Yusuke grinned as he stepped back into Human World, inhaling the fresh air of the atmosphere. Not to sound tree hugging or anything because Yusuke wasn't, but there was always something about Human World's air that was calming.

While Demon World's air was heavy, not oppressive but simply felt saturated, Human World's air was always light and refreshing. One side of Yusuke – either demon or human – would always start acting up whenever he stayed in one world too long, which was why he often traveled between the two worlds.

Yusuke tilted his neck back and craned his neck, feeling a few bones pop. His ponytail, a souvenir from when he transformed into his demon form, swung cheerily behind him.

Yusuke reached a hand up to touch it and wondered if he should cut it. While he didn't mind it long, it might get into the way of other stuff.

Like what? Yusuke asked himself as he ambled out of the woods surrounding the Namimori shrine. A week previous, he would have said working in the Matsumura's restaurant, but he had already quit since they didn't need his help anymore. Now Yusuke was as boundless as the wind.

Where to go, Yusuke wondered to himself, and that was the exact moment his shirt got caught on a stray branch. A tearing sound soon followed.

Yusuke stared at the hole in his shirt. "Damn. Kurama's influence over plants doesn't extend to here, right?"

There was no answer.

"Right… clothes," Yusuke said, changing directions. He headed towards the shopping district. "Let's going shopping."

He paid no mind to the bee that he passed by.

Xxx

Yusuke knew for a fact that it was definitely school hours right now, so, "Why the fuck are you trying to kill me?" Yusuke demanded as he dodged a rather lethal kick from Reborn. "Don't you have Tsuna to watch over?"

The concrete floor dented under the Acrobaleno's foot, and Yusuke raised an eyebrow at the unusual display of strength. Reborn normally played it down, didn't he?

"Hey, I'm not easy to kill off, but someone, probably some innocent civilian, is going to die soon if we don't move to another location," Yusuke tried again.

"Then move," Reborn demanded, bringing up his hand up to his fedora to tell his chameleon to transform even as he spoke.

Yusuke quickly moved into another forest around the mall and as he left, he couldn't help but wonder if everyone in Namimori was crazy as they talked about the unannounced filming at the mall.

Can't they see this is as real as shit, Yusuke wondered as a bullet whizzed past his ear and smacked into the poor tree next to the half-demon. The tree exploded, sending barks flying everywhere.

"That is so not my fault if anyone asks," Yusuke shouted towards the Acrobaleno behind him. "I'm not responsible for any collateral damage!"

If the Acrobaleno's mood was bad before, it was absolutely thunderous now. The frequency in which bullets flew towards Yusuke's person doubled.

"What the fuck!" Yusuke cried as he hid behind a tree. Normally, Yusuke would have gone out grinning and meet Reborn for the fight, but staying in Demon World for the week had the consequence of fighting the second strongest demon (namely Raizen, with Yusuke being the first, of course) continuously to his biological ancestor's content.

Yusuke was pretty tired now, actually.

The half-demon banged his head back against the tree trunk, not even wincing at the slight pain. He had a rather strong head, after all.

Why the fuck was this happening to him? Yusuke swear whatever Reborn think Yusuke did, Yusuke was totally innocent of it. Hell, he wasn't even in Namimori for the past few days for him to offend Reborn!

Yusuke paused, nearly getting an extra hole in his person for that little moment of stillness. As Yusuke rolled out of the way, he wondered if that was what Reborn was pissed about.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

Yusuke poked his head out from behind Tree # 33. "Hey, are you PMS-ing because I left Namimori without telling you?"

The next bullet actually got the tip of Yusuke's ear. Yusuke hissed at the burn and quickly moved behind the tree again.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Yusuke shouted.

Silence.

Yusuke blinked, tugging at his ear. Reborn didn't get any other part of his ear, did he? Because Yusuke could swear he was suddenly hearing silence in place of the previous explosions.

"Lalala," Yusuke said randomly to himself and nope, he could still hear himself just fine.

So what was with the ominous, suspicious silence?

"This better not be a trap," Yusuke muttered to himself as he stepped out to take a look at the situation. A lot of damaged trees. Tree huggers would wage a war at this tree abuse, but otherwise, nothing. No one. "What?"

Yusuke extended out his senses, spreading his energy thin throughout the forest while leaving some around his person for defense in case of a secret attack. Call him paranoid, but Yusuke rather not take the chance especially with the Arcobalneo's volatile mood.

Some distance away, Yusuke caught the unique energy of Reborn. It was heading away from the forest at a rapid speed.

Yusuke scratched his head, bemused. "First he attacks me and then he runs away?"

Yusuke slumped down to a sit and glanced around the damage forest. He sighed. "I feel like I just lost my touch with humanity. What's with everyone's strange behavior nowadays?"

As expected, there was no answer.

Yusuke rolled his eyes.

Xxx

Tsuna blinked as he trudged out of Namimori Middle and saw Yusuke-san waiting by the front gate. "Yusuke-san!" he exclaimed, heading towards the older male. Gokudera and Yamamoto followed.

"Hey, Tsuna," Yusuke-san greeted, smiling lightly. He looked over at Gokudera and Yamamoto, and exchanged a brief look with Gokudera. "Yo."

Tsuna had a strange feeling that there was more behind Gokudera and Yusuke-san's exchange but didn't question them since he didn't get the feeling that it was anything bad.

"Yusuke-san, where have you been?!" Tsuna exclaimed as he stopped in front of the other male.

Yusuke-san grinned. "Away," he answered cryptically.

"Answer Juudaime properly!" Gokudera demanded, ever fast to step into any situation he deemed necessary. Tsuna was a little surprise Gokudera didn't pull out his dynamites yet.

"Maa, maa, calm down," Yamamoto said, as easy going as ever. "Yusuke-san answered Tsuna's question, didn't he?"

"That vague bastard –!" Gokudera said, snapping his mouth shut a moment later with a scowl. "What do you want from Juudaime?"

"Just wondering what is going on with Reborn," Yusuke-san said and the instant he said Reborn's name, Tsuna shuddered. Beside him, Gokudera and Yamamoto did the same. "That bad?" Yusuke-san asked, and Tsuna didn't need any more prompting than that.

"Reborn is brutal recently!" Tsuna exclaimed, his voice unusually high to nearly a wail. "And here I thought he was scary before. He wakes me up at the crack of dawn and makes me run around until very late. I have to run back home and prepare for school after the run each day and is late almost every day recently! Hibari-san is biting me to death because of my lateness!"

Fury crossed Gokudera's face at the mention of Tsuna being bitten to death, while Yamamoto winced sympathetically with a smile.

"Hahaha," Yamamoto laughed. "No wonder Hibari seems to be in a better mood recently."

"Yamamoto," Tsuna said. Comical tears slid down Tsuna's face. "Please don't joke about that."

"Heard that, baseball freak," Gokudera said. "Stop annoying Juudaime!"

Yusuke scratched his head at the chaos that resulted from his question. "You have it bad, don't you," Yusuke asked, watching as Tsuna sighed. Beside him, Yamamoto and Gokudera continued to argue. "Mind me asking one more question?"

Tsuna looked at Yusuke for a moment, before gesturing him to ask away. "What is it, Yusuke-san?"

"When did this brutal training start?" Yusuke asked, his eyes unusually intent.

Tsuna didn't notice as he attempted to trace back the change to when it first started. "I think it was when I got that Skullitis," Tsuna said. His eyebrows scrunched up. "When was that…?"

Yusuke wondered what crazy stuff happened in Tsuna's daily life for him to forget a memorable day like when he contracted a rare, life-threatening disease.

"Juudaime," Gokudera called out. "That was about a week ago."

Tsuna's face lit up. "Oh, that's right. Gokudera, you have such good memory!"

"It's nothing, Juudaime! If I want to be Juudaime's right hand man, I'll have to do even better than that," Gokudera declared.

"Oh, are you guys talking about that Mafia Game?" Yamamoto spoke up, interest on his face.

The smile on Tsuna's twitched. "It's not a game, Yamamoto…" he protested weakly, but no one seemed to have noticed.

Yusuke decided that he really didn't want to know the story behind that. Maybe next time, after he got the issue with Reborn resolved. "Right…" Yusuke said. All three teens looked at him. "Thanks. I wasted enough of your time already. Why don't you guys go home and rest?"

"Don't tell Juudaime what to do!" Gokudera exclaimed, at the same time Yamamoto said, "That's a great idea."

Tsuna yawned and nodded. "I'll get going then, Yusuke-san."

Yusuke nodded and smiled, watching how Gokudera and Yamamoto unquestioningly followed as Tsuna headed towards home.

Yusuke ambled off to the side of the school and stopped to lean against a tree. He waited.

A few seconds later, the sound of a mechanical door opening was heard from the tree Yusuke was leaning against. Yusuke remained in the same place, waiting for Reborn to speak.

"Ciaossu," Reborn finally said. Yusuke let out a breath. Reborn sounded more like the in-control Arcobaleno now, although he had a feeling the greeting was only to make their meeting sound more natural. Reborn usually went straight into business with Yusuke, after all.

"Hey," Yusuke greeted casually. He didn't bother looking up to Reborn's manmade secret passageway within the tree and instead continued to gaze out at Namimori. "What's up?"

"You knew I was here," Reborn accused and ah, here was the straightforward, no-time-for-pleasantries Reborn that Yusuke was used to.

"Guessed," Yusuke corrected automatically. "I doubt you would leave Tsuna unguarded."

"Instincts again," Reborn stated, and Yusuke nodded like it was a question that required an answer. "You dodged Tsuna's question."

Yusuke knew exactly which one Reborn was referring to. "Don't worry," Yusuke said, even though worry wouldn't have been the word Yusuke would have used to describe Reborn's tone. More like… mildly puzzled. "I didn't go off to plot the end of the world or something."

"I know," Reborn said, and there was this almost tired quality to Reborn's words that made Yusuke think Reborn might have learned something he didn't want to know. Which immediately sent Yusuke's guard up, although he made an effort to relax.

Either Reborn had come to some conclusion on his own through some information Yusuke had no privy to, or Reborn really did know that Yusuke went back to Demon World.

Yusuke hissed lowly. He was getting a headache from all of this.

He tried to move things back to his pace. "What's with that greeting you gave me this morning?" Yusuke asked, and both of them knew he was talking about Reborn attacking Yusuke without any warning.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," Reborn answered promptly.

Yusuke hmmed, dropping the issue for now. He was inquisitive but not nosy enough to try to dig for information at the risk of his health. "You heard what Tsuna said, right? About your recent trainings."

Reborn remained silent. Yusuke sighed, feeling like he was trying to move a mountain. Actually, that would probably be easier than trying to get Reborn to talk when he didn't want to.

"Look, I've never been a tutor, so I don't know how these things work. I'm not trying to criticize your tutoring ability or anything, but," Yusuke struggled to get his words across. It had been a while since Yusuke felt the need to watch his words. "Tsuna sounds really tired. It can't be good for him to stay like that."

Silence.

Yusuke tsked and pushed himself off of the tree trunk. He turned around. "Reborn-"

A green thing came flying at him and stuck on his face.

Yusuke held back the urge to bat it away, since he recognized what it was. "Leon," Yusuke murmured, ignoring the snicker coming from the tree. Yusuke carefully peeled the chameleon off his face. "Hey, buddy."

Leon's tongue flicked out and licked Yusuke's finger.

Yusuke laughed lightly, a smile blooming on his face.

"Leon," Reborn's voice called out and after another flick, the chameleon jumped back to its owner.

Yusuke glanced up at Reborn, taking in Reborn's appearance. His suit was still neatly pressed and he still looked very composed, yet there was something about the man that was a little off.

Reborn looked at him. "Urameshi," Reborn started.

"Yusuke," Yusuke automatically correct.

An indescribable look flashed across Reborn's face.

He nodded after a moment. "Yusuke," Reborn said. He glanced at Yusuke. "I'll consider what you said."

Before Yusuke could formulate a reply, the door on the tree trunk slid close, making the tree appear like any other tree in the area

The Acrobaleno was gone.

Yusuke stared for another moment, before smiling with the shake of his head.

If you want to hide a tree, put it in the forest.

Xxx

Reborn didn't wait to see how Urameshi would react. He simply closed the door to the secret pathway.

A hand absentmindedly patted Leon's head as Reborn manipulated the lift with the other. There was another forest he had to go.

Leon's rubbed his head against Reborn's hand, tongue flicking out affectionately. Reborn gazed down at his partner, still unable to decide how he should react to Leon siding with Urameshi in the visit to the future.

"You like him," Reborn finally said, breaking the silence. Leon's tongue flicked out. "You didn't want to shoot him, and he didn't mean any harm."

Leon crawled out from under Reborn's hand to sit on it. Reborn lifted his hand close to his face.

Leon licked Reborn's face, and Reborn recalled the chameleon only did that with people he liked. The list was short, only including Reborn, the Ninth, Luce, Reborn's students (Dino and Tsuna) and now – Urameshi.

"If you think that was for the best, I won't press," Reborn said, knowing the chameleon's judge of character was excellent. "Can I trust you to not do that again? It's awfully hard to maintain my reputation if my gun suddenly transforms into a chameleon in the middle of a hit."

Leon's tongue flicked out again, before he leapt up to the brim of Reborn's fedora. Reborn took that as a yes.

Reborn stopped the lift, having arrived at the forest of his choice. He stepped out to the sight of the forest he damaged that morning and activated his Sun flame. Might as well start repairing the damage.

As he did, Reborn finally decided he wouldn't think about his visit to the future any longer. He wasn't thinking that morning when he attacked Urameshi. Just because Urameshi of the present had the same appearance of the future Urameshi, it didn't mean that they were the same person. Whatever Urameshi of the future did, the present Urameshi didn't know. If Reborn continued to act strangely, Urameshi would only dig to find out why.

No, it was better to let the issue of his visit to the future drop. Not only was it a waste of time to dwell on something he had so little information on, Reborn would like to think his future self knew what he was doing when he chose to have a dalliance with Urameshi.

Besides, whatever Reborn of the future chose to do, it didn't change what Reborn would do now. His knowledge of the future changed nothing. He would still tutor Tsuna, help the Ninth with Vongola and keep a close eye on Urameshi.

So whatever would results from his actions, Reborn would accept them.


Okay, I read the responses and looked at the poll, and many people said they'll said they would continue reading even if the story will contain BL. Thank you.

A few people also said they wouldn't, and I would like to respect that choice. Nevertheless, questions popped up after the last chapter and I would like to clarify some stuff before anyone starts running to the other direction at the potential BL.

Will the story contain explicit sex?

No, just no. I can't write lemon or lime at all, and I have no intention of writing it in the future. The rating of the content is staying as it is: T. In terms of fan terms, the story is going to stay on the level between shounen ai and yaoi. There would be some kisses, maybe a hint at something more but definitely nothing explicit.

What would change if you decide to include slash in the story?

As of now, nothing. I'm just asking about slash to test the water and see the reception to the idea. Either way, it's not going to affect the story plot-wise. The writing style and the organization of Stranger with a Gun is going to be remain the same as well. Just because I mentioned there would be slash doesn't mean all of a sudden, Reborn and Yusuke would randomly develop feelings for each other. The focus of the story would not change to romance. Its genre is still family/friendship, and now with an additional dab of romance.

Will I write about the future? (i.e. continuing from the last chapter, when future Reborn returns to the safe house)

Regarding the future in general, I want to and I plan to write about it, but as of now, no. Not yet. I have an idea or two, but usually I write and post chronologically. If I break that habit, I'm not sure if the story would end up being too confusing to follow.