Full Summary:

In a dystopian world where the Mafia hides not in the shadows but rules the whole globe uncontested in broad daylight, the death of Timoteo and the near extinction of the Vongola Bloodline threaten the power stability the people have known for centuries. The Vongola Rings have been stolen, and without the Rings there can be no Capo di tutti capi. Sensing weakness, the vultures circle nearby, waiting for the right moment to feast upon the weakened prey. As if that wasn't enough, an old enemy makes itself known; Xanxus of the Varia has escaped imprisonment and is prepared to wage a bloody war against his half-brother to see who is fit to sit on the throne. As civil unrest grows under Federico's rule, and the streets of Italy run red with the blood of traitors and rebels, rumors about a possible surviving heir, one who might even have more of a claim to the title of Decimo than both of them, reach the ears of the warring brothers. Now it's a race against time to see which one will be able to find and kill him before the little Sky can grow into his Flames. To up his chances, Federico sends the World's Greatest Hitman, Reborn, to infiltrate the distant and mysterious Island of Japan, ruled by the ruthless Hibari Family.

His mission: to find the only child of Sawada Iemitsu, the deceased ex-Advisor of Vongola. A boy, by the name of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Meanwhile, in Japan, feasts are being prepared as the whole town of Namimori rejoice at the news that Hibari Kyouya-sama is returning to his hometown in order to find a worthy wife to bear him heirs; what no one expected, however, was that the feared 'Demon Prince of Namimori' would set his eyes on Nanashima Tsuna, the girl with no family, no money, and definitely no future.

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Prolog - Stolen

Whispers filled the hallways of Vongola HQ, as the guards and other household staff engaged in the millennia-old tradition of gossiping like old housewives.

"Did you hear?" one maid whispered quietly to another, face pale.

Her friend nodded, equally serious. "Yes, it's horrible. Everyone is in an uproar about it.."

"Poor Young Master, he must be feeling so devastated... He was one of the first ones to arrive at the scene, you know. They said there was so much blood the place looked like a slaughter house."

"I pity the maids tasked with cleaning it," a third voice piped in. It was one of the guards, probably enjoying his break time.

The first maid hissed at him "Show some respect! That's Vongola Nono we're talking about!"

The guard shrugged. "I'm just saying. Do you know how hard it is to scrub blood off that carpet?"

The maid looked affronted, but her friend nodded sagely. Clearly, at least one of them could see the truth in his words.

"Anyway, what is going to happen now? Will Master Federico become the new Boss?" the maid's friend asked, looking between the other two.

The guard nodded, fishing a packet of cigarettes from his back pocket, as well as a lighter. "Yeah. Right after the funeral, the boss will go through the Inherence Ceremony and become Vongola Decimo."

"The Young Master is so young," the maid fretted. "And already he must bear all these burdens... Even though his whole family is dead, he still found the strength to carry on for the good of the Famiglia... Truly, what an exceptional man!"

Her friend looked at her dubiously. "The way you talk about him, he seems like the tragic hero of a novel... And what do you mean his whole family is dead? Wasn't there another one? I think I heard some rumors..."

A tense silence befell the trio. The maid's friend looked at her companions, brows furrowed in confusion.

"What?" she asked, impatient.

"... We don't talk about him." The guard finally answered after taking a long drag of his cigarette, surreptitiously looking over his shoulder to check if there was anyone nearby. In a cautious tone, he continued "Xanxus was exiled some ten years ago for trying to overthrown Nono. No one has seen him since."

"Oh. But... since the Boss is dead... does this mean...?"

Won't he come back?

The guard and first maid traded looks and the woman shuddered. "Let's hope not," she said briskly. "If we're lucky, that madman is lying dead in a ditch somewhere."

The guard frowned heavily at her. "Xanxus might have been wrong about trying to do a coup d'état, but he certainly wasn't insane. He's a brilliant man, and before that, one of the favorite candidates for the position of Heir. He was Head of the Varia, for Primo's sake! Do you think a madman could accomplish all of that?"

"Oh please, everyone knows the Varia is filled with nutcases," the first maid said dismissively. "Haven't you heard about Prince the Ripper? Or maybe that creep, Levi? And of course, let's us not forget Lussuria; I heard he likes to keep the bodies of his subordinates as his personal dolls after they die. It's unclear whether he uses them as actual dolls to play dress-up before they start rotting, or for more... unsavory things. Why should it be surprising that a mad dog like Xanxus was sent there?"

"Well, I would rather have that mad dog as my Boss than Principessa Federico," he sneers, smoke billowing from his mouth. "Has your Young Master even participated in a true battle in his whole life? Has he ever gotten shot or gutted or poisoned? Has he ever had to fight for his life? I wouldn't be surprised if he lets his Guardians do all the dirty work. At least Xanxus can be trusted to get his hands dirty when it counts."

"How dare you! Young Master has worked harder than everyone in this mansion put together, he-"

"Alright, alright," her friend interrupted what would, no doubt, be a long and winding speech about the magnificence that was Federico Vongola. "I just asked because I didn't know who Xanxus was."

The quarreling couple stopped glaring at each other to stare at the third in bemusement.

"But didn't you ask about another heir?" the guard questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean Xanxus. I meant Young Master Sawada."

"... Young Master... Sawada...? You mean the Vongola Advisor? He's the leader of CEDEF. he can't become Decimo... Furthermore... I'm pretty sure Iemitsu ain't that young..."

The maid's friend rolled her eyes. "His son. I meant his son. His name's Tsunayoshi, I think?"

They looked at her, their minds boggled. "Since when does the Head of CEDEF has a kid?"

"Oh, apparently he hid him away to be raised as a civilian alongside his mother, so the two would be safe and not get caught up in the Famiglia's politics."

The guard stares, the cigarette almost falling out of his mouth. "... A civilian?" he asks, voice strangled.

"Yup."

The first maid's mouth is hanging open, eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. "... As a potential heir?" a choked whisper.

"Yup."

The two of them traded another look before bursting out in laughter.

"As if a civilian could ever become the Boss of any Famiglia, much less Vongola Decimo!" the man roared with mirth, almost swallowing his cig.

The maid covered her mouth to smother her giggles. "Oh my, if that's the competition, Young Master might as well just take the Rings and be done with it."

Before the other woman could give an angry retort, a door slamming open caught their attention. Seconds later, the sound of a stampede of feet approached their place, voices shouting over each other in an effort to be heard. It took a second to decipher what they were actually saying, but when they did, the three exchanged shocked and horrified looks, the implication of this knowledge sinking into their brains and causing a shiver to run down their spines.

"The Rings are missing! Iemitsu Sawada has been murdered!"

"The Advisor's dead!"

"The Vongola Rings have been stolen!"

The world as they knew it had just been turned upside down.

It was the beginning of the end.

Federico Vongola looked down at the remains of what was once the Head of the CEDEF, Iemitsu Sawada. To be honest, there was barely anything that could be used to identify the man. That was the extension of the mutilation Iemitsu had suffered. His limbs had been twisted into unnatural positions, and deep gashes covered his chest and his face. There was one large hole in the stomach that allowed all of its contents to be spilled on the floor of the destroyed office, half-crushed organs that Federico would have happily preferred to never see outside one's body. He wished someone would open the windows. The body was beginning to stink up the place.

As if she had read his mind, Alessa offered him a handkerchief to cover his nose. He sent a grateful look her way.

His Mist Guardian truly was the best.

"Do we have any suspects?" he asked, nose securely covered.

Alessa spared a disinterested glance at the corpse. "Aside from the obvious one?"

"Aside from Xanxus, yes."

"No."

That was the other thing he liked about Alessa. Apart from her beauty, with the platinum blond hair and ice-blue eyes, he could also always appreciate her sharp mind and bluntness. Which was an interesting quirk of her personality, considering her Mist Flames.

Federico sighed. It seemed his already bad week was about to take a turn for the worse. "You know," he said, crouching next to the body to take a closer look at the wounds. His Intuition nagged at him. There was something off about those wounds. Had he seen them before? "I hope this was Xanxus' work. Do you know how troublesome it would be if it turns out there's another enemy targeting Vongola?"

Behind him, Alessa hummed. "It would certainly derail our plans. We are already behind schedule as it is. You should've already been declared Decimo by now. But with the Rings gone..."

"I guess that's what Iemitsu gets for insisting on a Ring Battle. Honestly, both of us knew there was no way for Xanxus to become Boss. So what was the point?"

"Well, some people say that Iemitsu had a son. Maybe he wanted to see him on the throne."

Federico paused, brown eyes going blank as he thought about it. Almost unconsciously, his hand reached out, searching for something in the inside pockets of the body's ruined suit.

A moment later, he was holding a simple, blood-stained wallet.

Federico spent enough time with Iemitsu to know the name of his wife, though he was unaware they had had a child before Nana died five years ago. "A son, huh?"

Inside the wallet, he could find many old receipts, credit cards, and false IDs. And hidden beneath it all, an old photograph, creased and deeply folded in small quartets, as if the person in possession of it had spent many a night taking and putting it back, running his finger over the face captured in the frame.

It's the picture of a child. A tiny, androgynous child, no older than five, wearing an orange and yellow kimono decorated with patterns that reminded Federico of flames. Big doe-eyes and fluffy brown hair, an adorable and timid smile on his chubby face as he waves at the camera.

On the back of the photo, a message scrawled with all the enthusiasm and finesse of a toddler.

Miss you, Tou-chan!

With love, Tsunayoshi

He looked again at the boy in the frame, his distant young cousin. Years must have passed since the photo was taken. How much older was he now? Had he grown up enough to lose all the baby fat on his cheek? Did he look like a man now, like his big and broad-shouldered father, or did he inherited his mother's build, small and slim?

"... Tsunayoshi, hmm..."

Was he, maybe, old enough to fight?

"Alessa," he called his Mist Guardian over. "Prepare my office. I will need it later for an important meeting."

The blond woman nodded. "At once, boss. Anything I should prepare specifically?"

He thought about it. What did his old man always had in hand when he had his old friend over?

"Some espresso wouldn't be amiss."

As Alessa went off to follow his order, Federico slowly got back to his feet, slipping the picture into the breast pocket of his Armani suit.

He still needed to organize a few things before meeting the World's Greatest Hitman, after all.

"Sorry, baby cousin," he said as he walked away from the corpse laid on the floor. "It's nothing personal."

We must all sacrifice for the good of the Family.

Miles away, in a small apartment in Namimori, Japan, Tsuna startled awake.

Sweat dotted her forehead and dampened the oversized t-shirt she used as pajamas. Her hair, usually uncontrollably messy in the morning after she wakes, is flattened against her face by the perspiration while her heart attempts to escape the confines of her ribcage, beating a mile per second.

She could almost swear there was a voice whispering in the shell of her ear, the words making her body go taut with fear and apprehension.

It's begun.

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AN: So, what do you think?

Also, for those of you that follow Dark Waters, I kind of lost inspiration on that front. Naruto still has a special place in my heart, but it's taking a backseat right now. The story is not abandoned by any means, but I don't know when exactly I will update it. Life is a mess right now, but we will see. Maybe next week I will manage.

Reviews?