A/N: Here's the first milestone in the future arc: the invasion of the melone base. But since I don't want to really directly translate the original story into text format, I decided to go with a Tsuna-centric flash back.

Just so you know, I'll be following the manga timeline, rather than the anime evnts, because I never got around to watching the anime... Didn't stop me from listening to the character songs nonstop or from singing Flaming Rage though...

Tsuna heaved a sigh as he let himself fall to the floor.

That could've gone better, but who was he to complain? Not only was their infiltration of the Millefiore base through the ventilation system connecting it to the underground mall a success, no, all of them were more or less alright and they gained two allies along the way as well.

They faced several foes: Dendro Chilum might have been a pathetic starter, but their opponents' strength had only increased with each new enemy their had to face.

Tsuna would freely admit, he was worried about Lal Mirch after she faced Ginger Bread so he stayed behind to act as a decoy. There was no other reason to it. Fighting four Strau Mosca wasn't exactly his idea of fun - or King Mosca for that matter. He just wasn't the hero type of character. He'd take an easy day of hanging out with his friends over fighting any time.

Then he was taken prisoner by Spanner after defeating the flame fuelled robots. Little to say, that was a strange experience. He could have done a lot worse than Spanner though, Millefiore was a hot pot of psychotics after all, so he was grateful for the reprieve he was granted. He even gained an upgrade to stabilise his X-Burner.

Somewhere along the way Future-Hibari must have been switched for his past-self because their Hibari was in the large tube-like prison with the rest of their invasion force. But at least all of them were awake and well. However Tsuna really wanted to strangle his future-self for involving them in their problems anyway.

Tsuna was still rather unsettled by seeing the human experiments the de

ath stalk unit had become. Merely imagining that could happen to his friends was downright terrifying. Enhanced until they were little more than vegetables with huge bulging muscles that had shed their human appearance in favor of... More muscles. They were basically huge deformed pieces of meat. He felt bad for ending them by testing his completed X-Burner on them, but on the other hand their life could probably hardly be called that any longer. Who knew if they could truly still understand what was happening around them.

And as an added bonus he was able to destroy one of Ginger Bread's bodies as well. On the downside however Spanner got pretty beat up while helping him...

Somehow he even defeated Genkishi. But, hell was his armor scary. Once again he was grateful to Reborn for his spartan training to ascertain he learned the Zero Point Breakthrough, because without that move he would have been doomed. (Their whole operation would have been doomed...) Just as fortunately, for some reason Genkishi had lost his cool after starting to use the Hell Ring. Tsuna doubted he would have had a much harder than than he had already, if that hadn't been the case. (Most definitely doomed.)

And using illusions- he had been messing with him when he said they were connected to the real thing, right? Right?!- of his family against him was really low. He never ever wanted to have to fight against them again. But how must Irie have felt as a double agent? Did he hold any affection for any members of the Millefiore? He must have at one point to join, but did it still hold true? Tsuna didn't know and probably wouldn't ever if he didn't ask the older male.

But there was a more prominent issue at hand now: the revelation that this was all his future-self's plan. Honestly he didn't know what exactly to think. All of this, just to get their past-selves here because they thought they'd be able to defeat Byakuran when their future-selves couldn't?! He must have a couple of screws loose in the future!

Tsuna found himself close to a mental breakdown. What use was all of their potential, if they were killed before they could reach it? Simply because they were lacking the knowledge of this time? Weren't the possible consequences more serious than the any possible gain?

His mind was continuing down a vicious downward spiral right into depression at a very fast pace, while they were waiting for the info from the Varia.

However while they were agonising if the assassination squad had pulled through something unexpected happened. Or better someone.

A head of long golden hair popped out from around the corner of the door to Irie's lab. Sapphire blue eyes wandering over the assembled group until they found Irie.

"Ah, here's where you guys got to. I hope you didn't get hurt too much. And you, you look like you must be the Irie-kun Tsuna-kun has told me about." She greeted with a pleasant smile as she entered the room lugging what looked to be a ridiculously large suitcase as if it were the most normal occurrence there could be.

However it was not. Definitely not.

Besides, when had Tsuna said anything about Irie? Oh, right, his future self...

"Arcano." Surprised Irie replied in what seemed to be some form of greeting as well to the blond teen.

That was all it took for Tsuna to snap out of his stupor.

"Hie, Hine-san! What are you doing here?!" He asked utterly bewildered.

She pouted at the double agent wearing the Millefiore uniform.

"It's bad enough that guy calls me that. I'm Hine Ayumi. Nice to meet you." She admonished the White Spell Squad leader, before turning to Tsuna and his friends with a smile, "I came to see if anybody needed any medical assistance."

As if to underline this statement she held up her suitcase which turned out to be a huge first aid kit. The same one she had lugged around in their base when Gokudera's cat had made it's appearance. Then she blinked. Several times.

"Ara? Tsuna-kun, did you change your style?"

Choosing to ignore the non-sequitur concerning the overall he was currently wearing, Tsuna insisted on receiving an answer to his prior question, "that's not what I meant! How did you get here?"

Hine smiled brightly.

"Through the new front door? I don't know if you're aware of it, but following one of the small scale earthquakes in the last couple of hours, a huge gaping hole opened from the underground mall directly here. I was worried, since you had planned to go there."

Tsuna laughed nervously. Inconspicuous, the X-Burner is not. Perhaps the consecutive use of it was a bit destructive...

Hine however did not seem to let the newly discovered underground base disturb her good mood as she turned back to Irie with a reassuring smile.

"It a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Irie-kun. Our Tsuna-kun has told me so much about you. Though I think I might have to prescribe you something against your stomach pains when you're nervous."

Well at least they could now be certain Irie's claim was legit. If Hine-san knew him...

Irie gave a nervous laugh which only elicited a stern look from the blond.

The topic was dropped however when the holographic projection of Reborn confirmed the Varia had succeeded in Italy and the enemy forces were retreating.

All of a sudden the comms system on the downed Cervello (who Hine had studiously ignored up until now...) came to life.

"Oh, no. This is merely a little break. Both the battle in Italy and the Melone Base in Japan. You have been most entertaining." What Tsuna assumed had to be Byakuran's voice was relayed to them.

Hine's lips twisted into a small frown as she listened to these words and like the rest of them looked over to the hologram. Well apart from Tsuna who was anxiously watching Hine because she wasn't supposed to be part of this at all. Hine's scrunched up her nose in what Tsuna could only label as distaste as she watched the white haired enemy boss.

Tsuna's stomach dropped when Byakuran revealed that he knew Irie had betrayed him and there was an even more terrifyingly overpowering force awaiting them.

However Byakuran saw everything as a game. That might be their luck. Because of that they still had a fighting chance. An official trial of strength between Byakuran's Millefiore and his Vongola. The tre-ni-sette was at stake but what choice did they have? The Millefiore had the power to take it from them if they declined.

Not to mention the real funeral wreaths had 100 A-level fighters at their command in addition to their 5000 subordinates.

It would all come down to Byakuran and Irie's game "choice".

They had 10 days time until it started.

And then the base exploded.

Hine just sat there blinking owlishly when they were mostly unaffected by the disappearance on the melone base because Nii-san from 10 years ago switched with his future-self.

She however gathered herself again soon enough- no one can go without flinching at Onii-san's loud volume for too long- brushed her sidebangs and hime-cut out of her face and started to look over the unconscious members of their group.

Tsuna heaved a relieved sigh when he realised the communication ended and Byakuran had made no direct mention of the mafia. And she didn't seem to think anything was amiss if one discounted the fact she seemed to be talking to the unconscious Yamamoto. Ostensibly the unconscious Guardian did not answer.

Hine seemed to realise this soon enough as she sighed rather dramatically and moved on to put a bandage on Lambo's scraped knee.

Tsuna returned to listening to Irie's explanation of how the force field generated by the complete set on Vongola rings protected them, when Kusakabe-san voiced the point that had Tsuna worried too, "stronger than the previous funeral wreaths... How would we fight with our powers as of now?"

"Then we just have to do it rough." Yamamoto suddenly supplied pushing the blanket of himself and making the others aware that he was once more conscious.

Gokudera harrumphed in his typical fashion. "Making people worry…"

And it would have been ignored in typical fashion, if not for Hine's next words.

"I told you to stop playing possum, Takeshi." She commented offhandedly as she rummaged around in her first aid kit for a band-aid with flowers on it to stick on I-Pin's elbow.

Instantly everyone turned back to Yamamoto with slight disbelief.

"Maa, now you ruined my cool entry phrase, Ayumi!" The person in question whined halfheartedly.

Hine however only shrugged dismissively, "Men..."

It was strange to Tsuna, but Hine just watched them receive their new box weapons like it was an everyday thing.

Thinking back to the attack on Kyoko and Haru, yes, probably it was. Nobody seemed to care if they openly displayed their flames here in the future. So was is such a large stretch of the imagination to think they would hold the same disregard for secrecy pertaining to flame weaponry? No, probably not.

However it got even stranger when Spanner caught sight of Hine. His whole face suddenly lit up from his usual apathetic expression and he rushed over to hug the surprised blonde.

"Gemma!"

Everyone turned in fright, mostly having heard the "G-" and the "ma" part and thinking they heard the name of one of their previous adversaries, Gamma, called out. All they saw was Spanner chattering happily to Hine about all sorts of things ranging from his breakfast to cookie recipes he had collected for her to try and the robots he had built in the last little while.

"Hello to you too, Spanner," she greeted when she finally got a word in, "It's good to see you." She gave him a short once over, which Spanner seemed to notice with an indulgent smile. One look was all that was needed to catch the state he was currently in, so it came with no surprise when Hine forced the mechanic to sit down so she could treat him properly.

"Spanner, could you please stay still and not move? That includes your mouth, Spanner, you have a nasty cut there that needs treatment." The blonde pleaded exasperatedly as if she knew his current type of behaviour well enough. Truly, it boggled Tsuna's mind, because Spanner had seemed to disinterested before and now it was as if someone had hit a switch inside him.

"But Gemma, they're treated already." The mechanic feebly disagreed. That was another thing Tsuna had noted, Spanned called her Gemma and the girl didn't even hesitate in responding. Was it a nickname or something? The reaction time indicated she spent quite some time getting addressed with it, so how long did she know Spanner? And how had they met?

Hine frowned.

"No, Spanner, slapping a bandage on top of an open wound does not count as treatment. You might actually have made it worse." She snapped back in admonishment.

Tsuna didn't hear the rest though, he was distracted by the transmission from the Varia coming from his headphones.

Hine looked about as confused as Chrome, Nii-san and the two Millefiores when she heard only half the conversation with the Varia but seemed resigned to it. Hibari, despite being left out like they were, just stood off to the side like always and looked upon what he deemed were Herbivores with disinterest. There was no a chance to fight a strong opponent yet after all.

In the meantime, Hine finished Spanner's treatment and then went on to check the Chrome's blood pressure. She also steadied the still rather wobbly steps the girl took when enquiring about Mukuro's status and fussed over her when she sank to her knees in relief because Mukuro was not listed dead by the wardens of his prison.

Finally feeling less apprehensive about the civilian's presence among them, Tsuna looked to Reborn for input on what to do next and was caught completely flat footed when the hologram of the infant tutor turned to Irie and asked him to join the family. Judging by Hine's chuckle in the background she definitely understood the wrong thing. Damn it, Reborn! She probably thought Reborn wanted to marry him to Irie now. Wrong! That was wrong! Reborn wouldn't do something like that.. Irie didn't have anything that Tsuna would benefit of if they were to marry. At least that's what Tsuna tried to convince himself of. Because Reborn would totally try to marry him off if he thought Tsuna's tutoring benefit from it.

Back on topic: Irie's complete trust in the fact that he was going to join their family however, was pretty surprising given that Tsuna pegged him as the anxious type from their interaction so far.

But not as surprising as Spanner also asking to join.

"I too have nowhere to go and since Gemma is with you guys you can't be all bad, so hire me Vongola.", he reasoned back in his regular monotone.

The answer was easy enough (once he got over the fact that he still, didn't want to become a mafia boss): they had helped them even while they were still working for the Millefiore. If they didn't get to join, who did? Also Hine seemed to know both and his future self wouldn't be as cruel as to introduce homicidal maniacs (who weren't his Guardians) to a civilian, would he?

That's it for now, next chapter will finally be the introduction of flame zombies!

please leave a review and tell me what you think. I'm totally up for discussing different points of my fiction.