What now?

Part 30 Ranking Star

Peeking out the curtains of the kitchen Nori sighed, a horde of suited men with umbrellas were gathered around the house.  He vaguely recognized the man at the front of the crowd. He stared intently at that man, trying to figure out who he was. It was at the tip of his tongue. The others were busy revising the make shift plan he put down, and he wasn't all to interested in listening. He wanted to get this over with, he wanted to find Tsuna. 

"Tenth?" Gokudera called worriedly. Nori was uncharacteristically quiet and seemed spaced. He knew everything was catching up to him and hoped it would affect Nori's performance. When Nori didn't immediately respond he went up to pull him  away from the window. "Tenth, what's wrong?"

Nori jumped a bit at the unexpected contact. Seeing that it was only Gokudera he chuckled in relief, and gave his friend a reassuring pat on the arm. He'd hate to cause anymore grief with so much to do. "I'm fine, but we have more visitors than I expected. " He walked over to the huddled group catching only the end of the conversation and found a rolled up carpet with Fuuta's scarf stuck in it. "This is our decoy?"

Sora nodded tiredly, "Sorry, it's all we have time for." He smiled when Nori gave him a pat on the back and a proud grin. He felt a bit helpful for once, not by much, but more than ever. He always felt as if he was leaving things to the others and hiding behind Nori. "So Gokudera, Bianchi, and I will play decoy, you escape with Fuuta," Sora informed. He crouched down unrolling the carpet and rerolled himself inside of it. 

Nori wasn't fond of his little brother being used as bait, but he knew Sora would be fine. Besides, Sora had Gokudera and Bianche with him, he was more than fine. But he was curious as to how Gokudera would handle working with Binache, but he trusted they had things worked out. He smiled and nodded, "Okay then. Good luck." As Binache picked up the rolled up Sora and left with Binachi he turned to Fuuta. "Ready to go?"

The sound of dynamites going off and a stampede of sunning was their cue to leave. Fuuta nodded, and climbed onto Nori's back. 

Initially they'd go through the front door but some left over mafioso were head from outside. Nori grumbled as he left for the backdoor. Sneaking along the walls of the house, he stayed close to the ground. Nori prayed that they wouldn't look over, but as luck would have it, he stumbled to the ground catching their attention.

"There they are!" one of them yelled calling his companions attention. The men scrambled over the wall yelling obscenities that a nine year old like Fuuta shouldn't be hearing. A few things Nori didn't think he was old enough to know as well.

Nori shot up and made a mad scramble out of the yard before the men could catch them. He cursed under his breath as he made it the road. The men were far more persistent than he imagined and he was slowly loosing energy. He ran up the streets passing by a shockingly unfazed teen in a beanie at a vending machine, and the mafioso didn't bother being discreet. As he rushed on he found  small burst of adrenaline, a mix of regret and anger. 

Nori ran a park exhausted beyond relief and Fuuta slipped off his back. He had managed to outrun them and hoped he could catch a few minutes. Once again luck was against him as the leader of the mafia family walked onto the playground.

"Yo kid!" The man called condescendingly. He smirked when Fuuta huddled behind Nori, who was heaving on his knees. The two mafioso who had chased them entered from behind trapping them. 

"You caused us a lot of trouble kid," the blonde one muttered in annoyance as he stalked forward. "No more playing tag, alright?"

The boss rolled his eyes as his men tried to be intimidating, waving them off. "Just hand the kid over, you can't go any further," he sneered. He walked forward with his hands extended towards Fuuta. "Come with us willingly, and we won't hurt your little friend."

Fuuta looked at Nori, who was still recovering. He trembled as he stared at the men closing in on them, there was no choice really. He stepped out of hiding and in front of Nori. He ignore Nor's scolding to get back behind him, and looked up toward s the sky. The air hummed around him and loose twigs  and leaves floated through the air. 

Nori struggled to get on his legs, he could hardly feel them. "Fuuta, this is not the time for that!"

"Paolo," the leader, "ranked 55th out of 86,2002 mafioso in attack ability." He turned to the other. "Rossi," the stocky mafioso, "ranked 226th out of 86,202 in intelligence. Making him superior in that area." He nodded at the man's disbelief. "The leader Paolo is the strongest in this group, but Rossi is the one really in charge."

Paolo turned to Rossi in rage, "Is that true!?"

"Don't be stupid, your the leader," he tried to defend, but only ended up angering Paolo.

The other mafioso sighed, "It's a trap, he's getting us to fight among ourselves!" 

It calmed then down until Fuuta foretold another ranking, " Enzo has an ambition ranked 56th. Once you obtain the ranking book, he plans to betray both of you, taking it for himself. 

As expected a fight broke out among st them but Fuuta crouched down to write down his findings.

"Fuuta, come on we should go now." Nori sighed as he finally recovered.

Fuuta pouted not looking up, "I'll forget them if I don't."

Before Nori could say more he was caught off guard by laughter. Turns out the men hadn't completely fallen for it.

Reborn smirked watching his student from afar, he was impressed Nori had gotten this far. He'd have to amp up Nori's physical training though. "Let's help him out Leon," he muttered holding out his hand. 

A gunshot rang though the air and Nori collapsed to the ground. Everyone looked in horror, and even more horror when the boy rose from the ground naked and a flame on his head.

"Reborn!" Nori roared with rage filled eyes.  "I'll protect Fuuta like my life depends on it!"

"Nori don't, you only have average combat rankings! You can't win!" Fuuta yelled. But against his words Nori took out the men with ease. "M-my rankings were wrong?" he stared in disbelief. 

Nori soon came back to himself and looked upon the mess he'd made, "Great, I'm naked again!" He turned to Fuuta, happy to see he wasn't dead.

Fuuta excitedly ran up and hugged the older boy, "That was amazing, nobody had ever overturned my rankings! I need to obsessive this more if you don't mind. Can I stay with you?!"

Nori was perplexed and confused but agreed nonetheless. "Uh, I guess. Sure," he couldn't turn down Fuuta, that'd be cruel. He jumped at the large boom from not too far away. Looking ap he saw a smoke cloud funneling into the sky. "Guess we're done here."

Fuuta nodded happily.

"Let's get going," he smiled as he held out his hand to Fuuta. 

Yooo, sup my dudes! Your awaited update has arrived!