The lost lamb

Chapter 6: Moving

I received a warning from Nazi-land, to stop 'interacting' (answering reviews) and making AN, or risk this being deleted... So I'm sorry for not answering Reviews to those who don't have an account, but I'm very grateful for all of them, since they make me motivated to finish this story in spite of all the things currently happening. Thank you. Thank you.

To the others I'm answering you via PM, so thank you.

Chapter 6: Moving

Gokudera frowned at the small building; the small coast hospital was almost in a cliff, surrounded at the sides by small farms and tiny shops. While the area behind was a small rocky beach and in the front there was only the road. He looked once more at the coordinates in the phone. After his last fight with the idiots he found out that the black haired one had left his phone behind. Never one to reject a free advantage, he took it with glee. After all, he had limited resources and time.

The small GPS didn't lie; this general area was the place where the last signal had originated from. He should start his search in the hospital. Although all this setup made him anxious. Nothing added up, this was either the master plan of the CEDEF or a colossal screw up.

He squared his shoulders and waited for the night to completely fall over the small building. "Time to work…"

Tsuna was incredibly embarrassed; he had clung to that guy like a leech! Like a whimpering child! He could almost hear the mocking tone of Reborn in the back of his head. Ugh! He was such a Dame-Tsuna indeed. When the doctor had approached him he had freaked out. He had taken one look at the white cloak and just lost it, and when the doctor had asked about his name and family he completely went into panic mode. All the warnings and training from his family flooding his mind. All the stories from previously captured members, and the warnings from G.

'Never say your name'

'Never say your family name. Protect the famiglia.'

'Lie, lie, lie, and keep at it, and when than fails keep silent, whatever it takes."

'They won't have mercy on you, no matter what they say, so keep it shut.'

'Just hang in there and wait for us!'

'Whatever you do, just don't give in, never.'

He had just repeated a plethora of don't know, don't remember, where I am? Before the white cloak left with hasty Cloud-san left as well, surely disgusted at his behavior…Now that he was calmer, he went over the short sentences he had caught from the doctor's interrogation.

'… it's been two years since they brought you here…'

'we put your information in the database…'

'…couldn't find your family, don't you remember what….'

"No… it can't be" He whispered to himself, unwilling to accept what those sentences implied. He had a massive headache and his throat felt on fire, he looked around the room and saw a glass with water on a small table, just a meter away from his bed. It was one meter, perhaps a little bit more? He looked at his stick thin legs and grimaced, they looked so… weak.

He could make it; it wasn't that far. With much determination and fear, he let his legs swing over the edge, shivering at contact with the cold tiles. He stood up, slowly, conscious of his spine lengthening and his muscles protesting the movement, he closed his eyes, letting the world spin for a while and breathed slowly to avoid the nausea and the ringing in his ears.

Finally, he opened his eyes brown eyes and smiled in triumph; he was standing on his feet, on his feet! With a hopeful smile he lifted one foot and gave a step and felt the knee give out immediately; his legs muscles failing to support his weight. He crashed into the floor, his head hitting the icy tiles. Not even one step, not one!

He let his arms stretch and blindly tried to find some support. He was sure he looked pathetic this way… he stared at his skinny arms and tried to lift himself again and failed once more. The boy glowered at the trembling hands, the fingers were thin, too thin; they screamed weakness and sickness.

Weak, trembling hands, useless hands. Who would want someone like this, so pathetic, so weak? This worthless, weak idiot who couldn't even stand up?

'… we put your information on the database…'

They had… there was no way that the Vongola or the CEDEF couldn't find his finger prints or data if they wanted, especially if it was in an official, open, data base.

'…two years, since they brought…'

He clenched his eyes and pushed once more… if only, if only he could get up…! His arms hurt but he pushed with all his strength and managed to lift himself a few centimeters, only to crash down once more, he screamed in frustration. Why? What had he done? WHY?

Stupid, stupid weak arms!

He pushed with his feet, feeling like a worm that struggled helplessly in the dirt. He should have known better! He was hopeless, always making trouble, getting hurt at the drop of a shoe. No matter how hard he had tried, how hard he worked; he couldn't change what he was.

Useless.

He clenched his eyes to stop the tears; he wouldn't snivel on top of everything! He wouldn't! But he couldn't help feeling shattered, he had tried so hard, and still, he had disappointed his family, he was such a failure. No wonder they had got rid of him. He couldn't blame them.

He deserved to be alone.

He let his muscles go lax, what was he fighting for? Why go through all this misery? This was his place, in the floor, away from normal people, here, he couldn't make more damage, be a burden anymore. He was good here…

'You're giving up?' Came a whisper in the back of his head, it sounded kind of familiar, but he didn't care there was to give up? All his work, all his sacrifices were empty ones, at the end he was left alone. His family, his precious family had deemed him useless. What there was to look up to?

'Kufufufu… I finally found you little fish!'

He stopped breathing… he froze in waiting, was he hallucinating? 'Mukuro? It's, it's that you?' He thought tentatively.

'Hello Tsunayoshi It's nice to hear you again' Answered the voice, it sounded faint, almost distorted. Where did it come from? 'But…after listening to your thoughts I'm sorry to be saying goodbye' the tone was regretful and had just a hint of disgust in it. Enough to make him choke.

'This is not the Tsunayoshi I'm interested in; I have no use for pathetic victims.' Tsuna trembled in confusion and fear, he could almost see a shadow in the corner of his eye, but he didn't dare to turn his head. He didn't dare to hope. 'I-I… I just… Please…'

He could feel something brushing his cheek, it was a mere hint of warmth, he closed his eyes and saw in the corner of his eye a indigo flame… it looked so very far away… 'I told you that the mafia was a bunch of bad news… I don't need a broken doll in my collection. You're useless as you are now.'

Tsuna whined in protest and put all his strength in his arms, pushing against the pain and tremors. 'I-I'm not useless!' He thought in desperation and continued pressing his trembling arms against the floor, fighting to make it to his knees. 'Prove it.' He heard, he managed to extend his arms and pushed his knees against the floor.

'..I- I'm NOT!' His arms gave out under him, leaving him winded and trembling, defeated in the cold floor, clenching his teeth in humiliation, he felt angry, so much it made him tremble with the contained emotion.

'Kufufufu, that's a nice feeling…" The brush of fingers came again, this time in his neck 'Where are you?' Asked Mukuro and Tsuna gasped at the question. 'you don't know?' Then he almost felt Mukuro disappear in the back of his mind. Ashamed and trembling he found himself unable to contain the horrible bitter feeling inside him.

Alone, they had left him alone… No more of this. No more wishing for something he couldn't have. He didn't deserve. They didn't want him? Fine! With his belief, the bond became weaker, one more fiber falling apart.

"Useless trash…" He said between choked sobs, he stayed on the floor, in his awkward position that was hurting his neck, in the cold floor like a broken puppet, discarded, unwanted. He could feel the cold under his bare arms and the rapid heartbeat in his chest, and the sobs that escaped his tight clenched lips from time to time. He finally closed his eyes in defeat, the cold in his body and his hearth making him dizzy and tired.

He didn't hear the door open, and only reacted when a strong hand grabbed the neck of his pajama and tossed him to the bed not too gently, he recognized the call of the purple flame, it was the dark haired guy! He hid his face in the sheets in shame, and stopped breathing when he felt an awkward and somewhat hesitant hand fall on his head.

The pity and at the same time the strange gentleness in the gesture cut him deeply. Reborn was right; he was just Dame-Tsuna.

Byakuran stared with amused eyes at the screen; this was just so much fun! The Vongola were panicking over something. And his spies had come up with a priceless piece of information: little Tsunayoshi was missing, and not only that, all the Vongola suddenly considered finding him top priority. Also, Xanxus had disappeared from the face of the earth. This was very intriguing indeed.

But first he had two little bugs to squash. That pair of Bovinos and that other teenager, carried with them evidence against him and he wasn't ready to an all-out war with the Vongola. He started a second video conference, and smiled in amusement at the disfigured and heavily scarred face that appeared in the screen. "My dear Estraneo, I have a proposition for you. I have news about one of your surviving pets… about a certain brown-haired specimen '8-b.' Would you mind doing one more work for me in exchange from this?" The man glared at him but looked intrigued. "Don't call me that Byakuran" He said in irritation. "I'm the Taipan…8-b you said?"

"Get your ass up, we are going to Japan. HURRY!" Announced G, waving around a bunch of papers, while coming inside the room. "G, you know I can't leave the main house…" Answered Giotto in a bored tone while looking in amusement at his friends. Inside the room were Enma and Cozart, both of them had remained with the Vongola to wait news about Tsuna. "No, you, don't understand. I think those two idiots are in deep trouble and they don't know it!"

"Uhm… we are talking about who?" G, decidedly looked a little too tired mussed Giotto. "Lampo and Knucles, of course! Have you not read my summary?" Growled his right hand man and Giotto frowned at the various stacks of paper strewn all around the room, he spied a bright red folder hidden under six more of the same color, all of them marked with big "Urgent" stickers in them. "I think is one of those…"

G glared at him, really glared. "Okay, here's your summary. You know that Lampo was chosen as the successor by his aunt, You remember Aurelia, don't you? okay, as you know, she rejected her own brother..."

"Yes, I know this G, I helped them in the negotiations, remember?" G glared mightily at him "Agh let me finish!" Giotto half-smiled at the intimidating glare and G continued his tale. "Okay, about three weeks ago Lampo's uncle took him to Singapore, to observe some weapon's transaction with the Gesso family."

"The gesso… it's that…?"

"The same one that Iemitsu has been so paranoid about the last years? Yes, stop interrupting! Now here is the thing: the uncle returns claiming that Lampo is a traitor to the family , he told them that Lampo tried to sell the secret of the ten years bazooka to the Gesso, and that he took his little son Lambo with him as a hostage…"G ended while pacing around the room. "That's… ridiculous." Mumbled Giotto, G nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! That idiot wouldn't do something as tiring as planning a betrayal and a kidnapping!"

"G…" Warned Giotto. "Yes, yes, the point is, I think that it was his uncle the one who tried to sell the bazooka and that Lampo escaped after finding out, or when they tried to kill him. If anything, that dimwit is great at running away…"

"Okay, but what about this going to Japan?" Asked Giotto, his eyes sharpening at the tale. "Oh yes, Knuckles was in the island as well, somehow they ended escaping together, don't ask me how! But we confirmed they boarded an Italian ship going to Japan." Giotto eyed the half empty cup of strong coffee in his friend's hand, very tempted to take it away, it seemed that G had ingested enough already. "Personally I think the idiots mistook it for a ship going to Italy."

The blond teenager almost burst out in laughter at the image, but repressed it at the already maniac look in G eyes. "It isn't funny! I can't understand how you go around collecting these simpletons! They sank the ship Giotto! The rescued crew talked about a ghost of a cow child and some crazy screaming idiot punching a hole in the boat!"

Giotto did laugh now, even though his ribs ached at the motion. "No! Really? I mean… are they alright? Did they rescue them with the crew?" Giotto barely contained his laughter, the image too funny to ignore it. "No, they escaped somehow, the pair of imbeciles! How long you think they can last in the open sea those two, and with a baby?"

Giotto sobered at the thought. "Miraculously enough they did reach Japan and are in hiding in Knuckles house there. Lampo sent me an E-mail an hour ago. I told them to stay put." Growled G, in a somewhat disgruntled tone, as if hoping for the others to be still drifting in the sea. "However, we have to fetch the idiots, before they end up dead! The Gesso family is planning something against them. They were the ones to put his name in the wanted list."

"They are not going to let me out of the house…" Growled Giotto, but his eyes were already deep in concentration, planning a way out of the mansion. "What about me?" Asked Cozart, he was looking at him with a mischievous grin, Enma too looked determined. "We are the same height and build, a pair of contacts and a wig and if you take Enma with you…"

Giotto looked wary still, eyeing his broken leg and ribs. "but…" G grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and growled at him. "Giotto! You're going to ask those idiots to become your guardians! They are going to risk their necks for you. The least you can do is go and ask yourself! You started being this indecisive, insecure idiot ever since you started to listen to these old geezers! And I'm not putting up with this shit anymore! It's simple, we go, extract those idiots before they end up dead and return quickly!"

"But Tsuna…"

"If we can activate the Vongola rings we will buy Tsuna more time isn't? The faster we gather your idiots, the faster we can concentrate on Tsuna!" Giotto smiled back at his enraged friend. And at the amused Shimon brothers. "Thank you, my friends. Now, how do we get past Reborn?"

Hibari-san was hurt again. Now, it was a very nasty looking burn in his arm. Tsuna watched the other boy as he entered the room with an almost visible aura of annoyance.

It seemed that cloud-san had a name, and it was Hibari-san. The nurses liked to talk a lot about him, all of them seemed to try and impress to him just how important and dangerous the other boy was, and how grateful he should be, because apparently Hibari-san had saved his ass from one psychotic nurse and a wacko administrator.

So, Hibari-san it was. It had been a two weeks since he had woken up, and Hibari-san had come to 'rest' three more times in those weeks. The first thing he had acknowledge about the other boy was that he liked things quiet, very quiet, like death quiet. Something very difficult for him, last time he had been awake he had been living in a fun-house full of explosions, and screams and general chaos.

"Welcome back…." He ventured quietly and he received a disgruntled grunt in response, Tsuna sighed, it would be another of the quiet days. With trembling legs Tsuna got up from his bed, and felt surprised eyes on him, he smiled lightly at the other and seated himself in the chair besides the window. Physical therapy was a bitch, but it was working.

A few minutes later, the doctor came in; it was always the same one he noticed. He treated Hibari-san in silence and efficiently and the dark-haired teen gave a small bow in thanks, then the sharp eyes of the doctor caught the still full glass of pink goo at his side.

Every day, at four hours intervals a different nurse came to visit him and try to coax some of the disgusting concoction down his throat. The first time he had tried to eat something solid he had vomited spectacularly. After that fiasco, the doctor had prohibited him any kind of food, condemning him to this tasteless, bland imitation of a fruit smoothie. It was disgusting and it reminded him so much of the food when he had been kidnapped that it made him shudder in revulsion.

"Really, you didn't even drink half of it? If you want to get better you need food! You're getting better very fast, but still!" He said while giving him that reproaching glare that only doctors seemed to manage "Unless you want us to feed you through a tube? Mmm?" Tsuna shuddered at the threat, having a plastic tube in his nose all the way down to his stomach? No, thank you.

"Hai…"

"Do you remember anything? Anything at all? Your name perhaps?" Asked the man, while cleaning up the materials he had used. Tsuna averted his eyes and shook his head.

"I see… well you have two hours before the next meal, so I suggest for you to drink that. And don't even think of disposing of it"

The door closed and Tsuna sighed in relief. "Why did you lie, herbivore?" And then tensed at the dangerous tone, it was like speaking with Reborn once more, that tone, daring him to lie.

"I-I… I'm sorry Hibari-san…"

The other one snorted and Tsuna felt himself tense even more. "Small herbivores like you should just stay in crowds…"

Crowds…? Ah! Family. Tsuna felt his stomach clench in hunger and anxiety and still, the disgusting beverage didn't look more attractive than before. "…I think… that they got tired of me… so I don't have a crowd anymore…"

"Mmm… how old are you?" Tsuna looked up, surprised at the other. That was it? No deeper questioning? "T-ten… well I was ten… now, uhm… I'm twelve, I think…" Surprised eyes looked him up and down and Tsuna felt himself blush in indignation, yes well, it wasn't his fault if he was short and scrawny…!

"Drink it."

"What?"

Hibari-san was holding up the glass before his face. "All of it, every single drop." Tsuna clenched his lips stubbornly, it was disgusting, and it was tick and slimy… and it was currently chocking him, because Hibari, in an interesting headlock maneuver had pinched his nose and was forcing the foul mixture down his throat.

With watering eyes and betrayal in them, he stared pathetically at the other, but Hibari only gave him time to breath before making him drink the rest of it. When he was done Tsuna rubbed his protesting stomach and glared sullenly at the dark haired beast.

"Hideous tasks must be made the quicker, otherwise they become more troublesome. Now keep quiet I'm going to sleep."

Tsuna stared in surprise when the teenager took the bed closest to the window; which was Tsuna's, instead of returning to his own. Really? First he tried to choke him to death and now he was stealing his bed? He glowered at him and then he saw the strange light strand appearing once more between them. It was ticker, he noticed, and it was pulsing like the others, he blinked twice and the image disappeared once more.

The last Estraneo, was in fact one of its earliest victims, he had been originally a doctor for the famiglia, but he had stumbled into one of their experiments and had been forced to take part on the proceedings.

His mind had snapped along the way; driven by guilt, he had started experimenting with his own body, he pumped all kind of venoms and serums trying to kill himself in his few moments of sanity, but in the process he gained a complete immunity to almost all kinds of venoms, and gaining the attention of the other scientists. Thus, he spent his last years as a guinea pig.

When the Vongola had attacked them, the very last piece of his sanity left him, he ran through the rubble covered in flames and had escaped into the sewers and proceeded to disappeared in them.

One of the Gesso family had saved him and discovered the deadly properties of his blood: he would take a single drop of his blood and taint with it his intended victim, and like the reptile he took his name from, it would only take him a scratch or a small wound to kill his prey.

Byakuran had told him about a group of kids surviving the Estraneo massacre and dangled the information about them like bait before an animal. Because, in the fractured mind of the man, he considered the kids as part of him and the Estraneo, and in his insanity, longed to kill them and then himself. Thus, finally ending the Estraneo legacy and his own suffering.

Such was the story and purpose of the Taipan.

Gokudera stared in trepidation at the white building, with no money and a basic understanding of the written language, it had taken him two days to find the wretched little town, and now, hopefully, his search would finish here.

He slipped with practiced ease through the meager security of the place. It only took him fifteen minutes to check the pediatric ward and the ICU, but didn't found anything. With a heavy heart, he slipped into the nurses station when the chattery women left to tend their patients, with nimble fingers he searched through the ages of every patient as well as the registers, and one caught his eye. Hibari. Male, Age unknown…, Suspected Pediatric Abuse, undernourished, anemia, post-coma-rehabilitation… He closed the screen and almost ran up the stairs… he stooped outside the door his heart trying to escape from his chest.

His hand trembled before reaching the door… what if this Hibari wasn't…

He breathed deeply, trying to keep his hand steady and pushed gently the door, and saw an empty bed, he staggered a bit, disappointment making him close his eyes in irritation and then stare at the empty bed, then he caught a movement from the corner of his eye, he turned his head to the left, slowly, so very slowly and his breath caught in his chest.

There, sleeping and looking thin and pale, was the face of the one he had vowed to dedicate his life to. It was him without a doubt, thinner and sickly looking but it was unquestionably him.

He approached the bed and seated himself in the chair at the side, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders only to be replace with an horrible thought, it had said post-coma rehabilitation, that meant… that he was late…

Tsuna-sama was awake, had been for who knows how long… was he angry? Sad? Would he send him away?

"H-hayato?" He froze at the broken whisper and didn't dare to raise his eyes; instead he knelt in front of the bed in choppy, stiff movements that betrayed his nervousness.

"Yes, it's me… Tsuna-sama… I'm sorry, I-I have been…well…"There were many things he wanted to say to him, he had thought sensible speeches and intelligent phrases to explain his charge just why it had taken him almost three years to return to his side. All of them escaped him at the moment and left him lost and afraid of this waif like boy before him.

Tsuna for his part was blinking at the kneeling, trembling boy at his side, for one, surprised at his mere presence and second, because he could see a troubled and scared red flame inside the other; it was jumping around like a scared cat and it also had a white thread going into his own chest, but this one was thicker than Hibari's, it looked sturdier, almost tangible. He blinked and the white thread disappeared. Leaving behind the image of his friend.

What Tsuna saw before him, was the same testy, scared boy he had seen that very first time in Italy.

"Hayato" He said softly, and he saw those green honest eyes watching him full of wariness, and hope… and Tsuna understood then, in the thin, gaunt face, in the patched clothes and the hands full of small injuries, in the unkempt hair and the smell of sea still clinging to his friend.

He had searched for him. He had not given up on him.

"Thank you." He said laughing in glee, and almost jumped out of the bed, smiling and laughing for the first time since waking up, repeating the two words over and over again, he felt the other panic and return the embrace, all awkwardness and careful arms.

"I'm sorry it took me so long…" Whispered the silver haired boy but Tsuna continued laughing, and looked at the face of his friend breaking the hug. He definitely looked older; more mature, and kind of tanned… but now, he looked peaceful in a way that he had never looked before. He seemed proud of himself.

"Thank you" He said once last time with the widest smile he could manage without hurting himself and flinched when his knobby knees starting hurting from the impact with the floor.

"Tsuna-sama? Did I hurt you? Are you all right? Do you want me to call a doctor?"

Tsuna smiled and got up slowly and with the techniques the nurse had taught him, Gokudera grabbed his arm and helped him back to the bed. "How long since…?"

"Two weeks… I think, I spent the first one drifting in and out of it."

"Oh…"

"Can I ask you… what they told you? How did you find me? I… I need to know…" He needed to stop this endless circle of 'ifs and whats' that were making him going crazy. He needed to know.

He listened patiently to the story, and smiled absently at the detailed and clinical way in which his friend explained some parts, he nodded and didn't interrupt. But almost laughed out loud at his epic traveling experience. When he finished, it was already very late.

"Tsuna-sama… does the hospital knows…?"He waved his hand in his general direction. "Who you are…?"

"No! Of course not! I… I told them I have amnesia." He played with the treads from his pajama and looked at his friend uncertainly, the other looked thoughtful. "Yes… as expected of Tsuna-sama, many coma patients has amnesia after waking up… we just need to contact the Family and.."

"No! Definitely no!"

"Uh? Why?"

"Don't you see? It's obvious they wanted to get rid of me, or at least to… send me away."

"Tsuna-sama I think there may be another explanation… they wouldn't…If I could contact your father?"

"I said NO! Promise me Hayato, promise me you won't let them know where I am when you return to Italy!"

Gokudera was looking at him funnily now, like trying to understand his words and failing. "When I return? What do you mean Tsuna-sama?"

"Well… you fulfilled your promise, and I'm like this, and you know…"

"Tsuna-sama! I vowed my life to you! My place is at your side! Unless you send me away I'm not moving one inch!"

Tsuna gaped at his friend, deeply troubled at the words and at the same time deeply hopeful. "B-but why?... I mean Why?" He said in a lost tone, looking deeply into the others eyes.

"Because… you accepted me, even when I was just a pest and kept shoving you around, playing bodyguard and only making trouble for you… you kept accepting and encouraging me… everybody, even Giotto-san, they just tolerated me, they put up with me… none of them believed in or even wanted me there, not at first." Said the bomber in firm tone, he had made a decision, an unshakable one.

"Hayato…"

"But you… you accepted me, and encouraged me… everything I am now, it started because of you. I'm sorry Tsuna-sama, but you just have to take responsibility for it!...that's it if you want…"

"What?" He tried to sound indignant but it ended being half amused half touched, he settled on smiling and bowing his head in defeat and just accepting his friend, it had been always like that, he just couldn't defeat him when it came to words.

"Who is this?" Tsuna flinched and looked at the door; Hibari-san was looking at Hayato in a murderous, angry way, like the way one looks at a dirty mutt lying on its doorstep.

"Who the hell wants to know?"

"Hayato! That… that's Hibari-san… he… I kind of owe him my life…" Now both of them were looking at him and each other alternately, one wary the other still annoyed. "You saved Tsuna-sama? How so?"

"He stopped someone trying to kill me. Please don't fight him Hayato!" He could see that Hibari-san was getting even more peeved. Whatever tolerance he had it was ending. Fast.

"I'm asking one more time herbivore, who are you?" Tsuna saw Gokudera bristle like an enraged cat, and he knew that his hands were twitching to take out his dynamites. This could get ugly very fast.

"I'm Tsuna-sama's bodyguard." Replied his friend and Tsuna flushed in embarrassment at the proud tone; to his surprise, Hayato had yet to blown anything apart, he had changed, he noticed.

"Hayato! His name is Gokudera Hayato… He is my friend Hibari-san… he was looking for me all this time…Uhm…please don't hurt him?" He asked with a small, trembling smile, Hibari for his part continued to look in disgust at the dirty clothes and disheveled appearance. And most of all the tell-tale posture of one who knew how to fight and defend. This was not an ordinary herbivore…

"I'm giving you ten seconds to get out of this town." He said in his most menacing tone, he activated the spikes on his tonfas, giving them a more menacing air, and saw in surprised glee how the herbivore took out his belt in mere seconds and covered his left hand with one half of it, leaving the other part free, thus making a good defensive weapon, this herbivore was really interesting…

"No! Unless you take me out in a coffin, I'm not moving!" He answered with a snarl, and then he moved in front of Tsuna, shielding the other with his body, he placed his stance to resist an attack and glowered at the other.

Hibari answered with a smile "As you wish." He launched his attack but the not-so-herbivore caught each blow, yet he wasn't fighting back, and this wasn't satisfactory to Hibari. With mounting irritation he caught him with a well-placed blow to his chest, sending the winded boy to his knees, and still, the other only glared back. "Tsuna-sama ordered me not to fight you, but I'm not moving from here, you heard me?" Hibari continued his assault and the other continued to evade his blows, little by little getting the fight away from his charge.

"HIEEEE! Hibari-san! Stop, stop! He is unharmed!" Said Tsuna crashing once more into the floor, Hibari rolled his eyes at the flailing herbivore and continued to frown at the other herbivore still glaring unflinchingly at him. A defender then… and not a cowardly one…

"Kusakabe!" He barked, and a tall teenager wearing a pompadour hair style entered the room.

"Yes President?" Asked his second in command, he was reluctantly pleased with the guy; he had remained in his ordered position during the confrontation.

"We have a new recruit. He is in charge of the hospital area, teach him the rules." The three of them looked as the teenager left the room without ado, leaving behind three gob-smacked and confused teens behind.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Asked G in an irritated tone, he felt terribly uncomfortable in this country, while he could speak a passable Japanese, what with Tsuna and Giotto speaking the gibberish, the little scribbles that passed as a written language were beyond him, all he could see were rows after rows of strange little symbols, so of course the written address was the same.

"Yes, G, now remember: Be polite."

"Prissy little…" Grumbled G while Giotto tried to stop his grin, he knew his friend loathed the flowery speech.

The house of Dr. Sasagawa was big, but small enough to be called normal. When the man had divorced his wife; Ana Salino, the little sister of the ninth's sun guardian. The woman had, in scorn, taken their only child with her from Japan to Italy and changed his surname.

The now Fabio Salino, halfway into middle school, had escaped her tender care to go around the world in search for the ultimate extreme sport. Giving birth to the living legend 'knuckles', all Giotto knew about the name was that it had been his little half-brother the one to give him the name.

"Are we going to stay here all day?" Said G, and Giotto prayed for the family to have some coffee at hand, G in coffee withdrawal was almost as scary as Rebon in the same state. He touched the white button and waited for the door to pen. When it did, he looked at a pretty girl with short hair smiling pleasantly at them, and he remembered that Knuckles had two half-siblings, one boy and a younger girl.

"Yes, how may I help you?" Came the sunny greeting and Giotto took out his charming persona, smiling gently at the girl. "Good morning, my name is Giotto and I am looking for Knuckles, we are his friends." He gave her his most brilliant smile and saw in gratification a dusting of red in the girl's face. "H-Hai! Oni-sama is in the backyard right now, he is training with oni-chan!"

At that time a body came flying through the air, and landed in the soft dirt, crushing half of the flower beds in the process. "Oni-chan!" The girl ran to the side of the fallen kid and Giotto saw in amusement as a sheepish Knuckles appeared in the scene. "I'm extremely sorry little-brother!"

"Dear God! There are two of them!" Gasped G in a horror stricken tone, Giotto could agree because of the uncanny similarities between the two, the only things that marked them apart was the age and hair, while one had dark the other was a grey-white.

"THAT WAS AN EXTREEME PUNCH ANIKI! Can you teach me? YES? YES? YES?"

Giotto was starting to get a bit nervous when G made a whimpering sound; he was gazing at the road with longing. "Oni-sama your friends came to visit." Explained the girl and Giotto waved at his friend, who immediately smiled at them

"Giotto! G-man! THIS IS AN EXTREEEME REUNION!"

Giotto smile dropped off his face when he saw the other prepare himself to tackle them in a hug. Knuckles hugs hurt, like in bone crushing hurt. He heard the resigned sigh of G, his marvelous friend G, who intercepted the hug to save his broken ribs from more pain. He flinched at the sound of the colliding bodies.

"AGH! LET ME GO! You extreme-idiot!" Panted G while turning around and grabbing the other's elbow, and then pulling the other hard, until he fell to his back, he put one feet in his chest and glared to him. "Where is the lazy-cow! Start talking!"

Unfazed Knucles continued to grin, while Ryohei stared in awe at G over the moves. "Uh Lampo? He is sleeping inside I think…"

Giotto smiled at the pair and approached his friends kneeling at his side with a grin. "Knuckles I'm happy to see you again! It's been what… three years? Are this your siblings?"

Knucles smiled at him. "This is Ryohei and this is Kyoko-chan, they're my extremely cute siblings!"

"HEY! I'm not cute! I'm an extreme boxer. Boxers are not cute Aniki! We are men amongst men!"

"HAHA, sorry! That's right! This is my extremely manly cute little brother!" Said the black haired teen. They started bickering while G let go of his victim and took out his cigarettes with trembling hands and a tick vein forming in his temple. Giotto saw Enma still hiding behind the fence, looking in wariness at the screaming match between the brothers, Giotto sighed and went to retrieve him.

Later, after a very long introductions and a few hours of talking and when they finally managed to tear away G's fingers from Lampo's neck, and Enma was left with Kyoko to babysit Lambo while Ryohei went to his afternoon running, they started with the tales. It was Lampo who told them their story, confirming G's theories.

"Okay, so your uncle was exchanging the ten year bazooka and information about the Vongola?"

"ah… yes. I even recorded it in Knuckles' phone. But they found us when Lambo started to cry"

G was unwillingly impressed at the pair. "Okay let's hear it." Said G but the other two looked sheepish at this, and G remembered the sunken ship. "It got ruined in the sea isn't?"

The other two flinched and Knuckles looked a little bit embarrassed. "Ah… no, I bought a special extreme phone, because all the others were too delicate, and It was waterproof… well you see… the other kid, I kind of left it with him."

"Other kid?"

"There was this extremely scary kid in the boat with us. He kind of helped us to reach the land. IT WAS SUCH A GREAT TRAINING! We should do it together sometime!" G felt vindicated when the other two admitted to having help.

Lampo pushed Knuckles out of the bed when he started to get too enthusiastic and he continued the tale. "He said his name was Antonio, and he kind of looked a lot like you…" Said Lampo, looking at him with narrowed eyes, he tilted his head and stared hard at him. Knuckles also squinted at him, invading his personal space and poked him in the cheek, until G shoved him away. "YES! They are extremely alike! He even had the same octopus hairstyle!"

"What did you say?"

"Yes but he had grayish hair… and had this scary explosives and the same hideous temper as you, OH! Yes and that same glare!." Said Lampo. G and Giotto eyed each other in foreboding. G took out his phone and searched frantically through it; he finally found an old picture of Hayato and Tsuna and almost shoved the small screen to the other two.

"It was him?"

The two squinted at the tiny photo and Knuckles nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! He is the one who took my phone!"

"You left it with him idiot!" Giotto looked at G and blinked in astonishment. "It can't be…"

Meanwhile in Italy…

Cozart finally understood Giotto's fear of this man, it was not the gun, neither were the threats, no, it was that damn smirk that made the experience so scary, that 'I'm going to enjoy this' smile that made him finally cave in.

"Japan…they went to Japan." He said in defeat. 'Sorry Giotto…I could only gain you four days'

Reborn smiled sadistically and…was that a bit of pride in his eyes? "That's good, it saves us time. Pack your things Shimon, we have a plane to catch.

"Uh?"

"We found information about the tuna-fish. He is definitely in Japan."

You know that guy who feeds and takes care of your pet when you leave town? That's Gokudera to Hibari.

This chapter was so… emotionally draining to write… T.T