I probably won't be able to work on this for a long while, and without much contact with this story, my motivation for this story will probably decline a little. I don't want to make any promises or state anything definite about updates since I'm a pretty unreliable person, though. Sorry about that.

After getting over the initial shock of Reborn's revelation, everything seemed to proceed as normal (well, after chasing down Gokudera, but that was normal). Nobody, as expected, seemed to heed yet another baby appearing next to Tsuna after lunch, beside the occasional snide remark. As the only sane person, you could practically see the agitated disbelief in his eyes.

When the bell rung to announce the end of class, two babies simultaneously jumped onto Tsuna's shoulders. He looked at them both, then sighed. That prompted a small kick from one of the riders and a shrill "ow!"

When he and the others walked out of the school and onto the streets, everything seemed nice and calm. Gokudera and Yamamoto had stopped quarreling and most were now chattering away with their friends, completely carefree now that school was over. Sadly, amidst all the normality, he spotted an odd glint in his tutor's eye.

"Tsuna, do you want to go to the nearby forest? Cielo and I will be heading over there for a little while," he announced.

"Do I even get a choice?" Muttered Tsuna.

"Have you ever?" remarked Reborn. "Now go and switch into hyper dying will form. We should make this quick and head back to mama before she gets worried."

Forcing down his questions, he grabbed the dying will pills from his pocket and picked two out. Out of the corner of his eye, Tsuna noticed Cielo's expression. He looked vaguely annoyed, as if that kid was being forced to do something, which is something Reborn totally would do. At least neither were alone in their discomfort.

A bright orange flame burst to life and they immediately took to the sky. In no time, they had landed at their destination without a hair out of place. There was a soft thud when two tiny pairs of feet simultaneously hit the ground.

Reborn's eyes locked onto Cielo. "About how strong would you say you are?"

"In my hyper dying will form, I'd say a bit weaker than you," Responded Cielo. However, without skipping a beat, he added, "If I go into ultimate dying will mode, I can beat you. I'd prefer not to do it too often, though"

As if he expected no less, Reborn grinned and turned to Tsuna, who was staring at Cielo in disbelief. "What about you, then? Could you beat me in a fight?"

He backed away reflexively and babbled, "No way! Why are you asking? You already know that I'm way, way weaker than you! That's impossible!"

A bullet zipped past his head, making him crumple onto the grassy ground. "Shut up, Dame-Tsuna. If Cielo can do it, then you definitely can too."

He stumbled up and shouted, "What kind of logic is that!?"

"Don't question your tutor," reprimanded Reborn, his gun glinting threateningly in the sunlight.

Tsuna's mouth snapped shut.

"Ah, good old classic conditioning. Now that that's cleared up, let's start, shall we?" began Reborn. "Cielo, remember?"

Cielo looked at Reborn, expression unreadable. "How could I forget?" he responded, and with that, he closed his eyes. The low sound of air rushing to a lighted flame resounded in his ears as Cielo's eyes opened slowly, revealing his now glowing orange pupils.

Tsuna stared at him in slight bemusement.

"Are you sure we should do it here?" asked Cielo. "We might damage nearby property or alert somebody."

"I told you, it'll just be a little spar. It won't take long, Baka-Cielo."

Although Cielo still looked somewhat unconvinced, he duly ignited his fists. Reborn took the cue and his leon-gun.

What happened next was far too fast for Tsuna to comprehend. There was a loud clash of light and a glimpses of an afterimage. Suddenly, he shrieked as a tree behind him snapped out of nowhere, smoke rising from the damaged trunk.

The hair on Tsuna's neck stood up. Hiee! They're a hundred times faster than Xanxus!

They proceeded to tear up their surroundings; the damage accumulating blow by blow. He had yet to even see even one land a clean hit, not that he could, of course. To the untrained eye, they were merely a whirl of color and noise.

Tsuna jumped as he heard them land simultaneously, both breathing only marginally more labored than earlier. They stood there silently, staring into each other's indecipherable eyes.

After a few more tense moments, Reborn dropped his posture. "That's enough."

"Huh?" said Cielo. "We barely just started."

"Don't question me, Baka-Cielo. Let's head home."

A small fizzling sound caught Tsuna's attention as he turned to see Cielo's flame go out. For some reason, Cielo almost seemed to be amused when he heaved a small sigh.

"Okay, I got it. Let's go home."

It was dinner time, and Lambo, who was unusually late, had just tottered down the stairs unsteadily in an enormous broccoli costume. Cielo looked up, grabbed his plate, and immediately excused himself from the table.

"Look! Lambo's a big broccoli monster! Hand over all of your food if you wanna live!"

I-Pin gasped. In her hurry to escape, she knocked over her chair, which promptly crashed into the table. Everything probably would've been fine afterwards, had there not been soup bowls, all of which spilled on everyone, except, of course, for Reborn.

Dark energy began to emanate from a corner in the room. "Damn him… this was my newest outfit..." Bianchi muttered. A vein seemed to have popped in her forehead. "Get back here!"

She immediately stood up, whipped a plate of rice cakes from out of nowhere, then dashed out of the room.

However, she had inexplicably forgotten one on the corner of the table. It quickly melted through the tabletop and down to the leg. Everything fell apart after that, both literally and figuratively.

The unbalanced table toppled over, along with all the dishes on top. Reborn, ever the opportunist, snatched the rest of Tsuna's dinner before it splattered on the ground. He then disappeared in the blink of an eye

Before Tsuna could even protest, a large boom reverberated throughout the house, accompanied by some all too familiar pink smoke. A flash of pink and black flew by as Bianchi chased a screaming "Romeo" with an undying fury. Apparently, nobody told her that you couldn't start a snowball fight without snowballs.

All of a sudden, the sound of an electric crackling made everyone look up.

There was a translucent, gooey mass of poison cooking stuck to the lights. A second later they all stood in pitch darkness.

All was well.