Hey~ I'm in a pretty happy mood right now, since I just finished two of my exams! Whoo~~ I have more coming up, but since I had a bit of a break before the next one, I decided to edit and post this chapter.

On another note...Oh my...something I didn't expect...

I noticed that I got follows, favourites and reviews! Thank you very much for those, it had me blushing quite a bit (read: a lot). Since I checked this during an idle period in my tutorial, I had my TA quite worried that I had come down with something...and then I also saw that the story got added to 2 communities and promptly turned into a tomato. My TA either thinks I'm an airhead or I have a crush on him...oops.

Story: Reach the Sky

Type: Naruto and KHR Crossover

Pairing(s): Minato/Kushina (initial), Minato/Tsuna (eventual), Iemitsu/Nana, Gokudera/Yamamoto(maybe?)

Warning(s): For this chapter, there are bullies (but we all knew that was going to eventually come up, huh?). There's no real blood or anything graphically mentioned, though. Also, Iemitsu. Un-Beta-ed fic. Fem!Tsuna.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or KHR, its plotline or its characters. Only the plot of this fanfiction is mine and any OCs that may or may not come up.

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Her first memories were rather jagged and unconnected. Some were brief moments of pleasure or hunger or pain and distress. Others were somewhat longer and more coherent.

..::*::..

The very first of the coherent ones she remembers is of her beloved mother.

...

"Tsu-chan!", a sweet voice called distantly, "Dinner is ready~ Would you come down to help your mama set the table, please?"

Honey brown eyes blinked and tiny lips pursed trying to make out what was said. The small child was sat in her room on the far-side of the considerably sized house. It was rather hard to hear whatever was said from the kitchen since a lot of walls and distance separated the two rooms - or at least that's what it seemed like to the three-year old Tsuna.

According to her mama, Tsu-chan had grown up since she was a tiny baby and was now a big girl. Tsu-chan did not believe that for a second. She had seen the minuscule, little bundle that Mikada-san down the street always played with in her front yard and the little brunette was absolutely certain that she had never been that tiny!

Her mother had laughed at her when she had told her that, though.

But anyway, she was even big enough to help her pretty mama with big girl work! She had puffed up with pride when she had heard that (and been promptly glomped by her squealing mother, but don't tell anyone that).

Her mama was amazing and pretty and worked very hard, so Tsu-chan was happy to be able to help her. She had laughingly rejected her help plenty of times before ("Oh, thank you, Tsu-chan! You're such a sweet baby, but mama can handle this, okay? It's a bit too big for my little girl right now."), stating that she was too young or too small to help.

But now, now Tsuna could help her mother and lighten her burden a bit. Tsuna knew in some deep, instinctive way that never reached her consciousness, that normal children were not as aware of their surroundings or other people as she was. It was not legible thoughts about her situation, but rather feelings and flashes of emotions that guided her - like that one time where she had had seen a dark-haired man with a smiling face but gotten a rotten, nauseous feeling in her chest that made her stay away from him (a good decision because he had been arrested later that night for trying to abduct a little boy from the park).

It was those feelings that made her want to help her mama, to do even a little bit for her, something that would lighten her daily burden. Of course, to her three-year-old self all that those feelings meant was that she wanted to be like a big girl, helping around the house with chores like she had seen of the nice nee-chan that lived across the street.

And of course, that's what she would do now by helping set the table (yes, she had finally deciphered her mother's call). She would help her mama like a responsible grown-up!

Giggling to herself, she scrambled to her feet and dashed out the doorway, crossing the hallway in a few moments and running headlong down the stairs. She was doing pretty well for a toddler...that is, until she reached the last step. Her foot slipped from under her and she comically flailed in the air for a moment, trying to get her balance back; however, it was for naught because gravity inevitably tugged her down. Hard.

And she face-planted into the wooden floor with a loud 'Thud!'.

She lay still for a long moment before she crawled up onto her knees. She stayed sitting there blankly before her lower lip quivered, her big honey eyes lightened and she burst into tears.

Nana immediately came running out of the kitchen. "Tsu-chan!", she gasped to herself. Spotting her daughter sitting on the floor in front of the stairs, crying loudly, she instantly understood the situation. It was not the first time her rambunctious girl had fallen down that step. Her Tsuna was just so energetic that she ran where she should have walked, leaped where she should have hopped and generally, ended up hurting herself from her headlong, straight-forward approach.

It constantly worried Nana because Tsuna would always come back with scrapes and bruises, cheeks flushed and tears running down chubby cheeks, but she wouldn't trade her girl for anything. Especially because then she would get to cuddle and snuggle her baby girl and ply her cute face with lots of kisses - something that Tsuna had learned to be opposed to because she wanted to be like those cool kids from the park. But when Tsuna was hurt, she was like any other little kid wanting the comfort of her mother's warm embrace and her gentle love to sooth her aches.

"Oh Tsu-chan, did you fall again?", she sighed walking towards her daughter, "Shh. Don't worry. You'll be fine. See? It's just a bruise. It won't hurt so much after a while.", she comforted taking Tsuna into her arms. Nana carefully inspected Tsuna's knee and placed a kiss on the reddened skin. "See now? That kiss will make it all better. Are you feeling alright, Tsu-chan?"

Tsuna nodded, sniffling slightly. She buried her face into her mother's neck again though, not wanting to leave her arms yet. Nana smiled lightly, acquiescing to the silent request and pulled Tsuna closer, enclosing her small form in her arms.

"Don't worry, Tsu-chan. Mama will always be there to help you."

..::*::..

Another of her memories was somewhere during that same year and slightly...strange.

...

Lately, Tsuna had been having weird feelings. Not the weird ones she had felt when her tummy had been upset, or the weird, fluttery ones she had felt when she had seen that golden, cheerful puppy. No the weird feelings were more similar to that time she had noticed that dark-haired man that mama said was arrested for being a bad man.

The feeling once again carved a rotten, nauseous hole in her chest. It was so overwhelming that Tsuna felt physically sick and the stress led the three-year old to develop a light fever, making Nana worry incessantly about her daughter.

Now, however, Nana had finally tired herself out and been convinced to rest (if her mother got sick and Tsuna was sick, then nothing would get done, right?).

And so, little Tsuna lay under her snuggly covers, eyes wide open and staring at the darkened ceiling blankly. Her mind was not on the appearance of her room, rather it was focused on something more distant and far, far more frightening.

There were footsteps. On the roof. Right. Above. Her. Room.

That rotten, nauseous feeling suddenly morphed into tight, uncomfortable panic, squeezing her chest and stealing air from her lungs.

She did not know what to do.

She didn't dare call for help. Even at three years, she somehow instinctively understood that if she called out, her mama would come running and end up hurt as a result. Something in her told her that whatever it was that was on the roof was there for her and not her mama - unless she interfered and Tsuna would not let her kind mama get hurt.

So she waited and panicked.

Sooner than she liked, a set of black-clad legs appeared in the window of her room. She stared in terror as the legs lowered and the feet settled on the windowsill. One hand was presumably holding onto the edge of the roof for balance, but the other hand was hanging loose...with something shiny (Dangerous! Dangerous! her mind screamed) in hold.

Her silent terror escalated as the legs bent and ever so slowly, a similarly black-clad torso appeared, and then a covered neck and finally, a gaunt, pale face.

The man blinked in shock at the wide-eyed child, surprised to find her awake. However, that easily gave way to a sadistically, gleeful feeling filling his mind. The man had been annoyed that his contractor wanted a child assassinated - they were annoying, loud (the girls especially with their high-pitched voices) and snot-nosed brats- and even worse, he wanted the kid assassinated in the middle of the night so nobody would know. Honestly, why call him, The Interrogator, when he was just going for a quiet assassination. Wasn't it obvious that he enjoyed the pain-filled screams of his victims?

On the other hand, the reward for the job had been too good to pass up. Why is that kid even worth so much?

Annoying, but doable. However, since the child was awake...well, at least he would still get to taste her terror, even if there wouldn't be much pain.

An equally sadistic grin stretched his mouth grotesquely, showing off glinting white (and strangely sharp) teeth.

The mere sight paralyzed the small, trembling child.

She watched, terror peaking and unable to do anything, as the Dangerous! Dangerous! man bent into a crouch and prepared to jump into her room and...what was he gonna do to her?!

Her heart pounded as time seemed to slow to a crawl, sweat beaded down her neck and back, and her breath stilled completely. She felt hot and cold and sick to her stomach. She wanted her mama and she wanted her far, far away from where this man was. She wanted to run, she wanted to sleep and let this be a really bad dream, but still justadream...she wanted this man to go away!

Suddenly, a warm, protective orange light filled her vision. She saw a brief flash of gold and heard the swish of loose, heavy cloth before her situation caught up to her young mind and she passed into unconsciousness.

..::*::..

She had never figured out whether that memory had been real or just a product of her youthful (why did a shiver go down her spine...?) imagination. Instead, she simply treated it as a nightmare and ignored it in favor of playing and enjoying her time with her mother.

And then, soon enough she was four and it was time to start school.

...

"No!"

For the first time since becoming a mother to her beloved Tsu-chan, Nana felt exasperated. Her darling girl that was usually so happy and energetic and willing to explore was completely rejecting the thought of going to school.

Well alright, maybe 'willing to explore' was a slight exaggeration and the reality was more along the lines of 'unwilling-paranoid-must-be-dragged-into-it-by-Nana'...however, her Tsu-chan had never outright refused her before!

She sighed before turning a beseeching smile onto the toddler. "Tsu-chan, you'll be able to learn new things and make so many new friends! Wouldn't that be great?"

Big honey brown eyes stared unimpressed, lower lip jutting out in a stubborn pout. Obviously, the answer was still a resounding 'No!'.

Nana sweat dropped and sighed again before giving up on reasoning with her stubborn (and so cute!) daughter. Instead, she tried a different approach. Kneeling down in front of the toddler, she softly cupped the chubby cheeks (bravely resisting the temptation to pinch them while she was at it) and softened her expression. "Please, Tsu-chan? Do it for mama?"

Honey eyes wavered in their resolve, the pout becoming even more prominent. A staring contest ensued and eventually, tiny shoulders slumped in resignation as the motherly woman squealed, hugging the child in joy.

"Thank you, Tsu-chan! You won't regret it, I promise!"

...

Tsuna's little body trembled and her eyes wavered as her new classmates laughed at her introduction. So what if her most favorite thing in the world was her mama? Her mama was the best, so of course, she was her favorite!

Other kids had said things that were even more ridiculous (how can someone's favorite thing be looking at bathroom tiles?!) and they had not made fun of them for it. So why was it so different for her? And why wasn't the teacher saying anything, instead of just standing there and looking at her with pity? She was an adult and her mama had said that she would take care of Tsu-chan while she was at school...but she obviously wasn't doing her job.

As the others pointed and laughed, and the teacher just stood off to the side ineffectually trying to calm the class, Tsuna learned that her mama was not always right - she did regret this.

..::*::..

At age five, Tsuna was already well acquainted with the cutthroat world of kindergarten.

...

Little feet thumped rhythmically on the pavement as Tsuna sprinted through the market trying to lose the boys chasing her in the crowded streets.

She swiftly side-stepped a family ambling along the pathway and jumped over a teen bending down to pick up his fallen wallet. It was something she had gotten used to - dodging and running.

Shortly after her introduction to the world of kindergarten, she had also been introduced to the world of the bullies and the bullied - with her being the victim, of course. For some reason, her fellow students had taken exception to her existence and tried their best ever since to make it as miserable for her as humanly possible. It had started off as simple taunts and teasing. They picked on anything and everything, from her clothes to her studies to her likes and dislikes - whatever they could find, it was fair game.

At first, Tsuna reacted like any child would, feeling hurt and crying about the taunts. It was a natural reaction learned from birth - if a child cries, an adult would take notice and care for their needs. However, she quickly learned that was not true at school. The other children would only be encouraged by the reaction while the teachers would ignore it.

So, slowly and painstakingly, she learned to not react to the taunts and let them wash off her back. It did not mean, however, that her mind did not absorb the statements or her heart did not hurt from the pain. At least, at the end of the day she was able to ease the ache in her mother's warm, loving embrace even if she never troubled the woman with her problems - Nana did not need to worry about her Tsuna, Tsuna was a big girl that could take the pain so that her mother's smile would always stay.

And so, Tsuna learned to build an outward immunity to the cruelty of her classmates.

This would have been enough to make the bullies bored enough to stay away from her if not for that incident.

...

Tsuna had not been reacting to their taunts recently, so in a last ditch attempt to make the meek, weak-looking girl react, one of the bullies insulted her mama. "Ha! I bet your mamma is as pathetic as-" Bam! Crack!

Everyone froze in shock, staring at the extended fist and the howling boy on the floor holding his jaw next to the cracked wooden chair.

Impassive, burning eyes shadowed by long chocolate bangs stared back at them. "Don't ever insult my mama, again."

...

She had been punished by suspension, severely disappointing her mother who had lost that warm smile at the information she had been given.

She had not bothered to explain the circumstances, knowing the staff would never take her side anyway, so no one would corroborate her story and explain it to her mother.

She was overwhelmed with guilt at disappointing her loving mother. Nana deserved a better daughter - one who was not so bad at school, at gym and even at making friends, one who did not get punished for fighting...one who was not so useless as her.

She knew she was not intelligent - her teachers did not need to tell that to her, so she would probably not be able to get marks that would make her mother proud. She also knew that she had no athletic talent so she would not be able to join a team and win competitions for her mother. She had no friends and no one liked her, so making friends was doomed from the start. However, she could at least try to not disappoint her mother by getting punished, so she decided that she would simply not react or fight back to those mean classmates of hers.

The taunts had been slowing for a while anyway and she had shown that she could hurt them...maybe they would leave her alone now?

...

It had been a false hope.

Instead of scaring away her bullies, it had actually infuriated them and escalated their attempts.

Since she had thrown the first punch, it was now fair to hurt her back. At least, that was their childish logic.

Now it wasn't just teasing and taunting, they had started pulling her hair and shoving her back, and slowly, that also escalated as the year went on and the pressure and stress of studies built up. The seniors, hearing about the Incident, also started to join in to see if it would happen again.

Tsuna, as she had silently promised her mother, refused to fight back.

Seeing as anything like The Incident did not ever happen again, her frightening strength from that day was dismissed as a fluke. The bullies lost their initial inhibitions and got increasingly violent as Tsuna never bothered to defend herself.

She felt proud that despite the pain, she had held onto her promise. However, after seeing the look on her mama's face after the first time the bullies had actually beaten her up, she realized that simply not defending herself would not be enough.

And thus, at the young age of five Tsuna resolved to learn to dodge and evade.

..::*::..

Age 6 was when she finally met her father. Her impression? He was probably the one who coined the saying 'Dumb Blond'.

...

Tsuna finally relaxed as she came out of an alleyway, scaring another pedestrian who had never noticed that particular dark side-street before.

Learning to dodge her bullies had been fairly easy - the pain when she failed motivated her to accelerate her learning to exponential levels; however, learning to evade them had been rather trying.

Apparently, she was not someone who could blend in easily. Mostly it was due to overbearing women who would coo and cuddle and pinch cheeks, inevitably giving away her position to the searching bullies. Obviously, she could not just hide from them and hope for the best.

So, she tried other methods.

One particular show that her mother sometimes watched when nothing else was on stuck out in her mind. It was a show about Japanese detectives catching bad people all over the world and successfully saving tons of people (usually very well developed, good-looking women, but innocent Tsuna did not really notice the discrepancy to her mother's eternal gratitude).

In one scenario, the criminals had tried to escape arrest after being caught and a high-speed chase had ensued throughout the back alleyways with lots of jumping, acrobatics and even more running. Other than the impressive somersaults and wall-jumping, what had really caught Tsuna's attention had been that the criminals had easily confused and lost the cops in the maze of backalleys of their city. Although the cops had eventually trapped the criminals - in a empty street and not an alleyway, she noted - she had gotten the lesson that had probably, most likely, not been intended.

You could use maze-like, rarely-known, alleys for evasion and misdirection.

And it had been a lesson well-learned and well-used.

Tsuna had promptly taken the following weekend to explore and map the alleys of Namimori in her mind to be used against her bullies. Her mother had been delighted that she had wanted to finally leave the house and go outside for more than school (not that she ever wanted to go to school). She had happily packed her a bento and fairly pushed her out of the house with a farewell and a warning to come back before dark.

Next week, after school, the alleys saw new and effective use of evasion and Tsuna exhibited her new-found ability to lose her bullies. Stubbornly enough, they still never gave up after 4 days of successfully getting away from them and still tried everyday after school to corner her. Tsuna didn't mind, it gave her opportunity to improve her skills and indulge in her new favorite past-time of maze navigation and more recently, those awesome evasion acrobatics the criminals on TV had displayed.

(She wasn't very good at it yet, but she was improving. Her mother had accidentally caught her practising in the backyard one day and taken that to mean that she was interested in gymnastics - never mind that she had never displayed any interest in anything remotely athletic before - and promptly signed her up for informal classes in a community centre a city away by bus. Ah well, at least it gave her ideas on how to do those backstreet acrobatics.)

Now, whether she was being chased or not, Tsuna always took the alleys and worked on improving her speed, misdirection tactics (planning better and more confusing routes), and her favourite, acrobatics. She loved the wall-jumps though she always had to hop onto something smaller first before she could do it. She could now use some of the dead-ends because of it - seeing her pursuers' gaping expressions as she vaulted (with support) over the walls to the other side where they could not reach her was fast becoming her favourite tactic to use, though she was careful not to overuse any tactic to keep herself unpredictable and un-catchable.

Today had been another day of an exhilarating chase (actually, Tsuna was quite surprised that she had come to enjoy such things, considering how terrified she usually was of anything remotely negative). She had successfully lost her pursuers in record time and just mindlessly enjoyed her random jumps and play through the rest of the route.

And now, she stood on her doorstep, ready to greet her mama and receive her delicious lunch. She had been promised a feast today for some unknown reason, not that Tsuna would ever complain if she was being presented with an even-more-so-than-usual delicious buffet her mother cooked.

She just wondered what brought it on.

Shaking off her thoughts, the small brunette opened the front door and changed into her indoor soles, calling out her customary, "I'm home, mama!"

Then something terrible happened.

The first indication of impending doom had been the extra pair of gigantic (Tsuna had gaped at the size, awestruck), masculine shoes. The next was the thundering patter of feet heading her way. And finally, the most obvious one was the two well-muscled arms that had snatched her up to squeeze her to an equally muscled chest. Hard.

"Oh, look! It's my cute, Tuna-fish! Waah, my boy is so adorable~!"

Tsuna simply hung there, dazed and out of breath from being squeezed into a pulp.

The stranger continued to (painfully) cuddle her and rub his cheek against her round ones, scratching her terribly with his thick, needle-like facial hair. She couldn't muster enough energy to shout for help, much less correct the man on her gender (she wasn't in the same category as those stupid poop-heads from school!). As he continued his traumatizing actions, Tsuna eventually got used to the lack of air and finally pulled back enough in his arms to at least identify her attacker (that way when the police asked, she would be able to give them a good description of the bad man).

He was tall and muscled, that was obvious since he was holding onto her so easily - she was light but not that light! His hair was a light blond colour and sat messily in spikes on his head. It looked as painful as his beard felt. His jaw and facial structure was defined and sturdy - very masculine- and his eyes...they were what caught Tsuna's attention. His eyes were small and a beady blue, glinting with malice and glee. (He really was just happy to see his Tuna-fish and was practically radiating his joy...the malice was his restrained urge to cuddle his 'boy' to death that Tsuna was detecting.)

Nana came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel with a beaming smile on her face. "Welcome home, Tsu-chan!", then she turned to the blond man, strangely not at all bothered by his presence and gestured towards him. "Tsu-chan, I want to introduce you to some important today."

Tsuna waited, not expecting what came next at all. "This is my husband, Tsu-chan, and your father, Iemitsu-san. Say hi, darling."

Silence.

Nana continued to beam. Iemitsu grinned. Tsuna blinked. And then-

"H-HIIIIIEEEE!"

...

That first impression did not get any better, especially since the next day the blond insisted that his cute Tuna-fish become a manly man like 'his' papa. In order to encourage this, he took Tsuna to the barber's to get a 'manly' haircut (Tsuna's hair was too girly-looking, according to Iemitsu), despite his 'son's' protest that 'he' was a girl. Silly child, of course his Tuna-fish was a boy! What else would he be?

He still could not understand why his lovely Nana's smiled strained when she saw the result, or why his adorable 'son' refused to acknowledge his existence.

Ah, well. They would understand eventually.

...

From that time on, Tsuna refused to acknowledge that she had a father. She had been created solely through the efforts of her beloved, amazing mother. The blond was a mere menace pretending that he had a hand in her creation. As if her mama would lower herself to marry him!

..::*::..

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Lol, Dumb Blond, indeed. And Nana has Tsuna completely wrapped around her finger, doesn't she? Haha.

Um...as a disclaimer, I don't actually believe that blonds are stupid (I've met too many amazing blonds to even remotely believe that saying~). So yeah, no real offence meant here. Also, Iemitsu is not being sexist. His family has had only male children for quite a few generations so he isn't expecting a girl at all.

Hmmm...did anyone notice that 'Hiieee' could have been a really high-pitched 'hi'? XD

Yep! And that's it! Hope you enjoyed that. See ya~