AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, I managed to finish this up faster than I anticipated, so instead of waiting until I get back from vacation I will put it out before I leave on vacation.

The chapter feels a little shaky to me, but I hope you all like it. I may have tried to do a little too much in it with everything happening simultaneously. I tried to keep the transitions smooth to leave as little confusion as I could.

KHR doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Akira Amano-I just play here a lot lately. The story line belongs to me.

Thank you as always for reading and please look forward to my next update (3/27)-provided my vacation doesn't throw me completely off-schedule.

Please review if you get a chance ^_^

PS If you're curious about when Gokudera helped Tsuna with his finals to get into third year, my story "Name" covers that section (yes, I did kinda purposely tailor it to my current storyline plots ^^; )

Target 03-02: Lightning Fast Attack

"We'll kill two birds with one stone," Gokudera said, putting two packets down in front of Tsuna as they settled in one of the study rooms of the library.

"Huh?" Tsuna asked, brown eyes going to the papers in front of him.

Gokudera tapped the Takanamori practice test with one finger—he'd acquired the copy from the counselor as Tsuna requested and already looked it over as well as the test for Namimori High. "The two tests directly correlate to one another, if we study for the Takanamori entrance exam, we'll also be studying most of the same material for Namimori," Gokudera said. "So by studying for one, you're covering the material for both."

Tsuna picked up the Takanamori test as if it were a live snake and skimmed the first page. "I don't know any of this Gokudera," he stated miserably.

"Yes, you do," Gokudera said, plopping down in the seat next to his Boss. "We went over this when we were working on getting you through the exams to make to third year. We'll break it into chunks so that you can hopefully retain more of it. I'm not sure if the cram schools will help any."

"I wouldn't have time for a cram school anyway," Tsuna replied.

"Point," Gokudera said. "So let's take it a little at a time."

The longer he stayed close to Judaime, the more Gokudera learned about how to handle at least some aspects of his Boss.

An explosion rattled the window panes some time later, jarring Tsuna out of his contemplation of the gibberish on the paper that Gokudera told him was algebra. His brown eyes shot to the roof over Hibari's usual quarters and a plume of smoke billowed out of a broken window. Gokudera's eyes followed his and they both snapped to their feet, knocking their chairs down in the process. "What the hell was that?" the demolitionist growled as he and Tsuna made their way to the library exit.

"No running in the library!"

They ignored the librarian's shout and skidded out the door and down the hall, dodging the students who were pouring out of their club activities in response to the explosion. By the time they were out the front doors of the school, Tsuna had shifted into Dying Will Mode and Gokudera had his Vongola Gear armed.

Before they could make it to Hibari's rooms they wound up thrown onto the ground as it shattered beneath their feet.

"Found you."

Four men surrounded them and Tsuna wound up back-to-back with Gokudera as the enemy closed in.

"Senpai!"

Ryohei Sasagawa turned to see Yamamoto running towards him and excused himself from his boxing teammates and went to go meet the Vongola Rain Guardian. "I didn't expect you here; did you come to join the boxing club?" Ryohei asked.

Yamamoto chuckled and shook his head; he knew Ryohei only asked that out of habit. "We promised to meet up and discuss what happened on Monday while you were at your boxing match," Yamamoto reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Ryohei said and laughed loudly. "I forgot about that to the extreme."

The two moved away from the group towards the other side of Namimori High and both sprang back as flames roared towards them. "What the…" Yamamoto's eyes narrowed and he activated his Vongola Necklace as Ryohei followed suit with his bangle.

Several men appeared behind the flames, smirking at the two.

They exited the cake shop, giggling and trying to keep Lambo contained as they turned towards the Sawada residence. Chrome hadn't eaten much of the sweets with Kyoko and Haru, but she seemed to be enjoying spending time with the other girls and they'd discussed their studies for the Takanamori High exam they'd decided to take together.

As they neared the end of the shopping district, Haru caught Chrome's eyes and gestured minutely behind them at two people who'd been following them almost since they exited the shop. The dark-haired girl nodded and her fingers dipped into her bag and pulled her trident out. I-Pin saw the movement and reached up and grasped Kyoko's hand suddenly, catching the young woman's attention. "What's wrong, I-Pin?" Kyoko asked, looking down at her.

I-Pin pointed almost shyly to a clothing store. "Can we go in there, please?" she asked, her Japanese was improving by leaps and bounds now that she was immersed in a school where it was the primary spoken language.

"Lambo-san doesn't want to go into the girlie store!" the cow boy protested.

"Girlie stores like that are ranked number one out of five hundred to have candy on the floor," Fuuta said blandly, he'd caught the look between Chrome and Haru.

Lambo's eyes lit up. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, really," Fuuta replied.

"Let's go~o!" Lambo said and charged towards the store with the others trailing in his wake, leaving Haru and Chrome behind.

"Ready?" Chrome asked Haru.

Haru nodded and Chrome activated her trident and the ring she'd acquired somewhere flared. "Your ring…" Haru trailed off hesitantly.

"Mukuro-sama has the Vongola Ring now," Chrome said, "but this one serves my purposes so I can do what I need to."

Haru nodded and she drew out her hairpins and uncapped them, she kept the pins dipped in a knock out drug for everyday use because that seemed to be the most sensible idea over some of the other tinctures she had managed to acquire.

The butt of Chrome's trident hit the ground and seemed to sink in and mist began to rise as the men following them came into sight.

"Let's get away from the school," Tsuna said to Gokudera. "People could get hurt."

Gokudera nodded and pulled out some flashbombs. "Cover your eyes, Judaime."

He flung them out, the glasses in the Cambio Forma blocking out the harmful effect that temporarily blinded their opponents. As soon as the bombs hit, Tsuna took off and Gokudera followed, dodging through the myriad of buildings on campus.

They rendezvoused at the very edge of campus and Tsuna landed next to Gokudera, his orange gaze going the direction they came from. "We need to take them out without hurting anyone," Tsuna said.

Gokudera nodded and armed the Bone Loops and as their attackers came into view they were fully charged and imprisoned them. After the men were secured, Tsuna approached, but almost in unison all four seemed to collapse in their prisons. "What…"

"Omerta," Reborn said, seeming to appear from nowhere as usual. "We're not going to get any information from these guys. Gokudera let the Bone Loops down."

Gokudera did as requested and Reborn approached the bodies and kicked one, watching it flop over. "Search them, it's the only way we're going to get clues."

Tsuna shuddered back from the idea, but Gokudera moved forward. "You shouldn't have to dirty your hands with this, Judaime, I'll look," he said

The Dying Will Flame faded out and Tsuna looked at the corpses, his face pale. "What kind of people are these guys?" he asked slowly.

"Dangerous," Reborn said quietly. "Send a message to your Famiglia. We need to have a meeting."

Tsuna took a moment to figure out what Reborn meant and then pulled out his cell phone and turned it on, waiting for it to boot up before firing off an email to Yamamoto, Ryohei, and Chrome.

Yamamoto's phone buzzed just as the last guy hit the ground and he took a moment to catch his breath before he picked it up. "It's a message from Tsuna. He says to meet him at his house tonight at seven."

"That was extremely dangerous," Ryohei scowled, tossing another knife into the small pile that had gathered as they disarmed them. Surprisingly, no one had come in the response to the commotion yet.

"Who are these guys?" Yamamoto murmured, turning one over.

A cellphone dropped from the attacker's pocket and Yamamoto picked it up and flipped it open. "It just has a single text saying 'Attack the Sun and Rain now'," Yamamoto said, glancing over at Ryohei.

Ryohei pulled out his phone and flipped it open. "I got the same message from Tsuna."

Yamamoto frowned and turned his attention to their attackers and began collecting a couple items from the pile they'd accrued and the cell phone. "We'll take these with us," Yamamoto said.

He dropped everything into the bat bag he carried with him and took a deep breath. "Let's go," he said.

"Do you think some of them would like to join the boxing club?" Ryohei asked idly as they moved away from the pile of still forms, he rubbed his jaw lightly. "At least one of them had a good right jab."

Yamamoto laughed. "Never a dull day in this Mafia Game," he said.

Tsuna stepped into the rubble strewn room and Kyoya Hibari's gaze flashed to him. "What are you doing here, herbivore?" he demanded.

"I came to see if you were all right," Tsuna said diffidently.

"They interrupted my nap," Hibari growled, "are you planning to keep me from it as well?"

His tonfas came to bear and Tsuna automatically took a step back and raised his hands. "No, Hibari, I was just…"

"Just what?" the Vongola Cloud Guardian bit out. "If you're here longer than two more seconds, I'm going to bite you to death."

"Right…" Tsuna said and began backing towards the door.

"Wait."

Tsuna paused and looked at Hibari. "Who are they? They're disturbing the peace of Namimori. I'll bite them to death."

"We're going to find out," Tsuna assured him.

"Do it faster, herbivore," Hibari growled.

Gokudera and Tsuna beat a hasty retreat and headed back downstairs, narrowly dodging as five bodies came tumbling out of the window of Hibari's meeting room. Tsuna flinched as the bodies hit the ground with meaty thumps and shivered, reminded once again why he never wanted to get on the bad side of the head of the Namimori Disciplinary Committee.

"Let's head to my house," Tsuna said. "I want to make sure Kyoko-chan, Haru, and the kids made it home safely."

Gokudera nodded and the two left campus. His mind was already turning the attack over and trying to figure out who was at the bottom of it.

"Trabuchet Family."

The Guardians glanced up sharply as Haru spoke and the brunette met their eyes levelly. The Vongola Tenth Generation had retreated to Tsuna's room to discuss the happenings of the afternoon while Nana made dinner.

"The guys who attacked Chrome and me were the same ones who attacked me just before my finals with Dani," Haru said and tossed two rings onto the table. "They were carrying those. They don't seem to conduct the Dying Will Flames like the Vongola rings or even my mom's ring, but they were both wearing them."

"It could just be we don't use the flames they're tailored for," Chrome added. "They didn't really get a chance to use them because we disabled them before they could cause any injuries."

"You disabled them?" Gokudera repeated. "Oh, with your illusions?"

"No. My illusions provided the cover, Haru's kanzashi knocked them out," Chrome stated.

"It's a trick I learned with my tutors," Haru said. "The kanzashi are dipped in a poisons or drugs of some form and can be used for multiple purposes. I usually just keep them in knockout drug because it's nonlethal and they won't remember what hit them."

Tsuna's eyes dropped to the rings in the middle of the table, unable to look at Haru for a moment as he wondered just how deeply Haru was already in this whole mess. He wasn't quite ready to reconcile the happy-go-lucky girl he'd met with the person who was changing before his eyes.

"Here's what we pulled from the guys that attacked us," Yamamoto said, interrupting their Boss's grim thoughts.

He tossed the cell phone on the table along with a few of the weapons and Reborn jumped up onto the table and walked over to the small pile, nudging them with his toe. "Did any of the guys you took out live?" he asked.

"They were all KO'd when we left," Ryohei replied, his jaw was starting to purple and Yamamoto had gotten his ribs bandaged by Bianchi not long after the two had arrived.

"Attack the Sun and Rain now."

Reborn had flipped open the cell phone to read the damning text. "What time did they hit Namimori Middle and the Shopping District?"

"About 4:15 or so, I think," Haru said, glancing at Chrome.

"I think that's about right."

"I don't remember actually," Tsuna said.

"Most of the clubs were still going, it could have been at 4:15," Gokudera said.

"We got the text from you around 4:30," Yamamoto said. "We'd just finished taking the guys out, so that's probably about right."

"Four pronged attack," Reborn said. "I'll have to look into this more. Tsuna, do you think we should continue the search for these Trabuchet?"

"If they're going to keep coming after everyone, we don't have a choice," Tsuna said grimly and looked at his Guardians and Haru. "Be careful."

"Of course, Judaime," Gokudera said.

Nana shouted up that dinner was ready and they exchanged grim looks. "Let's see what we can come up with over the next few days," Tsuna said. "We'll have to keep a tighter watch on Kyoko and the kids both at school and on their way home."

"Why didn't you send me a text, too, Tsuna-san?"

Haru's voice was soft and Tsuna jumped and turned to look at the brunette and then immediately looked away; Haru's hand clenched in the material of her skirt as she awaited the answer from the future Vongola Boss.

Dinner was long over and most of the others had already headed home. Tsuna had stepped outside while Gokudera and Lambo got into a heated argument over some miscellaneous thing and he hadn't realized that the brunette had followed him out.

"I'm not used to you being in the middle of this, Haru," Tsuna finally said. "I'm supposed to be protecting you, Kyoko, and the kids, but how can I do that when you're in the middle of the battle?"

"Tsuna-san…" Haru began and then took a deep breath. "I understand. It will take time for you to accept me like this won't it?"

Tsuna started and his eyes met hers. "Yeah, I guess," he said.

"I will show you that I am worthy to be your ally and your wife," Haru said fiercely. "Just you wait, Tsuna-san."

With that she bolted towards the gate, leaving the future Vongola Boss in watching her fade into the distance with an odd pain in his heart.

"She's surprisingly good as a hitman," Reborn said. "I wouldn't have imagined she had it in her when we first met."

"She shouldn't be a hitman," Tsuna said, chopping his hand sharply through the air. "She wasn't supposed to get involved in this at all—at least any more than she already was."

Reborn gave him a sympathetic look and jumped up on the railing and sat down. "They're going to get caught up in this one way or another, Tsuna," the former Arcobaleno said quietly. "Let them choose where they want to help, it will likely be their strongest position."

"But, Haru…" Tsuna began.

"Haru loves you Tsuna," Reborn said bluntly. "She wants to protect you to the very core of her being—just as much or more than your other Guardians."

"But I don't feel the same, at least the love part," Tsuna said. "She's a friend or at least she was a friend. I'm not sure I even know her anymore."

"Haru is still Haru," Reborn said and jumped down. "Go to sleep. You have a lot of studying to do in the morning."

"Hey, Haru."

Haru jerked her head up and dashed away her tears before she turned to look at Gokudera bearing down on her. "What do you want?" she asked, hating the tears in her voice.

"Are you still serious about wanting to learn about the Mafia world?" Gokudera asked.

"Yes."

"All right."

Haru's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Only if you are," Gokudera said.