Chapter Three
Yamamoto

When I was eating my bento at noon, that Gokudera came to me with a totally annoyed face, as if he wanted to kill me. I found it kind of strange, but I still followed him to the sports ground, there wouldn't be anything dangerous anyway.
When we arrived at the sports ground, he was throwing off a dark aura; those pair of green eyes were staring at me like he wanted to look straight through me. I had never spoken a word with him, so why did he call me over all of a sudden? Even if I did something wrong, it was no good just staring at me without saying a word.
"Um, Gokudera, you didn't call me out just for staring at me like this, did you?" I smiled and tried to ease up the atmosphere, but his face got even angrier than it already had been. This guy was strange indeed, I wasn't able to guess what he was thinking.
"You should drink more milk. Frustration is usually caused by the lack of calcium." Maybe this will change the topic. He shook and turned and took out something. At that moment, I saw Tsuna running towards us, Gokudera hid the things in his hands behind his back and said respectfully: "Tenth!"
Tenth? Was it some kind of acting-game? But Gokudera didn't seem like the kind of people who'd play a such game just like that, so if they were serious, then they had a secret they didn't want to show the others. However if it was a secret, why did they let me notice?
Leave it at that, I should drop it if I didn't understand it, I didn't like to ponder over complicated things anyway.
Right then I noticed that there was a baby following Tsuna; he wore a black suit and his pair of jetty eyes looked right into mine. There was a green lizard on his black hat.
"Who's that? Your little brother, Tsuna?" They really didn't look alike at all.
"I'm not his brother." The baby began to talk, "I'm Reborn, a killer from the mafia Vongola."
Vongola? Mafia? Killer?
I glanced at Tsuna and saw him covering his head, so I began to wonder if that kid was really telling the truth. But considering the usual facts, it shouldn't be possible.
"Haha!" Just like I deal with common kids, I pretended to believe his words, "I see! I apologize, then. It must be troublesome to be a killer in such a young age."
"Not really." The kid answered pretty clear, he didn't sound like a one ore two-year-old at all, "You're going to join the Vongola Family, too."
"He-hey, Reborn!" Tsuna got totally flustered and hasted to stop him. Is it something dangerous? If I joined in, maybe I'd understand why Gokudera was mad of me and what his relationship to Tsuna was.
"Come on." I said as if I didn't care, "He's only a kid. Didn't you do it when you were young, too? Pretending to be cops and heroes?" I put the kid on my shoulder.
"The tenth Boss of the Family is Tsuna." The kid said.
No wonder Gokudera called him that, but Tsuna is a good choice of person. He has something special that made people feel calm.
"Ok, sure. Then let me join this Vongola Family, too." I smiled.
Tsuna looked like he couldn't believe it, Gokudera who didn't talk all the time gave me a "tch".
I didn't really understand what he was thinking, but at the same time, he showed all his emotions on his face, what a contradicted guy.
To join the family, I had to pass a "family entrance test", and if I didn't pass, I would die. I really couldn't look down upon this kid. Even if I didn't know his background, I believed he was serious. Though I still had the countenance for playing games, I was on alert and waited for his first moves.
As expected, four knives flew towards me, even I was shocked by the speed of this sudden attack and dodged as fast as I could, hearing the knives piercing into the tree behind us. With seeing Tsuna's worried face, my guesses were proved- those were real knives. But I pretended to believe it was a game before, so I kept going: "Haha, when we were kids, we played with wooden swords, right? It's alright, I'll stick around."
The kid nodded and told Tsuna to join the test, too. Although Tsuna kind of managed to save my life last time, his grades in sports remained as bad as ever, so I should cover him. The kid began to throw all kinds of weapons at us again, with a highly accurate skill, making me even more interested in his background.
While dodging, I shouted to Tsuna as if I didn't realize what was going on: "Recent toys seem so real! Those look like real knives!"
"You thought those were TOYS?" Tsuna couldn't catch up to my speed and was already out of puff.
When I was thinking if this was going to end, I heard another childish voice, but before I even got the chance to look who it was, a new round of shells flew towards us and exploded three meters behind us. I got away cause I ran fast, but Tsuna almost got himself blown away by the wind.
It looked like I couldn't make it if I didn't take it totally serious.
Suddenly Tsuna cried loudly, I looked at the spot he was looking at, and saw Gokudera throwing a handful bombs towards us, another heap of shells flying towards us from the school building's balcony and the Reborn-kid launching a cannonball towards us. There's no point in dodging simultaneous attacks from three different directions, so I pulled Tsuna who was standing in the center of the coming explosion away and dragged him from the core. With a huge sound, all kinds of bombs exploded behind us, we rolled several meters because of the burst-wind. I stood up and helped Tsuna on his feet, his face was white like chalk and he could barely keep himself straight.
"If it weren't you pulling me…thank god." His lips trembled.
It was dangerous just now indeed, but I also required him the favor of saving my life.
The kid nodded again: "You passed the test. You're officially part of the family now."
I smiled and thought it was good just like that. Gokudera walked towards me and grabbed my collar, saying in a pretty content tone: "Good job."
Huh? He wasn't angry anymore?
"You protected the Tenth, so I have no choice but to admit you into the family." He went on with a serious expression, "But the right hand man of the Tenth is me, so you're only the shoulder blade."
Shoulder blade? Never heard that. He must had just came up with this. Haha, he is pretty interesting indeed, making me wanna tease him a bit.
"I don't want to withdraw from being Tsuna's right hand man, either. So, you'll be the earlobe."
"The fuck! Then you're nose hair!" As I thought, he got angry, his brows furrowed and his silver hair shaking, and he shouted, "Nose hair!"
"Then you're snot!" I chuckled.
"What did you say––?!" I could even see the black smoke coming out of his head. It seemed like he was different from other people, we couldn't get along at all.

On my way home, I kept telling myself not to think about it, but it kinda didn't work. Mafia? Pretty interesting actually, haha.
…I should stay with baseball.
I scratched my head, then put my hands into the pockets and stared at the sky. The rosy clouds of the sunset were covered by the heavy grey ones, so there was only a light shade of pink mixed with the pale sky.
There were lots of people in the restaurant. I squeezed myself through the noisy crowd and sat down at the table in the kitchen. Dad was busy and didn't even notice me.
"Dad, I'm back. Is there anything I can help?"
Dad turned and smiled: "Oh, Takeshi! No, there's nothing, you can just sit there and eat, you must be hungry." He handed me a Miso soup and a plate of sushi, "How was it at school today?"
I hesitated: "Um, well, just as normal. Why are you asking?"
Dad looked at me and frowned: "Did you had a scuffle today, Takeshi? Look at the grazes on your face and the dust on your clothes..."
"Haha, that." I lied casually, feeling a bit uncomfortable, "I fell when we were jogging. Have you ever seen me scuffle at school, dad?"
Dad stared at me skeptically, then went back to the sushi.
I drank up the soup and hurriedly ate the sushi. Then I stood up, carried the plate to the washbasin and turned on the tap. I asked dad again while I was washing the dishes: "Dad, there really are lots of people here today, you sure you don't need help? It might be better if I help out a little, I mean, vacation almost is beginning so I don't have much homework anyway, I can do it afterwards."
Dad stopped working and patted my shoulder: "It can't be helped, then. Take these to the customers for me, okay?"
He tossed me the apron, I took the plates and went through the door. After finding the customers who ordered the sushi and giving them the plates, I talked with them since they were frequent customers. It was civilities like "Oh Takeshi got bigger again!" or "How's baseball lately?" again; I just smiled while answering the questions and went back to the kitchen. Dad glanced at the clock and sent me upstairs to do my homework. I still couldn't look into his eyes because of the lie I told, so I almost fled to my room.
The final exams were already over, just a few days left and we were getting the report. I was sure that I'd failed, the scene of me staring at the thickly dotted numbers was still vivid in my mind. It seemed like I had no choice but going to the extra remediation lessons in the vacation.
Well, actually I wanted to play baseball. There was even a competition in August.
I was vexed and turned my pen while staring at my maths homework. After half an hour I finally couldn't bear it anymore, threw the pen on the desk, rocked back in the chair and stretched myself. Geez, if I only could find someone who's good at school! Wait, someone who's good at school?
Isn't that Gokudera?
But I had barely talked to him, so this wouldn't work. I immediately rejected the idea. Still I couldn't remember a second person who's good at school because I didn't care about the things in class.
I pushed my chair away and lied down on the tatami, then started throwing the baseball that was next to me. Well, grades aren't everything, are they?
Besides, I didn't know a thing about Gokudera except of his name and some odd relationship he had with Tsuna.

On the next day, I was strolling in the classroom during the break and unconsciously reached Gokureda's desk in the first row. He was drawing some strange symbols and totally ignored me.
"Hey, Gokudera." I said.
"Piss off." He didn't even look up.
What a rude guy. Although I felt a bit offended, I still accepted the self-explanation of "this is his character".
"Don't you wanna take a rest? This is bad for your eyes." I went on.
"Can't you see that I'm busy?" Gokudera's voice got louder, he lifted his head and glared at me, "My eyes are none of you business!"
It was none of my business indeed, I thought, but Gokudera's eyes were really beautiful. It wasn't the right word to describe a man, but those emerald eyes were truly pretty, especially under the sunlight, where they would get a dazzling light in them. Even if it's only for the sake of his parents who gave him those eyes, he shouldn't get short-sighted. I've heard that shortsightedness would turned people's eyes dull. And this is just not good.
"What are you writing, Gokudera? It looks complex." I asked.
"Don't you have anything better to do? I write what I wanna write! Piss off!" Gokudera pushed me away.
"But I'm interested." I tried to sound more innocent.
"Fuck your interest! I'm not interested in telling you!" Gokudera threw his pen on the desk. He stood up and grabbed my collar: "Just shut you mouth you bastard!"
"You stopped writing." I smiled and watched his face turning black as he noticed that I tricked him.
He really was interesting.
"Anyway, what's your address, Gokudera?" I gently put down his hand.
"Tch, the hell I'll tell you." He turned away and sat down again. Then he started writing. Hey, I'd finally made him stop, now he was starting all over again? Was it really that important?
"Why won't you tell me?" Now I really got interested, which made me wonder myself. Usually I didn't care about stuff like this.
"I would tell anyone but a stupid like you. Don't dream that I wanna talk to you just because you're member of the Tenth' family now." He was drawing different symbols, there were skulls, bombs, and thing he must had imagined.
I was exactly that kind of person who wanna know even more badly if he wasn't allowed. If Gokudera didn't want to tell me, then I have no choice but finding his house on my own.
I cut my baseball training after school and followed Gokudera. To my surprise, he first turned into a bookstore on the shopping street. I took a seat in the café on the other side of the street and watched him. Some minutes later, a waitress brought me the menu card. At the same time, Gokudera walked out of the bookstore, empty-handed and grudging.
Is the book sold out? I thanked the waitress and stood up to continue following him. He went in a road next to the shopping street, which led to the residential area. In such a beautiful sunny afternoon, lots of kids were running and laughing on the playground. Mothers sat on banks and were talking to each other, their eyes always lit up when the were mentioning the own kids, and a smile would soon follow. Gukudera just ignored these warm scenes and passed the playground. I stood still for a long time, then I noticed that I'd almost lost Gukudera's track and hastened to the corner of the wall. After two crossroads, I realized that we were on the road I always walked down on my way to school. This meant that Gokudera's house was in the same direction as mine.
Gokudera slowed down and I stopped, too, watching him heading to an apartment and going upstairs. At the fifth door of the second floor, he took out his keys.
I remembered the location of his appartment and went home as if nothing happened. I did feel kind of happy, though.

The last days of this semester passed pretty fast, and I didn't talk to Gokudera during this time. I still was sleeping in class, and he was late everyday plus he payed no attention to any teacher.
We got our report and the other were really happy. The were talking about their plan for the vacation and were glad they passed the first semester of junior high. When our teacher come to my seat and looked deep into me and said: "Yamamoto, please come to remediation during vacation.", I wasn't surprised at all. I mean, I knew it would turn out like this a long time ago. Anyway, the remediation was from 8:30 am to 11:30 am, I still got the chance to play baseball in the afternoon, so I didn't care.
But today...
"This sheet is homework for today, if you have mistakes in it, then you'll have to stay down." Our teacher told the only three of us this breaking news. I was taken aback. Retardation would be pretty troublesome. I looked at the maths sheet, which was almost black with numbers, and decided to skip baseball today. But I definitely wouldn't be able to get everything right if I did it on my own, so I should find a partner. Thus I went towards Tsuna: "Yo, Tsuna, what about doing it together? It's faster that way." Tsuna was worrying himself and immediately agreed. So we exchanged addresses and made an appointment at 2 o'clock at his place.
I headed home and ate lunch and told my dad about my appointment with Tsuna. He was very happy about it.
Although I knew that my house's pretty near to Tsuna's, I started out at 1 o'clock. I went along my way to school and stopped at Gokudera's apartment. I walked up the narrow stairs. Gokudera's door, number five, was on the right, so I had to pass the whole aisle. I didn't know whether he was at home or not since it was during vacation, but I wanted to try my luck. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
There was no reaction at all.
I didn't want to leave it by that, so I knocked again, this time with a lot more strength.
This time I heard Gokudera's voice: "Who's there?"
I kind of had the feeling that he wouldn't open the door if I told him who I was, so I pretended not to hear. And I knocked on the door,
Gokudera obviously got mad. After some footfalls the door was dragged open. Gokudera's nose almost hit mine, he shouted: "Who the hell is THIS boring?!"
I quickly stepped back and raised my hands in order to calm him down. He realized that is was me and got even angrier: "Damn it, how do you know my address, bastard?" He paused and got it at once: "You tailed after me!"

I smiled as admission and thought that this was the only feasible method.

"Just go to hell!" he started to pull out his bombs and lit them with a cigarette. Just at the moment when he wanted to smash them on me, I laughed and told him: "Tsuna wants you to come over and help him with the maths sheet."

He put out the bombs immediately.

"The Tenth did say that? He needs my help?" he looked surprised. I nodded seriously and saw him got all motivated. Then he said: "If that's so, then I gotta go."

"Help me too, then."

"Tch, just piss off." he rolled his eyes and kept on going. I closed the door and followed him with a distance of two steps. But even like that, I got him mad.

"Why're you following me?" he took our the cigarette in his mouth and roared at me. I felt kind of awkward and smiled: "Well, you know, Gokudera, I and Tsuna, we made an appointment first." "No, way. You're a bad influence." to my surprise, he only shook his head, "Go home and do it yourself."

That was dumbfounding.

I came here because I hoped that someone who's good at school would be a help to us, but now I was going to be driven away. Just what did I do wrong?

"Gokudera, as I said, I made an appointment with Tsuna first, so I'm definitely not gonna go home." The ambiance became terrible. I just didn't know how to talk to this guy. Why did I have the feeling that even a sentence like "Ah it's good weather today" would enrage him?

Gokudera clicked his tongue, put the cigarette in his mouth again and went on walking. I sighed and thought that he approved my option, so I went to Tsuna's house with him.