A/N: WHOOHOO! Here it is! Just in time for Christmas too! For those who didn't bother to read the description, I will hope you read the author's note and say now that THIS IS A SEQUEL. If you haven't read the first one yet, I would suggest you click on the link below and read it first before continuing to this one. If you are one of my continuing readers, let me just say now THANK YOU SO MUCH for your loyalty and patience! You guys are who make writing fun for me!

Here's the link to my first story: s/9406806/1/The-Start

Here's the disclaimer: If I owned KHR, there would be A LOT more Adult Reborn. A. WHOLE. LOT. But there isn't so logically, I don't own it.

Without further ado, I present to you, my Christmas present to you all, my new story, 'The End is just the Beginning'.

In a town somewhere in Japan, Sawada Tsunayoshi, the 14-year old mafia boss of the infamous Vongola Famiglia, slammed his head down on his desk, sending a flurry of papers flying into the air. Tsuna groaned and got up to pick the papers off the ground.

"Now I know why oji-san wanted me to take over as soon as possible," he grumbled, "If I knew so much paperwork was involved, I would've never given in."

After another 4 months of being trained to be 'Neo Vongola Primo', Tsuna finally relented and agreed take over as head of the famiglia. Though he was reluctant, he felt better about his decision than he had toying with the idea in the past. At the official ceremony naming Tsuna the Vongola Decimo (or Neo Vongola Primo, whichever one the famiglia members preferred), he saw all his friends and family (Tsuna eventually had to tell Nana the truth, who, unsurprisingly, just smiled happily and said she would support him in whatever he wanted to do as long as he visited from time to time) cheering for him, and he felt much more secure in leading a major criminal organization with his guardians and supporters at his side.

Unfortunately, no one had warned him about the immense pile of paperwork that came with the job, and with his own homework that he was still barely finishing, he was becoming well-acquainted with coffee and all-nighters.

Tsuna stared desolately at the stack of papers on his desk.

'At least I now have friends willing to help me with both studying and paperwork,' thought Tsuna, 'Sadly, most of the paperwork has to go directly to the Vongola Decimo for approval, and I'm still not much better at school than I was before this madness.'

Sighing, he picked the most current report and read it. The Bovino Famiglia just joined the Vongola Famiglia Grand Alliance, thanks to Lambo's 'influence' (Lambo probably just whined and cried until they gave in). Now, the alliance was composed of the Vongola, Bovino, Simon, Millefiore (thank goodness Byakuran had a change of heart), Giglio Nero, Chiavarone, and other minor Famiglias. Though that seemed to be a lot, Tsuna knew he still had a long way to go before he could properly unite all famiglias under one cause. It had been pretty hard to get the famiglias to even consider the alliance. Though many famiglias had secret agreements with each other, openly declaring their bonds wasn't very common. The Simon and Chiavarone famiglias had agreed almost instantaneously because of Dino and Enma's connection with Tsuna, but they would've lost the Bovino Famiglia if it weren't for Lambo.

Tsuna leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. 'Why am I doing this again?' he wondered, trying to remember why he decided to take on this huge responsibility when he could barely take care of himself. Then it hit him, and he reopened his eyes, filled with determination again. 'Oh yeah, I'm doing it to right all the wrongs committed by the mafia in the past.'

He learned from Giotto that the Vongola Famiglia was formed to protect the people. However, the famiglia had slowly become corrupted by the influence of the other famiglias, creating a bloody history full of sins and crimes. Tsuna had said he would rather destroy the Vongola rather than accept their sins, which prompted Vongola Primo to accept Tsuna as the successor of the Vongola. Now that he had officially accepted his post, he was determined to restore the mafia to its former reputation as an organization who dealt justice to those the law couldn't convict.

For some reason, thinking about his goal made a sudden pain burst through his head. Tsuna dropped the paper he was holding and clutched his head, yelping in pain. It lasted for another brief second, then, it was gone, leaving behind a sense of memory loss, as if he were forgetting something important.

'This has been happening more and more lately,' he thought, gently massaging his temples, 'I should probably consult Shamal about it, but knowing him, he'd probably just shrug me off and insist I send more female patients to him.'

Tsuna shook his head to dispel the last remaining remnants of the migraine and picked up the next letter. Seeing it was from Shamal, he blinked for a few seconds in surprise before he remembered that he had contacted him a while ago concerning a certain Mafioso.

"About time he got back to me," muttered Tsuna. He carefully (well, as carefully, as a clumsy teen like him could be) opened the letter and read the four words on the paper.

'Send him to Tokyo.'

Sighing, Tsuna put down the letter and rubbed his eyes. 'As if I didn't know that already,' he thought. Tsuna looked at the spot where the infamous hitman tutor Reborn usually slept. Today the spot was empty, which explained why he wasn't being held at gunpoint as Reborn oversaw his work. After the Arcobaleno curse was lifted, Reborn seemed to be as sadistic as ever, until they went on a training trip to Tokyo.

"I feel so tired," Tsuna moaned as he and his guardians slowly dragged themselves over to the train station. Reborn had refused to allow them to take any form of transportation around the city except for the train that would take them home. This wouldn't have been that bad if Reborn hadn't thrown them off a helicopter onto a mountain he insisted was somewhere near Tokyo. On top of that, Reborn had sprayed them with a special chemical (courtesy of Leon) that attracted any type of wildlife within a 2-mile radius.

After several hours of running from killer animals (some of which Tsuna wasn't even aware that they existed) with Reborn popping up every once in a while to make their training harder (he even trapped them in a mile deep cavern full of poisonous snakes, though this wasn't that difficult now that the guardians were properly trained), they finally got out of the mountain thanks to Tsuna, who used his Hyper Dying Will flames to fly above the tree line and find the way down. Once they got out, it only took them another few hours to find the way to the city and run all the way there.

"Juudaime!" exclaimed Gokudera, extremely worried, "Are you going to be ok?"

Before Tsuna could answer, Ryohei came and slapped him on the back, causing him to fall face-flat onto the ground."

"Of course he's ok!" roared Ryohei as Tsuna picked himself off the ground, "That was extreme training TO THE EXTREME!"

"Why'd you knock over the Juudaime, Turf-top?!" yelled Gokudera, suddenly furious.

"What did you just call me, Octopus-head?!" challenged Ryohei, equally mad.

Sparks were flying between the two and Tsuna trying to put together a solution, when Yamamoto showed up.

"Maa, maa," said Yamamoto, raising his hands up in a calming gesture, "Calm down guys."

He walked over to Tsuna and handed him a water bottle.

"I bought a few from the vendor over there," said Yamato, pointing at a stand nearby, "I thought we would need some water after that exercise."

Tsuna accepted the water gratefully. Yamamoto had finally accepted the fact that the 'mafia game' wasn't really a game, though he still treated the gruesome training as a fun activity.

Yamamoto passed out two other water bottles to Ryohei (who thanked him 'to the extreme') and Gokudera (who accepted it reluctantly while muttering something about 'baseball idiots' and 'stealing the Juudaime'). Tsuna was took a sip of water—which he promptly spit out when a certain cow-print wearing infant tackled his head.

"Oi, Dame-Tsuna!" shouted Lambo, "I want some water too!"

"You can't call the Juudaime that!" yelled Gokudera, riled up again.

"I can call him whatever I want, Baka-dera!" replied Lambo defiantly.

The two begun bickering loudly, and Tsuna could only sigh as Yamamoto tried to placate Lambo with another water bottle and as Ryohei began to yell that they should start running 'to the extreme.'

"Looks like they're up to their usual antics," said a voice next to Tsuna. Tsuna's head snapped to the side in shock, and upon seeing Chrome's smiling face, he relaxed and patted her head.

"Your illusions are getting much better," he said in admiration, "I couldn't even tell you were nearby. Mukuro must be pretty proud of you."

"Yep, I sure am," said Mukuro, who suddenly replaced Chrome. Tsuna quickly withdrew his hand and recoiled in shock, causing Mukuro to laugh. "Though hers are not quite as great as mine just yet."

Tsuna stared at Mukuro in exasperation. "Where's Chrome?" he asked wearily, "I thought you guys were taking a different route."

"Oh, we did," said Mukuro, "She's already at the train station, getting us tickets for the next train. I would hurry if I were you; the next train is due in half an hour."

Before Tsuna could reply, he felt waves of killing intent radiating off someone behind him. Apparently everyone else felt it too because they had abruptly shut up and turned around to face the raven-haired head of the Namimori Middle's Disciplinary Committee who had his sharp, gray eyes fixed on Mukuro.

"You," growled Hibari, "You, I will bite you to death!"

Hibari began advancing on Mukuro, brimming with hostility. Mukuro only smirked and began walking backwards, facing him head on. Remembering Hibari's hatred of crowds and his tendency to severely injure anyone in his way, everyone else began backing away. Suddenly, Hibari began running, causing a chain reaction where everyone suddenly found an extra burst of energy and started sprinting to the train station, trying to avoid Hibari's rage.

Unfortunately, Tsuna, being the extremely unlucky person he was, just happened to be the person who Hibari decided to use as a launch pad.

Groaning, he peeled himself off the floor again. "This is why I wanted you to find an alternate route, Mukuro," he muttered, "Last time you two fought we almost fell off a cliff on the mountain."

Tsuna dusted himself off and stared at the retreating backs of his guardians fondly. Though they still drove him crazy and bickered all the time, he could tell they were warming up to each other. Gokudera and Ryohei's arguments were more good-natured, Lambo and Gokudera now seemed to be bickering as siblings rather than actual enemies, Gokudera now regarded Yamamoto as a very annoying friend, and Mukuro and Hibari could at least tolerate each other for a while during their training sessions. He turned to tell Reborn this, but then he noticed the spot by his side where his hitman tutor usually stood was empty. It was then when he realized that they hadn't seen Reborn since they entered the city. Tsuna was about to shout to his guardians to ask if they knew where he was, when he felt his arm being twisted behind his back and a foot shoving him down onto to the floor.

"Ciaossu," said Reborn calmly, "I see your senses and reflexes are still as bad as ever, Dame-Tsuna."

Reborn released Tsuna and Tsuna picked himself up for the third time in five minutes. He looked back at his now 6 year-old tutor. After the curse was lifted, the Arcobaleno found that while they did grow up, they did it at irregular intervals, sometimes growing a whole year in the span of a few weeks. Though Tsuna was grateful that Reborn would return to his original form soon, it was pretty disconcerting to say good night to a 3 year-old, and wake up from a hit on the head from a 5 year-old. Also, it was hard to adjust to Reborn's constantly changing appearances.

"Where were you?" asked Tsuna.

"That's none of your concern," replied Reborn shortly.

It was then that Tsuna noticed something strange. A couple months ago, while Reborn was asleep, Tsuna was up doing his homework. Confused on a problem, he turned to ask Reborn. That's when he noticed a glint of gold, carefully hidden under the chain the fake pacifier hung. He realized it was a thin gold chain used in jewelry. Before he could take a closer look, he got whacked in the head by the Reverse One Ton Mallet and Reborn was scolding him for slacking off. Ever since then, Tsuna couldn't help but notice the small shine produced by the golden chain.

However, today, there was no glint. The chain was gone.

Tsuna had developed a bond of friendship with Reborn, despite getting beat up by him so many times. Just as Reborn somehow seemed to always know what he was thinking, Tsuna was a pretty accurate judge of how Reborn was feeling. Though he seemed as detached and apathetic as usual, Tsuna could tell Reborn was feeling something else underneath his façade.

"Reborn, are you…feeling alright?" asked Tsuna hesitantly.

"Of course I am," said Reborn irritably, "There's no reason why I wouldn't be."

Still, Tsuna didn't quite believe Reborn. "Are you su—"

"I told you I'm fine!" snapped Reborn, pointing his Leon-gun at Tsuna in a sudden burst of anger. Tsuna held his hands in the air in surrender, and Reborn seemed to calm down.

"Now that you understand what 'I'm fine' means," he said, "Let's see how fast you can run to catch the train, it's leaving soon."

With that, Leon changed into a mallet and Reborn began swinging at Tsuna. With his signature 'HIEEEEEE!', Tsuna ran as fast as he could towards the train station. However, even as he was running, he kept thinking about Reborn's reaction. 'The only other time he had reacted so strangely was when the last Arcobaleno pacifier was revealed, and when I insisted on fighting for him,' thought Tsuna as he narrowly dodged the mallet, 'These events all relate directly to his past, which leads me to wonder,

What happened in Tokyo?'

Tsuna looked over at the empty spot where Reborn usually slept again. Ever since that trip, he could tell something was amiss with Reborn. He had been looking for an excuse to send Reborn back to Tokyo, to get some hint of what was troubling him, but he never got the chance until the Southern Japanese YakuzaFaction started acting up. It was slightly ironic that out of all places where Tsuna couldn't control, it was in his home country. However, coincidently, their base of operations was in Tokyo, and sending Reborn to take care of them was the logical choice.

He hoped that this trip to Tokyo would clear Reborn's head because when it came down to it, Tsuna trusted Reborn with his life.

Deciding he had taken too long of a break, Tsuna sighed and turned to his math homework. Upon seeing the first problem, he slammed his head onto his desk again, causing the coffee to spill all over him. He jumped up and began hopping around the room in pain. It wasn't long until he stubbed his foot against the bed post and he fell—right into a giant pile of papers.

Tsuna moaned. 'Why does this keep happening to me?' he thought miserably.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo…

Reborn sighed in annoyance as yet another police cruiser passed by, forcing him to hide behind another garbage can.

"Damn Southern Yakuza, stirring up trouble," he muttered, "Why couldn't they just agree to the alliance, just like the Northern faction did?"

He stood up and stretched his aching legs before running in the direction of the train station. Growing at an accelerated rate has caused the growing pains to increase ten-fold. Though handling the pain wasn't a problem (after all, he was a hitman, pain was in the job description.), it was pretty troublesome to have his legs and arms cramp up whenever he made a sudden movement. Also, continuous growing meant that he constantly had to reorder his suits and disguises—and those didn't come cheap. All in all, he kind of missed the days when he was just an infant, though he would never admit it. Being 2 years-old made enemies underestimate him, something they all regretted later. He could easily slip in and out of crowds, and no one would dare try to take something from a little kid, even a 'toy' gun. Now, though he was still too young for anyone to take him seriously, people said he was 'too old' to be 'playing games' anymore, prompting many authority figures to attempt to take his weapons. Because of this, Reborn could only take Leon with him most of the time he was travelling.

Not to mention the fact that when he was younger, his hippocampus was less developed, inhibiting his memories.

Reborn thought back to a conversation he had with Shamal:

"Although you retained your intelligence and memories when you became an Arcobaleno," said Shamal, "Your body, including your brain, still shrunk to those of a two year-old. This means it'll be harder to remember things, but easier to forget them as well. Once your brain begins redeveloping, you'll find yourself remembering more and more, including things you don't want to.

Reborn knew exactly what Shamal was implying, and unfortunately, he was right. Ever since the curse was broken, he began having recurring nightmares about the night when he lost what mattered to him the most,

The night he lost Tsunade.

It would always start out with her dead body lying on the floor before slowly transitioning to him kneeling at his grave. However, recently, the dreams had changed a bit. Instead of kneeling at her grave, he would be standing several feet away from it. Standing directly next to the grave, which, for some reason, was an empty ditch, would be Tsunade herself, looking exactly the same as he remembered her. She would look directly at him for a while, and although Reborn wanted to run to her, to hold her in his arms, to tell her how sorry he was, he wouldn't be able to move, frozen to his spot. Then, without warning, she would step into the ditch and fall, fall into the ground where she was buried. It was then when Reborn could finally move, and he would run to the grave, his mouth open in a silent scream. Though this was usually the point where Reborn would wake up, breathing heavily, the training trip changed things a bit. As he watched Tsunade fall deep into the dark abyss, he noticed her eyes would turn a brilliant green, and her body would seem to shrink. This confused Reborn greatly, and his disturbance hadn't gone unnoticed.

Reborn let out an exasperated sigh as he thought of Tsuna's concern. Though he knew his no-good student wasn't to blame, the waves of worry that were practically radiating off him were irritating. He even went as far as to send him on a mission to Tokyo. Although the threat of the Southern Yakuza was very real, Reborn still thought it really didn't have to be him.

Of course, it was slightly his fault too. He had visited Tsunade's grave biannually every year since her death, once on the day of her death to clean the grave, and once on her birthday just to check on it. The year he started tutoring Tsuna was the first that he didn't follow his routine, and after missing the day of her death, he was becoming a bit…twitchy. Finally, when Tsuna and his guardians went to train in Tokyo, he could no longer resist the urge anymore and he went back to the graveyard. The black marble stone seemed to glare at him as he stood there, forcing him to feel the feelings he desperately wanted to forget, and yet couldn't. Soon, quite a few hours had passed, and Reborn realized that he better catch up to the rest of the group. He was about to leave, but something nagged at him. After a moment of hesitation, he unclasped the necklace he had kept with him all these years, concealed by the fake pacifier, and placed it next to the tombstone along with an advanced illusion machine that he had 'borrowed' from Verde. Reborn was confident that no one would be able to see the illusions unless they, like him, could see the false aura that surrounded all illusions, no matter how genuine they looked. Satisfied that no one could see the black rose pendant, he left to catch up to dame-Tsuna and the others.

Since then, his behavior had been a little off, even he himself admitted that. Tsuna had undoubtedly noticed, and maybe he even contacted Shamal about it, knowing that he was the one Reborn asked to erase his past. In the end, they both probably decided to send him to the place where his nightmares began in order for him to either bury down his past further, or to come to terms with it.

Reborn couldn't deny it: he was terribly conflicted. Before he came to tutor Tsuna, he had sworn to search for Tsunade after he was finished. However, after all the trials and challenges he had watched and helped Tsuna and his guardians overcome, he had come to develop a sense of friendship and loyalty towards the Vongola Decimo, and there was no way he could leave his no-good student to lead the Vongola just yet. Now, he was faced with a difficult choice,

Search for the love of his life, or continue to do what he had come to love.

Reborn stopped running and found that he, once again, was standing in front of the graveyard. He couldn't resist the pull that was tempting him, and he walked into it, towards the grave that held Tsunade. However, as he approached the grave, he realized he wasn't alone. Someone was slowly reaching for the tombstone, slender fingers creeping towards the necklace that laid there. Reborn felt a burst of fury.

'How did I not notice a thief?' he thought angrily, 'I should've been aware of his aura the moment I entered the graveyard. More importantly, how was he able to see the necklace?'

Reborn silently jumped forward and grabbed the thief's wrist, causing the thief to gasp in surprise. It was then that Reborn realized that the thief was actually a girl, no more than ten, and that her aura felt oddly familiar. He dropped the barriers that he had placed on his level of awareness and stared in shock at the honey-golden shroud that surrounded, streaked with light gold and black—the opposite of the green and white streaks in Tsuna's aura. If her aura didn't convince Reborn of her identity, than the sliver of moonlight that revealed her appearance did. Her hair, though messy and matted with dirt, was light brown in color and overall very straight, and her eyes that shone with the intelligence she possessed were a deep emerald green in color.

Reborn was speechless for a few moments before he was able to whisper in disbelief,

"Tsunade?"

A/N: Another cliffhanger huh? You shouldn't be very surprised xD. Ironically, just like my first story, since this first chapter was super long, the next will probably be pretty short. When will it come out? Eh, idk, it just really depends whether I feel like typing or not :P

READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!