Heh, sorry. I know it's been forever and i haven't been doing very well keeping to a schedule, but i've been struggling with some things, and finally got around to doing this chapter. The beginning's a little by-the-book, but i hope you guys like it! :) i'll do my best to update this without such a long wait next time.

I wasn't doing too good, even though I'd gotten rid of the broken rib, Tsuna had been dodging missiles and man-eating plants and all sorts of other traps on the way to Irie, and Spanner and I were being pulled along for the ride. I hardly even noticed when Spanner and I were left on the ground as we were trapped in a room with an illusionist. I had a bad feeling about him, but I couldn't really move for some reason. The worst bit was, I had to sit there and watch Tsuna get attacked by a swordsman, and even through my pain-induced haze I could tell that things weren't going to be easy.

"T-Tsuna…" I breathed out, trying to get up, but Spanner saw me and quickly held me back.

"You can't. You're too injured. If you go out there now-"

"I don't care." I growled, still trying to get up. "I have to help him."

Reborn's hologram stood in front of me and I frowned down at the baby.

"Stay there, Natsu. You'll only get in the way."

"I won't."

He glared at me, making me stiffen as I realized how dangerous this baby could be; his glare scaring me.

"Stay there and trust him, Natsu."

I looked over at Tsuna, who was lying on the ground as the enemy taunted him, and I was scared. My stomach was clenched in worry and guilt because if I hadn't gotten hurt, if I hadn't upset him, I would be in there right now helping him. And now, I just had to hope that he'd be able to do it without me.

I watched as Tsuna grabbed the man's sword and started using his Zero-Point Breakthrough before punching him in the chin and speeding around even faster than I thought he was capable of. I could feel hope well up within me and even managed a small smile as Tsuna threw the man back into the wall. There was just one problem. I felt that it was too easy. The Bowl-Cut Knight-what I'd decided to call him for now since no one seemed to want to tell me his name-was distracted. I didn't know what it was, but I could tell that he wasn't fighting all out. Something was holding him back.

It was when he suddenly became undead that I realized how things could go horribly wrong very quickly, but my injuries were still going to make things a problem for me. I have to do something. I have to prove to Tsuna that I can help him whether I'm a guardian or not. Just then, the Bowl-Cut Knight spat out copies of everyone, using them to attack Tsuna. This heightened my worry and I grit my teeth tightly as I tried to think.

"Why doesn't he just get rid of them? T-They're illusions, right?"

I looked over at Reborn and he realized that I couldn't read what the Bowl-Cut Knight was saying due to his…well, lack of lips.

"He claimed that the illusions are tied to the lives of the actual guardians. Even though I'd like to say that all of the Phantom Knight's words are lies, we have no way of verifying whether what he says is true or not since the guardians can't be contacted. There's nothing we can do."

"No…there has to be something." I muttered, looking back up as the illusions of the guardians attacked Tsuna.

Think, think! He can't kill them, so what can he do? He can't hurt them either, so that means he can't injure them. Oh, come on. There's got to be something I'm missing! I searched through what I could figure out about the Bowl-Cut Kight's abilities from what I managed to see, but other than the usual strong illusions and sword fighting, there was nothing. Okay, so change tactics. Come on brain, think about what Tsuna can do. My eyes widened as I figured it out.

"Tsuna! You don't have to kill them! They're still illusions! Dying will flames!"

I couldn't tell if he'd heard me or not, his face covered by the illusions, but before long, they started floating away from him and I couldn't help the small smile that came across my face at seeing the frozen hands of the guardian illusions. That had also given Tsuna time to charge up his X-Burner and I watched as he completely wiped out Bowl-Cut Knight and also started to bring down the building around us. Eyes wide, I scooted closer to Spanner with the intent of protecting him, but Tsuna beat me to it, using his flames to create a shield over us, protecting us from the debris. I let out a sigh of relief, missing what Reborn was telling Tsuna as I spotted something white up above us.

"Uh, Tsuna?"

He turned to me and I pointed up, drawing everyone else's attention to the device as well. It wasn't long before Spanner and I were strapped back into the parachutes and Tsuna lifted us up to where it was. We all gazed up at it, before I felt Tsuna's warm flames and stiffened, looking over to see what had caused him to arm himself, only to see Irie there with two of the Cervello women.

"Irie?" I muttered, staring in surprise at the man, though I knew he'd be here.

He ignored me and moved over to the side as a large door opened up and revealed everyone being held captive.

"I put them asleep with sleeping gas in place surrounded by nanocomposit walls so they couldn't escape. If you try something stupid to save them I'll change it to poison gas." Irie explained and I continued to stare at him in shock as I stood, wondering why he was acting this way.

Something's wrong. This…This isn't the Irie I know. I tensed when Spanner touched my shoulder with a small smile, having sensed my discomfort, before turning my gaze back to Irie as our friends woke up and went to threaten him. No, he's smart. He wouldn't have taken any chances. Nanocomposit material or not. Sure enough, Irie held up his hand, revealing all of the Vongola rings and box weapons.

"Resistance is futile. I've taken all your rings and box weapons."

But why? Why do all of this and why the white machine? It's a time machine, right? A-And I think he's the one who brought us here, but what could we…No… My eyes widened in realization as to what had happened. We were brought here for the rings. That tri-ni-set thing I hacked into. That's all about this. With those rings coupled with the other two sets…Oh no. I looked around, searching for any way to stop this. To get the rings and save everyone, but even if I did attack Irie, the Cervello would kill me and how would we get back to our time? Just then, the white machine opened up and things became even more complicated because inside where all of our future selves. How are we supposed to get out of this?

"Although what we're seeing right now is a holographic image, they're actually disassembled to a molecular state and preserved inside." Irie explained as I shifted my gaze to him.

Gokudera shouted something, but I ignored it, trying to figure out the science behind all of this to see if I had even the slightest chance of stopping it.

"That's right." Irie answered him. "In reality, someone shot by the 10 year bazooka should switch between their 10 years later and present day form. However, this device managed to keep your future selves here before they went to the past. If your selves from this time went to the past, they would do unnecessary things and cause a disturbance in the Tri-ni-set policy."

"That's why you brought us here." I said, drawing his attention to me along with everyone else. "You wanted the rings, right?"

His lips twitched up in a small smile before disappearing, making me wonder if the Irie I knew was really gone.

"You were always so clever, Natsu."

The Cervello behind him said something, but he ignored her.

"No…I'll tell them. It's a simple story…For Byakuran to be able to destroy the world in his hands and make a new world, he needed the Vongola rings, as you said, Natsu." He almost complimented me. "In this world there exist a large number of rings with hidden powers-"

"The Mare Rings, the Vongola Rings, and the Arcobaleno Pacifiers." I interrupted him. "21 rings in groups of seven. The ores are apparently the corner stones that created this world."

"So it was you who hacked into the system."

I felt my own lip twitch up at this, because I remembered this Irie. This was the Irie I knew. The one who always got jealous when I beat him, but always tried his hardest to beat me back.

"Big nasty firewalls, expert security, how could I resist?" I quipped, playing down my excitement because we were in a rather serious predicament after all. And I can feel Gokudera burning a hole through my head.

"You're free to believe the story or not." Irie said, before giving us some information we didn't know. "The Arcobaleno who sacrificed themselves because they were ordered to protect the Tri-ni-set can't deny the story."

I looked at everyone as they started panicking, before looking back at Irie as he went to leave and one of the Cervello women pointed a gun at us, holding the remote for the poison gas. Something was weird though and I hid my grin at seeing how slowly Irie was leaving, I myself holding my hand behind my back and charging up one of my fireballs.

"Three. Two. One."

I threw my fireball at her just as Irie turned around and shot at the other woman.

"Don't think badly of me. It'll just make you a little sleepy." He responded, before tugging at his collar and messing up his hair as I headed over. "Haa, it's hot. I'm all worn out. I thought I'd try it out just once."

"Harder than it looks, huh, Irie?" I said with a slight smile as he removed the top half of his uniform and went on.

"O-Oh yeah. Sawada Tsunayoshi and everyone from the family. Ah…I'm so nervous my knees are shaking." He slid down to the floor. "You did well to get this far. I was waiting for you. I'm your ally."

I squatted beside him with my own sigh, equally as exhausted. "You don't know how glad I am for that."
"S-Sorry, Natsu." He muttered, looking embarrassed.

He turned his attention over to the others, but I didn't have to, watching his hands instead as they started forming the familiar shaky sign language I was familiar with.

They're shocked I'm on their side.

I nodded and watched him as he began speaking, signing as well. "Normally, everything I do is under 24-hour surveillance by my subordinates and the cameras which transmit directly to Byakuran. But thanks to you guys, everything's in a mess. Finally, I can talk without alerting the Millefiore people. Haa, I've been waiting forever for this moment. Being able to meet you in this base, under these conditions, was the goal we were planning for from the start."

We? I signed him and he nodded, signing that he'd explain in a minute.

"The fact that you were brought to this era because the Millefiore wanted to take the Vongola rings is true. But ever since you guys arrived in this era, I've been pulling strings to get you here. According to a secret plan we'd devised without knowledge of the Millefiore, so that you could undergo training and become stronger." He said, standing up and carefully helping me up as well with a worried look at my wound.

Are you alright? He signed and I signed back with a nod.

I'll be fine in few days or so.

He pulled a hand through his hair, speaking again. "A lot of bad thing happened though, for that, I'm truly sorry. But you had to be trained to increase your strength in the shortest possible time, so that you'd be ready for the battle that's to come. This was the only way!"

He seemed to be desperately trying to convince them and I glanced between him and the others in worry that after all of this, I might still have to choose between my friends. Everyone started arguing about believing him and he shouted back.

"If I 'd wanted to kill you, I'd have killed you all much earlier already!"

My eyes widened as everything seemed to click into place.

"That's why everyone was brought here at different times." I said, looking at him in surprise. "And why you took so long to fight against me hacking you! And moving the base around too! You weren't holding a trump card for last, you were doing it purposely!"

He gave me a nervous smile and nodded. "Y-Yeah. It's kind of scary how you still know me so well even ten years ago." His smiled fell though and he started to look worried again. "But that's not all. Did you think about why I-pin, Sasagawa Kyoko, and Miura Haru were brought here from the past even though they were not your guardians? You'd grow a lot stronger when there're people you want to protect. We'd decided that was a necessity we couldn't avoid."

I spotted Tsuna moving towards him and stepped between them, grabbing him by his jump suit and holding him back as he shouted at Irie.

"How could you?! What kind of reason is that?! What if something had happened to Kyoko or the others?! And, its not just them! Even before training started, Yamamoto, Gokudera, and even Lal! We could have all died in a fight!"

"T-Tsuna!" I shouted back, cringing as my wound ached in protest at holding him back. "Give him a chance! Let him explain!"

"If that was the case, it couldn't be helped anyway." I saw Irie say, making me give hima look saying that he wasn't helping.

"Uuuh…" He shook as he clutched his head before starting to shout, angrily signing for me since I couldn't understand what he was saying once his temper flared.

"I've tried my best to plan it all! If something unexpected had happened, I'd be in trouble too! All of this is a lot more serious than you think! I didn't want Natsu to get hurt either! But this entire plan was part of her and your future counterpart's idea too, Tsunayoshi!"

I blinked in surprise, having not expected that. Though I could see where I played a part in it all, now that I think about it. It was probably me who convinced Irie to go undercover…and popping me up here in the future me's hideout…and-Woah. I did have a big part to play in this, didn't I.

"This plan was of utmost secrecy held between myself, the future Natsu, your future counterpart, and the future Hibari Kyoya. Under no circumstances was the plan to be revealed to anyone else." Irie explained. "That's also why the future Hibari knew about the ambush from us. Further more, your future counterpart resisted the idea of getting the others involved till the very end. Finally, he acknowledged that this was something his past self needed in order to grow. The future Natsu was alongside him the whole way too, but she understood that there was no other way and gave in not long before he did."

I slowly let go of Tsuna as he calmed down and thought that over.

"Tsuna, there must be a good reason." I told him, knowing that he was blaming himself for everything that's happened. "If you wouldn't give in until the end, then you knew that there was no other way."

I turned back to Irie as he got upset with the others and started shouting again.

"If we didn't take this gambit to deal with this situation, all of you and all of your friends will be annihilated! In fact, more people…or worse, all of humanity will be in crisis!"

He seemed to stutter then in shock and I realized that Reborn was also siding with him and I sighed in relief as he did the same.

"T-Thank you. That's right…your true enemy is Byakuran." Irie said. "Byakuran will stop at nothing to collect the Tri-ni-set and take control of the world. He called this plan his 'Tri-ni-set Policy'. If he succeeds in getting what he wants, you're going to see a hell much worse than what you've experienced so far. Any man, organization, or country who doesn't do as he says will be wiped out."

I frowned, confused. He says this like he knows. Like he's experienced it before and why is he saying 'era' when we have been calling it 'time'. Is there some kind of importance in that? How can he be so sure that all of this is going to happen?

I glanced over at Reborn and noticed he was speaking, making me blink out of thought and pay attention.

"Why have you been helping Byakuran up till now? If you hadn't used the 10 year bazooka to send the Vongola rings to this era, he would never be able to complete his plan, right? At the very least, you could have reduced the casualties in the long run."

I shook my head, answering for Irie. "That wouldn't have worked. Irie couldn't have been the only one Byakuran was using to look into a time machine. Something like this could be done by others too. A whole bunch a staff could come up with something, given a few years."

I turned to Irie to confirm this and he nodded, still signing as he spoke.

"Plus there's another reason why I had to use this method. The only way to stop him is to do it in this era. The only way to seal Byakuran's power and defeat him is in this era! It'll take too long to explain, but…Hm?" he suddenly paused before panicking. "Ah! I totally forgot about them!" He looked over at Reborn behind me. "Have you received any contact from the Vongola HQ?"
I didn't think we did, so I kept my eye on Irie. "Not yet then…Right, it's not time yet. Uuuh. I'm getting nervous again."

He clutched his stomach and went to his knees as I dug through my pockets for something.

"This entire gambit to bring you guys through all that hardship in order to defeat Byakuran, that was the first stage. But there's also a second stage that we have to clear too!"

I found what I was looking for and handed him the small wrapped candy, which he took gratefully as Tsuna asked him something.

"Ah, no. It's not that." He responded, letting me know Tsuna had asked about more fighting. "I wanted to let you guys rest and heal your injuries for a while, but whether to not we get that luxury depends entirely on stage 2. You've heard about it, right? The Vongola are launching a large scale international operation against the Millefiore today…If their operation fails, everything is going to get much more difficult. The most important key is, the battle of the main force in Italy."

I blinked, realizing something then. "Isn't that where Girly-Man and his friends are?"

It took Irie a moment, before he understood what I was saying.

"Oh, you mean Squalo. I forgot you gave them all nicknames, but yes. That is who we are relying on now."

Natsu put on her usual serious expression as she clapped her hands. "Ooh, I wanna see."

Irie sighed. "You can't see, Natsu. Even your future self wanted me to let her go to go and bother them."

"Boo." She complained, still straight faced and pulling out a handful of suckers from her pocket. "Then I guess I'll eat these by myself."

Irie sweat dropped. "N-Natsu, you can't bribe me with candy. That only worked when we were younger."

She pulled one out and held it up, turning slightly away from him. "Oh, watermelon. That's your favorite. It'll probably be good."

She slowly started removing the wrapper and brought the candy to her mouth with a glance his way. He groaned and messed up his hair before rushing towards her.

"Natsu! Give it! You know that I like the watermelon ones!"

She held it out of his reach. "Then let me see Girly-Man."

"I can't! They're already fighting and they're countries away! How am I supposed to just get you there?! And you're injured!"

They continued to play around and bicker, and that frustrated Tsuna. He didn't like how friendly Natsu was with Irie, a man who-up until a moment ago-had been their enemy. What bothered him more, was how this whole time, she seemed to have always been on Irie's side. He was her friend, wasn't he? So why did she stop him from getting answers from Irie? And why had she been defending Irie the whole time? The feeling twisted his stomach and silently, in the back of his mind, he wondered what exactly this feeling was anyway. Guilt? Anger? Frustration? Or was it something more? Something closer to…jealousy.