10/10/08 EDIT: Edited the grammars and some plot errors. I was, like, LOL-ed again and again when I read Dino's reaction and wondering did I really write this? XD
Disclaimer: I'm getting tired of typing this… I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn and all of its characters. Maybe never will. Only Akira Amano has the right to own it.
Chapter 3 Dino Cavallone from Ten Years Ago
Gokudera sneakily walked into the small clinic; or Cavallone's secret clinic facility to be exact. He knocked on the glass door. A man in a black suit and shades appeared and opened the door for him.
"How may I help you?" asked the man.
"Romario?" Gokudera sighed as he recognized the man. "Where's your Boss?"
Romario frowned as he looked at Gokudera. "And who might you be?"
"Just get me your fucking Boss!" Gokudera growled. He cast a panicked look behind his back. Yamamoto and Lambo were hiding themselves behind the gate. They had left the women in I-pin's care somewhere near their current location. The more time they wasted, the more danger the women would be in.
"Who is it, Romario?" Dino appeared from one of the rooms. He looked like he lacked sleep, just like Gokudera. "Isn't that Gokudera?"
Gokudera appraised the man who had just joined their conversation. The blonde man really looked different from his future self. Without the sleek suit and necktie, he just looked like the average university student. Gokudera just hoped he didn't act like one.
"Dino-san, I need your help," Gokudera said, approaching Dino before Romario could stop him. "Some assassins were targeting us just now."
Yamamoto and Lambo got out from their hiding place and joined Gokudera inside the clinic. Dino was surprised to see three of Tsuna's Guardians all grown up all of a sudden.
"Whoa, whoa! What happened to you guys?" he said. He glanced at Romario who shrugged and shook his head.
"We were sent here by the Ten Year Bazooka but we didn't go back even after five minutes had passed. An assassin was trying to shoot me a while ago and now we need some place to hide," Gokudera explained in one quick breath.
Even though Dino couldn't quite understand what was happening, he told Romario to let the three young men inside the clinic and close the clinic for the day.
"You said that you came from the future?" Dino said as they sat in the waiting room. "So that's why you've been missing, Gokudera. Bianchi's been looking for you! She almost killed me when she demanded that I look for you, Reborn and Tsuna."
"Apparently someone shot my younger self when he visited the Tenth's house. That's all I know because I appeared in front of the Tenth's house when we switched," Gokudera began to explain. "After looking out for the house all night and this morning, I went to Nami-chuu to check the situation. That was when a sniper shot me, he didn't hit of course. When I ran, I met my sister. I told her to round up the kids and protect them. I got back to the school and eliminated the sniper."
Dino was taken aback by Gokudera's last sentence. Even though he was a mafia boss (a big mafia family boss), Dino was not the kind of person to kill even an assassin (because his men were always there to protect him). But hearing the word eliminate coming out of Gokudera's mouth made him wonder what would happen in the next ten years for the emotional Gokudera he knew to become such a calm person when he talked about killing somebody. Not that he hadn't talked about killing when he was young, but it was all just words and no action.
"You killed him?" Yamamoto asked Gokudera. "In the school?"
"What should I have done, then?" Gokudera snapped. "Interviewing him and ask who the fucking hell was stupid enough to send him to kill me?" He was mocked at Yamamoto's naivety. "He's a freaking sniper! Assassin! If I didn't kill him what do you think would have happened to your younger self's ass and the others?!"
"But to kill someone in a school is a whole another problem!" Yamamoto scowled at Gokudera. "What happened to the body?"
Gokudera gritted his teeth and forced his hands to not strangle the man sitting beside him. "The Disciplinary Committee took care of it."
"WHAT?!" Dino and Yamamoto shouted in unison. Lambo cringed at their loud voices.
"The Dis… Disciplinary…?" Dino stuttered.
"Hibari was there!" Gokudera said to them. "What do you expect? Remember how Reborn-san called him and asked him to dispose of Moretti when the Tenth supposedly killed him?"
Dino and Yamamoto agreed silently at Gokudera's reasoning. This was Hibari Kyoya they're talking about. A corpse in the school definitely disrupts the discipline.
"What happened after that? How many of you got switched?" Dino asked after a few moments of silence.
Gokudera squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. "Can I go and fetch the women, first? I'm worried."
Dino almost choked on the coffee Romario had just handed to him and the others. Did his ears deceive him? Gokudera? Worried about a woman? Scratch that! Women?! For the whole time he knew Gokudera, he had never heard him worry about other people other that his beloved boss, Tsuna.
"I can go, Gokudera-shi!" Lambo offered. He stood up and quickly got out of the clinic. He didn't want to hear any more of the adult talk.
As the door closed, Dino faced Gokudera and Yamamoto again, more confused that before. "There are others? Women?"
"Ah… ha… ha…" Yamamoto laughed sheepishly, "Sasagawa, Haru and I-pin were sent here too," he said to Dino and then patted Gokudera's shoulder. "Don't be too anxious, Gokudera. They'll be okay!" He tried to ease Gokudera's anxiety.
"Get your fucking hands away from me, you sword freak!" Gokudera snapped and throw an annoyed look at Yamamoto.
"Tell me what exactly happened then!" Dino cut them before they could start another bickering.
Gokudera told Dino everything he knew, the Vongola Hunt, the Millefiore, what happened when he went to retrieve his boss' coffin, what he'd been doing after he was sent to the past, and the exact details of how the younger Yamamoto and the others got hit by Ten Year Bazooka. After that, it was Yamamoto's turn to tell them what happened after he found younger Tsuna and Gokudera with an envoy from the CEDEF named Lal Mirch.
"So you and Tsuna and Gokudera followed this Gokudera's instruction and tried to gather the Guardians?" Dino asked when Yamamoto finished his story.
"Well… I didn't really understand why he wrote that, but that's the only clue we had," Yamamoto replied. He cast Gokudera a questioning look. "I wonder why you wrote that."
"You mean that letter I wrote in G-Script?" Gokudera frowned then scrunched his face up trying to remember.
"The younger you found it in the briefcase you left." Yamamoto threw a serious look to Gokudera.
Gokudera laced his fingers together, his eyes fixed on the Ruby ring on his left hand. "It was…"
Before Gokudera could start his explanation, the waiting room's door banged open revealing Haru with I-pin and Lambo holding unconscious Kyoko.
"Hayato! Haru's afraid! Someone attacked us!" Haru shrieked loudly then ran towards Gokudera. He immediately hugged her protectively and checked her for any wounds.
Dino's eyes popped out when he saw Gokudera hug a short-haired Haru.
"Kyoko-san was too shocked and her foot is swelling. She fainted when we ran away from the attacker," Lambo quickly explained as Romario carried Kyoko away to the nearest room, I-pin following. He sat on the floor panting and obviously tired from the running.
"Who was it? Did you recognize them?" asked Yamamoto.
"I don't know! I was too busy helping I-pin carry Kyoko-san!"
Yamamoto turned to Dino who was still blinking, not believing the scene in front of him. "Dino-san, I'm really sorry but could you please send your men to scan the whole area for information? We should know who sent those assassins. And also, send someone to protect Tsuna's house." Yamamoto tried to calm himself. He really wanted to go out and find the culprit but he couldn't before they knew more.
"Con - consider it done," replied Dino, still looking at Gokudera and Haru.
"Are you sure?" Gokudera asked Haru again. "Nowhere hurt? Your hands? Head? Your feet?" He touched her all over checking for any invisible wound and making her blush.
"I'm sure, Hayato!" Haru answered and hugged him again. "Haru was just afraid…"
"It's okay. We'll be safe here." He rested his chin n her head and closed his eyes, having finally stopped worrying.
Dino's was gaping and Yamamoto couldn't help but laugh. He patted his shoulder and muttered "They're married ten years from now."
Dino fainted and had to be carried to the room beside Kyoko's.
Author's Note:
Pretty short chapter, this one. I'm supposed to be able to write more because the summer's vacation/college holiday's already begun. But well… blame my laziness and lack of inspiration.
Dino's appearance: I couldn't describe more details about how future Dino should look like because in the only two colored spread pages Akira Amano had drawn showing the Ten Years Later characters (Target 158 and 199) Dino was not drawn full body. He was drawn so small in the second colored spread page! (better than Shamal, though, we couldn't even see his face!)