1 Chapter I
Name: Sawada Ietsuna, otherwise known as Ietsu
Nickname: Dame-Ietsu
Age: 14
Gender: Male
Title: Vongola Decimo
Parents: Sawada Iemitsu and Sawada Nana.
Occupation: Student
Flame Type: Sky
Appearance: Totally average appearance, with messy blond hair and brown eyes.
Remarks: Cowardly and useless, but has the potential to become Vongola Decimo. Often bullied, grades are the last in school. He is a nice and kind person though. (Similar to canon Tsuna)
---
"Mum, I'm home!" Said Ietsuna as he walked into the house.
"Welcome home, Ie-kun! Oh look, I got a tutor for you! I received a flyer in the mailbox and called him! He's coming today! The flyer said, 'I will raise your child to become the leader of the next generation. I am young and good-looking.' And the best part? It's completely free as long as he has a place to sleep and a meal! How great is that!" Ietsuna watched as his mother babbled on, mouth hanging open.
"What? Why? I don't need a tutor! And it totally sounds like a scam!"
"Sawada Ietsuna, who scored 0 in Math..." Nana said as she waved Ietsuna's test papers in his face.
"What? Mum! How did you know? Where did you get that from!" Ietsuna shouted as he tried to grab for the paper, face red from embarrassment.
"I found it in your drawer today. Now, no buts. Everyone knows that you need a home tutor."
"Mum... -" Ietsu desperately tried to get his mother to change her mind, only to be interrupted by the door bell.
"It must be your tutor! Go get the door, Ie-kun."
Ietsu groaned in frustration as he walked towards the door. As he opened the door, he heard a "Ciaossu!" and without a warning, something landed on his head.
Ietsu lost his balance and fell to the floor, raising his hand to see what was on his head. "Ouch! What-"
Reborn interrupted him once more to introduce himself. "So you are Ietsu? I am Reborn, your new home tutor! Starting from today I'll be looking after you."
"You? You are my tutor? Are you kidding me? Mum! You've been scammed!" Ietsu screamed. Nana just smiled.
Reborn kicked him on his head. "Hieeee!" Ietsu shrieked. Reborn only rolled his eyes at the high-pitched shriek, thinking, First, we must get rid of that horrid high-pitched shriek. No mafia boss shrieks like that, for god's sake. He pulled his fedora down and gave a smirk. Now the training shall begin.
"Ie-kun, bring him up your room. "
"Mum!" Ietsu protested, but Nana paid no heed to him and walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Ietsu sighed as he walked up to his room, tripping twice on the way. "So clumsy, Dame-Ietsu." Reborn remarked. "What! How did you know my nickname?" Ietsu turned around to face Reborn, only to trip once more.
"Tsk." Reborn frowned at his clumsiness. Well, it's a bit worse than expected, isn't it? When they say useless... No one can be this useless and clumsy, right? Looks like we got work to do. "Gathering information is a basic skill, Ietsu."
Ietsu looked like he was going to rebut him but they had reached their room. "This is my room." Ietsu opened the door.
Reborn surveyed the surroundings, and went to sit down on the bed like he owned the place.
"Hey, that's my-"
"Actually, I am the world's greatest hitman."
"-bed..."
Ietsu was going to continue what he was saying, until what the baby said registered in his head. "What? Hahahaha don't make me laugh! You?" Ietsu just laughed in... disbelief.
A green gun glinted in his hand, his customary smirk on his face. He would show him who's boss in the following days.
"And I'm here to train you to become a mafia boss." A bullet shot past Ietsu's head, missing him only by a few millimetres.
"HHHIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" A loud, ear-piercing scream was heard throughout the neighbourhood.
---
Name: Reborn
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Title: Sun Arcobaleno, World's Greatest Hitman
Occupation: Hitman, Tutor
Flame type: Sun
Appearance: Looks like a baby, with black eyes and spiky black hair, with his trademark curly sideburns and fedora.
Remarks: Not known for the world's greatest hitman for nothing, he is extremely powerful and his loyalty lies with the Vongola. One of the seven strongest babies on earth and even rumoured to be the strongest Arcobaleno, although no one knows if it is really true. He is also known to be cold, unforgiving and detached, and have few close and trustable friends.
---
Reborn watched as Ietsuna desperately tried to finish his math homework while being held at gunpoint. Perspiration was seen dripping down from his forehead and his hand was obviously shaking out of fear.
Reborn just had a smirk on his face as he watched his student suffer.
"Say, Dame-Ietsu, how well do you know Sawada Tsunayoshi?"
"Hmm? Sawada-san?" Ietsu looked up. He was clearly glad to have something to distract him from his homework. "Well... I'm not very close to him, and he's not very close to anyone either. In fact, he's pretty invisible most of the times and very... average."
Something hit his head, hard. When did Leon change to a slipper, of all things? Ietsuna just wanted to scream and pull out his hair in frustration. "At least average is better than being useless. By the way, I don't recall asking you to stop doing your homework."
Ietsuna wanted to protest but Reborn had already jumped onto his bed and sat down. He sighed and continued trying to solve the math problem that was ever so confusing.
Reborn pulled down his fedora so that Ietsuna would not see him frowning. He seemed to be contemplating something, with a thoughtful look on his face. When Ietsuna next turned to sneak a peek at him, however, the look was gone in an instant and his usual sadistic-Spartan-tutor-from-hell-smirk was back into place.
"Stop staring at me and do your homework, Dame-Ietsu, before I put a bullet right through your head." He felt a sense of satisfaction and sardonic pleasure as he saw Ietsuna gulped in fear, before he laid down on the bed. "I'm sleeping. Don't make any noises or I'll..." Reborn paused in mid-sentence and a bubble came out of his nose.
Did he just fall asleep like that! Ietsuna thought as he stared at Reborn, astonished. He's so weird and scary! My life... why...
Before Reborn had went to Ietsuna's house and met Ietsuna, he had done an extensive research on all the backgrounds of the students in Namimori Middle School, to see which students were suitable candidates to join the Vongola famiglia. Well, as a hitman, gathering information was a basic skill. Furthermore, knowledge is power, and in the world of dangerous mafia, knowledge can make or break you.
He had managed to obtain the students' records from the principal, while cosplaying as Professor Borin. A very useful disguise, yes.
Most students were too ordinary to be in Ietsu's famiglia, but a few did catch his eyes.
Yamamoto Takeshi, son of the famous but retired hitman Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, talented at baseball with extremely good reflexes. Reborn would bet that he would be a natural born hitman, given his genes and instincts and reflexes from all the information he can see.
Hibari Kyoya, Namimori Middle Disciplinary Committee Leader, was said to be extremely strong, cruel and aloof. Basically everyone in Namimori had heard of his name and fear him. Pretty admirable for a fifteen-year-old, thought Reborn. Definitely a great candidate as a guardian of Ietsu's.
Sasagawa Ryohei, Namimori Boxing Club Leader, was an excellent boxer who possesses great strength, and not to forget extremely passionate, according to sources. Way too passionate, most would say. Nevertheless, he was worth considering, with his extremeness.
And last but not least...
Sawada Tsunayoshi.
Reborn's eyes widened a fraction. His hands nearly shook and dropped the record, but years of practice as a hitman prevented that.
A normal boy with average grades, average physical fitness, average looks, average social skills. Average, average and average. Everything about him was average, and not a thing about him was abnormal. If Reborn were anyone else he would have overlooked his profile like how he did for the other students, but he didn't.
Teachers' remarks: Sawada-san is a very polite, kind and nice student. Puts in effort in his work and hands in his work on time, very responsible. However, he does not interact much with other students, and only talk when necessary. Hope to see him to become more sociable as he is a very likeable student.
That was all. One word to describe him was, simple.
Reborn's eyes strayed to the photo at the top right hand corner of the paper. Brown eyes, spiky brown hair, and somehow he bore a resemblance to the Vongola Decimo candidate.
He hadn't changed at all, even after so many years.
Reborn let out an uncharacteristic sigh. He knew many things, but Tsuna was one of those things – perhaps even the only one – which Reborn could never understand or for that matter, fathom what he was thinking.
Reborn frowned. Tsuna, what are you doing here?
---
Name: Sawada Tsunayoshi
Age: Unknown, appears to be around 14 to 15, even passable for 18.
Gender: Male
Title: Sky Arcobaleno
Occupation: Unknown
Flame Type: Sky
Appearance: Striking resemblance to Ietsu, even having the same surname. They are related, after all. Brown hair that stands up everywhere, and brown eyes that always hold a blank look.
Remarks: Based on TYL Tsuna.
---
"Ietsu. Get up. Ietsu. Ietsu." Reborn nudged Ietsuna but the latter just made a noise and continued to sleep.
"I have no choice then. I'll have to use Vongola family's traditional awakening methods." As soon as he said that, he took out defibrillators and prepared to shock Ietsuna awake.
"Three... Two... One..." On cue, Ietsu bolted up from his bed screaming. There was smoke coming out from his hair.
"You're awake." Reborn said as he gave an innocent smile, as if he hadn't just shocked a person.
"Do you normally send electric shocks through someone's body just to wake them up?" Ietsuna exclaimed.
"It's a good thing you even opened your eyes. Some people don't even wake up at all."
That's because they die of shock... Ietsuna was rendered speechless.
"Hurry up and get up, Dame-Ietsu, before you are late for school."
"School? School! Hieee! Oh my god I'm going to be late!" Ietsuna shrieked as he ran out of his room.
"You still have much to learn, Dame-Ietsu."
---
"Hello, Kyoya." Tsuna greeted as he walked through the door to the rooftop. It was lunchtime, and Tsuna brought his bento to eat at his usual place, the rooftop of Namimori Middle School, along with the Demon of Namimori, Hibari Kyoya.
They were an odd pair, really, but Hibari claimed to only tolerate the 'omnivore', and grudgingly share his private rooftop with Tsuna only because Tsuna kept bugging him. Tsuna, on the other hand, liked the peace and quiet of the rooftop and somehow managed to make Hibari allow him to crowd on the rooftop (through a fight, probably).
Hibari was lying down on the floor, hands supporting his head. He didn't deem it necessary to give Tsuna a reply.
Tsuna just smiled, already used to Hibari's antisocial behaviour. He sat down on a spot one metre away from Hibari as he was not in a mood to fight Hibari now.
"Hmm... Looks like we have a guest today. Did you not feel his presence?" Tsuna said as he opened his bento, putting a piece of sushi in his mouth.
Hibari sat up, alarmed. "An intruder?" He must be very strong then, for Hibari not to sense his presence. The thought made Hibari's blood heat up in anticipation.
"More like an old friend, really. And please don't think about fighting him, you have no chance of winning."
Trust Tsuna to make matters worse by making Hibari more excited. The latter always loved a challenge.
Tsuna turned his gaze to a specific spot of the wall, and watched calmly as something moved. "Nice to see you again, Reborn. Your camouflage skills have improved over the years."
The 'piece of wall' turned around to reveal a small face.
"Thank you. It's been a long time, hasn't it? How many years have it been since..." Reborn trailed off. "No matter. Tsuna, I didn't expect to see you here, in Namimori of all places. You, on the other hand, don't seem that surprised to see me here."
"I know things, Reborn... and most of all, I know you." Tsuna replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "You are here to train the Vongola Decimo, right? Time really flies, and in the blink of an eye, it's Vongola's tenth generation already. Well, all I have to say about this is that if it was many years ago, I would have gone into shock knowing you have become a tutor."
"I'm sure you can imagine me being a Spartan tutor from hell," Reborn smirked. Then his expression turned serious as he wiped the smirk off his face. "Let's go back to the matter at hand. We need to talk, Tsuna. Preferably alone." He turned his attention to Hibari, who had been accessing the newcomer all along and his tonfas held out.
"Ah. Kyoya, isn't it time for your patrol? It wouldn't do for you to be behind schedule, right?" I'll deal with him, Tsuna assured him silently.
"Hn. I will bite you to death later, omnivore." With that, Hibari left, with his jacket flowing after him. Throughout the whole confrontation, Tsuna's smile never wavered.
"How have you been, Reborn? Good?" There was a flash of melancholy in Tsuna's eyes, before it disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"... Why are you here, Tsuna?"
Tsuna laughed. "Does it matter, why I am here? We haven't met for years and that is the thing you are most concerned about? Why, I'm feeling quite heartbroken at the moment. Anyway, I've travelled to many places, perhaps I just want to settle down at a quiet town like Namimori and lead a peaceful life."
"Tsuna, you never 'settle down'. Sawada Ietsuna is a candidate for Vongola Decimo, and you, as the Sky Arcobaleno... There is no such thing as coincidence, at least not like this. Does this concern the Tri-Ni-Sette? Is something happening?"
Tsuna shook his head. "There's nothing to worry about, Reborn."
"Then why—"
Tsuna looked away to avoid Reborn's burning gaze. "To tell you the truth, I had a vision."
Reborn looked up in alarm. "What? And you say there is nothing to worry about?"
Tsuna sighed. "Like I said, I don't think it's anything bad. Trust me. A dream... A vision brought me here. I dreamt of this place, not knowing why, so I came. I think something is going happen. Something big. Nevertheless, don't worry yourself out, it's not good for your health."
Reborn pulled his fedora down. "Something big, huh."
"So I'll be staying at Namimori for a while. I bet it'll be fun to be a normal student for once." Tsuna smiled. "I guess I'm stuck with you for the time being then."
Before Reborn could reply, he saw Tsuna's eyes turn serious for the first time since the start of the conversation, darkening slightly.
"Maybe it's fate."
