DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN

Haru stretched her arms above her head as she got out of the taxi. Hayato slammed the trunk closed causing the driver to yell at him to be more careful. Haru gave the driver a smile. "Sorry about that. He's a little grumpy today. Thank you and please drive safely."

She made sure to give a generous tip before closing her door. Hayato walked over with his suitcase in hand. As soon as the car was out of range of vision she dropped her nice act. "Show some restraint idiot."

"Who are you calling an idiot?!" She sighed, ignoring him she walked towards their destination. He grumbled to himself, dragging the suitcase behind him.

Earlier this morning Hayato was once again rudely awakened. Haru gave him food then forced him into the taxi, only telling him that they were going to meet his tutor today. Now here they were in front of this relatively big sized house in the middle of nowhere. If he would have to guess this would be a good size to fit a small family but it gave off an unwelcoming feeling. No doubt that someone built this place to be a runaway home.

"This is where I'm going to be staying?"

"Yep. You'll have the full place to yourself for 2 weeks while you're in training. This is a Vongola home but I've borrowed it under my name so no one would be visiting besides your tutor. And knowing him, he'll probably teach you in the day, make sure you can survive the night and then go out flirting so don't worry too much about him." She unlocked the front door leading him in.

Upon entering there was a loud crash heard from upstairs. Haru sighed. "He's already here. Go wait in the living room. I'll bring him down."

Hayato quickly lost all faith he had in his tutor seeing how pissed off she was. He walked over taking a seat on one of the sofas. The inside was well furnished and gave off a very welcoming atmosphere at first glance. Yet to him, he couldn't get rid of the empty feeling it gave off. Like it was trying to imitate someone's family instead of having one. A doll house that people only played with.

He braced himself hearing someone stumbling down the stairs mixed with incoherent yelling. Haru walked in tugging a grown man by the ear. He caught a faint whiff of alcohol off of him as she threw him down to the floor.

The man in the lab coat raised his head off the floor. Immediately he was repulsed by the man's drunken face. Now he understood why she was so vague with her answers about him. "This is my tutor?"

"Oi oi Haru-chan this is my student? I thought you said it was a cute girl."

"I said they were cute. Never mentioned any feminine pronouns. Now get up." She pushed his side with her heel. He sat up rubbing the back of his head.

"You know I don't work with males." He turned his head to face Hayato still on the sofa. Shamal squinted at him, fully getting up onto his feet. He walked over to him grabbing his cheeks. He roughly inspected his face before Hayato pushed him off.

"What are you doing?!" They both ignored his outburst.

"Why does he look like this?" Haru dropped down onto a chair.

"He's a Povero boy. Gokudera-san meet your tutor for the next 2 weeks, Dr. Shamal. Shamal meet Gokudera Hayato." Due to Shamal's medical background he could see all the years of starvation and exhaustion by his face alone.

"A Povero boy? Decimo really doesn't know his bounds in recruiting. Or is this the Skylark's idea?" Hayato watched silently as they were speaking in a sort of code. He knew that Haru had two bosses that they were probably talking about them. However, he also knew that neither of them knew about him. Maybe that's why she got someone outside of Vongola to teach him. If only he wasn't such a sleaze ball.

"It's mine. And you shouldn't be so judgemental when you don't look that much better."

"Ahhh but I don't want to teach a boy. Especially one that is from Povero." Hayato held back from defending his home place. Though he won't admit this to her directly, right now the only person he trusted was Haru. If she placed trust in this man, then he'll withhold himself for now.

She raised her hand. Suddenly he heard a soft thunk on one of the walls followed by a low buzz noise. He found it to be a small bug somehow stuck to a nearby wall. But from the distance he couldn't see how it was possible for it to suddenly stick to the wall. Shamal shot up from his spot to go over to the bug.

"You can't do that Haru-chan! My poor Trident Mosquito." Shamal scooped up the mosquito. He held it in his hands as its wings twitched in pain. Honestly Hayato didn't know a lot about bugs to be able to determine what was wrong with it. But he knew that Haru had done something to it.

"How about you keep those pesky bugs out of my face?"

"Wow even you threatening me is cute." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Cut the crap already. I can do a lot more than hit your annoying bugs and you know that."

"As harsh as always. So let's say I do train him, what's in for me? You know keeping things from the Vongola can get me in big trouble. And I know that money isn't an issue for you so I want something else." Haru used her index finger to gesture him closer.

Shamal leaned down to let her whisper into his ear. From the way that they were positioned, Hayato couldn't even read her lips. He could only watch the other's reactions. He could see his eyes widen and fists started to form. The longer she went on the madder he got. He looked back at Hayato.

"This boy is-"

"Indeed." Shamal looked between the two of them. He straightened himself.

"Fine. I'll tutor him." This sent some warning bells in Hayato's head. Something in what she had said pointed to him being more important than he thought. What about him could change Shamal's opinion so easily?

"That's what I like to hear." Haru stood up taking a small box out of her pocket. She opened it to reveal a clear ring inside. Using her own ring she tapped it to change its colour to be half faint purple. She took the ring out giving it to Shamal. "Two weeks is all you get."

"Yeah I know the drill." He took the ring, slipping it onto his hand.

"Gokudera-san I expect you to cooperate with Shamal. He may not look like much but he is still leagues above you. Shamal you have my permission to do as you like but don't push any limits. He's just as scrappy as he looks." Haru checked the time. "I'll have to take my leave now if there are no questions."

"I can't change tutors to someone that is more...more?"

"No. Good luck."

"I'm going to need it." The two of them mumbled at the same time. They both glared at each other. Neither of them found that the circumstances were favourable.

Haru was almost out of the room when Shamal called out to her once more. She paused in her spot. "I take it that a certain right hand man doesn't know about this agreement?"

"No. And I would prefer to keep it that way."

"Okay." He sang in a light hearted way. She gave him a smug smile before rolling her eyes. She made eye contact with Hayato once then left.

"How is a drunk womanizer supposed to teach me anything?" Was the first thing that Hayato said under his breath. Shamal cracked a smile. He took out his phone without responding to him. "What's so funny?"

"A guide to your student by Miura Haru.' One, the first thing they are going to say to you is either an insult or a question. Mostly likely both.' As expected of Haru-chan. Never fails to get the information she wants." Hayato could tell that he was reading off the notes that she took on him.

"Fucking great what else does that stupid woman have on me?"

"'Two, they have a sailor mouth.'" He threw his arms up into the air letting out a loud grunt. "'Three, they have a short temper.' Listen, are we going to go through this entire list or can we get started on some basics? I'm not pleased with this situation either but I only have 2 weeks to teach you how to survive."

"She emphasized that for you too. What's the deal with the rings anyways?"

"How much do you know about Vongola?"

"That they're a bunch of killers that apparently hire random people of the streets to do their work rather than doing it themselves." His interest in his student was piqued.

"So nothing. Alright let's start with the basics. While you do a few laps outside."

"Huh?!"

"I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I know Haru-chan probably already fed you something so let's get into it. Go outside and run laps." Hayato opened his mouth to rebut. "Four,-"

"Alright! I get it!"

While Shamal was lounging around, Hayato was forced to do a bunch of exercises. At least Shamal was doing his part in watching over him. The compromise being that he would teach him about the Vongola through a megaphone. Within reason.

The Vongola was made up of seven different branches. Sky, Rain, Storm, Cloud, Sun, Lightning and Mist. The Sky was the top with only 7 members in it. Vongola Decimo at the head of it all. His six 'guardians' were the only other ones in the group, each of them owing their personal branch with 2 second in commands. From those branches they took over different roles around Ripartizione.

The only one that Shamal explored more on was the Cloud branch. That was solely because Hayato was under Haru's command. The Cloud, as most suspected, were heavily involved with the police department. It sounded hypocritical to believe that a group of Mafiose were in charge of crime. What people didn't know was that the Cloud guardian was extremely picky with what was labelled as a crime.

Anything that the Vongola did was under heavy regulations that the Cloud branch didn't have to intervene much with them. Not that anyone would think to betray them. Even though each guardian was on the same level, there was an understanding with those associated that the Cloud branch was one of the strongest. This was due to their influence on the legal system, pure strength, information gathering skills and the leader's particular way of handling things.

The next topic they explored was the rings. Every Vongola member had a ring that represented their rank and branch. These were mechanically designed to have a multitude of uses such as identification and tracking to name a few.

The main thing to note was that they could present someone's rank and branch. Rings were split into two parts. From the user's perspective the left side had the colour of the branch they were. The right side dashes engraved to represent how many people were above them and the branch that they identified with. For someone like Shamal his ring had no dashes and was currently hired by Haru making his ring half purple and half transparent.

Null rings were limited and represented only a temporary status. They had no colour until given by someone of Haru's ranking or higher. It granted the user a similar level of clearance to the person that gave them the ring.

Since null rings were, in a sense, an easy way to gain resources from Vongola, there was a time limit and a restriction on how many the host could give at once. Haru was high ranking but even the guardians had a limit. Each time they wanted to accept more than one person, they had to run it by the other guardians. It was probably easier to get them to join Vongola rather than giving them clearance.

Only Decimo was allowed to give away null rings without limit.

Shamal was able to answer so many questions because of how many times Vongola hired him. He didn't join simply because he didn't like the idea of being tied down to one group. In Vongola there were too many rules in place. But as long as he had that ring on and was getting paid he had to listen to whatever Haru said.

No mentioning names, no killing under this mission, no revealing any Vongola members' information and absolutely no way is he allowed to speak about this mission afterwards. People can know if he completed it properly but nothing specific could be told. If he broke any of these, Haru was allowed to punish him as she saw fit.

There was a lot more that he could have told Hayato but held back as he wasn't sure exactly what Haru was planning with him. He knew why the boy was important, not his main goal in the end. He was trustworthy with basic knowledge but Haru was not willing to give her full trust to anyone. It's not like the boy knew his own importance either way.

"Okay that's enough warm up today. You'll be doing a similar routine everyday so get use to it." On Shamal's word Hayato collapsed to the ground. He panted heavily with sweat covering his body.

"Th- that was- a warm up?" He said in between pants.

"Frankly you're doing a lot better than I thought you would. I guess that's why Haru-chan chose you." He threw him a water bottle which he fumbled with. "You'll take a short break then I'll show you your weapons. Haru-chan picked these out herself since she said you were indecisive about things."

"How am I indecisive?"

Shamal took out his phone. "I quote; from observations they are unable to choose things for them self. Decided to join me because of family reasons. Not for their own need. Whether it be food or clothes, they tend to go for cheap, low quality items. Could be due to a sense of familiarity."

Now that he thought about during his shopping trip she was always the one to make the final decision on what he brought. He would aim for things that were considered cheap or that he could somewhat recognize. Even then he was fine was anything that he got as he couldn't afford to be picky.

"Before we move on, I have two questions about everything you just told me. The woman said that no one knows about me or about this whole thing. How can you be sure that she isn't planning against Decimo?"

Shamal laughed loudly causing him to flinch. "Betray the Vongola, maybe. Betray Decimo? That's the day hell freezes and the flying pigs take over. You have no idea how devoted those kids are to him. Haru-chan included."

"Are they really that close?"

"Very. Beyond work Haru-chan is even best friends with Decimo's fiancée. There was a rumor that she had romantic feelings for him for a while. That was disproved when she got her boyfriend." The idea of Haru having feelings for the Mafia don interested Hayato until he remembered that she was dating someone.

"The baseball freak?"

"Oh you know about him?"

"That he's some famous baseball player that doesn't know about her Mafia side. Stupid idiot thinks she's some sort of designer. Apparently he's like the nicest person ever or whatever."

Shamal held back his laugh knowing the baseball player's true identity. "He's a piece of work to have Haru-chan claim him. I would look better with her though."

"Yeah sure. Why would you even want to date that stupid woman?"

"Call her stupid all you want but in the Mafia she is one of the most desired women solely because of her intelligence. Her combat skills are no laughing matter either. Be careful that you don't fall for her too."

Hayato scoffed at the idea of him falling for her. Their relationship was... Boss and employee? Maybe that was too nice to define it. This was an illegal deal between the two. Killing someone on a contract with no strings attached. Romance taking place? Yeah right.

"That's not possible geezer. But I'm interested in the idea of Decimo getting married. I would love to see what kind of insane couple that would be. I almost feel sad for his fiancée. She must have been someone amazing to win over the old man."

Not a lot was known about Decimo; besides the heinous acts he's committed to. In Hayato's mind he had a rough image of what the don would look like. Some middle age geezer with a beer belly that barely showered. He was sure that if they met he would have the face that anyone would love to punch.

"Old man? You should change your image. Decimo was young when he started but he is your age."

"My age?"

"Yeah but I think I said too much already. So what's your second question?" He did want to try prying more but knew that information of Decimo was way more precious than answering a few questions.

"If the woman is a part of the Cloud branch, why isn't she a police officer?"

"The branch that a person is assigned to is purely on the guardian in charge of them, not occupation. Most do have a similar set of skills per branch but they are not dependent on that. Most of those in the Cloud branch are aimed towards intelligence gathering. There are cases where someone can change branches purely because of a guardian choice. Even if someone was similar to Haru-chan in terms of skill, they can be in a different branch."

"So if I were to join, I'm technically under the woman. Would I be counted as a Cloud member?"

"That is up to the Cloud guardian. If they don't like you, Haru-chan has no say in it. Personally think you would fit the Storm or Rain. Why? Are you interested?"

Hayato was disgusted at the idea of him joining the Vongola. "I'm only doing this to get the money. Nothing more."

"Fair enough. Alright, that's it for questions. Time to bring the bad boys out."

Shamal stood up from his lounge chair. He went over to a large crate that Hayato didn't take notice of earlier. Inside there were thousands of dynamite sticks. He reached in, picking up one of them.

To Hayato it felt natural. It was light. Almost like there wasn't anything inside of it. The feeling of the cardboard stick in his hand was familiar. Shamal didn't miss the small glint in the boy's eyes while holding it. "Have you worked with dynamite before?"

He held onto it tightly. "No. But if the stupid woman picked it then I'll use it."

"Oi before careful there Hayato. Have you realized what you're holding there? Those things are not selective on who they take out." Shamal warned him.

Hayato picked up one of the small lighters in the crate. He lit a flame holding it closer to the fuse than the doctor would have preferred. "I don't care. Let's get started already."

Hayato walked through town with a few grocery bags in hand. He was no chef that Shamal had been forcing him nearly every other day to go shopping for ingredients in return. He did try to skip on meals but that was written in Haru's notes as well. According to what she wrote she knew that he would often forget to eat since he went most of life not eating regularly.

While Shamal didn't fully care for his student's health, as a doctor he could already see at first glance how poorly he took care of himself. And Haru was paying for him to do a good job that he couldn't abandon him half way through. At least he was keeping up with the training.

These small grocery runs gave Hayato a chance to familiarize himself with Ricco lands as well. Thanks to Haru's brought clothes, no one could really tell that he was different from them. The first time that he went to the store by himself he didn't really know how to do anything. In the end he brought a box of instant ramen and a jug of water, forgetting that the tap water in the house was drinkable.

Even when Shamal told him that he could pretty much buy anything there were a lot of foods that he's never even heard of. A lot of those consisted of snacks and exotic items that Povero obviously didn't have. A specific shopping list had to be made since he even avoided lots of perishable food out of habit. He really was indecisive over little things.

Hayato turned at the sound of weak meow. He looked around for the source of the sound. Nothing happened. He shrugged his shoulders continuing his way back when he heard it again.

He didn't know why but he felt that he had to check what it was. He carefully went into an alleyway. He went over to a fallen pile of boxes. He could see a small yellow-white paw sticking out from underneath.

He removed all the boxes, making sure that they wouldn't fall on him or the thing. He found it to be a yellow and white cat with faded brown spots. Anyone could tell that this was a stray. It weakly opened one of its red eyes at Hayato, staggering to it's feet.

He bent down to the small cat. It stood with shaky knees, trying its best to hiss at him. It was clear that it was so weak that it could barely protect itself. The way it was still defensive when someone was trying to help. He understood why it was being so hostile.

He only held out his hand to show that he didn't want to hurt it. The cat slashed at him once causing him to almost lose his temper but held back. He put his hand back out the same as before. Seeing that he didn't back down the cat poked his hand with its nose. Slowly it came closer to him.

"You must be hungry. Do you want some food?" The cat gave a tiny mew in response. What did cats eat again? Judging from its sharp teeth he could tell it was a meat eater at least. He could try to look up more back at the house. Hayato carefully picked up the cat. That's when he felt that the cat was bleeding from injuries covering its body.

"You're hurt. Should I take you to a veterinarian? Oh but I don't know where that would be. Maybe I could take you to see Shamal? He's a doctor at least." Gently holding the cat into his arms. He wanted to rush back but didn't want the cat to feel unsafe.

When he made it back Shamal was already waiting for their food. Seeing the cat he got the jest of the situation. He was no vet but he could perform the minimum care for it. At least to disinfect and bandage its injuries and give it some food. It didn't eat a lot but was probably more than it had in the past few days.

Shamal placed the sleeping cat on a throw pillow on the table. "It's okay for now. Make sure to take it to the vet when they open in the morning. Buy some cat food too. Neither of those are cheap. Do you have your own money to spend?"

"The woman left a card for me." Hayato had to be careful with the card she gave him to not overspend. She didn't give a limit but he knows that she was basically adding onto his debt with her. This was rule three for them working together. He could use it all he wanted but don't lose it nor could he buy any drugs, alcohol, tobacco or anything of the sorts.

He sat next to the table to look at the cat. It slept so peacefully. Now that it had been given some care he felt a lot better. The poor cat must have been a stray for a long time. When he was holding it in his arms he could feel the way its fur was hardened with dry dirt and blood. It was so fragile. At any moment he could have hurt the small creature solely because of the size difference between them. He was glad that he could help it.

Shamal walked up next to him with some bandages and disinfectant in hand. He pushed both of the items into his hands.

"I don't treat men. Take care of your hand yourself." Hayato looked down at his hand that was scratched earlier. The cut had already stopped bleeding which was good for him. He didn't even notice it with how much he was focused on the cat. He took the items, putting them on the table.

"I'm fine. I don't need to-" He cut himself off when Shamal shoved the medical items back into his hands.

"It's not up for discussion. You may see it as a small cut but it can worsen. This is a stray. You don't know where it has been. Don't throw your life around."

"Said the assassin." Hayato didn't have time to react when Shamal grabbed him by his shirt's collar. He completely froze not knowing how he could defend himself. Though Shamal was always mad at him, he hasn't seen the true side to him yet.

"That's right I'm an assassin. A hitman, a murderer, say whatever the fuck you want. But never think of a life as something so easy. I take my job seriously and I'm getting fed up with your attitude. Each person that I've killed I've done so because they deserved it. You're going to have to kill someone for the first time and know what it's like to have blood on your hands." He roughly threw him onto the ground.

"Do you not have someone that you care about?" Hayato was still in shock that he couldn't respond properly. "You know what? Fuck this."

Hayato watched as he went back to his small operating table. He picked up the scalpel then turned to the small kitten. Seeing the way the doctor approached the table gave him an uneasy feeling. Without any hesitation Shamal raised the surgical tool up in the air above the kitten.

Hayato jumped at him. Shamal side stepped letting him fall flat on his face. He armed himself with his dynamites. Shamal was not least bit intimidated by the boy. "What are you doing?!"

"Do you have someone that you care about?" He repeated with more force.

Hayato gripped his dynamites in hand. "My mom. And my sister. That's it."

"And if they were to pass away?"

"That's why I took this job. My mom is in the hospital now and the stupid woman is paying for the hospital bills. With the money I gain from this I'll be able to afford her treatment and the after effects to keep this from happening again. They're all I have that I don't know what would happen if they die too soon. What does this have to do with anything?"

"But what if someone kills them?"

"Wh-"

"Answer the question!" He flinched.

"I-I-" An image flashed in his mind. If that night he joined Haru was different, if he ended up finding them dead on the floor. If someone else did that rather than natural causes.

Chills went down his spine at the thought. For that moment he felt all the warmth in his body immediately leave. He could physically feel himself shaking. Maybe it was because of the threat that Shamal gave him that made everything feel so real. A reminder that death was always an option for any situation.

He was given this miracle opportunity to prevent his family from dying. Only this time though.

"What would you do?"

"I would avenge them... I would go after who killed them."

He reached forward to grab Hayato's wrist, taking the dynamite out of them. "These are weapons. They are not going to heal anyone. They will kill. Either you throw them away once lit or they will kill you. Think of your family each time you light one."

If someone were to ask Shamal what he thought of his student and his progress, he would say that he gave his fair amount of surprises. Hayato picked up on dynamites fast. Incredibly fast. From the first stick, he didn't even hesitate in lightning it nor throwing it at a target. The only thing that he had to work on was his aim even that he picked up right away.

Hayato was intelligent. More intelligent than any Povero resident that he's ever met. But his main fault was in his inability to value his own life. He clearly knew that life was important. That was apparent with him stopping Shamal from attacking the kitten and working with Haru for his family. Yet for his own life, it didn't matter. That pissed the doctor off the most.

For the doctor, he worked by himself because no life was more important than his own. As an assassin if he didn't value his own life, he would have died long time ago. So while he saw similarities to himself to his student, Hayato had no sense of self care. He didn't need Haru's notes to tell him that.

Shamal slammed down the scalpel onto the table and left Hayato alone with the cat. He fell to the floor breathing heavily. The remaining sticks in hand rolled on the floor. He had been handling them this entire time yet he never took a life before. He never felt true fear before.

He could hear the cat above his head breathing. It was still sleeping soundly. It was alive. He looked down at the hand that it scratched earlier. He was still alive.

As long as he was alive he could work with Haru. As long as he was alive he could pay for his mom's hospital bills. Until then he had to stay alive.

Once he saw his mom on the hospital bed he learned how fragile life was. Now he was going to be taking someone else's. His mom's life was more important to him than some random stranger but there was still a part of him that realized as easy as it was to light his explosives, it was just as easy to not.

Thank you to everyone reading so far!

Kazorashi: Correct his teacher is indeed Shamal! I love slipping in mini canon things. I'm glad you like the hoodie and 'evil-looking' scenes :D. As for 8086 we'll see how they turn out.

Newgirlinvaria(Guest): Thank you so much for leaving a review on NGV too! Honestly I know that the two stories have such different vibes to them so I really appreciate the support for both of them.