Tsuna POV

The next morning was relatively normal. Reborn hit me with a mallet, I screeched in response, yelled something about being late, then ran out the door with a piece of toast in my mouth. All in all normal, for me that is (the mallet to my stomach was new though).

Unfortunately I didn't make it to school on time but a little bit of my old luck came back and I managed to avoid Hibari. I opened the classroom door and was about to walk in when I saw a teenage with silver hair and emerald green eyes standing in the front of the room. He looked like a delinquent with his skull rings, punk attitude, and the cigarettes peaking out of his back pocket.

"Sawada your late!" The teacher said to me, stopping my study of the student. "Go sit down."

I walked to my seat and sat down.

"We have a new transfer student who was studying over seas in Italy Gokudera Hayato," the teacher introduced. The girls squealed.

"Smokn' Bomb Hayato. This has Reborn written all over it," I thought with a mental smirk. "This will definitely be interesting. School has been get rather boring lately."

Gokudera-kun your seat is over- Gokudera-kun?" The teacher questioned as Gokudera stared walking towards my desk.

"Pathetic," he said as he reached me. He knocked my desk over and kept going.

"Oh he's so going to regret that. Plus it has been a while since I pulled of a prank..." my mind train of thought continued on that line of thought until the bell rung.

During lunch I walked around the back of the school and ran into Gokudera.

"If someone like you will become the Decimo then Vongala will perish," he growled at me.

"Awww. If you keep talking like that you'll hurt my feelings~" I thought sarcastically while rolling my eyes mentally.

"I refuse to accept it," he took out a handful of dynamite and put a lit cigarette in his mouth. "Die!"

"Now that will get you into trouble Go~ku~dera~kun," I thought as I let out a shrill scream and dodged the dynamite clumsily. I cursed the seal, while the fog had cleared some I was no where near ready to fight someone someone trained in the mafia yet. The dynamite exploded behind me knocking me to the ground.

Gokudera grabbed more dynamite but before he could light it a familiar voice called out, "Ciaossu."

"Reborn!" I yelled out in fake surprise as the baby appeared on a windowsill not far from us.

"You arrived earlier than I except Gokudera Hayato," he said in an all knowing tone.

"Ehh? You know each other?" I asked like a clueless civilian would.

"Yes. He is a member of the family I called over from Italy," he replied smugly. "Though this is my first time meeting him as well."

"So this guy is in the mafia?!" I exclaimed.

"So you're the ninth generation most trusted assassin, Reborn," Gokudera stated butting into our conversation. "You weren't kidding when you said I would become a candidate as a successor if I kill Sawada, right?"

"Wait what?" I exclaimed. "Couldn't they have come up with a better excuse? If they really were willing to accept someone without Primo's blood then they wouldn't have hired the number one hitman to train a civilian when they could have an experienced mafioso."

"Yeah that's right. Let's continue the killing," Reborn replied to Gokudera ignoring my question.

"Killing me? What are you talking about? You're joking right?" I asked in a fake panic.

"I'm serious," he replied making no attempt to calm me down.

"Well that was blunt," I thought. "To be fair if I were in his position I would probably do the same. After all the reactions of people about to die (real or not) tend to be entertaining, or maybe I'm just sadistic." I shrugged mentally while bringing my thoughts back to reality.

"So you're saying everything you told me was a lie?" I cried making notes of betrayal evident in my voice.

"No you're wrong. I'm telling you to fight," he replied while pointing a gun at me.

"F-fight the transfer student?" I stuttered. "I don't want to fight the mafia!" Actually that could be entertaining, maybe Iater. I started running away but Gokudera stepped infront of me and pulled out more dynamite.

"Gokudera Hayato is a human explosive device that conceals dynamite all over his body. His other name is Smokin' Bomb Hayato," Reborn informed helpfully (note the sarcasm).

"You have got to be kidding me!" I yelled as I dodged the dynamite Gokudera threw at me. I kept running but I ran into a dead end and sadly still didn't have the capability to scale the wall.

"This is it," Gokudera stated as he appeared behind me and threw more dynamite then I could dodge. This is gonna hurt.

"Fight with your dying will."

I can see Gokudera's confused expression as a bullet buried itself in my forehead and once more a fire ran through my veins freeing me from the chains that bound my soul. The fog cleared and everything sharpened. My last regret bubble to the surface fueling my dying will.

"PUT OUT THE FUSES AND SEE CONAN WITH MY DYING WILL!" I screamed leaping into action. I gracefully leapt from one stick of dynamite to another extinguishing the flame on the fuse one by one.

"What?" Gokudera asked a look of shock and confusion still present, but he's not a hitman for nothing and quickly drew out twice as many of his explosives. "Double bomb!"

After I difused those I could practically see the tick mark forming on his forehead. Such a short fuse for someone who deals with explosives. Anger can cause fatal mistakes. I hope he doesn't explode I wouldn't know how to tell Shin-chan that the reason I had blood on me (and he would know, mom would tell him) was because a Mafioso lost his temper a managed to kill himself with his own explosives that he was trying to throw at me. Now that I think about it he might just say he deserved it and move on. We really have changed from the teens that would have balked at such a casual dismissal of death. Oh well.

Gokudera started pulling out more dynamite from various parts of his body. The number of explosives increased to triple the original amount. It was as he was lighting said bombs that things went wrong just as I predicted. A single piece of lit dynamite slipped from his arms and landing at his feet. I could almost see the words "this is the end of me" running through his head as he gazed at the fallen explosive.

I couldn't let him die just like that and my will to diffuse the bombs was still in place so I sprung into a flurry of motion. Moving faster than I had before I defused each bomb as quickly as I could. Just as I extinguished the final fuse the orange flames on my forehead fizzled out of existence and the shackles that bound me returned if a bit looser than before.

"Whew, somehow I made it," relief obvious in my voice.

All I have a sudden Gokudera got on his knees, "I was mistaken," he exclaimed "Tenth, I'll follow you! Command me to do anything!"

Ahh I forgot about that mafia rule.

"Having the loser serve under the winner is a family rule," Reborn said popping up out of one of his hiding spots in the school. Yep that rule.

"Actually I didn't come here with any ambitions to become the tenth it's just that when I heard that the tenth is a Japanese guy my age I had to come and test his skill," Gokudera explained. "But you're much more than I expected!" He continued, "For putting yourself on the line to save me, I'll place my life in your hands."

"That's a little much don't you think? Classmates should be fine right?" That is definitely overboard. He must be desperate to get into a family if he is willing to give his life for someone he just met, or maybe he wasn't loved or cared for by many people as a kid to where he honestly didn't think anyone would be willing to save him, maybe a little bit of both. The small flinch he had when he heard my words proved my theory right.

"Absolutely not," his flinch turned into a desperate glare.

"Gokudera became your subordinate because of your strength. Good job Tsuna," Reborn told me and I could hear the underlining sincerity in his tone.

Before I could say anything back to him a group of delinquents came walking by.

"Oh no these guys are skipping class. This requires some punishment," commented delinquent one.

"You're only allowed to skip starting senior year," sneered delinquent two.

"How many teeth do you want broken?" The last delinquent asked.

"Leave it to me," Gokudera said with a serious look on his face, "I'll get rid of them."

He started walking towards them dynamite already in his hands. I wasn't going to stop him. Those were some of my bullies. I am gonna sit back and enjoy the show. Next to me Reborn did the same. This will definitely bring some good entertainment to this town, and I'll be sure to enjoy every bit of it. Maybe I should invest in hidden cameras.

Later that night I sat on top of the roof of my house staring at the dark and cloudy sky as the wind blew strong and sure.

The storm has arrived ready to destroy anything in its path now it's time for the rain to fall.