Fon was almost smug when Reborn's attempts to locate "Setsuna Sawada" ended in dismal failure. Then again, he was unaware that he had been asking the wrong questions from the start.

Natsume was now sixteen, and thoroughly amused by the fact Natori had a very protective "big brother" side to him. Something that came into play the second he saw how Mukuro was looking at his "little sister". Not that Natori would stand a chance in a fight between them, but it was the principle of the thing.

So it was with some amusement that Reborn finally had enough and asked the other Arcobaleno (save for Natsume for obvious reasons) for help locating the girl.

The underworld gossip network was getting restless since it had become known Ienari was unable to take the title of Vongola Decimo, and the only other heir had been missing for close to ten years without anyone knowing about it.

Something that had Lal cursing out her boss, because he was the idiot who let that fact slip while drunk!

"Mu. So you want us to search for a girl with only a vague idea of what she looks like?" said Viper, unimpressed.

Reborn had called them together a bit early, just to ask for help. So it was only natural that they would show up.

"This is a goddamn mess," complained Lal. She had beaten up Iemitsu for talking too much, but the damage was done.

"I have followed every lead I could get my hands on and the trail stops cold when the girl apparently stole a large amount of money from an old woman who has a history of being rough with children," said Reborn grimly. "By all accounts the kid had enough and decided to try her luck on her own."

"How did she steal the money?" asked Viper curious.

"ATM transactions, according to what I could find. She hit several of them at once, and due to her size was missed by the cameras. She withdrew the maximum amount and hit several of them at once until the bank computers caught on and cut her off. From what I could tell she stole roughly over two and a half million yen before the card stopped working," said Reborn.

Viper looked openly impressed with the trick. The kid was smart and devious to have gotten away with so much without being busted by the cameras. And obviously they got rid of the card immediately, otherwise there would be a better trail to follow.

Fon remained silent, hiding his amusement at the entire thing to himself.

A fact that did not go entirely unnoticed.

"You're rather quiet. Something on your mind?" asked Skull.

"Just amused that Reborn is having so much difficulty in the first place," said Fon cryptically, clearly trying not to laugh about something.

"You know something," said Reborn darkly.

"Exactly how did you track Setsuna's history to begin with?" asked Fon curiously.

"Paper trail mostly, followed by contacting the families and asking about a child fitting her description. Why?"

"Did it never occur to you to ask for the child's new surname?" asked Fon, amused.

Reborn blinked, before he glared at Fon.

"You know where she is."

"Actually if you had bothered to ask the correct questions you would have figured out where she was immediately," said Fon, clearly smug about something. "At the very least I wasn't that cryptic as to who our new Sky was, much less what family she belonged to."

Reborn and the others remembered his odd comments and began to put the little details together. Reborn was the first to catch on and he started swearing profusely.

"You mean to tell me all this time I've been on a wild goose chase when she's the holder of the Sky pacifier?!" demanded Reborn irate.

"Oh I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time. At least now I know someone cared enough to bother looking for me, even if it was nine years too late," said a voice from all around them.

That had everyone except Fon looking for the source.

A figure in a rather elaborate kimono and an odd mask came out of the shadows. Immediately their pacifiers began glowing.

The figure slowly removed the mask, revealing almost cat like eyes that glowed amber with Sky flames.

"I hear you've been trying to find me. Here I am," said Setsuna amused.

Reborn was rather irate by this point, though he quickly schooled his expression.

"You knew she was coming, didn't you?"

"How do you think I got here? We shared the same ride to meeting point and thought it would be amusing to surprise you all," said Fon, as if it were obvious. He was definitely pleased with his trick.

"Holy shit! The Sky Arcobaleno is Natsume Setsuna?!" said Skull, immediately going into total fan boy mode.

"Natsume?" repeated Reborn in disbelief. No wonder he couldn't find her... he had been asking about the wrong surname.

"My great grandmother on my maternal grandmother's side. Grandfather thought that since I inherited her gifts it was fitting to give me her last name instead," clarified Natsume. She bent down to eye level with Skull, and smiled at him. "And no, I don't mind giving out autographs to fans. I mostly find requests to be part of the movies annoying since the most I could do is make people extras anyway."

"How long have you known?" demanded Reborn.

Fon's smirk was wide and a bit sharp.

"Since I accidentally caused the pacifier to be revealed during an assessment spar. She openly admitted to her heritage but made it very clear she had no intention of cleaning up after the Ninth without a very good reason. Particularly since with his recent behavior there was a very real risk he might try to marry her off or something equally foolish. It's bad enough he lost three heirs and alienated the Varia with his incompetence."

Reborn couldn't even argue against that comment. Mostly because the fear was a rather legitimate one with a father like Iemitsu. If she had revealed herself before now, without a known support base they can and would have tried to use her as a pawn.

As it stood, she had a decent foothold to tell the Ninth where to shove it if he made demands she didn't like. She wasn't dependent on the Vongola since she held the Sky Pacifier and their allegiance was rather clear on that point.

Viper, however wanted to discuss something with her.

"What's your opinion of the Varia?" they demanded.

"I have no issue with returning their independence to them or working out a proper arrangement with Xanxus. While you do have several 'loose cannons' in your number, you at least know what restraint is and exercise it properly," said Natsume flatly. She then looked to Reborn. "And for the record, it was closer to two and three quarter million yen, not two and a half."

Viper smirked at that.

"What did the lady do to piss you off enough to rob her that badly, kora?" asked Colonello baffled.

"Long story short she was one of those cantankerous old hags who thought it perfectly acceptable to beat the children in her care if they didn't fit her narrow world view of how either gender was supposed to behave. Since nearly everyone in that family thought I was a boy because of a joke my grandfather made due to my habits, she was quite incensed about the fact I acted more like a boy than a girl, never mind the fact I kept 'making up stories' about 'monsters'," said Natsume in disgust. "Everyone knew she was a rather unpleasant person who hated children and they still tried to force me to live with her until a new family could be arranged. I wasn't about to sit by and let that happen, hence why I stole her card and used it."

"While that answers one question, it still doesn't explain why you nearly emptied her accounts," Lal pointed out.

"Living alone is expensive, even if you supplement it with judicious pick pocketing on the side and tend to camp out frequently," deadpanned Natsume. "Food and other miscellaneous costs add up fast, never mind that I had to keep moving to avoid being found by the cops and social services. Besides, she was on her last leg anyway and no one knew she had been robbed until I was long gone. It kept me fed and alive for two years until Natori-san found me."

Viper officially approved of Natsume by this point. She had a sensible outlook about money and was clearly frugal with it if she had that much sense.

"Natori, as in Shuuichi Natori?" asked Skull.

"Yup," said Natsume, letting Skull sit in her lap. He was clearly enamored by her and the fact she was so nice. "Coincidentally I have pictures of Fon wearing cat ears taking cat naps and other silly poses. Bidding starts at 10,000 and will only go up the more ridiculous they are."

Viper gravitated to the girl with a smirk on their face.

"I think we'll get along perfectly," they cackled, as the others looked to each other and immediately went for their wallets. Particularly Reborn, after the headaches Fon had caused him by keeping silent.

It didn't take long before the others were snickering or laughing outright at how adorable Fon looked with cat ears, despite the Storm's pouting face.

In spite of the stress he had been under, Reborn found it surprisingly easy to bask in the gentle Sky Flames Natsume let off. She wasn't trying to force a bond like Luce had, but rather let them linger in the air like a warm blanket without actually doing anything. It was rather relaxing.

"I have to ask, what's with the kimono and mask?" asked Verde once everyone was almost Flame drunk from the Sky hovering in the air.

"It was a gift from someone after I did them a favor. It helps mask my aura from certain elements...and apparently helps me sneak up on all of you, which I found rather amusing. I made Fon jump quite a bit when I snuck up on him one morning while wearing it at I-Pin's request and he didn't sense me coming. He was so put out by it too," said Natsume smirking.

"So... I take it you're aware of your heritage?" asked Reborn, changing the subject.

"I'm not particularly pleased with the Ninth generation and I'll put up with it if I have to. At this point I would only agree to it purely so I have access to Talbot," said Natsume tiredly.

Reborn wasn't the only one to blink at that.

"Why do you need Talbot? Becoming Decima would automatically give you a set of rings, never mind that the pacifiers function like them anyway."

"Because otherwise we wouldn't have the necessary experience required to remove this curse once and for all."

Dead silence.

"You know how to remove the curse," said Viper.

"I know of one method, but it's expensive and like I said would require the expertise of Talbot to make what we need," said Natsume. "Which is the only reason I agreed to take the curse on in the first place. As for the Vongola...they can burn to the ground for all I care."

"Exactly how would one break the curse?" asked Verde.

"You would need something that can not only channel the pacifier's power, but also enough of all seven Flame types to share the burden until the pacifiers are transferred to the artifacts. From there it would simply be a waiting game while you shifted back to your original age when you first took on the curse," said Natsume shrugging. "Finding the flame types would be easy...it's the device that is difficult and that's mostly because the Vongola keep Talbot's location under wraps and because of how expensive flame treated metal is."

Natsume hadn't quite earned their respect...but she definitely had the attention of the other Arcobaleno. Fon was already one of her Elements...it was the others she had to win over. At least she knew they'd back her before the Vongola.

If Reborn took a perverse amount of glee calling the Vongola main house directly, the others said nothing. They wanted in on the chaos too!

"I take it you have something?" asked Timoteo.

"Is Iemitsu there?" asked Reborn.

"Have you found my Tuna-fishy?"

"Good news, I know who she is and where she is. Bad news...you're going to have to do a lot of groveling before she even agrees to any of your demands. She wants nothing to do with Iemitsu and is extremely leery of anything to do with the Ninth generation considering the more recent behavior," said Reborn with no small amount of glee. "I can confirm she's a powerful Sky, however."

"...Care to explain?" asked Timoteo carefully.

"Congratulations, your only remaining legitimate heir is the current Sky Arcobaleno," deadpanned Reborn. Hearing Timoteo sputter and choke on his drink was rather amusing, to say the least. As was the shocked denial of Iemitsu. "She's also semi-famous enough that trying to force the issue is more likely to get you in trouble with the Vindice."

"Actually if they tried to force the issue, I'm sure Bermuda would be more than happy to have words with them. They were more inclined to like me when I delivered them the same bastard who cursed us with the pacifiers," commented Natsume.

Reborn paused and looked at her.

"You know the Vindice personally."

"How else was I supposed to get Mukuro Rokudo as my Mist Guardian? Chrome's still got a lot of work before she's even remotely ready to handle that sort of thing," said Natsume as if it were obvious. "They were really happy when I told him where he was, and if nothing else I made sure they got a few licks in for the trouble he caused them."

Hearing Iemitsu and Timoteo choke when she openly named her Mist was rather satisfying.

Natsume then looked to Viper.

"How much of a going rate would you charge if I were to ask for lessons? Chrome is good, but Mukuro barely knows what to do with his own flames and I would like an estimate."

Viper looked at her and an odd smile came across their face.

"Since you are offering a chance to remove this curse once and for all, and from what I've seen you're very sensible I'll be nice and give you a discount. Shall we discuss a flat rate over dinner?"

"Sure. If nothing else I can barter seals and the like so you can play around with the supernatural. I'm fairly good at shikigami at this point and Fon did mention you still do information brokering on the side..." said Natsume.

Reborn in the meantime was enjoying the light chaos Natsume left in her wake. She refused to take the Sawada name, citing she had grown up with a different one and there wasn't any real reason to use it save for inheritance purposes.

She might claim her brother, but her parents had lost their chance to be a family a long time ago.