Portrayed as one of the protagonist's first friends, Hayato Gokudera is introduced as a 14-year-old bad boy born in Italy.

Suicide was considered, but she had been looking forward to that day and had even brought a present for the young Gokudera.

Gokudera did not decide to join the Mafia until after he found out about his mother's death, as he wanted revenge on his father because of this.

He worked as a hitman for Vongola for several years, which is where he gained his title of Hurricane Bomb Hayato.

At school, Gokudera is adored by many of the female classmates who view him as the "rebellious, cool bad boy.

As part of the character's personal background it is revealed that Gokudera had a traumatic childhood experience, and that every time he sees the face of his older sister in the, Bianchi, he collapses, sometimes even falling unconscious.

[6] He is however immune to his sister when she happens to be wearing something that covers part of her face (mainly the eyes).

[7] Originally, Gokudera's main weakness was the fact that it was difficult to pinpoint and calculate the exact distance between himself and his target and sync it with the amount of time it would take for the bombs to actually explode.

Each one, once thrown, causes the backside of the bombs to fire up and rocket towards his opponent like high-speed missiles, which then explode on impact.

[11] Uri is later given an upgrade and now can transform into the Storm Vongola Box, G. Archery, a weapon similar to a crossbow attached to Gokudera's arm that lets him store up his energy to release in powerful flame shots.

After the Melone Base arc, Gokudera is instructed by Dino to teach the ten years younger Ryohei and Lambo how to use their Vongola box weapons.

He then participates in the Choice battle, which the Vongola lose, before the group are tasked with protecting Uni, the granddaughter of the Sky Arcobaleno, from Byakuran.

Gokudera gets injured, but joins Lal and Gamma in a battle against the Funeral Wreath, Zakuro, and uses his Vongola Box against him.

Besides his appearances in the manga and the anime, Gokudera has a character CD along with Takeshi Yamamoto entitled "Our Joy!"

It was released by Pony Canyon on January 23, 2008, and it contains various dialogues and phrases by Gokudera and Yamamoto's voice actors, Hidekazu Ichinose and Suguru Inoue, respectively.

[13] Various pieces of merchandise have been developed based on Gokudera's appearance such as keychains, plush and figurines.

[14] His character has continuously appeared in the Top 5 of the official Shonen Jump popularity polls.

[19] In mangalife.com Michael Aronson's review of the second volume, Gokudera was noted as one of the several "oddball characters" appearing in the series.