Mouse Maestro: Sorry to everyone about the mistake in chapter 3, repeating a section. Luckily, TheParadoxicalOtaku caught that! Btw, thanks to all you reviewers! I'm actually really surprised it reached 15! Well, enjoy chapter 5!

Chapter 5: of Bombs and Betrayal

(Earlier that Day, Gokudera's Side)

Hayato Gokudera was pissed off that his usual dynamite stick dealer tried to raise the price. After some convincing with his fists, Gokudera was able to buy them at an even cheaper price than usual. Twirling one of his new dynamite sticks, Gokudera happily decided to go back to check up on the Tenth.

At that time Gokudera recalled that his beloved Tenth was probably in P.E. class at the moment. In mere minutes, Gokudera arrived at the tennis court the class went to that day. To avoid trouble for ditching class, he hid behind one of the several bushes surrounding the tennis court. The silver-haired teenager's "Tsuna-Radar" tingled, and he turned sharply to the right, smiling upon finding a brunet with the familiar gravity-defying hairstyle. Smokin' Bomb Hayato's smile was snuffed the moment he realized a new student next to the Tenth.

Already, the girl was too close for comfort, and her magenta eyes, for some odd reason, seemed to further make Gokudera suspicious of her. The bomber made a move to jump to the Tenth's defense, but realized (for once) that the stupid teacher may punish Tsuna for his interruption. So Gokudera reluctantly sat back down, keeping an extra close eye on the strange newcomer. When it was the Tenth and the (STILL too close…!) girl's turn to participate in a tennis match, Gokudera secretly hoped the girl would get hit. In fact, he wished the tennis ball to hit her smack dab in the head. He was feeling extra violent today.

Distracted by his sudden violent thoughts, Gokudera only realized too late of the fastball aimed directly at the Tenth. He silently cursed under his breath, and was willing to risk any consequences to stop it. Gokudera was beaten in the race to save Tsuna when the mystery girl ran over, intercepting the tennis ball from the paralyzed Tsuna.

The other team was angry that their attempt at striking Dame-Tsuna failed (Gokudera only became more enraged; so it was on purpose!), and they fired another pass at the terrified brunet. Meanwhile, Gokudera was confused yet curious at the same time. Why would she help the Tenth? Not that he was complaining, but almost everyone at this school considered Tsuna someone not worthy of protecting. Gokudera's mind was propelled further into his state of confusion, when the magenta-eyed girl consecutively saved Tsuna by hitting back all of the passes with natural-born (Gokudera assumed) skill.

Tsuna mirrored his right-hand man's expression of confusion, and Gokudera mnaged to hear the Tenth's hushed conservation with the girl. The tenth dragged the seemingly indifferent girl to the side as another match started. Being the great person he always is, Tsuna started the conversation. "Crystal, I've been meaning to ask you this since homeroom…" 'Hmm,' Gokudera noted,' So her name is Crystal…' Meanwhile, the Tenth continued, "Why do you keep helping and defending me? We just met, and…I'm just Dame-Tsuna…" The last part was said as the brunet hung his head low in shame. Gokudera gritted his teeth in anger. Damn that "Crystal" girl! She made the tenth feel all depressed! Gokudera perked up when the girl finally spoke.

"You are NOT an…er…Dame-Tsuna. People change, and you are yet to become who you are truly meant to be. Besides, someone has to stick up for the underdog, right?" Crystal smirked at the now dumbfounded Tsuna, and continued," If you stress out too much, you'll get a whole head of white hair." Gokudera fell over in his hiding place out of disbelief, and Tsuna frantically grabbed at his hair, shouting," REALLY?" Crystal winced at the high volume (Gokudera scoffed; he had already gotten used to his boss's screams in a couple of days), and she flicked the Tenth's forehead!

GAH! Now Gokudera really wanted to blow her up, but to his disappointment, the Tenth seemed okay with it (despite flinching at first), and even took it as a sign of friendship! That Crystal girl must've said something, but he didn't hear it. ' Or maybe...', he slowly thought,' she telepathically said something to the Tenth, and Crystal's actually an UMA?" His whole face lit up with the idea. Gokudera excitedly looked over, and found the whole class gone to their next period.

Like the diligent (self-proclaimed) right hand man he was, Gokudera immediately followed the Tenth throughout the whole day. And though he would never admit it, he was keeping close watch on Crystal as well. Why? Obviously, because she was an UMA, of course! How else would she have so many different skills in class, and be able to cheer up the Tenth so easily? GOkudera nodded to himself; yep, she's definitely an UMA.

As the day went by, Gokudera realized that Crystal defended Tsuna at every possible chance (except that one time with Mochida, the jerk that still didn't learn his lesson). The bomber was starting to feel a little envious, with the feeling of being replaced. He could've done just fine in the magenta-eyed girl's place! What if the Tenth thought Crystal was his right-hand man now? Gokudera was not about to wait around to let that happen! He immediately ran away from the school to train; tomorrow hw would challenge the enemy.

Just as he left, Hibari came to confront the two left behind at school.

(Present Time: Crystal's P.O.V)

After eating dinner at the Yamamoto's (I smugly reminded Tsuna," Told ya so…), we came back to a very strange acting Reborn. Right when we stepped through the front door, Reborn was there to greet us. He smiled (not smirked!) and asked," How is Takeshi? I'm sure you two had a great time!" I raised an eyebrow at that almost too perky talking, and Tsuna dropped the box of leftover sushi (Takeshi insisted on bringing some home) on the floor and said accusingly," Reborn, what did you do?"

The infant merely gave us another eerie smile, and walked back up to Tsuna's room, us following uneasily behind him. Before I was able to even put one step in Tsuna's room, Reborn stopped me. "Oh, Crystal! Why don't you go to your room first? You both have had a long day, and you both need all the rest you can get", Reborn said, ending with another one of his awfully fake smiles.

Tsuna gave Reborn another skeptical look, maybe even with a tinge of concern. Meanwhile, I thought that maybe this was some sorta test from Reborn to Tsuna, and that I shouldn't interfere. So, I shrugged, and left to the guest room, lazily waving to them as I did.

And then. The least expected thing happened as I walked into my room. Looking back, I'm surprised that I didn't notice the elaborate traps in the room, which flipped me upside down, tied up, and slapped duct tape onto my mouth. As I suspected, Reborn popped out of nowhere into my room, and closed the door behind him. I made a grunting noise behind the duct tape as a sort of twisted version of a polite greeting. Hey, I may be trapped, but it doesn't mean I have to stop being polite.

Reborn deciphered that well, and nodded, saying," Yes, hello to you too. I'm surprised you're so calm in this situation." I tried at shrugging best I could while being tied upside down. The sun arcobaleno saw the questioning look on my face and said," Don't worry, I'm only going to ask you some crucial questions, something I've failed to do before."

I preferred talking normally like any other person, and decided to do just that. Relaxing my tensed body, the ropes loosened by a small fraction, though enough for me to wiggle out. Another thing I learned in my world was Houdini's tricks on escaping. Falling heads down, I back flipped and landed perfectly on my feet, avoiding a head injury. As my feet landed on the ground, Leon came out, gun form.

Immediately, I put up my hands in surrender." Woah, hey, Reborn! I'm not going to fight you. As you were saying earlier?", I prompted. The baby stared at me for a moment, and then chose to put the Leon gun down. He started with the most important (to him, that is) question: " How did you know I am the Sun Arcobaleno?"

Hmm…I thought about what to say. The truth…? I mean, if Reborn's going to try and interrogate me everyday, it would be more convenient to tell him NOW. Being shot dead wasn't very appealing at the moment. I gave Reborn my most sincere face and replied," I read it in a manga series." There was another moment of silence, and Reborn shot a bullet just a millileter away from my head. In a deadly tone, he said," I'm serious. .."

I smirked (I seemed to be doing that a lot nowadays…maybe Reborn was rubbing off of me?...Eh.) and shrugged, saying in an indifferent way," Hey, it's your decision whether or not to believe me, but it is the truth." This created another pause from both of us, and to my surprise Reborn believed me and wearily asked," What was this manga series called…?" Even in this tense and serious situation, I couldn't stifle my laughs. The whole series was names after him, and Reborn was asking what it was called?

I pointed a shaking finger (I really needed to control my laughter…) at him, and said between my laughs,"Katekyo Hitman Reborn…it was named after you, Reborn! You must be so proud," This remark (and probably my laughter) earned me another bullet aimed close to my head. "Explain," Reborn demanded, and I knew that if I truly valued my life, I would give him definite answers. My face turned deathly serious, and I truthfully admitted," I came from an alternate universe. I'm not kidding when I say this to everyone—I sort of used it as a joke anyways, though."

" An alternate universe where this world is a manga series? What is wrong with your world?", Reborn said in amusement. I knew he believed me, if he was joking a little about the whole thing. Letting out another laugh (I'm also doing that a lot lately…maybe it has something to do with the KHR world's atmosphere…?), I told him," The manga series made everything less bloody, but the gags and people are exactly the same." For the first time that day, Reborn actually let out a genuine smile and said," Crystal, since you have told me this, I'm sure I can trust you, since you have trusted ME with this information."

The fedora-wearing paused, as if checking something, then said," Okay, it's time for bed, Crystal…yes, you too, Tsuna." There was a sound of someone shouting in surprise, and the door opened up to reveal Tsuna eavesdropping on our conversation. "Y-Yeah, you're right, Reborn!" He hurriedly ran in and picked up Reborn (At this point, I was wondering if Tsuna hit his head on the wall or something) and dashed back out, saying," Good night, Crystal!"

I was shocked at two things for the moment: One, how I didn't notice Tsuna's presence at the door, and Two, why Reborn let Tsuna carry him.

And to answer that, I heard a couple of gunshots and screams. Seriously, I wondered how Nana ever got any sleep around here. Too exhausted to even put on the blankets, I fell back onto the bed, and let my dreams take over.

That morning, another explosion woke me up. I groggily blinked my weary eyes open, and thought,' Is this how it's always going to be? Me waking up to explosions?' I realized how stressing Tsuna's lifestyle can be, poor kid. Deciding to help him, I jumped out of bed and casually strolled to his room.

Earlier before, the explosion must've been caused by thee Ten-Year Bazooka, because before me stood a 15(?) year old who looked a lot like Lambo. The older Lambo, Reborn, and Tsuna turned to my direction when they heard the "click" from me closing the door. This should be interesting; I wanted to ask Lambo how I was 10 years later.

Unexpectedly, Lambo's face darkened when it met mine, and he lowered his head, preparing to attack. "Thunder set…", he mumbled ominously. Before he could finish, I quickly ran over and tackled him, cutting off Lambo's attack successfully. For good measure, I tied him up to a chair. Obviously, he struggled, and Lambo loudly accused," Crystal, you big fat traitor!" Reborn stonily turned his onyx eyes towards me, and menacingly said," …I knew I shouldn't have trusted you so easily. Or, it's Lambo being Lambo…" He said the last part with much distaste, ignored by the seething 15 year old, who was still glaring at me. Great…now there were two people against me. But…I was still confused about the traitor thing.

Luckily, Tsuna, of all people, was still on my side, and protested," Crystal wouldn't betray us for no reason! Lambo, explain all of this!" The green-haired teenager had to compose himself (man, was he ANGRY!), still glaring at me, and said,

" Crystal, who was always on Vongola's side, betrayed us by joining the Whitewing family, an enemy family we've been fighting off lately…" Lambo glared at me, making me glare back. Lambo shrank back in his chair, but still stuck his tongue out at me. Sighing, I bent down, and looked him straight in the eye." Lambo, like Tsuna said, my ten-years-later self probably has a good reason for doing this. Have faith in…her. I'm sure she'll come through in the end." It was sort of weird talking about myself in third person, but it seemed to have worked.

Lambo sniffled a little, (same old Lambo) and hesitantly gave me a small smile. He looked up from staring at the floor, and said with a bright expression," You always knew how to make me feel better, Crystal. I'm sorry…we all assumed you were a traitor. Don't worry, I'll tell everyone what you said, and try to convince them." I couldn't resist ruffling his hair in a sisterly way. Lambo's green eye (the other one was closed for some odd reason; I'd have to look into that one day) widened in surprise for a moment, but a huge smile spread across his face, before a puff of pink smoke carried him away.

Now there was an annoying five year old tied to the chair. "GAHH!" the cow(?) screamed." Who are you? Are you kidnapping the Great Lambo?" Oh yeah, we haven't properly met…I helped untie him, and introduced myself." I'm Crystal Clear. It's a pleasure to meet you, but, once again, I find myself late to school, and must leave now."

Tsuna caught that last part, and shouted," WHAT? We'll deal with you later, Lambo! HIEE!" I glanced over to the brunet and smiled," You don't need me to carry you again, do you?" Tsuna gave me a startled look." I didn't want to do it before, why would I do it now?" As we ran to school, we passed by Takeshi, who laughed cheerfully at us (as if we weren't late for school) and joined us.

In mere minutes, the three of us reached school. I was surprised to see a certain silver-haired bomber waiting there for us. And he was glaring at ME. He did not look like a happy camper.

"Crystal Clear", Gokudera exclaimed," I challenge you for the position of right-hand man for Vongola Tenth!" Truthfully, I didn't want to be the right-hand man, but I was itching for a fight. How he knew my name was the least of my problems as thousands of dynamite sticks rained down on me.