." He sighed, it was for the best, his intuition wasn't warning him but merely informing him.

Reborn replied with a simple nod.

It was an acceptable choice.

Both were.

But he wasn't going to tell Tsuna that.

He turns to leave, only to be hindered by Tsuna's words.

"For now."

Yes, Tsuna seemed to be growing up at last.

"After all, you did tell me that a boss should know when to mind his own business."

He said nothing, his eyes glinted in amusement.

Yes, Tsuna's finally growing up.

…to be continued…

A/N: *faces the impending doom* I'm sorry. *bows in apology* I know I'm late and I have no excuse except laziness and lack of inspiration. I'm really sorry. Anyways, thank you for reading and please leave a review. Extra thanks for the patience and support. Forgive the mistakes and any lousiness...

P.S. Happy New Year! *lights up fireworks* \^-^