A/N: A few notes before this chapter begins. Firstly, if you don't know what windmills are, you should look them up on YouTube. :] Secondly, the Mind 180 vs. Rivers Crew is a real cypher-battle-thingy that can also be looked up through YouTube. Thirdly, Bboy Born is a real person. But as you no doubt can guess, he is not affiliated with the mafia/KHR (but he's in the Mind 180 vs. Rivers Crew video on YouTube!). Finally, I got the "cypher etiquette rules" from Mad Tek, who published them online. You can find them if you stalk hi-I mean, if you know where to look. Umm...I feel like I'm forgetting something I should tell you but I can't remember what. Oh wait, now I remember: the beginning follows the manga pretty closely, but then begins to diverge after the trio is established. :D

"REBORN!" shouted Tsuna, bursting into his room. He was still full of adrenaline from whatever that strange incident had been—beating down Mochida and then break-dancing? He couldn't believe it.

Tsuna stopped temporarily at the sight in front of him: Reborn was lying on a cot next to Tsuna's bed, peacefully napping. A sleep-bubble blew from his nose.

If one didn't know Reborn as well as Tsuna did, one would be utterly deceived by how innocent Reborn looked napping. As it was, Tsuna was undeterred and stepped forward purposefully.

Reborn was not going to get with speaking in half-riddles any longer. He was going to clear things up, and questions would be answered—

Tsuna tripped over a thin wire, and abruptly, something exploded.

"Rarrrgh," said Tsuna, coughing on the smoke, and watched balefully with stinging eyes as Reborn floated away on a parachute, still asleep.

As much as Tsuna would have liked to tell you that he had immediately gotten direct and wonderfully clear answers to all of his questions, in the end, it wasn't until the next morning—very early in the morning—that Reborn felt like telling him anything.

"What did you shoot me with?" asked Tsuna, fighting back a yawn. "I mean, what was that bullet?"

Reborn looked completely unaffected despite the fact that it was 5 in the morning, though he was still wearing his nightcap and pajamas. Tsuna glared darkly at him. Nearly all of Tsuna's clothes had been destroyed when his room had been blown up last night. (Not to mention, Tsuna had had to spend the night in the guest room.)

"That was the dying will bullet," said Reborn. "A person shot with that bullet will resurrect with dying will after dying."

"What?" Tsuna stared at him in disbelief.

"The dying will mode lasts five minutes," continued Reborn. He looked bored now. "After five minutes, you revert back to normal."

"That's not what—I mean, you're a break-dancer—"

"Bboy."

"Fine, you're a bboy—why are you carrying around a gun? Why did you shoot me?"

"These bullets are meant to help you with your training," said Reborn, and patted the gun fondly.

"Training to become…"

"The leader of the Vongola crew," finished Reborn.

Tsuna crossed his arms and glared at Reborn. "What if I don't want to become the leader of the Vongola crew?"

"Like you have any choice," said Reborn, and fell back asleep. It was 5:05 a.m. now.

Tsuna gritted his teeth and vengefully threw a pillow in Reborn's direction. The pillow landed a good five feet away from Reborn, who snored loudly, as if mocking Tsuna's pathetic attempt.

"This is seriously messed up," muttered Tsuna to himself. It seemed like Reborn wouldn't tell him anything unless he felt like it. And no way did Tsuna want to risk waking Reborn up again. Who knew what kind of traps he'd set up this time?

Disconsolate, Tsuna went downstairs and got some cereal. Outside, the sun had yet to rise. He couldn't fall back asleep now, after having woken up. He supposed that there was nothing wrong with going to school early, though he was pretty sure no one came to school this early.

Suddenly, as he made his way from the kitchen to the living room, Tsuna tripped over something in the dark. "Ow!"

He nearly spilled his cereal, but managed to balance the bowl just in time. When he squinted down at the object that had tripped him up, he saw it was a video tape of some sort.

"What's this?"

Curious, Tsuna walked over and slid the video tape in to watch it. Immediately, sound boomed from the speakers, and Tsuna cringed, hastily fumbling with the knob. He paused and listened. Incredibly enough, it seemed like both his mother and Reborn had slept through that burst of noise.

Tsuna turned his attention back to the video and stared, cereal completely forgotten. The video was obviously about some kind of event; at the top of the screen, in golden letters, were the words: "Mind 180 (US) vs. Rivers (Korea)."

On the screen, a large group of people-all males, Tsuna noticed-stood in a loose, shifting circle. Suddenly, one of them began break-dancing impressively, and everyone in the circle cheered.

Amazing, thought Tsuna, hypnotized. What these guys were doing made his own attempts at break-dancing—bboying, corrected Reborn's voice in his head—seem completely ridiculous.

Weirdly enough, the longer Tsuna watched, the more he felt an inarguable desire steal over him. It couldn't be desire to dance like that, could it?

Tsuna shook his head firmly. No way. He did not want to become part of a break-dance crew. Though…maybe if Kyoko—

"Argh," said Tsuna, and banged his head against the living room table.

When he arrived to school, it was to see Hibari disappearing around the corner. Tsuna sighed in relief. That had been a narrow miss.

"You're early."

For the second time in his life, Tsuna choked on his saliva. He whirled around, cowering against the school gate as Hibari walked closer. How had Hibari managed to get behind him when he had been turning the corner only seconds before?

"Y-yes," said Tsuna, and then added, "It's not against rules to come early?" Unfortunately, that came out sounding more like a question than anything else.

"Wao," said Hibari, eyes narrowed. And then he jumped lithely over Tsuna's head and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Tsuna waited for his knees to stop trembling enough so that he could walk, and after a few minutes, proceeded to do so unsteadily, into the school courtyard.

What he couldn't understand was why Hibari was here so early, too. It wasn't as if Hibari—oh wait, that was right. Hibari practically lived in Namimori Middle. If Namimori Middle could, it would probably file a restraining order against Hibari.

Tsuna made his way to his classroom, which was still empty. Tsuna wasn't surprised; after all, it was only 6:15 a.m. and school didn't start for another good hour. Probably no one was on campus yet except for himself and Hibari.

He froze at the thought. Tsuna was alone on campus…with Hibari. That meant, he thought frantically, if Hibari felt like it, he could totally get away with murdering Tsuna!

There was no time to waste; Tsuna had to hide. He ran out of his classroom, wondering where Hibari was. After he'd jumped over Tsuna's head, he had headed in what looked like the direction of the science building. Directly opposite of the science building was the baseball field.

Tsuna set off for the baseball field, thinking that this was all Reborn's fault. If he was murdered by Hibari, thought Tsuna, he'd come back as a ghost and haunt Reborn and it would totally serve Reborn right. Heh.

As Tsuna made his way closer to the baseball field, he thought he could see someone on there. His steps faltered. Surely that wasn't Hibari? He took a few more cautious steps, and then sighed in relief. Whatever obsessive love Hibari held for the school, he wouldn't be caught dead in a Namimori baseball uniform.

It was slightly hard to believe though, that someone besides himself and Hibari would be up. By the looks of it, this person was hard at work, training at baseball.

Wait. There was only one person Tsuna knew who worked so hard at baseball. He walked closer to the field, until he could see the person's face. And yes, it was the one and only Yamamoto Takeshi—

"Watch out!"

The next thing Tsuna knew, he was flat on his back and staring at the sky. The sky was lightening now to a light blue as the sun rose, Tsuna observed muzzily. He felt slightly sick.

"Sawada Tsuna, right? Are you OK?"

Tsuna turned his head slightly to see Yamamoto crouched next to him, peering down in concern.

He tried saying he was fine, but what really came out of his throat was: "Mmph."

Yamamoto seemed even more worried now. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to throw the ball at you! Can you sit up?"

"Yeah," said Tsuna. The dizziness was receding now. "I'm okay now."

"That's good," said Yamamoto, obviously relieved. And then he grinned. "You came out of nowhere, haha."

"That's not true," protested Tsuna. He'd been walking towards Yamamoto very obviously!

"Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt seriously," said Yamamoto. "Especially with your break-dancing and all!"

Tsuna gave him a sheepish grin. "You heard about that, huh?"

"Everyone heard about it!" said Yamamoto, clapping him on the back enthusiastically. "You were great."

"Not really," said Tsuna. The fact that Yamamoto—most popular boy at Namimori Middle—was talking to him, Dame-Tsuna, had just hit him. This was slightly surreal.

"Actually," said Yamamoto, "I'm wondering if you could give me some advice."

"Me? Give you advice?" Tsuna gave him a look of disbelief. What kind of advice could Yamamoto need from him?

Yamamoto mistook Tsuna's disbelief for encouragement, and continued with, "Honestly, lately, my baseball isn't going that well. No matter how much I practice, my average is dropping and my fielding is screwing up. At this rate, it'll be the first time I don't start since I began playing baseball."

"Oh," said Tsuna to fill in the expectant silence.

Yamamoto turned to him. "Tsuna…what should I do?"

"BEHH?" Tsuna coughed. He didn't know—

"Just kidding," said Yamamoto, smiling. His smile didn't reach his eyes, though. "Lately, you're so reliable, I just…"

Tsuna bit his lip. He'd never seen this side of Yamamoto before, and he wanted to give advice—but he had no idea what to say.

"I guess," he said haltingly, and thought back to what Reborn had told him before, "If you practice harder, and put in more effort, then you'll get better."

"Yeah," said Yamamoto unexpectedly. "I thought that was it too!" He grinned. "Alright, from now on, I'll be sure to practice like this everyday!"

Tsuna grinned back at him, relieved that his advice had been accepted.

"Well," said Yamamoto, "It's seven already! I'm going to go and take a shower in the boys' locker room. See you later in class!"

"Sure," responded Tsuna. He was feeling in equal parts both stunned and happy. That Yamamoto thought he could ask Tsuna advice and that Tsuna had actually helped him was beyond amazing.

There were some people in the courtyard already. Tsuna recognized a few classmates, but unlike how he was normally treated, his classmates waved and smiled instead of calling him Dame-Tsuna and laughing at him. Tsuna's mood went up even further.

And all of this had happened because of Reborn, thought Tsuna.

When he ducked into his classroom, 1-A, Tsuna noticed groups of people chattering with each other excitedly.

"What's happening?" he asked.

"There's a rumor that a transfer student is coming today," said someone behind him, and Tsuna turned around to see Kurokawa Hana, Kyoko's friend.

"Oh," said Tsuna.

"By the way," said Hana. "I came to tell you that Kyoko has broken up with Mochida."

"Really?" Tsuna flushed as Hana smiled knowingly. "I mean, w-why are you telling me—"

"Apparently," said Hana, "Mochida was going around telling people that Kyoko was his 'prize.' He's such a jerk." She paused, and then said, "Though I can't figure out what she sees in you either."

Tsuna cringed.

"Everyone, sit down!" said the homeroom teacher, who was just entering. Behind her was an extremely strange-looking boy.

"That must be the transfer student!" hissed someone behind Tsuna.

"Quiet!" barked the teacher. When silence had fallen, she said, "Today, we have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy. Gokudera Hayato."

Italy was Reborn's homeland, thought Tsuna. Was Italy full of weird people? Gokudera didn't look like a student; he looked like a gangster. The sullen expression on his face didn't help.

"Hey, isn't he hot?" said the girl sitting behind Tsuna.

"He's come back to his homeland!" chirped Keiko on Tsuna's right.

Oh no, thought Tsuna, darting a glance towards Kyoko. His heart sunk as he caught the way-too-interested look on her face.

Suddenly, Tsuna felt a chill crawling up his spine. He turned and saw that the transfer student was glaring…right at him.

"What is it?" He clapped his hand over his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that aloud!

Gokudera headed Tsuna's way, and Tsuna manfully fought the urge to just get up and run away. The urge began harder and harder to fight as Gokudera came closer. He looked even scarier up close. Tsuna tensed, and just as he thought Gokudera might pass him without any incident, Gokudera kicked Tsuna's desk. Hard.

What the hell, thought Tsuna, completely bewildered. He hadn't done anything to the transfer student. This was the first time they'd met.

"You know that guy, Tsuna?" asked one of his classmates.

"No way," said Tsuna. The teacher had directed Gokudera to one of the empty seats in the back, and he could feel Gokudera glaring at him even without having to turn around.

As Tsuna looked to the side, he met Yamamoto's eyes. Yamamoto gave him a sympathetic wink, and slightly cheered, Tsuna did his best to focus on the class.

"Man, Tsuna, you must have ritually disemboweled his dog or something," said Yamamoto cheerfully.

Tsuna sweatdropped. He wished Yamamoto wasn't taking this so lightly. "But I seriously don't know what I did wrong!"

"If you didn't do anything wrong, then I'm sure it'll work out," said Yamamoto, and checked his watch. "Oops, I got to go! See you later!"

"Right," said Tsuna with a pang. He'd forgotten that Yamamoto didn't normally hang out with him. He couldn't believe that this morning, he'd actually thought they might become good friends. "See you."

Tsuna sighed as he walked. He still couldn't figure out Gokudera's problem, and this was bugging him more than he wanted to admit.

Suddenly, Tsuna walked right into a group of seniors. "Oof!"

"Watch where you're going!" growled the tallest senior of the group.

"I'm sorry," said Tsuna, backing up quickly. None of the seniors were wearing the school uniform (Hibari would later have their heads for this), and one of them was sporting a tattoo on his arm very obviously.

Before the seniors could do anything more than leer menacingly, Tsuna added one more time, "I'm sorry!" and then ran off.

He reached the back of the school, and seeing no one chasing after him, slowed to a halt, gasping for breath. "That was close! I could have been beaten to death."

"Watching a wuss ass like you is painful," said someone loudly. Tsuna turned around to see none other than the transfer student, Gokudera, glaring at him.

"I-I'll be leaving now," said Tsuna quickly.

But before he could get more than a few steps, Gokudera said, "If someone like you becomes part of the Vongola crew, then its legacy will become tarnished."

Tsuna's eyes widened. "How do you know that I'm—"

"I refuse to accept it," snarled Gokudera. "I'm the one who'll be the Tenth!"

"What are you saying?"

"Just die right here!" Gokudera pulled out sticks of dynamite.

What, thought Tsuna, was up with everyone carrying weapons onto a zero-tolerance campus?

"Those are really dangerous!" yelped Tsuna.

Gokudera lit them up with the end of his cigarette. And then he tossed them at Tsuna.

Unexpectedly, a bullet knocked the dynamite sticks off their path and away from Tsuna.

"Ciaossu!"

"Reborn," said Gokudera to Reborn, who was perched on of the classroom windows and watching them.

Reborn nodded at him. "So it's you—Bboy Dynamite."

Tsuna glanced between the two. "You know each other?"

"Everyone knows Bboy Born," said Gokudera scornfully.

"It's just like I said," said Reborn, ignoring Tsuna (for probably the hundredth time), "If you succeed in beating him, you'll definitely get a chance to join the crew."

"All right," said Gokudera enthusiastically. He turned to Tsuna. "Let's battle."

Tsuna stared past him, at Reborn. "You're betraying me, Reborn?"

"No," said Reborn. "That's wrong. I'm telling you to fight."

Gokudera glared at Tsuna. "You don't think I can beat you?"

"That's not it," said Tsuna weakly. Out of nowhere, music began blasting. Tsuna turned around to see Reborn and his speakers.

When Tsuna turned back, Gokudera was already break-dancing. Unlike Tsuna's own choppy movements, Gokudera's movements were smooth and controlled, showing evidence of his practice. When Gokudera finished his set, he stood up and smirked at Tsuna.

"Wait," said Tsuna helplessly. "I can't—I can't do it!" He turned and ran.

Gokudera's expression of triumph morphed into rage. "He can't seriously be running away from this! I won't accept it!"

"Huh," said Reborn.

Tsuna could hear Gokudera chasing after him, and tried to run faster. It was no use; he just wasn't athletic enough to keep up this pace. Tsuna turned to corner, and nearly skidded into the side of the building. "Whoa! Dead end!"

"This is it," said Gokudera behind him. The expression on his face was truly scary. "I'll make you regret not even acknowledging me!"

"That's not it!" said Tsuna, but it was no use; the air was suddenly full of flying dynamite sticks.

"Fight with a dying will," he heard Reborn say distantly, and the world exploded.

"Reborn!" shouted Tsuna, once again in dying will mode. "Put out those fuses with my dying will!"

Tsuna went through each dynamite stick individually, pinching out their flames before the dynamite exploded. Within seconds, Tsuna finished defusing all of the dynamite sticks.

"Double bomb!" said Gokudera, and when that failed, tried again: "Triple—" He fumbled with one of the sticks of dynamite and the rest fell in a heap around him. "Shit."

There was absolutely no way that Tsuna could defuse all of those dynamites sticks in time if he did so individually. Tsuna took a deep breath, and began doing continuous windmills—the first power move that Reborn had tried to teach him the day before.

"Defuse!" said Tsuna, as he did his windmills. The speed and force of his windmills soon extinguished all of the dynamite. And as the dying will mode faded, Tsuna thwacked heavily onto the ground, relieved. "I made it."

Gokudera said nothing, but unexpectedly knelt down. "I was mistaken!"

"What?" Tsuna wondered if he could make a run for it now.

"You're the one who's fit to become the Tenth! I'll follow your commands!"

"What?"

"Good job, Tsuna," said Reborn approvingly.

Tsuna glared at him. Reborn had probably planned this—what was he thinking; of course Reborn had planned this!

"L-let's just go back to class," said Tsuna nervously, and then realized he was half-naked again. "I need clothes!"

"Don't worry, Tenth," said Gokudera, looking entirely too thrilled that Tsuna was apparently giving him his first command. "I'll definitely find some clothes for you!"

He disappeared in a blur, before Tsuna could tell him that he could find clothes by himself, thank you.

Tsuna groaned. Nothing in his life turned out the way it was supposed to.

Gokudera had only been able to find a spare Namimori baseball uniform and Tsuna endured the strange looks and giggles as best as he could.

At least people wouldn't be calling him a pervert as long as he was completely dressed. Though 'costume fetishist' wasn't that much better.

"Where's Yamamoto?" mused Tsuna as the bell rang. Ever since lunch, Yamamoto had been missing. And now it was the end of school; Yamamoto really wasn't the type of person to ditch class midway through the day.

Gokudera snapped to attention. "Who's Yamamoto?"

"Oh, just a classmate," said Tsuna, and shrugged, dismissing the slight unease in his mind. He had other things to worry about. "You don't have to walk me home, Gokudera."

"I insist," said Gokudera, and Tsuna eeped, cowed into nonresistance.

As they walked towards Tsuna's house, Tsuna struggled desperately to think of something to say. "So, Gokudera," said Tsuna hesitantly. "Would you tell me about yourself?"

"You want to know about me?" Gokudera looked surprised, though Tsuna couldn't tell if he was pleased or not by the question.

"Uh…yeah," said Tsuna.

Gokudera brightened. "I'm glad, Tenth! But—" The expression on his face changed so quickly that it nearly gave Tsuna a heart attack, "I'd rather not talk about my past."

"O-okay," said Tsuna.

"Let's talk about you, Tenth!" said Gokudera. "I want to know all about you!"

"I, uh, there's not much to say," fumbled Tsuna. "Uh…I met Reborn only a few days ago."

"Oh, really? So you weren't into bboying before Reborn introduced you to it?"

Tsuna still wasn't into it, really. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it! Somehow though, he didn't think Gokudera would like hearing that. "Yeah. He just taught me some basic stuff. We've been at it for two days."

Gokudera abruptly stopped walking, an awed expression on his face. "You can do continuous windmills after just two days?"

"Uh," said Tsuna. He actually couldn't do windmills, at least not outside of the dying will mode.

However, Gokudera took Tsuna's response as agreement. "That's amazing, Tenth! It took me a year to be able to do continuous windmills properly. You truly belong to the Vongola crew!"

"Ah," managed Tsuna. It was easiest to converse with Gokudera through a series of unintelligible noises, because it let Gokudera to all the interpreting, which meant that no harm would come to Tsuna. In theory.

"Tsuna still has a long way to go," said Reborn, reappearing out of nowhere like he always did. Tsuna jumped a foot, but Gokudera—after a moment of startlment—looked completely unphased by Reborn's sudden appearance.

"It's all right," Gokudera assured Tsuna. "You'll become an awesome bboy…and the Vongola crew will rise and be known throughout the world!" His eyes were shining with fervor. Tsuna edged away from him.

"Indeed, the Vongola will rise," agreed Reborn. And then he focused on Gokudera. "You can help Tsuna greatly, Gokudera."

"I can?"

"I'm fine—" said Tsuna, though he knew it was pointless. Everyone ignored him. Reborn always ignored him.

"Yes," said Reborn. "Since Tsuna only started bboying two days ago, he doesn't know anything about the world of breaking. You can teach him more."

"It would be an honor," said Gokudera happily.

Tsuna winced. There was just no escape from this. His fate was sealed.

"So what is a cypher?" asked Tsuna.

He and Gokudera were sitting in the guest room at the Sawada house, or what was temporarily Tsuna's room (as the damage caused to Tsuna's original room from Reborn's explosives still had not been repaired as of yet). Alarmingly, Gokudera wore glasses, which clashed horribly with the delinquent-image that Tsuna was used to associating with him.

"Cypher refers to a circle of bboys, who take turns dancing in the center," explained Gokudera. He looked at Tsuna contemplatively. "There are some basic rules of etiquette for cyphers that you should know."

"I-I should?"

Reborn suddenly appeared with a flying kick, sending Tsuna gasping and wheezing into the floor.

"You may find this useful," said Reborn, and handed Gokudera a chalkboard.

Gokudera looked ecstatic. "Thanks, Reborn-san!"

"No problem," said Reborn, and kicked Tsuna again. Tsuna responded with a muffled whimper. "Pay attention. You're not a dancer unless you hit the cypher."

"Right!" agreed Gokudera enthusiastically. He finished scribbling on the chalkboard with a final flourish, and the bit of chalk he was holding promptly crumbled into light green dust as he made a triumphant fist.

"Uh," said Tsuna, squinting at the strange squiggles on the chalkboard.

"Don't worry," said Gokudera. "I'll explain everything, Tenth!"

"You don't have to," said Tsuna with no real hope that Gokudera would listen.

"These rules are all just common sense," said Gokudera, pointing at the first line of squiggles. "For example: don't dance with a drink in the cypher."

"A drink?"

"A spill can be dangerous," said Gokudera. "I've seen some painful accidents happen."

"Accidents?" said Tsuna nervously.

"Nothing for you to worry about, Tenth," reassured Gokudera. "You're brilliant!"

And before Tsuna could correct him, Gokudera pointed at the next line on the chalkboard. "Next! If you're in the inner part of the cypher, don't just stand there because you're too insecure to dance."

Tsuna hunched over, looking away from Reborn's all-too-knowing eyes.

"Another problem is hogging the cypher," said Gokudera. "Taking a lot of time and not doing much doesn't really contribute."

He looked at Tsuna expectantly, as if for agreement. Tsuna nodded vehemently, and when Gokudera turned his attention back to the chalkboard, shot a look of confusion at Reborn. Reborn just smirked.

"It's also important to gauge the size of the circle," said Gokudera. "If you're doing big moves, then you want to be aware of your surroundings."

Tsuna squinted again at the chalkboard. Gokudera seemed to have finished. Tsuna fell out of the seiza position he had somehow settled into unconsciously and wobbily stood up.

"Thanks, Gokudera," he said. "It's been really informational—"

"Wait!" said Gokudera. "I'm not done."

"You're…not?"

"An important thing about cyphers," said Gokudera, producing another piece of chalk from out of nowhere and then flipping the chalkboard over, "is respect. You have to have respect for the cypher."

Gokudera proceeded to write respect on the board with great enthusiasm. When he'd finished, the chalk crumbled sadly in his hand as he made another triumphant fist.

"The Vongola will definitely become great!" he said.

"There are only two crew members right now, though," said Reborn. "We must recruit more people."

"We can do it with two people," declared Gokudera.

Reborn gave him a look. "Two people don't make a crew."

Tsuna watched them argue (or really, Reborn bulldoze over Gokudera's arguments) and wondered at what point should he interject the fact that he wasn't sure he wanted to be part of the Vongola crew.