Hi guys, it's been 4 months. *wince* Sorry for the long wait and thank you for waiting. Please enjoy and happy holidays.

Notes: (OCs from the 4th & 5th chapter - Restuarant, and School - are mentioned)

Matsumura - Owns a restaurant; have a daughter named Ayame, who attends to Namimori Middle

Tao - works at Matsumura's restaurant; Tsuna noted that he seems like a delinquent

Both of them knows Yusuke because he used to work at Matsumura's restaurant.


"You can't go," Reborn said as he slipped into the Yamamoto dojo. He looked at the elder Tsuyoshi, who was facing away from Reborn with legs folded calmly beneath him and his sword Shigure Kintoki laying across his lap, just waiting to be drawn.

"Acrobaleno," the elder Yamamoto said without any inflection, and from his position behind Tsuyoshi's back, Reborn couldn't read the wielder of Shigure Kintoki's expression at all. It didn't take a genius, however, to see the tension in his shoulders. Tsuyoshi slowly shifted to a stand, movement as smooth as a swing of a sword master. "I don't think it is a good time for you to tell me what and what not to do."

"It's a risk," Reborn argued. "If you go, that'll attract the attention of the Mafia that you left behind. Your normal life in Namimori with Takeshi will be over –"

Reborn cut his sentence short as he moved minutely, minimally avoiding the sword that cut through the air Reborn's neck was a second before. Reborn found himself looking into the older man's eyes the next second, his normally calm gaze still steady, but rolling with a barely contained maelstrom beneath.

A protective father in all his might and fury, Reborn noted silently.

"You think I don't know all of that, Acrobaleno?" the wielder of Shigure Kintoki said, his voice sharp and intense as the blade he held in hand.

Reborn met the other man's eyes squarely, letting only a cool façade of someone who had everything under control show, and none of his own guilt. "I think you need that to be stated aloud," Reborn said, apparently unruffled despite the tension in the air and the blade at his neck.

"You could have prevented it," the elder Yamamoto stated. It was less of a question and more of an accusation.

"I may be on the side of the Vongola," Reborn said, while thinking that this was one of the rare times that his reputation preceded him, not that Reborn would ever admit that aloud. But did they truly think he could keep track of everything? Reborn thought with somewhat of a solemn attitude that in the end, even if others tend to think otherwise when it suited their purpose, that I'm only a human. "But I never claimed to be one of them."

I have no obligation to watch over your son, was what that really meant.

In a flash, the elder Yamamoto's façade of calm burned away as his expression darkened to pure rage. As far as mind reading went, as Tsuna claimed Reborn was capable of doing, this one was not hard to read at all.

I regret ever trusting you with my precious son and the pressing, all-consuming thought of revenge and kill.

"Yamamoto-san!" a voice called out, just as the blade was about to sever Reborn's head from his shoulders. Not that Reborn would ever let that happen, but it did serve to make Reborn look that much more powerful and in control when he didn't move despite the very immediate danger that the elder Yamamoto presented, and without having to even lift a single finger, the Tsuyoshi stopped despite his rage.

Reborn could definitely see how Tsuyoshi used to be a deadly assassin: he immediately seized his emotions under tightly wrapped control and deftly flipped Shigure Kintoki to revert back to looking like a harmless shinai to prevent Tsuna from witnessing any bloodshed. All done within a split-second.

Considering the sheer intensity of the killer intent Reborn felt from the wielder of Shigure Kintokia second ago, Reborn was definitely impressed with how fast and well he had it under control.

"Yamamoto-san," Tsuna called again as he slid the door to the dojo room open, a second after the elder Yamamoto took away Shigure Kintoki from his neck. He was about to step forward into the room but hesitated at the last moment, because even with most of the Tsuyoshi's killer intent under control, it was undeniable that some kind of tension hung between him and Reborn. There was no way Tsuna wouldn't have sensed that, especially considering his developing Vongola Intuition.

Choice made, Tsuna lingered around the threshold instead.

"Sawada, what's wrong?" Reborn could hear Ryohei ask loudly when he didn't move from the doorway. For someone who just left the hospital not even an hour ago, he sounded pretty lively and well. That was expected, though, considering it was Ryohei who they were talking about and it was Shamal that healed him of his most debilitating injuries.

"Juudaime?"Gokudera called with worry in his voice.

Tsuna and Reborn's attention were not on them, however. They were looking at the elder Yamamoto for his reaction.

Something within the elder Yamamoto seemed to shatter upon seeing kids of the younger Yamamoto's age.

If Takeshi was here, Reborn could almost see elder Yamamoto thinking, both Takeshi and him would have happily welcomed his son's it was, their presence only served to remind him once again that his son was not there because he had been captured.

No one spoke for a few beats, held back by something unseen yet felt by them all, until at last, someone let out a small breath. Everyone's eyes darted to, surprisingly, Tsuna.

"Yamamoto-san," Tsuna started, with only vague hints of his usual skittishness present. He bowed down to waist-level and managed not to fall flat on his face. "Sorry for the intrusion. We haven't really introduced ourselves, have we?"

The Tsuyoshi blinked, obviously surprised by Tsuna's formal tone coupled with the strange direction the conversation. After all, just a few seconds ago, he was ready to kill Tsuna's tutor. "You're Tsuna," the wielder of Shigure Kintoki said, falling back to what he knew in face of the unexpected. "Takeshi's friend."

Reborn could hear the slight hesitation, the pain in Tsuyoshi's voice when he said the younger Yamamoto's name.

He pretended not to have heard it.

"Yes," Tsuna answered, straightening up with a soft smile. He was becoming more confident. "I'm Yamamoto's friend and so is Gokudera-kun." Tsuna gestured to the silver-haired teen beside him. When he saw the attention was on him, he quickly mimicked his Boss and bowed.

"Nice to meet you, baseball freak's dad," Gokudera said in a respectful tone.

"Gokudera-kun," Tsuna hissed nervously in a hushed whisper, confident crumbling at the mistake that his friend made. Gokudera looked at Tsuna blankly for a second, before rewinding his words to see what was wrong. The second he realized that he was so used to calling Yamamoto baseball freak that he automatically replaced Yamamoto's name with the moniker in front of Yamamoto's father, he flushed.

"I'm so sorry!" Gokudera exclaimed in a rush, bowing even lower than before. "That was not intended to disrespect. I just got used to calling the baseball freak – "

Gokudera cut himself off when he came to the realization that he was digging himself a bigger hole.

There was a moment of awkward silence with Tsuna looking like he was about to face his death sentence, before a loud laugh rang out.

"Baseball freak, huh," Yamamoto's father said, amusement glimmering in his eyes, covering some of his worry. "It's true. There's no need to be embarrassed." Gokudera flushed even more and Tsuyoshi let out another laugh. "My son does love playing baseball a lot."

A little, shaky grin spread across Tsuna's face despite himself and Reborn watched as Tsuna nudged Gokudera a little to gesture him to stand from his bow.

"Juudaime," Gokudera whispered in a hush, ready to apologize profusely, but Tsuna merely gave him a firmer smile and shook his head.

"It's okay," Tsuna said softly, reassuringly, and Gokudera nodded.

Tsuna directed his attention back to elder Yamamoto, ready to do the next introduction. "Yamamoto-san, this is –"

"Hello, Yamamoto's dad!" Ryohei exclaimed, unable to stay silent any longer and popped up from behind Tsuna. He rushed into the dojo without any of the reservation that Tsuna showed and ran up to the elder Yamamoto. "It's very nice to meet you! I'm Sasagawa Ryohei, Yamamoto's sempai at Namimori! Yamamoto got his athletic from you, didn't he? I always wanted him to join the boxing club to the EXTREME, but he rejected the offer!"

Tsuyoshi stared at Ryohei for a few seconds, surprised by his enthusiasm, before finally falling to his default setting of smiling lightly. "Hello, Sasagawa-kun." He turned to Tsuna. "It's nice meeting my son's friends, but why –?"

Tsuna exchanged a look with Gokudera, before finally ambling into the dojo together as well. Tsuna gazed at elder Yamamoto with a nervous, but resolute look. "And this," he said, finishing off his introductions, and it wasn't hard to tell who else was left. The elder Yamamoto's face darkened as he was reminded of the hitman.

Reborn was marginally surprised Tsuna didn't let out a "Hiie!"

Instead, after taking in a deep breath, Tsuna firmed his gaze and with a gesture to Reborn, said, "This is Reborn, my tutor and the one who changed me. He is a sadistic, Spartan tutor, but despite everything, well-intentioned as well. He doesn't usually show it, but I know he does what he can to help me and my friends grow."

Both Reborn and Tsuyoshi started at those words, although Reborn would consider he hid it better. Tsuna's eyes also had an orange sheen layered on top of the usual brown.

"Yamamoto-san," Tsuna said, his voice shining with some of his hidden strength and potential. Despite the fact that he only called Yamamoto's father, everyone within hearing vicinity also found themselves drawn to Tsuna. "We're going to rescue Yamamoto." Tsuyoshi's eyes widened at Tsuna's words, the statement that he made with absolute certainty. "I promise we will bring him back, so please…please trust us."

"I know you've been taking care of Takeshi," Tsuyoshi said. "Can I trust you to continue doing that?"

"He's part of Tsuna's Family," Reborn said, careful with his wording. "Vongola always protect their family."

"But you're not Vongola," the wielder of Shigure Soen Ryu pointed out.

"It's not my style to interfere directly," Reborn said.

Tsuyoshi's death grip on his katana loosened as he remembered the other part of their conversation.

"But I'll make sure my student will."

Tsuyoshi looked at Takeshi's friends: Tsuna, Gokudera, and Ryohei, all with resolution shining brightly in their eyes. They were determined to rescue Takeshi, and he could see they had the strength to do so as well.

Tsuna was looking at him, still waiting for an answer.

Tsuyoshi parted his lips and nodded, words and action overlapping with what he did back then.

"That's good enough for me."

"I'll be counting on you then," he added, gaze meeting every single one of the teenagers. His gaze dropped to Reborn and after a tense moment, Tsuyoshi nodded.

Reborn nodded back and there was no spoken promise, but somehow, that was reassuring as well.

Xxx

Someone was approaching.

Yusuke cracked an eye open lazily just as Matsumura came up to him. "Yusuke," Matsumura said with astonishment when he saw who it was sleeping at the door of his restaurant. Yusuke cracked a smile at his bewildered expression. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you," Yusuke said with a yawn, standing to stretch. "Damn, looks like someone slept in today. It's waaaaay passed your opening time, ya know? I wanted lunch, but now it looks like I'm gonna eat dinner instead."

"Sorry about that, Yusuke," Matsumura said, stepping forward to unlock his restaurant when Yusuke stepped aside. "It's just that I heard about what happened to Tao, so I went to see if he was alright." Matsumura slid the now unlocked door of his restaurant open, and beckoned at Yusuke. "Here, come in."

Yusuke blinked blearily as Matsumura went about turning on the lights, before finally registering what the restaurant owner said. "What happened to Tao?" Yusuke asked, half-curious. "Don't tell me he went back to skipping work again. I thought I got that out of him."

Matsumura paused mid-step to turn around and look at Yusuke with disbelief. "Yusuke, you didn't know?"

Yusuke raised an eyebrow, now intrigued. "Know what?" he asked curiously.

"About the attacks that were occurring around Namimori," Matsumura said. "Surely you have heard of it by now. It's been the talk of the town!"

"Yeah, I heard of it, but –" what does that have to do with Tao? He wanted to ask, only to cut his spoken words short when his mind finally caught up with what was going on. Yusuke's blood ran cold, then promptly rose a few dangerous degrees at the conclusion that he came across. "You don't mean that," Yusuke started, even as Matsumura nodded slowly with thin-pressed lips that spoke of his dislike of the situation.

"Yes," Matsumura said. "Tao was one of the victims of the attacks. Apparently he was a senior at Namimori Middle School because he was held back a grade several times for skipping too many classes. If you want to visit him, I can tell you which hospital he was staying at."

"No, that's fine," Yusuke said, voice strangely calm and lacking inflection. There was a strange mixture of emotions on his face, partly amused, somewhat resigned and lastly thoughtful. "It seems like I can't stay away, after all."

Matsumura looked at Yusuke as though he was an unusual puzzle he couldn't quite wrap his mind around. "Yusuke, what are you talking about?"

Yusuke's eyes darted to him like he just remembered his presence, and flashed him a smile. Yusuke couldn't quite keep out that edge of anticipation out of it and from the slightly bewildered expression that flicked across Matsumura's face, he saw it too."Nothin'," Yusuke replied almost too casually. His gaze wandered to a faraway place as split-second of bloodlust streaked through him. "Just remembered I had something to take care of."

Xxx

Weak, Kyoya thought in his mind, slamming a perfectly well-aimed tonfa at yet another herbivore's stomach. He didn't wait to see if the herbivore would get back up from the blow and simply moved onto eliminating the next one. If he didn't get back up, it simply meant that he didn't deserve Kyoya's attention anyway; if he did, all Kyoya need to do was beat him back down again.

At the moment, Kyoya welcomed, no, dared anyone who would stand up after taking a blow from him. He was not furious, but then again, he never was. Kyoya was, however, extremely aggravated and annoyed after the first ten minutes of being in Kokuyo Land.

Pathetic, crowding herbivores, the whole lot of them, Kyoya snarled inwardly, already able to tell within the first few moments of exchanging blows with them that they were undeniable weak. After raising Kyoya's expectation so high with daring moves of ambushing Namimori students and then having to gall to make Kyoya wait before hunting them down, it turned out they were simply herbivores who didn't know their place.

As Kyoya slammed another herbivore away from him, as easily as a child poking a finger through the wet paper of ashoji door, Kyoya resolved to personally train his Disciplinary Committee. It seemed like he had been leaving them in Kusakabe's hands too long, their standards were going down, to be beaten by herbivores of this lower food chain.

The only one who even presented a remote challenge was the one who fought with sound using a flute, but her only strength lied in the fact that she was a ranged fighter and he a close one. Once Kyoya took advantage of the second she let up her sound attacks to inhale for breath to produce another attack and closed in on her, it was all over. She went down after two hits, admittedly better than some of the so-called opponents he faced who fell at his initial strike, but she was also the sole noteworthy adversary he came across in Kokuyo Land.

It was a wonder he didn't leave in a huff of disgust. The only reason Kyoya didn't was because he had some pay back to do on these herbivores that needed to know their place.

How dare they even think they can intrude on Namimori, Kyoya thought as he sensed an attack and moved out of the way, leaving the two of the herbivores to crash into each other. Kyoya slammed his tonfa in the third one, relishing in feeling the other's rib crack as he pulled away. Little by little, his irritationfell away as he continued to fight.

In the recess of his mind that was slowly being sated by the violence he was partaking, he thought that there must be more to the attacks on his beloved Namimori. While the Disciplinary Committee didn't consist only of carnivores per say, it definitely wouldn't have lost to these pathetic herbivores that he was must have a leader, Kyoya mentally concluded, so he would content himself with going through these weaklings if only to find the person behind all these attacks and maybe get a good fight out of it while he was at it.

Yes, Kyoya thought, pulling his tonfa away from the last of the herbivores. His gaze swept over the entire first floor of the depilating building to see if there was anyone else left, hiding in waiting or otherwise. Seeing there was none, he moved on to the staircase and took a step up, head angled to look at the second floor. I will make the herbivore behind these attacks pay.

xxx

"I see you're back, Chikusa," Mukuro said. At the sight of the body his subordinate was dragging behind him, the corner of Mukuro's lips twisted upwards. "And you've brought me back one of Vongola's underling."

Chikusa nodded as he reached Mukuro and dropped the hold he had on the other teen's shirt. Without anything holding the teen up, his body flopped lifelessly down against the dirty floor of the building. "He hasn't given up the location of the Vongola heir yet," Chikusa reported unemotionally, as he subtly rolled the shoulder of the arm he used to bring the teen back. Heterochromatic eyes caught the movement, but Chikusa pretended not to notice. "The Disciplinary Committee from Namimori interrupted, so Ken stayed back to take care of them while I returned with him."

"Them again, huh," Mukuro murmured, sounding vaguely amused. "Well, no matter. An organization like that is only as strong as its head and from the moment he had been stung, his lost is pretty much guaranteed."

Mukuro brought his gaze upon Chikusa and leaned forward to rest his elbows against his knees. His amusement was more visible now, Chikusa noticed with vague petulance. Chikusa stopped trying to imperceptibly roll his arm and met Mukuro's gaze head on.

"Tell me, Chikusa," Mukuro said with a full teasing smile, "how is that arm of yours?"

"Fine," Chikusa answered, a small frown slipping across his face. He had spoken too fast. To anyone else, Chikusa's response would have warrant no second thought, but Mukuro wasn't just anyone. Chikusa had no doubt that Mukuro realized he was annoyed.

A smirk slipped across Mukuro's face and if there was a time if Chikusa ever wished he hadn't sworn his loyalty to Mukuro, this was it.

"Really?"Mukuro drawled, canting his head slightly to the side like it was the most interesting he had heard since that one time Lancia tried to convince him that Santa Claus existed. "Because it seems to me that someone has been rolling his shoulder ever since he came back."

Chikusa felt his face warm even as he mumbled, "I'm not weak."

"Just not as physically strong as Ken," Mukuro acknowledged with a faint smile and a chuckle. Chikusa's frown deepened. "You know your strength and weaknesses, Chikusa."

"Ken wouldn't have agreed to leave the Disciplinary Committee to me and lug the boy back instead," Chikusa argued, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "He would have never listened."

"Hm. Our resident pup is too impulsive," Mukuro agreed, sounding caring and pensive when he was anything but. A wicked gleam entered his eyes as he gazed upon Chikusa. "Should I speak to him?"

"No," Chikusa said immediately. He ignored Mukuro's laugh at his response. "He would have complained endlessly to me then."

"Meaning?"Mukuro prompted at him.

Chikusa abandoned his blank look to glare at Mukuro, but he only smiled pleasantly and raised an eyebrow in response. "I'll rein him in next time and make sure we each do our jobs appropriate for us," Chikusa said –promised, really.

"Great," Mukuro said with a wide beaming smile that fooled no one, least of all Chikusa. "Why don't you go rest?"

Chikusa nodded and made a move to drag the teen with him.

"Leave him, Chikusa," Mukuro's voice rang out.

Chikusa looked up and exchanged looks with Muruko for a moment. "I'll interrogate him first, then," Chikusa said after a beat, bending down to shaking the Vongola underling awake.

"Chikusa, what did I say before?" Mukuro said, and the quality of his voice was different now. It was no longer teasing.

Chikusa didn't look up, thus avoiding Mukuro's eyes. "I can do this though."

There was a long moment of silence, before he heard the sound of rustling. Mukuro's shadow against the floor grew taller, indicting he stood up and began making its way towards Chikusa. A hand clasped onto Chikusa's shoulder and he shivered slightly as Mukuro leaned down to his level and whispered against his ear, "I'm not weak either, Chikusa."

Mukuro straightened before Chikusa could say anything and the hand on his shoulder lifted, brushing against Chikusa's white beanie like fingers ruffling through hair before saying, "I can handle the rest, Chikusa. Just – "

Muruko cut off his words as he sensed multiple presences entering his illusion surround Kokukyo Land that played on the feeling disinterest. The illusion would make anyone who pass by that thin layer consider Kokuyo Land as mediocre and ordinary, causing them to simply walk away without exploring the area any further. Not that anyone usually wandered around the dilapidating building; the illusion was simply a precaution. For people to enter the area, they would have to enter the building with a purpose in mind, strong enough that they wouldn't be deterred by his illusion's subtly nudge of suggestion to tell them to turn back.

"How touching." The mocking words spilled from Mukuro's lips unbidden and upon hearing his own sardonic words, a smirk twisted upon his face. "Here to rescue one of your own? Kufufufu."

"Muroko-sama?"Chikusa said questioning, raising his head to gaze at him. His voice was caught in his throat upon the sight of the illusionist with his pupils blown-wide, showcasing a half-crazed look in his glimmering red eye instead of the normally sly and clever one. Slender fingers gripped tightly at the left side of his face with a sense of barely able to hold himself back, while all the while reveling in that precarious situation, the sensation that came from tiptoeing along the thin line between sanity and madness with a sharp, jagged smile cutting through his features. The energy behind him was suffocating and even to Chikusa, who should have already been used to most of Mukuro's antics by now, frightening. It was like his deepest nightmare materialized through an illusion, an endless vacuum of darkness sucking in everything with merely a glance towards it.

Chikusa tried looking away with no avail and his whole body vibrated and trembled violently without his realization. Mukuro's laugh echoed in his mind, a sound of cruel amusement that followed him wherever he went.

"Chikusa," a voice called and his head jerked in the voice's direction like a puppet. Chikusa blinked rapidly, as though to make sure his eyes weren't playing a trick on him. The frightening energy around Mukuro had all but vanished, leaving absolutely no hints of its passing. Mukuro had dropped his hand from his left side of his face, revealing his other eye that was previous covered. "Go greet the Vongola for me, would you? Ken will join you soon."

Chikusa quickly stumbled up on shaking legs and turned away. "Of course," he said, and he had to put little to no effort at all in the act of hurrying away; his legs were all too willing to leave. His heart beat rapidly against his chest, like the flurries of dozens of panicked butterflies, and thought if only the split-second of dark-red slowly receding from Mukuro's clear blue eye would vanish from his mind as well.