"Are you even paying attention to be, Tsuna?" Reborn shouted, exploding a few more flashbangs.
"To what?" Naruto asked, looking out the window.
"Really, what are you staring at, you airhead?" Reborn asked.
"Looking to see if anyone else is about to try and stare at me from my tree." Naruto said, looking out in uncertainty. Lambo had said one thing, but on the other hand it was a big distance from here to Italy.
"Why on earth would someone stalk you from your window?" Reborn asked, frustrated.
"You looked at me through it. Besides, in ten seconds-"
"Now you're being ridiculous. I bet that no one else would look at you through that window for at least a day." Reborn said, scoffing.
"What exactly are you betting?" Naruto asked, still focused on that spot in the distance.
"I bet you a day without training that there won't be anyone at that window." Reborn said.
"What, no training? No fair, that's a punishment!"
"Really?" Reborn asked, looking at the blond airhead. "Training is a reward?" he asked.
"Yeah! Why else would I go running with Ryohei so often?" Naruto asked, looking at Reborn.
"Because you're an adrenaline junkie?" Reborn asked. That's what Tsuna's profile said.
"No way! Well, maybe I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, but I do it because training makes me faster and stronger and better and it's supposedly really good to be those things." Naruto said.
"That was surprisingly deep." Reborn said, looking at Naruto in curiosity.
"So, for the flame training teqnique, what is it that I'm supposed to get?" Naruto asked.
"Well… I've never trained anyone in how to do it who already used it, so… Whatever. I'll give you a flame stimulant that will force just your flames to manifest instead of your whole 'opening the gates' technique. We'll do it in here and you'll hopefully be able to recognize the difference and move on to creating that state without the stimulant." Reborn decided, snappy. "I'll do it today if you win the bet, or I'll do it with you once you get a good score on one of those stupid tests you should be better at."
"Hurray, I get to activate just flames today." Tsuna said, holding out a hand to get the pill.
"But you didn't win- I stand corrected." Reborn said, shocked. Looking at them from the window was a drone. "Ok, I'm going to get rid of the drone, and then I'm give you the pill and show you what you're actually seeing and doing." Reborn said, frustrated. Absently pulling out Leon-gun, he downed the machine in a blow and finally payed attention to his student- the student who was now out of his trace on the chair and sitting on the floor eye level to Reborn's spot on the bed, literal inches away from him.
"So" Tsuna asked, not being very subtle in his hints. "What should I do with the pill once you give it to me?" he asked, leaning a bit closer.
Reborn wasn't sure whether he wanted to maul his student for being so annoying or relax at the eagerness and fearlessness with which he was approached. Deciding on the second after a few more seconds of Tsuna getting stupidly in his face, Reborn transformed Leon into a bottle and shook out exactly one pill. "Go ahead and take that while staring at yourself in the mirror. Look for any visible changes first and we'll go over any mental ones second." Reborn instructed, surprised to see how quickly Tsuna flashed over to the mirror.
"Do I have to take it with water?" He asked, looking at himself critically.
"Well, no water is actually needed for it. these pills are designed for battlefield use, but it does have more thorough effects if you take it with water. Take them without water this time and we can compare it to taking them with water afterwards." Reborn decided, and Tsuna was again quick to obey. Reborn hadn't even finished talked before Tsuna had the pill in his mouth and had a new question.
"Do I chew it?" Tsuna asked.
"Yeah, that would make it work quicker. Are you always this obedient?" Reborn asked.
"There's no reason not to be." Tsuna mumbled around the pill he was chewing. "Is this what I'm supposed to be doing?" He asked.
"Well, yeah. Any second now, we'll see a flame on the top of your head." Reborn said, watching. Tsuna was completely relaxed, and he was watching the transition with as much enthusiasm as Reborn himself was. Almost in slow motion, they watched the brown in his eyes fade out to orange. A few seconds after his eyes were recolored, a flame rose to the top of Tsuna's head. Strange, that wasn't dying will mode.
"Wow, it's like I can feel everything!" Tsuna explained, exited. "I can feel that it's 28 degrees Celsius out, I can feel that there are three people outside on this street, and I know that you're first Name is Renato- "and suddenly there was a flashbang going off in his ear. Naruto slumped to the ground, exhausted for the second. Suddenly, he perked back up to look at Reborn. "So, having those flames active makes you hallucinate?" He asked, turning to his teacher.
"Where did you get that name?" Reborn asked, murder in his glare.
"What?" Naruto asked.
Glancing around the room once more, Reborn got out Leon gun and aimed it at Tsuna while talking. "The thermometer stuck to your window told you that the temperature was twenty-eight degrees. The same window could have told you that you how many people were outside. How did you get that name?"
"Wait, you're saying that wasn't just a drug reaction?" Tsuna asked, eyes widening in surprise.
"You're being serious?" Tsuna asked, frightened. "I somehow said a bunch of stuff and then it was true?" He asked.
"You seriously just said whatever popped into your head under the influence of your flame and had a perfect success rate for getting it done accurately?" He asked, just looking at his student incredulously. "Well, I'm ruling it out as a potential thing to use in combat. If you just start babbling secrets, then there's no telling what damage it could do in enemy hands." Reborn said, looking out the window. "I'm going to go report your progress to Timono. You go and write an essay or listing of what it felt like to have those flames out. When you're done with that, you can write a list of what it feels like to 'open the gates' and then you can write a list of what it's like to be asleep just so that you can compare, and you'd better not miss anything!" he exclaimed, waving the gun intimidatingly.
"Yes, Reborn-sensi." Naruto said, back on his desk and already writing a comparison. He actually had the guts to completely ignore Reborn right after that student had a gun pointed at him by the same person. Clearly, there was something wrong with his student. On the other hand, there might be something wrong with him that Reborn wasn't immediately proving why that was a good idea. It was surprisingly companionable to be in the same room with someone he'd just threatened with what could have been death. Still… Reborn found that he liked it. Certainly Dino had made things difficult for him, but relaxing with Tsuna had none of the disappointments and all of the rewards.
The doorbell ringing startled both of the men out of their trances. Reborn looked up from his official reports that needed to be faxed over to see if it was a threat. Naruto looked up to see if there was any reason for it to be ringing. There weren't any repairmen scheduled, nor were there any salesmen allowed. Mama wasn't due back home for a few more hours, and- "Oh no!" he said, hurrying up and trying to tuck the papers into order.
"What's the matter, pupil?" Reborn asked.
"I just realized that I was supposed to tell my mom that a classmate wanted to get cooking lessons from here, but she's off on a day-long spa. Mom- that is. Oh no, now I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do and- wait, could she come up and join us for our lesson?" Naruto asked.
"If you want them to be part of the next generation of Vongola." Reborn said, frowning. he somehow got the feeling that Tsuna wasn't taking this seriously.
"Great, she's really smart and that might be enough to stop her from getting too mad at me." Tsuna said, sighing in relief. "Thanks, Reborn-sensei!" he said, flashing downstairs.
"Hey, glad you could make is Sakura!" Naruto said, opening the door to let the girl of his dreams enter. "Mom's not here right now, but I've got something that you'll absolutely love" he offered, trying to dangle the bait right.
"Baka, you said that I could get cooking lessons with your mother." She said, leveling a glare at him. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get out of my house for the lesson?" she asked.
"Oh, I can still get you a cool lesson." Tsuna said, trying to make up for his failure. "I've got a tutor named Reborn, and he said he'd be willing to let you join the lesson today! Come on, I'm sure that you'd love learning how to use flames." He bargained.
"Well… if you can tell me what they are, I might be willing to join you." Sakura said, remaining aloof.
"It's… well, I'm not entirely sure, but it's isolating one part of the flames of youth that Gai's always talking about. It doesn't make you go crazy, but these will do cool things!" Tsuna said, hoping it worked.
"alright, you can let me join you're tutor. I'd better not see you slacking off, however." She warned, sedately leading her way up the stairs.
"Thanks! You won't regret it, Sakura-chan!" Tsuna said, bouncing around her.
"Let's hope that I don't for your sake." She said, just looking slowly back at the boy as she continued her walk. As Tsuna let her in, Reborn got to form his own first opinion of the girl.
"So you're the girl that Tsuna stalks." Reborn said, not bothering with tact. If she was bothered by it, Reborn would make sure that his student learned better how to treat a lady.
"It's a time-honored tradition for the truly valuable girls." Sakura said instead.
"What?" Reborn asked. He'd never seen this reaction from someone before.
"Oh, didn't you hear? Back in the glory days of old, all sorts of wealthy maidens were pursued like such. Tsuna simply fails to realize that I'm still not interested." She said, turning to the boy in question with a level glare. "If you could train him not to mess with my makeup, however, I'd be grateful." She added.
"Well, I guess that you're going to join his lesson then." Reborn said, frowning. "Why don't you look over his work so far and tell me what you can tell about flames from that."
"Well, he already told me they were an isolated part of a technique that makes you go crazy." Sakura said, looking at it quietly. "However, the symptoms this describes couldn't be farther from each other. 'A tranquil harmony of feeling and being a dominant force of everything' really has little to do with 'temporarily removing the natural limits of one's self'. Then again, the baka may well have been only noticing one part of a whole discipline, so there's something else that can me considered. Other parts, such as 'the knowledge of everything around you for a brief time' and 'the complete dedication to one task' make it seem more like one is an inversion of the other. While the flames of youth seem to introspect all of your effort, the flames that you teach seem to extrovert your attention. Instead of rehoning what lies inside of you, flames seem to project yourself into the world, manifesting our innermost desires." Sakura said, putting together a remarkable speech for just a few glances at a sloppily written table. "Also, Tsuna really needs to get better handwriting. This looks like a toddler tried to write it character by character."
"Wow. You are definitely smart." Reborn said, just staring at the diamond in the rough that he had found. "Yeah, flames are generally considered somewhere between being the manifestation of your soul and a person's greatest weapon, so that would be comparable. Would you like to try learning how to manifest them?" Reborn asked, just looking at her.
"No thank you. I really don't want to have to relearn everything about my own existence." Sakura refused.
"Are you sure? Someone smart as you could definitely learn to understand then quickly." Reborn re-offered. He wouldn't be a good tutor if he didn't do everything in his power to help his student snap up this level of talent.
"If Naruto can figure out how to do them without looking like an idiot, I will reconsider." Sakura said, looking at the boy with a frown. "Otherwise, I refuse to reduce myself to his level of self-control."
"Hey, you were the one to hit me with a book a few weeks ago!" Naruto said, pouting.
"And I'm also the one who ended up tied to a post for half of the day in punishment. If I wasn't worried about her swooping out of nowhere to correct us, it would be a different matter, but I'm just not willing to fail that badly again." Sakura said, shuddering at the memory.
"You heard her, Tsuna." Reborn said, jumping on the excuse and additional motivation. "Now, try and relight that flame and just that flame without anything else stopping you!" he shouted, blowing off an airhorn in the boy's ear. Somehow, neither of them reacted. Something was weird about his student, and apparently his friend to.
