AN: Sorry for the late update, internet connection went nuts for a while and had lots of trouble with the battle. Hope you like it~!

Notes: Gokudera lits his dynamite with fast movement and friction. In this case, against the air. I heard if you move like really, really fast, like past the sound barrier fast, things light on fire.

Chapter 14: Will to Live Beyond

The flame was beautiful, Natsu would have been enamoured with it if the flame wasn't on his brother's head while he was being choked by that transfer student turned mafioso in the middle of the courtyard, which looked like a giant cat had just come and mauled it, with that strange umbrella that Tsuna insisted on totting around laying in tatters in some corner.

Gaping, Natsu stood there stupidly for a couple seconds and would have perhaps more if Reborn hadn't popped out of a tree and whistled impressively.

"Hyper Dying Will already? Looks like I'm not going to be able to use the dying will bullets" commented Reborn in a mix of sadness and happiness. He had looked forward to seeing the twins embarrassing themselves by running around half-naked, but it did meant they had lots and lots of potential. "Ah well, I'll just triple the man-eating-dogs than."

"DON'T THINK UP IDEAS ON HOW TO TORTURE US WHILE WE'RE STANDING RIGHT THERE! What the hell are you wearing anyway?"

"Disguise" pointed out Reborn. And he was. If a walking and talking, tiny tree was a disguise. Natsu stared at him for a minute before shaking his head and turning to the matter at hand. Mafia was weird, strange, and lots of other things, but he had better start getting used to everything before he went nuts.

Take a deep breath after he let that out, Natsu's brain finally kicked into gear. Slow as a turtle, that brain.

"Okay, deep breath Natsu. There's a flame on your brother's head, that should be burning him alive but somehow isn't, while he's being strangled by that weird tsundere transfer student turned mafioso that you got like zero chance of beating" mumbled Natsu out loud to himself as he massaged his head. "Now think, Natsu. How do you save you brother?"

...1...2...3...4-

"GAH, FORGET IT, I'M BAD AT THIS ANYWAY!"

THUD! Massaging his forehead that had connected to the floor at the sheer stupidity of his student, Reborn popped up just in time to watch Natsu storm over, and punch Gokudera in the jaw, causing Tsuna to drop to the floor, limp from lack of oxygen, as Gokudera released him in surprise.

While Tsuna desperately struggled to get oxygen into his lungs, Gokudera was cursing up a storm as he massaging his bright red, absolutely aching, and possibly fracture jaw.

"Hurts, huh?" grinned Natsu savagely in the middle of Gokudera's swearing, "You deserve it for choking my brother."

Without even giving him a warning, Natsu darted in for another punch, but Gokudera was prepared this time and sent a volley of dynamite sailing at him. Dodging the arsel, Natsu barreled in with the grace of an lion with a hurt cub and sent Gokudera flying into a wall with a single powerful uppercut.

Jumping in with savage anger, Natsu started a stream of punches and kicks before Gokudera managed to gain a firm hold onto one of Natsu's arm. Gently as possible, wary of harming his future boss, the explosive bomber managed to toss Natsu off of him.

Unfortunately for Tsuna, Natsu landed right on top of him, causing his lungs to release the cloud of much needed oxygen that he had been gathering. Groaning, Natsu winced as his twin's thin structure dug painfully into him, not that he had notice just what he had landed on.

"Ugh" grunted Natsu as he sat up, glaring at Gokudera, "Couldn't you have picked somewhere else to throw me? The ground's so lumpy!"

He was about to say more, when a tug on his ear interrupted him. Glancing down, Natus blinked before his mouth turned into the shape of an O. Staring up at him, face blue with lack of oxygen, was his brother.

Smiling brightly, Tsuna, with a noticeably lack of flame on his forehead and all, managed to wheezed out a couple words, "Ni-san, not that I don't appreciate you punching the guy, but can you please get off me? You're pretty heavy,you know, go on a diet after this, okay? And I'm so sorry for being insufficiently soft, you jerk!"

Mentally wincing, Natsu hurriedly got off the poor brunette allowing Tsuna to take a breath of much needed air. Relieved to hear him breathe and see the color rapidly returning to his face, Natsu offered a hand to his brother.

Sitting up, Tsuna absolutely beamed at him before taking his offered hand and standing up. Brushing dust off his clothes, He said in an approving voice, "At least you remember your manners. Now if you did it on the dinner table it would be much appreciated.."

As Natsu's face relaxed, He added in deceivingly sweet voice, "Now come on, and beat the crap out of that guy."

"W-What?" sputtered Natsu for a second before regaining his nerve. "Oh hell no! You think I'm going to let you fight with the guy, who might I add, nearly killed you a minute ago if I hadn't interfered?!"

"Yes" said Tsuna resolutely, "Because I got a bone to pick with him, so suck it up and help me beat the crap out of that bomb-crazy idiot for destroying my life-saving, ridiculously expensive umbrella and dragging you into this mess."

Natsu glared at him, unhappily, as he argued back. "Doesn't matter. You're staying out of this. You just nearly died-"

Before Natsu could finished Gokudera interrupted them, propping himself up against the wall, blood leaking out of a corner of his mouth. Bring up a hand to wipe the blood, Gokudera said "As flattered as I am that you're arguing about which one of you is going to beat the living crap out of me, I don't plan on dying today. I got a job to finish, so be quiet and stay still."

Gokudera didn't know what to think of the twins. It wasn't just the brunette anymore, the blondie was giving him a headache too. Blondie was a surprise so was the brunette. He honestly hadn't expected the brunette to even hold a flying chance.

But it wasn't exactly unappreciated. Better to kill a wolf in sheep's clothing than just an innocent lamb. At least he could tell himself that the boy was a threat to society, the guilt wouldn't be too bad, and it would save him some sleep. Not much, but every second of sleep was appreciated.

But then the battle had gone on, and he had been impressed, somewhat. The boy need a crash course of training and something to help him keep calm-meditation, maybe-along with a therapist, because the kid was taking the mafia like a ticking time bomb, but he wasn't half bad.

He had even considered letting the boy live, but that would just make it worse. Better to crash and burn quickly than die after a slow torturous mockery of the thing called life. But just when he was about to kill the guy-boy really, he was so, so small and so easy to crush beneath his fingers-the brunette asked him to promise to protect his brother.

...

He was supposed to ignore him and kill him, like the proper mafioso his father trained him to be before he found out he couldn't be normal, since he was a bastard, and tucked the information into a ball and ran it over with a bulldozer before letting the pieces fall.

But he didn't because the poor brunette looked like a kicked puppy and despite the fact he kicked puppies before (killed them too, but no one needed to know that) some tiny, tiny spark of compassion that had miraculously survived the mafia but wouldn't survive anymore had well up and the words had said themselves.

When he was finally doing his job and eliminating the poor guy, the kid had a change of heart and the next thing he knew, there was an absolute stunning sky flame right in front of his face before-Oh, His future boss had jumped in from nowhere and punched him.

...Yeah, way to ruin the second impression-or was it the third?-Boss. But that was how he found himself with his hands full of the Sawada Twins. The mission was absolute confusion, the information was in the go-find-it-yourself-lazy-ass-idiot category, and his targets were off there rocker.

He should have known, because everyone in the bloody mafia knew that though the Vongola was unquestionable top dog, they were bat-shit insane top dogs. After All, if the Vongola 'Traditions' were anything to go by, the founders were masochists anyway.

Mentally cursing the First generation of the Vongolas for ever even dreaming of creating this off-their-rocker famiglia as he tossed dynamite in an attempt to hold the two off for a couple seconds. He growled when the tag team ducked and continue zooming in on him.

He was a long-range to middle-range combat type, he wasn't bad at close-combat but he wasn't good at it either. Didn't help that one of them had freaking lit a sky flame a couple minutes ago and the other looked like he was very close to lighting his and setting him on fire.

"Shit" snared Gokudera as one of the twins, Natsu he thought, got close enough for him to punch him. Nearly dropping his dynamite in the process, he managed to avoid the punch before the other one, Tsuna, struck.

Blocking it with some pain on Gokudera's part, the three continued in a dance of dodges and blocks, Kicks and punches. His teeth grinding in frustration, Gokudera decided on one single, suicidal move that would cause knock out both sides of the battle.

He would have to count on himself waking up before the twins. Lighting a handful of dynamite, he hortelled it in the air above him, believe in his strength, the dynamite exploded and the last thing he saw before the smoke was stunned amber-brown eyes before his body fell, ablazed with burns. Not too long after two other bodies fell and his world went black.

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