The beginning of the end (Leon and Riku)

“Sensei… sensei…” an annoyed Leon said, shifting through the crowded market looking for the white hair that signified his teacher. Normally they wouldn’t even be in a town, but since they had recently run out of food at their little camp nearby, they needed to find more food.

Leon threw the bag that he was carrying over his shoulder and stood on his toes, looking for Riku. Not as easy task but the… ah. There he was. Leon let out a shrill whistle, something that they had developed for communicating with each other in crowded places and growled slightly as no head was turned.

“Probably flirting again… Ero-baka sensei…” Leon muttered as he bent over and grabbed a pebble from the ground. While he didn’t mind the flirting as much, today was the day that Riku had said that he would start teaching Leon about the Ninja Arts. That made any amount of flirting or distraction today unallowable. It was time for Leon to learn.

Striding towards his sensei, Leon’s hand brushed over his right pocket, and the bulge inside of the pocket made him stop for a second. Reaching his hand in, Leon pulled out not only Riku’s wallet, but another random wallet, a pocket watch, a multi-purpose knife, someones belt, and a candy bar. How the candy bar ended up in his pocket was a mystery, but the bigger problem was the belt. How did he even get a hold of a belt that someone was wearing? Leon turned his head to the side.

“Jimmy?” Picking up a rock, Leon began to have a complete conversation with it while he finished walking towards Riku. During the 5 minutes it took to walk that far, Leon had come up with the perfect plan to separate his sensei from the girl he was hitting on.

Another 5 minutes later, a figure suddenly latched on to the females leg, mud and leaves sticking out of his brown hair. Looking at Riku, Leon smirked inside and drooled. “Dahhhh dum dah dooooooo…” with that, Leon let out a howl and starting to slightly hump the females leg until she decided it would be a very good idea to leave, and bade Riku a farewell, and patted Leon on the head uncertaintly.

Making sure she was no longer in site, Leon stood up normally and ran his head through his hair, throwing bits of mud and leaves down on the ground while wiping his mouth off of excess drool.

“Serves you right. I went and did allllll the shopping, and I come back to find you flirting on the day you said you would train me. Cmon now, whats wrong with that picture? Oh, and here.”

With that last comment Leon flipped all the possessions he had found in his pocket at Riku and waited for a response.

It's still funny how life puts people into a bunch of twist and turns like a roller coaster ride the one minute then it's a snake the next that gobbles them up the next, chewing a person then spitting one out. Riku's been toying with that snake for a very long time, punching it in the eye, playing with it's rattle once or twice and hell, he even tried to take a few of the fangs out for his own glorious pleasure. Now that he's slipped up, the snake had pulled him in and the snake has no intentions of spitting him back out again.

That snake was called Leon and Leon was one big snake that had a large mouth and fangs the size of giant icicles. Though on the outer appearance, he may have the look of a scrawny young man who came out of a public school, all dressed up in uniform and such but like everyone says from time to time, do not judge a book by it's cover for it may decieve you. Leon is one of those cases that Riku certainly couldn't grasp at first because the first meeting of the young man was surprisingly...odd

Before, Riku had gone into town to get supplies for them. Leon has a huge appetite, eating constantly; breakfast, lunch and dinner. The boy was a gotdamn black hole that continued to consume food. The boy even had the audacity to say that Riku was fat as a pig for eating such much at night. The only response for Riku was to continue on eating, ignoring the whining little midget he had for a voice. If he was younger like him, the insults would come out of his mouth poetically, dragging down from the top of his head to the dirt he called shoes. Now older and more or less wiser, he's now learn to ignore such words of a inexperience and undoubtably a ignorant child

Buying the stuff was easy, he got alot of meats, fruits, vegetables and rice. That was the easy part, the harder part was getting looked at by a few of the women who just happen to be very attractive to the eye. Damn his looks, well why damn them when he is getting all of this attention. Hell, thank you for the looks. Thank you dad or mom, it doesn't matter cause Riku was getting checked out. Maybe training this kid wont be so bad after all...but that was truly spoken too soon

There was a woman out of the bunch who were staring who had the courage to come and talk to him. Riku notice that and that right there gave him the incentive to do a few of his charms. He puts down the grocceries he had and begins to talk to her. A fine young woman, just a few years younger than Riku himself. She had a bit of darker skin, a bit lighter than milk chocolate with her hair up in a bun. To think that the hairstyle would mean that she was more conservative but in honesty from the way she was talking, she seem more bold. He couldn't help but to glance at her beauty, he wondered when he got to the age where he was seventy or eighty and he'll still look like this, will he have to lie about his age? Most definitely but hopefully before then, he'll have a woman to spend the rest of his life with.

Everything was going smoothly, perfectly but when Riku had the feeling in his chest that something was about to happen, he turn around to see if anyone was coming but it was already too late for his intuition to kick in cause Leon had came up from behind and begin to hump the woman's leg. Oh...such perfect timing Riku thought with every hint of sarcasm. His face remained the same but in his mind he was mentally choking the hell out of Leon for pulling his retarded monkey scheme to cock block him. Leon was worst than Riku's uncle cause at least he would apologize (sometimes he didnt) over what he did. He wasn't expecting to get that from Leon.

Oh in Riku's mind he saw that everything that was going right was going downhill faster than a free-falling man coming downward to the earth. He wanted to say "Please don't go, he's a bit of on the slow side" but that would definitely be a turn off. Pity maybe? Oh but it was too late, she had patted Leon's head on so cutely and waved at Riku with that look of "Oh god, another psycho man with a retarded kid" look. She left slowly, no doubt that she still had some deceny not to run away.

Riku placed his cold palm over his forehead and lets out a sigh. Strange how his sigh was very visible, cold to the touch of it and it was in the middle of summer. It never occurs to Riku but Leon would see it. Letting his hand slide down his head he got a lecture from the now normal and decent Leon telling him that it serves him right and telling him he did all the shopping and what not and then Riku's selective hearing kicked him. Thank you selective hearing, he thought to himself. You serve me well. His eyes remain the same, he knew through experience how to make it look as though he was fully paying attention when in all actuality he was ignoring every word there was.

Leon then dropped all of his belongings onto the ground. The people around them stared at them with pleasing interest. Is it a show they were wanting? Seeing a teenager scolding the older man for trying to get something, anything from a woman. Oh why just leave in embrassament when all the fun is right there in the moment. Riku suppose he could give the people what they want. Since Leon was still inexperience and unaware at what skills Riku posses besides being his sensei was unfamilar.

"Hey" he said cheerfully "You want me to show you a ninja technique? Eh? " He uses his hand to lead him in close "It's actually very useful in a time like this. It helps you escape out of nasty situations" He grabs the back of Leon's collar and then with a little bit of force, he threw Leon towards the forest.

Out and far from the sights of view, the people were in awe to see that the boy was thrown. Some worried that he would get himself hurt but Riku knew what he was doing. The people couldn't see it great but they amasingly saw Riku grab all of his items from shopping and then run through the crowd with ease. Everything happen so fast than if they weren't paying attention they would've missed the action cause Riku was gone.

Leon would be high in the air thinking of ways to how he was gonna get out of this situation but most likely freaking out. He was in the air for only seven seconds before he felt the impact of something or someone catching him. It was Riku. Of course it was Riku, whom else would it be. Riku gave him a very cold look "You can be a bit of bothersome, you know that?" he said it so calmly as they were 200 feet in the air and free falling none the less. They were about to hit the ground but something pushed underneath Riku's feet and he was running then juking his way into the trees where he was using the tree branches as a platform to reach down to the ground. He then drops Leon on the ground.

Riku sighed another one of those cold sighs he has "Ade, ade and she was a pretty thing too. Such a shame for that one to get away. Eh, she was bold but not my type in a way. I like them very hard to get...so should I be thankful?" He said that last part real soft then he chuckled "Nah". He turns to Leon "How you feeling?"

Leon held up one hand to signify that he needed a moment before responding to Riku’s question. Turning and walking over to the nearest set of bushes, Leon doubled over and let of a long and sickening gag, before finally throwing up whatever was left in his stomach. Wiping his mouth off with a couple leaves, leon picked up a few pieces of grass and started chewing them and spitting, ridding his mouth of the infernal taste of bile.

“How am I feeling? Are we counting the fact that you just threw me into the distance? Or decided to let me free fall for almost 10 seconds? Or how about the fact that I just puked? Im also pretty sure that the people in town saw me twinkle in the distance,” Leon said, rubbing his temples. Inertia and spinning was never one of his strong suits. Losing his center of gravity like that always messed him up and made him sick. Even at that moment, Leon was sweating and shaking, his face slightly pale.

Feeling something wet along the top of his lip, Leon wiped the back of his hand over it, and frowned in disgust as he saw blood smeared across the hand. He sighed, even a bloody nose now? How hard did he throw him? Sighing again, Leon pulled out a random hankerchief that he found in his pocket, probably from one of the more wealthy ladies in the town they were just at, and shoved it up his nose, stemming and preventing the bleeding so he could think clearer. Well, think clearer and not be annoyed by the constant feeling of liquid running down his lip.

“Now seriously. You said ninja techniques or something today. Picking me up and throwing me does not count as an escape technique. Not for me atleast. So, whatcha got up your sleeve for me?”

Riku turned his back away from Leon. He did not know that Leon was about to puke out his breakfast, his mind was somewhat else at the moment. He looked at a tree that was about ten feet in front of him. He heard the noises of hurling off on the side, a most interesting sound to Riku. It was probably the fact that it was the most deserving thing he could get after cockblocking him. Majorly cockblocking him. The little man inside of his head kept on repeating to Riku that it was just what the doctor order.

He thought to himself, cupping his chin with his two fingers and wonder what he could use this tree for. He could practice chakra control with him and explain to him all the necessary basics of chakra and what is is compose and give him the scientific and spiritual aspects but again, he did not have time for it. Time was not on Riku side and he knew it but he kept that very secret from Leon. He didn't want to give Leon the fact that he was rushing with him. That was not how one builds a sensei/student relationship. Rather than telling him how his father explained, he wanted to give him a bit of a twist to his method of how he was going to train him.

“Now seriously. You said ninja techniques or something today. Picking me up and throwing me does not count as an escape technique. Not for me atleast. So, whatcha got up your sleeve for me?” Leon voice echoed in Riku, pushing Riku out of the train of thought that he was in. He turns around and looks at him with a look of interest. His face didn't appear to have any smile on it from Leon throwing up and suffering from vertigo nor did it had the look of absolute anger for messing with a woman he was trying to look up with. He looked at him with extreme focus. He walks to Leon but stops only a few away.

"I did promise you techniques of the ninja but you have to remember something about me" He pauses. He looks at Leon with disconcerning look. His aura, the color of a bright yellow. It was once wavering back to a sickly green, the color of sickness and plague after he threw up but his aura was a beautiful yellow. It changes to orange when he falls asleep, which meant that there was still something mysterious about this boy. Tsuna did him that the boy was a mystery to begin with and there is little to know about the boy but he was hiding something about this boy. Something about this kid that Tsuna wanted Riku to find out. Does Tsuna know anything about Leon? If he did, then why did he send Riku to find him? That was what bothered Riku the most just by looking at him. His mysterious yellow and orange color that is the same color of the 10th.

"I am not a ninja. I know techniques of the shinobi but being classified as a 'shinobi' is something that I am truly not. You must remember I am nobody. Remember that" His hands trails to the right side of his body. There, he pulled the entire blade, sheath and all, out from his hip and then placed it over his shoulder. His arms rested comfortably over it "Being as you are, Leon, you have no techniques, no skills regarding jutsu, no prior knowledge of ANY ninja basics but you are something special apparently" For that brief moment again, Leon saw the breath as Riku exhaled. It was cold, colder than the last time he saw. In that same instant, the sword he pulled out from his hip did not look like a blade, a katana for that fact. But, something along the lines of scythe. Riku sighs again but the cold breath didn't appear

"What I'm going to do is this..." he takes a left hand over the hilt and lowers the blade "I'm going to kill you" Riku said this with a matter of fact tone, bored out of his mind look that made Riku raise his eyebrow for a brief moment "I'm going to kill every single molecule of your existance and seperate your soul, consuming you"

It was a joke. It had to be. Riku was pulling Leon's leg, pulling it sideways. Next thing he was going to do was bubble over laughing to see Leon's face as he was ready to run from him. It was all going to be over soon, they'll laugh it off. Kill him, what a joke. Riku looked way too cool to kill anyone. He talks about how he killed so many people in the past yet there is no proof of evidence. All talk and no play, a bunch of bullshit conspired together in order to get the ladies. It was all...

The world around Leon and Riku began to look bland. The colors of the entire plain of living existance faded away just like sand returning to the sea as the waves of the ocean takes it. The greens of the grass and leaves, the earthy browns of the rocks, tree barks, the sky blue atmosphere that Leon could almost touch when he was high in the air was all gone. Now just emptiness, grey, meshing with the tones of white and black. Leon would see that his skin had grown pale. The peachy skin tone that he had faded into grey. It was what a colorblind person must feel like whenever he glared upon something that should be beautiful and yet he could not see the true extent of the color.

Riku, on the other hand, had all the colors. The light blue hair, the shifting eye colors that he goes through with each passing moment, his light skin tone, cloth color, everything was still vivid. But the eyes were the ones that would catch Leon's attention. It was black, he never seen Riku's eyes turn black. The colors Leon remember were green, blue, orange and at one time a beautiful color of indigo. But these eyes were black, darkness wrapped in a circular bundle was inside of his pupils. Horrifying as it was and it probably couldn't get any worse with those eyes was the fact that Leon saw his death. One hundred times, no two hundred times over. Again and again, a blade was driven towards his chest, pierecing through and out of his shoulder blade. The sting of pain that would drive from that specific area and outward through his body as the nerves would respond with the total shock of being pierce.

"Let your body...die..." he rose his left arm that held the blade over his head. Now Leon was not seeing any illusions. He was seeing what he saw that very instant he saw Riku's cold breath. It was a scythe, the staff overpowerfully long and black as the eyes of the wielder with a blade that did not have a form of blade but it was continously shining like a star flickering in the sky, pure energy. He swung the blade through Leon and the last thing that Leon could hear was "And let your body will reborn as you die with regret"

"The dying will flame" Riku said to Tsuna "You wish for me to unlock it in this boy"

Tsuna, who was sitting over in his chair behind a wooden desk nodded with agreeance. He took a cup that was filled with chai tea reached to his lips and he sipped it heavenly, letting out a soft sigh placing the cup down "The 11th Vongola that I have chosen has no prior skills in anything. No ninja skills, none taught by our mafia nor any assassins skills that you have. He is like a blank slate and needs something on it in order to become a powerful 11th mafia leader. But a foundation of such power must come from th dying will flame, the sky flame as you and I have that will harmonize the other flames together"

With a reluctant look, Riku could only scratch his scalp. He damn his habit of when something like was more of a annoyance rather than a duty. He saw Tsuna's face and he damned him for smiling like that. "I know, but the problem with such is that I do not have any techniques like what Reborn has to unlock the dying will flame out of anyone with ease"

Tsuna turned his head. Gotdamn that smile, so coy and fucking irritable to Riku at the time. It was look saying "You know what you can do" look. Riku shook his head frantically "Oh no, no no no no no. No, you can't possibly make me release the dying will flame like that. I know what you are thinking, you are thinking of letting me use my abilities of what my father possess on a person who you gave me VERY little information about"

"I didn't assume anything, Riku-san" He placed the honorific for Riku now. He knew soemthing and Riku knew that this something would irritate the hell out of him. Why do it now if this was suppose to be a serious objective for him? Tsuna may have been a weakling when he was younger but he damn will cunning now as an adult. The bastard of a Vongola was using Riku to unlock another power of the dying will flame that no other teacher could unlock. It was how many of the assassins in the Varia was so powerful do to this one thing that Riku and his father possess "You were the one that came up with the idea. I merely just said you could do it with ease, nothing more and nothing less"

Riku sighed, the sigh that released that cold breath of his. His eyes glared back up at the golden ones Tsuna had currently, they were yellow. The yellow that had deep red arteries that center towards the center as though he experience a type of drug that made him like this. His look was calm but Tsuna knew better. He irritated the hell out of Riku and Riku was not too please with it. Riku knew the risk of doing this. If this boy wasn't the true leader of the next generation of Vongola, he would had literally killed this boy. Literally, destroyed this childs life. Tsuna would take that risk. Riku saw that aura of his,a yellow that was like a flame, at the tips of the flames was a spot of orange that was close to gold but just not there yet. Riku smiled, then letting out a ltitle snicker

"You truly are an interesting one Tsuna. I see why I like you so much. That sky flame of yours plus your superior intuition make you appear just like that. Calm and collected" He gets up from his chair and turns away towards the door "I'll train your halfbit leader. I want something interesting and doing something interesting makes my life something a bit more exciting that it is now"