"Tsuna-kuuuuuuun!  Save me!  Hayato-kun is trying to kill me!"

The brunet sweatdropped and chuckled, taking a sip from the cup of coffee he had in his hand.

"Maa....he's not trying to kill you...he's just trying to...understand what you are..."

"He's chasing me with scalpels!"

"I'm sure you're immune to them since only Anti-Sensei matter works on you..."

"So cruel, Tsuna-kun!  That doesn't help me at all!"

Tsuna sighed.

"Hayato-kun." The said silveret paused in his approach on Koro-Sensei. "Please stop.  It would be rather rude of us to go poking at something that has feelings."

Koro-Sensei sighed in relief when Hayato reluctantly backed off before crying comically about what Tsuna said about him.

"I'm not a thing!"

Tsuna merely chuckled.

"Gomen, gomen.  It's rude to poke at someone who has feelings."

Koro-Sensei huffed and crossed his tentacles, pouting.

Tsuna smiled before pausing; his cup slipped between his fingers.

Koro-Sensei quickly caught it and looked at the brunet with concern.

"Tsuna-kun?"

The brunet was clutching his head with one hand, frowning as he chewed on his bottom lip.

Hayato quickly rushed over to him.

"Tsuna-sama, do you need aspirin?" (Do you sense that an enemy is nearby?)

Tsuna smiled tentatively.

"Ah.  Just one would be nice." (I don't know for sure.  Just tell the others the keep their guard up.)

Tsuna sighed as he rubbed his forehead; Hayato left the Teacher's Breakroom.  Koro-Sensei went about anxiously around Tsuna.

"Do you feel faint?  Should I take you to the hospital?  Are you dying!?"

Tsuna sweatdropped at the barrage of questions and smiled nervously.

"I'm fine, Koro-Sensei.  It's just a mild headache."

Rattle, slam!

"Koro-Sensei!  Tsuna-Sensei!  Come and look at this!  Something happened to the pool!"

Both teachers narrowed their eyes briefly as they followed Okajima out of the room along with the other Class E members.

~~

"How could this have happened?!"

"Bitch-Sensei didn't even get to show off her sexy swimsuit!"

Most students sweatdropped slightly at this comment.

Tsuna stared at the destruction before him with an unreadable gaze.

While the students were panicking, the brunet's eyes immediately turned to three certain troublemakers.

As if feeling the burning gaze, Ryoma turned his head to look at Tsuna and jumped slightly.

Tsuna continued to stare at the teen before shutting his eyes, crossing his arms as he sighed disappointedly.

Hearing the disappointment in the sigh, Ryoma looked a bit irked, scowling at the brunet.

Ryoma then felt eyes of another; he spotted Nagisa gazing at him with nervous, knowing eyes.

The troublemaker glared at the bluenet.

"What's with the look, Nagisa?  You think that I did it?"

The bluenet didn't respond.

Ryoma then noticed that Tsuna was standing a few feet behind Nagisa, watching the delinquent-like student unblinkingly.

Ryoma felt a slight chill under that gaze.

*Just try and harm your fellow classmate and you shall find yourself 6 feet under the surface.*

Tsuna then eye-smiled.

Ryoma shuddered and walked away from the scene with his two friends in tow.

Tsuna sighed once more when the other disappeared; Koro-Sensei quickly fixed the pool without a hint of effort.

~~

Tsuna crossed his legs as he sat on a tree limb by the pool.

It was now nighttime.

The brunet shut his sunset-orange eyes.

Rustle.

Tsuna opened his eyes and spotted a certain troublemaker making his way to the pool.

The brunet frowned when the other started to trash up the place once more.

'I had hoped that my Hyper Intuition was wrong...'

Tsuna frowned when Ryoma dumped some sort of liquid into the pool water.

'What is that...?  It smells like the pesticide that he used in the classroom...'

Tsuna then froze when he felt a familiar presence; a voice spoke, followed by the sound of soft clapping.

"Excellent work.  The pool's destruction, the pesticide, and the chemical mixture."

Tsuna silently hopped to a different tree so he could get a better view of the scene.

"Thanks to you, the preparations have been completed quite efficiently."

The Decimo widened his eyes before narrowing them into slits when they caught sight of a man in a familiar white kimono.

"Here you go, ¥100,000 as compensation.  We'll be counting on you next time as well."

'Shiro....'

Tsuna then tensed up when he saw another familiar figure.

'....Horibe-kun...'

~~

Tsuna draped his suit coat onto a hook in his room; he flopped onto his bed while placing his arm over his eyes.

"Hey, Tsuna!  What do you want for dinn--?  Tsuna?"

Takeshi frowned slightly when he saw and felt that his Sky was upset about something.

"Is it your headaches again?  Hayato told us about them.  Do you need more aspirin?"

Tsuna shook his head, arm still over his eyes.

"...It's just....gonna be a long day tomorrow...."

Takeshi hummed.

"Well....Chrome made some strawberry cake for yo--"

Swish!

Takeshi chuckled when Tsuna quickly rushed past him after the word 'cake'.

'That little sweet-addict...'

The ravenet sighed as he followed his Sky to the kitchen.

~~
//(The Next Day)//

Tsuna was twirling a pen in his hand as he gazed at the papers that he was currently correcting.

He then heard loud voices; the brunet got up from his seat and set his pen down.

Tsuna went through the hallways and found that the loud voices were coming from Class E's main homeroom.

"Oi, Octopus.  It's about time I get serious and beat the sh** out've ya'!"

Tsuna frowned when he recognized Ryoma's voice; the brunet saw that the door was slightly open, so he peeked through the crack.

Ryoma was jabbing a finger at a crying(?) Koro-Sensei.

"Come to the pool after school.  You're weak against water, aren'tcha?"

The delinquent sneered as he turned to look at the rest of the class.

"You lot help out too!  I'm gonna knock this piece of sh** into the water!"

Tsuna watched as everyone looked at Ryoma with doubt, confusion, and curiosity.

Silence filled the classroom before Hiroto spoke up, standing from his seat.

"Terasaka....you've never worked with us on our assassination attempts, ya' know." The blonde scratched the back of his head as he inclined it slightly. "Suddenly going and ordering us at your convenience....do you think everyone will say, 'yes, of course'?"

Ryoma sneered.

"Tch.  Doesn't really matter to me if you don't come.  When he's through, I'll just take all of the reward money for myself."

Ryoma stepped out of the room at the same time when Tsuna moved out of the doorway.

Tsuna blinked and stared at the teen; Ryoma jumped slightly in surprise before scowling at the brunet.

"Tch.  Don't think that you're all high and mighty, Dame-Tsuna."

The brunet merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow as the delinquent stomped off.

Tsuna then poked his head into the room; the rest of the students in Class E blinked in surprise before smiling brightly at him.

Sugino grinned and walked up to the other.

"Tsuna-Sensei!  What are you doing here?"

The brunet feigned a hurt expression, placing a hand on his chest for a dramatic effect.

"Am I not supposed to be here?  What kind of question is that?"

The girls giggled at his childishness as Sugino huffed.

"You know what I mean."

Tsuna chuckled before tugging his fedora down slightly.

".....I heard shouting....so I decided to check up on the class." The brunet tipped his fedora up and gazed at them with genuine curiosity. "Are any of you going?"

Class E sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm not goooooing~"

"Same."

"I'll pass this time too."

And then Tsuna noticed the.....snot on the floor....

The brunet sweatdropped when he saw the mucus pooling all over the classroom floor.

Koro-Sensei was the only one acting as if everything was fine.

"Nurufu~let's all together, everyone~"

Sugino widened his eyes as he sweated, looking at the ground with disgust and shock.

"Woah!  The snot's hardening around my legs so I can't escape!"

Tsuna sweatdropped even more as mucus continued to fall from Koro-Sensei's....nostrils?  The brunet made a what-the-he** face.

'I didn't even know he had them...'

Koro-Sensei continued to grin widely.

"Terasaka-kun has finally become motivated to kill me.  You can all carry out the assassination together, and you'll feel better once you've made up."

"BUT YOU'RE MAKING US SICK!"

Tsuna quirked his lips up slightly in an amused smile, but then he noticed that Nagisa went after Ryoma.

The brunet silently followed the bluenet out of the room.

Tsuna found that Nagisa caught up with Ryoma and started to offer some advice and help to him.

The brunet nearly jumped in when Ryoma suddenly grabbed the bluenet by the front of his shirt.

"Shut up already.  Haven't even got the vision to seriously kill."

Tsuna frowned.

'Horibe-kun said that to Terasaka-kun last night...he doesn't understand what that means...'

The Decimo relaxed when Ryoma released Nagisa; the delinquent scowled.

"I'm not like the rest of you punks.  I've got the vision to off him easily and skillfully."

With that, Ryoma left Nagisa behind; the bluenet teen felt a sense of foreboding.

'Terasaka-kun might have confidence in his 'plan', but...it was almost as if the words he'd spoken just now weren't his own...'

Nagisa frowned and turned to go back to class, but he stopped and blinked in surprise when he found Tsuna standing there.

'I couldn't sense his presence...!'

Tsuna gazed at the bluenet with an unreadable expression; Nagisa briefly thought back to the scars on the brunet's back.

'Possibly abused....but his movements have the gracefulness of a fighter.....who is he?'

A soft breeze blew by as Tsuna walked up to the shorter male.

The brunet then patted Nagisa on the head, smiling brightly.

"Don't worry, Nagisa-kun.  If something bad were to happen to the class, I'll be there to help out as best as I can.  I'll watch Terasaka-kun for you."

Nagisa blushed at the warm hand on his head before smiling softly at the other.

"A-Arigatou, Tsuna-Sensei..."

With one last ruffle, Tsuna walked ahead of the bluenet, followings the path that Ryoma took to get to the pool.

The brunet's smile dropped as he tugged his fedora down.

~~

Ryoma waved a pistol in his hand as he spoke loudly to his classmates.

"Aaalright, good!  Spread out in the entire pool just like that!"

Kotaro stood on the edge of the pool beside Ryoma, pushing his glasses up.

"I have my doubts about this.  Do you really have the skill to knock someone else into the water?"

A tick mark appeared on Ryoma's head; Tsuna quirked his lips up slightly in amusement as he leaned against one of the trees surrounding the pool.

Ryoma kicked the megane-teen into the water.

"Shut yer' trap, Takebayashi!  Just get in already!"

"I see, I see.  So it's a plan to knock Sensei into the water so everyone can stab him."

Ryoma jumped slightly and whipped his head around to see Koro-Sensei standing there; the octopus continued to speak.

"And how exactly are you going to get me into the water?  You won't be able to make me move one step with that pistol, you know."

Tsuna narrowed his eyes when he felt his Hyper Intuition working up.

'That gun is bad news...!'

<<(With Shiro and Itona)>>

"That octopus isn't so careless as to be pushed into the water so carelessly.  There needs to be a suitable lure.  Having Terasaka-kun destroy the pool also served to camouflage that very thing."

Itona simply kept silent as he watched the scene from his spit on a tree limb.

The teen's gaze shifted to a certain brunet that was leaning against a tree.

'.....Who....was he again....?  Someone....important....?  No,  he is weaker than me, like the rest of those weaklings down there.'

Itona blinked his eyes and returned his gaze back to Ryoma and Koro-Sensei.

<<(Back with Class E)>>

Ryoma clicked his tongue as he readied his gun in front of Koro-Sensei's face.

"...You better be prepared, monster."

"I am of course.  My nose has stopped dripping too."

Some of the students sweatdropped at that last comment.

Ryoma scowled.

"I've always hated you.  It was only a given that I'd want you to disappear."

Koro-Sensei had green stripes on his face.

"Nurufu, oh, I'm well aware.  Let's have a nice long chat after this--just the two of us."

Ryoma grunted and pulled the trigger.

Tsuna's Hyper Intuition went haywire.

BOOOOM!

Ryoma whipped his head to the explosion beside the pool, widening his eyes with shock.

"Wha--?!"

<<(With Shiro and Itona)>>

"Fufu, the trigger will blow up the dam blocking in the pool, and the students will be washed away."

Shiro chuckled darkly as his eyes glinted ominously.

"I estimate that there will be 7 or 8 casualties.  Koro-Sensei will have to get into the water to save them, fufu~!"

<<(Back with Class E)>>

Ryoma felt a bead of sweat run down from his temple.

"H-Hold on--you're kidding right!?"

Class E was being washed away in a great wave; some of the students' heads were bobbing up and down in the water.

Suddenly, there was a blur of brown.

A black suit top was thrown to the side.

Splash!

Hiroto and Sugino could distinctly feel hands on their arms; they were thrown out of the water and into a few bushes.

When the blonde and the dark-haired bluenet poked their heads out of the leaves, they were shocked to see who saved them.

"TSUNA-SENSEI!?"

The brunet grunted as he threw two more students out of the water.

'I don't give a cr** about my scars now.  These are my students that I need to save, d** it!'

He had Megu in one of his arms as he reached out to grab another student.

The brunette blushed slightly in the embrace before widening her eyes.

She saw the scars.

Now that Tsuna's white dress shirt was transparent again, Megu saw the scars on his chest.

'Wh-What!?'

She couldn't question her Sensei as she was tossed out of the water along with Hinata.

It wasn't long before Koro-Sensei also went through the raging river, plucking his students out of the wate--

"EXTREEEEEMEEE RESCUUUUUEEEE!"

"Ryohei-nii!  You're hurting Lambo-sama's ears!"

Tsuna nearly got swamped by another wave of water when he heard those familiar voices.

A short-haired silveret dived into the water and pulled three students out.

A ravenet teen that looked slightly older than the students tugged a few out of the water who were closest to the side.

Tsuna quickly threw one more student into the bushes before looking at the two newcomers wit shock and happiness.

"Onii-san!?  Lambo-kun!?"

The two lifted their heads and waved their hands at the brunet.

"Otouto/Tsuna-nii!"

Suddenly, the river suddenly when upwards; the students that were still in the water squeaked in alarm.

Tsuna spotted a glint of silver.

'Takeshi!'

The ravenet had his feet planted firmly on the rocky surface of the river below, grinning widely despite the fact that the water had him completely submerged.

'Wowza!  This is probably the second or third time I'm going against the natural flow of a raging river!' He narrowed his hazel eyes. 'Let's try this again....'

Takeshi held his katana in front of his face and swung upwards.

'Shigure Souen Ryuu, 7the Defensive Form.....Shibuki Ame!'

In a whirlwind of water, Takeshi managed to slow down the raging river; the students were able to swim out on their own after that.

Takeshi quickly sheathed his katana and swam upwards; he took in deep breaths as his head popped out of the water.

Suddenly, he saw a tanned hand in front of his face; Takeshi lifted his gaze and grinned when he saw the owner of the hand.

"Arigatou, Ryohei!"

Takeshi clasped the hand tightly and he was pulled effortlessly out of the water.

Ryohei grinned in response.

"You're EXTREMELY welcome!"

"Yare, yare...you're soaking wet, Takeshi-nii."

The ravenet grinned and turned to the lazy voice.

"Yo, Lambo!"

The curly-haired ravenet smiled in return.

"It's good to see you, Takeshi-nii."

"Onii-san!  Lambo-kun!"

The two said Guardians whipped their heads around in time to see their Sky glomp them into a tight hug.

Lambo whined childishly that he was getting all wet, but he returned the hug with Ryohei, who was laughing jovially.

"Yare, yare, now Lambo-sama's all wet.../We're finally together again, Otouto!"

The three didn't have enough time for a happy reunion as Koro-Sensei was slammed to the ground by a different tentacle.

Itona walked into the scene; his other tentacles were lashing about.

"Come, brother.  Let's once again determine which one of us is the strongest."

Tsuna quickly went over to where the students were; he heard gasps behind him.

"Tsuna-Sensei!  Wh-Where did you get those s-scars!?"

The brunet in question winced and threw an answer over his shoulder.

"Later.  We have more important matters in front of us."

Karma suddenly popped out of nowhere, studying the scene in front of him.

Megu frowned on the side as she watched the battle below.

"I get the feeling that they're overpowering Koro-Sensei way too much.  He can manage with only that much water as a handicap, can't he?"

"It's not just the water."

Everyone turned their heads to see Ryoma walking into the scene; Tsuna blinked in curiosity at the bruise on the teen's cheek.

The brunet gave a pointed look at Karma, who shrugged and smirked at the Decimo.

*He was being a whiny b****.  Someone had to sock him across the face.*

Tsuna sighed and shook his head; Ryoma pointed out Sumire, who was in danger of getting seriously injured.  The poor girl was hanging onto a tree limb right above the fight.

Right after Ryoma finished his explanation, Hiroto spoke up.

"Wait...don't tell me--those two manipulated you into doing this?!"

Ryoma stared at one spot on the ground before smirking.

"Yeah, that's right.  Guys with no purpose or vision who act without thinking are destined to be manipulated by eggheads." The delinquent scowled and tugged at the scruff of his own shirt. "But y'know....I want to choose who's gonna pull my strings."

The class stared at him with surprise as Tsuna smiled approvingly, glancing at Karma, who was smiling his usual smile.

Ryoma walked up to Karma and gently knocked the back of his fist against the rehdhead's chest.

"So, Karma.  You give it a try!" The delinquent waved his hand over in Sumire's direction. "Use that sly head of yours to come up with a plan.  One that I'll carry out to save the lot over there!"

Karma smirked.

"Sure, but...will you be able to carry out my plan?  You might die after all...."

Ryoma huffed, smirking slightly.

"I'll do it.  We're primary offenders who get results."

Karma smiled again before chuckling.

"Hm~?  Are you going even though I haven't thought up a plan yet?"

Ryoma grew flustered and whiped his head back to look at at the redhead.

"Huh!?  Er--well, you haven't!?"

Tsuna had thought about flying over there to save Sumire, but his Hyper Intuition told him that the Class E students would be able to handle it themselves.

Karma made had Ryoma take his shirt off and use it like a bull-cape.

The delinquent walked down to the the fighting pair and shouted at Itona, gaining the other teen's attention.

Itona used one of his tentacles and slammed it into Ryoma's midsection, but the delinquent held firm as he wrapped his shirt slightly around Itona's tentacle.

Shiro was a bit smug but then it turned to confusion when Itona started to sneeze repeatedly.

The white-clad man was able to figure out that the 'pesticide' from that moment when Ryoma used it earlier in the class was still on the delinquent's clothes.

Koro-Sensei was able to catch Sumire and put her onto the side safely.

Ryoma smirked and winced as he held his stomach; the troublemaker turned his gaze to his closest friends.

"Oi, Yoshida!  Muramatsu!  You guys can jump down from there, can't ya'!?"

"Hah!?"

Ryoma's smirk widened slightly.

"Into the water!  I'm counting on you guys to make it a big one!"

The two members of the Terasaka Gang had realization fill their eyes; Takuya and Taisei grinned at each other before looking at the water below.

"Guess there's no helping it...!"

Karma smirked as he signaled the rest of Class E to jump into the water below.

Shiro sweated slightly.

"Th-This is bad--!"

Tsuna glanced at the Guardians that were present with him; the brunet grinned.

"Let's join in on the fun, neh?"

The Decimo jumped in, followed by his Rain and Sun, who dragged the Lightning in.

Splash!

Itona was splashed with the chemical water; his tentacles got soaked and bloated like Koro-Sensei's.

Karma grinned evilly from his position on the rocks.

"You've sure soaked up a lot of water~!  The same water you used on Koro-Sensei has become your handicap also."

Karma dropped his smile and gazed unblinkingly at Itona and Shiro.

"So what now?  We don't want to give up on the reward either.  Not to mention that your plan nearly killed everyone in the first place--and Terasaka got his a** handed to him too." The redhead's smirked was back. "If you want to keep going, we'll also go all-out to play with you in the water."

Just as he said that, Class E took scoops of water with their hands.

Shiro was silent.

But then his voice rang out across the clearing after the pause.

"We shall withdraw.  Even if we were to annihilate those children, there's no telling to what extent Koro-Sensei's antimatter organs would go berserk." Shiro turned away and called back to Itona. "We're leaving, Itona~!"

But the said teen was seething at the group; Tsuna gazed at the teen with concern.

"How about you have a nice fun class with everyone else?  Isn't it about time you began attending school properly?"

Itona clicked his tongue and glanced behind himself to see Koro-Sensei there.

The teen then jumped along the rocks to catch up with Shiro.

The two disappeared.

Class E sighed in relief.

Sugino grinned at Koro-Sensei.

"Not bad, eh, Koro-Sensei?  You've just narrowly escaped death."

The octopus chuckled despite his bloated head.

"Nurufufufu~I'm quite grateful, of course.  I still had a trick up my sleeve though."

And then Sumire appeared behind Ryoma.

"By the way, Terasaka.  You were saying something harsh about me earlier." Ryoma flinched. "About me being porky and heavy..."

Ryoma backed up, sweating as he smiled nervously.

"H-Hold on...I was just being objective about th-the situation...."

Sumire growled and jabbed a finger at him.

"I don't want to hear any of your excuses!  How about I show you the terror of a fata** that can really move!"

Karma snickered as Ryoma was backed up to a wall beneath him.

"My, my~Terasaka's a blockhead.  That's why he falls into people's clutches~!"

Ryoma scowled and reached up, grabbing the surprised redhead by the front of his shirt; the delinquent threw Karma into the water.

"Shut yer' trap, Karma!  You don't get to just sit up there and watch everything!"

The redhead stood up from the water, spluttering as he looked at Ryoma with shock.

"What the he**?!  What the f***'s wrong with you, turning against your boss like that!?"

"Who the h**'s the boss here!?  What sort of batsh** psychopath would make me take a hit like that with my own body!?" Ryoma panted slightly before continuing with his shouting, vein pulsing at his temple. "And even though you're basically a lazy b*****d, you go and take all the good bits for yourself!"

Megu nodded her head.

"Mmhm.  I was thinking exactly the same thing."

Rio smiled evilly.

"Why don't we take this chance to give him a taste of this muddy water~?"

With that, Class E started to 'attack' Karma; Nagisa sweatdropped on the side.

Koro-Sensei chuckled as he wrung himself out.

"Terasaka-kun isn't suited to working a plan out from a high.  His true merit is shown at the scene itself."

Tsuna smiled at Koro-Sensei's words as the octopus continued.

"On his own, he shines in physical strength and ability to get things done, and that makes everyone else at the scene to shine as well." Koro-Sensei chuckled once more. "I'm looking forward to his growth as an operational-type assassin."

Tsuna smiled as he watched Class E play around.

Takeshi was currently filling Ryohei and Lambo in on what was happening.

Kyoya, Chrome, Hayato and Mukuro were on the sidelines; they were actually there the entire time, but they saw that their help wasn't needed.

Tsuna sweatdropped when Karma suddenly side-kicked Ryoma in the stomach, but the brunet sighed and started to chuckle.

'Ah...back to those peaceful days, huh?'