Summary; AU. In a world where Skies are hunted down for their flames; a young Sky by the name Tsunayoshi takes his first journey outside his hidden home. Though he might regret his choice of leaving his sanctuary as he'll really know the world's Sky Hunters; The Arcobaleno, will surely not let him escape them.

A/N: Aflgiofhjdsiolknfsdloifj. And another one up. Phew. I gotta say these fanfiction writing do sometimes make myself drag my hair in frustration of trying to 'tell the story' better. But I have to admit, it feels a lot easier to write stuff as for the moment : And this chapter is slightly longer than the others. :D Lot of stuff happening *cough*

Went back and rewrote parts of the first section about 5-7 times before settling with this as a starting point about the reason the Skies were hunted x'D Though I'll say the story about the Skies will be more complex once I get into the more deepening parts~

Just need to curse that homework over summer thing that haunts me. *shivers*

Anyways. Hope you guys enjoy this next chapter :D Would be awesome to know what you think of this story in a review :D Though it's not a must, just curious~

Mwahahahaha. *explodes*

-Sky Hunter-

Chapter 4 – Unwanted by the norm

In a large room where the sunlight shone into by the big windows decorating the end of it a blonde man with deep sky blue eyes stood near the window and looked out over the gardens outside the mansion. A calculating gaze and a small frown were seen on his face as he watched the outside in thought. His attire was of black in colour.

A magnificent cloak was resting on his shoulders, held on its place with a pair of chains connected at the front. At the end of the cape orange flames were flickering silently without leaving a single burn mark on the floor. Underneath the cloak a black suit was shown with white stripes, a black tie and a white undershirt. At the other end of the room behind a pair of large doors a small visitor peeked in before running forward to the man at the window. As the man noticed the visitor's presence he smiled.

The visitor stumbled in and went to the man by the windows. The man took the small visitor's hand and led them both to a couch that was placed by the big windows. The boy sat down in the man's lap as they rested on the couch.

"Papa, why can't we go outside the gates?" The visitor which was a tiny boy with caramel brown eyes and similar gravity defying hair hence it was brown instead asked the golden blonde man with a voice filled with curiosity. The man let his sky blue gaze meet the curious eyes of the five-year-old. A look of sorrow and concern flickered in his eyes as he crouched down to the brunet's level. His gloved hand with the inscription of a Romanian number decorating it was put on the boys head and gently ruffled the fluffy hair.

The blonde seemed conflicted to tell him but after a minute of silence he signed in defeat. "Tsuna, it's a little bit too complex of a story for you to handle at your age."

"Why?" The boy's look turned puzzled and he leaned his head to the side in confusion. "I want to know the reason."

The man gave a small huff and gazed again to the little boy. "It's a long story Tsuna."

"I want to hear it!"

"Very well then, but only the brief version alright?" The blonde sighed and took a deep breath to prepare the story. The brunet perked his ears in delight from hearing the approval of telling a story and nodded his head.

"A long time ago, before you were born, we Skies lived by the other people in the main land. Back then there was no special difference between us and other flame users as the Sky flame was considered to just be a rarer variant of the other six flame elements that existed. I did also live there along with my friends. It was a very peaceful time and we had pretty much nothing to worry ourselves about. But as peaceful it was there was a Sky with dark desires of taking over the main land. He misused his sky flames for taking over town after down with a destructive force he controlled."

The blonde paused looking down on the boy who listened intensely. The boy nodded with showing he understood the story thus far. He seemed quite serious for being in such a young age, accepting the information given to him as good as he could. The man letting the boy rest on his lap nodded back to and continued.

"And through this Sky's tyranny I tried along with my some acquaintances of mine to make him understand his mistakes. Although he refused to listen, we tried over and over to make him stop with his actions. It all finally ended with him being slayed by what would come to be the very first Sky Hunter, the first of the Arcobaleno, who are said to be the strongest of the Sky Hunters, though that Sky Hunter retired straight after defeating the Sky who had caused so much grief to both Skies and Non-Skies.

When the first Arcobaleno's action had stopped the tyranny of this Sky, I and many more Skies felt conflicted by the act. It was necessary but it did struck fear into many Skies when the news arrived to them. As well as fear struck us many Non-Skies started to fear the ones of the Sky flame greatly and thus other Skies became hunted.

The Arcobaleno grew more in number as the Skies of the Romanian numbers were defeated one by one. Other Skies were hunted down as well by more Sky Hunters who showed up. We decreased rapidly in numbers as they hunted us down more and more frequently and as a final decision we decided it was best to move away from their world. Thus we are capsuled inside the gates, trying to live peacefully without them hunting us down."

The man stopped and closed his eyes, trying to bite back the bitterness as he had shown by the story. The small child was silent. He looked down with confused eyes. He tensed when the man continued the story.

"At first Sky Hunters only headed after Skies that would harm others without reason, just as the first Arcobaleno had done when taken on the task to slay the Sky who had started the conflict but as soon they figured out a way to steal away our very cores of flames deep within us. Using it as a fuel to their weapons and becoming stronger as they progressed to wipe us all out. Innocent or not."

The brunet looked up with tearful eyes. "W-w-why…?" He stuttered and was trembling slightly. A pat reassured the brunet that it was all alright.

"I believe that's enough for tonight." The blonde soothed the boy with a gentle tone. "One day you'll get the full story as I can only give you the brief reason why we can't live down there now."

A small hiccup came from the child in the father's arms. "A-Alright... papa."

"Don't you worry too much about this Tsuna. You'll be able to understand it more when you're older. One day we might get to live as we used to in the main land. But until that peace is reassured, I won't let anyone hurt you or our family. That's why we need to hide from them for now. Inside the gates, where we are safe."

The boy let his small hands dive into his father's chest, dragging him closer for comfort. The blonde let the boy lay there for a few minutes before the boy fell into a deep sleep on his lap.

He stood up and gazed towards the window again, holding the small boy in his protective arms.

A pair of sunset orange eyes shone back towards the light.

"I'll not let the tragedy befall us again…"

Tsuna slowly opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the morning sun that cast its light rays through the window at his left. Collecting his thoughts of where he was now again. He was lying in a small bed in a very empty room. The room wasn't big either but it was clean of dust and somehow gave a welcoming gesture for his awakening to the bright orb in the sky lifting over the horizon.

As the brunet lifted himself up from the bed he recalled his arrival to the town he had spotted yesterday from leaving the Village of Swords. He was now in 'Rayfield' which was the name of the town he'd learned by asking some of the townspeople a little bit timidly. He'd quite quickly found a nice inn to stay in for the night. Small but very nice he'd admit. It didn't cost him a fortune at least from the amount of money he'd gotten from Talbot to be able to get food and shelter for his journey.

Stretching his arms and legs he got up and left through the door. He left the payment to the owners of the inn and gave them a quick goodbye and thanks for staying the night. The owners seemed a bit confused for the thanking which got the brunet a bit cautious. Maybe he said it wrong? But as they gave him a pair of smiles he relaxed and waved happily back and exited the inn.

"Guess people here aren't used to getting a thank you." He murmured under his breath in confusion. It was a polite act to do so wasn't it?

The young Sky strolled through the town as he took in the interesting people around here. It was not as many friendly waves around everyone but it did seem like it lived a bit more people here than the Village of Swords. Tsuna assumed that it wasn't as lively here for the moment. The village behind did prepare for some festival after all. Tsuna managed to find a market where he bought a few supplies of food just in case it would take him longer to the next town. Next thing he knew he was walking down the road out of town to continue his journey.

Once out of the town he walked alone down the main road. He took in the scenery laid before him in amusement. Somehow he felt freer than ever before. Not that his home was a prison. But it was rather nice to get out for once.

"LOOK OUT TOO THE EXTREEEEEEEEEMEEEE!"

Tsuna only managed to turn his head towards the 'extreme' yell as he god a good pounce from something big, a shriek of surprise escaping him. The next thing he knew he was lying on his back and stared up into a pair of yellow glowing eyes. An animal he had never seen before was sitting on top of him and looked curiously back into his own. It was a little bit bigger than the brunet in size, brown in colour with deep glowing yellow eyes, big ears and a pair of powerful legs that was enough to keep him down without much trouble. It seemed to have scars here and there over its body and a long tail wagged back and forth in excitement.

What got Tsuna's full attention though were its ears. A yellow flame flared in each of them. The young Sky's eyes widen. It was without a doubt a Sun flame animal.

"ARE YOU EXTREMELY ALRIGHT!?" Someone shouted right next to him in an incredible loud voice which made the young Sky flinch and jerk back. But with the creature sitting on him it didn't do more than making him hit the back of his head hard on the ground. A wince came straight after and Tsuna felt himself getting a few black spots in his vision.

He felt the creature jumping off him but felt a shooting flame appear near his head. He recalled the flame as a Sun flame as it started to clear his mind from the pain.

When his vision cleared completely he got up from his lying position to a sitting one. Moving his attention to the guy that he assumed was the one yelling from a few moments ago. The one who had yelled looked like an older teenager with white short and spiky hair, a white plaster was patched over the bridge of his nose. His grey eyes looked in worry at the young Sky.

"I'M EXTREMELY SORRY ABOUT KANGARYUU JUMPING ON YOU. WE WERE JUST EXTREMELY TRAINING WHEN HE EXTREMELY JUST FOUND YOU EXTREMELY INTERESTING."

If the guy next to Tsuna was going to overuse the word 'extreme' too much, he'd end up deaf with the volume of his loud voice before noon. His inner thoughts along with his damaged ears, thanks to the volume, were silently praying for a more settled talk. In a much quieter tone if they would add.

"I-It's o-okay… I was just a bit shocked." Tsuna replied with taking down his hands from his ears that had flung up as a reflex for covering his ears after the first three words from the guy's yelling.

"Extremely sorry again though!" Tsuna felt himself relax of the less loud tone the guy had given this time, waving a hand in dismissing the matter.

"I don't think it was by meaning to knock me over or me getting hurt right?"

"Extremely not!" The white-haired exclaimed. "By the way. My name is Ryohei. TO THE EXTREME!" A fist was pumped up in the air in declaration.

"N-nice to meet you Ryohei." Tsuna smiled sheepishly and stood up. "I'm Tsuna."

Ryohei nodded in return, a smile shown on his face as a sign of greeting. "Oh and over here is Kangaryuu, my extreme partner." He moved over to the brown sun flame animal beside him, putting an arm around the creature's neck and grinned as the Kangaroo did a poor imitation of ginning which resulted in just showing its teeth. Tsuna couldn't help but give out a chuckle at the Sun flame animal's antics.

"So Tsuna are you extremely heading?"

"Oh. Uhm…" Tsuna felt his head was all blank from coming up with a good answer to that. He didn't really thought about where to exactly go more than just following the road to the next town. "Well, I am heading to the next town down the main road. I'm a traveler so I don't have a specific place in mind, just enjoying the trip wherever it takes me." He finished with a smile.

"What an EXTREME coincidence!" Tsuna cringed once again at the volume for the 'extreme' in that sentence. "I and Kangaryuu are actually heading to the next town to this road as well! We are going to meet our extreme instructor."

"Your instructor?"

Ryohei nodded. "He saw me training the other day and suggested we'd meet him in the next town. He said something about some extreme training he could help me with along with Kangaryuu to the extreme."

The Sky stared at the loud older teen. Not moving a single centimeter. A small click in his intuition picked up something in that sentence. He couldn't think of anything wrong with it though, but something he said made him feel uneasy.

"Hey. How about we extremely join up and walk together there? It'll be EXTREME."

Okay, uneasy feeling flushed away. A small hint of annoyance had replaced it with all the 'extremes' he had heard today. Yet, he didn't feel like dismissing the offer to have company there. It might turn out good to be two traveling to the next town as the brunet felt awful by if he'd managed to get lost again he'd be in more trouble than in the Village of Swords.

"Sure." Tsuna answered in the politest tone he managed to muster, the older teen look approvingly back, yelling even more extremes afterwards as they continued down the road.

Even if it might turn out annoying, Tsuna was happy about the company.

Besides, he had an actual guide that he could ask things from as for now.

"So, if I get this right. You two was out there picking Azural berries because you forgot to do it before and conveniently found a rare rain-class flame animal in the stream?"

"That's right." Takeshi grinned sheepishly. Hana felt like smacking him at the back of his head for his idiocy. They had been in this temporary interrogation room for half an hour already and finished explaining as cautiously as they could muster why they had been with a flame animal.

The two Arcobaleno exchanged looks in disbelief which made Hana groan in frustration. Better just tell the full story for safety.

"Well actually we're sure we had already headed to the 'Growing of Azural' earlier today but suddenly we found ourselves standing in the middle of the village and had no memory of going back there. We felt as memories of ours were missing to a point between that and we figured out we had not even picked any for starters. We tried going back to see if we could remember anything there as it was at that place something had happened to us which we think made us forget and by accident that bird just showed up from the stream. I swear we did encounter it the very first time just before you two arrived."

Hana exhaled and took a new breath as her full explanation was fulfilled. The Arcobaleno seemed to have taken their attention to a new level and watched the two teens with serious looks.

"A memory loss you say?" The blue-haired Arcobaleno asked.

Hana nodded. The other teen gave one as well in confirmation. Good. He was understood the necessary reason why she brought up the whole truth. Since it was the Arcobaleno, there had to be a big reason why they were suddenly here.

A moment of silence took form between the four people then the blue-haired gave the blonde man a quick look and nodded. The blonde nodded back and went out of the room. The woman turned her attention back to the teens.

"We believe this is a case we would need you two to follow us to the headquarters with. We'll help you regain the memories as well as we need to confirm if a Sky was sighted here after all or some other reason behind what has been happening here lately, now that we have you two who have witnessed something quite odd indeed."

"Wait. A Sky?" Hana was baffled, a Sky in the Village of Swords? That was insane. They wouldn't be able to get here right? Why would it be here anyways? To flee from their hideouts in what she'd heard something about some mountain ranges that they had found some refuge in after the Sky Hunters first showed up.

"Might be. Might not be. We're unsure about the matter. But one thing we do have confirmed; that you two weren't the only ones affected by memory loss. The Sky Hunter named Dendro Chilum was on his way here but he as well doesn't remember how he ended up a little bit into the forest unconscious with a small concussion. He had his armor mildly damaged and had been as if 'punched' literally into a big tree trunk. He's alright but it gives suspicions about something odd is definitely happening at this Valley."

The two teens just stared at the Arcobaleno, unable to come up with something to say at all. As the silence progressed once again the blonde soldier back in.

"I've given the report to Verde. They'll be expecting us at the Capital City within a few days."

"I suppose there's no meaning staying here then. You two, pack whatever you think you need for this journey now. We'll talk to your families about the urgency of the matter. You are free to take the flame animal with you as well as it will surely become a great ally." The female Arcobaleno's voice was absolute without any discussion allowed and directed last statement towards Takeshi as he dumbly stared back in confusion.

"My name if Lal Mirch, the first Rain Arcobaleno and known to have taken down the Sky of Quinto. The one beside me is Colonnello the second Rain Arcobaleno and was the one who took down the Sky of Terzo." Lal Mirch introduced herself and her companion. "And I can assure you that this mission might not be easy. But it is inevitable for now. If it would happen to be that your memories would or would not include a Sky involved in this, it can be dangerous either way as we don't know the true motive of the attacked or memory eraser."

With that the Arcobaleno exited the room, leaving the two teens completely dumbfounded.

"You're sure the readings weren't just a fluke then?"

Verde twitched one of his eyebrows in annoyance. "Skull. Which one of us has the title of most genius scientist of us two? Not to mention you being a lackey to every single one of us other Arcobaleno?"

The stuntman winched, his face reddened in embarrassment. "Geez, I was just stating a fact that it did happen before you know. With the readings spiking up and it was a fluke since you said there was some connection messing up the system. How do we know it wasn't one this time?"

"Well your ignorance amuses me so I'll tell you. That time as you said was a fluke. But if you haven't guessed I modified it afterwards to not simply create these flukes again. I'm not dumb to let a bug like that continue being a problem with my machines stupid lackey."

"I'M NOT ANYONE'S LACKEY GREEN MAN!" Skull yelled in frustration.

"Being no one's lackey? What is this I hear Skull?" A murderous aura was laid over the lab. The two arguers switched their attention to the newest person joining them in their conversation. A tall man in a black suit wearing a fedora stepped into the room. A green gun held in his right hand.

Skull cringed back muttering a sad apology which made the scientist snort in amusement. If anyone was threatening enough to put Skull back into a coward it was Reborn.

"So what brings you here Reborn?" Verde asked the hitman. It was unusual for him to ever show himself in his lab at all.

"Lal and Colonnello have given a rather interesting report considering your little discovery in the Village of Swords. It appears someone attacked a mediocre excuse for a Sky Hunter, knocking him unconscious and ended up with a broken lightning armor and he seems to not have any memory of any event like that at all."

The green-haired scientist adjusted his glasses, paying full attention. "Well that's rather odd. If he was attacked by a Sky he'd either be dreadfully wounded or dead by now. Anything else you missed to say?"

"I was about to tell the rest before you interrupted." The hitman said in irritation and lowered his fedora down, shadowing his eyes more than before. "They got nothing out of the village people as they hadn't even seen the Sky Hunter in the first place but they later found two teens in the forest who had supposedly gone back to 'remember' why they hadn't picked berries or something like that. But the real deal was that they as well as the Sky Hunter had their memories erased at a certain amount of time. From what Lal and Colonnello got out from them it felt like the memories was gone from a bit before the spike in your readings came to a show and straight after the readings vanished. Lal had several theories about the matter but none of them can be proven as for now."

Verde leaned forward in thought. Yes this was rather odd. "I can see some different theories for this but yes, as Lal thought we have too little to work with to figure out it fully. There might have been someone attacking the Sky Hunter and the kids might have seen it happened but got caught in their act and got their memories erased about the incident to not awaken suspicion to the village. But it doesn't explain why the Sky Hunter was merely just unconscious by being attacked once.

Another reason could be that something was stolen from him, but as you say his memories are in turmoil and it might be that he even had the memory of the item stolen lost in the process."

"But it could have actually been a Sky attacking as well right." Skull joined the conversation after being forgotten the moment Reborn had started talking. "Maybe not a strong Sky but enough to knock that idiot of a Sky Hunter down. I mean, it is possible right?"

"A 'not strong Sky' would definitely not have such a high spiked reading Skull." Verde sighed. "So I'd either guess it was a strong Sky as the readings were close to what a Romanian number Sky would emit in a smaller battle against a rather experienced Sky Hunter. I'm aware you've experienced that right?"

The stuntman shuddered at the memory. The very first time he'd challenged one of those. The third encounter was the one time he'd succeeded to take the Romanian Number Sky down. How he had survived the first two times were a mystery, even for him.

"But I do have one last theory." Verde continued. "It might have been as I suppose Lal also have thought about that there might have been a Sky Hunter that has been able to get his hands of a Sky weapon and fired it towards the mediocre Sky Hunter. It's odd as well but highly accurate as we know it has happened before that some Sky Hunter attacks other fellow Sky Hunters to create more room for them to gain information about recent sightings of Skies and eliminate them before anyone else takes the offer to do so. But I'm afraid we don't get much more out of this without coming to harsh conclusions which might be completely wrong."

The Cloud and Sun Arcobaleno nodded at the statement. All they could do now was to wait for Lal Mirch and Colonnello to come back with the subjects at hand. Maybe even potential Sky Hunters in Reborn's opinion since Lal did tell him about the rare Rain class Flame animal that had appeared before one of the teens slightly before they found them in the Katana forest.

Which reminded the Sun Arcobaleno, he had his own new student to meet in town as he'd found the older teen quite interesting in his abilities and even having a Flame animal of his own which was his perfect partner. A green chameleon that had replaced the gun in his hand climbed up on his shoulder and eyes him carefully.

"Well II better take my leave. I need to go and meet up with the new student then."

With that he exited the room.

Tsuna was intensely close to slapping himself for doing the mistake of thinking this guy knew where they were headed. Not even an hour had passed and they were lost. In a field no less.

"Didn't you say this was a shortcut that would take about ten minutes or something?" Tsuna asked the white haired teen.

"I extremely can't remember." Ryohei frowned in trying to think, which didn't look good in Tsuna's eyes to the blankness and fully shown confusion on the face of the boxer. "Maybe it was the other field that we should've crossed."

"Other field!?"

"There are too many fields here to count! But we'll extremely make it there. Without a doubt!"

"You've got to be kidding me." Tsuna alerted his sight to land on the Sun Flame animal which didn't seem as confused as its extreme 'owner' was.

"Kangaryuu?" The Kangaroo looked curiously at the Sky. "Do you know the way from here?"

The creature nodded.

"EXTREME!"

A mental facepalming was what Tsuna had in mind. But at least one of them knew the way now.

This was going to be a long day.