AUTHOR'S NOTES: A little later than I intended due to unexpected illness and then a ten-hour day at work.

Thank you for reading Oncoming Storm this far. I hope you will continue to enjoy it!

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Amano-sensei. This particular storyline, original characters, and such are mine.

Next update coming at you around June 26th.

Target 10-02: Storm and Lightning

Haru put up her umbrella as she stepped into the rain, contemplating the events of the previous day as she locked the door. Having finally said her piece to Tsuna, she was finally feeling her emotions settle. As a result of the conversations in the meeting, the study group the night before had gone better than she thought, Kyoko had, of course, said yes to Tsuna and Gokudera joining them. It was obvious that Tsuna wasn't quite up to where they were when it came to academic knowledge and they'd spent a lot of time going through some of the easier material to help him out. After Tsuna had left to escort Kyoko home, Gokudera had helped her and Chrome with a couple of the problems they were having trouble with.

She stepped out of the gate and was met with the familiar sight of Gokudera waiting, his bright red umbrella over his head and his school bag slung over his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"I will be," Haru said. "You don't have to escort me every day, Gokudera; I know it's a bother."

Gokudera regarded her with some shock. "Do you think if it was a bother I'd be here every day, especially when it's raining?" he questioned her. "I hate the rain."

Haru blinked. "Well, if Judaime asked you…"

"I was the one who decided I'd walk you to school," he said.

"Why?" Haru asked, finally presented with an opportunity to question.

Gokudera contemplated explaining to her that Judaime has asked him to 'take care of her', but he'd long come to the realization that even if Judaime hadn't asked it of him, he would be doing it anyway. "Because I wanted to," Gokudera said. "I didn't have a chance to go by the store for your tea today; I got a late start this morning."

Haru shook her head. "It's okay," she smiled and settled into step next to Gokudera as they made their way towards Midori Middle.

"This afternoon when you go to study with Emri, are you going alone?" Gokudera asked as they arrived at the school.

Haru shook her head and waved at Akai who was waiting by the gate to the school. "Akagi-san was going to study with me today."

Gokudera relaxed a little at the response though worry still niggled the back of his mind at the idea of Haru being anywhere near the girl. Before he could stop himself he reached out and caught Haru's hand, drawing the girl's surprised look. "Be careful today, Haru," he said quietly, his hand tightening around hers for a moment.

A soft smile lit Haru's face. "I'll do my best, Gokudera."

He held onto her hand for a moment longer before releasing it and watching her as she ran up to Akagi who was waiting near the entrance and the girls went inside.

"Why don't you stay away from her? You people are bad news and you're going to drag Haru down with you."

Gokudera turned and before he could react the girl Haru called Emri sprang at him and drove a needle into his arm through his school uniform. The world immediately blurred and he hit the pavement.

Haru was reading through the previous day's notes just after the bell rang and the door to the classroom slammed open and Emri rushed in, her cheeks flushed and her eyes immediately fell on Haru. "Stand outside the classroom for ten minutes," the teacher scowled at her.

Emri mumbled an apology and stepped back outside and shut the door behind her and the teacher went back to the homeroom announcements. Haru made a few notes on her calendar and then set it aside. Emri was finally allowed in and she settled into her seat next to Haru and sighed. "Anything good in the announcements?" she asked.

"Not really," Haru said. "Did you oversleep your alarm this morning? You're never late."

"No, I just had to take care of something before I got here and miscalculated how much time it would take," Emri replied.

Gokudera dragged himself back to semi-consciousness and growled a curse at himself for being so stupidly unobservant. He forced himself up and took stock of his current situation. His arm burned where the syringe had gone in and he wondered what the hell they'd used to knock him out that fast. At some point between getting stabbed with the needle and now, someone had stripped him down to an undershirt and boxers and had taken every weapon in his possession, including his ring. The ropes dug into his wrists and ankles and he shifted, checking the knots—whomever had tied them had done a good job.

"What the fuck…" he mumbled to himself.

"Is something wrong, Haru?" Akai asked, settled on the roof next to her at lunch time.

"Huh?" Haru asked.

"You've been kind of spacy all day; maybe we should take a break from studying?" Akai suggested.

"Oh, no, I'm fine," Haru said. "It's just today…"

She trailed off and then related the events of the morning to Akai and the older girl chuckled softly. "For someone who has turned out to be incredibly observant since the day I first started training her, there are some things you seem to overlook."

"Hahi?"

"He likes you, Haru," Akai said bluntly.

"What?" Haru's voice cracked.

Akai laughed. "He likely won't say anything because you're still getting over your Judaime," she said.

"You're wrong," Haru said, "the only thing Gokudera concentrates on right now is being Judaime's right hand man. I'm just a student he was assigned to teach."

"I think you'd be surprised," Akai said. "So, after school we are going to the library and doing some more research on that paper that's due next week?"

"Yeah, Emri wanted to come too, and she said she was fine with you," Haru said, "but before we go to the library, I'm thinking of skipping gymnastics club, I need to go to Dr. Tanpopo's and get word to Nakayama-san. Judaime wants us to do some more investigation into that house and figure out the defenses, but he didn't want Gokudera and me to go near it again."

"Okay."

They left school as soon as the bell rang, Haru giving her excuses to Emri and promising to meet her at the library at the time they'd agreed to previously and headed out. She pulled her phone out and turned it on now that she was out of class and it immediately lit up with five different notifications. "What…"

Haru frowned and opened up the e-mails and stopped dead in her tracks. Akai took a few steps further before realizing that her friend had stopped and turned around to see all color drain from Haru's face. "What's going on?" she asked, immediately closing the distance between them.

"Gokudera never made it to school today," Haru said and quickly typed a response back to Judaime that he'd walked her to school as usual and the last she'd seen he'd been heading to Namimori Middle.

The next message she fired off to Emri to say that she'd had a family emergency and may not be able to make it to the library after all. "Let's go," Haru said and broke into a run.

The two girls followed the twist and turns of the streets of Namimori, dodging other pedestrians as they ran. They reached Dr. Tanpopo's clinic and entered and the butter-haired doctor immediately looked up from the paperwork she was going over. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Haru," she said.

"Not a ghost, but…can we go to the back office?" she asked.

"You're not feeling well?" Tanpopo asked immediately.

"Something like that."

Akai and Haru followed the doctor to the back office that was soundproofed all around and Haru relayed all the events of the past few days to the physician after the door was secured. "I'll pass word onto Nakayama and see what I can find," Tanpopo said after she stewed over Haru's announcements. "The disappearance of the Vongola Storm Guardian is of immediate concern. Akai…"

"I'll speak with Madame Cho immediately," Akai said and bowed.

She looked over at Haru before she left. "Don't do anything stupid, Haru."

"Like what?" Haru asked.

"Go after him yourself," Akai frowned. "You're not ready to take them on your own."

"I'm well aware of that," Haru scowled. "I still need to work on my multiple targeting and infiltration skills."

Akai seemed to relax at that and left, leaving Haru and the doctor in the office.

"What's your next step?" Tanpopo asked.

"I wait," Haru said quietly, "and hope that we get information before something happens to him."

"Are you going to meet with Emri?" Tanpopo asked.

Haru pulled out her phone and glanced at the time, she'd be able to make it to the library in time for the meeting she originally set up.

"I think so," Haru said and sent a text to her friend that said she'd be at the library as scheduled.

Lambo had escaped from Kyoko momentarily and was racing down the sidewalk shouting towards the food vendors and ran smack into a girl in a uniform that looked like Haru's. "Haru? Buy Lambo-san some cake!" he demanded.

"I am not Haru."

The boy's green gaze moved upwards to meet a pair of dark brown eyes and the girl hunkered down. "You're very cute though, would you like some candy instead?" she asked and produced a handful of candy from her bag.

Lambo's eyes lit up at the sight of the grape candy and he immediately grabbed it and opened three and popped them into his mouth. His eyes rolled into the back of his head moments later and he collapsed on the sidewalk and the dark-haired girl smirked a bit. "That was too easy," she said. "Claude? Take this one to the holding area. That gives us the Storm and Lightning rings."

"Of course mademoiselle."

The man emerged from the alley and scooped the child up and Emri felt her phone vibrate and pulled it out. She nearly laughed when she saw Haru's message that she'd be at the library as scheduled. Well, she'd get to see Haru's reaction when she found another precious "friend" had disappeared. She sent a text back that she'd be there as well then and turned towards the library.

Haru claimed one of the study rooms and pulled out her notes and tried to focus on the books in front of her, but couldn't. What she really wanted to do was go out and tear Namimori apart to try and find the silver-haired hitman, but, Emri was currently the only possible lead to finding Gokudera and figuring out how to stop all of this. She'd managed to get a couple words down on the paper when the door opened and she glanced up and saw Emri coming in. "Where's Akagi?" Emri inquired.

"She had something come up and couldn't make it after all," Haru said.

"Oh, what a pity," Emri said and plopped down next to Haru with her own pile of books.

Haru couldn't shake the vague feeling of discomfort she was getting by allowing Emri to sit that close to her. She accidentally knocked the pile of books next to her down and mumbled something that could have been a curse and got up to get them back into their pile and then settled on the opposite side of the table. "It'll be easier to spread out if I'm over here," she offered as an explanation.

"You're right," Emri said and they spread the books over the table.

Haru's phone vibrated about fifteen minutes later and she gave Emri an apologetic look and pulled it out.

Emri watched Haru become paler and hid her smirk behind one of the books she was ostensibly studying. "I-I've got to go…" she said.

"Again?" Emri asked.

"One of the kids that live with Sawada-san has gone missing and they need help trying to find him. He's only six and Sawada-san's mom is worried," Haru said. "Do you have time to help us look?"

"I can't, but I wish you good luck in finding him," Emri said.

Haru gathered the books up again and exited the room and shut the door and Emri began to laugh. "You're going to need it Haru-chan, that boy is about as out of reach as your Storm Guardian."

Haru dropped off the books and hurried out of the library and met up with Tsuna, Reborn, Kyoko, Yamamoto, Chrome, and Ryohei in the market. "Dad's going to be looking too," Tsuna announced with some surprise. "Hopefully we'll be able to find them. We'll have to split up. Reborn, Kyoko, and big brother will go with me and Yamamoto goes with Chrome and Haru. Make sure your phones are good and if you find him let us know."

They nodded and split up. "Kyoko last saw Lambo when he bolted ahead of her while they were on the way home from the elementary school," Yamamoto informed Haru and Chrome. "She didn't worry too much because he does that sometimes and they usually find him a little while later, but they searched all of his usual places and he wasn't there."

"Was he in his school uniform?" Haru asked, people would be more likely to remember a little boy in a cow outfit than they would an elementary uniform.

"As far as I know, yes," Yamamoto said.

They passed by one of the buildings and Haru's eyes were caught by a guy signaling at her from the doorway of one of the shops that were already closed for the day. Yamamoto and Chrome were checking a couple places up ahead and Haru warily approached him.

"Ah, good, you did see me, Miura-san."

With a start, Haru recognized Nakayama. "Did you find something?" she asked hopefully.

"Not on the latest disappearance, but I've got some information on that house that you spoke to Dr. Tanpopo about," he said. "I've got my agents trying to find a sign of the Vongola Lightning and Storm Guardians, but we're coming up empty right now. Someone knows what they're doing or the new people I've recruited still need more training, they're far from my family's usual standard. Though given CEDEF is having problems, it is likely more that whomever is behind this is good at what they do."

Haru slumped for a moment and then took a deep breath. Nakayama handed her a flash drive. "Here's the information we've gotten on that house so far. When you have time, shoot me an e-mail and I will meet you and we can discuss it more in-depth. I'll get a hold of you if I get any new information regarding Gokudera or Lambo's disappearance."

"Thank you," Haru said.

Nakayama bowed. "I live but to serve," he said, "especially the pretty ones."

Haru flushed despite herself and Nakayama straightened. "Until later," he murmured and they separated.

Haru's phone chimed for an incoming text message and she pulled it out and automatically opened it. Her breath caught at the grainy picture, she could barely make out the silver hair against the dark of the background.

[Want him back? Come to your old playground where you first learned to fight, but you'd better come alone or you'll lose both of them.]

"What is that?"

"Hahi!"

Yamamoto's voice came from behind her and Haru whirled to meet the Rain Guardian's eyes. "Um…n—"

"Don't give me that, Haru," Yamamoto interrupted her.

The baseball player took the phone from her suddenly loose grip and looked at it intently. "What do they mean by your old playground?" Yamamoto asked.

"I—" Haru began and then took her phone back. "If someone goes with me, whoever that is could hurt Gokudera and Lambo-chan…"

"You're not going alone, Haru," Yamamoto said quietly.

"But…" Haru began.

"Let us help you, Haru," Chrome said, having come up and heard the last part of the conversation. "They're our Famiglia too."