AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there ^_^

This week's chapter is coming up a little bit early because my days off at work got shifted around and I need to scramble to get my last 12,551 words for Camp Nanowrimo finished between now and 11:59 PM my time on April 30th *laughs* Thankfully, this month has been relatively productive and I should not be late ever for the rest of the posting of this fan fiction XD

As a fun note, we've actually officially reached the halfway point in this story (which could be a good or a bad thing ^^; )

KHR isn't mine (if it was, Haru would have been better utilized as more than a damsel in distress), the characters, world, etc. belong to Akira Amano. This story line in particular is mine as well as the characters created for this ^_^

Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoy it.

Next update will be around May 15th ^_^

Target 07-02: Battening Down the Hatches

Gokudera lounged at his desk barely paying attention to the students chattering around him. His eyes fell on Judaime and noted that he had the start of that furrow between his brows that Yuni associated with him when they'd met her in the future.

Things had been quiet in the week since the attack. Haru's dad had come home and been cleared to return to work and a blond Italian teacher had transferred into the university and the population of men in suits had increased quite a bit. Security had been tightened around Midori Middle School, Namimori Middle, and Namimori High and Gokudera had seen more than a few familiar faces around town near the other members of the Tenth Generation Vongola Family and Judaime's dad was apparently back in town much to Nana's delight.

He checked his phone and saw the requisite text from Haru that she'd gotten to school safely and confirmation that they would be meeting at the ramen shop after club activities. Gokudera's gaze strayed to Judaime who was watching Kyoko as he always did. After making sure Haru was all right and things had settled out, Tsuna was spending more time concentrating on Kyoko, walking her to and from school most days. Kyoko seemed to be taking it in stride, but Gokudera was bothered by it and couldn't place his finger on the reason why.

He was jarred from his contemplations as the bell rang and the door opened to admit their homeroom teacher followed by a dark-haired kid with a school-issued bag. All female eyes in the room immediately gravitated to the newcomer and the teacher spoke. "Please welcome Nakayama Yukihiro-san. He just transferred in from Chiba."

"What the hell is he doing here?" Gokudera growled, drawing Tsuna and Yamamoto's attention.

"Who is that?" Yamamoto asked immediately.

Gokudera would have answered but the teacher gestured to an empty desk near them and invited Nakayama to take a seat. "I'll tell you at lunch," he muttered and turned his attention back to his cell phone where he fired off a quick message to Haru about this development.

"I seem to be in good company in this particular class," Nakayama observed, sliding into his seat, a smile hovering on his lips, "the Vongola Tenth boss, Rain Guardian, and Storm Guardian, what a lovely coincidence."

"Coincidence my ass," Gokudera stated flatly.

Nakayama smiled. "You're right, of course, Gokudera-san."

Nakayama said nothing else, turning his attention to pulling out a notebook and pencil as the teacher went into the homeroom announcements.

"He seems nice enough, but why does he know about the Mafia?" Tsuna asked as soon as they'd settled in their usual spot on the roof.

Gokudera pulled out his usual convenience store bento and responded. "He's one of us too," he said.

"Vongola?" Yamamoto asked.

Gokudera shook his head. "Not sure what Famiglia he's from, but it's probably one of the Japanese Clans."

"Is he dangerous?" Tsuna asked worriedly, he's seen Kyoko with several girls who were pushing to introduce themselves to the new student.

"Probably," Gokudera said, "but maybe not to us right now. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

Haru went to the library just before lunch in order to make up a test she'd missed while her father was in the hospital and turned the answer sheet into the attending teacher before wandering up to the roof where she'd taken to eating lunch. Emri and Mai both had club things going on at lunch and the three had drifted apart since the beginning of the school year. The breakdown was mostly her fault she knew, but it was becoming more difficult to try and balance school, social, studying, and training. They'd stopped coming to the study groups she'd had with Chrome and Kyoko not too long after they started, claiming that the timing wasn't working for them.

Haru leaned against the fence around the roof and closed her eyes feeling strangely isolated in a place that used to be almost as much of a home as her own house. If it wasn't for the fact that she'd studied so hard to get into this school and that it would look much better on her résumé, Haru would have been tempted to transfer to Namimori Middle School, but she only had to get through this last year and then she'd be in school with people she was closer to.

There was a light knock on her head and her eyes flew open and went wide as a girl in a Midori Middle School uniform she didn't recognize settled down next to her. "Hello Miura-san," she smiled.

"Who…" Haru trailed off.

"Madame Cho was worried about you," the girl said and smiled at the blank look on Haru's face. "Put me in a red kimono with facepaint…"

Haru's eyes went wide. "Akai?"

"Bingo," the girl smiled. "They have me registered as Akagi Ryoko here though."

"What are you doing here?" Haru asked, straightening up.

"Watching over you," Akai said. "We can't let members of our Clan be hurt without taking some form of action. I couldn't get into your class directly, but I'm in 3-D, just across the way from you."

"But, I thought…" Haru began.

"Dani Shirokaia is not the only one capable of messing with records," Akai said. "She wasn't middle school age when she was here, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't," Haru said.

Akai produced a bento from her bag and handed it to Haru. "You haven't been eating properly, you need your strength. Do you mind if I join you for lunch?"

It was a little late to ask, given she was already seated and pulling out her own lunch, but Haru couldn't help but smile. "No, I don't mind at all."

Gokudera parted ways with Judaime and Kyoko as they hit the road leading to the Sasagawa house and made his way towards Midori Middle School, Haru said that she had another test to make up and given her estimation, she would be ready to go about the time he arrived. He reached the gates and found himself approached by three girls almost immediately, asking him if he was lost. He politely thanked them, his eyes on the gate waiting for the chance to escape.

He saw Haru first, chatting with another girl and excused himself from the girls still swarming around him. "Haru!" he called.

Haru jumped as her name echoed and turned to see Gokudera's silver-haired figure jogging towards her. "Looks like your escort has arrived," Akai smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"He's not my escort," Haru frowned, though she was actually a little pleased to see him.

"If you say so," Akai laughed and waved and headed the opposite direction.

"Is there somewhere I can wait for you where I don't get hit by the fucking swarm?" Gokudera mumbled just loud enough for her to hear, his green eyes going to the girls who were eyeing Haru with disgruntled expressions.

"You could wait by the ramen shop like we agreed," Haru suggested, a smile quirking her lips.

"There's three blocks between here and the shop," Gokudera stated flatly.

"I'm pretty sure I'd be fine," Haru said.

"Pardon me if I don't leave it up to chance, Judaime wouldn't be pleased to hear you got hurt again," Gokudera said.

Haru's gaze went to the sidewalk for a moment. "Some days I don't think Tsuna-san would even care," she said. "I'm not Kyoko-chan."

"Haru…" Gokudera said.

Haru lifted her chin and shook her head vehemently. "Sorry. Shall we get going, there's stuff we've got to get done tonight."

They'd only gotten a block away from the school when they were stopped by Reborn appearing out of the crowd. "Iemitsu wants you to come by the house," he announced.

Gokudera blinked. "What?"

"Tsuna-san's father?" Haru asked and Reborn nodded.

Haru sighed inwardly and glanced at Gokudera. "I'll see if I can dig up anything else from my old notes and some of the other stuff I pulled together and show it to you when you can make it to the ramen shop."

"You misunderstand, Haru, he wants both of you there," Reborn said.

"Hahi!"

The two exchanged startled glances and then changed direction to head towards the Sawada house, following the suit-clad toddler back down the road.

Iemitsu was in the yard sprawled on a chair with a beer in his hand when they arrived at the gate. "Welcome!" he said jovially. "Have a beer and a seat!"

Haru wrinkled her nose at the thought. "No thank you," she said.

He squinted at her for a moment and then abruptly sat up. "You're Haru right?"

"Yes…" Haru replied warily.

Iemitsu Sawada scratched his stomach underneath the white tanktop and rose with a grunt. "I'll be right back," he said and staggered inside.

"What the hell…" Gokudera said, staring after the head of CEDEF.

"I have no idea," Haru murmured and looked at Reborn.

The toddler shrugged.

Iemitsu emerged a few minutes later with his hair dripping and a box in his hand that he handed to Haru. "We got word about the ring you had, but we don't have the technology to fix it, so Kudaime ordered this be sent along to you."

Haru accepted the box uncertainly and opened it and saw a ring sitting inside. "It's not a Vongola Ring, those can't be duplicated, but it'll hold up better than that old thing you got from Shirokaia or the one that broke," Iemitsu said. "You're going to have to find some time to practice with it though—it's a different prototype than your mother's ring was. Chrome has a similar one."

Haru nodded slowly and pulled off the ring Dani had given her and put it in the lid of the box before she withdrew the new ring and slid it into place.

"It won't make up for what happened the other night, but, at least it will give you a viable weapon if it happens again," Iemitsu said and saw the horror flash over Haru's face. "We've doubled the watches on all members of the Vongola Famiglia in Namimori and our agents are scouring the town to find out where they're hiding. If they try something else, they will regret it."

"Dad! What are you doing?"

Tsuna's voice exploded from the gate and Haru turned to look at Tsuna as he stalked up the walkway. Color flushed his cheeks and his lips were a thin line as he glared at his father.

"I am giving her a means with which to defend herself," Iemitsu said flatly. "You can't protect her all the time and she's trained hard for this."

Tsuna looked at Haru. "You don't have to take the ring and you can just go back to your normal life, Haru. I'll find the Trabuchet and talk to them and end this. You don't have to fight anymore."

Haru's hand clenched into a fist and she felt the edge of the ring bite into her finger. "I can't walk away Tsuna-san," she said. "I said I would become strong enough to defend those you have to leave behind when you fight. I'm not there yet. When I become a Mafioso wife, I will keep the Famiglia left behind safe."

"You aren't going to be a Mafioso wife, Haru," Tsuna snapped. "You're a good friend and I don't want you to be hurt anymore. I'm not in love with you and I don't think I ever will be. I love Kyoko-chan."

Haru's breath caught as he finally spoke the words that she suspected were true.

Tsuna flinched as he realized what he said and ran his hand through his unruly hair and gave Haru a pleading look. "Get out of this, Haru. You don't have to do it anymore. Enough is enough."

"Are you saying that I am not part of your Famiglia, Tsuna-san?" Haru asked, lifting her chin, it was taking all of her willpower to keep her voice from shaking. "Do you hate me?"

A part of Tsuna demanded that he say 'yes', maybe that way Haru would get as far away from this as she possibly could and make a new life somewhere else where she wouldn't be under constant threat. However, he couldn't force the words past his lips, already having a hard enough time with the tears he could tell she was trying to hold back. "No, Haru, I don't hate you," Tsuna said. "But you're a chink in the armor. We can't think clearly about what steps to take against the Trabuchet when we have to constantly watch over you."

"Is that what I am to you, Tsuna-san?" Haru asked. "Am I a liability to be compensated for?"

"Yes."

"I hate you, Tsuna-san!"

The words burst from Haru before she could stop them and she sprinted away from them leaving the Vongola in the Sawadas' yard speechless.

"That was harsh, Judaime," Gokudera said quietly.

"I don't care if she hates me," Tsuna said, "not if it keeps her safe."

Gokudera wasn't sure what to say to that and excused himself from Judaime and his father and took off after Haru.

It was nearing sunset when he finally found her sitting under the bridge on the bank near the river that ran through Namimori.

"Haru…"

"Go away, Gokudera, you don't need to worry about me," Haru said. "Obviously, I don't matter to Tsuna-san at all so you don't need to look after me anymore."

Gokudera sighed and settled on the ground next to Haru, finding a flat stone and sending it skipping over the water. "You know that's not true Haru."

"He said that I was a liability," Haru said. "Maybe I am. Maybe I was just fooling myself that I was going to be useful to Tsuna-san…"

"No."

The word was nearly growled and Haru's head popped up to look over at Gokudera. "I won't lie and say that you don't need more training," he said quietly, "but Judaime is worried more than anything else."

Haru wrapped her arms around her knees and stared out over the water as it took on a blood red hue from the sunset.

"If you say so."