"Yakyuu Baka! Are you going to help Jyuudaime, or just stand there, looking like an idiot like always?" the self-proclaimed right-hand man yelled to the ravenette standing by.

"Maa maa, I just got out here after helping my dad clean up the sushi bar," Yamamoto laughed, taking easy strides to catch up with Gokudera. Reborn hopped onto his shoulder with a secretive smile.

"Tsuna's family grows more and more every day..." he commented aside with a grin. "Now...let's see if we can reel in another one..."

"What was that?" Yamamoto turned to face the hitman.

"Ah, nothing. Oi, Yamamoto, who's this?" Reborn suddenly pulled out a picture of a girl out of the baseball player's backpack.

"A-Ah, that's just a childhood friend, haha," Yamamoto concealed his surprise with a grin as he took the photo and stuffed it in his pocket. "We grew up together since we were little."

Of course, Reborn really didn't need to know who it was. He was just surprised that... 'Of all people, Yamamoto knows her...interesting...'

"I'm coming, Jyuudaime!" the silverette continued running after the blazing brunette in boxers.

"We should hurry after my student now," Reborn grinned.

---

Shunrai growled. "Where could those two possibly have gone..." she looked around. She rubbed her head, lost. After all, she had only moved into Namimori a couple of weeks ago. "Okay...my house was...that way..."

Great. She was lost.

"Are you lost?" a girl with snow white hair was walking by and walked up to Shunrai's side.

Thanks for stating the obvious. Shunrai nodded a bit. "Do you know where I can find two toddlers that look like-"

"Pfftt..." the girl tried to cover her laugh, but her cerulean eyes sparkled. "Ah, Tsuna never changes. All right, I know where to go," she gave a little salute. "Ah, by the way, what was your name again?" she asked the platinum blonde.

"Shunrai," was the curt reply as she followed the girl.

"Sugoi, I like that name, Shunrai-chan~ I'm Ruru, but you can just call me Ruru, like everyone else," the newcomer rambled on, turning to shake Shunrai's hand.

A Japanese who wanted to shake hands? That was a first for Shunrai, who reluctantly shook Ruru's hand. How curious of her...

"Okay, just take a right here," Ruru stopped the platinum blonde at a bus stop. "And then afterwards, you take the bus on the second street and get off on the fifth stop. Then take a left at the fourth street and cross over a park that you'll see. Got it? Ciao!" And with that, she bounded away.

"Wait, what?" Shunrai was surprised at the sudden leave. "Where'd she go...?" she sighed, then continued walking the way Ruru pointed out. "Oh well..."

----

"I don't remember any girl with white hair from our class," Rosa said, thinking about it. "Are you sure, Shunrai?"

"Well, I just saw her, so I thought you might know..." was the reply from the other end of the phone. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm on the bus going home. Sorry I can't be of much help," the ravenette pulled a stray strand of hair away from her face. The bus came to a halting stop, and Rosa stepped out, just in time to meet Shunrai. "Eh?"

Shunrai was panting, as if she had been running. "A white-haired...sadist...told me to run all around town..."

Rosa blinked. "Um...okay..." she tried to process that info in her head.

Speaking of which...two toddlers just happened to pass by. Maybe Ruru wasn't such a sadist after all...just bad with directions.

"Do you mind...helping?" Shunrai took off after the kids with Rosa trailing on her heels.

Rosa nodded.  "I think I saw them head this way," she pointed towards the bridge.

---

"Man, even by being hit with the bullet, I didn't manage to find them?!" a certain brunette was rubbing his head in frustration.

"Jyuudaime, don't worry, they couldn't have gotten far," the ever-optimistic-for-the-Boss's-sake silver-haired right-hand man closed one hand into one determined fist.  "We'll find those two and soundly punish them for making you run so far around town!"

"W-Well," Tsuna sweatdropped, "I'm pretty sure they just found something interesting..."

Yamamoto just laughed.  "Ah, kids.  They always have fun.  I had fun when I was a kid~"

"Ah, hey, minna-san~" a familiar ravenette ran up, waving as she neared the three teenage boys.  "Did you find the babies yet?"

"Ah, no, Hibari-chan," Yamamoto grinned, shrugging.  "What are you doing here without your cousin?"

True, true.  That was just a bit suspicious.  After all, the two of them had left dinner early.  "Well," Hana tapped her chin.  "To-Kyo went home already, but I decided to help you guys find the toddlers!" she spread her arms out with a flourishing wave.

"Great, the more people to help us the better!" Tsuna smiled.

"Tch, woman, we can handle this ourselves," Gokudera snorted at the ravenette, planting his hands on his hips proudly - and if I'm not mistaken, almost like a girl.  "But...since Jyuudaime said it's okay, fine."

As they all walked together, Tsuna couldn't help but wonder at Hana.  She seemed very confident and talkative...very odd.  Usually, Hana-chi was happily pattering after them, listening to what everyone had to say.  But right now...it seemed like she just had a whole lot to say.

"-Ano...where are we going again?" Hana suddenly turned back to them, tilting her head.

"A-Ah, we're just searching...wait, how did you know that the toddlers went missing?" Tsuna couldn't help but ask as they stopped by the river.

"Aw sh-  I mean...ah, I passed by S-Shunrai-san, and-"

"I thought you called her Shunrai-chan," Yamamoto laughed.

"The game's up," Reborn suddenly hopped down from Yamamoto's shoulder and shot a bullet at Hana.

"R-Reborn?!" Tsuna freaked out as the ravenette stumbled back, rubbing her forehead.  "What did you do?!"

The hitman calmly blew the smoke from the tip of his gun with a smirk.  "Ruru, your antics are tiresome."

"Naiya?" Hana was sprawled on the floor, but she was changing.  Like, a literal transformation.  "Reborn, you're no fun," she pouted, her hair suddenly turning white then platinum blonde and her violet eyes turned cerulean blue then chocolate brown.  Her outfit faded away to reveal what Shunrai was wearing earlier.

"E-EH?!" Tsuna crossed his arms over his chest - as if that would protect him.  "W-What?  What happened to Hana-chi?"

"Look, there are our other classmates!" everyone turned to see who the two girls were who were running closer.

"Shunrai and Rosa?" Gokudera muttered, just as confused as everyone else - well, with the exception of Reborn, of course.

The two of them came running up, panting.  "Did...you guys...find the kids?  They ran past me a while ago," Shunrai was explaining.

"Wait a minute, if you're Shunrai," Tsuna pointed at the Shunrai who had just ran towards them, "Then who is she?" he pointed to the girl sitting on the floor.

"Well, obviously, I'm Shunrai," the Shunrai on the floor seemed slightly annoyed.  "What, am I Yamamoto?"

"AHHH!!!  I'm so confused," Tsuna rubbed his head, frustrated.

"Have you had your share of fun, Ruru?" Reborn jumped up, hitting the Shunrai on the floor in the head.

"OW!  REBORN!" Shunrai's form suddenly changed again, revealing a cowering girl with snow white hair and sky blue eyes - the same girl Shunrai had just seen earlier.

"It's that girl again!" Shunrai seemed slightly pale.  "But...how...?"

"Meet Ruru Kim," Reborn explained, standing next to the girl, who was comically holding her head in pain.  "She's a special hitman who can change identities by a mere touch of a person.  Remember, we’ve met her before?"  He turned to face Ruru.  "Stop your crying.  I know that didn't hurt."

"Haha, Reborn, you thought I was crying for real?" Ruru triumphantly glared, jumping to her feet.  "I can't feel pain!" she laughed, smirking.

"So this whole mess...was because of Ruru?" the young Vongola boss sighed.  “Wait a minute now…I remember!  You pretended to be Kyoko, I went out and bought you cakes the whole day until Yamamoto-kun pointed out that you were an imposter!”

"Not necessarily," Reborn hopped back onto Yamamoto's shoulder.  "This was just a trial.  Shunrai and Rosa worked together to help find the kids because they knew the kids were important to you, and Ruru was found so we can finally make her get serious and help the Vongola Tenth."

"Eh?  Darling, you're in the Vongola?" Ruru suddenly turned to Yamamoto with a smile.

"Darling...?" both Tsuna and Gokudera's jaws dropped.

"Haha, she's a childhood friend of mine," Yamamoto explained as Ruru hugged him happily, cuddling him against her cheek.

"Oh," Tsuna remembered Reborn's earlier question about the picture in Yamamoto's backpack.  "Well, everybody should go home now.  It's getting late.  But we still don't know where Lambo and I-Pin went..."

Reborn held out his phone.  "Don't worry about them.  This whole time, they were playing with Hana-chi.  I asked her to watch them."

"REBORN?!  WE SPENT ALL OUR TIME JUST NOW TO LOOK FOR THEM BUT THEY WERE WITH HANA?!"

==================

Meanwhile, two mysterious figures sitting in the tree nearby listened intently to the conversation under them.  As they watched the young Vongola boss walk home with his Guardians and new allies, one of them muttered, "Aniki, I'm hungry.  Can we go to Takesushi now for some food?" in a slightly monotone voice.

"Hn, well, our work here is done, Fran-chan," was the ever-apathetic reply.  "Let's go," the female counterpart and her companion jumped through the other trees and out of sight.

===================

"And so that's what happened," Reborn finished his cup of coffee and set it down on the coffee table seperating him from the two Spartan Arcobaleno sitting across from him.

"So they were running in circles the whole time around the town," the blue-haired girl summed up, rubbing her cheek with a sigh.

"C'mon, now, Lal, I'm sure it was fun and served its purpose, korah," the baby with a shock of blond hair grinned, his cerulean eyes twinkling.  "Besides, those kids will be our students, too, in a couple  of days, korah."

"I'll make sure they're prepared to enter the academy," Reborn responded, tipping his fedora as he left.

______________________________________

A/N:  /huffing/  I...I DID IT!  /victory dance/  Well, I messed up but then I fixed it, I hope, so yep~  >:D  I finally updated...at least one or two more chapters before they finally get to ITALY!!!  Now, Reborn's making sure that everyone can prepare for the academy, so get ready for SOME HARD CORE INTENSE TRAINING!