Tenth Year Reunion

Namimori Middle School

Dread. That was all he felt when he woke up and contemplated the day to come. Then, he looked at the clock.

"Crap! I'm late!" He shouted, earning a chuckle from Reborn,  who was standing next to the bed, a ten-ton hammer in hand.

 "Seems old habits die hard" He chuckled, the ten-ton hammer transforming back into Leon and meandering lazily back up to his shoulder. In high school, Tsuna had developed an instinct for when Reborn was going to bash him and had always woken up a couple of seconds before the aforementioned beating took place. It seemed he had regained the habit.

 But enough of that and back to the present. Tsuna was running around the room like mad, pulling on a shirt and

"Where's my other sock" and

"Ahh! I buttoned my shirt wrong" and

"I see Hayato outside and I'm still not ready!".

It took him about five minutes to get himself together, trying desperately to meet Reborn's standards, which, as you might have guessed,  are very high ("The greatest hitman must look flawless. That includes the people he teaches."). He rushed outside to meet Hayato and Takeshi who were, as usual, arguing.

"Maa maa Gokudera-kun, I wasn't that late"
"Like hell you weren't!"
"Anyway Tsuna was later than me, weren't you?"
"Juudaime is never late or early, he arrives exactly when he means to" (A/N: Lord of the Rings reference)
"Now that doesn't make much sense at all, Gokudera-kun"
"We aren't even that late! " Tsuna protested.
"Whatever Juudaime says!" Gokudera exclaimed,  sprouting puppy ears and a tail, sparkes shining in the air around him. He only snapped back to himself when he realized that Tsuna and Takeshi had left him behind.

 He hurried after them shouting praises of his beloved boss. With all the playful arguments going on around him, Tsuna felt like was transported in time back to his school days. Even some of his university experiences were centered around his dearest friends. The other part of his educational experience was

"Hiiee! Reborn! Please don't kill me!". They arrived a lot sooner than he would have liked, and he found himself standing in front of the gates of his old middle school. He prepared himself for the long torture he was sure he would experience. He had lost patience for ignorant people who had known him in the past.

 In hindsight, it would be a lot worse than he expected. His intuition was telling him that and his intuition was never wrong.  That's why he survived the mafia so long. With that thought ringing in his head, he stepped beyond the threshold.

"You're late, Omnivore,  I'll bite you to death".  Some things never change.

He ran, of course. What else could he do with a bloodthirsty Hibari on his heels?

He dodged teachers left and right, and hoped fervently that Hibari would get tired at some point and leave him alone. It seemed it was not to be. He either had to fight Hibari or hide.

He shamelessly hid in a supply closet and waited for the menace to pass. He resolutely did not regret his course of action.

After he had waited a couple of minutes and had stopped hearing angry footsteps stalking the hall, he deduced that Hibari had grown tired of chasing him, and had wandered over to the rooftop for a nice nap. He sneaked warily over to the bathroom to tidy himself up, scanned the hallway once more, ventured out warily, and only then did he allow himself to sigh with relief.