AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am up way too early today so have a new chapter *laughs* If you'd like to keep track of time, it's roughly the beginning of August now (story time). Tanabata is generally held around July 7th and the Japanese schools generally have summer break from late July to the beginning of September according to my research (yes, I do some research even if it's fan fiction *laughs*).

Next month is Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) and I am going to be concentrating on the first book of a possible trilogy that I want to eventually get polished enough to try and publish, so there won't be a lot of fan fiction writing over the next thirty-three days. Lucky for me, I've got a bit of a buffer so this story will continue on and my readers won't have to wait a month for the next chapter.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is the property of Akira Amano and I don't own any of it, what is mine are my original characters and this particular storyline.

I will be updating this on a bi-weekly basis (as I've done for most of my other stories). Thank you for taking the time to read my story (and review if you get a chance), I appreciate it ^_^

Next chapter will be out around 11/13/14.

After I finish up the madness of Nanowrimo I will be writing a holiday-themed fic, but I have to decide which fandom I want to write it in ^_^

Thanks again!

~ Yuki

Target 01-03: Impending Doom

The cicadas burred as the summer sun climbed higher in the sky. Haru Miura could even hear them through the closed windows of the study room in the Namimori Library. Books were scattered over the table, interspersed with papers marked in various highlighted colors with colored tabs sticking out from each one.

Haru had been at the library since it opened, going over everything in detail trying to figure out how she'd only scored eighty-six on the practice test for Takanamori. A score like that could get her into Takanamori High, but it would be more likely to put her on the waiting list. That kind of score never crossed Haru's desk—or at least it hadn't until the world of the Mafia collided with her academic world.

Now that things had quieted down from the conflict with the Trabuchet, Haru was determined to catch up on all the things she'd missed that put her acceptance at Takanamori in doubt. Kyoko had withdrawn from the study group at her parents' insistence and was spending a lot of time at a cram school designed to get her into one of the high-ranking schools in Okinawa where she'd be moving at the end of the school year. The pencil lead cracked as that thought swam into Haru's head and she forced herself to calm down and clicked more lead out of the mechanical pencil and set it to the paper.

In Haru's opinion, Kyoko's parents were being horribly unfair separating her from all of her friends here in Namimori. It was bad enough they were going to force her to move down to Okinawa of all places, but they'd all but forbidden Kyoko from interacting with them except at school and controlled situations. From what Chrome was saying, Kyoko's smile wasn't entirely hiding her misery, but as Kyoko always did she was moving forward and trying to keep Tsuna and the others in the dark so she didn't trouble them.

Haru sighed.

She couldn't say that she didn't understand why Kyoko's parents were doing it. If she'd had a daughter who'd formerly led a very safe, charmed life and suddenly she was getting hurt in explosions that seemed to be linked to the company she kept, she probably would do the same thing. It still didn't mean it was fair to isolate her from her friends. She and Kyoko had managed to meet up for a few excursions to go eat cake and talk, but those occasions had to be snuck in just before cram school or if Kyoko's cram school let out early.

There was a rap on the door and Haru glanced up and saw a flash of silver hair outside before it opened and Gokudera entered. "It's about time for the meeting, are you ready?" he asked.

Haru's eyes widened and her gaze flew to the clock. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize what time it was," she exclaimed and scrambled to gather all the papers and books together.

Gokudera shook his head and moved forward to help her collect everything. "That eighty-six is really bothering you isn't it?" he said.

"Wouldn't it bother you?" Haru retorted. "Mr. I-scored-ninety-five-and-didn't-even-study."

Gokudera shifted uncomfortably under her glare. "Well…I…"

"I'll be going to some remedial classes starting next week," Haru said. "I won't let that eighty-six stand. I refuse."

"Whoa, Haru—calm down…" he said, reaching out.

Haru knocked his hand away and glared up at him for a long moment before they both dissolved into laughter. They finished collecting the stuff and Gokudera shouldered Haru's bag before she could protest. "I'll help you go through some more of the problems tonight when we get home. Judaime and Yamamoto are both already in remedial courses because the administrators are worried that they'll even pass the tests to get out of middle school. How did Akai do?"

"Akai doesn't really care how she does on the exam," Haru said testily. "She already has to mess with the school records once the new school year starts in order to get in so why not put in her own scores for the exam while she's at it."

"Hasn't she been studying just as hard as the rest of you?" Gokudera frowned.

"Well, yes, but that's to keep up appearances, she's older than us you know," Haru said as they made their way out of the library. "She can't even technically get into Takanamori."

"I want to know where she gets her computer skills," Gokudera mumbled. "Do you know how much easier life would be if I could just mess with records like that? Judaime would pass with flying colors and…"

"And every single person in the entire district will know something isn't right," Haru interrupted. "Judaime's academic performance is a bit of a sensation amongst the teaching community—even my father hears about it."

"Seriously?" he asked, glancing down at her.

"Yeah," Haru said. "We just need to keep studying hard and everything will be fine."

"For you and the baseball idiot maybe," Gokudera said.

"I take it your study session with Judaime didn't go well?" Haru asked.

"Well, he got four more questions right than he did last time…" Gokudera said.

"Well that's progress at least," Haru pointed out.

Gokudera gave her a wry smile. "When that means he got fourteen questions right out of eighty-seven?"

"If he keeps progressing like that over the next few months, he should be up to at least seventy questions by the exam?" she suggested.

"Ever the optimist," Gokudera said, lightly bopping her on the head as they paused at the intersection to wait for the crossing signal.

"I have full faith that Judaime will find a way to pull through," Haru said firmly and Gokudera laughed as the signal changed.

They crossed the street and turned towards Take Sushi their hands finding each other's automatically as they moved through the light crowds on the sidewalk. It had been decided that keeping up a meeting between the Vongola Famiglia would be a good idea even if the only thing to report was that nothing was happening. Haru, for one, was glad of the reprieve of excitement in the mafia world so that she could focus more on her studies, on her growing relationship with Gokudera, and on expanding her knowledge and contacts to work on establishing a true intelligence network.

"Have you had a chance to do much more practice?" Gokudera asked.

Haru nodded. "While you've been busy helping Judaime and Yamamoto with some of their work, I've been training at the Broken Butterfly since we don't have a training range that I'm aware of anyway. The ring is becoming easier to manage and I don't feel as drained at the end of the training sessions. I'm not sure how well I'd do with a ring like yours."

Gokudera shrugged, Haru knew that he'd been doing a lot of training too, usually when insomnia struck and that had been happening a lot lately. She'd actually come down in the middle of a few of his sessions and asked to train with him a little bit, but she couldn't keep up with the 'big boys' yet.

Their names echoed down the sidewalk and their hands immediately parted as they turned around to greet Tsuna and Yamamoto. They weren't keeping their relationship a secret, but it wasn't something they really talked about either. Reborn was riding on Yamamoto's shoulder as the Rain Guardian and future Vongola Boss reached them.

"Class ran late?" Gokudera asked.

"No, the teacher kept me for thirty minutes longer because he thought I was sleeping during the main session," Tsuna said. "I was just trying to see the board."

"And you?" Haru asked.

Yamamoto gave her a sheepish grin and ran his hand through his tousled brown hair. "I was actually sleeping," he admitted.

"Neither of you are going to pass the Namimori High exam much less the Takanamori High exam like that," Haru scowled, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at the two.

"Maa, maa, Haru…" Yamamoto said holding his hands up.

"Think about your futures," Haru continued, glaring at both of them. "Even if you plan to play professional baseball," a finger stabbed at Yamamoto and then moved over to Tsuna, "and even if you will be the most powerful man in the mafia world you need to have a decent education under your belt!"

Things had become easier between Haru and the other Vongola over the past three weeks since their victory over the Trabuchet. While there were still times where they seemed to forget that she was actually capable of helping, but for the most part things were good. One of the things that helped restore her spirits was the return to the normalcy in their interactions. Things had changed since she was now a "fighting" member of the Vongola—that was kind of a given—but she felt more at ease now than she had when she first stepped into "active service".

"Well, we're all here now, let's go inside," Reborn said and jumped down off of Yamamoto's shoulder.

"Is Sasagawa-san going to make it today?" Haru asked as she followed them inside.

"He said he might be a little late, Kyoko-chan was doing some shopping and their parents insist he accompany her and bring her back to the house before coming here," Tsuna sighed heavily. "I wish I knew what was going on with Kyoko-chan, she only talks to me at school and isn't returning any calls or texts, but she said she wasn't mad at me when I asked…"

Haru's turned her attention to pulling out her reports for the meeting and the boys didn't seem to notice that she was a little too intent on what she was doing. Haru knew what was going on with Kyoko, but she also knew that her best friend didn't want to tell Tsuna what was happening yet. Haru wondered idly if Kyoko was still trying to convince her parents to let her stay in Namimori and hoping she'd change their mind by the time the school year ended.

Gokudera watched her for a moment and then leaned down. "If you have answers you'd tell me, right?" he murmured.

Haru jumped guiltily and Gokudera's eyes narrowed. The brunette took a deep breath and responded to him in a voice that wouldn't carry beyond them. "I made a promise, Gokudera," she said softly. "I can't break it. It's not something that's dangerous to the Famiglia. Please, trust me?"

Gokudera eyed her for a long moment and then sighed. "All right, as long as it doesn't put Judaime in any danger," he said, also keeping his voice down so it didn't carry to Tsuna who was talking with Yamamoto and his dad.

Her attention was diverted as she considered Tsuyoshi Yamamoto and Haru tapped her lips thoughtfully. There was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that Yamamoto's dad knew a whole lot more about the world they lived in than he let on, but she hadn't found a convenient moment to ask him or investigate it for herself.

As if feeling her regard, the sushi chef glanced in her direction and cocked an eyebrow in question and she quickly shook her head and turned her attention to the reports.

Ryohei finally arrived thirty minutes later after the first platter of sushi had been consumed and they settled down to discuss business. Haru's reports were much the same as they'd been the last two meetings—no sign of the Trabuchet, Claude and Emri may as well have vanished into thin air, and there was nothing else really going on that she'd heard about. Aside from that she'd finally established a meeting time with the Familia that had been behind the Trabuchet house they'd imprisoned Kyoko in and she would be meeting those leaders in the next week or so.

Once they'd discussed a few other matters, everyone began to gather their things and Reborn cleared his throat. "Tsuna has an announcement before we separate for the day," he said.

Haru stopped what she was doing and turned her attention to the Judaime who looked very uncomfortable. Finally, the Vongola Decimo took a deep breath. "According to the message I received from my father, Kudaime will be on Japanese shores around August 31st. Between now and then we are tasked with making sure everything here in Namimori is under control."

"Haru hasn't picked up anything in the intelligence network to say that there are any threats," Gokudera said. "It should, theoretically, be easy…"