Chapter 3

Isago liked being in control. He liked the feeling of having everyone underneath him and following his ideals. It made everything so much easier to achieve and it felt like he wasn't wasting his life.

Isago blew in and out of his cheeks as sweat continued to trickle down his forehead, temporarily blinding him by forcing his left eye to shut from the stinging salt in his liquids. He was wheezing, the weights on his four limbs were pulling him down harder than he had expected it to.

Maybe it wasn't quite the smartest thing to do to add weights onto his current plate. Well, stamina training was based on breaking your limits, so why not?

It had been nine years after that dog incident, and ever since Isago had turned eight, he started to sneak out everyday at 5 am, trying to complete a ten km running mission before school. On average, it took him ten laps around the neighborhood, 1h and 30 minutes to be exact. The moment he decreased the time to one hour, Isago started to add weights, beginning at the 1 pound wrist weights that he asked mom to buy for him.

Tsuna had grown exceptionally normal from what was compared in the anime. No one called him 'loser Tsuna' or anything similar to that. His brother wasn't the wimpy and pathetic boy that was mocked even by his mother at times. The only thing that bothered Isago was exactly how plain Tsuna became. Average grades, average life, almost as if Tsuna didn't mind his bored lifestyle.

In contrast, Isago was the complete opposite. He was bored out of his mind and retained the highest marks in his year. Well, of course, what did they expect from a previous university student redoing all the highschool concepts? Isago was expecting the main protagonist's life to start kicking in anytime soon with the help of plot, but so far nothing had happened aside from Isago purposefully meeting some of the cast members from the anime. The only person that set Tsuna's life in motion was Reborn, the spartan tutor who cared for nothing but the well being of his student's potential and life.

"When will he ever come?" Isago panted, releasing his breath and stopped his tracks, holding onto the wall before wheezing into his own face. He took a short break, hand turning backwards to see the exercise wristwatch that mom had bought him for his 13th birthday.

50 minutes, 7.4 km.

"Not bad, not bad," he hummed, waiting a few moments while he wiped his sweat away with the white towel hung around his neck. It took him around 7 minutes to finish a kilometer, which would mean his 10 laps would be done after another 21 minutes.

"-TO THE EXTREME!" A voice bellowed from a street down, a tanned man and white hair running with fire in his eyes, dashing forwards with his body bent. The male's eyes glinted the moment they saw Isago, jogging up with heavy breaths.

"Yo, Isago! What extreme did you do today?!"

Isago chuckled at the loud voice despite it being 6 am in the morning with all the neighbors surrounding them. Sasagawa Ryohei, the sun flame of Tsuna's future family. The man who hung the word 'extreme' no matter what the world came down to.

"I just finished 7.4 km with my new weights, doing my last 3 laps," Isago pushed himself off the wall with his foot, jogging forwards as Ryohei followed with extreme passion. "You wanna race? I still have time."

Ryohei's grin widened, fire igniting in his eyes as he dashed forwards without answering. Isago chased in suit, pumping both his legs up in a sprinting position after kicking off with dust behind him. Isago's lungs burned as he grinned maliciously from the thrill, pushing past Ryohei with another heave. The heat blazing through his body like someone had added fuel to the fire had motivated him further.

It was scorching, burning with excitement as Isago wheezed, hearing the beep of his watch indicate his 8km hit.

"EXTREEEEEEEEEMEEEE!"

Isago heard his friend behind him shout, knowing that probably now, Ryohei had the appearance of some kind of sweaty cheeto, all red while trying to surpass Isago. Inhaling like how he normally did, Isago gave his legs another push, dashing faster like a bullet to place distance between them.

Isago heard Ryohei cackling behind him before the tanned man overtook Isago, picking up his speed and barraging through the next corner.

"Oh no you don't!" Isago leaped in the air, grabbing Ryohei's shoulder to act as a stepping stone and pulled the man backwards.

"That's extremely dirty, Isago!" Ryohei punched his fists towards his opponent as Isago dodged before spinning on his foot and slamming into Ryohei. Using the trageory of their speed, Isago took advantage of his spinning and threw Ryohei into another alley, pumping out another dash of energy and making his way around the 9 km mark.

"Chasing to the EXTREME!"

Isago heard him yell behind him, not minding it at all and keeping his pace all the way to his house where his watch beeped a complete 10 km. He caught his own breath, wiping the sweat out of his face before walking into the house to see mom cooking in the kitchen.

"Ah, you're back Isago?" Mom's eyes turned to smile at his son, walking forwards and taking the towel off of Isago's neck. She patted the towel before giving him a freshly prepared one that was sitting on the table.

"Go and take a shower, Isago, make sure you wake Tsuna up afterwards!"

Isago saluted, smiling after pecking Nana on the cheek then walked up the stairs and towards the bathroom located down the hall. Before he stepped into the shower though, something told Isago that today was going to be a special day.

(⊙ω⊙)

"Tsuna, wake up before I show your failed test to mom," Isago called out boredly, watching his brother's blankets move just for a bit. Isago rolled his eyes, taking off the hair tie on his wrist before tying a miniature sized ponytail behind his head as he shuffled closer to Tsuna's bed, grabbing the blanket and pulling it off.

Tsuna hissed like a young cat, eyes narrowed at the intruder and grabbed the blanket from Isago's hands to pull it over his head again. Isago mused at his brother's reaction, plopping down on the bed before nudging his already awake brother.

"Tsunana, if you don't wake up then I'll tell Kyoko your crush on her~"

This time, Tsuna peeked over his blankets, eyes closing and opening groggily before sinking into his cover again.

"You wouldn't dare," he murmured gently, breathing in and out.

"Eh, who knows? At least I'm closer to her than to you, maybe I'll let it slip out accidentally and-"

Tsuna's hand shot out of the blankets, yanking Isago down and staring directly at his brother with his messed up morning look. His facial features still had some baby fat, and the frown upon his mouth were soft as if he was smiling instead of frowning. The smirk on Isago's face never died down, glancing at his wristwatch that Tsuna held onto. Tsuna let him go, sharing some of his blanket to Isago as he tapped Isago's watch asking for the time.

"You can have another 10 minutes, I'll give you that."

Tsuna huffed at Isago's early tardiness before turning around and pressing his face into his pillow again. Needless to say, both brothers grew up at an extremely fast rate while still maintaining their closeness. While Isago reigned over everything he did, Tsuna was the emotional backbone for the family. Isago was too mature for his own good, and that gave Tsuna a very important job of whining for Isago.

"I don't wanna go to school," Tsuna's voice vibrated in between the sheets as Isago glanced over, poking Tsuna's back as his brother yelped from surprise. Tsuna's eyes glanced over with accusement, although not narrowing, it was obvious that he was in a crappy mood.

"Isago! What the hell is that for?!"

"No one wants to go to school, Tsuna, don't think you're the only one."

"Even when you're the top student that everyone loves?"

"Tsuna," Isago called him, earning Tsuna's blank face. "I get tired all the time because of pretending to be the goody two shoes."

"Then why don't you stop?" Tsuna shifted his leg and kicked Isago in the stomach. Isago laughed, squeezing the fluffy cheeks of Tsuna's puffed up face. "I miss having you to myself."

"Excuse me?" Isago blinked, looking back to Tsuna to confirm what he had just said. Tsuna opened his mouth, gaping with a red face before turning back into his pillow.

"It's exactly what I'm saying," his ears flared up pink, voice muffled. "You used to teach me math and English, that's how I'm surviving currently- and look at you now, so busy that you can't even spend time with me anymore!"

That was not entirely true. Isago had stopped teaching Tsuna because he wanted to keep the boy in check, to make sure that Tsuna was beneath him in everything he did. It was a salty way that Isago did it, but when Tsuna's potential would become so great that it might endanger Isago in the future-

"Looks like I haven't been spoiling my brother enough recently," Isago smiled slyly, getting up from the bed and grabbing Tsuna's hands to pull his brother's face out of the pillow. Tsuna's face was still flushed, though the boy cleared his throat and his shifty eyes slowly lifted up with confusion to meet Isago's.

Tsuna's small nose twitched as Isago chuckled, pulling his brother up from the bed.

"You and me, after school," Isago extended his hands generously. "I'll go wherever you want me to go."

"I'm skipping today," Tsuna lowered his eyes guilty. "Don't wanna do gym class."

"You always skip gym though," Isago crossed his arms and looked sternly at his brother. "Are they bullying you?"

"Not bullying, more like I'm pulling them down," Tsuna murmured, and avoided eye contact with anything. "I have bad luck-I can't even catch the ball!"

"You're underestimating yourself, what would happen if you tried harder?"

"But I've tried! And I can't! Sports just isn't my thing!"

"And what is your thing, Mr. Tsunayoshi?"

"I don't know, maybe sleeping?" Tsuna chuckled awkwardly, shrugging his shoulders. Isago sighed, giving him a half smile before slinging his arm around his dear brother.

"When are you skipping then? I'll skip with you."

Tsuna's eyes widened at Isago's words, mouth spluttering.

"I-Isago! You've never skipped before!"

"And I've told you that I'm getting tired of the goody two shoes act, haven't I?" Isago tilted his head, smiling. "I'm quitting with that image now."

"Why would you do that for a loser like me?! This is your future that we're talking about!" Tsuna swallowed excessively, pushing Isago away with his hands. Isago didn't budge though, only pulling himself closer to his older brother.

"And this is your future that we're talking about, older brother of mine."

Tsuna winced at the title, shaking his head slowly, "Geez, I don't even understand you anymore."

"Let's just say that we twins need to stick to each other even if the world ends," Isago let Tsuna go, walking over to Tsuna's closet and pulled out the brown uniform of Namimori middle school, flashing it in front of Tsuna.

Tsuna pursed his lips at his brother's words, slowly but surely, his narrowed eyes lifted with a soft and gentle smile of relief. His eyes shone brightly despite the lights in his room being turned off, the only thing that was illuminating the room was the sun rays that had seeped into the room through his blue satin curtains.

(⊙ω⊙)

The moment the bell rang for a quick 10 minute break, Isago stood up from his seat, grabbing his books as a couple of girls called out to him from the other side of the classroom.

"Isago! Can you tutor us today?" A pink haired girl batted her long eyelashes that she had just finished applying mascara onto, skipping towards the genius of the class with her hands behind her and friends following her steps.

"Sorry, I'm booked by my brother today, Usagi," Isago smiled slightly, lifting his hand before feeling the soft pigtail that the girl had today.

She let him as usual, not minding the closeness they had between each other. Usagi was one of the prettiest girls in the entire school, though she was more or less unapproachable because of her spoiled and cutesy personality which many people deemed as fake.

Well, the girl on girl hatred was just there to add fuel to the already gruesome competition. Personally, Isago admired how this girl was able to keep both her studies up and her appearances despite her friends being the ones who started the rumors in the first place.

"You changed your hairstyle, Usagi."

The pink haired girl giggled, brown eyebrows wiggling as both of her hands flew towards her two bunches. The hair ties that she wore were colored in white, perfectly contrasting her light pink hair and eyes. She had a cute and small face, reminding Isago of a cute animal.

No wonder her name was the literal definition for 'bunny.' It was truly a good fit. It was also weird that Isago had this strange but comfortable feeling with Usagi.

"Does it suit me?" She leaned her head closer towards the male, casually bumping her shoulder into his chest. The rest of her friends rolled their eyes with mild disgust, rudely pulling the girl back away from Isago. Usagi had no expression, but there was darkness lingering boldly in her eyes, then the girl immediately pushed it down, sending all her friends a casual smile.

"Isago, you're hanging out with your brother today?"

His eyes flickered to the rest of the group, nodding casually.

"My brother's been feeling a bit lonely since I've been spending so much time with you girls," zipping up his bag, Isago slid his arm though the handles. "Not your fault though, entirely mine."

The girls laughed, waving towards Isago who took a step out of the room. Girls were the gender that he respected due to his past life's experience. Isago knew how hard it was to keep up appearances especially for the weight. It also concerned him that he didn't really have a clue what his sexualilty was.

It was understandable that he wasn't interested in girls romantically because of his past memories which consisted of being a girl. Sure, girls were cute and fluffy to hold onto, but without even understanding what his own body could do in this life, should he really be the one to decide what his sexualilty was?

'It would be better if I was just declared as asexual,' Isago smirked in his mind.

"By the way, Usagi, your hair looks cute."

With that, Isago waved at the class for the last time before sliding close the door. The hallways were empty and the bell chimed again, indicating the end for the break. Isago's footsteps echoed in the halls and his eyes drifted out to the sky outside the window, a bright blue color painting across the countless fluffy clouds, some separating as they slowly walked within the sky.

"I wonder..." Isago said beneath his breath. "If I am a sky flame."

There was one crucial thing apart from having the Vongola bloodline in his veins and mentaily preparing himself to become a future leader. It was the flames he had himself. While Isago was quite positive that the chance of him being a sky flame was almost close to 70%, the remaining 30% had scared him. Not to mention he had no idea how to activate his flame to test his theories out.

The type of flame was first based on the characterizations of the different flames.

The sky flame for harmony.

Storm for chaos and destruction.

Rain for peace and tranquility.

Sun for passion and activation.

Lighting for hardening.

Mist for construction and illusions.

Clouds for protection.

It was based on the personalities of people. So far it could be said that each special person in Katekyo Hitman Reborn had a characteristic that matched their personality. What was the best characteristic to describe himself? He wasn't all destructive, nor cared about calming others down in his own way. In fact he could, and he did most of the time, but it wasn't his first instinct to do unless it benefited him in some way.

He wasn't like an activation flame, being all energetic, moreover, he was down to earth and more realistic which placed hardening out of the question. Illusions weren't his thing either, he loved messing with people's brains, but if it took too much effort, he'd forget about it. What concerned him was the cloud flame between the sky flame.

He did have the urge to protect his future members, but that could also be a distinct characteristic of the sky flame which accepts all. Was he the type to accept all? Of course. In fact, he welcomed weirdness with open arms.

The halls echoed as Isago's eyes returned to the front. He halted his footsteps before pursing his lips at the man that was in front of him. The boy's skeptical gray eyes pierced through Isago's blank expression, eyes flickering to the bag that Isago carried.

"Kyoya Hibari," Isago greeted momentarily, casually resuming his footsteps before Hibari's tonfas were pulled underneath Isago's chin in an instant, barely touching his neck as Isago's eyes turned towards the male questioningly.

"Sawada Isago, why are you not in class?" His voice bit out like a snake, eyes gleaming in amusement before darkening again when Isago gave a nonchalant shrug.

"I'm skipping class," Isago's fingers pushed the tonfa away from his neck, careful to not touch any spot on Hibari's hand. After all, the man valued his own space more than anything.

"Oh? The straight A student skipping class? What a wonder it is," Hibari smirked, releasing his stance into a more relaxed posture, but he didn't put away his weapons.

"As long as I don't cause any harm to the school, it's fine right?" Isago waved with boredom lingering on his face. Hibari nodded, the expressionless face coming back again as the black fringes on his head shifted.

"Looks like you know your place," Hibari warned with a casual smile as if he was challenging Isago. Isago didn't take it though, he only stared back with the same empathy that matched the student president.

"If you forget, I'll bite you to death."

"I'll be awaiting the day you do then," Isago said and moved forward, eyes never leaving the man until his whole body had placed at least three meters of distance in between them. Isago heard a dark chuckle coming from Hibari, almost hearing the anticipation in his voice.

"I'll teach that imprudent mouth of yours one day."

-(⊙ω⊙)-

"Are you sure you should be skipping with me?" Tsuna peered over at Isago's blank face as they walked back home, the houses on the streets being deadly quiet for the afternoon. Isago was already used to the silence though, having lived 13 years in this world changed a lot of his common sense when compared to his original world and this one.

If Isago had to describe it, the first would be that this world was so colorful and dull at the same time. Main cast of the anime stood out apart from the crowd which was so amusing. The only expectation was Tsuna's original brown colored hair which was considered plain, but thankfully the way his hair was designed made him stand out from the rest.

Did no one ever question why only some girls had bright and popping hair while the rest of the class had black hair and seemed to merge into the background when standing next to the main characters? It wasn't like the details on the background characters were any less than the main ones, but it was particularly their eye color and hair color that was different.

Which came as a very amusing discovery to Isago, because it acted as a confirmation that Isago was now part of the main cast. Golden eyes, and long but handsome length hair? He was definitely unique. But that didn't mean that being unique in this anime was a good thing either.

"Of course," Isago said, eyes flickering side to side on the empty streets. "I've told you that I'm breaking my facade of being a good student, haven't I?"

Tilting his head, Isago smirked slightly, placing his arm around Tsuna's neck. Tsuna's face paled, asking if it was his fault for his brother to suddenly skip class and act like a delinquent.

"Excuse me? You were the one who retained a Namimori record for skipping class! Are you considered a delinquent now?"

"That's totally different, Isago!" Tsuna's mouth frowned, eyebrows lifting up as he shifted closer to Isago because of the wind. "I'm skipping because no one cares! It's not like they notice anyways. I'm literally a background character."

"A background character?" Isago raised his own eyebrow, grinning like a fool at his brother's words.

'Seriously, the future boss of the mafia would say he was a background character? Tsuna probably didn't know how long I've been wanting to be in his role in life.'

This whole entire anime was dedicated for the sole purpose of placing a normal kid into the role of becoming someone big. So back to the point of being too unique, wouldn't that mean that Isago was destined to only stay as a supporting cast in the main cast?

"Exactly! I'm invisible! Kyoko probably doesn't even know I exist!" Tsuna's voice raised dramatically, burying his face into his hands. "I'm practically a ghost..."

Well, then again, Tsuna was never normal to begin with. He was an outright wimp in the anime. Isago concluded that Tsuna had successfully transformed his role from wimpy kid to ghost dude.

"You're not a ghost to your family, Tsuna," Isago poked Tsuna's cheeks just for fun, chuckling at the sulking brother. "Listen, if you want to get Kyoko, I'll introduce you to her."

"Really? You will?"

It was like magic, Tsuna's head instantly popped up from his lowered position. Isago had met Kyoko in freshman year, introducing himself casually by saying he was running buddies with Ryohei. It was unintentional meeting Ryohei while he was training his stamina, but it was completely intentional when he introduced himself to Ryohei's sister, knowing that this was going to be his sister-in-law someday in the future.

They got along fairly well, although not really close enough to be friends with each other, Kyoko always talked about her love for Ryohei when they met. From time to time, Isago would also help her carry the materials to her resource room.

The light in Tsuna's eyes was bright, but then suddenly dimmed with the unending conflict that crashed in between.

"No, I don't want to use you, Isago."

"How is that using, Tsuna? It's just getting my brother to know one of my friends, not to mention that Kyoko did question a few times about being interested in my older brother." Isago shrugged as the twins turned a corner, entering the street that their house was directly on.

"Interested?" The glimmer in Tsuna's eyes came back.

Chuckling, Isago tilted his head and said, "Not romantically, but interested."

"That's more than enough for me!" Tsuna's voice popped like a bubble, giggling as he flew into his own fantasies. "Ah...Kyoko..."

"Don't Kyoko me, I'll introduce you to her tomorrow. But be sure to make a good first impression!" Isago's own face glowed at Tsuna's daydreaming grin. It was funny to see the depressed or huffing Tsuna giggle like a fool, as if all his burdens flew away just by imagining Kyoko in his mind.

Tsuna instantly snapped back, panic crossed his face as his hands gripped the side of his pants. Tsuna was chewing on his own lip before Isago sighed, nudging his brother on the shoulder.

"I'll be there with you, Tsuna."

Tsuna's face instantly calmed, breathing in a few times before flashing his brother a wry grin.

"I don't know what I'll do without you."

-(⊙ω⊙)