Turned out, he was very good at this.

He arrived at the gym confident in his plan and in his old man Merlin disguise. His pockets filled with the stuff he asked George to send him.

He couldn't wait.

Neither apparently could his once-twin, because the ghost-like apparition had arrived before him. George was already waiting next to his now-twin, distracting him from the wait they had before the fight could start.

Hide made sure to arrive at the last minute, just to be sure Tsuna wasn't given any time to fuss about him.

"Ring battle start!" The two pinkettes yelled in unison.

The baby, Mamon/Viper?, immediately summoned multiple fire pillars that seemed to be bursting from the floor.

Hide could hear Tsuna and his friends yelp in surprise, but Mukuro warned Hide that lots of illusionists like to mess with fire. It was a common fear after all. No one wanted to burn.

But because it was somewhat common, Hide was prepared for it.

"Younglings." He sighed dramatically, still in his role of sassy old man. "Always so impatient."

He reached into a pocket of his robes and launches a piece of Weasley's Wildfire Whiz-bangs that George had send him into the fire. (Thank you, Georgie, for that package! It will come in handy now!)

It spoke for the quality of the baby's fire that the firework actually exploded and formed a giant dragon that terrorised everyone in the gym.

Hearing Tsuna and co. yelling in shock briefly made Hide reconsider whether he should have informed his brother about what he had planned…

Nah.

"Such a waste." George sighed dramatically as he spoke loud enough for everyone in the gym to hear. "He should have kept it until later to celebrate his victory."

Hide grinned at his once-twin.

The dragon flew a whole lap around the gym before dissipating, forcing the spectators to move out of its way. It seemed even the cloaked baby and the Varia weren't sure if it's real or not, because they moved as well.

Score!

Once again Mukuro turned out to be right, combining magic with Mist flames was a brilliant move, and no one ever saw it coming. The baby looked startled and thrown off his game.

His watch started beeping just as the dragon disappears. (It's not made to last long unless someone tries to use magic on it to make it disappear, but it isn't meant to.) Hide made a very dramatic move of checking his watch and hide a grin as the time on the kiddy anime watch he wore for this occasion ran out.

"Oho!" He croaked triumphantly in his old voice. "It seems my magic has finally reached its peak!"

"Magic?" Muttered the cloaked baby sceptically.

"Yes! This is a very special watch!" He laughed crookedly as he shows it off.

He has to bite his lip to keep from joining George in his hysterical laughter while he could actually hear Tsuna face palm all the way over where he was standing.

Poor kid.

Hide had no regrets, because he knew it would only get worse from here on out.

"This watch measures my magic prowess and now, after days of collecting it, I am finally ready to unleash my ultimate move!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Tsuna muttered stoically.

Yeah, his older brother sounded completely done with him.

Hideyoshi grinned at his twin before taking a dramatic pose. He needed to nail the timing now, he'd been working on this for days. He couldn't mess it up now!

"Magic transformation: Rejuvenation!"

Nailed it! He barely had the dramatic magic illusion effects in placthat he had seen in some magical girl/shojo anime, as the ageing potion stopped working and he grew young again. His skin lost its wrinkles, his hair grew back in his scalp (and turned red again) and bit by bit he became his own self again.

A quick mist illusion transformed his colourful outfit as well.

He had hesitated, the magical girl theme had nearly convinced him to go all the way, but he really couldn't see himself wearing a dress… So instead he wore some really short shorts with knee high boots and a sleeveless top. He is dressed solemnly in purple (for his flames) and gold (for old times' sake - Go Gryffindor! – and sue him, it looked good!).

It's good that he's not ashamed of his body, because it was a very revealing outfit.

What he wouldn't do to mess with people…

He timed it exactly right that the moment the transformation is done, he's doing some magical girl-like pose.

There was silence in the gym as he smiled cutely at his opponent.

Well, that's not exactly true. George sounded like he's dying, rolling on the ground in laughter, and Tsuna seems to be trying to bash his head in. He's even using a wall to do it…

"What in the world…" The purple baby muttered in what can only be shock.

Hide dramatically searched through his back pocket (and the Varia sun was gleefully cheering him on for this while others yelled in anger) and took out a very small pouch.

He grinned again as he threw it towards the floating baby, who tries to avoid it.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish?" The baby asked as the pouch missed him and fell to the floor.

Hide tilted his head cutely, still acting out his cute magical boy part.

"This." The pouch touched the floor, exploded and …. Tada!

Portable swamp!

George cheered for him as they were all accosted by the smell. The baby barely had time to look down at the huge swamp that was almost as big as their gym, when tentacles rose swiftly and wrapped around the Varia Mist guardian. Hide's Mist illusion of the Giant Squid rose from the murky water and while Hogwarts' squid didn't harm anyone, this one was not as peaceful. It squeezed the baby until he/she/it exploded.

Hide pouted, even as a tentacle gentle hands him the second part of his ring on a chain.

His opponent escaped, but Hide wins anyway.

He's not sure how to feel about that, but to keep up the act, he turns towards Tsuna. He adapts a cute pose, and even flashes his twin a victory sign while he cheers. "Yay! I win!"

"I can't take this anymore." Tsuna muttered in defeat.

-0-

After Hide's own battle, only the cloud and sky battle were left.

He didn't go see the cloud battle (no need to provoke Hibari further, not when Tsuna Tsuna needed him. The skylark never found any proof, but he kept trying to bite Hide to death because of the chaos his pranking caused at school, and let's be honest, it's not like the violent teen was likely to lose… but apparently by not going Hide had missed all the excitement.

Turned out, a beaten-up Vongola boss had involuntarily been powering up the robot serving as the Varia cloud guardian.

Huh…

Who would have guessed?

If the Varia had indeed kidnapped the man like Reborn had told him afterwards (the twins were ignoring everyting Iemitsu said to them on principle) then that actually explained why teenagers had to fight experienced mafia members in these stupid ring battles in the first place.

But… really… How had no one noticed the old man had been missing? He'd have to have been gone for what… at least two weeks? Maybe more? And no one had noticed? (Iemitsu hadn't noticed?)

Though Hide really couldn't find it in himself to find any sympathy for the old boss. That guy was the reason they were in this mess in the first place…

The sky battle wasn't any fun. Especially not for Hide and the other guardians. He wasn't sure how Tsuna was doing in his fight with Xanxus (he couldn't bring himself to focus on the little watch screen) but Hide couldn't do much more than lie on the ground in the gym and try to ride out the pain. Apparently, nothing made a boss battle more interesting than poisoning their minions… Where were those pink bitches getting these ridiculous battle ideas?

He could actually feel the poison travelling through his veins as if fire was running through them instead of blood.

Fun times … (long live sarcasm).

He's only vaguely aware that at some point part of the gym roof caved in and the debris fell down ,only barely missing him, which was lucky, because the pain was that bad he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

More explosions sounded in the background and he hoped the others were all right.

God, even breathing hurt!

Was this pain comparable to the cruciatus curse? He'd never been cursed with it, but he was getting an idea of what that might have felt like. On the other hand, did that mean that this pain could actually make him loose his mind? Like the curse had been used against Neville's parents?

He probably blacked out at some point.

Hide only became aware again when the pain started receding and someone was helping him walk. His arm was thrown over their shoulder.

"Go-chan?" he managed to stammer in confusion as he recognized the guy's hair.

Was Tsuna's puppy really nearly carrying him?

"It's almost done." The beaten-up bomber tried to reassure him. "We just need to get to Juudaime and everything will be fine."

Next to them, Sasagawa was caring baby Lambo with Yamamoto right next to them. Together they were all hurrying forward in silence, trying to reach Tsuna as quickly as possible.

They reached the sports field just in time to see the creepy Varia kid (with the grin) putting the sky ring on his boss' hand. Tsuna was crouching a bit further in the dirt. He seemed beaten-up (honestly, they all were) but he was conscious and seemed alright, if exhausted.

Flames in all colours exploded from around the ring. Xanxus exclaimed his victory loudly, only for the flames to turn against him. The man fell down, spitting out blood.

Almost everyone exclaimed in shock.

What was going on?

Hide nudged Gokudera towards Tsuna, and the bomber took the hint.

Tsuna didn't look up when Hide let himself crumble down next to him, he kept his eyes focused on the other Sky, but he did grip Hide's hand. Hide squeezed back.

Hide hadn't been doing a lot, but being in pain was exhausting and all he wanted was to be able to go home and sleep.

"The ring has… rejected Xanxus's blood?" His older twin muttered.

What?

"Muu, what do you know?" demanded the Mist baby. "What do you mean the ring's rejected his blood?"

And then the whole story came out, mostly told by Squalo. (Hide vaguely wondered why everyone seemed to have white hair? Was that a new fashion trend he knew nothing about?)

Xanxus was adopted and thus didn't have any Vongola blood. Both Xanxus and Squalo had known (or at least suspected) that Xanxus could never wear that ring and they had dragged everyone along with them anyway to try it.

"Wait, so you've known for how long you can't actually inherit? What was this than? A tantrum? All these battles the last few days have been completely pointless!" Hide snarled pissed off.

Luckily things were over soon after that.

Xanxus yelled some more, Tsuna yelled back some. The Varia threatened to get them all killed by minions (cowards), but then a guy named Lancia showed up who had taken care of the minions (and who apparently was send via Mukuro) and after that they all went home.

Hide sighed happily as he snuggled into his bedsheets.

Celebrations could wait until tomorrow.

THE END.

That's it! At least for now. I might make this into a decent fic one day (and I might even write a sequel), but I'll have to wait for some more inspiration.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed!