"Reborn-sama, we have two hours till we reach our destination."

The baby frowned in concentration.

Tsuna woke up in cold sweat from a nightmare of thousands being killed before him. Why was this type of dream surfacing now? Was it a side effect of the powdery substance, or just one of those occasional nightmares?

Unable to fall back into the realms of sleep, and already a bit afraid to do so, Tsuna climbed out of bed and sat at his desk, staring out at the sky. It was still relatively dark, but according to his digital clock sitting at the edge of his desk, it was currently 5.23 a.m. He was already getting used to waking up at this time, or even earlier, since Reborn liked to kick him at around that time – whether to train his reflexes or to wake him, he would never know. Either way, he would get up, quite annoyed.

He stared at the night sky, complete with a full moon making its way down at a turtle's pace, and numerous stars twinkling and winking at him. The cool breeze caressed his cheeks, and Tsuna enjoyed the city lights which he could see from his window. They were one of the few things about Tsuna liked of his bedroom windows – looking out and seeing those beautiful lights with different colours.

Tsuna's mind strayed to his now 'tainted' arm, and he immediately shook his head in frustration. No. He wouldn't worry about it now. He had to know the motives of the people who intended to harm and, almost definitely, kill him in cold blood. The effects of the powder, or whatever that substance was, in him was something he, too, had to find out. That could wait till later.

He gazed out, and closed his eyes to rid himself of his thoughts. Now, he would think of nothing. A blank state of mind to calm himself down. Tabula Rasa. It was Latin for 'blank slate'. That was what he needed at the moment. Gradually, he drifted off into a state of half-consciousness, and was partly asleep, though his mind was still very much awake.

"Tsu-kun! Are you awake?" a voice called from downstairs.

Instantly, Tsuna jerked up, all signs of his sleepiness gone.

"Ha~i!" Tsuna called, loud enough for his mother to hear, but not that his bodyguards would wake up. He knew that both needed a lot of rest, since they always had to be awake before himself, and slept later than anybody else. He could cut them some slack, since Reborn wasn't there to torture his friends.

Tsuna trooped down the stairs and helped his mother with the cooking. She was cooking up a feast, which was certainly too much for breakfast, but obviously she didn't really care. They were feeding 6 people after all – Nana, Tsuna, Akira, Sho, Lambo and I-pin (who had stayed over). Smiling, Tsuna whistled to a familiar tune while shuffling around the kitchen. He hadn't done things like helping with cooking meals for quite some time, since he had people to do that for him when he was in the Headquarters.

"Eh? Tsu-kun?"

"Nani?" Tsuna asked in confusion as his mother suddenly spoke.

"When did you get those piercings?" Nana wondered aloud.

"Ah… these? Reborn forced me to get these…" he trailed off.

"Oh well! It doesn't matter! They make Tsu-kun look really handsome anyway! Black looks like a good colour for Tsu-kun, ne?" Nana smiled, and her son was immensely happy. At least his mother wouldn't nag at him about those, since it had bugged him quite some time ago.

"Haha, I guess so. I still have some others, though I only brought 2 of them over. I'll show them to you later!" Tsuna replied excitedly. He wanted to know what his mother thought about the others – one of them was a skull made of silver, while the other was black, with a tinge of blue.

Nana nodded and the two continued with their task silently, though happily.

At about 8a.m, they laid the table and a feast of eggs, ham, fried noodles, chicken and fish were displayed. Obviously, some of the food was going to be left over for lunch.

Tsuna went over to his bodyguards' room and lightly shook them awake. Being light sleepers, they instantly sat up and relaxed, when they realised that it was their boss calling them.

"Morning, Decimo-sama." The two chorused with sleepy voices. Tsuna nodded and left to allow them to get ready.

Within minutes, the two were done and wore suits. Even though Tsuna knew that it was a neccessity for them to be dressed such, he pitied them. The suit was just exasperatingly warm and uncomfortable - he couldn't understand how adults could wear it comfortably every day. Lambo and I-pin were already comfortably seated, while the rest were patiently waiting for the two.

"Mama~ Lambo-san's hungry! Can we eat first?" the cow boy grumbled. I-pin chided like always.

After Sho and Akira had settled into their respective seats beside Tsuna, everyone mumbled 'Itadakimasu' and dug in, almost ravenously.

"Ciaossu~"

Tsuna shivered in terror as his tutor sat cross-legged in front of him.

"R-REBORN?"

"Dame-Tsuna is still Dame-Tsuna." Reborn rolled his eyes at the huge reaction.

"Never mind that, why are you here? It's my holiday, not the time for you to kill me!" Tsuna responded in exasperation.

In answer to this, Reborn merely leaned over and took a piece of ham from Tsuna.

"Ahh, Reborn-kun! Take a seat here, I'll prepare some rice for you!" Nana beamed. Ah, the more the merrier!

"No, but thank you, Mama. I need to tell Tsuna something." With that said, Reborn pulled Tsuna to his room, leaving a plate of half-eaten rice. Sho and Akira continued with their meal, as they knew very well what would happen If they ever decided to interfere with the tutor-and-student talk.

~In Tsuna's room~

"Ow ow ow ow! Reborn, stop pulling my ear!" Tsuna groaned in pain.

"Shut up. Now tell me, what do you know of the Karuno family?"

"Er…" How did Reborn know of this? Oh wait, he was Reborn after all. He recited all of the information he had memorised about the family, wondering about the 'present' again. Till then, those black dots had made no movement at all, and there wasn't any pain.

"And how long were you going to hide their little visit from me?" Reborn demanded. In his baby form, he wasn't as intimidating as the time when he was an adult (Thanks to Verde's skills as a professional scientist, he had unwillingly given the Arcobaleno his pills, which could allow them to switch to their original forms for 24 hours).

"Aha…hahaha… it wasn't anything that required your attention…" Tsuna laughed nervously. Honestly, he was glad that Reborn was there. He certainly had no idea of what to do about the current situation.

Without replying, Reborn grabbed Tsuna's right hand and turned the wrist towards him, displaying those little dots.

"So… what are these?" Reborn questioned, a deadly aura surfacing.

Tsuna had no idea of how to reply, seeing that he himself wished to know the answer to that.

"Tsuna, these matters are important. Does anybody else know about these… marks?"

Tsuna shook his head. Should his guardians know about the black dots? He didn't want to worry them, though.

"Alright. Follow me. We're going out." Reborn thought for a minute, before dragging the boy who was gaping like a fish. Like always, Reborn was just so… unpredictable.

"Mama! We're heading out for a while! We'll be right back!" the baby hollored and rushed out with Tsuna, before Lambo could even think of following.

"R-Reborn! Where are we going?" Tsuna asked worriedly. Since his tutor had no intention of telling him anything, he was getting a little frightened. Were they going to some whacko who Reborn knew? Was he going to go for more training? Tsuna shook his head in defiance. No way in hell was he going to do that.

"Oi, Dame-Tsuna. If you don't watch where you're going, you are sure to hit a lamppost or something, you know." Reborn smirked. Even before Tsuna could react to that sentence, his forehead connected to a metal pole, hard.

"Reborn! You should have warned me earlier!"

"Blame yourself."

Tsuna grumpily rubbed his sore forehead while he was forced to run after Reborn, and they arrived at-

Oh no. This was not going to be good.

"Herbivore. What are you doing here? And you too, baby. Give me a reasonable excuse, or I'll bite you to death."

Hibari Kyouya.

"Ahh… er…" Tsuna stuttered uncertainly. Even after the time away from Nanimori, he never forgot the wrath of the prefect, seeing that he had been thoroughly bitten to death some time ago.

"It's business. Hibari, if you let us pass, I'll let you fight me once."

"Hn. Fine." With that, Hibari let them in.

They couldn't be meeting…

Reborn smirked as he pushed Tsuna into the informatory.

"Say hi."

All that was running through Tsuna's mind was this – WHAT? What did he have to see that… pervertic Shamal for?

"Oh? Who is the beautiful young lady who has come for me to treat them? Do I have the honour of asking what the young lady's na-" Shamal began while dancing towards the door, stopping as soon as he saw who it was. His attitude, obviously turned cold.

"I don't treat males." he flatly refused, straight to Tsuna's face.

"Shut it, Shamal. I need to ask you something. You might know something about it." Reborn sighed. Shamal stared at the hitman in the room.

"Fine. As long as I don't have to treat him."

"Look at my student's arm first." Reborn roughly grabbed Tsuna by the wrist and made him sit on the chair in front. The black dots were the same as they had been in the morning. It seemed that they hadn't moved, either.

"This…" Shamal stared wide-eyed at Tsuna, then at the dots again.

"How is it, Shamal?" Reborn asked, staring at Shamal. The reaction of the man was unexpected. Wide-eyes meant either… big boobs or-

Disbelief.

Shock.

And if that was what Shamal was feeling, this meant something serious.

"Reborn."

"What the heck happened with this lil' guy?" Tsuna cringed at the use of 'lil'. He was no shorty anymore, compared to the time when he was 14.

Tsuna repeated the whole situation again in a bored tone. Was he going to have to do this for twenty more times? He rolled his eyes at that thought.

"Don't roll your eyes, Dame-student. How is it, Shamal?"

All of a sudden, that intense pain came back. The dots were moving, obviously. Tsuna hated this, and pulled his arm back and bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out. It hurt like hell, and it was as if his muscles were being pinched, from his wrist to his palm. Then, the feeling like something was rubbing against that very part of his arm was just excruciating. It was like before, as if there was iron on his arm, and he was burning. Tears were forced out as Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for this moment to pass as soon as possible. It felt as if eternity had past, but the pain was obviously there, torturing him; eating him alive.

STOP! Please, I beg you, whoever it is, stop! Tsuna's inner mind was in his turmoil then. Thoughts were coming and going, all too quickly to identify as they whizzed past.

As if from a distance, Tsuna could hear faint voices, which sounded a bit like something wondering what was going on. Tsuna would have laughed if he could. He couldn't ever tell anybody about these pains, could he? He'd rather die than get laughed at for being "girly" and "unable to take a little pain". It pissed him off whenever people laughed at him and such things happened.

He could feel his consciousness sliding away, like an elusive snake. Tsuna struggled to get that part of himself back, so that he wouldn't fall unconscious in an informatory, of all places.

He could feel arms shaking him by the shoulders, but he didn't want to move. If he moved, it would hurt right? A millisecond felt like a day – shit.

And it all went black.

A/N: Hello guys! I'm just really tired now and I gotta study… So, let's just say that I wrote a shitty chapter, because I've been listening to electric music for the past few hours, and normally I'm a bit less… vulgar right? I don't give a damn anymore… -.- I'm stressed. STRESSED! Darn exams… So.. It wasn't that vulgar anyway. I'm just venting it on the keyboard. Well, thanks for reading!

Ja~

KuroRaven