And here is the next chapter. There are like one big chapter left until the end of the first part, that part being the most innocent one. Mostly because Reborn's just a kid and Tsuna is still hurting. But the things get steamier in the second part.

Until then, please enjoy Reborn's training.

Il Maestro

First Arc

VII

They began travelling again, briefly visiting the Vongola to be up to date with their affairs and spending some days in the manor. Days during which Tsuna vanished.

Reborn had been quite lost the first day but soon got over it thanks to the Vongola's unexpected help. They took him under their wing and taught him everything that they knew of, even if, and that surprised them a lot, the teenager already mastered it all. That same week, the Vongola learned that Tsuna's student was a genius in the delicate arts of assassination.

"I've heard that you've become quite a difficult student to teach," the Vongola Ottavo announced when Reborn had been summoned to her office.

The teenager looked nervously at her and tightened his hands into two fists to hide his nervousness. Daniela glanced at him with a soft smile and leaned back on her chair, his hand falling over her round stomach.

"It doesn't really matter," the young woman shrugged. "It will teach them to never underestimate a child."

She stopped talking and silently observed the teenager, noticing how his sickly body had shot up since the last time she had seen him. His growth spurt had happened recently as her keen eyes saw that the boy still had some difficulties to move normally with his longer limbs.

"How are you doing?" the Vongola Boss suddenly asked.

Reborn looked up while he raised an interrogative brow.

"I must admit that I didn't believe it when he irrupted in my office just to ask for a house, so he could train you," Daniela explained with a little smile. "He has always been a lone wolf, almost as if he lives in another world."

The teenager silently looked at her, waiting for the woman to explain herself. Why wasn't the Tsuna that he knew like the man that the Vongola was depicting?

"And he doesn't like mingling with people," the woman added as she began to read some kind of report. "I asked him once to be the CEDEF head and do you know what he answered? I prefer to stay out of those kinds of things!"

Daniela snorted softly and shook her head before she began to laugh. Her laughter was loud and deep, like an old man's. But it soon ended, and her brown eyes fell on the skittish teen. She pointed her pen at the boy's chest and narrowed her eyes.

"Don't betray him," she told him coldly. "It would break him."

A soft knock on the door cut through the heavy silence and Reborn turned his head to look with surprise at his tutor. The latter was wearing a black suit, leather gloves and had a revolver in his hands.

"The Dragone won't be a problem anymore," Tsuna whispered as he put the weapon on the Vongola Ottavo's desk. "I've done my part of the deal."

"Very well," Daniela sighed tiredly as she closed her eyes. "You can now leave. We won't try to look for you."

The brown-haired man nodded and got out of the office, the teenager on his tail.

"What happened?" Reborn asked as they walked down the stairs.

"I've bought my freedom with innocents' blood," the adult answered without even looking at the raven. "Pack up, we're going to America."

The teenager froze just in front of their bedroom door and watched with eyes full of unexplained emotions his tutor leave. Someday, he would be able to understand what was going on in Tsuna's mind. And, once he promised himself that, he straightened his back and ran to follow the brunet.

Two days later, they got on a ship going to America. During the cruise, Tsuna taught him about disguising himself and hiding from others.

"That will never help me," Reborn protested once when his tutor ordered him to disguise himself as a flowerpot.

"The surprise is primordial in an assassination," the Japanese calmly answered while he ignored his student's vexed face. "Furthermore, it is great during parties and it also helps wooi-"

He suddenly stopped talking, his eyes taken by a pair of people who were running on the deck of the ship. Reborn leaned over the railing to see better what was so fascinating to his mentor and frowned when the only thing he saw was a blond boy, nearing his age, being stalked by a young woman with dark blue hair.

"Unbelievable," the brunet whispered as he briefly closed his eyes.

"Who are they?" the teen asked while he glanced at his tutor.

Tsuna ignored his question and walked back to their cabin, his shoulders slightly downcast while the same sad expression that had appeared at the sight of those two strangers stayed on his face.

"Who were they?" Reborn insisted as he caught his tutor's wrist. He was slightly surprised by how bony and small it was between his fingers. Whilst Tsuna had often told him that he wasn't a giant, the teen was still shocked by the thought that someday, he would be taller than him.

The adult was startled, as if he had been shaken from his thoughts and forced back into the real world, and he looked at the teen with a strange face.

"Your companions in misfortune," he ended saying in an eerily calm voice. "Don't even try to talk with them."

Meeting the Japanese's decided eyes, the teenager nodded solemnly. He knew that Tsuna liked to play with the cards close to his chest and that as such, he hid more information than the boy would ever know. However, it didn't disturb him. Reborn would end knowing the truth, sooner or later, because Tsuna would tell him.

"So," Tsuna coughed softly while he took his serious face. "Where were we?"

The teenager was about to answer him when the door of their cabin suddenly was opened, showing them the scared face of the blond boy, and the latter ran in the cabin to hide behind Tsuna. The adult froze when the blonde touched him and Reborn observed everything without even saying a word, shocked by the sight of his tutor, habitually so self-confident, lose all his confidence and freeze over a mere touch.

"COLONNELLO!" a female voice screeched as the door opened another time to reveal the dark blue haired woman. "Excuse me, have you seen a blond idiot?"

Reborn shrugged and pointed his finger at the teenager who was still hiding behind the Japanese. The blond gasped with an indignant face and turned to glare at the killer apprentice before he began to speak in a heavily accented English.

"How dare you sell your brother so easily, hey!" he accused as he narrowed his electric blue eyes. "After all the things we lived through, hey!"

"We don't even know each other," Reborn muttered as he looked away. Though he wondered what could go into that total stranger's head to accuse him of such idiocy.

"I'm Colonnello," the blond retorted as he took a step away from Tsuna (who sighed in relief). "Tell me your name before I kill you, hey!"

The dark-haired teen narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly sneaked his hand in his thin shirt pocket to retrieve his flick knife. However, his mentor was faster than him and before they could even blink, the blond was laying on the bed, a hand on his neck forcing him to stay put.

"Hey!" the teenager exclaimed as he began to wriggle to get out of the hold. "I didn't even see that attack! What happened, Lal, hey?"

The young woman sighed and walked into the cabin to stop next to the other adult. The latter let the blond go and went to stand next to Reborn, leaning a hand on the raven's arm to tell him to stay put.

"Don't move," Tsuna whispered through his closed lips.

His student nodded.

"Who are you?" the woman asked them while eying them with suspicion filled eyes once she had been assured that the blond was doing fine and had given him a harsh punch in his stomach.

"Tsuna," the Japanese softly answered while he briefly bowed his head, his eyes never leaving the woman. "And this is my student, Reborn."

"'S a pleasure," Lal replied shortly even if she didn't look at all pleased. "We are Lal and Colonnello."

"I know," the other adult simply said. His face was expressionless even if his hand had slightly tightened its hold on Reborn's shoulder. "You are part of Comsubin."

The woman's chocolate eyes widened, and a shotgun was immediately pointed at Tsuna's neck. The latter didn't even blink and softly pushed his student so he wouldn't be in the field of fire.

"Who are you," Lal repeated in a threatening growl.

"I have already answered this," Tsuna sighed with a little shrug. "Now, get out of our cabin before the security gets here."

The two Comsubin members glanced at each other and silently got out of the little cabin. Tsuna closed the door and leaned against it with a tired sigh. The cabin lathes creaked softly under the ship ups and downs and Reborn looked silently at his mentor, hesitating over asking him what had just happened and why the Japanese had acted so strangely with the two teenagers, or just go lie down in his bed.

"Reborn," the brunette whispered. "It is time to test if your training has paid off."

The teenager raised his eyebrows with a perplexed face and waited for his tutor to explain himself.

"Till the end of the cruise, until the ship's arrival in America," the Japanese said as he closed his eyes with a small sigh. "You'll have to disguise yourself and avoid being caught by Lal and Colonnello. If you're caught, game over. You'll be shot, and I won't save you."

Reborn gulped loudly and suddenly realized something.

"And you?" he asked while he narrowed his eyes at the sight of his tutor's pale face.

"I'm going," Tsuna began before his voice broke and he had to stop. He cleared his throat and went to fetch his satchel. The Japanese put it on his shoulder and quickly checked the cabin to see if he hadn't forgotten something. "I'll be making myself scarce," he added as he walked to the door. "See you at the landing port."

The teenager watched him leave in silence. He hadn't been able to vocalize what he had felt when the adult had told him his plans, his feeling of being abandoned by the only person that mattered to him, and he could only raise a hand to take the man's sleeve.

"Will we see each other again?" Reborn asked with a begging voice that he hated at the very moment he heard it.

Tsuna softly smiled and put his hand over his student's hand who was still tightly holding on his sleeve. The teenager reluctantly let the sleeve go and looked at the adult with his dark eyes.

The latter left without looking back and Reborn sighed before he pulled himself together. He gathered his belongings and began to look for a convincing disguise.

I think that I'm just going to stop writing these in drabbles and just put the story in bigger chapters. Also, does it bother you when a whole chapter is in italics?

Next chapter: Tsuna releases his inner ninja