The first time I update in months, and it's a short chapter. Truth to be told, I'm getting a little wearisome with this story. It's hard to keep writing. For a month all I had written in my personal copy was 'Chapter Sixteen'. I had no idea what to write for this thing. And this is mostly a filler chapter.

So, now we have a problem. I would really appreciate your guys' feedback with this issue. If I continue writing this story like I have been (going in lots of detail with certain things), I might actually never finish this story. I would try, but I might run into a situation again where I just have no motivation to continue writing.

I really want to finish this fic. I've been working on if for what, two years now? So here's my proposed plan: I do a brief overview of the Mukuro arc and the Battle for the Rings arc, instead of going into detail. Here's what that would mean: Toshi and Tsuna are reunited faster and Xanxus comes back quicker than I had planned. It will mean that there will only be about five more chapters for this story.

The other option is I continue writing like I had originally planned. That would mean: longer story, more in depth, more character development. It would also mean I might never finish this fic.

I'll let you guys choose which one you would rather see for this story.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

Reborn sat in the kitchen, staring in silence at his food. He should eat it, he knew, and pretend that he was a happy-go-lucky kid to keep up appearance in front of Nana. He didn't have the energy to pretend today. The rest of the kitchen went about its normal business, completely unaware of Reborn's sour mood. Perhaps he should kick around the cow-brat to make him feel better. Nah, he didn't feel like it right now. Speaking of the brat, Lambo was begging Sawada Nana for seconds. Bianchi was quietly eating her own breakfast, and Toshi was still upstairs. There was something wrong with how mother and son acted around each other. Nana doted on her son, giving him anything and everything he needed. Toshi in turn acted like Nana carried the plague.

This fact had been bothering Reborn for the month he had been in the Sawada household. There was only one reason he could think of to make mother and son act this way. So, he got in contact with the local police and requested the security videos of the night Tsunayoshi and Iemitsu died. The police had ruled it an accident. The security videos looked like Tsuna stumbled and fell in the path of an oncoming truck, and Iemitsu had dove to save him.

Leon licked his ear. Reborn's cell phone was ringing, and he had spaced out.

"Excuse me, Nana." Reborn quipped as he slid off of his seat. He hadn't touched his breakfast at all. The brown haired woman told him it was fine as he left the kitchen.

"What do you want?" Reborn said, answering the phone.

"It's good to hear from you too." Timoteo replied, just as dryly. "The assassin Faceless struck again last night. I'm putting you and young Toshihide in charge of investigating. It's time to bring that bastard down once and for all."

"You are putting Toshihide on the case as well?" Reborn asked in surprise.

"Do you think your student can't handle it?"

"No." Reborn answered immediately. Toshi could definitely handle it, but Faceless was a hitman for hire that had been the bane of the mafia world for years. Even Reborn was impressed by the assassins skill and his ability to remain unseen. That's why he (well, at least they assumed Faceless was a he) had not been caught yet. There were only three people in the world who had ever seen the face of faceless. And two of those were so scared from the experience they no longer spoke at all. The assassin was a dangerous foe, someone that Nono usually sent his top agents to take care of. Not a fifteen year old boy.

The baby was disappointed. Ever since the death of his friend and surrogate grandson, Timoteo had grown apathetic. It was discouraging; the once caring and kindly old man had degraded this far.

"You have six months to prove to me that Toshihide is an adequate heir to the Vongola before I send Xanxus after Faceless." Timoteo informed him and promptly hung up without waiting for a reply.

It was hard, Tsuna mused, to get close enough to his brother to listen into his conversation while Reborn was with him. Sure, Tsuna had become plenty strong in the last eight years and he he could hide his presence so well it was almost like he didn't exist, but he was no match for Reborn. Probably never would be a match for the arcobaleno.

Toshi was sitting in a circle with his new-found famiglia. (Could you believe it? His baby brother was all set up to be the next boss of the Vongola. Tsuna would be proud if he wasn't feeling guilty for thrusting that heavy responsibility onto him.) Hayato was on the right side of him-everytime he saw his silver-hair best friend he felt an overwhelming pang of sadness-and Takeshi was on the left. There were more additions now than there were the last time Tsuna checked.

There was a pretty dark brown hair girl, who was sitting with her feet crossed and had a dark and troubled look on her face. They all did. Apparently whatever Reborn was telling them, it was pretty grim. Hayato's older sister, Bianchi, was sitting next to Reborn, and she had a small kid dressed like a cow sitting in her lap. A guy who looked a year older than him and had strikingly unusual white hair sat next to Bianchi.

His eyes fell on the last member of the group; the girl who had seen him that night nearly a week ago now. The very sight of her made his heart flutter, though he was careful not to let any of his emotions show in his face. He wasn't sure if it was because he was worried about what Nana was thinking now-he was assuming the worst that the girl had told Toshi about seeing somebody who looked like him-or because he was unusually attracted to her face.

He watched as Toshi put his face into his hands and shook his head. Huh, he really wanted to know what was going on. For a second, he contemplated the repercussions of once again trying to convince Kyoya to join Toshi's family. He hadn't missed the signs that pointed that Reborn was trying his damndest to convert the scary-strong recluse. Kyoya was digging in his heals. A curse be placed onto violent-minded introverts who absolutely detested social crowds.

Oh well, he'll have to satate his curiosity somehow. Perhaps he'll go bug the hell out of Kyoya later today. That always provided entertainment, but there was always a chance he'll end up with a black eye. Again. Tsuna watched his brother for a couple of more minutes, studying every facial expression his twin made. He'd been a spy in his brother's life for the past eight years, but he didn't really know his twin anymore.

There was so much you missed when you chose to put yourself on the sidelines. Just an observer. He saw what his twin had become; a smart, athletic, kind kid. But he had missed late night talks about nothing and everything, quiet moments where thoughts were louder than the silence, and small actions that meant so much more. He needed to tell Toshi that he was alive, soon, Nana be damned.

Would his twin still want to be around him after he found out Tsuna had killed their father?

No, Nana killed him. He was trying to get himself to believe that. But when he woke up at three o'clock in the morning, staring at his offending hand that wasn't strong enough to hold on, he could only blame himself.

Reborn's head twisted to look in his direction, and Tsuna had to mentally stop himself from immediately slinking further back into the shadows. The baby did this often; randomly look in different directions to look for enemies. Tsuna would only be caught if he moved suddenly. The baby looked away, and Tsuna pulled back. He couldn't hear what was going on anyway, so there wasn't really a point to today's spying session.

Tsuna jumped off the roof of the building he was hiding on, and pulled the hood of his hoodie up to cover his face. (He should really stop sneaking around on rooftops, especially in broad daylight. Tsk, he was becoming more and more like Kyoya each day. That wasn't a good thing; Tsuna wanted to keep his sparkling sense of humour.) It was still morning, so there weren't very many people on the streets as Tsuna left the middle school grounds. That's okay, he had a talent to make himself seem invisible.

Taking shortcuts back to the Hibari mansion, Tsuna slunk in the shadows of the buildings. He was passing by an alley surrounded by small apartments, when he heard a groan coming from the side of the street. Not a cat meow or a dog whimper, but the moan of a hurting human. He should really ignore it to avoid exposing his face even more.

But Tsuna wasn't that kind of person.

He found the boy beaten and bloody, curled up into a ball and so dirty that he looked almost the exact same shade as the street. Tsuna's brown eyes took in the gravity-defying haircut and the uniform and narrowed his eyes. This was one of Kyoya's disciplinary group members.

"Hey," Tsuna said in a calming voice, kneeling down by the boy. He took in the broken nose and bashed side of the face. Hands were over his stomach; most likely broken ribs and/or internal bruising. Shit, this kid needed a hospital. The only cell phone he had on him was the one he had set up to receive his job notifications. "Can you tell me what happened?"

The kid groaned and his eyes opened into slits. Tsuna ducked his head. The last thing he needed was another person connecting his face to Toshihide's. "M-monsters." The boy coughed out blood. Internal bleeding: not good. Or he had a cut in his mouth, but Tsuna doubted it was that. "Fa-angs and yoyos. . ." He shuddered, which lead him to cry out in pain.

Monsters? Fangs? Yo-yos? That. . . made a whole lot of sense. Not. Tsuna made soothing noises. "You stay right here okay?" Well, duh, you idiot. It's not like he can go anywhere. "I'm going to go get help for you."

The kid was too far out of it to even notice when Tsuna left. He found a payphone a block away from the kid and left an anonymous tip. As he hurried home, a naggingly worried sensation fluttered in his belly. Kyoya had mentioned the other day that one of his underlings had been attacked, but he had assumed it had been a normal street-brawl. This talk of fangs and monsters was unsettling.

The timing though is what really threw him off. Only a few months after Reborn appeared to groom Toshi for mafia membership. Somehow, with very little evidence to prove, Tsuna knew that this was mafia related. He just needed to know how.

Time to cash in some favors.

Toshi should write a book called 'The strange things that come out of my "home tutor's"mouth'. What he had learned today was that Nono, leader of the Vongola, expected him to take out a world-class assassin. Him, a fifteen year old boy with zero fighting experience. Sure, he took martial art classes, and sure, he was good. But what was being able to kick out a guy's feet going to do when he's fifteen feet away holding a gun? It was like dressing up a toddler with cardboard armor, giving him a sword, and then patting him on the back, saying: 'Good luck, kiddo. I'm sure you'll be just fine.' The next thing the kid knows he's being pitted against the entire Chinese army. Alone. Wearing nothing but cardboard.

Speaking of cardboard, or actually, the reason why he was thinking about cardboard in the first place, Toshi stared at his newest art project with disdain. He was trying to do one of those art pieces using only recycled material for a competition, and he had found a bunch of cardboard boxes outside of a restaurant that were about to be thrown away. After getting permission, he took all of that cardboard home, thinking of grand ideas.

Now his room was full to the brim of torn open cardboard, and Toshi found out that his plan wasn't going to work. There was no way to get cardboard to stick to each other without taping it, and tape was not allowed per competition rules.

"Hey, dumb Toshi."

"Afternoon, Reborn." Toshi replied, his tongue poking out of his mouth a bit as he gently tore into a side of stupid, stupid cardboard.

"Have you heard of the assault cases that have been happening recently?" The baby examined the floor that had now been turned into an obstacle course. Shrugging, the arcobaleno plowed through the cardboard without care. "Somebody has been attacking Namimori students."

"I," Toshi paused, lining up his cardboard pieces. The rips fit together snugly, but it bent the board in a funny way. Toshi groaned and tore them apart. "Have heard of those, actually. Why do you think somebody is going after middle school students?"

He turned to look at the baby, but his tutor was looking away from him, at the painting he did a month after Tsuna and his father's funeral. "Dunno," The hitman finally shrugged. "But all victims were members of the Disciplinary Force, and all of them were beaten up pretty bad. They even had teeth pulled out."

Toshi shuddered, tongue swiping over his own teeth. "Ew. That sound so painful."

The baby raised an eyebrow. "Scared of a little pain, dumb Toshi?"

The teenager turned back to his artwork. "No, but once you lose a tooth after all your baby teeth go away, they're gone. I like having all of my teeth, thank you very much."

Reborn chucked but his face quickly went serious. "You're going to go after the people doing this."

Toshi dropped the two cardboard pieces he was holding. "What? Didn't we just get an assignment from Nono?"

Picking up a stray bit of Toshi's craft supply, Reborn crushed it in his hand. "You've never fought anybody before. Going after Faceless right now, even with me by your side, would be suicidal. You need fighting experience before you're set against a first class assassin."

Toshi bit the inside of his cheek. He didn't want to fight anybody at all. He wanted to get into art school and then become a police sketch artist. Then, using all the proper methods, he would see his mother put in jail for what she had done. However, somehow he knew he had to do this. If they were going after Namimori students, who knows who could be targeted next. Looking around his filthy room, Toshi sighed. Looks like the competition would have to wait.

"Okay." He said to Reborn. "Okay, I'll do it."

The baby dropped the crushed bit of cardboard. It disappeared into a sea of other ruined parts. Coming here to talk to his pupil about the assaults on Namimori students wasn't actually his true goal. It was time to get rid of the suspicion growing inside his mind for the past couple of months.

"Dumb Toshi." Reborn started out. The blond looked at him quizzically. "I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer it."

Sitting down on the floor, Toshi looked at him expectantly.

Here it goes, Reborn took in a deep breath. "Who killed Tsunayoshi and Iemitsu?"

Everything seemed to freeze. The boy in front of him did not show any emotion at the question. He just sat there and stared, looking into Reborn's eyes. He was shocked, the baby realized. And he didn't know what to do or say.

"I repeat." Reborn prepared himself for the answer. "Did Sawada Nana kill Tsunayoshi and Iemitsu?"

The boy broke. Tears sprung to the corners of his eyes, and he gasped, clutching his chest. "She- She smiled at me, Reborn!" He hissed with loathing. "She pushed them and then she smiled at me! She was happy, and she thought I was going to be happy too."

Reborn closed his eyes. Somehow he knew this worst-case scenario would end up being the truth. But what to do with this information now? Did he continue going on living in the same house as a murder and pretend he knew nothing? Or did he take action? Whatever his choice, it would have to wait, for Toshi's cell phone was ringing and his student seemed to have no intention of answering it.

Hopping over, Reborn tugged it out of Toshi's pocket and pressed the answer button. He listened to the speaker for a moment, his face going hard. "We'll be there." He answered and hung up.

"Pull yourself together, dumb Toshi!" Reborn kicked his student's leg. "We're going to the hospital."

Toshi took a deep breath in, calming himself. Reborn's question had caught him way off guard. "Why?"

Reborn handed him back his cell phone. "Ryohei's been attacked."

The young boy cried out, landing on the ground with a thud. "Please," He whimpered. "Everything that I'm telling you is true!"

A chilling laugh answered the boy's plea. "Impossible. Do it again."

Fuuta de la Stella shakily got back up to his feet, clutching his book with both arms. The ranking book floated out of his grasp, as did every loose item in the room. Galaxies swirled in the boy's eyes. "Ranked first place in strength." Fuuta said monotone. "A tie between Hibari Kyoya and Sawada Tsunayoshi."

With a shuddered gasp, the boy went limp and everything dropped back onto the ground. "No matter how many times I do it." Fuuta whimpered. "It's always the same. Please, believe me!"

Rokudo Mukuro leaned forward on his chair, gazing at the boy with unreadable eyes. "Sawada Tsunayoshi is supposed to be dead. Interesting." He laughed softly. "This is very interesting news."

Instead of answering every review because I want to hurry and post this and I am running out of time before I have to go to school, I will just answer the frequently asked questions. (But I have read every review! I love getting feedback from you guys!)

I guess my writing style last chapter was pretty confusing, which I was sort of going for because I was writing in Tsuna's POV and things are pretty confusing when you've been hit by a truck. What happened was this. Nana pushed them into the street, the truck hit them and sent them into the river below. Tsuna was holding onto his dad's hand because Iemitsu had been knocked unconscious by the impact. The turbulence of the river tore the two of them apart, and Tsuna blames himself for not being strong enough to hold on. Tsuna manages to drag himself onto shore, far down the river from where the two fell in. When he woke up, he tried to go find his twin but was stopped by Nana. Hibari then finds him.

The next question: Pairings. I've decided to go with no set pairings, though I've been trying to keep things as cannon as possible. (Note, Tsuna finds Kyoko attractive.) I ship pretty much everything in KHR, except coincidentally, the most popular pairings 1827 and R27. I've never been able to get into those two pairings for my own reasons which I will not go into. But everything else I'm perfectly fine with. (Though I think my favorite pairing by far is TsunaxEnma or TsunaxKyoko.)

Is Iemitsu alive? You guys will probably find out shortly.