OpalescentGold: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Explanations

This is why.

Reasons

It doesn't take Reborn long to confront Noriko after everyone finishes expressing their relief that she's back to normal. All in their own special ways, of course.

Kyoya, in particular, throws a tonfa at her head and nods approvingly when she catches it, twirls the weapon, and throws it right back.

"You've got some explaining to do," the baby hitman says when they are all up on the rooftop for lunch. Tsuna freezes even as Hayato and Takeshi stop arguing to tune in to the conversation. Ryohei is off doing club stuff, but Kyoya opens his eyes from where he's leaning against the wall several meters away.

Noriko merely blinks and swallows down her bite of food before saying, "Because of Mukuro, I suppose?" Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, no one in her family has actually objected to what she has done, especially with Tsuna backing her.

Then again, Hayato would never argue with Tsuna, Takeshi and Ryohei are naturally forgiving, and Kyoya probably just wants a rematch against Mukuro.

"That's right," Reborn says, pinning demanding eyes on her. Personally, Noriko thinks that if he wanted to intimidate her, he should have waited until they were alone...although she has been avoiding him recently. "Talk."

"What do you want me to say?" she asks, deliberately obtuse because what else can she say? She isn't even so sure she knows the answers to his questions herself. He'll have to be a bit more specific if he wants something.

Wordless

For example, how can Noriko possibly describe her convoluted feelings upon hearing of the inhumane torture and experimentation Mukuro went through at the hands of the damned Estraneo Famiglia?

Of the guilt, of the horror, of the turmoil of realizing that he has been suffering all this time while she has been placing the burden of a betrayal several hundred years past on his shoulders?

How can she put into words what seeing the Mist trying to defeat and hurt Tsuna, trying to possess him with those accursed abilities, did to her?

How can she make them understand the terrible mixture of wrongness and rightness in seeing the Sky, with those gloves and those eyes and that beautiful Flame, beat Mukuro down?

How can she say aloud the agonized screams that built in her heart when the Vindice - and oh, she knows their methods, their punishments all too well - came and chained Mukuro, prepared to pull him away?

How can Noriko tell Reborn the way that pleading look from Tsuna at the very, very end, when he finally realized what would happen to the convicts, shook her to the core, prompted her to intervene despite the consequences?

(How can Cynthia convey the memories that had flooded their minds, of a smirking, devoted man with a beautiful, idealistic woman on his arm, of the love that had thrummed between them until it was drowned in blood?)

Secret

"Why did you help Rokudo Mukuro?" Reborn fires off without delay,

"Tsuna wanted me to, didn't he?" Noriko replies innocently, still rather slaphappy from her recent foray into Judgment.

Reborn's eyes narrow and his focus swiftly switches to the paling boy. "Is this true, Dame-Tsuna?"

Tsuna looks like he wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole, but manages a "H-Hai!"

"...humph. What's the Gestione Accord?" Reborn grumbles, evidently annoyed that that route of interrogation is cut off. The hitman's well aware of Noriko's devotion to Tsuna, after all, and it sounds like a valid reason coming from her.

And it is. Most people aren't aware of it, but Noriko rarely lies. Merely misdirects.

She wouldn't be a very credible Judge if she lied, now would she?

Noriko smiles guilelessly, refusing to flinch back. "Oh, that's a document my great-great-great-great grandmother left for my family. I found it in the attic one day, but Kaa-chan burned it in an accident a while back. Useful, neh?"

Reborn appears to be two seconds away from producing a Leon-hammer and slamming it onto her head, but there's a thoughtful glint to his eyes. "And this Gestione Accord pertains to the Vindice how?"

At that, her smile sharpens and she leans forward slightly. "Now, that...is a family secret."

Spar

Reborn's still seething when they gather up the rooftop again, this time after school.

He hates not knowing something, much less something that involves his job - currently, Tsuna - but no matter how much he continued to pester her at lunch, Noriko refused to say anything more on the Gestione Accord.

Reborn very much doubts it's a "family secret" since Reiki Yoshio and Reiki Kiku know nothing about the Mafia, but he can't exactly accuse Noriko of lying without any evidence. It really doesn't help that after an Eclipse, everyone seems to be notoriously protective of Noriko and Tsuna eventually cut in to tell Reborn that maybe, please, stop interrogating his friend...now.

Tsuna promptly earned himself an unimpressed kick to the head because while growing a spine is a good thing, turning it on Reborn is bad, but that doesn't change the fact that Reborn has honestly learned nothing important from that little session.

And that seriously pisses him off.

As a result, when it comes time for Noriko and Kyoya to engage in their spar, with the rest of the Famiglia hanging around to watch from a safe distance, Reborn is all but mentally urging the prefect to deal in some painful blows.

He's always been a somewhat vindictive person, as many, many of his associates can account to.

Sadly, Reborn doesn't get his wish. However, what he does get is something very intriguing and well worth the time and effort he's spent in vain on trying to unravel the mystery that is Reiki Noriko.