Title: Footsteps of Time

Pairing: None

Genre: Humor, Family, Friendship

Warnings: mentions of violence

Rating: K+

Summary: A few hundred years after his death, Giotto finds himself reincarnated as Sawada Tsunayoshi and discovers second chances as he is reunited with his past Guardians.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or its characters.

~X~

Sawada Tsunayoshi was a very bright boy.

At the tender young age of six, little Tsuna could read Shakespeare and actually understand it. After sneaking into a high school and snitching a college level textbook from some teacher's office, he deemed Calculus a piece of cake. After sneaking back into that poor teacher's office and stealing several other complicated-looking textbooks, a few more subjects were tossed into the growing pile in the back of his closet.

Even so, Tsuna's grades in Namimori Elementary were borderline failing.

It wasn't that he couldn't do the work; Tsuna just didn't want to stand out.

After all, who would look at the little wimpy brunette boy – who constantly tripped over his own feet and could barely do simple math – and see him as anything but a failure doomed to grow up and drag society down with his incompetence.

No one would ever believe that No-Good Tsuna was actually the reincarnation of the founder of the most influential Mafia Family in the underground criminal world. Physical similarities aside, his façade of a clumsy, academically-challenged child assured that no one would give him anything more than a passing glance.

He really didn't want anyone to give him a second look.

It may have just been excessive paranoia on his part, but Tsuna wanted to play on the safe side until he could properly defend himself just in case news of his existence reached the ears of any unsavory characters.

Sighing softly, Tsuna's thoughts sullenly drifted to his Guardians – well, former Guardians now – as he aimlessly walked around the neighborhood. He missed them all terribly – even Daemon – and wondered if they had been reincarnated in this time as well.

What he wouldn't give to have G scolding him for doing something reckless again, or hear Asari play his flute. He wouldn't mind sitting through more of Knuckle's enthusiastic preaching, or listen to Lampo complain about every little thing being unfit for a Lord's son. Hell, he wouldn't even mind hearing Daemon's signature creepy laugh again. Ah, good times…

And, Alaude…the former policeman who had reluctantly left France to become a…uh…an ally of the Vongola Family. The stubborn man who had formed the CEDEF group as his own way of distancing himself from the Family without actually leaving.

The man who…now looked like a kid and seemed to be happily beating up a few bigger kids…

Tsuna stopped in his tracks when he saw the spectacle. On any other day, he might have found the sight of a small, slender kid beating the crap out of other kids nearly twice his size without breaking a sweat rather amusing, but…

Wanting a better look, he jumped and swung himself onto a nearby tree branch.

No, wait… now that Tsuna had situated himself at a good vantage point to watch the proceedings, he realized it really was an amusing sight.

Amusing and a little sad if he thought about it.

At this angle, Tsuna couldn't tell what weapon the mini black-haired Alaude wielded – something metal if the sunlight occasionally reflecting off the surface was anything to go by – but it must have been blunt since most of the hits didn't leave any open wounds. Even so, he could tell that those bigger kids would be black and blue later.

Now at this point, Tsuna's conscience began prodding at him to intervene before mini Alaude killed those children, but at the same time, he also had to take into consideration his mere six years of age and his little goal of staying below the radar. So, Tsuna was forced to choose between saving those kids and his own self-preservation.

Four hundred years ago as Giotto, he would have chosen to interfere in a heartbeat and self-preservation be damned.

But now as Tsunayoshi, he wasn't quite as gallant as he had been all those years ago. Now, he didn't have his Guardians to back him up should he recklessly throw himself into a mess too big to take on himself. He also had his mother, Nana, to consider and her feelings should something happen to him.

And even if this black-haired kid was not Alaude's reincarnation, it was obvious the boy had a violent streak a mile wide and Tsuna wouldn't be able to properly defend himself against metal weapons.

So, there was only one thing he could do.

Tsuna nimbly hopped down from his perch and turned his back on the messy, violent scene. Ten seconds later, he whipped back around and hurled a pebble at the black-haired boy before smirking proudly at his accurate aim.

Then, he realized that now would be an excellent time to run away when the violent boy glared at him with a little trail of blood trickling from the new cut on his temple.

In his six short years of life, Tsuna had never before had to run that far or that fast. Five minutes into the chase, he admitted to himself that his brilliant plan had spectacularly backfired on him. He could barely get enough oxygen into his lungs while the black-haired boy didn't seem to be tiring out at all.

Two minutes after that, life decided to become a huge cliché.

In chase scenes – much like the one Tsuna was currently engaged in – the victim would run around without a clue of where to go before ducking into an alley and suddenly finding him or herself backed up into a dead end, at which point the serial killer or what-have-you stalked forward with weapon in hand to finish up the scene.

Something somewhat similar decided to happen to Tsuna.

In his growing exhaustion and panic, Tsuna ducked into a convenient alley before he made his biggest mistake. He looked back.

And promptly ran into a brick wall.

And if that hadn't been pathetic enough, he also burst into tears from the pain.

Later, Tsuna would attribute that…momentary lapse of self-control to his youth. Sure, he could solve a complicated Calculus problem in under two minutes, but he was still physically six years old. It was only natural for a six year old to cry if he ran into a wall. At least, that was his story and Tsuna was sticking to it no matter what anyone else had to say about the matter.

Unfortunately, his little dilemma didn't really matter to the mini-Alaude, who was stalking forward with metal weapons in hand.

Tsuna nervously watched as the boy raised the weapon and prepared to swing. Clenching his eyes shut in preparation for pain, he reflexively blurted out, "I'm sorry, Alaude, please forgive me!"

A few seconds passed somewhat pain free – as he was still smarting a little from the run in with the wall earlier – so Tsuna hesitantly peeked out from under his lashes to see what the delay was about.

The mini-Alaude seemed frozen in place. After a few seconds, the dark-haired boy cautiously lowered his weapons before lowly whispering, "What did you call me?"

"Uhh…Alaude?" Tsuna's hyper intuition flared. "You're Alaude, right? Y-You've been reincarnated, too?"

They silently stared at each other for several minutes.

During that time, the dark-haired boy managed to shake off the initial shock, and a contemplative look crossed his face as he internally debated about what to do. Nodding to himself after coming to a conclusion, the boy raised his weapons again and answered rather decisively, "No, I'm not."

Tsuna's life, both his past and present lives, flashed before his eyes as the dark-haired boy – whom Tsuna was quite convinced was his former Cloud Guardian by now – once again fell into an offensive stance.

~X~

A few hours later found Nana cheerfully serving snacks to Tsuna and his new friend, who had introduced himself as Hibari Kyouya.

The brunet patiently waited until his mother was completely out of sight before groaning and rubbing at the new bruises hidden beneath his clothing. "Did you really have to hit so hard, Alaude?"

"Stop using that name, herbivore."

"Oh, sorry, Kyouya. Anyway, why am I classified as an herbivore?"

"Because you complain like one. Now, shut up so I can enjoy my tea in silence or else I'll bite you to death."

"Right." Tsuna sighed and dejectedly let his head fall forward onto the low table. "Of course."

It hadn't exactly been the touching reunion Tsuna had been hoping for, but he supposed it was the best he was ever going to get from his Cloud Guardian.

~X~

A/N: Conanfan15, here's the first chapter I promised you~ I'm sorry for the horrible ending but I suppose it was…happy-ish…in a way (well, as happy as Alaude/Hibari could get).