A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! I know that it's been a long time, but I've been SO busy lately, not to mention that I had a bad case of writer's block and probably rewrote this chapter about 5 times. ._. But it's okay, because I've gotten over the writer's block and I'm back on track now. I also made this chapter extra long. :D Oh, when I put * next to a word, I have something to say about it at the end of the chapter in my author note, just so you know. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.

"Good…I promise you that this'll be fun!" the illusionist laughed, dissipating. Although he left, the light was gone, and Tsuna was left alone with nothing to guide him as of what he was suppose to do next. The only thing that the boy noticed was his Hyper Intuition was acting up, and the feeling of dread was overwhelming his senses.

Chapter Three

Tsuna was at a loss.

He didn't know what to do.

Reborn, as sporadic as he is, usually was the one who helped the brunet solve his problems. This time, though, Tsuna felt alone. He knew that the Arcobaleno gone, and hoped for his arrival back; if anyone could see that Tsuna wasn't Tsuna, it would be Reborn.

That would be nearly seven days. Seven days to allow Mukuro to dominate his body. Seven days that the illusionist could utilize in order to change people's views on the brunet, and obtain exclusive information on the Vongola. Information that could easily be used to destroy the organization, if used properly.

Impatience soon overtook the young Vongola as he hastily started running around the vicinity he was in, determined to locate some sort of exit or waypoint. He wasn't expecting to find any, and unfortunately, his expectations were true. Lost in the void, Tsuna tried calling out to his purple-haired assailant, "Mukuro! I know that you can hear me!"

The brunet was surprised when he heard a voice, "You called?"

"If this is my soul, like you claimed, then why can't I find a way out? I should be able to control what goes on, right?" Tsuna scoffed the words, trying to sound as harsh as possible.

The illusionist didn't seem fazed by the teen's demeanor, "Yes, it is your soul, but I'm invading it right now. Here, I'll try to explain it so even someone like you can understand. A single vessel, or body, can hold a single soul. I infiltrated your vessel, which was occupied by you previously, causing in a lack of space for the both of us. It's only fair that the more powerful soul takes control of the body. You can't very well leave your body, considering your soul is bound to it, albeit with some exceptions. Ultimately, you can't leave, but you have no dominance whatsoever in your actions. Imagine yourself a puppet," Mukuro's tone grew more sinister, and no doubt about it, there was a grin on his face, or in this case, Tsuna's face.

"I-I see…Earlier, you said something along the lines of my friends noticing that something happened to me. If they did happen to notice, then what could they do to kick you out of my body?" there was a childish curiosity in the brunet's voice.

"You expect me to tell you that much? I'm not anywhere near thatgullible. Besides, considering your circumstances, you're lucky that I decided to tell you anything at all. I could easily kill you now, you know. Without even destroying your body. I could take it all for myself, but that would be a bit selfish, wouldn't you agree? And letting things play out like this is much more fun, not to mention that if I killed you, that would make the Vongola family very much disagreeable to me. At least I have a hostage in order to prevent them from outright assassinating me," if possible, the happy tone in Mukuro's voice rose more so. And the frightened look on Tsuna's face urged the illusionist to tell him more about his plans, just to startle the child, but sheer common sense prevented him from doing that. "Another thing before I leave; you'll be able to hear, see, smell, taste, and feel what I'm able to, considering I give you the permission to," and with that, the macabre presence of the man vanished.

Tsuna's knees gave way, and the boy collapsed onto the floor, entire body trembling in trepidation. The brunet's breathing was heavy and ragged, and it was starting to get difficult to breathe, in fact.

Eventually, the young Vongola realized that this wasn't going to get him anywhere, so he imagined what Reborn would make him do in this situation. "Probably scold me for letting my body get taken over so easily," Tsuna chuckled bitterly. Gnawing on him bottom lip, Tsuna decided to try and summon up flames. Nothing came out of doing that, and he quickly found out that it was a futile effort. Pondering on what to do, a voice entered his mind.

Tsunayoshi.

Snapping his head up, the brunet surveyed the area, but found nothing. The boy stopped looking, but was always vigilant. Who could that voice have belonged to?...It sure sounded familiar.

Tsunayoshi…

The voice rang again, alarming the brunet. Tsuna was starting to become paranoid; the voice was getting louder, and seemingly closer, but at the same time, it was in his mind, so how could it get closer? Slightly irritated, Tsuna looked around again, but it looked the same as before, albeit the boy swore that he saw something move in the distance. No, something had moved in the distance, the young Vongola was sure of it.

Before Tsuna could move forward, though, a blinding light erupted, surrounding the brunet. He looked away, not used to the light, but when the brightness had diminished, the boy was not greeted with darkness, but a scenery.

"So, Tsuna, what do you think of this feat?" Mukuro's voice echoed from inside his mind.

Jaw dropping open, the brunet didn't answer, but his silence was more than enough of an antiphon for the illusionist. The breeze felt nice against the boy's skin, seeing as he was in an area with absolutely no wind. He could also smell the pleasant scent of greenery, and hear the bird's chime. Tsuna took in all of these changes happily, glad to have at least something returned to him.

Tsuna recognized this as the road leading to his house. He saw from his own eyes, but could not control where they looked or what his body did, but total domination of his body wasn't expected anytime soon.

As Mukuro arrived to the brunet's house, he gave a slight chortle before entering the building.

"Mom! I'm home!" a voice called out, echoing throughout the hallways of the vicinity. Tsuna gave a slight gasp as he heard his voice being enunciated, but not by the himself.

The welcoming tone of the brunet's mother reverberated from the kitchen, "Welcome back, Tsu-kun*! You're home rather late tonight; were you out playing with your cute boyfriends?" there was a sugary tone in his mom's voice. It seemed that she was cooking up dinner for the large family; Tsuna could faintly notice the scent of some sort of cooked meat.

"Wha-! Mom, they're not my boyfriends! I was went to go get some groceries for you, but then I realized that I forgot to bring my wallet…" the voice admitted sheepishly. The real Tsuna widened his eyes at that statement; the façade that Mukuro was putting on was eminently accurate. Upon realizing that, the brunet's hopes dropped. He had wanted the visage to be erroneous, or something close to that so someone could spot the blunder, albeit the way things were going now, it wasn't going to be anytime soon.

"Okay, whatever you say, sweetie! Just know that if you decide that one of them is right for you, then I'll be willing to accept whoever he is!"

"M-MOM!" Tsuna's voice stuttered, "Uhm, well, I'm g-going to be in my room, mom…"

"I'll call you down for dinner, honey!"

"O-okay," the still flustered voice called back. 'Tsuna' rushed upstairs and quietly closed the door to the room that he was in. "So what did you think of my performance? Quite veritable, wouldn't you agree?" now, the voice had reverted back to its original voice, and it was quite presumptuous.

"H-how did you know so much…" Tsuna's volume turned inaudible, but it was quite clear of what he wanted to say. The boy's dismayed voice pleased the illusionist.

"It was easy, to be honest. I sent illusions out after you – illusions that you couldn't sense with your dying will – and I ordered them to track you, and report back with what information they had. You're an extremely predictable boy, which made following your movements exceptionally easy. It only took about a month to completely understand what you'll do in certain situations. You noticed me a few times, though, remember?" the illusionist's jovial voice sneered.

Recalling the memories of when his dying will suddenly went out of control, he mentally kicked himself for not being more vigilant and ignoring the presence that should have been dealt with. "Even so, Reborn's going to notice that I'm even a little bit different," theeriness. that the small man would perceive the change in the boy's demeanor.

"You're giving him too much credit, boy. He may be the number one hit-man in the world, but at the end of the day, he's still human, and humans make mistakes, and one of those is trusting. You may not see it, but you're one of the people that that imprudent man puts his faith in, and believe me, he doesn't have very many people that he trusts. I'll tell him a legitimate lie, and he'll get off of my case. And even if he doesn't, when I do tell the truth, he wouldn't stand to hurt me with you being in here," a sinister tone crept its way into Mukuro's voice.

"You bastard. It doesn't matter what you do, Reborn will find out about this, and he'll eradicate you without harming me. I'm not giving him too much credit, you're just underestimating him. I'm sure that he'll easily take you out," Tsuna didn't know why he was enraged by the fact that the illusionist practically stated that Reborn was subpar compared to him, but it made Tsuna mad, furious to put it more accurately.

"You seem a bit fazed by what I said about your favorite tutor," the poisonous voice smirked, "he's obviously a failure of a tutor if he can't mentor his student to go a month without him. Or maybe you're just becoming clingy, and you're starting to live life depending on him." Irritating Tsuna was just too fun; the illusionist couldn't help it.

"MUKURO! You godamn bastard!" Tsuna immediately retorted, absolutely livid. "Don't just think that you're going to get away with all of your bull-shit; the Vongola is much stronger than you anticipated, and no matter how strong you are, you're no match for them. Actually, no. You're not even close to being able to defeat Reborn! You're just a cocky little bastard who has no limit to his audacity," the boy scoffed, nearly yelling in a blind rage.

Tsunayoshi…

The voice spoke again. This time, though, it was much louder, and much more lucid. Tsuna took no notice of the voice, his bloodlust for Mukuro increasing by the second. Why, though? Tsuna was never a boy who took pleasure in someone else's pain, but this time, he wanted to see the illusionist choking in his own blood, pleading for his life to be spared. As soon as that thought occurred, a scene visualized in the brunet's mind. It was much too dark to really see the details, but the surprised boy could make out that he was in a chamber of some sorts. It was fairly big, and had 2 torches poorly illuminating the room, just adding to its eeriness. What really caught the young Vongola's eyes, however, was the slim figure in front of him.

Tsuna could see that the figure was wearing white robes. Its attire made it impossible to see anything other than parts of its face. The boy could faintly make out strands of white hair sprawled across the figure's forehead, covering its eyes. The stature of the humanoid creature was well beyond Tsuna's, probably standing at a little more than 6 feet tall.

The point of this was to scare Tsuna, in which case it was working splendidly, or something else, which in that case, unknown. The brunet really hoped that it was just to scare him.

If it was fear that the creature was hoping to accomplish, then it could have done that with just its smile. The malevolent way that it curled its lips in was horrific. Just that alone could have petrified Tsuna, but unfortunately, the boy didn't think that it was just here to scare him.

"Hello, Tsunayoshi," a callous voice spoke. It was familiar, very much familiar, but who did it belong to?

The brunet didn't respond back, not because he didn't have a reply, oh no, he had many questions, but because he was much too pusillanimous to respond.

"Oh, come on, Tsunayoshi. What's the matter? Are you at a loss of words?" it chuckled, the emptiness of it reverberating throughout the room. It took a large step forward, closing the gap between the two considerably.

Instinctively, Tsuna tried to get as much distance as he could from the approaching figure, but panicked when he met the wall behind him.

"What's wrong? Do I frighten you?"

There was still no response from the boy.

The figure stopped and charged forward suddenly, almost instantaneously reaching its target. Surprised at the suddenness of a foreign presence invading Tsuna's space, the boy tried to push the figure away, but to no avail; the humanoid figure stood its ground firmly. The young Vongola didn't even try to see who it actually was, more concerned in the fact that he was almost pressing up against it.

The brunet abruptly ceased his shoving when the figure placed both its hands on either side of the child's shoulders.

Tsuna felt its head lower down next to the boy's right ear where it whispered in a chilling voice, "Tsunayoshi. I am nothing to be afraid of. I know what your darkest desires are," the voice hushed more so, ascending closer to the brunet's ear, his lips brushing unintentionally against it. This action resulted in the young Vongola trembling uncontrollably as he started breathing raggedly from the creature's touch. "I know that you want to hurt Mukuro. Everything that he's done to you. He insulted Reborn, and took over your body, and he's planning to do more. And all you can do is watch and suffer as slowly, his plan becomes true and the Vongola family is no more. He wants you to believe that you can't do anything about it, but truth is, you can. Trust me, and I'll give you the power to relinquish him. I promise. I can fulfill your every desire, and all you have to do is accept me. It's as simple as that, so what do you say, Tsunayoshi?" the voice finished. The creature ran its tongue up Tsuna's ear, causing the boy to tense up considerably. The sudden feeling of warmth on the brunet's ear was oddly sensual. It pulled back, and ran its long, slender fingers down the boy's face, pausing for a moment to caress his face, and the proceeding forward to tilt the chin upwards so Tsuna could clearly see the man.

Upon seeing the face, Tsuna widened his eyes. He couldn't believe that it was him of all people. "Byakuran…"

A/N: Cliffhanger!Well, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Again, sorry for the delay. If there were any errors in the story, please tell me. :) Okay, so I put the * because I wanted to point something out. I know that a lot of people don't like it when someone puts –sama, -kun, -san, etc. in fanfictions. I usually don't prefer this sort of stuff, but I feel that Tsuna's mom isn't really using it. I mean, she is, but it's because it's Tsuna's nickname, not because she wanted to be formal or informal or anything like that. I'm just pointing that out! Well R&R please! I'll try and update sooner next time, guys! ^-^

-Astral Ascension