Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Chapter 9: Wandering Cloud

~~~~~Where Tsuna is~~~~~

Tsuna sweatdropped as he stared at the manga in his hands. 'Does Jack even like Bleach? What if he hates it and becomes even more uncooperative? Is it even possible for him to be more uncooperative?' He sighed heavily. 'Oh well… worth a shot.'

"Jack!" He yelled, waiting for the other teen to appear. And soon he did; only this time he held what looked like a party popper in his hand. He had an expression that said, 'Please, kill me now.'

Jack sighed heavily and muttered under his breath, "I hate my life. Death. Whatever." With a demeanor of great self-loathing, he pulled the string and the popper exploded with a loud bang, showering Tsuna with confetti. Tsuna blinked in confusion before shaking his head to dislodge any confetti squares stuck in his spiky brown hair.

The teen grim reaper then said, "Congratulations. This marks the beginning of your third day. Be aware that you have only today and four more after this to set straight any affairs you believe need attending to. Thank you for your cooperation." The entire speech was delivered in a dull monotone that caused Tsuna to sweatdrop once again.

"Er, was that necessary?" he asked.

"Management believes so," the red eyed teen replied, rolling his eyes.

"If it makes you feel better, I got you something," Tsuna said, nervously offering the manga. The reaper's eyes got wider and he practically ripped the book from the Decimo's hands.

"Where do you want to go?! New York? Tokyo? Heck, I'll take you to Antarctica!" Jack said excitedly, eyes shining.

Tsuna held up his hands to try and calm down the other teen. "Er, I just want to see my Cloud guardian."

"You got it," Jack said, snapping his fingers. They landed in the middle of an office, said guardian not ten feet from where they were standing. "Alright, you know the drill," Jack said, drawing Tsuna's attention away from Hibari. "Thanks for the manga."

'That was weird,' Tsuna thought, watching Jack fade away. He shook his head and turned back to Hibari, who brushed right past him holding a stack of papers. The Cloud guardian dropped them on the desk in the office.

"Reports," he said shortly, eyeing the worker behind the desk. The clerk seemed to shrink before Hibari's intimidating aura. Hibari continued to stare down at the man. "Are there any new missions?"

The man quickly shuffled through his papers before holding up a manila folder stamped 'CLASSIFIED' in bright red. "It's a mission to destroy a base of a rival family in the United States." Hibari snatched the folder out of the man's hands. "But, sir-!" the man protested, causing Hibari to whip around and glare at him.

"What, herbivore?" he growled in a threatening tone.

"I-It's just…," the man stuttered. Hibari grew impatient.

"What. Is. It," he said dangerously.

"W-well, sir… It's j-just that you've been t-taking mission after mission without rest for weeks…"

"And…?"

"N-nothing, sir." Hibari's glare intensified.

"Don't waste my time again, herbivore." And with that, he swept out of the room, leaving it's other occupant to nearly have a mental breakdown.

Tsuna sweatdropped. 'Hibari's gotten really scary,' he thought as he turned to look in the direction the Cloud guardian had left.

~~~~~Where Hibari is~~~~~

The Cloud guardian had stormed down to the section of Vongola HQ that dealt with travel to demand a flight to the US as soon as possible. Unfortunately, all the private jets were in use, and the earliest he could leave was tomorrow evening. He'd gritted his teeth, but accepted the arrangement with a short nod before heading off to the training room.

He'd just removed his jacket and pulled out his tonfas when, "Hibari! Hibari!" A bright chirp caused him to look up, only to find a bright yellow bird slowly flying down towards him. He shifted his tonfas so both were held in one hand, while his other was extended so Hibird can perch on it. The bird landed on his finger and ruffled its feathers.

"Hibari! Hibari!" the bird chirped once more.

"What is it?"

"Where herbivore?" the bird asked, understanding that usually when Hibari trained, it was against another person. Right now, the training room was empty; the silence was almost deafening. Hibari usually trained against Dino or Tsuna, but Dino was currently in Italy attempting to stop all out mafia war now that the Vongola had no boss and Tsuna…

"No herbivores today," Hibari said to the bird. Hibird seemed to understand as it chirped once and jumped off Hibari's finger to fly back into the rafters singing the Namimori school anthem. Hibari leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. How long had Tsuna been dead? A few days? It felt like so much longer…

~~~~~Flashback~~~~~

Hibari had just signed the last paper, confirming that he'd disciplined a student for skipping school. He set the paper in a tray and stood up to gaze out the window. Tsuna was leaving the school gates with other herbivores. The trio had been momentarily stopped by the rowdy boxing club captain, but after a few moments they had left the gates and Ryohei had gone charging towards the locker rooms.

The prefect shook his head. Though he'd acknowledged that Tsuna might qualify as an omnivore, the brunette still had far too many herbivorous tendencies. Hibari had then picked up his jacket and left the office with Hibird trailing after him. He always did one last top to bottom search of the school before he left to make sure no students were breaking the rules and lingering longer than what was allowed.

Twenty minutes later, he was satisfied that his beloved school was secure and was about to walk out the gate, when he saw a shadowy figure flicker out of the corner of his eye. He whipped around, eyes darting back and forth, but no further movements were seen. He frowned.

"Who's there? Show yourself, herbivore," he threatened, thoroughly irritated that the figure continued to elude him. Something rustled in the tree to his right. Hibari gritted his teeth, strode to the tree and slammed his tonfa against it as hard as he could. There was a startled yelp and a large figure tumbled to the ground. Before the man could gather his bearings, Hibari had shoved his tonfa under his chin.

"Herbivore. For sneaking around on school property after hours without a pass, I will bite you to death," Hibari stated. The man then did the most unexpected thing. He started laughing.

"What happens to me doesn't matter," he chuckled. "I'm just an underling. Only good for surveillance. And my job is done." He smirked up at the irritated prefect.

"What are you talking about, herbivore?"

"All I was supposed to do was make sure none of you would interfere. And you didn't." The man smiled. "The mission is accomplished. I wasn't supposed to live anyways."

"I'll ask one more time. What. Are. You. Talking. About."

"Oh you'll find out soon enough." Right then, Hibari's cell rang, startling the prefect and causing him to lose his grip on the man's shoulder. The other took advantage of this and started scrambling away, only to have Hibari fling his tonfa at him, hitting him in the head and knocking the man unconscious.

"Stupid herbivore," Hibari muttered under his breath before digging out his cell phone. "What?" he snapped. His eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "The herbivore is WHERE?" He snapped his phone closed before eyeing the body. What to do? He finally used his handcuffs, despite the fact they weren't his favorite weapon, to cuff the man to a tree.

Hibari then strode out of the school gates and towards the hospital. Hibird hovered over him. "Hibari! Bad! Herbivore hurt!" The prefect nodded slightly and quickened his pace.

He arrived at the hospital after Ryohei to see Tsuna lying on the bed, unconscious. Was this what the intruder had been talking about? Had another family planned to kill the Vongola Boss? Was it really an "accident"? Hibari was going to find out. If that meant tearing up mafia organizations all over the globe, so be it.

~~~~~Flashback over~~~~~

He still hadn't found the answer. He'd visited the bases of a dozen rival families. Interrogated underlings. Basically scared the entire mafia world into believing that one day a very pissed off Cloud guardian would come knocking at their door (or more likely kicking it in). And still, he had nothing. It was infuriating.

Hibari picked up his tonfas and slammed them into the wall in frustration, cracking the cement. He glared at the damage. It didn't help that earlier that day when he'd returned to interrogate his prisoner, he didn't get any more information out of him. Certainly the Vongola had a lot of enemies, but most of them were too scared to directly challenge the Vongola's authority. What family would be brave enough to basically declare war on the strongest mafia family and all their allies? Hibari ran his fingers through his hair. What if it was really just an accident? What then?

~~~~~Where Tsuna is~~~~~

After making sure that the clerk wouldn't really have a mental break down, he trudged out of the office in the search for Hibari. The Cloud had never been easy to locate, always staying away from the group and refusing to "crowd with the herbivores" as he so charmingly put it. Tsuna felt as though he was lost exploring the base, an endless maze of corridors.

For what seemed like hours he walked up and down the halls looking, but finally found the training room. 'If he's not here,' Tsuna thought. 'Then I'm totally screwed.' He slowly opened the door and immediately had to duck as a tonfa flew toward his face. "Hiiiiieee!" he yelled watching it whiz over his head and strike the door with an ominous 'CRACK!' Tsuna sweatdropped when he found the weapon had actually left a dent in the steel door.

'I keep forgetting how insanely strong Hibari is…' he gulped as he examined the dent. He turned to face Hibari, whose eyes were darting around, looking for an unknown threat. 'Well, of course he would be,' the rational part of Tsuna's brain said. 'Doors don't just open on their own.' However, Tsuna was too busy thinking that Hibari was going to kill him to have rational thoughts.

"Who's there?" The prefect's steel edged voice cut through Tsuna's panic. Hibari was striding forward to grab his tonfa and kept warily eyeing all corners of the room.

'Maybe I should just leave,' Tsuna thought. 'Yeah… that's a pretty good idea… I'll come back when he's in a better mood…' he tried to slip out the door as quietly as possible. Unfortunately, as we all know, Tsuna has the crappiest luck in the world and Hibari turned to look directly at him.

'He's not supposed to be able to see me…right?' Tsuna thought, trying to recall what Jack said.

"You are now a poltergeist, meaning normal people on Earth can no longer see or hear you." Tsuna recalled Jack's words.

'Well…I guess Hibari doesn't necessarily qualify as "normal",' he thought. He slipped right past the prefect. 'I need to go…NOW.' He darted as far away from the training room as fast as his legs could carry him and didn't stop until he was at the entrance to the base.

~~~~~Where Hibari is~~~~~~

Hibari could've sworn he'd seen his herbivorous… well he refused to call him boss. Come to think of it, he didn't really have a label for the spiky haired brunette. That thought quickly passed. What mattered was that he just had a hallucination of someone that was supposed to be dead.

Wait. Hallucination? As in, illusion? It had to have been an illusion. Hibari gritted his teeth and strode down the hallways to cancel his flight to America. He couldn't go on the mission. Not yet. Not while there was a certain indigo haired pineapple jerk that was begging to be bitten to death.

A/N: I got to update sooner than expected :D Okay, this isn't a feel good chapter, it's more of one that has a plot twist... I'm sorry if you expected hurt/comfort. I really did intend to do that with this chapter, but...Hibari isn't a touchy feely guy. So instead you have this. A stupid random plot twist. I'm sorry... Please don't get mad.

So now I've got it set up for an appearance of the pineapples. Why do I get the feeling that this will just not end well? :P

Once again, it probably won't be a feel good chapter in the next one. Okay, maybe it will. I'm not really sure yet. Please bear with me and my weird brain.

Please review! Please? With pineapples on top?