Weak Alone, Strong Together Chapter 4: Is this what Freedom feels like?, a katekyo hitman reborn! fanfic

Ciao! I have just experienced my very first writer's bump for this story! I just did not know how to start it off! Anyways, I received comments about votes for if there's going to be romance or not, and I'll repeat, the pole for that is already done. I told you all what won at the very end of the chapter. In case you didn't read it I'll say it again.

Poll Results:

No Romance-20

Yes Romance-24

Slight/Implied All27-35 (WINNER!)

REMINDER!

Character Ages:

Tsuna – 6 years old

Nagi and Mukuro – 7 years old

Current Chapter Location: Estraneo Base, Somewhere in Italy

Disclaimer: I sadly do not own KHR! Only this story!

"Speaking"

"Ghost talking"

'Thoughts'

-Setting-

Chapter 3 – Is this What Freedom Feels Like?

-A Few Days Later-

The first one of the three kids that were in the cage to wake up was Mukuro. Mukuro saw that Tsuna was sleeping right next to him and on the other side of Tsuna was Nagi. 'Tsu… You're an enigma. That's the only word that I can use to describe you after being with you for more than a week now. Even now though I still wonder why I want to protect you, even if it's at the cost of my life. The only person I had ever felt this way was Nagi. It must be because you were the only person who has accepted the both of us instead of one over the other, because it was you who saved us.' Mukuro thought as he brushed some of Tsuna's bangs out of his face with a small smile on his face.

The smile on Mukuro's face immediately vanished though once he heard Tsuna whimper. Upon closer inspection, Mukuro saw beads of sweat role down from Tsuna's forehead as his eyebrows began to knit together. Those were clear signs of someone having a nightmare and Mukuro knew that seeing as he was always the one who comforted Nagi whenever she had nightmares.

Tsuna began to whimper even more and talk in his sleep. Mukuro began to hear thing like "I'm not a demon…" or "I'm not everybody's stress outlet…" and "To protect them I'll endure…"

"No!" Tsuna yelled as he woke up from his nightmare, panting.

"Are you ok, Tsu?" Mukuro asked worriedly as Nagi groggily woke up from the loud voice. He began to rub Tsuna's back to try to comfort him.

"Tsu?" Nagi asked confusedly as she began to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

Tsuna panted for a bit trying to calm himself down before shakily taking in deep breaths and repeating "I'm fine" over and over again as if to reassure himself that he was fine. Even though he was saying he was fine, his eyes said something completely different. His eyes showed nothing but pain and sorrow. It looked like he had no hope in anything what so ever. His eyes were those of the broken. Tsu then closed he eyes.

"Tsu…" Mukuro began. To tell the truth, Mukuro was a bit shocked. From the time he spent with Tsuna he had always thought that Tsuna was a very strong child; a child who never let the bad things hold him down and only look at things positively. But this little episode told him otherwise. It showed him that Tsu was more fragile than everyone thought he was, that has been through a lot more pain than anyone could imagine, and that he has a lot more skeletons in his closet that he lets on.

Tsuna opened his eyes once again and looked up to Mukuro. "I'm fine." Tsuna said with a strong, steady, convincing voice. His eyes once again full of life and hope like they were the previous day. It was as if Tsuna slipped on a mask to hide his own pain…

Even though his reassurance convinced Nagi, it didn't convince Mukuro one bit. Unlike Nagi who was getting the sleepiness out of her eyes, Mukuro clearly saw the broken pair of eyes Tsuna was seemingly trying to hide from them. Mukuro felt a pang of sadness for Tsuna. 'Does he always hide his pain behind a mask? To keep everyone happy and prevent them from worrying?' Mukuro wondered. He kept quiet about it though, thinking that Tsuna would tell them about his past when he was ready.

No matter what, Mukuro couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed at how calm (or as calm/peaceful as it could be for them) it was. It felt like soon something big would happen soon, very soon. Little did Mukuro know how right he was; as they say, it's always calm before the storm.

"#27 it's time. Come with us." A scientist said to Tsuna.

Tsuna looked back towards Mukuro and Nagi. "Itekimasu." Tsuna said, smiling a bit at his new found friends as he left their cage and followed the scientist obediently. Two very small mumbles of "Itarashai" could be heard from Nagi and Mukuro.

As soon as Tsuna stepped out of the cage, the two scientists grabbed his wrists tightly and dragged him forward. Tsuna would've flinched at the strength they used if he wasn't so used to the treatment already.

When they got to their destination, they shoved Tsuna into a room. The room that Tsuna got shoved into looked like a place you'd go to test something and make observations. The walls and floor were white but had patches of red covering some parts of it. Tsuna already knew that the red he was seeing was actually blood from the other experiments that were in this room before him. The ceiling was really high, higher than any ceiling he'd seen before. It seemed like with that kind of ceiling there could've been 3 stories. On one of the walls where a second story could be, there was a large tinted glass pane, it was so tinted that Tsuna couldn't see through it. Though thanks to his HI, it told him that there were machines and people behind it. Faintly around the room, Tsuna could spot out circular things that looked like speakers that were in the ceiling.

"#27," Tsuna heard a voice coming from the speakers around the room "once again we will test your physical abilities. This time though instead of having you just dodge, we want you to now fight back against the test robots. Don't disappoint us. Just remember that if you do, then you're not the only one who'll feel the effects of that serum. Those two kids, experiment #69 (Mukuro) and #96 (Nagi), who you care so much about will be next; seeing as the week has already been over since a few days ago and the twins have been lucky that we didn't have enough time to get to them yet." The sinister voice said. Tsuna felt dread sinking in his stomach. He absolutely did not want that to happen, no, he wouldn't allow it to happen. Not to them, not to anyone else. Ever. He'll make sure to destroy every single one of them, including the instructions to make it.

As soon as Tsuna felt something warm and powerful stir within his body, he quickly dispersed it. He had a feeling that if they knew he could use whatever it was; it would make it harder for him to escape. On the other hand, it will be a great asset to help him escape if he did somehow manage to escape from here.

Tsuna was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the arrow that was heading his way. He dodged right in time for the arrow to pass him. The next thing that Tsuna dodged was a knife that was thrown at his direction. Tsuna performed numerous backflips when he saw a number of arrows coming his way. He then ducked right before a whip managed to get him, though that didn't stop him from another whip whipping him on his back. Tsuna had to bite back a cry from escaping his lips. Even though he had his own share of experiences with those sorts of weapons from his parents, it didn't mean that his body is used to it.

Just like that, Tsuna continued dodging the weapons that were being thrown at him. 'Who knew that robots knew how to use all of those weapons so well?' was the only thought in Tsuna's mind while he continued to dodge the oncoming attacks. It ended up taking a bunch of scratches and whip marks all over Tsuna's body for him to actually start to grow tired of dodging and being unable to defend himself properly.

The first opening Tsuna saw, he used to attack the robot with the whip in its hand. Tsuna felt something weird going on. For him, it felt like time was slowing down for him, as he could see the movements of the whip before it actually strike. Tsuna used this as an advantage to dodge the whip and approach the robot. When he was close enough, he launched his attack by doing a roundhouse kick to its neck, effectively decapitating it. Unbeknownst to Tsuna, his eyes now had a burnt orange hue to it while that was happening.

Tsuna continued to fight like that against the other robots, slightly tweaking his strategies to suit the weapons that they were using against him. Tsuna found that the array of weapons they had been quite weird. The weapons he found were varying from the olden day weapons to the modern ones. Take the arrows for example, perhaps the swords as well for olden day weapons. The next thing Tsuna knows is that he's against modern day weapons like guns, grenades, and dynamite, the occasional mines that he somehow has to step on every 5 to 10 or so minutes.

As time passed, Tsuna gradually became more and more tired. How much time had passed, Tsuna wasn't sure. The only thing that Tsuna knew was that it had been well over a few hours, thanks to his HI for informing him. If there was one thing Tsuna knew for sure, it would be that the more time passes, the more injuries he'd have to sustain since his stamina was running low, ensuing that he wouldn't be quick enough to dodge incoming attacks.

Tsuna was panting, now completely soaked in his own sweat and blood. Currently, his back felt like it was on fire. Tsuna knew he made a careless mistake of stopping in the middle of a battle field in hopes of catching his breath for a bit before continuing the fight. As a result of that, Tsuna felt himself get slashed twice on his back by a duel sword wielding robot. From what he could tell, they were pretty big and deep since he felt pain on his entire back. Not only that but he could also feel blood dripping out of them.

Tsuna didn't want to continue he just wanted to stop and stay where he was so his body would be able to rest and heal. But Tsuna knew better than that. Tsuna knew that if he did stop, then they'd also use that serum on Mukuro and Nagi. Tsuna definitely didn't want that to ever happen.

So knowing this, Tsuna had a burst of energy suddenly rush into his system. That burst of energy helped him in continuing on and blocking it the pain he was feeling from his injuries. By the end, he had finally destroyed all of the robots surrounding the vicinity around him.

Tsuna felt extremely tired. He felt so tired that he could faint on the spot. Tsuna knew better to do that though. He knew that he had to wait to hear that they are done for today before he actually faints. He really hoped that they were done though. As if Lady Luck was finally on his side, he heard the intercom go off.

"That's all for today, #27." The scientist said.

Once Tsuna heard that, he felt his legs finally give out and to fell to the floor. As if on cue, a guard came into the room and picked Tsuna up from the ground and toss Tsuna over his shoulder none too gently like he was a sack of potatoes.

"Why… Why are you guys doing this to us?" Tsuna asked the guard that was carrying him. "What the hell did we ever do wrong in our lives to anyone?!"

"Nothing… You guys did nothing…" The guard replied as he continued to carry Tsuna back to his cage.

"Then why are you guys doing this to us?!" Tsuna asked, extremely frustrated.

The guard stayed quiet in favour of unlocking the cage and tossing Tsuna in. Once the guard locked the cage back, Tsuna decided to ask again, but this time with much more force. "I will ask you one more time; why the hell are you guys doing this to us?!" Tsuna demanded now, eyes flashing orange.

All of a sudden, the guard froze up. It was as if he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried. It was like his gaze was permanently locked on Tsuna.

To be honest with you, the guard felt scared shitless. It felt like he did something wrong in the presence of his boss and was about to be punished… no, this was worse. The guard felt compelled to listen to Tsuna. To answer any questions Tsuna had to be answered, to do anything Tsuna had asked him to do. To the guard, it felt as if he was a puppet and Tsuna was his puppeteer.

The guard however soon snapped out of whatever trance he was in when Tsuna said, "Answer me."

"… Because we can." The guard finally answered then left.

Tsuna took in a deep breath of air and leaned against the side of the cage, in attempt to rest his battered body. Tsuna decided to let his body rest as it and fell asleep.

When Tsuna woke up, he finally noticed something. "Muku-nii?! Nagi-nee?!" Tsuna called, slightly panicked as he glanced around the cage, only to finally notice that both of them were not in the cage.

Wanting to find out what happened to his two friends, Tsuna decided to talk to one of the kids in the room outside of his cage for once.

"Excuse me!" Tsuna yelled out to one of the kids across the ginormous room. One of the kids uncurled themselves and looked up at Tsuna. "Do you know what happened to the other two people in here?" Tsuna asked; motioning to the cage he was in.

The kid nodded, "It was their turn." The kid said emotionlessly then curled back into a small ball again.

Tsuna felt himself freeze, the dread finally setting in now that he knew that they were now being experimented on. He then felt frustrated with himself, knowing that he failed to protect them even though he swore to himself that he would.

"Are you going to give up?" A voice that strangely sounded like an older version of Tsuna's voice resounded in Tsuna's head.

"Who are you?" Tsuna whispered to himself. The voice just ignored Tsuna's question though.

"You failed to protect your friends once. Are you going to abandon and give up trying to protect them just because of one failure?" The voice said.

Tsuna hesitated for a moment before saying, "No, I'm not."

"Then tell me, beloved child of God, what is your decision?" The voice asked.

"My decision…" Tsuna began, "is to continue to protect. As long as they're alive, as long as I'm still living, I'll always protect them. They're my friends, friends whom I wouldn't trade for the world." Tsuna said determinedly, eyes now staying orange in colour.

Not even a moment after Tsuna's declaration, everything turned white. In front of Tsuna, a ghost appeared. The ghost looked like an older version of Tsuna albeit with blond hair. He was wearing a black suit with white pinstripes and a white undershirt with a black tie. Over his suit he wore a long black cape with a golden, decoration attachment. The weirdest part of all was that he had a pure orange flame dancing upon his head.

The man was smiling softly at Tsuna. He held out his pointer finger and a very pure orange flame appeared on his finger. He then proceeded to touch Tsuna's forehead and said, "I accept your resolve, seal release, phase one*."

Tsuna immediately felt a heck of a lot better. It felt like all this time Tsuna was looking through mist, which all of a sudden disappeared. Tsuna felt as if whatever chains that had him chained down were now beginning to loosen up, not all the way to be free, but just enough to feel like he could now get a grasp on the freedom that used to be out of his reach. Unbeknownst to Tsuna, he too now had a pure orange flame dancing on his forehead.

When the ghost retracted his hand, he (Tsuna) heard him (the ghost) gasp. 'So pure… perhaps even purer than my own…' The ghost thought to himself as he stared at the orange flame that danced on Tsuna's forehead then smiled, 'I made the right decision then…' He thought.

"God's beloved child, my descendant, may the fates be on your side for your fight for freedom. Good luck, Tsunayoshi." The ghost said as he vanished.

When the ghost vanished, Tsuna felt unnaturally calm. Tsuna could now think straight unlike before, when he was worrying about Mukuro and Nagi.

Tsuna summoned flames to appear on his hands. He closed his eyes and concentrated. All of a sudden, he felt the same sensation he had felt earlier that day when he was fighting the robots. Tsuna opened his eyes and saw pure orange flames appear on his hands. He could feel the heat and intensity of the flames on his hands but he ignored it in favour of putting his hands on the cold, metallic bars of his cage to bend it; creating just enough space so his body could slip through it.

Once he was out of the cage, he noticed that all of the kids in the room now had their attention on him. Tsuna would have felt a bit nervous with all of that attention if he wasn't in HDWM.

Tsuna cleared his throat, "Everyone, right now I am planning on escaping from here. I plan on dictating the way how I live my life. I will not spend the rest of my life locked up in this hell-hole just because they sold me here. And I doubt that the rest of you would want to spend the rest of your lives here as a test subject either." Tsuna closed his eyes and waited for a moment to let the message sink into the kids. He could feel himself leaving HDWM.

Tsuna opened his eyes once more and extended a hand out to them, "So come with me, I'll give you the freedom all of us deserve. I'll lead you to a place where we won't have to feel pain anymore. I'll lead you to a place where we're treated as human beings once more." Tsuna decided to drop his happy act a little and smile a small, sad but hopeful smile so that they could tell that he was being genuine and just wanted to give them freedom. "We'll finally be free. We'll be able to smile and laugh again; we'll know what it feels to be loved again."

Tsuna began to smile even more genuinely once he saw that all of the kids around the room gain a hopeful glint in their once dead, cold, emotionless eyes. 'One more push…' Tsuna thought to himself when he saw that some of them were still a bit hesitant.

"I'll protect you, so don't worry. We'll be free." Tsuna said with absolute conviction. "Let's go." Tsuna said as he exited the room, the rest of the kids looked at each other before following Tsuna.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" A boy's yell could be heard. "DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T YOU DEAR TOUCH HER!"

Tsuna whirled around to where he heard the shout come from.

"Michelle!" Tsuna called.

Michelle, the same kid that told Tsuna where Mukuro and Nagi were, approached Tsuna.

"Yes, Caelum?" Michelle asked.

"I need you to stay here with the group and watch over them. Can you do that?" Tsuna asked. Shino nodded his head.

Tsuna glanced around the hallway a bit before his eyes settled on a piece of wood that was long and sturdy enough to be used to hit someone. Tsuna picked it up before tossing it to Michelle, who caught it. "You'll be needing that." Tsuna said, "Also, tell the kids to look around the rooms-" Tsuna motioned to the doors that were on both sides of the hallway "-and use whatever they find to help defend themselves against whoever comes to stop us. I'll be heading over to where we heard the yells to help those kids escape with us too." Tsuna said.

"Ok Caelum. But be careful, alright? Remember that all of us are placing our trust and faith in you to be free. We need you." Michelle said as he gestured to everyone else. Their little group had greatly increased since they were also helping other kids who were trapped in other rooms and labs escape. Not to mention knocking out every guard and scientist that came their way.

Tsuna nodded before dashing off towards the place that the yelling was coming from.

When Tsuna arrived to the lab that he heard to yelling from, he felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Tsuna just ignored that feeling and kicked the doors open.

There they were. His two friends, the friends he promised to protect, were right there, clearly in pain. Now instead of only Mukuro having a red eye, Nagi has one now too. Tsuna felt rage bubbling up in his system. They will pay. That was the only thought that Tsuna had in his mind as he dashed towards the scientists.

"Wha- what is #27 doing here?!-" One of the scientists yelled out before having his face hit by Tsuna's fist; which evidently knocked him out.

"You will pay…" Tsuna growled, his beautiful orange eyes glaring at the scientists in rage. The scientists felt themselves shiver at when they felt Tsuna's glare on them.

'Why am I afraid of him? He is just a 6 year old brat…' the scientists thought to themselves before Tsuna launched himself towards the rest of the scientists in the room.

Mukuro and Nagi felt themselves stare in awe at their – self-declared – younger brother. With a few punches and kicks, majority of the scientists were unconscious. Mukuro felt a smirk appearing on his lips before he noticed the last scientist had sneaked up on Tsuna and was about to slash him.

"Behind you Tsu!" Nagi yelled in warning before Mukuro could.

As fast as Nagi yelled Tsuna twirled around and punched the scientist, which sent him flying to the wall. He fell unconscious.

They saw Tsuna wobble and sway a bit before seeing his legs give out. They ran to Tsuna. It wasn't until then that they noticed how much Tsuna was injured and bleeding– especially on his back.

Mukuro felt himself growl at the amount of injuries Tsuna had. He was about to rip off part of his gown to use as bandages of Tsuna's injuries before Tsuna stopped him.

"We *pant* must *pant* get back…" Tsuna said, trying to regain his breath. He continued once his breathing became normal again. "There are a bunch of kids that I have gathered from this place to escape with us. You two were the only ones missing." Tsuna said.

"Ok." Mukuro said. He slung Tsuna's arm over his neck to support him while they walked back to the group.

"I'm sorry." Tsuna said, breaking the silence.

Mukuro and Nagi looked at Tsuna in surprise. "For what, Tsu?" They asked.

"I promised to protect you, yet I ended up breaking that promise…" Tsuna said, downcast.

Mukuro smiled a bit at Tsuna and ruffled his hair. "Kufufu~ There's only so much someone could do, little Tsu. We're very grateful for what you've done for us. You protected us from them for more than a week, which is pretty amazing if you ask me." Mukuro said. Nagi nodded her head in agreement.

Tsuna smiled at them a bit and began to walk the rest of the way on his own.

"Over here!" Tsuna yelled, pointing down a hallway. "This hallway here leads us to the exit!"

All the kids began to cry and laugh in joy at the thought of finally being free. As soon as that relief washed over all of the kids was as soon as it disappeared.

"We got you now." Said the Chief as the remaining conscious guards and scientists began to surround them.

"Crap…" Tsuna cursed as he saw what was going on. Tsuna turned to face the rest of the kids behind him. "EVERYONE!" Tsuna shouted, getting all of their attention. "I need you all to go straight down this hall way as quick as you can! At the end of it there will be a pair of double doors. You'll be able to get outside that way. GO!" Tsuna yelled as he began to fend off the guards and scientists that were trying to catch them. All of the kids –excepting Mukuro, Nagi and Michelle– nodded their heads and started to run.

Tsuna then focused his attention –or as much as he could- on the three people that he remained. "Hurry up and escape!" Tsuna yelled at them as he dodged a punch that was ended his way.

"No! I am not just about to leave and let my savior sacrifice himself to save us!" Argued Michelle.

"You guys, please! I need you to-" Tsuna does a backflip "protect them if anyone else goes after them using another hallways. Please!" Tsuna pleaded them. "None of us deserve this…" Tsuna said as he just finished off the last one except for the Chief.

"Fine…" They groggily agree, "but you better catch up with us once you're done!"

Tsuna smiled softly at them as they began to run after the kids. 'I'm sorry guys, but there's something that makes me feel that I won't be able to see any one of you in a long time…'

"It looks like it's just you and me now, huh Chief?" Tsuna said with a smirk dancing upon his features.

"Says who?" Now it was the Chief's turn to snap his fingers. Not even a moment later even more adults appeared from the rooms they were hiding in.

"Damn…" Tsuna cursed once again as he gritted his teeth. The Chief's smirk grew even bigger. He then motioned them to attack Tsuna.

"Ne ne ne… where's Caelum?" One of the children asked.

Michelle looked at the kid sadly. "Right now, he's buying us time to escape. Come on, hurry up! The exit's right there! Caelum will catch up with us later. He promised, after all." Michelle said.

The other kids nodded and began to dash out of the door to the world outside. Only Mukuro, Nagi, and Michelle were hesitant on leaving Tsuna by himself.

"Mukuro-niisan…" Nagi began, "I-I don't like this feeling… it doesn't feel right, leaving Tsu there to fight by himself…"

"Me neither, Nagi." Mukuro said. "Even though I don't like knowing that he's fighting by himself to buy some time for us to escape, we can't do anything about it. He's stronger than us despite him being younger than we are. If we stayed back, I'm afraid that we would've been holding him back." Mukuro continued, brushing off the feeling that this would be the last time they'd see Tsuna in a long time. "But, he promised that he'd catch up with us. So this feeling can't be true, right?" Mukuro questioned himself.

"Then we'll just have to get stronger then." Michelle said, adding in his own two-sense. "We'll just have to be strong enough to fight with him, strong enough to protect him." Michelle looked back down the hallway they ran through. "You know, I've been thinking about this since Tsuna convinced us to escape with him. He's always saying how he'll protect us and he won't let us get hurt; but who'll protect him? Who will take care of and watch over him?"

At this, Mukuro remembered back at when he saw the look on a maskless Tsuna.

FLASHBACK

FLASHBACK END

"That's when I decided, that I'd be that person. I'll be the one to protect Caelum, even if it's the last thing I do." Michelle said with absolute determination.

Nagi and Mukuro felt their own determination rise as well. "Us too," Nagi said, "we'll protect Tsu too; he's our little brother after all." Mukuro nodded his head, agreeing with his sister. Michelle nodded his head in content.

"Kufufu~ we should lead the rest of the group away from here. It won't be safe if we stay so close to the place just escaped." Mukuro said in a creepy way (how he does it, I don't know…).

With that, they all went deeper into the forest. It wasn't until they heard a big explosion that they turned around to look at the hell-hole they had just escaped from. The sight that they were greeted with made them worried. The building was on fire; and from what they knew, Tsuna was still inside.

"Let me go!" Nagi screamed. "Tsu's still in there! I need to, no; I have to get him out! Please!" She pleaded, struggling to get out of the grip that two older boys had her in to prevent her from dashing inside the burning building.

"Nagi!" Mukuro and Michelle ran towards Nagi. "Nagi, you know Tsu; Tsu won't go down without a fight. He'll be fine. He promised he'd catch up with us, after all." Mukuro assured Nagi as he hugged her.

"That's right, Nagi. Caelum's too stubborn to give up. I should know since I've heard about all of his adventures with trying to find the exit. And look at us now. He found the exit; we're free. He won't die that easily." Michelle said.

With that, Nagi hesitantly nodded her head. Even though she knew that, she couldn't help but be worried. She glanced towards Mukuro and Michelle, who seemed to look calm.

'I hope they're right… make sure to catch up with us soon, Tsu.' Nagi thought to herself.

Unbeknownst to Nagi, on the inside Mukuro and Michelle were thinking the same thing.

The fire was beginning to spread. Tsuna knew that he had to get moving fast if he still wanted to live; but he was tired, his body wasn't in any shape to move any longer. Especially after he released the flames that caused the very same fire that might very well end his life.

FLASHBACK

Tsuna dodged and attacked the people in front of him. Tsuna knew that he couldn't go on any more. He knew he was losing too much blood and he was beginning to feel light headed. But he made a promise; that he'll catch up to them. And he didn't plan on breaking another promise so soon if he can help it.

Tsuna felt his HI trying to tell him something. Trusting his HI with his life, Tsuna decided to let instinct take over his body. Almost immediately, Tsuna could tell a difference. He wasn't moving as much as he was before yet his results were still the same. It felt like he wasn't wasting any moves like he did before.

He was doing great until one of the scientists managed to sneak up behind him a whack him behind his head with a block of wood, causing Tsuna to fall to the floor.

"Good job, guys." The Chief told them then looked to Tsuna. "Well then, how shall we punish you? Starve you? Nah, if we starve you any longer, you'll die. Torture you? Nah, you're already used to it… OH! Those kids that you were stalling time for so that they could escape. I'll just send people out to capture them and make you watch them suffer in your stead, knowing that it was your entire fault that they're being tortured."

"No! Don't hurt them! It was my plan! Punish me instead!" Tsuna said –Tsuna promised himself a long time ago that he'd never beg and plead anyone again.

"Hmmm… how about… no." The Chief said with an evil grin on his face. "From what I've seen, you care about others more than you care about yourself. So punishing them will affect you more than punishing you." Said the Chief.

Then the Chief's face changed to an expression that people had when they just remembered something. "Oh yeah, your little friend, Nagi. She's such a cute little girl isn't she? Maybe when she grows up a little bit more I'll teach her what it's like to be a woman…" The Chief mused.

Tsuna felt pure rage build up within himself. He knew all too well what the Chief was implying. The Chief was saying that he's going to rape Nagi.

'I'll be damned if I ever allowed that to happen!' Tsuna mentally screamed to himself. Subconsciously, he began to gather his flames.

"Yes, I think I'll do just that." The Chief said to himself.

"NOOOOOOO!" Tsuna shouted. With that, Tsuna released all of the flames that he had gathered. Everywhere around Tsuna caught at fire. The Chief ordered everyone to run and left Tsuna lying on the ground.

FLASHBACK END

Tsuna struggled to his feet, wobbling with every step he took. By now both sides of the hallway that Tsuna was in was engulfed in flames. Tsuna glanced around only to find that there a staircase leading upstairs.

'How come I've never noticed that until now?' Tsuna mused as he decided to take his chances and went up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a room; a room that had windows that could be opened. Tsuna would have laughed at this if he wasn't in such a serious situation right now. Tsuna ran towards the room after feeling the heat of the fire slowly creep up the stairs he came up from and opened the window.

Tsuna looked around outside of the window if there was anything he could jump on before his eyes locked in on a tree not too far from the window. Backing up a bit so that Tsuna could get a little bit of a running head start, Tsuna jumped out of the window and into the tree, managing to grab a hold of a sturdy tree branch to break is fall. Tsuna landed on the ground with a thud.

Tsuna knew that he had to move as far as he could from the burning building as he could if he didn't want to risk getting caught by them. Picking himself up from the ground, Tsuna began to walk away.

For how far or how long he walked, Tsuna didn't know. All that Tsuna knew that it was safe for him to rest now; and just in time too, seeing as his legs finally gave out not a moment later.

Tsuna was now lying on his back, staring a beautiful sunset that seemed to be staring back at him. Tsuna stretched out a hand, as if trying to reach the sky.

'Is this what freedom feels like?' Tsuna thought as black spots began to finally invade his vision. The last thing that Tsuna saw were two shadows standing over him before he blacked out.

Finally done chapter 3! I'm so sorry for the wait but my laptop has some sort of virus that makes it shut down at any given time and I didn't want to lose anything I typed for this chapter so I spent most of my time trying to fix my laptop. Nothing worked though so I had to use my parent's computer to complete the chapter secretly since they don't know that I'm a fan fiction author. Especially not to anime/manga. It's a secret that I am hiding right now and I plan on keeping it that way.

Anyways, I hope you liked it! Please review and tell me what you think!

I'll try to update the next chapter ASAP!