"Hibari! Come on!" Tsuna called out to his friend. Gokudera and Yamamoto stood on either side of him, arguing over his head over something or other. Hibari narrowed his eyes.

"Idiots, what do you want?"

Tsuna smiled brilliantly. "We're going to check out the new, old? something or other amusement park in Kokuyo Land. Reborn said it would be fun training there."

As matter of fact, no matter how much he grumbled about it, Tsuna was secretly happy that he had the chance to train dangerously to hone his skills. Made for fun times when he wanted to try and sneak up on Reborn and retaliate against the pranks that Reborn pulled. So far, no luck. Tsuna was great, but Reborn was still better.

One day.

Tsuna laughed as Hibari glared at him – his version of eye-rolling. He turned around, dragging his two friends with him, still arguing about what was better: sword-fighting or bombing. Tsuna had his own reservations on the best fighting techniques, but he kept his thoughts silent to avoid being in an argument with the two. He knew Hibari would end up following them anyways, if only to protect their asses from being beaten in a fight.

Not that they couldn't hold themselves in a fight. No-siree. But it was always better to bring more people into a fight. Better chance of winning.

"Bombing is the best, duh," Gokudera said though, as if he anticipated Tsuna's thoughts. "Long distance, more creative."

Yamamoto shook his head, dragging his sword out with his left hand. He almost dropped it though, and Tsuna nearly laughed at the fumble. Despite his training with the sword, which, in it of itself, was very elegant once Takeshi performed what he knew, anytime else he wielded it brought a series of very awkward and hilarious acts of incompetency. Gokudera growled. "Careful! You nearly hit Juudaime with your sword."

Takeshi grinned sheepishly when he heard Tsuna laugh, and then laughed himself when Hayato snapped at him. "He's fine! He can take care of himself. But sword-fighting is better than bombing. Mid-range combat, and you can wield the thing without blowing up yourself by accident."

"But close-range combat is the best," Tsuna couldn't help but interrupt. "If you got the speed and the power, fighting you two," with that, Tsuna knocked Takeshi's sword out of his hand and grabbed it before it could clatter to the ground. He put it back in its sheath, while he simultaneously snatched a few of Gokudera's bombs from his pocket, "would be extraordinarily easy."

He finished his presentation by standing in front of the two again, holding out Hayato's bombs in front of him, earning himself a nice "Wow, Tsuna!" and a "Juudaime is so awesome! I wish I could be that great!"

He turned around and neatly sidestepped the infamous hammer. "But given the right strategy, all three combat maneuvers are indefinitely invaluable," Reborn said as Leon turned back into a chameleon and crawled up his arm to take his place on his fedora. Reborn leapt and landed on Tsuna's shoulder.

Tsuna agreed. "Gotta find a good strategist then."

Entering into Kokuyo Land had a strange feeling. While they walked confidently through the entrance of the amusement park like they owned the place, Tsuna kept his senses open for unwelcomed surprises.

Like the purple mist that surrounded them as they walked in.

"It's your fight, Tsuna," Reborn said, just before he jumped down from where he was perched on his shoulder. "Don't lose."

"Not coming with us?" Yamamoto inquired.

Reborn smirked. "No, gotta find out what secrets Tsuna has been hiding."

"They're called secrets for a reason." Tsuna frowned, then he smiled. "Good luck."

I'm trusting you, Tsuna implied. Don't destroy that trust.

Reborn nodded once in acknowledgement before he turned around and left them to fight their own battles.

"Tsuna has secrets?" Takeshi said.

Hayato snapped back, "Leave it alone. If he doesn't want to tell us, respect that."

Tsuna smiled at those words. "It's okay, Gokudera." He placed his hand on his arm. "I'll tell you, in time, what secrets I've been hiding. Just, not now."

Hayato nearly had a heart attack with those words. "Thank you so much, Boss! We won't break your trust!"

"Tch, idiots."

Unlike Hibari, Tsuna had no problems rolling his eyes. "Come on, let's see what the park has in store for us.

Two minutes later, they found out exactly what they got into: four other opponents.

And a "LET GO OF MEEE! I'M GOING TO BE THE NEXT BOSS OF THE BOVINO FAMIGLIA!"

When the mist cleared, Tsuna's group of four faced their foes, but two of them faded in and out of clarity. One of the other ones had certain animalistic features, and the final one looked serious. Serious enough to poison them if ticked.

"Huh, mist," Tsuna commented, just before he blocked an attack to his face with a very pointy trident. It was a centimeter from taking away his nose. "Not nice."

"What's not nice was that you entered into our home without an invitation."

"WHAT'S NOT NICER WAS THAT YOU KIDNAPPED ME!" yelled a tiny kid sitting tied up on a chair beside the opponent's group.

The one with the animalistic features growled back "Shut UP OR I'LL KILL YOU!"

"NOT BEFORE I ASK THOSE PEOPLE OVER THERE TO CREAM YOU GUYS WITH THEIR ABILITIES!"

"Enough!" The one who held the trident spoke. The hostage quieted, although the fiery resentment remained in his eyes.

Trident-guy pointed to the group. "Name?" he growled, before he prowled closer. "Wait."

"Kiyoshi?"

Hayato and Takeshi frowned. "Kiyoshi?"

Hibari frowned for a different reason, and he revealed his tonfas to protect Tsuna. Behind trident-guy, animal-guy and poison-guy stepped forward.

But both leaders ignored the stand-off. "No. Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna snatched the senbon from the air. "Rude to attack when people are talking." He tossed the poisoned senbon back at the poison-guy.

"Kiyoshi's my twin brother."

Behind him, Hayato and Takeshi gasped. Hibari took a step closer to Tsuna, drawing the other two from the other side to draw closer as well.

"Stand down, Ken, Chikusa," the leader said without looking away.

"Same goes with you Hibari."

Ken groaned, but the three moved back to their original position.

"And am I allowed to get your name?" Tsuna asked.

Mukuro grinned. "Mukuro, you're worst enemy."

"Highly doubt that," Tsuna sneered back.

"If you pair off, stupid kidnapper with other leader, bomb-guy with poison guy, sword-guy with the girl, and tonfa-guy with…" the kid sitting in the chair muttered. Ken glared at the hostage.

"CAN'T YOU EVER SHUT UP, BOVINO?"

"NO! AS MATTER OF FACT, EVERYONE TAG TEAM AGAINST ANIMAL-GUY. HE'S THE STUPIDEST OF THE LOT. PICK THEM OFF ONE…"

Tsuna grabbed the offending arm of Ken as he tried to punch the kid from the Bovino family.

"Nope. He's under my protection now."

In a moment, several things happened: A tonfa blocked an attack of the trident to Tsuna's ribcage, while the other tonfa aimed towards Mukuro's head. The girl misted in front of the attacking tonfa, sending it wayward from its original target when she grabbed Hibari's wrist. Gokudera prepared to duck as it came hurtling towards his face, but Takeshi's sword knocked it aside as it was aimed towards Chikusa. Chikusa neatly side-stepped the blade and sent his own poisoned needles towards Yamamoto. Tsuna kicked Mukuro's wrist, forcing the trident up and out of the way to block the needles. The needles clattered out of the way as the trident intercepted its path.

The next moment, it was all out war.

All of them took a step back to regroup themselves before reattacking.

Somehow, as the kid predicted (or strategized), the eight of them paired off to fight their own battles, but they unwittingly stayed close enough to fight each other's battle if needed. Tsuna with Mukuro, Gokudera with Chikusa, Yamamoto with the girl, and Hibari with Ken.

"I don't believe we were finished talking," Tsuna said as he punched Mukuro's stomach. Mukuro misted the area, sending Tsuna's punch through into mist. Mukuro countered by misting entirely.

Besides them, the other six fought their own battles. Hibari's brute force kept Ken at bay, preventing him from attacking with his animalistic abilities. Gokura blasted every poison attack with a bomb attack, but if both kept that up, they would run out of ammo and would be forced to fight hand-to-hand. Tsuna snickered a little bit and hoped that Gokudera outlasted Chikusa with the amount of bombs he had stored on his body. Senbon was easier to store, so if -

"RATION YOUR BOMBS IDIOT!"

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, KID!"

"I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU FROM LOSING BAKA!"

Yea, that.

Takeshi seemed to be losing against the girl though; his sword skills were no match for the mist abilities the girl had. Tsuna needed to hurry it up if he were to go help Yamamoto.

"No, I don't believe we have finished talking, Tsunayoshi," Mukuro replied, cutting through his wayward thoughts. Tsuna stood up and stayed still, feeling any tell-tall signs of any physical presence. It was hard, though, because everything felt like a physical presence, as the mist was the embodiment of his opponent. Tsuna ducked when Mukuro aimed the trident towards his head.

"How do you know Kiyoshi?"

"Kukuku, and why should I tell you?"

He's good, Reborn noted to himself.

During his spare time, when Tsuna was in school, Reborn headed east to look for – what? he wasn't entirely sure himself. But based on his own life experience, if he had to guess, it would be Tsuna's safe home away from home. He narrowed his eyes, thinking about all the possible places Tsuna could hide from him.

After all, if Reborn thought who Tsuna was was correct, then their mindsets would be cut out of the same pie. Now, if it were him, where would he station a safe house?

It took him a week to look through all possible areas in his limited time away from his charge to find the general location of his safehouse, and even then, searching for the door, let alone the lever, was difficult.

He only found it because Reborn felt the very subtle charge of Tsuna's abilities permeating the area. If it were not for training Tsuna every day for the past four months, he would have missed the feeling. Tsuna had a near perfect masking ability, he thought. He stood in front of a brick wall, one of the several that fenced off home and street. Very ordinary and very subtle. The wall was nice, bricks tightly woven into each other, and he nearly missed the lever. Reborn peered closer. The tiniest of an evenly chipped corner on a brick stand caught his attention next to the multitude of worn down bricks from protecting their home from the street.

His tongue clicked once. It would do no good to reveal Tsuna's secrets in broad daylight. With that matter-of-fact thought in his head, he continued to pretend to look for the safe house for several more minutes, before he gave the appearance of giving up and going home.

Your secret is safe with me.

Tsuna sliced through the mist in one quick slicing motion. The motion itself was subtle, but the underlying message screamed "Don't mess with me. I'm dangerous." And Mukuro knew it, given the way that he stood in front of Tsuna whole.

Mukuro jaw dropped. "No one's able to get me out of my mist abilities."

Tsuna smirked. "Do you even know who I am?"

For a moment, all Mukuro could think about the fact that Tsunayoshi Sawada was Kiyoshi's twin brother, and given his conversations with Kiyoshi, Tsuna was a compassionate person.

But when he looked into the eyes of the person in front of him, all he saw was destruction, and he shivered. Even he had some compassion. Mukuro missed blocking an attack from Tsuna, sending him flying back towards the wall behind him.

"I'm Vendice's, Mukuro," Tsuna whispered into his ear when he lay, stunned, from the recent attack.

And Tsuna pulled out the very familiar chains.

"No," Mukuro whispered. "Please."

Mukuro did the only thing he could do to save himself from the situation. He threw himself towards Tsuna.

Tsuna took a step back from Mukuro because he clearly showed no signs of stopping his desperate attack, but Tsuna's senses was invaded with the memories…

Oh god, the horrors of the Estraneo.

Mukuro looking up at the Famiglia doctors, holding out syringes like a bad horror movie. Each syringe came ever closer to him, and he couldn't move, but he screamed. As loud as he could, as he endured the torture of each hell.

He laid on the surgery table, paralyzed with pain, listening to the screams of other kids enduring their own torture.

The Estraneo screwed up, and they didn't put more restraints for Mukuro as they continued their horrifying assault. Because for every layer of hell that they put Mukuro through, Mukuro got stronger, and stronger. And stronger.

One day, he broke through the restraints. And. Killed. Them. All. He saved Ken and Chikusa. The others were too weak to move, and they were on the verge of dying. Mukuro put them out of their misery as much as they hurt him to do so.

Chained like a dog when the Vendice came for killing his captors. Trying to escape one prison only landed him into another. And a third, when he tried to make his great escape.

Tsunayoshi will save you, Kiyoshi said. Find him.

"Mukuro," Tsuna said, choking up.

"Please, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna shook his head. "Not now. But I will come. When I come to rescue Kiyoshi, I will save you too."

And Tsuna knocked Mukuro out to save him the indignity of being chained again. Vendice, I have your prisoner.

Just as Mukuro disappeared, Tsuna surveyed the scene before him. It was a wreck: bombs made craters to the place and poison needles were littered everywhere. No one was not scratched, although some looked less composed than others.

"Freeze!" Tsuna commanded, and everyone did. Ken and Chikusa and the girl looked over, and they saw Mukuro missing.

"Where's MUKURO?" Ken yelled, stalking over to Tsuna. Behind him, Gokudera had his bombs out and prepped for detonation, but Tsuna put his hand up to stop him. He did, reluctantly.

"Ken. I defeated Mukuro. You really think you can defeat me?"

Ken stopped.

"Better. Now, Mukuro is back with the Vendice." Here, the girl gasped, and her eyes began to water. Tsuna came towards her, ignoring the veiled threats that Ken spat out, before he was stopped by Chikusa.

He stared steadily into the other boy's eyes, and after a few moments, Chikusa stepped aside to let Tsuna through. "What's your name?"

"Chrome," she whispered.

"Pretty name for a pretty girl," Tsuna said, raising his arms slowly so he could hug her. "We're going to save Mukuro. He just needed to go back temporarily, and this place is no place to live. Let me take care of you guys."

It took a few minutes before Chrome stopped her tears, and she sniffled. And nodded. Tsuna smiled, and he gave her another hug.

"AND WHAT ABOUT MEEEEE?"

Tsuna stepped in front of the hostage. "And what's your name, buddy?"

He grinned idiotically. "Lambo, of the Bovino Family! I'm going to be the next Boss! Hey, I'm not a kid anymore, don't pat my head!"

With a single signal, Takeshi sliced through the ropes that held Lambo bound, and Tsuna stretched out a hand. Lambo grabbed it, grip surprisingly strong for a five-year-old. "Well, big guy, how about we train you, so you can become the best boss the Bovino Family had!"

Lambo grinned "YEAAA!"

Tsuna smiled. Training complete.

Original mission: gain new members for his Famiglia.

"You coming, guys?" He called over his shoulder. "Maman would love to meet my new friends."