Chapter 6.

Pretend to be Shigeru?

Tsuna just stared at her brother. She probably looked like a fish with its mouth open. Realising she probably also looked as unglamourous as a fish, she quickly closed it.

Me?

"B-b-but-" She stuttered in protest.

"I know." Shigeru cut in. "I know you can't act to save your life. On top of the fact that you can't play soccer, can't run and can't score an A in math. Which might blow my cover."

"But, I'm willing to take the risk. I have to go for the auditions. This is my big chance!" Shigeru had stopped whispering at this point, and clenched his fists.

"B-b-but...", her twin just ignored her stammers and went on.

"And, Yamamoto would help you! Nothing can go wrong! Right, buddy?" Shigeru turned to Yamamoto-kun, chest puffed out.

Ever the optimistic person, Yamamoto-kun responded with a cheery "of course!"

But...

"A month is quite long, Shigeru..." She protested. She felt faint. This was surreal. Was her brother serious?

"It'll be fine! You always skipped school anyway right? Nobody really noticed. And as long as you're around Yamamoto, my cover won't be blown."

The school building was drawing near. They were almost there.

"It'll be fine, Tsuna! So you'll help me won't you?"

They were walking amongst the other students now. Light chatter filled the air. Some guys called Yamamoto-kun over, and he left.

"Of course you would!" Shigeru exclaimed, patting her shoulder. "Alright, I am so pumped for the auditions!"

And with that, he strode ahead, through the school gates, yelling greetings to various just watched and followed behind, dragging her feet.

She didn't really feel like going to school anymore. "Nobody really noticed," he said. I already knew that. It was how she got away with going home in the middle of school so easily and so often. She knew that, but hearing it hurt her more than she thought it would.

She exhaled deeply, and plodded on to class.

Class went on as usual, and she spaced out more than usual. After a while she slumped over her desk, and hid her face behind her textbook. Shigeru's words seemed to have taken hold of her mind. They kept swirling in her thoughts. Who would remember dame-Tsuna? Who would notice you? There's no need for you, Shigeru alone is more than enough for this world.

That's it, she was definitely going home during lunch break. If she had to mope, she would mope in her room or something. She could sprawl on her bed, or curl up under the covers. She never saw the point of going to school anyway. Anyone can graduate, even a dame-person like her. Then she could find some average job, like...being a librarian or something.

All she had to do now was wait for her classmates to clear out. There go the guys who dashed to the canteen for a quick bite before they headed to the field to play soccer. Then went the girly clique full of Shigeru's and Yamamoto-kun's fans. They usually went to eat under the Sakura tree next to the soccer field, so they had a good view of the guys while they ate. Then went Kyoko's clique, to have a quiet lunch with her friends somewhere. (She didn't stalk everybody.)

Now all that left were a few stragglers and herself. Tsuna started to pack her bag. Great, there was no one left but herself now. She slung her bag over her shoulder and stood up.

"Where are you going?" a gruff voice stopped her.

She looked up. It was Gokudera-kun, holding two cups of hot chocolate.

"Umm..."

Definitely, even while holding cups of hot chocolate, Gokudera-kun was intimidating. She couldn't lie under such a fierce stare, she was already squirming.

He didn't wait for her answer, and just placed a cup of hot chocolate in her hand.

She didn't wait any longer. She scampered.

The gate opened with a squeak and clicked shut. Reborn looked up, the wimpy-twin had come home. It was too early for school to be over. She must have skipped again. For a wimpy person, she sure didn't stick to the rules very well.

But he didn't have time to think about Tsuna. The letter from the Nono had arrived on Sunday. This would be Shigeru's first set of formal instructions from the Vongola. Trouble was coming to Namimori. But could the future Vongola boss fix it?

Compared to Dino, who had been quite terrible frankly, Shigeru clearly had more potential. And Dino eventually turned out to be a capable and respectable boss of the Cavallone Family. But Dino was never as selfish and self-centered as Shigeru is.

The younger twin only cared about himself. Reborn always thought twins would be more caring of each other. This was apparently not the case with the Sawada twins.

Dino was also never as arrogant as Shigeru. The brat was so sure of himself, he hardly listened to Reborn. His cocky attitude was the main reason why progress had been excruciatingly slow. When Reborn dealt with Dino, all he had to do was intimidate him, or humiliate him. Things weren't as easy with Shigeru (or as fun.)

Another problem would be the Family Shigeru had formed so far. If it could even be called a Family.

Technically, Smoking-Bomb Hayato was part of the family. However, beyond the initial contact a week ago, nothing had progressed. Plus, Reborn knew that Shigeru still had yet to tell Yamamoto about the Vongola. That sneaky brat.

The foundations were shaky.

But they were there. Reborn never went back on his word. He promised the train the next Vongola boss. He had chosen Shigeru. He couldn't have possibly chosen Tsuna the wimp, right? He promised to shape up the next Vongola boss, and that's what he was going to do with Shigeru.

Reborn sighed internally. This was turning out to be a troublesome job that was going to take some time.

Leon yawned in agreement.

Having moped Thursday away, Tsuna had to drag herself out of bed to school on Friday. Even her absence would be noticed if she missed role-call.

Today was the first time in a while that she had to walk to school on her own. Both soccer and baseball had morning practice, so it was just her, her mom and Reborn at breakfast. It was a quiet affair. Oh, and a chameleon was sipping strawberry milk out of a saucer. Tsuna sighed. Her life was definitely going off the tangent.

Suddenly, her eyes went crossed, and she halted in her steps. There was a metal bar right in front of her nose. She blinked in confusion. Then, she looked beyond the piece of metal into steely purple eyes.

"Going home early without reason is against the rules, herbivore."

She was doomed. It was Hibari Kyouya, the head of the disciplinary committee of Namimori High school. She had heard all sorts of rumours about him. He was known to be ruthless to anyone who broke the rules. No one would dare to go against him. That would be suicidal. Even the teachers let him be.

Quickly, she backed away and started to apologize. But before she could say a word, Hibari swiftly turned away from her, and used his weapons to block an oncoming fist.

"G-Gokudera-kun!"

"What do you think you're doing, bastard!" the silver-haired youth snarled at the prefect.

Hibari just smirked in response, and deflected Gokudera's punch away. "I'll bite you to death for that."

Bite him to death! Tsuna freaked out internally. She looked frantically at Gokudera. He didn't seem to have any intention of backing down at all. In fact, he was drawing out something from his pockets.

Are those dynamites?! Tsuna felt faint.

Gokudera drew a stance, looking every bit prepared for a fight to come. Hibari too, raised his tonfas slightly, and smirked.

Tsuna's eyes darted between the two boys. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweating and her teeth were clenched. They're going to fight, for real. Why is Gokudera-kun here anyway? Why did things turn out this way? What should I do?

If she ran away, she would be leaving Gokudera alone to deal with Hibari (not that her presence would make much of a difference). Even with all his menacing manners, Gokudera was definitely less scary than Hibari. Plus, she was sort-of-friends with Gokudera, she couldn't just leave him.

Crap, the fight was starting.

She couldn't think of any other option. Tsuna dashed forward.

She ran as fast as she could, in between the two boys and their weapons. With agility that she never knew she had, she ducked under the tonfa, used her bag to smack away the flying dynamites and grabbed Gokudera's arm.

"Sorry sempai, no, I mean, Hibari-san!" She yelled as the dynamites exploded around them. Without looking back, she ran all the way to school, dragging Gokudera behind her.

Alright, chapter 6! Did you like it? Please leave a review, I would love to know your thoughts.

DISCLAIMER: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! and its characters don't belong to me. The only thing I can claim ownership over is the storyline.