Author's Notice: Here is the next chapter. I'm thankful for all of the alerts and reviews I've received.

The next chapter for "The Woodbender" is coming out next week or so. I've been busy with some private issues last week and had no time to start writing.

This is unbeta'ed, like the rest of my other stories.

Diclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

Chapter Two: Past and Future (Moment 1)

It was a typical habit for Tsuna to wake up quite cheerfully when his mother would say good morning to him. Her doe-like eyes would shine brightly only for him. Her slender hands would gently shake him awake and her warm voice would soothe his ears. But as he woke up, clutching his head in pain, Tsuna knew it wasn't going to be a normal day.

He opened his eyes, blinking back tears that started to form. His vision started to clear, focusing on a distorted image, and noticed something unusual.

He saw a suit clad infant holding on a hundred pound hammer as if it was light as a feather. The infant smirked while the hammer morphed into a green chameleon. It rested on the infant's dashing fedora, quietly snoring into sleep.

His curly sideburns bounced slightly as the baby raised his head and cutely remarked, "Ciaossu!"

Tsuna let out a girly shriek and rushed towards the corner of his room. However, he tripped onto his crinkled uniform and bumped his head against the wall. Once again, he clutched his head and let out a small moan of pain. He could see through his squinted eyes that the infant was sighing and jumped off from the furniture.

Tsuna leaned back as far as he could and yelled, "Okaa-san! W-what's a baby doing here?"

For a few seconds, the fourteen year old listened to the clashes of the pots, and sighed in relief as footsteps frantically ran up the stairs. The wooden door opened to find his mother's face looking around panicked. However, she noticed her son crouching at the corner of his room, and an adorable infant settled on his squealed in delight as she jumped over the strewn clothes and hugged him with tender care. She turned around to face Tsuna and she asked with a curious tone, "What's wrong Tsuna?"

Tsuna was struck with a flash of panic as he watched the infant snuggle into his mother's bosom and he stood up in anger. He snatched away the toddler gently and rested him on top of the soft bed coverings. He turned to face his mother and asked, "What is he doing at our house? Did you let him in?"

His arms waved frantically and he never noticed the infant's eyes shadowed by his fedora. A gun shot rung from the silence and Tsuna practically looked at the smoke that arose from the gun hole. He swallowed dry air and stuttered out the obvious question, "W-wh-who are you?"

The infant looked up with gleaming devious eyes. "My name is Reborn."

Hearing a slight yelp of astonishment, Tsuna looked from the corner of his eyes, and saw his mother recovering from a small slip.

Then, he looked back to the mysterious baby, and found the infant holding a bright piece of paper. Slowly, he maneuvered his body to a crouch and approached the baby with apprehension.

He looked down to look at the poster and saw it was labeled in bold, red letters that spelled out into a sentence, and it said, 'Will raise your kid to be the new leader of the next generation. Grade and subject doesn't matter. Reborn.'

Tsuna turned his head slowly towards Reborn, who was still holding onto the paper, and looked with a patient expression.

He snatched the flyer and waved it in front of his mom. His face turned a bit red as time passed and he screamed, "This is all a scam!"

Tsuna pointed at Reborn, who walked closer by the second, and had a threatening glint in his eyes. "Okaa-san, do you really believe this 'Reborn' can save my grades? I mean look at him!"

The fourteen-year-old boy continued to gesture at Reborn's miniscule size. "He's only a baby and I bet you that this is a candid camera show or something like that!"

Reborn gave an annoyed glare that made Tsuna stopped his rant and the little infant pulled out another sheet from his small pockets. Tsuna and his mom leaned closer than last time and saw it was a mathematics test that was marked with a big fat zero. The mom moved her hands to her mouth to hide her surprised gasp and Tsuna face-palmed his forehead when he looked at his name on the test sheet.

"This is one of the reasons I'm here to help you and I assure you that this isn't some prank show." Reborn smiled at his mother, who gave an embarassing smile back. Tsuna was left hopeless between the two people and waved his arms once more.

"Okaa-san! I can raise my grades perfectly fine on my own. I don't see the point of getting a toddler to teach me algebra."

His mom sighed in confusion as she watched her son panic and shrugged her arms in defeat. She gave a sheepish smile to him as she stood up to leave his room. "Well Tsu-kun, I already asked him to stay for the rest of the year because I thought it would help you better than you were already doing. But I see that Tsu-kun isn't doing his best as I thought he was."

Tsuna looked at his mom with disbelief as she opened the door and turned her head to give another apologetic smile. "It's not going to be that bad. I'll make some toast for you, so hurry up and get ready for school."

She closed the door and didn't notice when Tsuna ruffled his hair messily and was given a sharp kick to the ribs. He coughed up a mouthful of saliva and collapsed to his knees in an attempt to breathe normally. Looking up to find the infant giving the tiniest of smirks, Tsuna heard him say, "Dame-Tsuna, you're going to be late for school."

"How do you know about my ni-" Tsuna angrily asked, but stopped once he looked at his alarm clock. White numbers stood out from the black shades of the clock. It said '8:00'.

Tsuna gave a hurtful shriek as he stood up and rushed around his room, looking for his uniform in a panicked state. Reborn sighed, shaking his head from dealing with his pathetic student once more, and kicked the uniform at his brat's face. Surprisingly, Tsuna caught the clothes and began to pull them on, when he realized that the suspicious 'Reborn' was still here.

He found himself asking, "How can you teach me when you're only a toddler?"

The mysterious baby didn't reply back and Tsuna decided to confront the issue later; He ran down the stairs, tripping on the last step, and ran to his right. He snatched the piece of toast that his mother was holding and waved her good-bye.

He stopped to take a nibble of his toast and putting on his shoes. He started to run once more when he saw Reborn at the end of the stairs.

Tsuna unlocked the door and went out in a few seconds and was about to face the corner when he bumped against a firm chest. Tsuna jumped back from shock and gave a nervous yelp. However, two strong arms held onto his shoulders and Tsuna looked up to find it was Yamamoto from yesterday.

His brown eyes narrowed in anger since he remembered the incident clearly and removed himself carefully from the taller boy's arms. Then he asked with a semi-cautious tone, "What are you doing here Yamamoto-san?"

Said boy started to laugh as he rubbed the back of his head in what seemed embarrassment, "Maa, don't call me with an honorific; just call me Yamamoto. Besides, I wanted to walk with you to school."

Tsuna watched carefully as Yamamoto tried to reach for his shoulder and he rushed forward, moving away from the taller teenager and collapsed against the wall. He cowered and raised his arms as Takeshi tried to walk towards him. However, he felt a spell of dizziness as his vision started to swirl before his eyes and his mind couldn't comprehend what was right and left. Then all of a sudden, he started to hear several gunshots and frantic voices in his head.

'Come on Tsuna, I know you can make it!' A deep voice sounded urgent as two large hands started to shake his shoulders. His body felt an immense shock of pain and his heart was slowly thumping.

'TSUNA!' He continued to hear the voice screaming at him, asking for him to return to them. He lifted his hand and slowly ran through the figure's hair and wondered why it was so soft. He barely flinched as droplets of water landed on his cheeks and he knew it wasn't only the rain that was falling. He dropped his arm to his side and slowly whispered, 'I know you can make it guys... I believe...in you...'

"Tsuna?" The hands were shaking him once more and he dropped to the floor, gasping for air in his lungs. He can feel sweat rolling off his face and on the floor. His mind was deluding the sounds of concern around him. His amber pupils widened in disbelief. He wrapped himself around and trembled in fear as the voices whispered in his mind, begging him to stay alive. However, Tsuna only could break out in a cold sweat.

SLAP

Tsuna grabbed his forehead in shock. He felt a horrendous sting from somewhere and looked up to find Reborn with a green ruler that had wide yellow eyes.

His eyes were staring into Tsuna's own and Yamamoto could be seen by the side, looking worried for his life. Yet, he could only pay attention to the infant as he heard the squeaky voice. "Why aren't you getting to school, Dame-Tsuna?"

Realizing how much time has passed, Tsuna quickly ignored the weird hallucination and yelled in obvious anxiety for a few seconds. Picking himself up from the ground, he moved past Yamamoto and avoided the barking Chihuahua, who was in his neighbor's front yard.

He crossed the street and avoided several collisions with people by a slight chance of luck. And somehow in five minutes to spare, Tsuna made it past the Namimori gates in success. However, when he left the entrance and took his first step into the courtyard, he knew it was obviously going to be a long day.

Up ahead, several large figures were headed towards him with all-knowing smirks glued onto their faces walking with ease. Tsuna looked at the rest of the other students that came in and walked towards the school's door.

"Look at that boys, we found our tuna just in time!" The boy in the middle of the group remarked, looking at Tsuna from top to bottom. The rest of the group that were by his side started to howl in laughter.

They congratulated their friend for picking such a delectable choice. Tsuna continued to watch them carefully, wanting to run away like the rest of the student population that snuck away into the building. The only exception was a select group of the injured baseball players that failed to beat Tsuna up the other day. All of them wore malicious smirks, cheering for the three teenagers.

"Hey Dame-Tsuna, we need your money since we're giving you some service." The bully continued to aggravate as him and his buddies took a threatening step forward. Tsuna took a step back and attempted to bring his bag in front of his chest, but only felt air. He looked down where his bag was supposed to be and saw that it was his right hand that was in mid-air. Panicking, Tsuna paced back and stifled his breathing when he felt his back against the entrance's brick wall.

"Oi Dame-Tsuna, c'mon and let's get the show on the road!" That was the final straw for the young teenager as he closed his eyes.

Then, he dropped to the bare ground and curled into a fetal position with his hands covering all of the soft spots, including his head and chest. Then, he waited only a few seconds before the pain arrived on his back and traveled to the rest of his body with a burst of shock.

His legs felt as if they were cracking from the immense pressure and gave a pained moan when one of the bullies' feet stepped rather harshly on his ankle. He heard a 'crack' sound as he gave out a soundless scream when his ankle fractured. Tsuna could see spots in his black vision behind his closed eyes and noted that he could also hear the laughter in the background.

He felt numb from the pain.

He wanted to fight back, despite his fragile stature, and show them all how much their punches hurt. He wanted to show how much their words break apart his mind, tearing it in pieces.

He wanted to sleep off the nightmare when all of a sudden the pain stopped.

There were no kicks or stomps on his body and Tsuna wondered if they've gotten tired of abusing his body, and attempted to open his heavy eyelids. He felt a comforting sensation, similar to rain washing away the sores and pain that covered his body.

He could feel himself being lifted from the ground and was carried by gentle arms. And as he was lulled to a gentle sleep, the last thought that ran through his mind was how the arms felt like they belonged to Yamamoto-san.

"I ask you again Shou-chan… Where are the Vongola Rings?" Byakuran asked as he kicked Shoichi once more on his bruised stomach. The corners of his lips lifted up as he saw his ex-subordinate cough up blood from his torn lips and his arms were shaking feebly.

He crouched down, avoiding any dirt and lifted Shoichi's chin with a gentle touch. However, the red head spat out residues of his blood onto Byakuran's cheek and glared back in protest.

Releasing a small giggle, Byakuran slapped Shoichi without a shred of regret and watched the pale cheeks turn a bright red. He let go of his chin and nested his head on top of his two shuffled arms. His violet eyes twinkled with insanity. His giggles morphed into cackles that brought him to his knees.

Shoichi watched with fearful eyes as the once sane leader was now reduced to a megalomaniac.

The redhead knew that it was because of the collaboration of Yuni and Tsunayoshi, Byakuran lost his life in one of the parallel worlds.

He also knew that it was partially his fault as well that Byakuran was morphed into this insane person. But, he needed to perform the act for this world's Vongola guardians to be sent back to the past.

"C'mon Shou-kun! It's not fair when I'm the only one talking. It's making me sound like a crazy person, you know?" Byakuran asked nasally, his lips pursed into a pout.

Shoichi mentally cringed and lowered his head to stop the trembles that raked his body. He didn't want to show any weaknesses that Byakuran could take advantage of before his plan could fail.

"The Vongola rings… were destroyed altogether when... you murdered the guardians." Shoichi answered. His voice sounded raspy, a horrible symptom from screaming after each beating he took from the Millefiore leader.

Byakuran rubbed his chin as if he was considering the idea and gave a curious hum. Then, he shook his head with a playful smile. "Shou-chan, you know that's a lie. I've been watching you with the Vongola guardians sometime this year and might I say I was a bit surprised when I saw the idiots."

'Vongola…' Shoichi thought, his head whirling from the lack of blood and began to feel the hammering pain in his head. Finally, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into unconsciousness.

"Juudaime is dead? He's been dead for the last three years and it was all because of you! You were the one who killed him in cold blood!" Gokudera Hayato yelled at Shoichi and attempted to run at the tech-genius with a raised fist, but was restricted by his fellow guardians, Yamamoto and Ryohei. His furrowed eyebrows and his bright green eyes made the storm guardian look fierce and furious. His hands were clenched into tight fists and his breathing turned deeper; his protests began to die away.

Shoichi shuffled his feet, looking at the other guardians, and saw that they were all glaring at him, except for the cloud guardian. Hibari Kyouya was leaning against the wall with his tonfa gleaming under the fluorescent light and watched the interaction. Then as if he felt Shoichi's stare, he looked back with his steel grey eyes and the computer genius rapidly turned back to the storm guardian.

By that time, Gokudera-san was done with his protests and told both of his comrades, "Stop… I'm done now…"

Yamamoto and Ryohei gave a look at each other and released their friend from their grasp and the silver-headed man stepped on the marble floor gracefully. His bright green eyes to a dull forest green.

He straightened his wrinkled suit and tie as he walked back towards the thunder and mist guardians, Lambo and Chrome. The storm guardian inserted his hands into his pockets and said, "Takeshi, Ryohei, come back here. We need to figure out what happened when we disappeared."

Both of the guardians nodded and walked back to their positions, almost completing the Vongola guardians. But, Shoichi can see that they were leaving a bit of space in the middle as if there was an invisible person that stood there. However, he realized that the position belonged to Tsunayoshi and shook his head with minimum movement.

He didn't want all of the guardians to think that his head movement was a ploy. So, Shoichi looked back to the crowd and was about to speak what happened to defend him and Tsunayoshi's decision, but felt a cold metal touch on the back of his neck.

Goosebumps crawled through his skin and the red head slowly turned his head and was confronted with Hibari's grey eyes once more. He looked in the ferocious stare and backed up several steps with his hands in the air as he cried out, "H-Hibari-san, don't try and hurt me! I'll explain what happened!"

Hibari lowered his tonfa down momentarily to analyze the herbivore in front of him. Sweat was trailing down the redhead's face as he cowered under his stare and shuffled his feet together. Brown eyes were dilated behind the crooked glasses and red hair was ruffled.

He glanced at the crowd of guardians, his mind disdainfully retorted they were all so weak, and raised his weapons back up. He smirked at his victim and crouched down to stabilize his position.

Then, he dashed to the computer genius and used his right tonfa to connect his hit at Shoichi's stomach. He heard the satisfying pained gasp and stood up as the redhead flew to the back wall of the laboratory.

He ignored the sudden protests from the other herbivores and walked towards the semi-conscious red-head. He stopped in front of the laid man and crouched down to meet eye level. The cloud guardian can see the shine of fear that covered the technician's eyes and gave an inward smirk.

But, he didn't have time for this as he had an instinctive feeling that the annoying pineapple would soon arrive. He leaned forward and ignored how the weakling flinched back and whispered in his ear for the second time.

"Fix this herbivore or I'll bite you more than what you already got." Shudders raked the tech-herbivore's body and Hibari stood up, satisfied with his discipline act.

"Oi bastard, I said that we need to figure out what happened, not beat up the enemy!" The ill tempered herbivore shouted out to Hibari, but he ignored the scream. Instead, he cleaned the blood from his weapon and stored it away in his inner pocket of his suit.

"Teme, listen to me when I'm speaking to you!" The herbivore continued to yell and was then muffled by the other one.

Shoichi coughed up a bit of blood and weakly wiped it away by his sleeves. He gave a good look at the Vongola guardians as all of them were aged ten years older than their past counterparts. He didn't know what happened to their younger selves since they vanished after Tsunayoshi was killed by Byakuran.

'Byakuran,' Shoichi angrily thought and was too deep into his thoughts to realize that the commotion stopped and everyone else was staring at him. After a few seconds of silence, Shoichi moved his knees underneath him and used the remaining strength to raise himself up. His hand touched the adjacent wall and steadied his breathing.

He gazed seriously at everyone.

"Shou-chan~" Tiredly, he woke up from his momentary sleep and met those damned violet eyes that never seemed to stop twinkling.

"Well, I need to go." Byakuran whined and Shoichi took all of his will power not to cringe from the horrid expression that was plastered on the white haired man. With the crazed eyes and irritating pout, the once calm and care-free leader looked more like a rabid serial killer than anything else.

'But, the fact that he is a serial killer is true.' Shoichi thought to himself warily.

Byakuran gave a wave goodbye and left the exit, which was the only spot that was cleansed of blood and other bodily fluids. The twenty-five year old Shoichi stared down at the scarlet puddle that was made up of blood and saw the blurry reflection of him.

Half of his face was covered with scratches that ran deep into his skin, drawing more blood by the minute. His glasses were missing, leaving his eyes and his vision vulnerable to the Millefiore leader.

'Shit,' Shoichi couldn't feel most of his body and attempted to move his arms, but it was no use. His hands were chained to the wall and his legs were bounded by a strong piece of rope.

He tried to thrash against the chains, but it was useless as he rapidly got tired after a few minutes. He leaned his head back against the bloodied wall and looked up to the gradient ceiling.

At that instant, Shoichi heard faint steps coming in his direction and by the clicks of the heels; he knew the culprit was a girl. He waited with his limbs bounded and controlled his breathing as the steps stopped in front of his cell door.

Inhale

He could see the shadow of the person standing outside and noticed one of the parts of the shadow shuffled behind the other.

Exhale

A loud grumble could be heard on the other side of the door. He realized that the shadow didn't correctly slide the card into the communication slot. Shoichi weakly raised his head to stare at the center of the door when he realized that he recognized the sound of that voice.

Inhale

The communication system finally accepted the card and opened the door. The shadow disappeared as the figure stepped into the darkness and Shoichi hissed at the brightness of the hallway and stopped once the door closed behind the person. Once he adjusted his-already- blurry vision, Shoichi finally took a good look and widened his eyes.

Exhale

"Nee-san," The red-head breathed out as he took in his sister's luscious brown curls that were tied up to a long ponytail. She wore the White spell uniform and she carried a tray of food that smelled delicious from his perspective. His mouth watered with saliva as he faintly saw the steam from the soup and main dish. However, his attention was mainly focused on his sister, who wore a contempt frown.

She dropped the tray and kicked it in his direction, where the puddle of blood splashed over his torn pants and food.

"I don't care anymore," is all what his sister said before she promptly turned around and exited the door.

Instantly, his cuffs were unlocked and he fell to the ground ungracefully as he gently picked himself up with all the care he can try, and moved one hand towards the food. There were utensils right next to plate of steak, but the twenty-five year old man didn't care as he used his hands to stuff the meat right inside of his mouth.

The flavor exploded in his mouth as Shoichi chewed on the tender meat and enjoyed the sauce that accompanied with the dish. After finishing the dish in less than five minutes, he swallowed the entire contents of the soup, ignoring the burn in his throat. He devoured the cooked rice with his hands and greedily drank the glass of water without a single thought. And before he knew it, tears started to pool and dropped to the filthy ground.

Shoichi dried his tears with the back of his hand and moved the tray away with a stronger push than before. He leaned against the wall and looked at his legs, which were covered in bruises that ranged from small to large. His left ankle was twisted in an unusual degree and Shoichi winced at the reminder of the horrific shock.

'I have to endure it.'

For what seemed like hours, Shoichi finally pushed himself together and gathered enough energy in his hands to make it glow with beautiful yellow flames.

'I have to.'