Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn! I just wish I did.

Beta: the lovely Pure Red Crane. Thank you very much for your help!

AN: Thanks to everyone for your lovely reviews! It means a lot! I didn't reply because I don't want to spoil anything ^^ I hope you understand

AO3: Thank you to everyone who left a comment! I absolutely love you all! If I didn't reply to you, it's because I didn't want to spoil anything ^^ I hope you understand.

A special thanks to Honey Drops Peach! Without you this chapter might never have been written! Please, do not underestimate the help you've been to me! 3

Character index:

Tsuna = Sasuke
Takeshi = Naruto
Hayato = Sakura
Kyoya = Shikamaru
Lall = Ino
Kusakabe = Choji
Lambo = Kiba
Ipin = Hinata
Chrome = Shino
Ryohei = Lee
Spanner = Sai

Chapter 10: Spanner's journey

Spanner POV

He needs out. Now.

It has only been a few days since Spanner felt the power that was Sawada's flames, and already he knows he can't stay here.

Before, Spanner had often been accused of being emotionless. He isn't though. He is just good at keeping his emotions hidden.

This life though…He is barely eight and is already fighting bloodier battles than he had ever fought as a grown man.

Child soldiers, because of course he is that lucky…

And he doesn't get to be this world's 'ordinary' child soldier. No, that would have been too easy. He had the luck to have been snatched up by a hidden division that had made him kill his brother about three months ago. No going to the Academy and taking it easy for him.

He hadn't liked it, but after remembering, he likes it even less.

He draws in this life. He likes drawing people. Mostly because he doesn't understand them. They are fascinating to watch though. He likes watching people, mostly as they interacted. Not that Danzo gives him lots of time off to watch them. He doesn't get any time off.

Mostly it is the relationships between people that he finds so fascinating to watch.

Now, as Spanner, he knows more about people. He had never been very good at talking to them, but he knows more now. Somewhat.

He is always been a bit awkward. Give him a lab space and lots of electronics over talking to people any day.

Still, there is a reason his Moskas look humanoid.

He is kept locked up underground. Had he ever seen sunlight in this life? Outside of missions, that is? Eight years old (-ish, he has no idea when exactly he was born) and already five kills to his name. He has participated in a lot more missions though. He doesn't always have to do the killing. Sometimes, one of the others gets there first. Not that he tries very hard. Honestly, he tries just hard enough not to be noticed and reported.

It is hard, living like this. He hates it. He hates it, he hates it, hehatesit!

He can't get out though.

He needs to get out. Vongola is out there, somehow. It should be unlucky. It has to be a dream. He had been half concussed, that day. He can't have possibly…

It shouldn't make sense, but Spanner remembers. He knows. Sawada Tsunayoshi is out there.

And he is Spanner's only chance at getting out of this place. Sawada Tsunayoshi, who had defended Spanner against the Millfiore, after the blonde had attacked him, kept him prisoned. Spanner had been so fascinated by Sawada's power, he had helped the young Sky out, betraying his Familia.

So much potential, squashed before it could be cultivated to the fullest.

Such a shame.

So much had happened in such a short time. He still can't believe Shoichi had killed him. Them. Either way. Spanner had never had many friends, but Shoichi had been counted as one of them.

It had been such a mess.

Still was, honestly.

And truthfully, he can't in good conscience leave the Sky out there. What if he is all alone? The kid is naïve! Sawada had once trusted an enemy while trying to invade their base. Honestly…

The kid would get himself killed if he didn't have anyone to look after him.

And Spanner has no idea if the Sky is alone or not? There had been others there when they had been killed. Right? Sawada's guardians? Or something, he hadn't been paying much attention. They had made a lot of noise, and then the killing had started.

So sue him for not paying attention.

In short, let him repeat himself in his thoughts, he needs to get out. He won't stay here to a mindless killer, dancing to the pipes of that old man.

Danzo is paranoid, but luckily, not paranoid enough.

Spanner has a plan. Well, he is getting desperate, so…it might be a bit rushed. He has never been too good at this.

Planning…

Give him a circuit board over this any day. Still, this needs to get done if he wants to get out of this life.

Without dying.

Also, very important.

Right, plan. Danzo had marked all his shinobi with a seal. But it isn't a tracker. It is a seal that makes sure the one who wears it can't tell anyone anything about either Root or Danzo.

That's it. No hidden traps, no tracking, no incinerating the body after death.

He can work with that. Fake his death on a mission, run away (and how juvenile that sounds, urgh), and re-join Sawada without Danzo being ever the wiser. Hopefully, he could lock himself in some sort of lab for the first few years! He is already so pale – he would burn in the sun, burn, damnit. Who needs sunlight anyway?

It sounds simple… It isn't. He can't count on his team to cover for him. He can't simply disappear – they would search for him...and he can't actually die.

Just, that last bit is important. No dying on his part.

Thank you very much.

His last mission just hadn't allowed for it. Their enemies had been weak – it wouldn't have looked convincing.

So now all he has to do is wait for an opportunity. Just wait for the right mission to come along.

Just…wait patiently.

He hates waiting. He is not good at it.

He dreads it. God knows how long he will have to wait…

And then, two weeks after he first 'remembered,' an opportunity comes along. It is a simple infiltration mission. Or it is supposed to be….

Weren't under-classified missions something Root arranges for regular Konoha shinobi?

Never mind.

It is a simple mission – get in, steal a paper and get out. He only has one other teammate, which makes it even easier. He hadn't expected this to be the mission that would grant him his freedom though.

He also isn't really prepared for the two missing men they encountered.

Those two weren't supposed to be here. Still, earth jutsu. Bingo!

Faking his death is easy. The mission needs to be a success though (they might send others afterwards to come back and try again, and that could be a bad idea…) and in the end, even that is a success.

Crushed by earth wall.

Damn, that would be a messy way to go.

Sai is a painter and he uses his art to fight. Always had. Whether that art is robotics or drawings in ink doesn't matter. This will be no different. He always has scrolls and ink on him. Until now, he had ever only drawn stuff that came to life off the paper. It isn't until he is Spanner, as well, that he tries to put live stuff unto the paper.

It is remarkably easy, honestly.

Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Are people that…he doesn't want to think 'stupid' but…close minded? That fits as well…or is he some sort of genius? He has always been smart, but he hadn't cared for titles like that, so he had never found out if he had been a proper genius.

Time got strange on the scroll. In the scroll? And under the earth, it is even harder to judge how much time has passed. Are they still around? Is it safe to get out?

He knows that if the fight is over, his teammate would have left already, their price secure.

Getting out is harder. Once he thinks enough time has passed, he needs to get out in a way that isn't too obvious. Just in case anyone checks on him. Should he leave a decoy corpse? He didn't think to bring one, not having anticipated this mission could be 'the one'.

Timing is everything now. He needs to get out of the scroll under the earth, not die (very important, again, no being buried alive!). He does his best not to be crushed by the avalanche of earth that leys above him and then quickly substitutes with an object he saw on the surface above.

Piece of cake.

In theory.

In reality, it is nerve-wracking and over in seconds.

He sits there for a bit, shaking and breathing as if he has run a marathon.

Now, he only needs to make his way to Konoha without being detected. He will need a disguise.

Root doesn't really have a uniform, but he can't imagine civilians wearing something like this either. First, he needs to put some distance from the scene.

Then, become a civilian!

Right, he needs to get going.

He walks till it gets dark (civilians don't travel by tree) and he sleeps in a tree that night.

The next morning, he finds a little house, sitting alone by the edge of the woods. There is no one home, and he gets inside ridiculously easy. He gets inside through the window with little to no effort.

Oh, there is a corpse in the bed. Old lady. She is still fresh, so she can't have been dead for long.

Huh.

He did not expect that... He pokes her. Yep, definitely dead.

So he looks around. Finds some clothes, even some ID. Hah! That is lucky.

There is a picture. And a name, date of birth… Well, he obviously can't pass as the dead lady. Not without a henge. And a henge can be detected by good shinobi, so that isn't an option. He can claim to be family though. Daughter? Probably better to try for granddaughter? Dress up as a girl in the clothes he finds and make his way back to Konoha.

It is a perfect plan.

Spanner hates waiting.

He has no patience.

This is taking too long. He has been walking well over two days now, and still hasn't reached the village. He has to go at a civilian pace, if he wants his disguise to hold. Never know when someone might retrace his footsteps.

He had forgotten how slow civilians walked though.

His disguise is gorgeous, if he says so himself. He wears a skirt. Short, of course, like the cute Japanese girls he remembers. He had to cut the long skirt of the dead lady, but he has kunai for a reason, right? It hadn't been hard. He had found a small shirt that must have been much too small for granny, and he had ditched his shoes.

The lady's shoes are too big, and civilians don't wear shinobi sandals, so he had thrown his own shoes out. Literally, out the window they went. He'd gone back for them afterwards and hid them in the house.

Shoes laying outside would make people ask questions.

He is young enough to pass as a cute girl, if he says so himself. He muses, watching his reflexion in the window. Maybe… Cute girls wear pony tails, right? His hair is very short, but maybe he can make one little tail. Above his left ear or something?

He nods, looking at the final picture that is his refection.

Yes, he looks good.

Like a nice innocent little civilian girl. He smiles.

This will be a nice surprise for Sawada.

He has been on the road for two days and it is only now that he is crossing paths with some traders and their caravan. He blinks at them. Huh, so that is actually a thing. A family of people with two wagons, traveling together from village to town to sell stuff.

Apparently, that isn't a just thing out of story books.

"Young lady, what are you doing out here? Are you on your own? Where are your parents?" The man in front asks him loudly.

Good, his disguise is working.

"I am all alone. My grandma died." he says before smiling.

Everyone loves girls who smile. Nothing weird about that.

The man calls some other people, and a woman takes Spanner's hand and sets him at the front of one of the wagons.

That's nice – his feet are starting to hurt.

The woman approaches him again, and hands him a rice ball.

Score, he hasn't eaten anything since the old lady's house!

"Poor dear, you look like you had a fright. Are you on your way to visit family?" The lady asks him.

"Sure, I'm going to Konoha." Spanner replies with a shrug.

"We pass there as well. You are very close. Why not travel with us for the remainder of the way? You poor dear…"

Spanner shrugs.

Travelling like this might actually be quicker than going on foot. Besides, his feet are tender, and they have food.

He has no idea how far from Konoha he still is, so this is a good solution.

It turns out Konoha is a lot closer than he had thought. It only takes them half a day to get there.

The travel people talk to the gate guards for him, so he is not really paying attention.

Well, he acts like he doesn't, but he does. He is not that stupid.

They seem to believe the story the merchants tell them.

Good.

The two chuunin approach him and ask if he has any ID.

"Yes, I do!" he hands the piece of paper over with a smile.

One of them, eyes the paper with a frown. "Ano, this isn't you?"

"Well, of course not, that is granny." Spanner says. He feels their next question coming so he immediately adds. "She died. I am an orphan now."

"Poor dear was walking here on her own when we found her." The nice lady from before says without being asked.

Had she mentioned her name? He can't recall…

Not important.

"Haruno Kimiko, huh?" The man reads the ID papers again. "Isn't there a Haruno couple in the corps?"

"Hmmm…" the second one thinks out loud. "Aren't they the two who hoard the escort missions to Suna?"

"They might be." The first one says again as he scratches his head.

Spanner has trouble separating the two of them. All these Asian people looked so much alike…

In the end, after lots of talking, one of them walks with him to the Hokage tower. He even holds Spanner's hand. It seems a bit much, but he only smiles. Can't blow his cover just yet.

The talks at the tower take long, but they mostly take place without his input, which is great. Talking to people is exhausting. Can he just sleep for a week after this?

Please?

The Hokage isn't present for the talk. Which is good. It means they believe him to be nothing more than a civilian girl. His disguise is working splendidly.

The same guy from before takes his hand again and leads him outside. Spanner hums tonelessly. "Where are we going?"

"I am going to drop you off at your family's house. Your…euhm…aunt and uncle…of sorts aren't home. They are on a mission… But you have a cousin. You can stay with her until they come back and can sort out the paperwork." He says with a strange smile.

Spanner blinks at him, and shrugs. "Sure."

His cousin turned out to be his age. Well, she isn't really his cousin. It is all a cover, after all. He will have to run away tonight. The quicker he gets to Sawada, the quicker he won't have to deal with people anymore.

People are still fascinating – don't get him wrong. But he prefers to watch them from a distance, instead of dealing with them personally. Urgh.

The chunnin leaves as soon as he can after quickly explaining the situation.

The girl's hair is bright pink, and she wears some punk-ish clothes with skulls on them.

"My name is Sakura." She eyes him warily, arms crossed over her underdeveloped chest. "So, your grandmother died?"

"Yes, she did." Spanner shot the girl a smile.

"And you have no parents?"

"That is what being an orphan means, yes." He says cheerfully.

"And you came here looking for family?"

"Sure, why not." Spanner shrugs, looking around the utterly pink room.

It is strange how people can get fascinated by a colour… He doesn't get it.

"So, you are my cousin? Twice removed?" Sakura asks him, scratching her cheek and looking at him intently.

"Not really though."

"Good grief. I am related to an idiot." She sighs in what Spanner thinks is frustration. He isn't too sure though. Emotions…

"I am undercover." Spanner smiles at her again.

"Uhuh." The girl nods at him disbelievingly.

He grins, unable to help himself.

"But honestly, I came to find a Sky."

"The sky?" The girl shoots him a weird look. "How can you lose the sky? What kind of moro-"

"Not the sky. A Sky." Spanner specifies.

The girl freezes, and narrows her eyes at him. "You've got to be kidding me… You?"

"Me?"

"You are the one we've been looking for?"

He tilts his head. "Not sure? Who have you been looking for?"

"Spanner?!" She yells out in anger.

It has to be anger – she isn't smiling, so she isn't happy.

"Yes, that is me." He flashes her another smile.

Looks like he got lucky and stumbled upon someone who is… Wait…

"Did you die as well?"

"Yes, I did. How else would I know who you are?!" she yells at him.

He narrows his eyes at her, studying her. "Ah," He realises, "You are the loud, screaming one! I remember you."

She curses at him.

Loudly.

TBC.

Spanner is my spirit animal! I had a lot of fun writing him!

Also, if he seems out of character, this is just how I see him. He's a nerd, not good with people, blunt and prefers to stay in his lab with his robots over spending time with people. Combined with Sai … that makes for one awkward and blunt boy!
He turned out so extra though! That was a surprise!

This is one of my shorter chapter yet, but I am just glad I managed to post anything at this point ^^
I hope you enjoyed it!
xx