Hey guys, you have my deepest apologies for not having updated in so long. I actually wrote out this chapter a while ago, around two weeks after my first chapter, but I lost the USB that held it and my brain just refused to work with me and rewrite the entire thing again. Until now that is. Its definitely not as good as the first version was, but I'm still satisfied with it. I hope you enjoy it.

Special love and thanks to: uniquemangalover, WritingClockwork and blacklightningwolf. Love you guys.

That's Our Boss

Target 2: Bad Blood

"Tsk. Tsk." The baby hitman muttered as he read over his documents. "Math, F. Science, F. English, F. Japanese, F. History, F. Even his elective is an F. This kid's no better than No Good-Tsuna. He's way worse." His eyes narrowed as they looked over the percentage he had in each class. All of them were a single digit percent. That could only mean one thing. He's not trying at all.

He then proceeded to read the background check, and found that it was definitely not what he'd been expecting. "This kid..."

Ding Dong Ding Dong

The hitman turned his attention to the hundreds of kids rushing towards their proper classrooms as the bell that signaled the beginning of school rang, and smirked as his eyes locked onto his target.

"Okumura Shoutaro... There's more to you than meets the eye." After all, there has to be a reason why Tsuna personally chose you of all people as his next heir, and while I'm here, I plan on figuring out why.

. . . XI . . .

"Move it, fatass!"

"Yeah, get out of the way!"

"Haha! The fatass is stuck on the door again!"

Shouta woke up to the annoying shouts directed at one big, round boy blocking the entrance to the classroom. He looked towards the direction of all the shouting with drowsy eyes, only to come across the sight of Raku trying to get through the door with much struggle, again.

This wasn't a common occurrence though. Raku knew well what treatment he received when entering the classroom, and was especially embarrassed and self-aware of the fact that he couldn't get through the door normally, which was why he always came to class early. Except today for some reason, he hadn't, which was why Shouta had been waiting for him... Until he fell asleep.

Shouta remembered giving him some tips during one of the school mornings on how to get through the door without as much a struggle, like maybe walking in sideways or at a certain angle, but it was to no avail. It wasn't that the guy was just big, he was round as well. Incredibly round, like a ball. Because of that, whatever angle Shouta had tried to get him in, it didn't work. It was like trying to fit a giant ball through the entrance. The only way would be to squeeze through. And of course, the poor guy could never squeeze through by himself. He usually needed Shouta to push him from behind.

There was a time Shouta'd offered that the big guy go on a diet or stop eating so much, though he hadn't asked since. After all, the moment he'd asked, Raku's eyes went big, round and teary, his lips trembling almost as if he had to go on a diet just because Shouta had suggested it. Shouta, being taken aback by such a reaction, had immediately taken his words back and Raku had gone back to his happy, flowery, delightful mood as he took another bite out of his bento. Just the thought that he would have to hold back on eating food drove the guy to tears. It was quite adorable, in a way.

"You're in the way, you fucking fatass."

A familiar voice reminded Shouta of his friend in need, though it was also a voice that changed his mood for the worse. With a loud thud, as well as a yelp from his big friend, Raku fell to the ground flat before him, and Shouta could've sworn he saw the guy bounce. He immediately took action and shot to his feet, an action that not many kids noticed due to their attention being pinned on the guy that had just entered the room.

"Even a double door wouldn't be enough to fit you."

The class drove into a fit of laughter. Shouta balled his fingers into a fist as the other kids shouted words of support, further belittling the poor guy on the floor.

"Here." Shouta spoke up, and to his dismay, grabbed the attention of the entire class while he was at it. He didn't let it bother him, though, and held out a hand for Raku to take.

"Hey, hey, helping the fatass again?"

"Losers stick to losers, after all."

Shouta shot everyone a glare before gripping Raku's hand and pulling him up to a stand. The guy's weight did threaten to pull him down, but Shouta managed to keep his posture firm somehow. After all, falling from Raku's weight at a time like this would be humiliating as hell.

"Shoutaro." Shouta heard Eiji, the guy that had kicked Raku through the door, call from behind. He walked on without even sparing the other a glance, Raku following closely behind. Eiji, who didn't take lightly to being ignored quickly dashed towards the golden haired boy and flung him backwards to slam against the wall. Raku stood there in fear, and Shouta could tell he was panicking inside.

"Oi oi. Not nice to ignore someone that's calling you, Shoutaro."

A few students whistled and shouted words of encouragement like "You show him Eiji!" and "Beat him up!", but a few other students who knew the history between the two boys before them shut the rest of the class up. After all, it was obvious that Eiji bore cold hatred towards Shouta, though not many students knew why, and anyone who he labeled as 'annoying' while he was at that stage of his wrath wouldn't make it out without getting beaten to a bloody pulp, whether it was then or sometime after school.

Shouta stayed as he was, his bangs casting a shadow that hid his eyes, making it so anyone that was looking at him didn't know what he was thinking. He didn't even bother to get up again, and stayed down where his body had slumped after being slammed against the wall. Eiji cracked his knuckles. "Oh, you're asking for it."

With a firm grip, Eiji grabbed Shouta's collar and pinned him up the wall again. Shouta didn't even flinch, and his expression remained indifferent, without even a trace of fear. This riled up Eiji's anger even more. "You fucking - "

"And just what is going on here?"

Everyone turned their attention towards the door, where their teacher, Nakamana sensei, stood with a look of clear distaste. Eiji simply 'tch'-ed and let Shouta go, causing him to fall to the ground with a loud thud, before going to take his seat at the back of the class. Shouta remained as he was for a few more seconds before getting up himself, giving his friend a pat on the shoulder before heading back to his own seat. The rest of the class went back to their respected seats as well, and when everyone got to their proper places, Nakamana sensei headed towards the front of the class to begin her lesson.

. . . XI . . .

Tsuki walked down the hallway, her boots clacking against the tiled floor with every step. She passed by a few people on her way to her destination, some nurses, some guests that were here to visit patients - much like herself - and found her eye twitching in irritation when she heard the remarks of her fellow friend, who was also a patient here, all the way from outside his door.

"Ai-chan," she could hear him call in his flirty - or as he called it - 'gentlemanly' voice, "my arm's still sore from the injury, so feed me yeah?"

That guy had some nerve to be flirting right now. And he was flirting with a nurse, to boot. He should be fully aware of the consequences that came with getting sidetracked on his job. And flirting with a nurse when his job was to be recovering was clearly getting sidetracked. She remembered that he would often claim that pretty nurses helped him heal faster, but to be honest, both her and their boss had ignored him completely. He must've take them for idiots if he'd expected them to believe that. She mentally slapped herself for forgetting to get personalized male nurses for Kazuki's room again, and reminded herself to do so next time.

The nurse taking care of him let out a giggle, and Tsuki could see the blush forming on her cheeks already, even though there was a door in between them. "Kazu-chan, say 'ah'~"

Right then, Tsuki slammed the sliding door open and met with the sight of a surprised Kazuki and nurse next to him, who was holding out a spoonful of hot porridge. Of course, upon the startling, the nurse had jumped and spilled the spoonful of porridge all over him as a result.

"AGH!" The burned patient cried as he bolted up and practically ripped his shirt off. Of course, even when he did manage to get it off, it was far too late as the burn had already etched itself into his skin. A bright red mark decorated upper left abdomen, almost like a birthmark.

"I'm so sorry!" The nurse cried over and over again after handing him an ice pack for his burn. Kazuki simply laughed it off, reassuring her with words like "It's alright" and "It doesn't even hurt, so dont worry about it". Although the nurse still felt apologetic and slightly embarrassed, she left soon after, closing the door behind her as she did. Tsuki smirked a sadistic smirk as she caught sight of her friend gently pressing the ice pack to his wound.

"Your arm seemed perfectly fine to me, seeing how well you got that shirt off earlier."

"Oh shut up. You totally ruined my suave image with her." He pouted. "Damn, she was a cute one, too."

Tsuki rolled her eyes.

Suave. Sure.

"You weren't supposed to flirt with her in the first place," she pointed out. "You know how boss gets when he finds out you get sidetracked on a job."

Kazuki visibly froze for a second before forcing himself to relax. "I wasn't flirting with her, okay?" At that, Tsuki snorted. What, was he going to correct her again by saying that his actions were merely that of a gentleman in the presence of a pretty lady? "She was just helping me out."

Tsuki raised a brow at that. "Oh really."

"Yes, really. Besides, I've already told you; I recover faster with nurses around."

"Fine," Tsuki said at last after giving out a sigh of defeat. It seemed this guy still wanted to go on with this whole idea that he recovered faster with nurses, and if he wasn't gonna budge, Tsuki would just have to comply.

"We'll get you a nurse." She could literally see Kazuki's eyes gleaming in delight at her words. "A male nurse, that is."

All former excitement fading away, Kazuki's shoulder's slumped on the bed. "Ugh, I should've known better than to get my hopes up with you. "

But Tsuki wasn't done. And at her next word, she could feel the sadistic smile play on her lips. "Bisexual."

Kazuki's shoulder's suddenly tensed up as if he'd just been pricked with a thousand needles. He stared at her with a horrified expression. "N-No! Anything but that!" His body shivered as a former traumatic experience resurfaced through crystal clear memories. "I swear I wont flirt next time!"

"Good." Tsuki smiled smugly before shifting the topic of conversation. "Now hurry up and get dressed. We're heading out."

Kazuki's green eyes instantly perked towards her direction, all former pouting and horror replaced with a sharp expression that defined him to be the hitman he was. "Mission?"

Tsuki's eyes had that same glint as she made eye contact. "Yep. It's that one with the kid Sawada-san wants. He told us to settle in for now, and he'll send us the file later."

"Huh. That's weird. They usually send us the file first, dont they?"

Tsuki shrugged. "It seems to be a special case this time. We can wait."

"Well, whatever then." Kazuki relaxed on his bed as he looked at the window, his eyes following a plane that was probably on its way out of the country. "Namimori, here we come."

. . . XI . . .

"S-Shouta!" A deep, and slightly muffled voice called from behind. Shouta turned around, only to be met with the sight of his big, round friend running towards him. He felt a strong urge to run away at the sight, since one slip from the big guy meant that Shouta would be flat on the ground, squashed, but he resisted the urge and stood where he was.

"Yo." Shouta replied. His friend stopped running when he was close enough, and was currently bent over facing the ground as he tried to catch his breath. This guy was really out of shape. Not that one couldn't tell at first glance. "What's up?"

Raku looked at him with shifty eyes, and Shouta knew what he was about to ask from the way he sent repeated glances towards the giant bento he was holding in his right hand. It was a giant three-stack bento, and each stack was equivalent to his bag in size. The bento, of course, was the one that Shouta cooked up for Raku every morning ever since Raku's parents had decided that he needed to 'slim down'. They didn't realize that they were starving their child by only giving him one loaf of bread for lunch everyday, and thus Shouta had resolved to start making lunch for his friend. It was a healthy lunch, one that would hopefully help him slim down somewhat if he ate it continuously, though it wasn't working very wel so far.

"No," Shouta replied before his friend even got a chance to ask. "I dont need help carrying it, so its fine."

"B-But- "

"And I wont stop making them, either. We have more than enough food at home, you're helping us out by stopping it all from spoiling."

"Still..."

Shouta sighed. Raku wasn't always like this. In the past he had been, during the first week that Shouta started making lunch for him, but after several threats from Shouta, as well as clever tactics that included shoving food in Raku's face by eating it in front of him, Raku had finally given in and they hadn't spoken about it since. Having dealt with that Raku for a week, Shouta had actually hoped he wouldn't have to deal with that again, but from the way Raku was bringing it up again, that hope pretty much went out the window.

"We went over this, Raku." Shouta eyed him carefully. "Is this because you feel bad for what happened this morning?"

Raku was silent. That meant yes.

"Dont be; it wasn't your fault. Its just some bad blood between me and Eiji. That had nothing to do with you."

Raku was looking down at his feet, hands held together at his belly. Despite being a big guy, Raku never really looked tough, or intimidating. If anything, he looked like one of those cuddly teddy bears, and was most definitely one of the kindest people Shouta had ever met. Maybe that was why he was friends with him. Because maybe, just maybe, that kindness would rub off on someone like him as well.

Shouta gave the big guy a smile before patting his's stomach with the back of his hand twice, kind of like how he would knock on a door. The belly let out a 'boing boing' in response, and Raku's face turned a slight shade of pink. He still embarrassed whenever Shouta did that but not as much as before. After all, it was a sign of their friendship, as weird as it may be.

"Lighten up, big guy. I dont need a friend that's gonna be depressed all the time."

Raku beamed in response, glad that Shouta still considered him to be his friend. "T-Thanks, Shouta. I really mean it."

Shouta just smiled. "Yeah."

And with that, Shouta parted with Raku since both their homes were opposite ways. He didn't really need to worry about Raku getting bullied or anything on his way home, since his driver was there to pick him up a block away. Raku was rich kid after all, though it came to a surprise to Shouta when he first found out (he had offered to walk Raku home and... the rest of the story tells itself), and Shouta could understand why he didn't like revealing it to the school. That kind of attention was only asking for trouble, as Raku would definitely be bullied into handing over all his money when currently he had none (his parents and their idea to have him 'slim down' included taking away all pocketmoney to buy lunch from the cafeteria), and he could also quite possibly be kidnapped and held hostage in exchange for ransom money. Either ones didn't look so good, and while the latter was less likely, it was better to lower the chances as much as possible.

He was cut off from his train of thought when someone abruptly pulled him from the right, effectively having him lose his balance while tossing him into the dark alley. Shouta let out a groan, already knowing what kind of situation he had gotten into.

"Hey, what was your name again? Okumura Shoutaro, was it?" Shouta was pulled by the collar to face another nasty punk, this one another student from his school, judging from the uniform. His face just screamed delinquent, what with the pointy eyes, scars on his face and piercing on his lip. If he really was from their school, he wondered why this guy hadn't been targeted by the Disciplinary Committee yet. He was sure lip piercings weren't allowed by the school dress code policy. Well, whatever.

When Shouta didn't respond, the guy punched Shouta across the face, and Shouta internally grimaced at the pain, though his face showed no emotions whatsoever. He guessed that was probably what got the guy even more riled up than he was, as he tightened his grip around Shouta's collar, threw him back down, and proceeded to kick him. The other two guys that were with him joined in while the lip-piercing guy kept talking, or in this case, shouting.

"You piece of shit! You dare defy Eiji-san? Huh? You're just so freaking full of yourself, aren't ya? You fucking ass!"

Apparently the guy was pretty pissed. Probably one of Eiji's loyal followers then, the guy had a knack for picking guys like that up. He'd probably heard of what happened this morning, which was why he had hunted Shouta down and begun beating him up in the first place.

Shouta was quite sure that lip-piercing guy would've continued, had he not been punched in the face, kicked in the stomach, and thrown on the floor.

"What the hell do you think you're do- " Shouta looked up as much as he could without it hurting, only to see that lip-piercing guy had frozen stiff. "E-Eiji-san..?"

Now even Shouta was surprised. He turned to look towards the figure that would be Eiji's only to hear two twin cries of pain as the two other delinquents fall to the ground. Eiji then approached Shouta, a look of disgust and hatred on his face.

"You're become pathetic, Shoutaro." He said before kicking Shouta in the stomach. Shouta was thrown back to slam against the wall at the force, and coughed up some blood. "I cant believe I ever called someone like you my friend."

And with that, he left, leaving four beat up guys at the floor behind him.

Meanwhile, a certain baby hitman had been watching the entire thing.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to give me some feedback to let me know what you think. Thanks.