Incontri le Famiglie

By The Mauve Lantern

Target 1: The Artist

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBE-CLICK!

Tsuna groggily hit the "OFF" button on his plastic alarm clock, and slowly rose from his bed as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He sleepily made his way to his bedroom door as he thought, "Please let this be a boring day for once. I would do anything for it to be calm here." Sadly, that was not the case this morning, as the first thing he heard when he left his room was the sound of a bazooka going off, and a woman's voice scream out, "ROMEO!"

"Not again…" Tsuna thought to himself as he ran downstairs in an attempt to stop Bianchi from killing Lambo. AGAIN. He made it to the stairs before he was knocked aside by a handsome young man who was wearing a bathrobe; before he could recover, a girl with light purple hair ran past him, a cake covered with bugs in her hand.

"Eat THIS, Romeo!" Bianchi hollered at her "ex-boyfriend", not realizing that Lambo had simply shot himself with the 10-year bazooka. AGAIN.

Tsuna shook his head as he said, "It's way too early in the morning for this stuff to be happening." He made his way downstairs, not even bothering to check on Lambo, and walked into the kitchen, where he was greeted by his mother, who was preparing a light breakfast for herself.

"Good morning, sweetie!" she told Tsuna, a song in her voice, "I was just making some breakfast for the kids; do you want anything?"

"Just something small," Tsuna said as he plopped down into one of the chairs at the table. "I'm not feeling too hungry today."

"You're not sick, are you?" a small voice asked Tsuna. That voice belonged to his home tutor, Reborn, who walked into the kitchen with the Chinese assassin I-Pin and sat down across from his student. "You can't afford to be sick this week."

"Why's that?"

"Several mafia bosses will be coming to Namimori to visit you."

"WHAAAAAAAAT?!" Tsuna screamed as his chair fell to the floor. He got back up and asked Reborn, "How do you know?!"

"Because I am the one who invited them," the infant told him as he received a bowl of cereal from Tsuna's mother.

Tsuna slammed his hands on the table and shouted, "Why would you do something like that?!"

"You need to meet more of the families you will be working with, Tsuna. So far, you've only met Dino and Longchamp Naito, but those are just two pieces of the alliance between the families."

I-Pin nodded, and began to speak in Chinese, which Reborn translated for Tsuna: "I believe this will be prudent for you, o reptilian one."

Tsuna thought in his mind, "We really need to get her some glasses or something…" then he turned his attention back to his tutor, and, deciding that it would just be better to go along with what Reborn said, he asked him, "When does the first one show up?"

"My informants have told me that he's in town today, and looking forward to meeting you, Tsuna."

"What family is he the boss of?"

"The Mestiero Famiglia."

"Got it," Tsuna said as he began to eat his breakfast, "Wonder what this guy is like."

Reborn swallowed another mouthful of cereal, and told his student, "He's slightly eccentric."

Tsuna would have asked him more questions, but Reborn excused himself from the table and said that he had to go make some preparations. Getting back to his breakfast, Tsuna felt a little uneasy about this man…

***

After finishing breakfast and taking his morning shower, Tsuna walked out the door clad in his middle school's uniform, sort-of ready to meet the day. Thankfully, a couple of friendly faces greeted him out on the sidewalk.

"'Morning, boss!"

"Hey Tsuna, what's up?"

Hayato Gokudera and Takeshi Yamamoto. Two of his most trusted (and only) friends, and his chief guardians. Tsuna had decided, after the ring battles last week with the Varia, that these two were his closest comrades, and he offered them the positions of Chief Guardians, those closest to the boss.

That's not to say that Tsuna didn't trust his other guardians, it's more like…he wouldn't trust them with his life. He didn't know much about that Chrome Dokuro, except that she was connected to Mukuro Rokudo in some fashion. Kyoya Hibari, head prefect at Namimori Junior High and Tsuna's Guardian of Cloud, was extremely dangerous, and was more of a threat to Tsuna than a guardian.

Ryohei Sasagawa was, for lack of a better word, an idiot, and would probably injure himself before he could be much use to Tsuna. The same goes for Lambo, the Guardian of Thunder, who was currently living in Tsuna's house. These two, although friends with Tsuna, weren't exactly the brightest bulbs in the lamp.

Tsuna, the 10th boss of the Vongola family, greeted his friends with a smile and said, "Good morning Gokudera, Yamamoto! You ready for school?"

"You know it!" Yamamoto said as he gave Tsuna a hearty pat on the back, "I hear we're going to have an art show today!"

"Art show?"

Gokudera lit up a cigarette, and told his friend, "That's right, boss, an art show. There's going to be dancing, music, and even some singing; we'll also get to see some artwork set up around the gym."

NOW Tsuna remembered where he'd heard about this: the principal had said that, to raise interest in the art program at Namimori, a benefactor had set up a show that would display the various arts in hopes that it would get the kids interested in this stuff. Of course, Tsuna had no interest in the arts, considering he had no talent when it came to that stuff.

When he was five, he had tried to play a trumpet; it sounded like a dying animal. When he did finger-paint pictures in kindergarten, they turned out looking like barf. And he had never tried singing, but Tsuna knew that if he tried it, he'd be terrible at it. But I digress.

The three students walked along, minding their own business, when a young boy wearing a sweatshirt popped out from behind a wall and took a picture with his camera. CLICK! The light was blinding to Tsuna and his friends, but the boy paid no heed as he put the camera and said, "That's a keeper! Don't worry, I'll email it to you; see you later!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE-!"

Gokudera started to run after the kid, but Tsuna said, "Gokudera, wait! Just let him be; he's just a kid, after all."

"Though I wonder what he meant by having my email address…" Tsuna thought to himself as he walked along.

Before they got very far, the boys came across a dark-skinned girl who sat on the ground, up against the wall of a building, playing a guitar; what caught the boys' attention was that she was blind. Yamamoto removed a little change from his pocket, and tossed it into her open guitar cases, but the girl just smiled and said, "Gracias, amigo, but I don't need your money."

Takeshi laughed and replied, "Well, I just thought that, y'know-"

"I understand," the girl said, "But don't worry about me." She then stopped playing and put the guitar away, and bid the boys farewell, saying, "Adios, muchachos. And thanks for the money!"

"You're welcome!" Yamamoto shouted.

Tsuna thought to himself, "Wow, it's pretty eventful today; I wonder what else is going on?"

As if to answer his question, out popped Haru Miura and Kyoko Sasagawa, the girl that loved Tsuna and the girl that Tsuna loved, respectively. "Good morning, Tsuna!" they both said together as they walked up to the boys.

"G-Good morning, Kyoko," Tsuna said nervously, ignoring Haru completely, who was currently greeting Gokudera in her usual way.

"Good morning, lung cancer-boy."

"Good morning, nag."

Tsuna had been trying to get these two to get along for a while now, and tried to get them to at least speak politely to each other. It worked, kinda…

"What are you doing here?" Gokudera asked Haru, "Your school is all the way across town!"

Haru stuck her tongue out at him and said, "Our class is coming to your school for the art show! So there, Smokey!"

Gokudera had finally reached his boiling point, so he shouted, "THAT'S IT!" and he pulled some dynamite from his pockets. "I'M GONNA BOMB THE HELL OUTTA YOU!"

Yamamoto stepped between the two, and Tsuna said, "Gokudera, what did I say about bothering Haru?"

"But booooooooooss…"

"No 'buts', now apologize, please."

Gokudera growled, but an order from the boss was an order from the boss. He glared at Haru and mumbled incoherently, so that no one could understand what he was saying. Tsuna let out a heavy sigh, knowing that was probably the best he would get out of his "right-hand man".

Kyoko said to Tsuna, "Oh, I completely forgot! Tsuna, there's this street dancer up that way," as she pointed back in the direction she and Haru had come from.

"Yeah, the guy was really good, if a little rough-looking," Haru said as she bounced back over to Tsuna's side, "Do you want to go see the performer, Tsuna?"

Tsuna looked at his watch and told her, "We really can't; we'll be late for class!"

"Don't worry about it, Tsuna!" Yamamoto said to his friend as he put his arm around Tsuna's shoulders and pulled him close. "I'd kinda like to see this guy, too!"

Well, if the vote was three-to-two, Tsuna had to go along with it. "Okay," he said as he pushed himself out of Yamamoto's grip, "We can go see this guy for a few minutes; then, we have to go to school. Everybody got that?"

They all nodded, and Kyoko, Haru and Yamamoto smiled in anticipation; Tsuna and Gokudera both hung back, not entirely wanting to see the dancer.

A few blocks ahead, the group of students found the performer that the girls had been talking about: he had short, blonde hair, and wore a white tank-top and a pair of black sweat pants; his feet were covered by white sneakers with black markings on them. What stuck out the most, however, was the insane tattoo that ran up and down his arms, and seemed to lead onto his back.

The guy smirked, and began to bounce on his hand and perform all sorts of different dance moves. A few minutes passed, and Tsuna found himself entranced in the man's movements; there was a certain amount of grace to them, but at the same time, they were chaotic. It was kind of perplexing.

Finally, the man balanced on the ground with his head, and began to spin around; by Tsuna's guess, he had to have spun around twenty or so times! He dropped back to the mat, landing gracefully, and wiped away the beads of sweat that had appeared on his brow. The man looked up and saw Tsuna, and he smirked even more as he pulled out a cigarette; he asked Tsuna, "You thought that was cool? That ain't all I've got, y'know!"

"Huh? A-Are you speaking to me?"

The man didn't answer, and only walked away amidst applause from the gathered crowd. Tsuna wondered if the man had been talking to him, until he looked down at his watch. "Oh my GOSH!" he shouted, "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"

All of them sprinted to the school, and now, after seeing everything that happened this morning, Tsuna had to admit, even HE was looking forward to the art show now…

***

Tsuna and his friends had bid farewell to Haru, who had to wait for the rest of her class to show up; she had, after all, decided to show up a couple hours ahead of schedule. When he tried to leave, the young Vongola boss was forced to pry himself from Haru's vice-like grip on him; the anxious boy had required the help of Gokudera and Yamamoto to get her off.

"FAREWELL, MY BELOVED TSUNA!" she had cried, collapsing on her hands and knees, one hand out in a vain attempt to grasp her love. "I'LL EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR RETURN!"

The 10th boss of the Vongola merely skittered away, his hands firmly planted on his ears to block out Haru's cries of love. "For the love of God, don't say my name out LOUD!" he cried in his head.

Gokudera voiced his boss's thoughts, shouting, "You need THERAPY, you psycho-bitch!" at the weeping girl. When Yamamoto gave him a look of disapproval, Hayato glared at the Rain Guardian. "What? Everybody's thinking it; I'm only saying it!"

"Still," the optimistic Takeshi responded, "You really ought to go easy on her. After all, she's just madly in love!" He turned to Tsuna and nudged him slightly with his arm, which threw the smaller boy off-balance. "Right, Tsuna? You lucky dog!" The smile on Yamamoto's face was a mix of jocularity and naivety.

"I'm not her boyfriend!" Tsuna screamed loudly, causing everyone in the hallway to turn and stare at the boy. "Uhhh, sorry, sorry!" he mumbled as he looked around and apologized for shouting his head off. As he made his way to his classroom, Tsuna thought to himself, "This couldn't get any worse…" Oh, how wrong he was.

While walking, Tsuna failed to notice the prefect that stepped out in front of him; the two bumped into each other, with Tsuna falling to the ground. He started to make another, meeker apology, but he was stopped by a metal tonfa, which hung mere centimeters from his face. Looking up the weapon, he found the owner: Head Prefect, Kyoya Hibari, the deadliest kid in school.

Hibari glared slightly at Tsuna with his fox eyes. "Hmm…" he murmured as he began to spin the tonfa around, "What's an herbivore like you making so much noise this early in the morning for, hmm? And to also get dirt on the shoes of a prefect not a moment later." Tsuna's Cloud Guardian raised the tonfa, still spinning, and asked, "Do you want to die today, before the art show? If you do, I shall gladly bite you to death."

He swung the tonfa down, and Tsuna felt certain doom as he shut his eyes and raised his arms in a vain attempt to defend against the lethal blow. When he did not feel the violent touch of Hibari's weapon, the boy hesitantly opened his eyes to find Yamamoto standing before him, his steel bat blocking the tonfa. A serious look had spread across his face, not unlike the time he fought Squallo.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you hurt Tsuna," he said to Hibari, "Besides, I'm sure it would be all right if Tsuna apologized for you, right?" The baseball player turned back to his friend and smiled, despite the obvious strain from holding back the head prefect.

Tsuna nodded feverishly, and spoke so quickly, it was a miracle that Hibari could even understand him. "I'msososososososososososorrypleaseforgivemeIdidn'tmeanit!"

Surprisingly, Hibari retracted his tonfa. He shut his eyes and sighed before opening them again and glaring at Tsuna. "This guy is too scary…" the young Vongola thought to himself.

"I shall overlook it this time, herbivore," the prefect grumbled, "Only because you were in that battle for the rings last week. The baby told me to give you a reprieve for one week, and he'll fight me. Naturally, I accepted; consider yourself lucky." He turned his back to Tsuna and wrapped himself in his prefect jacket like a cape. Before he left Tsuna, he told him one last thing: "Don't abuse this reprieve, Sawada, or I will surely bite you to death." With that, the violent Hibari walked away, threatening to bite any herbivore that dared to loiter in the hallways.

Gokudera rushed immediately to his shaky boss's side. "Boss! Are you all right?!" he asked, his voice drowning in concern. Tsuna didn't hear his question; he was too focused on wondering how he had survived a confrontation with Hibari unscathed.

"Did…Did Reborn save my life?" he thought to himself.

A familiar voice said to Tsuna, "Yes, I did, Loser-Tsuna."

Tsuna and his guardians turned to find Reborn sitting in a windowsill, his legs dangling over the side lazily. Leon, the chameleon that was perched atop his head, had changed his body into the form of a fan, which the young assassin was using to cool himself down.

"Why'd you stop Hibari from beating me?" Tsuna asked his tutor.

"I did it because you, the 10th boss of the Vongola family, need to save your energy for meeting with the various bosses."

Yamamoto chuckled and said, "Tsuna, what does he mean by 'other bosses'? Are they other people playing 'Mafia'?" His boss stared at him with a blank face in reply. Yamamoto was picked to join the family not for his smarts, but his athletic abilities. This was most obvious whenever he brought up the fact that he STILL thought that the world of the mafia was nothing more than a game. Even though he had just fought for his life naught but a week ago, the baseball player still believed that everything was just some game, like one of those videogames that people played on-line with others from around the world.

"Yes," Reborn told the Rain Guardian, "Yes, Tsuna will be meeting with other players. Including their guardians, so you, Gokudera, Ryohei, Hibari, Chrome and that stupid cow will need to be near the boss at all times. Understand?"

"Sure thing!" Yamamoto wrapped his arm around Tsuna's shoulders. "We'll be thick as thieves, right, Tsuna?"

"Y-Y-Yeah." In actuality, the last thing Tsuna wanted was to be with his guardians all the time for the next week. "I am fairly certain," he bemused to himself, "That someone is going to die this week."

Gokudera grew infuriated with Yamamoto's closeness to the boss, so he yanked him away and said, "Boss, don't you worry! I'll be by your side throughout this entire week!"

"You don't have to do that, Gokudera." Tsuna REALLY did not want to be so close to his dynamite-wielding Storm Guardian. "And I've got the suspicion that one that'll die is ME!"

Before they could go into further discussion, the bell rang, signaling the boys to head to their homeroom. As they walked away, Reborn waved and said, "I'll be seeing you three at the assembly later on. Arrivederci!"

Tsuna waved in reply, and mumbled, "Well, there's one headache out of the way…" As he walked into his classroom, however, he was greeted by the mother of all migraines: his obnoxiously loud classmate, Longchamp Naito.

"YO! Wassup, Tenth?!"

Longchamp was another mafia boss, like Tsuna: he was the future head of the Tomaso family. Despite his prestigious title, Longchamp was extremely bizarre in everything he did. His hair was short and spiky, dyed to be orange-red, and the clothes he always wore seemed to be very disheveled and mismatched. Somehow, he had gotten away with putting patches on his school uniform; these patches came from the mountain of junk in his bedroom, or, as Tsuna had taken to calling it, "pile of amazingly-useful useless crap". Longchamp's socks were always mismatched, and he wore an excessive amount of 'bling' around his neck, wrist, and fingers.

The Tomaso heir grinned at Tsuna with his goofy, plastered-on smile. "Come to think about it," the young Vongola thought to himself, "I've never seen Longchamp NOT smile!"

"You ready to see the art show today?!" he asked, shouting at the top of his voice.

"Uh, yeah, Longchamp."

"I think it's gonna ROCK!" To add emphasis to his statement, Longchamp pumped his fists into the year while banging his head. "MUSIC! DANCE! ART! SINGING! It's gonna be AWESOME!"

They were interrupted in their conversation by a loud, booming voice that filled the classroom. "LONGCHAMP! YOU SHOULD NOT BE TALKING WITH VONGOLA SCUM!" Bursting into the room was Longchamp's own mentor, Mangusta. He was an excessively tall man, who was very slender, and always had a hidden sniper rifle on his person at all times, not unlike Reborn; for some reason, he had a deep hatred of the Vongola, and often called Tsuna names because of this.

"It's cool, it's cool, Mangusta!" Longchamp turned back to Tsuna and slapped him on the back. "Well, maybe I'll see you at the show, Tsuna. SEE YA!" With a tug from Mangusta, he vanished out the classroom door, everybody wondering what exactly had just happened.

It was Yamamoto who broke the awkward silence. "Haha! Well, that was weird!"

"I wonder if ALL these mafia bosses will be as weird as Longchamp," Tsuna thought to himself. "Let's just hope that the assembly is better."

***

An hour later, Tsuna and his class made their ways to the gymnasium, where students were pouring in from every entrance. He had to wonder for a moment if everybody was going to fit into the building, given that a large section in the entrance was filled with dozens of canvases of artwork, as well as the occasional sculpture and strange, metal constructs that he had to wonder was art or not. In the middle of the gym was a section for the upperclassmen to sit, and in front of that was an impromptu stage that had been built a week ago for the performers.

"I guess," Tsuna said to Gokudera and Yamamoto, "That we have to sit up in the top section of the bleachers."

"But we'll miss the show on the stage if we sit there!" whined Yamamoto.

"Yeah, the boss deserves better!" Gokudera surreptitiously pulled a stick of dynamite from his pants pocket and asked, "Want me to clear out a section in the center for you, boss?"

"NO! Nonono! Put the dynamite away; we don't need it!" The explosive Storm Guardian reluctantly put the dynamite back into his pocket as Tsuna began heading for the bleachers. He was stopped by a tugging on his pant leg. When he looked down, he found his tutor was there, pointing to the center of the gymnasium.

He said to the three boys, "You have a special section up front, Tsuna. Everybody's here."

Tsuna gulped in nervousness. "E-Everybody's here?"

Reborn nodded and led Tsuna and his two guardians to the front row of the central seating, where Kyoko and her brother Ryohei were sitting, along with Haru, Bianchi, Lambo, and I-Pin. Lambo was hopping up and down excitedly, eagerly waiting for something to occur; I-Pin was much more patient, and was placed on Bianchi's lap, her hands folded in meditation.

"Tsuna!" Haru jumped out of her seat and grabbed his arm and began to nuzzle it. "I missed you so much!"

"You were only gone for an hour!"

"Every moment I am apart from you is agony!"

Gokudera again pried Haru off the boss's arm, and threw her back at her seat. Tsuna walked over to Kyoko, thinking, "I have to get a seat with Kyoko, I have to get a seat with Kyoko!" Before he could sit down, however, that seat was taken by Reborn, and the other seat was occupied by her brother, who was fidgeting from having to sit down and remain as still as possible.

Finally, he could not take it anymore. The white-haired boy jumped up in his seat and shouted, "I GOTTA HAVE SOME SOMETHING TO PUNCH!" Ryohei was still recovering from his fight with the Varia last week, so Kyoko simply pulled him back into his seat. This was Tsuna's Sun Guardian, the one whose duty it was to invigorate those around him; right now, this was not exactly the best thing to do.

"Sit down, big brother; you're embarrassing Tsuna and the others!" Kyoko looked at Tsuna with sorry eyes, saying, "Sorry about this, Tsuna. You know how he can get sometimes."

"Ah, Sawada!" Ryohei finally realized that his boss had arrived. "Glad to see that you came! When are you gonna join the Boxing Club!?" Typically, this was the direction most of the conversations between Tsuna and Ryohei took; Tsuna would show up, and if Ryohei was there, he would practically force the boy to join the boxing team.

Tsuna waved his hands and sheepishly grinned, all the while backing away from the excited boy. "Uh, no thanks, Ryohei. I have…a medical condition that keeps me from boxing!"

"Yeah, a condition called 'bleeding'!"

The young Vongola boss turned in the direction of the taunt to find three students who definitely did NOT belong at Namimori Junior High: Ken Joshima, Chikusa Kakimoto, and Chrome Dokuro, his Mist Guardian. These three lived by themselves in an abandoned health center in the town of Kokuyo; all three were loyal to an assassin/ex-mafioso named Mukuro Rokudo, who was currently imprisoned somewhere in Italy. Ken was a feral, nasty fellow who had the ability to take on any animal trait as long as he put their fangs into his mouth. Chikusa, a quiet, very neutral guy, wore glasses and a beanie, and fought with a pair of yo-yos that release a storm of needles when they spin through the air.

Chrome was special in her own way: she could not live if Mukuro died, and Mukuro had no connection to the physical world if Chrome died. The violet-haired girl was an illusionist, and was slowly training her abilities so that she might be of some use to her new boss, Tsuna Sawada. She had fought valiantly in the battle for the rings, but she had needed help from Mukuro in order to defeat her opponent; things will be different, the next time she engages in combat. Someday, she hopes to be of use to her boss.

Tsuna had grown somewhat-used to Ken's creepy demeanor, so he was bold enough to ask, "What are you guys doing here!?"

"We wanted to see the show," Chikusa replied in a monotone voice. "Besides, the baby wanted Chrome to attend."

"Yeah!" snarled Ken, his tongue waggling from his mouth. "And if we lose this creepy girl, we lose our connection to our boss!"

Tsuna nodded, and looked around for a chair. When he was about to give up and sit on the floor, a meek voice said, "Boss, there's a seat over here." The young Vongola turned to Chrome, who nodded her head towards a seat to her right that was vacant.

He smiled and replied, "Thanks, um…Chrome." She did not smile, but she did nod in response. When he took his seat, she gazed at him with her one eye (her right eye was covered by an eye-patch) as if trying to tell Tsuna something telepathically. "Uh, can I help you, Chrome?"

She looked down and played with the hem of her skirt. "I…I never properly thanked you, boss, for saving me during the Ring Tournament." Chrome turned to her boss again and then quickly gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you."

Tsuna's face turned crimson, and he touched his cheek as Chrome turned her attention back to the stage. "Y-You're welcome."

"What a strange girl," he thought to himself. "She's an illusionist, she, maybe, has a connection to Mukuro, and she is wearing an eye-patch. How mysterious can a girl get?" He looked at her again, and this time, he noticed that she was wearing the Mist Ring that she had fought for. "I...I guess I can trust her. I just need to give her a little time, that's all."

***

The art show began a few minutes later, and Tsuna was really grateful to Reborn for getting the seats in the front. Up in the front row, he and his friends (and Hibari, who sat at the very end of the row) were beholden to a fantastic choir and a delightful a cappella group, as well as a team of dancers that seemed to fly and float about the stage, their movements mesmerizing and entrancing. Even Hibari, who usually paid little attention to the events at assemblies, had his eye caught by the talent that filled the stage. In the final act of the show, a full orchestra had come onstage to perform several numbers for the students, a mystical noise dispersing through the gymnasium, entrancing every student, except for one.

Chrome had had little sleep the night before due to Ken hogging the sofa and the only bed missing under a pile of rubble. The poor girl had slept in one corner of their make-shift headquarters, lying on the cold, hard tile floor; she was forced to use an old coat from an abandoned 'Lost and Found' box as a blanket. Because of this, she had begun yawning almost immediately at the start of the show; by mid-way, the Mist Guardian's head had fallen onto her boss's shoulder, sending a blush across his face.

"Wow," Tsuna thought to himself, "She must be really exhausted!" He forgot her presence, however, when the dancers came onstage. During the final dance, which was something from The Nutcracker, Tsuna had accidentally shifted his shoulder, causing Chrome's head to fall from his shoulder and onto his lap. His face exploded in red; the boy almost moved her, but then he saw her face contort in fear. A meek whimper escaped from her lips. Benevolently, Tsuna let her remain there on his lap. "Thiiiiiis is awkward," he thought, "But she looks peaceful; I don't think she should be disturbed."

The show finally ended after a small acting troupe had performed select scenes from William Shakespeare. With uproarious applause, the students all rose from their seats in a standing ovation, with some even demanding an encore. The only ones to not clap were Hibari, who was too cool for applause, Chrome, who slept soundly, and Tsuna, who was trying to let the girl in his lap sleep. After a moment, the curtains opened, revealing the school principal.

"And now," he said, "We have a word from the sponsor of this whole event: Leonardo Simoni!" Another man joined the principal on stage, though he was much more interesting and unique.

Simoni was a tall, lithe young man who had brown hair that was styled in a pompadour, akin to the musician Elvis Presley. He wore a white jacket that sparkled from all the jewels and studs on it, and there were tassels that hung from the forearm of the sleeves. His pants were similar, with a line of jewels and studs running up and down the sides. White cowboy boots adorned his feet, and a large pair of black sunglasses adorned his face.

"Thank you, thank you very much," he said in a deep voice, American in its roots. He signaled for the students to settle down and cease their applause, which they did. "I'm here," he told them, "For two reasons: first, to show that art is very important in the school curriculum," the artistic students and teachers in the school whooped and hollered throughout the gymnasium, "And two, I wanted to show a colleague just what I have to offer."

He looked out into the audience and began searching for his target. "Is there a Tsunayoshi Sawada in the audience?"

"He's right here, Leo." Reborn was right on his student's shoulder.

"How did he get here so fast?" Tsuna wondered to himself.

On stage, Simoni flicked a comb out from his pocket and ran it through his hair. "It's an honor to meet you, young Vongola. I am Leonardo Simoni, the 9th boss of the Mestiero Famiglia, and this is my family!"

There was silence for a second, until Tsuna shouted, "WHAT?!?"

This was going to be an interesting week, indeed…