Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any other recognizable enterprises. Nor do I make money off them.
Before the Bullet
Chapter Two: Not the Only One
Tsuna woke up slowly, clinging desperately to sleep. Each little bit of awareness that came to him revealed that every muscle was in pain. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Haven't felt like this since that fight with Mukuro. Experimentally, he lifted his arm. With a whimper, he dropped it back down after a few seconds. Not paralyzed but I'd rather go through Reborn's crazy training sessions again. Only a few places hurt like hell instead every fucking thing.
Wait, if I'm in the past…Suddenly Reborn's training did not seem any more pleasant. "Not again," Tsuna whined, imagining the Mountain of Death, explosions for wrong answers, and being shot on an almost daily basis.
"Quiet herbivore."
"Hiii!" Tsuna's head snapped to the side and his neck muscles sent stabbing pulses down his back in retaliation. "Hibari-san!"
His future Cloud Guardian looked up from a book. He seemed to have made himself quite comfortable at the low table, with a cup of tea and cookies next to him. Young Hibari was not much different than either of his older selves. He had the same hair style and nearly the same uniform (the coat seemed longer on his form and his Disciplinary Committee Band was absent), though they now looked almost cute on his younger form—Never, ever going to tell him that! The biggest difference seemed to be his tonfa lying across his lap. Bamboo must have come before the metal ones.
Somehow, Tsuna doubted Hibari was any less dangerous with a weaker material. He could probably kill someone with a stuffed animal… Tsuna put a stop to that line of thought as the image of young Hibari attacking school children with a stuffed duck became to violent to him.
"Are you going to lie there all day? Still weak."
Tsuna was hit with three desires: to protest, to get away as far as possible, and to hug the scowling Hibari. His body, dreaded the potential pain any of those options would lead to, restrained him from doing any of the three. Tsuna was suddenly grateful for the pain; he would have chosen the third option. Hibari's fallen and broken form was still fresh in his mind from a week—was it still a week if he was now in the past?—and Tsuna had never been so happy to see him. Running away with Yamamoto and Gokudera and leaving Hibari in Uni's Castle had hurt more than the injuries he received from any of the Millefiore, including the ones from that possessed girl. Hibari had told them to run but the crack of bones when Uni crashed the Cloud Guardian into the wall haunted his dreams far to vividly.
Hibari's capture and unknown fate had been a huge blow. Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Tsuna had feared themselves the last of the Vongola. Until they found Irie. Then Byakuran found us and Irie was the last one with me. Tsuna hoped the double agent had survived, or even better, that reality ceased to exist.
"Are you…"
Hibari nodded.
"What about the others?"
"Yamamoto and the Sagawasa siblings do not show any signs."
Tsuna opened his mouth to ask about the others, then remembered only Irie would be in Japan currently. "When did you…" Tsuna searched the word. "Know?"
"This morning."
"Me too." Tsuna sat up, hissing in pain. Hibari smirked and Tsuna almost rolled his eyes at Hibari's sadism. How did this end up as a normal, expected part of my life?
Hibari set down his book. "How did this happen, Sawada?"
Tsuna bit his lip, wondering if the use of his family name instead of 'herbivore' was a good sign or not. "What do you remember last?"
Hibari glared. "The Castle."
"We found Irie—Shoichi. Byakuran found us." Tsuna gulped when Hibari wrapped a hand around a tonfa. His training had with the man attested to the fact that ten years (or about fourteen now) did not mellow out Hibari. "Gokudera and Yamamoto fought and I ran with Shoichi, who had one last trick apparently. Here we are, in the past right?"
Hibari nodded. "A better idea of your's."
"My idea!?" Tsuna gaped. "No, it was Irie's. I'm…dame-Tsuna."
"How old are you, Tsunayoshi?" His voice did not match his body, too deep and cold. Tsuna decided 'herbivore' was safer than his own name.
"Sixteen."
Hibari covered his face with his hand. "Still a useless herbivore."
Tsuna stared at him. Is this some kind of messed up dream? He didn't need to pinch himself to prove he was awake; his body pulsed in pain at the very thought. "Did I really make the machine that got us here?"
"No. Your scheming, manipulative future self inspired your double agent."
"I…scheme? I wouldn't do that!" Tsuna couldn't imagine himself being manipulative. Except for Gokudera. Tsuna flinched; he had a bad habit of creating tasks for the bomber or addressing him as 'my right-hand man' at opportune moments to get his way (or get Gokudera to go away). God, if only Gokudera was here now. And Yamamoto. And everyone else.
"You will. We will get this right this time." Hibari crossed his arms, with a tonfa parallel to each arm.
"I…" Tsuna gulped; this would likely be the last time they could attempt any correction. They had to stop Byakuran before he could do much damage. No more time machines at their disposal for a long while. No guarantee that they would ever have the machines again, if Irie didn't have his memory. "We need to kill Byakuran."
Hibari's smirk was far from friendly. Tsuna was pretty sure a shark's grin was more comforting. "It took a trip to the future and the past for you to finally agree."
He's talking about the other me. Tsuna felt uncomfortable. He had seen and met many people's future selves but his own he couldn't begin to imagine. Was I still dame-Tsuna? Manipulative like Hibari says? Was I a good boss? Tsuna wanted to avoid that last question; he certainly had not been on his trip to the future. Fuck, I killed everyone. "I don't want my Famiglia to die again."
"We will plan." Tsuna waited for Hibari to continue but the Cloud Guardain stared expectantly at him. "Well?"
"Me!?" His eyes went wide.
"You are," Hibari paused. "Will be the boss."
Tsuna wished Reborn was here, freaky bullets, bad disguises, and all. He would have some idea—a crazy idea involving pain and humiliation for Tsuna but an idea all the same. He tried for the most basic plan. "We kill Byakuran?"
Hibari sighed.
Tsuna is eleven, soon to be twelve in October in this part. Sorry if there was any confusion! Wiki says he's fourteen in the future arc, my AU has him there for about a year then pulls him back to eleven, two years before Reborn. The year, just as a reminder, he is in now 2001. ! This is how I think his age for school goes(the split is because his birthday's in October): 11/12—elementary(sixth grade), 12/13—first year of Junior high 13/14--second year, 14/15 thrid year, and so on.
This may be a bit confusing but Hibari has basically three sets of memories: the original future, the travel to the future, and his current childhood's.
My excuse for this rather bi-polar fanfic is the Reborn itself is bi-polar, especially in the future arc. Canon goes from comedy to drama and so shall I.