AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wow, it's been a crazy couple weeks. I belatedly realized that after I wrote the last chapter and posted it, I completely made my outline for the story obsolete and had to go back and do a lot of reworking. I think overall it's going to turn out better for it, but it's such a pain when it happens.

Anyway, I present to you chapter two. Quick reference: Dani Shirokaia was Haru's tutor in Haru's Resolve after Reborn turned Haru down when she asked him to teach her. Dani was working for someone to eliminate the Vongola 10th Gen. While Haru was training to take Dani on, Dani was attacking the others off-screen (since Haru's Resolve was Haru-centric and I didn't really focus on anything outside of Haru herself).

As a head's up, the next chapter might be a week later than usual because I will be going on vacation from March 16-March 23 (and technically I should post the next chapter on March 20th sticking with my every other week schedule) and I'm not sure if I'm going to have access to the internet to post the chapter or if I will have it ready yet.

Anyway, putting the usual disclaimer in here Katekyo Hitman Reborn! is not mine, it's Amano-sensei's and I'm just playing in the world because I wanted the story to go beyond where the manga left off.

After the delay in the next update, I should be back to my every other week schedule for updates.

Thank you very much for reading ^_^

xoxo ~ Yuki

Target 02-02: Gathering Storm

They gathered at Take Sushi after school while Yamamoto's father was out picking up some needed items for the evening that hadn't been delivered. Haru sat at the table with Yamamoto and Gokudera, waiting for Tsuna and the former Arcobaleno to arrive. Ryohei was in another town for a boxing tournament. Dark shadows lay beneath Haru's eyes as she restlessly sifted through the papers in her hand, skimming them one last time to see if she could dredge anything else out of her memories.

"What's this Trabuchet Family trying to accomplish?" Gokudera asked Haru, finally breaking the long silence.

"According to Dani, they try and move in to other Family's territories if they look to be vulnerable," Haru replied. "They view Tsuna-san's reluctance to step into his position as the Vongola Decimo as one of those openings."

She shuffled through the papers and set a couple out for the other two to look at. "That's a loose look at their organization, Dani had me do some research into the organization of Mafia families, including the Vongola, the Hanatachi, and what little I could glean about the Trabuchet. I didn't get very far into the research as we skipped topics a few days later. Their primary base isn't here, but they've built a stronger presence here than most other rival families. Probably in order to figure anything else out we're going to have to find their base of operations here."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Gokudera scowled.

"I'm still working on it," Haru said tiredly. "I spent all of yesterday and most of this morning working on getting what information I did manage to gather together. I would have liked to linger on this part a little longer, but Dani was constantly bouncing me between things."

The papers were snatched up as Reborn appeared and settled on the table followed a few moments later by the ringing of the bell and Tsuna entering. "Sorry, had to go to the elementary school and get Lambo and take him home. He nearly blew up the boys' bathroom."

"Do you have anything else besides this, Haru?" the toddler asked.

Haru shook her head. "That's all I had a chance to come up with while working under Dani," she said. "I'd probably narrow the location of their base to somewhere in the shopping district. The attacks against Kyoko and the others radiated out from there."

"Maybe in the underground shopping area they were building that the Millefiore were located in?" Gokudera suggested.

"I don't think so," Haru said. "I think most of the spymasters for the other Families around here would have noted that. I have some ideas to get started on to find further clues, but…"

"Just tell us those ideas and we'll go see what we can find," Tsuna said.

Haru folded her arms and regarded Tsuna silently for a long moment. "You will not have access to some of the things that I do, Tsuna-san," she said, her voice was gentle; she knew why he was talking like that. "Haru is part of your Family now, for better or worse."

"How can you protect anyone if you're busy chasing clues?" Tsuna questioned.

"Haru is the only who has any idea of our enemy at this point," Reborn said. "For now, Haru, you will work with Gokudera since he's been around the longest."

"What?" Gokudera growled. "Why do I need that stupid girl weighing me down?"

Haru glared at the silver-haired demolitionist.

"If you want to be a proper right hand man for Tsuna, you have to learn to work with everyone, Gokudera," Reborn stated. "You learned that in the future and it still holds now."

"But—" he began.

"Are you afraid Haru might outshine you?" Haru asked, a smile quirking her lips.

"Hell, no, you're only half-trained at best, and this is dangerous," Gokudera stated flatly. "We don't need someone going at it half-assed because they want to impress people. This isn't some dance through flowers in the park where you smack down a few people and call it good then claim a kiss from the victor at the end. People can get hurt and die in this."

Haru flinched a bit at that. "Is that how you think Haru is looking at this?"

"You don't know what the fuck you're looking at yet," Gokudera snarled.

"Maa, maa…" Yamamoto said, his eyes going between the two.

Tsuna's eyes went between the two and he sighed heavily, slumping in his seat—he seriously doubted Reborn's wisdom about bringing Haru into the group. He'd become used to Yamamoto and Gokudera being nearby and they all worked well together, but adding Haru to the mix…

"Why don't you at least try it before you say no?" Tsuna suggested, straightening up and looking at the two-if nothing else, Gokudera should be able to protect Haru.

"She's just going to get in the way!"

"You don't know that, Gokudera," Haru stated. "You've never worked with me before."

"If you can't work with anyone in the Family, you have no right to call yourself Tsuna's right hand man, Gokudera," the toddler reiterated and turned to look at Haru. "And, Haru, consider this your initiation. If you can't do this then…"

He trailed off and Haru stiffened. "Haru won't let you down," she stated quietly.

"Che…no one will be a better right hand man for Judaime than me," Gokudera growled. "If I have to do this, let's go, stupid woman."

"Haru is not stupid," Haru snapped back and then took a deep breath. "But because I will become a Mafioso wife, Haru will have to get along with everyone close to Tsuna-san, including idiot demolitionists."

Gokudera nearly snarled something, but Haru disarmed him with a sweet smile. "Shall we go?"

Gokudera glared at her and collected his school jacket and shrugged it on. "Let's go."

"Haru's heading out now, excuse me Tsuna-san, Yamamoto," Haru said.

Haru made her way out of the restaurant, giving Tsuyoshi Yamamoto a smile as she passed him and thanked him for letting them use his restaurant to meet in. "Where the hell do you think you're going, stupid woman?" Gokudera's voice rang down the street and Haru stopped.

She turned and gave him an innocent smile. "Oh, you were coming?" she asked.

Gokudera stalked up to her and glared down at her. "Let's get one thing straight, stupid woman, I am in charge of this and you do what I say or there's going to be problems."

Haru's brown gaze clashed with Gokudera's gray-green and she dropped her eyes, silently backing down. She let Gokudera take the lead, keeping an eye on the surroundings as she started sorting through the various incidents that had been mounting up over the past few weeks. There had to be a place that could possibly be the center of it…

"Stop daydreaming, stupid girl," Gokudera scowled, yanking her back as she accidentally stepped foot into the intersection as the cars zoomed past.

"Hahi!"

"Are you sure they're going to be all right, Reborn?" Tsuna asked worriedly.

He and Yamamoto were going to his house to check in with Tsuna's father to see if the head CEDEF had any leads that would be of use. They'd chatted a little bit and had some food at Tsuyoshi's insistence before leaving.

"If Haru kills Gokudera, you already have another promising right hand man. Don't worry about it too much," Reborn said from his perch on Yamamoto's shoulder.

"Reborn!"

Yamamoto chuckled at the former Arcobaleno's comment. "They'll be fine—probably," Yamamoto said.

"I hope so," Tsuna mumbled.

"Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna jumped and turned to see Kyoko coming towards them with the kids and Bianchi in tow. "Kyoko-chan!" he greeted her delightedly.

"Haru-chan asked me to bring the kids home from school today and your mom asked me to get some stuff for dinner when I got there, so we all went shopping," Kyoko said, displaying the bag. "Bianchi-san happened to be in the area and came with us."

Even though Kyoko knew about the Mafia, she still didn't seem to quite understand the seriousness of it and Tsuna was all right with that. "Lambo-san wants grapes!" the boy shouted, making a mad scramble out of Kyoko's arms and barreling towards the house.

"Lambo-chan, be careful!" Kyoko shouted as Lambo darted across the road as a car screeched around the corner.

An orange flame lit on Tsuna's brow and he sprang at Lambo, managing to grab the irrepressible five-year-old and landing on the other side safely as the car passed. "What do you think you're doing, Lambo?" Tsuna demanded, the dying will flame fading out.

Lambo looked up at him with wide green eyes. "Hold…it…in…"

Then he burst out crying and Tsuna sighed and the others caught up to him.

Kyoko immediately picked up the sobbing boy and cuddled him in close. "Are you all right, Lambo-chan, you're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

The boy said nothing and Kyoko turned her eyes to Tsuna. "You saved him, Tsuna-kun," she said with soft awe.

Tsuna flushed and looked up and met Reborn and Yamamoto's surprised looks. "What?" he asked.

"That was awesome," Yamamoto said. "I'm glad the kid was all right."

He'd also half-leapt into the road to save the boy, but Tsuna had beat him to it.

They arrived in the kitchen to find Nana fuming. "Mom? What's wrong?" Tsuna asked.

"Your father went off again without saying good-bye, why I ought to…" Nana muttered darkly as she stalked into the kitchen and began to slam pans around as she prepped to make dinner.

"No way, he's gone again?" Tsuna asked.

They collected the snacks that Nana had laid out for them and went upstairs and settled around the table in Tsuna's room. "Well, there goes that idea," Tsuna sighed.

Meanwhile, Haru and Gokudera were revisiting the sites of the various incidents that kept cropping up in the rumor mill and were coming up with nothing. Gokudera slumped against the side of one of the buildings and lit a cigarette.

Haru coughed as the smoke blew into her face and scowled up at him. "Are you trying to kill me too?" she snapped.

"What?" Gokudera said blankly.

"Secondhand smoke causes cancer," Haru sniffed. "If you must smoke go over there. I'm trying to think."

"Is that right?" Gokudera growled, shoving away from the wall and towering over her.

Haru was not intimidated and met him glare for glare. "Put it out or go over there, Bakadera."

He snarled something else, but moved away as requested and Haru frowned as she ran back through her memory. While Gokudera was smoking, she went to one of the booths that sold maps of the area and bought a few and some pens from the stationary store.

"What are you doing?" Gokudera asked, stubbing the cigarette out and approaching after disposing of the butt.

"Is there some place we can go to spread these maps out?" Haru asked.

"Why?" Gokudera questioned.

"Because maybe if we have a visual representation of where everything is we might be able to narrow the search down a bit," Haru said.

Gokudera stopped for a moment and contemplated her suggestion. "My place is a couple blocks from here. Do you object to going there?"

Haru hesitated and Gokudera snorted. "You needn't worry about me doing anything," he said. "You're not my type."

Haru's eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't matter anyway; I'm in love with Tsuna-san."

Gokudera barked a laugh. "Then shall we?"

They made their way to Gokudera's small apartment and shoved the furniture around to make room on the floor for the maps and Haru pulled out a red marker and made X's where the attacks had happened while she'd been preparing to confront Dani and a blue marker to mark the rumored incidents, no one had moved directly against the Vongola Guardians since Dani was taken by the Vindice.

"They're being too quiet," Gokudera stated.

Haru glanced up at Gokudera. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"If they're trying to move in on Vongola territory, they're making just enough noise to catch our attention, but that isn't their main attack," Gokudera said, hunkering down beside her and pointing to a few spots. "Your house is there. Kyoko's is there. Judaime's is here. There's nothing reported around there, but if they're trying to maneuver Judaime into a fight they would know they have to hit closer to home."

Haru was silent and then settled on the ground, drawing her knees to her chest as she surveyed the map.

"When they come out they're going to come out big," Gokudera said. "Are you really sure you want to get tangled up in this? It's going to get messy very fast. Wouldn't it be easier just to let us handle it?"

"Easier for who?" Haru questioned. "Even if I wanted to step out now, it wouldn't do much good. Because we're associated with Tsuna, we're going to be targets. I won't be left helpless waiting for someone to rescue me. Even if the idea of being rescued is romantic—the inside of a coffin is not."

"You're serious about this aren't you?" Gokudera said, turning to look at her in surprise.

"I've never been more serious in my life," Haru said quietly.

"Damn…" Gokudera said and pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

He moved away from Haru so the smoke wouldn't get in her face.

"My current knowledge of this world is only enough to go just below the surface—there's still a lot I need to know," Haru said. "I want to protect everyone and I don't want to see anything like what we saw in the future against Byakuran. I don't know what kind of life my future self had before we got there, but I'm betting it wasn't very happy with Tsuna-san and everyone getting hurt or vanishing."

Thunder rumbled outside and the patter of rain hitting the roof echoed.

The next words were the one of the hardest things Haru ever had to say, but she took a deep breath and forced them out.

"Chrome has been working with me on my physical fighting skills, but she doesn't know a lot about the Mafia world either, mostly because Mukuro would rather destroy it," Haru said. "Reborn assigned us to work together because you know more than me and you've been a hitman longer than any other of Tsuna's Guardians. Will you help me learn more as well? I know just enough to get myself into trouble right now, but I'm not sure I'd be able to get out of it on my own."

The cigarette nearly fell from Gokudera's mouth, but he recovered quickly. "You want me to teach you?" he demanded.

Haru stiffened and she was about to make a scathing retort, but she bit her tongue hard. "Yes…please."