AUTHOR'S NOTES: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Blessed Yule, Happy Kwanzah, Happy Hannakah-whatever you celebrate this season (and if you don't celebrate Happy Thursday ^_^). Here's chapter five.

Please read and enjoy ^_^

Next update will be around January 8th ^_^

~ Yuki

Target 05-03: Scarlet Smile

"Ah, you're awake. I told Maiko to only administer about half the dosage in the syringe."

Haru blinked and immediately tried moving and found her hands bound behind the wooden back of the chair she was sitting in. She clenched her hands together and lifted her head slowly and found herself confronted by a shadowed figure. The light coming in was directed in such a way that the only thing she could see of her captor was shimmering scarlet lips. There was a soft rustle of fabric that sounded like one of Madame Cho's full kimono and Haru cocked her head and flinched at the resulting pain.

"What do you want?" Haru managed, her voice was hoarse and her throat felt raw.

"Just to satisfy some idle curiosity," the woman said silkily.

She moved forward into the light and Haru found her head pushed down before she could actually see what the woman looked like. "You don't have permission to look at the Lady."

The voice that spoke was the same as the one she'd heard before the injection and she frowned. "Lady…no, Emri wouldn't wear a kimono like that…" Haru mumbled to herself.

"You are correct," the woman said. "What is your exact position in the Vongola Famiglia, Miura Haru-san?"

Haru's eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips tightly together.

The silence went on for what felt like forever and it was all Haru could do not to just start babbling to fill it. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and focused on that bit of pain and the metallic taste that filled her mouth.

There was another swishing of cloth and a finger found her chin and forced Haru's eyes up, but she couldn't make the woman out in the brightness of the overhead light. "Do you think your silence hides anything from me, Miura Haru?" the woman asked.

A chain unraveled and the ring that Haru had been wearing when she was captured dangled in front of her swinging idly back and forth. Haru couldn't help but follow it with her eyes and felt herself falling into a lull and clenched her eyes shut and fisted her hands hard enough for her nails to dig into the fleshy part of her palm, letting the pain kill the lassitude that was slipping over her.

"Stubborn child," the woman sighed. "How long do you think that's going to last? Every moment you don't answer my questions is another moment that slips away between you and the Vongola Nono's arrival in Japan."

Haru wanted to explode into a rant about how she would never tell the woman anything and how all she had to do was hold out until her friends figured out what happened and tracked her down. However, she felt as though she would lose something if she chose to speak at this particular moment and remained quiet. She opened her eyes and focused instead on the hand wielding the chain with the ring instead of the ring. The nails on the woman's hand were also crimson and Haru admired the manicure for a moment, trying to keep her thoughts away from her current situation.

"Well, I suppose that trick isn't going to work."

The ring swung upwards, landing neatly in the woman's palm and she closed her fingers over it. "I suppose we'll see how long that silence lasts when you are faced with hunger and thirst," she said. "Shall we go, Maiko?"

"As you wish, Mother."

Haru watched the woman depart. The person that followed the woman was dressed in loose clothing but had long hair, leading Haru to believe that they were female. After the two had exited the light above her went out plunging everything into darkness and she felt panic try to close in for a moment, but she took a deep breath and forced it out. After a moment she focused on her current situation.

She was in a chair, but she wasn't tied to it. Her hands were behind her back and it felt like plastic around her wrists. She twisted her wrists a bit and felt the teeth of the zip ties bite in and relaxed. Of all the things to restrain her…

Dani had run a similar simulation to this with her something close to this at least three different times. The first time Haru had panicked and been completely useless, but by the last time it was just something else she'd learned to do. On more than one occasion, she'd been forced to wear wristbands to conceal the damage from those who would notice and worry.

She forced herself to relax further and then began to carefully maneuver her hands. She worked slowly, gently working until she managed to free one of her thumbs from the restraint and then it was easy. There was a barely audible clack as the zip tie hit the concrete floor and she rose from the chair. She rotated her wrists and hissed a bit as the resulting sting from one of them, she'd probably cut herself on the tie.

She went over what the room looked like with the light in her mind and knew that it wasn't a large room and that a table took up a large portion of it. Her eyes landed on the tiny strip of light that denoted the door and she moved towards it, her bare feet making no noise on the ground. Her hair brushed over her shoulders and she tucked it behind her ear with a muttered curse. The elastic band wouldn't have really been a very good weapon; they could have at least left that. She reached for the hem of her shirt and yanked sharply, listening to the ripping fabric as the strip of cloth separated from the rest of the shirt. She tied the scrap into her hair tightly hoping it would keep her hair out of her face for the time being and then ventured to the door.

She scowled a bit as she ran her fingers over it, the door wasn't very sturdy. She pressed her ear to the wood and realized that it was also very thin and she could hear a muttered conversation outside. She pulled back away from the door to figure out her next plan. Theoretically there couldn't be more than one or two men guarding the door. If she made enough noise with the table one of them would likely come in to investigate, but that would likely result in the light being flipped on leaving her in a moment of blindness and that would be long enough for them to get her again.

Haru moved and picked up the chair she'd been sitting in and moved towards the door and in the last few steps dragged the chair over the floor making a very loud noise. She clenched her eyes shut as the door was opened and slammed the chair at the first man who came through and then tried to scramble past him while he was still dazed from the hit. There wasn't a second man waiting outside and Haru just took off running and hoped that she didn't run into anyone before her eyes adjusted to the light.

When her vision cleared she spotted a cleaning closet and ducked in even as she heard booted feet hitting the floor. It wouldn't take long for them to figure out where she'd gone, especially if the guard hadn't been knocked unconscious by the chair—she hadn't stayed long enough to figure it out. She found the handle of a mop and a quick check found that it was one of the ones that she could easily detach the mophead from and turn it into a staff of sorts, which she did. She grabbed a tub of floorwax and loosened the cap as she listened to people run by. After the immediate rush, she listened for a moment more and then burst out of the cleaning closet and threw the bucket on the ground and took off with her makeshift weapon.

The first man she ran into was shocked just long enough for her to get in a couple good strikes and run again.

Haru turned into another corridor and found it empty, but she knew it likely wouldn't be empty for long. Places like these always had security cameras, but she needed to find some place where she could catch her breath and formulate a plan. She had no way of contacting anyone currently and she didn't want to have to requisition another ring from the Vongola, assuming they'd let a failure like her have one again anyway…

She dashed away frustrated tears and took another deep breath to compose herself and moved down the hall a little slower since she couldn't hear any pursuit currently. She hurried down the corridor and went to one of the windows and realized that she was a few floors up in some kind of large building. She found the emergency stairwell and slipped through the door and started to make her way down the stairs. If it came out in an underground garage it would be easier to find concealment.

She finally reached the bottom of the stairs and burst through the door, only to come face to face with the barrel of a gun.

"Nice try, Miura-san."

It was the same voice and viewing the person from the front, they were definitely female. The overshirt she wore was loose, but it was open in the front revealing a halter top over a pair of loose khaki cargo pants. Haru glared at her and before she could think, she kicked out and her foot came into contact with the girl's wrist and the gun went flying, skittering across the concrete.

"You're no match for me, girl," the other smirked. "I've had a lot more practice."

Haru didn't answer just sprang at her, trying to get in a few strikes before the other could get the better of her, but the tables were quickly turned and Haru found herself slammed into the ground her arm twisted painfully behind her.

"Enough Maiko."

It was the voice of the woman who'd been interrogating her.

The pain eased up and she was forced to her feet and felt something dig into her back. She met the gaze of the woman full on and then the elegant woman began to clap.

"Impressive Miura Haru-san," the woman smirked. "Let her go, Maiko."

"But—"

"Maybe next time you'll learn to dodge better," the older woman said.

"Who are you?" Haru demanded.

"Someone who has a great interest in gauging the abilities of Nadeshiko's daughter," the woman said. "I have to say though it was rather unrefined, you actually were pretty impressive. Obviously your training isn't done."

"And you're going to see to it that it's never done?" Haru asked.

The woman's eyes widened and she began to laugh. "Hardly," she said. "In fact, I'd really like to refine that talent of yours Miura Haru-san. It's not often I find such a rough diamond that can be polished into so many facets."

"They're going to come for me you know," Haru said.

"That fox girl and Hurricane Bomb Hayato?" the woman repeated and then laughed. "No they won't. By now Sawada Iemitsu-san has intercepted them and informed them that I have no intention of harming you. And they'll have orders from Reborn to leave it well enough."

"And I'm supposed to trust you?" Haru asked skeptically.

"No, darling. If you trusted me right off you'd be going against every single lesson you learned from Shirokaia wouldn't you?" she asked. "You can call me Lady Tomi and for the next two weeks, you're going to be here in my facility learning as much as I can cram into that head of yours."

"But…I have classes and…" Haru said faintly.

"In the end I think this is going to be much more useful than spending two weeks in a remedial class you really don't need," 'Lady Tomi' said. "This is not an option, Miura-san. You're going to need what I can teach you a lot more than you're going to need to know how to solve the calculus equation. Besides, it's your Kudaime's orders…"

As the words left her mouth, the kimono-clad woman produced a letter and handed it to her and Haru nearly dropped it as the orange of the Sky Flames burst from the Vongola Seal. She opened it and written in Italian (with a Japanese translation beneath it signed by Reborn) were orders that she was to listen to her new tutor and walk away ten times stronger than when she went in.