H-Hello... Look guys, i updated! -nervously smiles- sorry i haven't update this in forever. i got distracted and then life happened and then a massive writers block... and a new Doctor Who fanfic... Ah! B-But I got in the mood and wrote this up for you all! It's probably not what you wanted. I know a bunch of you wanted to see the choice battle, but i just couldn't do it. sorry... there was just no way for me to stick Natsu in there, so i kind of skimmed over it. (she's not too happy about it either, mind you) so yeah, this chapter's a bit of a filler. some things go on here, but Natsu just sort of sits back for most of it so i'm sorry about the lack of action. let me know what you all think though. the next chapter will have more action in it since it's the whole battle with Byakuran bit, so look forward to that. :)

Oh! and i gave Tsuna's lion a different name, so as not to get mixed up with my OC Natsu. So the lion will be called Haruki (or Haru for short). It means 'shining sun' so i thought that would work out pretty nicely. ^^

I was angry. More angry than I'd been in a long time, and rather frustrated as well. I hadn't been picked. We'd all met up in the Namimori Shrine for the Choice game, got sent to some city place, only for me not to get picked for the Choice game. Hell, I didn't even get to open my box weapon once. Not even after Yuni had shown up and asked for us to protect her. What really bothered me though, was Tsuna kept blushing when she said something nice to him and that churning feeling in my stomach when he did so only added to my frustration. Add that on top of the fact that I had to watch them all fight, watch Irie get hurt and be unable to do anything about it, and find out that the enemy had somehow managed to follow us back to Namimori. Oh, and did I mention? One just showed up in the base, so we all hightailed it outside, despite me being eager to actually do something.

Reborn landed on my shoulder and prodded my head with his pistol, making me frown as I knew he was scolding me for making it obvious that I was upset about the whole situation. The group were all talking about something that I wasn't really paying attention to, because I was more focused on keeping an eye out for enemies. Especially since I can't hear anything. I'll be at a disadvantage. As that thought went through my head, the ground suddenly rumbled and I immediately grabbed Tsuna and threw him to the ground just as an explosion rang out and smoke covered the area. The base had been blown up and I ignored everyone else as worry for Squalo took over. Because, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I rather liked the shouting Girly-man.

"Tsuna? Tsuna, is he okay?" I asked, turning to Tsuna who gave me a worried look.

Yamamoto started to get up then, but Reborn kicked him and I only caught part of what he said, about not wasting valuable time. I grit my teeth and got up with the others as we ran. We were following Haru, who apparently knew someplace we could hide, but once we reached it we discovered the doors to be locked. I debated on what to do, knowing that I could pick the doors if we really needed to, but someone soon opened it and the smell of ramen drifted to my nose; making my stomach growl as my eyes turned to the bowl that the owner was holding. I wasn't paying attention as Tsuna and Gokudera were kicked by the guy into the building and I pointed at the bowl.

"Is there more of that?"

He raised a brow, before shrugging. "I suppose I could get you some, but you better get inside."

At the prospect of food, I nodded and bounded into the building; slightly suspicious of the man. He apparently knew I-Pin though, so I relaxed slightly as the man stood outside and shut us all in the building. We all took refuge behind some couches and such, holding our breaths as we waited for everything to be all clear. It made me nervous. Very nervous. I didn't have a clear view of anything and with my disability, there was no chance that I'd hear the enemy coming or know when they left. I almost wanted to open my box weapon, but I knew that would give us away, so I silently bit my bottom lip and looked for signs that things were alright, by watching the others. They grew tense after a moment and I figured that the enemy was nearby and prepped myself should we need to fight or make a break for it, but soon enough they relaxed and let out relieved sighs; starting to come out of hiding and I followed.

I turned my attention to the mysterious man's ramen again and he sighed before grabbing another small bowl and scooping some into it before passing it to me. I smiled a bit, thanking him, before eating away and doing what I could to pay attention now that I was being fed and no longer had any distractions.

"I saw a lad in a school uniform running towards Nami Junior High. Is he your friend?"

I recognized the description as Hibari, but something in this guy's story seemed off. How did he get rid of the Funeral Wreath person? And something tells me he knows more about what's going on than we do. I frowned a bit, scooping up some more ramen as I started to wonder if we really could trust this guy.

"I wonder if he's alright." The man hummed. "I just hope he's not underestimating their power."

I mentally agreed. From what I saw during the Choice game, these guys were pretty powerful, but it almost seemed a bit too easy. Not that they were holding back so much, but more like they weren't showing what they could really do. Like they were warming up. And they beat us too, which doesn't bode well.

"I don't like this." I murmured, turning to Reborn. "What information do we have on Byakuran?"

"Hm? Be more specific, baka."

I frowned, thinking a bit. "What does he know about us?"

Reborn smirked suddenly, making me kind of worried after having trained with him for so long; knowing that that smirk wasn't good. "He's gone to different parallel universes and has conquered them. This is the one chance that we have to beat him."

Parallel universes. So he knows our future selves and their abilities. I frowned, puzzled. So we need something that wasn't in those universes to beat him. Something like… My eyes widened as understanding came over me. The Vongola boxes. The boxes we got here. The boxes that are unique to this universe. Byakuran doesn't know what their abilities are, so that could beat them. He knows all our other powers, but those are our secret weapons. We just might win this. I went to tell Tsuna what I discovered, but found him with the others cheering over something and I tilted my head in confusion. What's more, the mystery man was leaving and it looked like Yamamoto was as well. I turned to Reborn as he jumped up to sit on my shoulder.

"I feel like I've missed something."

"Hibari defeated one of the Funeral Wreaths and Yamamoto is returning to the base to help Squalo. Spanner, Bianchi, and Giannini are going as well."

I nodded, and watched as the group headed out; Lambo trying to follow them to no avail. I felt something off though when they closed the doors. I couldn't pinpoint it, but I was immediately on edge and spoke up about my concerns to the others.

"Guys, something's wrong."

"Hm?" Tsuna looked around, before growing worried as he looked at Yuni. "Yuni?"

Reborn said something as well but I spotted Chrome looking sick as well and I knew something was wrong now as the others rushed to the door in preparation. I could feel the murderous intent though, and it wasn't coming from outside.

"It's inside!" I shouted, turning around and searching the room until my eyes landed on Lambo's fading form.

I missed what the person said as they changed into one of the Funeral Wreaths and I immediately lit the flame on my ring, but not yet opening any of my boxes because Yuni had just been caught. The man sped forward, narrowly missing my tekagi-shuko before the front of the building was blow in and I fell to the ground. I cursed under my breath and hurried to the large opening to see two other Funeral Wreaths there. Great. Fish-lady, Mask-face, and Sassy-pants. Just what we need. But how did they find—I mentally face-palmed. Duh, parallel universes. If our other selves hid here before Byakuran probably figured it out. Fish-lady opened a box weapon and launched something at us, but Gokudera managed to block it as best he could. We had no way of escaping the onslaught though and I worried that Yuni would get taken away, when the attacks suddenly stopped and three more people appeared; apparently on our side. They weren't doing too well at first, but Tsuna stepped in and took control of things. I was itching to join too, but Reborn once again prodded me and I forced myself to calm down and check on the others.

What I did see though, was Mask-face using a box on his chest and when he changed into some sort of moth thing, understanding overcame me. It's like our Cambio Forma, except they take animal attributes instead of animals taking weapon attributes. Everything was spinning and changing and after a second, I closed my eyes and felt grateful that I couldn't hear. Everything was dark, silent, peaceful and I took a deep breath before letting it out and checking on those presences I could feel near me; opening my eyes only to see how they responded. Gokudera needed medical treatment soon, as did Ryohei, who was worse off along with Basil. The others though were relatively unharmed and with Chrome helping Tsuna with her Vongola box. Ryohei went up to stop the other two Funeral Wreaths along with Reborn—thanks to Basil's dolphin—and I was about to help as well when I spotted Fish-lady moving to open her box on her chest, but Sassy-pants stopped her and issued a retreat; just as the ground shook and I turned to see Tsuna nearly defeat Mask-face. Thing was, we'd taken quite a bit of damage ourselves and we headed off into the forest to recover some; myself wandering around and helping any way I could since I hadn't been allowed to do much lately. It sucked being useless, but I obeyed Reborn's orders and soon found myself sitting beside Lal and Irie, in a huff.

Yuni soon came over and offered her some water as I frowned into my arms that were folded over my knees. They were talking about something involving Yuni, but I couldn't focus. I needed to move, to do something, anything to be helpful, but I'd already done all I could and there was nothing left for me to do. With a groan of frustration, I got up and went to head off, but Tsuna grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

"Where are you going, Natsu?"

I frowned. "To train."

I pulled away from him and headed off a bit further away into the forest, missing the worried and sad expression that came over Tsuna's face.

Tsuna watched in worry as Natsu left, not sure what was going on with her. She'd been acting odd for a while now and, while he'd been worried about it the whole time, he hadn't had a chance to dwell on it while they were worried about other things. Now though, he felt bad for not asking her what was wrong. Reborn snapped him out of his daze by kicking him.

"Dame-Tsuna, pay more attention."

"Ah, sorry." He said, rubbing the back of his head with a nervous smile. "I-I was just worried about Natsu. She seemed upset."

"She's anxious." Reborn replied. "Probably went to blow off excess energy."

"Ah." He hummed, though he felt there was a bit more to it than that, as the group returned to their conversation.

"How do you know that Byakuran's power is weakening, along with yours?" Reborn asked Yuni.

"I just know." She smiled. "It's hard to explain but, he and I are alike. Tsuna, Natsu and Byakuran are similar, in a sense too."

Tsuna immediately panicked. "What?! Natsu and I are similar to Byakuran?!"

Yuni went on though, ignoring his outburst. "And there is one last thing I must tell you all. I will no longer tun."

"Eh?!" Tsuna shouted. "Y-You can't give up! We've gotten this far!"

"It's not that I'm giving up." Yuni explained. "It is the one thing I know for certain, since long ago. That this place would serve as the battle field for the final fight with Byakuran. That come tomorrow, dawn will signify the start of a battle, that will end all."

"The battle that will end all?" The group questioned and she nodded.

"Yes. Byakuran feels the pressure. He is gambling everything on this last battle."

"You're certain that your premonition is unmistaken?" Lal asked and she nodded again as Irie spoke up.

"Can you foresee the outcome?"

"No, what I have been seeing until now, is a scenery just like this, in which I am talking with you all. And this forest, in which the battle begins. That is all."

"What?! You saw this scenery?!"

Haru though, worried about something else. "U-Um, when the fight is over, will we be able to return to our world again?"

"Although Byakuran has the knowledge to share his powers with himself across different parallel worlds, if you think about it logically, it also means that all of these worlds are interconnected, and there is only one solid being." Yuni explained. "In other words, if you take down one, they're all destroyed. You will be able to return to a peaceful past, completely free of fear." She smiled and the girls cheered as even Reborn cracked a smile.

"It means that our greatest crisis could also be our greatest chance. If we win this battle, we'll finally be able to return to the past."

"If we win, that is." Lal said, bursting their happiness.

"Wha—Don't say it like that!"

Reborn though, agreed. "Though we've been able to scrape through with out boxes until now, there's no mistaking that they'll have more up their sleeves. It'll be a tough battle."

"Uh, but… Dawn? By dawn?" Realization suddenly dawned on Tsuna. "Now that I think about it, that hardly gives us any time!"

"Pretty late to realize that now, idiot." Reborn said, Tsuna continuing to panic.

"We haven't even got any plans!"

There was a bit of murmuring from others nearby, but Gamma spoke up.

"Then who could be better suited to think up a good war plan, then the former Captain of the Merone Base, Irie Shouichi?"

"Eh?! M-Me?!" Irie said in shock as Gokudera argued.

"Quit kidding around! The one to make any decisions is the Tenth!"

"Gokudera is right." Irie said, calming down. "I have no right, after making such a blunder in the game of choice. This battle should be in the hands of Vongola's boss, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna immediately began waving his hands in a panic. "I-I told you! I'm not the boss! I never even once said that I'd be boss!"

"You fool. You think you can back out now? Want me to crack your head open?" Reborn threatened, gun drawn.

Tsuna panicked as the others of the group gave him odd looks or laughed, before Tsuna calmed down enough to speak properly to Irie.

"Um, then will you help me plan a strategy, Shouichi? Please lend me your strength!"

"Sure, if it's the boss' orders, I'll happily oblige, though Natsu should help in this as well. She's more than capable of providing strategies."

Tsuna nodded, agreeing and went to go get her, but Reborn stopped him.

"Let's work with who we have first."

Irie nodded. "Firstly, we need to get a grasp of our fighting capacity. The ones who won't be able to fight due to the last battle are Gokudera and Basil. Lal Mirch, Ryohei, Nosaru and Tazaru."

Immediately protests rang out and Reborn silenced everyone with a gunshot in the air.

"Shut up."

They did so, begrudgingly and Irie chuckled nervously as he went on.

"Next, let's count how many box weapons are still in tact."

Gamma cut in. "Hey, that Delfino di Pioggia I saw in the last battle—Who's was it?"

"That would be my Alfin." Basil spoke up and Gamma narrowed his eyes.

"Has it been brain-coated with the other box weapons?"

"Brain-coated?"

Gamma explained. "Don't tell me you don't know about it. It's an ability only possible with the high intelligence level of the Delfino di Pioggia. It's also known as the 'inter-box combination launch system'. The Delfino di Pioggia is able to inter-connect ally boxes with its high level of operating knowledge and brain waves. And when the boxes are in perfect formation, they are able to launch a secret attack"

"That's right!" Irie said. "I'd forgotten about that."

"I remember reading about that in the self-help book." Basil commented as Tsuna gaped in surprise.

"A combination secret attack? That sounds impressive!"

"There's no way we're not using this." Gamma hummed. "Everyone, open your boxes."

"Okay!"

Everyone did so and all of the animals came out one by one. Gokudera's leopard cub Uri, Lal's millipede Zamusa, Basil's dolphin Delfino di Pioggia, Chrome's owl Mukuro, Lambo's bull Gyuudon, Gamma's foxes Korulu and Bigette, Ryohei's Kangaroo Kangaryu, and even Tsuna's lion cub Haruki.

"It's a spectacle seeing them all together." Irie commented with a smile.

"We're missing Yamamoto's, Hibari's and Natsu's but all that's left is to get Delfino di Pioggia to do the brain-coating and we're good to go."

"Yes, alright. Here it goes." Basil said, but he waited as Haruki hurried over to hide behind Tsuna.

"Hey, Haru! You've got to go. Come on, what's wrong with you?" Tsuna complained. "Outside battle-mode, he's a complete scaredy cat."

Uri jumped from Gokudera's arms and started a fight with Haruki as Reborn sighed.

"Haru is just like Tsuna to the bone."

"Hey, Uri! How dare you act so insolently!" Gokudera shouted and Haruki made a break for it, jumping onto Tsuna.

"Ack! Let go, Haru!" Tsuna shouted just as Natsu wandered out from the forest with her foxes by her side and something else moving in the dark behind her.

She spotted Tsuna fighting with Haruki and Uri—who'd joined in, in fighting Tsuna—and she sighed.

"Honestly. I'm gone for a little bit and he's already getting himself hurt. Shi." She turned and a large, sleek black panther walked out from behind her and rubbed up against her side; orange grey flames in it's ears and down it's back. "Care to help?"

The panther seemed to sigh before following Natsu over to where Tsuna was and picking Haruki up by the scruff and setting the young lion down at it's feet before Uri came over and hissed angrily; only for Shi to huff out a breath into Uri's face with a deep growl and send it scurrying back to Gokudera. Tsuna finally opened his eyes only to see Shi and panic, scrambling back until he bumped into Natsu's legs.

"Tsuna, this is Shi. She's my other box animal."

Shi laid down in the dirt with a yawn and Tsuna stared as Haruki wandered around it before squeezing himself under the large panther's chin and lying on her paws contently. Reborn smirked from beside them.

"Seems Shi is just like Natsu as well."

Uri, not one to be defeated, hurried back over and jumped on Shi's back, biting down on her ear and tugging at it, but Shi just shook her head and Uri tumbled off into the dirt less than pleased. Irie spoke up then, dragging everyone's attention to him.

"A-Anyway, let's try to aim for a good battle-plan with this fighting capacity. Natsu, would you mind helping?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

Tsuna stopped her though, grabbing her arm. "N-Natsu? Are you alright? You walked away earlier, so I'm just..."

She smiled a bit, making Tsuna's heart skip a beat. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just felt a bit useless with nothing to do, is all."

Tsuna frowned. "You're not useless, Natsu. I-I think you're a really big part of all this, and you're amazing at what you do. S-So don't give up!"

Natsu looked surprised, before doing something Tsuna didn't expect. She grinned. A beaming, happy, true grin. One that made his face turn a dark shade of red.

"You're right, Tsuna. Thanks."

S-So cute...