Redemption

Summary: Second in the Dark Ambition Trilogy, "You again." Tsunayoshi stated. "Yeah," Tsuna confirmed with a nervous chuckle, "Me again." Dark AR

For the third time in a year, Tsuna went to the future. However, the first two times had seen Tsuna accidentally being shot to the future. This time, he was going there on purpose.

The day before, Tsuna had been shot by the 10-Year Bazooka, and had catapulted into his future self's mind. However, this future counterpart did not live in the world where Tsuna and his Guardians had landed in the first time; instead, this was a different parallel future. It was one of the few worlds where Byakuran's plan B had escaped Uni's influence. The plan had involved a monstrous clone and the Tsuna in that future had sacrificed his humanity to get a dangerous power: the Dark Ambition Flame. This resulted in him defeating Byakuran, but afterwards, the flame had taken over and killed Kyokou. Ashamed, Tsunayoshi got himself imprisoned in Vendicare.

And now, Tsuna thought with determination, I'm going to save him, my future self.

Like déjà vu, he arrived in the forest clearing. Standing in front of him was none other than-

"Older me," Tsuna said, surprised. He couldn't help it: the blank expression on his counterpart's face would always startle him.

"You again," Tsunayoshi stated, like a stranger commenting on the weather.

"Yeah," Tsuna confirmed with a nervous chuckle, "Me again."

"And is there a reason you are here again?" He asked blankly.

"Well, I said I'd save you!" Tsuna said loudly, "And all you have to do to be free again is to wake up and fight back!" He fidgeted; the lack of emotion coming from his future self was unnerving.

Tsunayoshi's mouth quirked a little, and Tsuna's heart jolted in disbelief at a theory he began to have. Could it be…?

"Free again?" Tsunayoshi asked, bemused. "Do you forget that I put myself in this situation?"

Tsuna blushed; on one hand, he felt annoyed at his reply, but the other, he was envious: where had he learned to be quick-witted?

"But you have friends to go back to!" Tsuna said earnestly, "Don't you want to see our family again?"

Tsunayoshi's face was impassive, "What would I be to them? I'd be nothing; a former shell of their boss who can't relive the joy of laughing with them." He said, frowning slightly.

Damn, arguing with yourself is hard, Tsuna decided, when you fully agree with what they say.

"But what if you could go back?" Tsuna asked softly. "Wouldn't it be worth it to see them laugh again?"

When his future self's expression didn't change, he switched his approach, "This is all about you being afraid whether they accept you or not, right?"

Tsunayoshi nodded, and Tsuna went on, "So… if I can persuade them to try and rescue you, will you fight to free yourself?"

Tsuna quickly checked his watch; one minute left until the time limit Shouichi had given him was up.

Tsunayoshi shook his head. "No, they'd feel inclined to rescue me because you told them to. It is not the same as accepting, and wanting, me back."

Tsuna sighed impatiently, "Would you fight for your freedom if they want to be with you again; if they need you as their boss, and as a part of their family?"

Tsunayoshi hesitated, and the younger Tenth Vongola boss saw something like hope flicker faintly in his eyes.

"If they need me," He finally said, quietly, "Which I doubt."

Tsuna was about to jump for joy at his success, but his counterpart added:

"However, you only have one week to do this. Any further than that, and I'll refuse to believe you."

Tsuna remembered the time limit Reborn had given him, and sweatdropped. He knows me too well…

He beamed at Tsunayoshi, "I won't let you stay in here! I will save you!"

With that final sentence, Tsuna disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

Tsunayoshi stared at the spot Tsuna had vanished at, and a cruel smile graced his lips.

"My sincere gratitude…" His hair turned white and familiar spiked markings appeared under his left eye.

"…Tsunayoshi-kun."

Tsuna had landed in a garbage bin. He hopped awkwardly to his feet and shook his hair free of the debris. Note to self, he thought, annoyed, remind Shouichi-kun to not drop me in unfavourable places.

He was wiping off some gunk on his hand when he noticed where he was. Namimori, in the alleyway behind a cake shop he knew all too well. The reminder about Kyokou stung him, but it was washed away when he noticed someone leaning against the wall on his left.

"T-ten years later Lambo?" Tsuna said loudly in surprise.

The fifteen-year-old had been sitting down against the wall, dozing. But when he heard Tsuna's shrill voice, he jumped up, looking around in alarm. When he spotted him, he stilled.

"B-Boss!" Lambo said in shock… and was that a bit of fear? "How…?"

Tsuna shrugged, "Your, ah, Ten Year Bazooka."

"My…" Lambo said slowly, and then nodded. Not a second later, he looked alarmed and wary again. "Wait, shouldn't you be in… er…"

"Vendicare; yeah, I know." Tsuna sighed, seeing his friend straighten up at the name. He began to have a few doubts; Lambo is afraid of me… is this going to be all in vain?

He shook his head mentally, and focused on his task, "Look, I want to try and get a meeting with all my Guardians; can you contact the others?" Tsuna asked hopefully.

Lambo looked uncertain. "Well… I-I suppose I could try. What should I tell them?"

"That… their friend is asking for help."

Lambo led Tsuna into his house. Inside, it was surprisingly clean.

"I-Pin comes around sometimes," Lambo explained at Tsuna's questioning gaze. "She couldn't stand the mess, so she cleaned it up."

They settled in his living room; as Lambo went out again, Tsuna spotted some photos on a desk and went over to look. There were several pictures of the Lightning Guardian with I-Pin, smiling happily. Others included an older Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryouhei and Chrome. The Storm Guardian had scars over the right side of his chest, and over the shoulder blade from what seemed like an explosion; Yamamoto had no scar on his chin like in the other timeline, but a slightly longer one over his right eyebrow; Ryouhei was the same as his other counterpart; and Chrome had elbow-length hair.

However, the photo that caught his attention was of every single one of his friends. Hibari, Mukuro, and the other more serious ones, some Varia members included, were scowling or smirking at the camera. The others were hesitantly smiling or beaming. Tsuna saw himself in the middle, between Yamamoto and Gokudera, grinning shyly.

Wait a second… Tsuna focused on one person in particular, then looked at the person beside them,.

It was Chrome and Mukuro; the former blushing furiously. Either Mukuro somehow tricked the cameras with his illusions, or…

Tsuna turned to Lambo, who had just come back into the room.

"Lambo," Tsuna asked, "Why is Mukuro in here?"

The teen looked up lazily, settling onto the couch, right eye closed. "You led a crusade to free him from Vendicare. Surprisingly, it worked."

"Oh," Tsuna blinked when another thing occurred to him, "Hey, why were you lying behind the cake shop?"

Lambo coughed, "I-uh, I got kind of tired. I work there, soo…"

Tsuna nodded sceptically." Right,"

"Anyway, I called the others," Lambo continued, wincing slightly, "And one in particular yelled at me –" Ryouhei, Tsuna thought, amused, or maybe Gokudera…? "- and it will take a few hours, but -"

"Wait," Tsuna interrupted. "A few hours? Why?"

"Most of them are in Italy, so…"

"Italy?" This is going to be a problem… but hours? Tsuna's eyes widened, "Wow!"

"Only Hibari and Ryouhei stayed here in Japan." He said. "In fact, they'll be here in a few moments, I think."

Tsuna frowned, Onii-san… what would he say? The brunet didn't doubt that the older Sasagawa sibling would punch him.

Out of the two, the first to arrive was Hibari Kyouya.

The skylark had slightly longer locks than his counterpart in the other future world, and he wore a white shirt, dark tie, and jeans. Over that was a worn, black trench coat with the Japanese kanji 'Discipline' over the back of it.

When he spotted Tsuna, his eyes widened a fraction. Quickly regaining his composure, which was hardly lost at all, he gave a brief nod.

"Herbivore," He said curtly.

"Hibari-san!" Tsuna said, beaming.

"I'll, er, step outside for a second." Shooting his boss a nervous smile, Lambo went.

There was a silent pause before Tsuna began. The brunet sighed, eyes sliding to look out the window at… the sky.

"To be honest, I'm surprised you came, Hibari-san." He said. In his present, he started talking to his Cloud Guardian more often, whether the older guy liked it or not. Hibari was the most cool-headed of his Guardians, and Tsuna trusted him to not act rashly or judge… too harshly.

"Che," Hibari looked away. "I wanted to bite the 'friend' that that kid mentioned to death."

Tsuna smiled, "Thank you all the same, Hibari-san." The older male said nothing, so Tsuna continued, voice now weary.

"What happened?" He asked. "Did my future self really go berserk and murder Kyoko-chan?"

Hibari looked at him, and Tsuna began to get a nagging feeling that everything Tsunayoshi had told him was not all of it.

"Murder?" Hibari's expression was slightly amused. "You, the herbivore?"

Tsuna frowned, "But he told me he killed her…"

The Cloud Guardian shook his head, and Tsuna froze in shock at his next words.

"Kyoko Sasagawa wasn't killed at all."

"Are you ready, Chrome?" Yamamoto Takeshi grinned as the girl nodded.

"Of course, Yamamoto-kun." She said, the usual blush adorning her cheeks.

"All right!" He hefted up their luggage, "Let's go to Japan!"

Chrome still looked unsure. "But what about our mission? Reborn-san said that -!"

"No worries!" Yamamoto said reassuringly. "He'll understand! After all, I left a message on his phone."

Chrome sweatdropped, small smile bemused. "If you're sure…"

"Of course I am." Yamamoto looked out at the sky through the airport's windows.

"Besides, Lambo had said a friend needed us! Haha…"

"I didn't kill…?" Tsuna repeated, shocked.

"Well, she was in a coma for three days, but otherwise fine." Hibari said boredly.

"So my older self believes that he killed her?" Tsuna said, more to himself. "And he imprisoned himself in Vendicare because he thought he might kill everyone else?"

Hibari said nothing, so Tsuna assumed he was partly correct.

"However, herbivore," The Cloud Guardian said out of the blue. "He made me to promise him something."

Tsuna stopped, frowning. "W-what do you mean?"

"… To never let him out."

Tsuna went cold, this changes everything…, he thought. Then why had my future self agreed to an attempt to be free? If he had made Hibari-san promise this…

He really needed to talk this over with his Guardians…

The next to arrive, of course, was Ryouhei Sasagawa.

He basically looked the same as he did in his picture, except with one obvious feature: the long scar on his left cheek.

The moment Ryouhei spotted him he yelled out, "Sawada of the past!" and promptly punched him in the face.

"Hey, what're you -!" Lambo stuttered, stunned. Hibari hadn't even reacted; he only cast them a disgusted look before turning away.

Tsuna held up a hand, and said from his sprawled position on the ground. "I-I'm fine!" He stood, smiling nervously. "I deserved that, I suppose."

"Alright to the extreme, Sawada!" Ryouhei said loudly.

"Hi, Onii-san." Tsuna greeted politely, and then looked down. "I… I'm sorry about Kyoko-chan…"

The boxer shook his head, "It wasn't you, Sawada!" He said, smiling brightly. "You have a crush on my little sister –" Tsuna choked at that, "- so I know you didn't do that willingly!"

"Yet you still punched me?" Tsuna said shrilly, but he was sadly ignored.

He then turned to the scar on Ryouhei's cheek. "What happened?"

The mood went sour instantly, and Tsuna inhaled sharply in realisation, "…I did it."

Ryouhei looked away, smile fading.

Tsuna thought back to how Tsunayoshi had told him about the events after he had come back to himself when the Dark Ambition Flame possessed him. He had said that… he'd been fighting Ryouhei.

He opened his mouth, ready to apologise again, but there was the sound of a door banging.

"Herbivores," Hibari told them boredly, "More of your kind are here."

Tsuna's heart skipped a beat. Already? He had expected them to arrive a couple more hours later, or more.

"Spanner improved all of the Vongola's planes," Lambo told him lazily, seeing his confusion. "They're all way faster now."

In no time at all, the door opened to the lounge, and there stood-

"Chrome-chan and Yamamoto-kun!" Tsuna greeted, smiling somewhat uncertainly.

Chrome drew back, as if scared of him, and Tsuna's smile disappeared. Seeing this, she quickly came forward and hugged him, long hair spilling over her shoulders.

"Boss!" She said, smiling shyly as she stepped back.

Yamamoto had remained back, staring, expression unreadable, at Tsuna. However, a grin came onto his face when Tsuna turned to him.

"Tsu-Tsuna!" He said happily. "You're so small again!"

Tsuna sweatdropped as the older guy clapped his shoulder.

"Good to see you two." Tsuna smiled again.

"So what did you want us here for, Boss?" Chrome asked.

"We'll wait until Gokudera-kun gets back as well and I'll –" Tsuna halted, aware of the sudden tension that arose at that name. It's becoming a common occurrence, he noted dryly.

"What?" Tsuna was suddenly apprehensive, "What happened?" There was an icy feeling in his gut, and he honestly didn't want to know what had happened, but he needed to.

"Tsuna…" Yamamoto said slowly, happy mood now gone. "Gokudera is…"

The brunet stifled a gasp. "He-He didn't die, did he?" These people weren't his present Guardians, but they were his future friends nonetheless. And if Tsuna had killed his silver-haired friend…

Yamamoto shook his head, and Tsuna almost sighed in relief, but he went on gravely. "Gokudera… he didn't take your imprisonment very well."

Tsuna's heart clenched. He remembered his Storm Guardian from his present being absolutely adamant, and slightly wild, about Tsunayoshi's imprisonment in Vendicare. Tsuna had a suspicion as to what had happened, and he hoped fiercely that his prediction wasn't correct.

However, his hopes plummeted.

"Gokudera went… insane. With you gone, the person he was so steadfastly loyal to, his sanity slipped." Yamamoto bowed his head. "What he did next… I tried to stop him, but… he went berserk and started to attack random people." Tsuna inhaled sharply, tears starting to prick his eyes. Gokudera…

"Finally, he was taken to Vendicare." The Rain Guardian finished quietly. "I suppose that was his goal all along, to be right next to his Tenth."

The shock was too much for Tsuna; he collapsed and huddled into a ball, unaware of the sudden shouts of alarm around him.

The guilt was eating him alive! He had hurt his dearest friends – his family! – so much, and he couldn't forgive himself for it. How could they ever forgive him? Now he understood what his older self went through… no, it was even harder for him. Tsunayoshi, who had given up his emotions, had wanted to grieve and regret and feel guilt… but couldn't.

At that point, Tsuna felt several pairs of arms wrap around him, offering comfort. Surprised, but glad, he accepted their embrace, sobbing.

And throughout it all, his voice was heard, muttering something over and over again.

"I'm so sorry…"

A day later, he woke up. At first, he was confused as to where he was, but the events came rushing back into his head. He felt tears brimming his eyes again, but wiped them off furiously. No time for that, Tsuna! Get a hold of yourself!

He shook his head, and sat up, looking around. I must've fallen asleep, Tsuna thought, embarrassed. He remembered crying and then, after half an hour of being comforted, getting carried to the couch he was on. A blanket being laid over him was the last thing he recalled before falling into a restless sleep.

For the first time since he came to the future to rescue his older self, he began to have doubts. He wanted to help Tsunayoshi, as a friend, but did that count if that friend was himself? He understood his counterpart's feelings, and felt that, if he were in that position, he'd opt to stay in that prison forever… and yet he was in that position, albeit older.

He shook his head again; he'd come this far. Which wasn't very far at all, he admitted, but he had to go on. He was determined to figure out what was going on. Something about the whole situation was off.

He got up and stretched, placing the blanket back on the couch. Maybe he'd talk to his counterpart's Guardian's about this.

He went up to the door, behind where he thought he heard faint voices and smelt food. By the sounds of it, all of them had stayed over at Lambo's place.

"…should tell Reborn." Lambo was saying. Tsuna froze with his hand on the door handle. Maybe he'd wait and…

"I agree; but what should we tell him?" Ryouhei replied, "That his previous students' younger self came along?"

That comment stung Tsuna, though he didn't know why. Maybe it was the fact that Reborn didn't consider him as his pupil anymore?

"…But what about Enma?" Yamamoto asked.

Tsuna froze. Enma? Who was Enma? And why… did it feel like Yamamoto respected this Enma more than him? Jealously started to rear its ugly head in Tsuna, but he beat it back down. I'm reading too much into this…

"No, we shouldn't involve him in such a dangerous situation like this." Chrome said softly.

Or not…

"And how is it dangerous?" Hibari's drawl entered the conversation. "The younger herbivore hasn't said anything yet."

"Don't act dumb, Hibari." Yamamoto said quietly. "Tsuna hasn't returned to the past yet, so the Irie Shouichi in his present must've got him to stay here somehow. I'm also guessing that he wants to rescue his future self, but has conflicting emotions about it."

Hiiiee! Tsuna thought, surprised, he knows me so well!

"He-He wants to rescue boss?" Lambo repeated, shocked.

"Let's ask him ourselves." Hibari said boredly, and then opened the door, causing Tsuna to stumble into the room.

He blushed at being caught; only Chrome and Lambo looked surprised at his appearance.

"G-good morning." He stuttered, feeling slightly immature under their gazes.

The Guardians were sitting around Lambo's small dining table, cramped together except Hibari who stood beside the window.

"HELLO TO THE EXTREME, SAWADA!" Ryouhei yelled, punching the air. However, it went awkward, being as cramped as he was between Yamamoto and Chrome.

The others said their greetings, and Yamamoto asked, smiling, "How was your sleep, Tsuna?"

Tsuna bowed his head. "I, uh, I'm sorry about that…"

"No worries!" Chrome reassured him. "It was all a big shock, after all."

"Anyway," Tsuna jumped straight to the point, "Who is Enma?"

Immediately, the mood turned uncomfortable.

"A friend…" Lambo said shortly.

Tsuna just waited.

Hibari rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll explain." He sighed, exasperated. "After Gokudera got imprisoned, they were a wreck." He gestured toward the other, conveniently leaving himself out.

"Then along came another stupid herbivore." Hibari's expression showed distaste.

"Don't insult Enma-san!" Chrome said, doe-like eyes defensive.

Tsuna was taken aback. Only Mukuro provoked that reaction from her, other than himself. He frowned, trying to fight back his irrational jealousy.

Hibari, unsurprisingly, ignored her. "He is as stupid and clumsy as you are, and someone I want to bite to death." He declared, clearly annoyed.

"But he is as nice and inspiring as you, Tsuna." Yamamoto said, smiling.

"Awesome to the extreme, Enma is!" Ryouhei yelled.

Tsuna couldn't help it; a small scowl came over his face. However, he quickly washed over it with a smile. "That's great you made another friend!" Inwardly, he was wondering if they had somehow found a replacement for him.

And that this Enma was going to be trouble for them.

"Trust your instincts, Dame-Tsuna." said a voice.

Tsuna's heart jolted; was it a hallucination, or was it really him…?

He turned, and yelled out in shock.

"Reborn?"

A/N: Sequel is up~

Please review!

Edited: 3/8/11