Title: Odyssey

Disclaimer: see first chapter

AN: School is over! Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I have more time, since I still have summer camp for two months this year, and I'll probably be busy with summer homework for the rest of the time (which, frankly, is not much). But I'll try to keep writing.

Chapter Two: Convergence

"Eh!" Yamamoto's mouth opened into a surprised 'o', and he immediately turned his attention to the boy that had seemed harmless until a second ago.

The boy cringed, looking pathetically like some small furry mammal scared out of its wits in the face of a predator.

Hibari's scowl deepened. More than anything, he hated weak herbivores like this; they weren't any fun even when he crushed him. Not that the fact would deter him from doing so. His tonfa came up again.

"Wait!" Yamamoto's shout stopped him again in his tracks. He looked up, disbelief plainly written on his face. Surely even this idiot would know better than to protect a youkai?

"Are you sure?" Yamamoto's words were spoken with genuine puzzlement, "He doesn't really look like a youkai."

Not even Hibari could think of a suitable response to that, save killing the clueless imbecile and doing the world a favor. The boy, obviously sharing Hibari's incredulity if not his exact sentiments, stared up at Yamamoto with an expression between tentative hope and doubt of his sanity.

Oblivious to both of their stares (and the murderous intent radiating from Hibari), Yamamoto continued, "What's your name, little youkai?"

The boy hesitated before replying in a small voice, "T-Tsuna."

Yamamoto grinned, "Ne, Tsuna, do you want to join us?"

If possible, the boy's brown eyes widened even more until they looked like they were about to pop out. Hibari finally decided that enough was enough.

"Yamamoto Takeshi," he spat out the name in a snarl, "I will bite you to death."

"Ah." Yamamoto looked up and, warned by the whoosh of wind and the glint of steel, narrowly avoided one of Hibari's tonfa. It seemed that he coming to know them quite well. Instinctively, his hand reached towards his katana hilt, but he paused; he didn't really want to hurt anyone, and besides, Hibari wouldn't really…s

The next blow of the tonfa caught Yamamoto directly in his gut, and he doubled over with a surprised 'oof'. Hibari didn't even pause as he swung down again, aiming this time for Yamamoto's head, which, he judged, definitely needed some rearrangement.

What he didn't count on was the third person at the scene. Tsuna, whom Hibari had considered a weak youkai with barely enough youki to light a candle and hardly enough to pique his interest, suddenly moved.

He flung himself forwards, as if to intercept the blow. And he moved fast, certainly faster than Hibari had anticipated.

"Wait, you can't—" the boy was shouting, but he didn't finish before—

The bar of cold steel connected with a resounding crack! with Tsuna's head. A second later, Tsuna was sprawled out unconscious on the ground, a lump forming on his head where the tonfa had hit.

Yamamoto and Hibari froze, staring at the body, the fight forgotton.

"Hn." Hibari was the first to speak, giving the boy a look of disdain, "He ruined the mood." With that statement, he turned to leave, his tonfas disappearing into his cloak.

"Wait, Hibari!" Yamamoto called to his receding back, "We can't just leave him here."

"…I have no interest in weak herbivores."

"Ah, then I guess then I guess I'll have to take you." Yamamoto said to the unconscious boy. He leaned down and swung the body over his shoulder, slightly taken aback by the light weight; he would have thought a boy Tsuna's age would weigh more.

Shrugging it off, he hurried after Hibari down the road.

Tsuna woke to a pounding migraine, as if a crazy, silver-haired bomber was going stir-crazy on the inside of his head. He gave a soft groan and tried to open his eyes. It was then that he realized that he was not exactly on the ground, but rather suspended on something that felt hard and bony and rocking rhythmically, as if he were on a boat. The only things he could see from wherever he was, were the road—which had widened a little and now resembled something made by human feet instead of an animal trail—and what appeared to be a grey expanse of cloth, possibly a cloak.

These observations sent a jolt of alarm through him, and he scanned his memory for what exactly had happened. He remembered the wolf, the chase through the forest, and then crashing into…

Oh.

Tsuna's groan upon waking had not gone unnoticed, though, and he soon felt the bony surface beneath him shift. The next thing he knew, he was back on his feet, which, albeit a bit unsteady, supported him just fine.

"So you finally woke up!"

Tsuna looked up to meet the brown eyes of the swordsman—Yamamoto, he remembered— beaming at him happily. "I apologize in place of Hibari for what happened. He's not really good with people, you see, so you can't really blame him for being so cold." Yamamoto explained.

That's not his problem! Tsuna thought to himself, still amazed at how clueless this person was, but nodded, not wanting to offend. He had experienced firsthand how hard Hibari could hit.

Speaking of the exorcist…

The boy looked around jumpily and saw that Hibari was still present, albeit a considerable distance in front of them and walking steadily without looking back, a fact for which Tsuna was immensely grateful. There was a blob of yellow—a bird, he realized after a long squint—firmly ensconced in the exorcist's dark locks, a strange picture indeed for such a cold person.

"So, how do you feel now?" Yamamoto asked, looking slightly concerned at Tsuna's lack of response.

"I-I'm fine." Tsuna muttered. It was true that his head still throbbed, and there was a lump in the place where Hibari's tonfa had hit which would be sore for days to come, but he did not feel faint, and he had regained his balance. "I think I can walk."

"Good!" Yamamoto's worry was wiped away as quickly as it had appeared, and his expression returned to the look of interest, "Ne, Tsuna, what were you doing in this forest?"

"Um…" a guilty look crept onto the boy's face, "I ran away from home." He admitted.

"Eh!" Yamamoto's eyes widened in surprise, then creased into a smile. "You really are a child, Tsuna!" he laughed.

Despite the sharpness of Yamamoto's katana, Tsuna was still indignant, "It was a good idea!" he protested. "I didn't know I would run into the wolf youkai."

"But the forest is filled with youkai!" Yamamoto exclaimed, raising his eyebrows, "You should have chosen a safer rout."

Tsuna sighed, and nodded, "I suppose."

Yamamoto, as if sensing his resignation, slung a friendly arm over his shoulder, "Well, think of it this way, if you had gone a different way, you wouldn't have met us. We're companions now, so you don't have to worry about any more youkai chasing you." He reassured his new friend.

Tsuna gave a tentative nod, a slow smile forming on his lips. For some reason, he felt a connection with the cheerful, clueless swordsman, as if they had known each other for a long time, instead of having met recently. Maybe it was the friendly, unassuming aura that Yamamoto exuded, but Tsuna immediately felt close to him. Even though he knew that the arm slung over his shoulder had more than enough strength to snap him in half, he felt surprisingly safe. Yamamoto was someone that he could trust.

"Where are we going?" Tsuna asked.

"About that…" Yamamoto grinned sheepishly, "I really don't know."

"EH!" Tsuna exclaimed, "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's hard to explain…" Yamamoto rubbed the back of his head, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. "You could say that Hibari and I are searching for the same thing. But where it is…we have no clue."

Tsuna stayed silent, taking note of the subtle tightening of Yamamoto's jaw, the flash of steely determination that passed through his eyes. He glanced at Hibari, who seemed to have been oblivious to everything they said, though Tsuna seriously doubted such was the case. He walked with a cool assurance to his posture, so different from Yamamoto's relaxed slouch. It was hard to imagine two people so radically different seeking the same thing. Whatever it was the two of them were searching for, it was no doubt extremely important to them.

I wonder what it's like to have such resolve. Tsuna mused.

"Kokuyo."

Both Tsuna and Yamamoto were startled by the sound of Hibari's cold drawl drifting back to them from ahead.

"Sorry?" Yamamoto asked, confused.

Hibari did not look back. "We're going to Kokuyo."

Elsewhere…

"Ninth! Let me see the Ninth!"

In the high-ceilinged, spacious corridors of a certain large mansion, a silver-haired teen pounded near-desperately on a pair of ornately-carved double doors. His fists made only dull thumps as the hit the heavy wood, but it didn't seem to deter him. Vivid green eyes blazed with anger.

"Open the fucking door!"

For all his blows, the doors did not budge.

"I swear, if you don't open the door this instant I'll—"

"You'll do what, Gokudera?"

The voice was soft, but it cut through the noise like a knife. Gokudera froze. A tiny knee-high door cleverly affixed in the larger one opened just enough to let someone out. Someone whose voice he recognized very well.

Gokudera looked down and saw, as he expected, the small frame of a child. But no child ever had the somber look in this one's inscrutable dark eyes, nor the aura that commanded respect, that spoke of mature experience. No human child, at least. If one had to guess, the child seemed even older than the green-eyed raging teen.

"Reborn," the teen acknowledged, a faint trace of a growl still tainting his voice. "Let me talk to the Ninth."

"He's busy now." The child called Reborn replied casually. "Whatever you want, take it up with me."

"Damnit, Reborn! The Tenth has been missing for a week now!" Gokudera finally exploded. "And the Ninth hasn't done a single thing about that! How can he just expect us to go on as if nothing's changed! Fuck, doesn't anyone care about what's happened to Tsuna?"

Reborn did not flinch, nor did his expression alter in the slightest, "Dame-Tsuna merely ran away for a few days." He said dismissively, "He'll come crying back in a while."

"He's been gone for a week! And entire fucking week!" Gokudera was inches from tearing at his hair in frustration.

A crease appeared between Reborn's eyebrows, the faintest hint of a frown. "If you're so concerned, then go look for him, idiot. The Ninth can't be bothered right now."

And with that terse statement of dismissal, the child turned back and disappeared into the room.

Gokudera stood silently for a few seconds, his eyes hidden, then slammed his fist against the wall. The more fragile surface splintered under his punch, leaving shards of wood in his knuckles. He showed no sign of noticing.

"Fuck all of you." He said quietly, through teeth clenched so tight his jaw ached. "I'm going to find him."

Beyond the doors…

The white-haired man behind the large wooden desk looked up as Reborn entered. His face was handsome once, but it had been worn and wrinkled by the waves of time, and currently it was drawn into an expression of concern as he sent a questioning gaze towards the child. The doors were thick, but not thick enough to block out the Gokudera's shouts, nor the deafening silence that followed Reborn's reemergence.

"He will go." Reborn answered the unasked inquiry. A slight smirk, full of a cat's self-satisfaction, found its way onto the childish face. "I am sure of it."

The old man sighed, an exhalation of mixed emotion, much of which was something between regret and resignation. "It has started, then?"

Reborn nodded, his own face serious as well.

"I only wish…if only we had more time! Tsuna is far from ready."

At this, Reborn's smirk surfaced again, "I would not worry too much about that, Timoteo." He murmured, a hint of a laugh in his too-mature voice, "That dame-Tsuna can be surprisingly strong when you least expect it."

Timoteo's expression of worry softened, "Then I pray it will be so this time."

(1) Youki is the aura that youkai give off (sorta like reiatsu from Bleach), that sets them apart from humans.