Strangely, I didn't follow what I said in the first chapters... And that being because I felt like the drabbles' length would have been too different. So I had to rethink everything and, finally, I can post the third chapter. Meh.

Also, beware, dear readers, because this chapter wasn't beta-read. So, please, if you see errors (grammatical or orthographic), tell me. I don't bite, promise.

What else?
There will be OOC. Because, come on, 27R and R27 at the same time? OOC it is.
And with that being said (or written), I'll thank those who reviewed and let you read the third chapter.

Il Maestro

First Arc

III

Living in the past wasn't an easy task. He had to struggle to determine where and when he had appeared, find some money and nurse his injuries. All of that took a year.

Then, he began his quest.

He got a fake passport and left Japan to go to Italy. There, the things had been easier. Maybe even too easy. The scarce men that dared to face him didn't last long, and he ended with bloodied hands again. But that didn't really matter as he had a purpose on his mind. Then, when he finally was face to face with the child who would become the parent of his arch nemesis' father, doubt filled his mind.

Since when did he have the right to kill this person who didn't do him or anyone wrong?

His wavering must have been noticeable as his prey tried to escape. However, he couldn't get away very far as a merciless hand grabbed him by the neck and effortlessly lifted him. Teary brown eyes met the attacker's blazing ones and a kind smile slightly stretched the adult's lips who was about to kill him.

"Who are you?" the child whispered weakly.

The amber eyes darkened and the iron fist released him, letting him drop like a rag doll. "Killing you wouldn't change things," the man muttered as he closed his determined eyes. "I'll let you live, don't disappoint me..."

The kid merely coughed, gulping deep breath of fresh air to try to regain a normal breath. Once he felt better, he remembered his assailant and lifted his eyes to the place where he had stood.

The man had long ago left.

The boy had become rather used to the strange quirks of the man that went with the name Tsuna. Therefore, whenever the latter stopped short to delve into the observation of the horizon, the younger of the two settled with sitting on the ground and waiting for the adult to recover from his trance induced state.

With time, the boy came to admire the surroundings too while Tsuna observed silently with his amber eyes the sky that encased them.

However, the boy couldn't understand why the man hadn't asked his name and why he always called him Reborn. And as time passed, he assimilated the nickname and began to react whenever Tsuna used it.

They travelled by foot as they didn't have enough money to buy train tickets and the adult taught him some tricks to find sustenance in the wild. A routine was quickly established, the boy hunting and picking for their meal while Tsuna stayed by the place they decided to rest that day and every time that Reborn came back to their improvised base camp, a fire always blazed by the adult's feet.

Once, the boy asked to trade their role and Tsuna gave him a long stare before accepting with a slight understanding smile.

The adult disappeared in the shadows of the forest where they had decided to stop that night and the boy was left alone with their bags. He swiftly went through his patched satchel, hoping to find a lighter or some matches but quickly abandoned when he realized that he didn't have those. Then, Reborn noticed Tsuna's old and patched bag. The satchel seemed pretty harmless but after traveling with the man, the boy knew that he had to expect everything with him.

However, as time passed and as he didn't really make progress, he resolved himself to go through the man's belongings like a common thief. And the fact that it was the man who had taken under his wing didn't help him.

The bag was quickly opened, and he widened his dark eyes when he saw the things inside. Batches of money from everywhere going from the Swiss francs to the American dollars jumped to his eyes but he pushed them to the side to keep on searching. Then, his fingers touched something hard and cold and he took the thing out to take a closer look.

A revolver.

The barrel shone briefly in the twilight light and the boy hurried to put it back in the bag. He frowned and turned away from the satchel, any desire to make the campfire vanished from his spirit.

Tsuna had said that he didn't have money and that was why he used the crossroad to travel and hunted to eat. But that didn't match with the money that was in his bag. And there was also the revolver. Its silent presence felt like it couldn't disappear and Reborn wished that he hadn't had the curiosity to ransack the adult's bag.

A rustling distracted him from his thoughts and the boy lifted his head to meet Tsuna's gaze. The man had a brown paper bag in his hand and that made Reborn lift an inquisitive eyebrow.

"I was fed up with eating meat," Tsuna confessed softly as he opened the paper bag to reveal what it contained.

The boy's dark eyes lightened when he saw the food and he said nothing when he noticed that they didn't have to make fire to eat. They ate in silence, being too busy chewing and resting to chat about fickle things. Nevertheless, what Reborn had seen in the bag kept on tormenting him and he finally gathered his guts to turn to Tsuna.

The latter, as if he had felt that the boy's desire to talk, set his plastic cutlery of his industrial meal and laid his brown eyes on the young. That was enough to surprise the boy and he faintly blushed as he searched for a good way to begin the discussion.

"Where are we going?" he finally asked with a slight sigh.

Tsuna watched him for a long moment without answering before looking away. He lifted his eyes towards the darkening sky and admired briefly the scarce visible stars. Then, he puckered his lips in a grimace and looked again at the boy.

"Visit family."

The answered didn't seem to please the boy and he scowled as he looked harshly at the man. Tsuna made a faint smile and lied down on the dusty ground while he patted slightly his bag to make it his pillow.

"You'll see," he muttered dreamily as he closed his peculiar eyes. "They are strange but they're family. You'll get along well with them..."

Tsuna yawned and fell asleep. The boy watched him for some seconds before curling against a tree with his bag under his head.

They continued traveling without talking a lot. It was like there was a tacit agreement tying them together. Reborn followed him in silence and in return Tsuna taught him some tricks.

Some evening, just as they had stopped in a city and had taken the opportunity to change their clothes and wash themselves, the adult had told him to wait for him and had mingled with the disparate crowd of the occidental city. The boy, now a teenager, had sat on the ground and his dark eyes were contemplating as he watched abstractedly the flagstone floor. His fingers wandered on the stones and he played absentmindedly with some grass that had succeeded on sprouting in a crack.

A cold hand landed on his shoulder, startling him from his contemplative thoughts, and he quickly turned over to come face to face with a perfect stranger. The latter widened his eyes as he observed the teenager's features and his face sprouted a satisfied smile that Reborn didn't like one bit.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the man whispered languidly as he leaned to have a closer look of the teenager. "Such a pretty little thing..."

Reborn felt a shiver on his back and jumped to get away from the stranger. However, he bumped against a torso and lifted his head to realize that he was surrounded by a group of adults who were all emitting bad vibes. The teenager gulped, something was telling him that he would never know who was Tsuna's family and that his life was about to end in those thug's hands.

The metallic shine of a blade startled him and he felt his heartbeat quicken as he saw that one of the men had a switchblade in his hands.

"Great," the first man purred while he drew slowly near Reborn. "If you keep quiet, we'll try to not damage too much that pretty face..."

The teenager tried to push away the nausea that came with the heavy look that gave him the men and struggle in vain to free himself from the hands that kept him prisoner.

Then, as he was about to be taken God knows where, a hand landed on one of his aggressors' shoulder and the latter was thrown on the floor without even having the time to realize what had happened. Reborn widened his eyes in surprise and looked with shock at his saviour.

A conquering foot on the thug's chest that he had defeated without exerting himself, his chin lifted with pride and his amber eyes shining ferociously, Tsuna slowly stretched his lips into a toothy smile.

"Well, well, what do we have there," he muttered with a tone that sent shivers to Reborn's back. "A lovely bunch of wretches who deserve a good lecture... What should I do?"

His smile widened and his eyes narrowed slightly as a flame appeared on his forehead, surprising everyone around him. Suddenly, the thugs rushed towards him to shut him up while the adult slowly lifted his hands and everything ended in the following seconds. Reborn didn't really know what was happening until a familiar hand grasped his arm and dragged him along. They ran for a long time, untill they reached the outskirt of the city and stopped only when his abductor deemed it inevitable.

Panting to catch his breath, Reborn observed without a word the flickering orange flame vanish from the man's forehead, the man who that had saved his life, and progressively began to breathe normally.

"Well," Tsuna sighed as he turned to the teenager. "It's time to set off."

The teenager nodded as he still hadn't recovered his voice from the shock and followed him. He stored the memory of that evening in October in some corner of his memory and didn't think of it anymore.

Tsuna harboured many secrets and Reborn wasn't sure whether the man wanted him to unveil them.

I don't know when I'll post the next chapter. Mainly because I won't have the time to write this week. Or the following. But I'm the kind of person who writes when she really doesn't have to...
So stay tuned!