WARNING: This story is AU. This story contains yaoi/ boy love. This story contains 18D/1827/5927/6927 and LIGHT 8027/2786 and 8059 pairings. If ANY of the foremention meets to your DISAPPROVAL, please TURN BACK NOW, this story isn't for you!

Thank you! :D

DISCLAIMER: I own no rights what-so-ever to this series or these character and I do not get paid for writing. :D Purely for fandom!

((EDIT: As of 02/13/10-This story has been slightly edited and may differ from the original. Nothing too big but I thought I would mention it anyway.))

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Chapter 1: The Herbivore Who Died

Silent tears fell from the man like rain in a storm as his shoulders shook with each sob that wracked his grief stricken body. A chaos of failure and hatred stormed in his heart as he watched the blood drip from the tattered piece of clothing, the only remains in the rubble and smoke. It was his blood. The blood of his precious boss… and now… it was possibly all that remained of him. Sullen people moved around him as they cleaned up the area that had once been a beautiful Italian courtyard, complete with smooth emerald grass, intricate sculpted fountains and gentle weeping willows accented by white and pink sakura trees, and started an investigation to add to records that would be kept as history of this day. The tragedy.

"H-Hey! I found something!"

Many heads turned in unison, like the many heads of a mythical hydra, at the call, hopeful expressions on everyone's face. They were all hoping for one thing. Proof he was still here.

"What is it?" The man who had previously been mourning now asked sharply as smoky pale green eyes focused intently on the dark haired man who was currently running toward him.

"What have you found, Yamamoto?" A man with pale grey hair asked as he jogged over too, eyes full of anxiety.

"It's Tsuna's…" He held out his hand slowly to reveal what lay there. All three men stared in disbelief.

There in his hand lay the historical Vongola Ring of Sky, once again incomplete while missing its other half. It was almost symbolic. For the three men that gathered around to look, this half of a ring symbolized how incomplete they felt without their other half, their boss, to make them whole.

"Where… where is the other half?" The man with stormy eyes demanded of Yamamoto as he swiped the half-ring from his hand and held it to him like it was a lost piece of himself.

"Gokudera, calm down to the extreme." The pale grey haired man tried to soothe as he looked at the other who was looking at Gokudera's clenched fist with sad russet brown eyes. "This… was the only piece?"

The young man's face contorted into a pained expression before he slowly nodded his head, unable to form words at the moment. It really wasn't looking good… was their precious boss really…?

"Onii-chan!"

All three men turned at the panicked cry to see a beautiful young woman running toward them. She was followed by a young teen with dark hair and signature cow-print shirt.

"Kyoko, you really shou—" The pale grey haired man tried to speak as the woman threw herself into his arms. He sighed and hugged his little sister close, running a soothing hand over her back as she trembled against him.

"Why did you bring her here now, stupid cow?" The one called Gokudera yelled accusingly as he glared at the teen who merely blinked at him with calm green eyes in return.

"My, my… Reborn-san said it was okay since she wanted to see her brother." The 'stupid cow', as he was called, replied smoothly as he shrugged lazily at the older man.

"Hayato-kun, please don't blame Lambo-kun. I did ask Reborn-san." Kyoko said lightly as she pulled away from her brother, eyes shining with tears.

Gokudera just 'hmph'ed at the pair of them before turning his attention back to the Sky Ring half. Yamamoto gave him a disapproving look before turning to Lambo.

"Reborn is still looking over the area, then?" He asked lightly as he didn't see how the explosion could have brought their boss that far.

"Yeah. We've also made contact with Cavallone. He is on his way here." Lambo spoke gently, watching Gokudera caress the ring half he held.

"Onii-chan… Tsu-kun isn't—he's o-oka—" Kyoko's voice faltered at her brother's distressed look and how it seemed to be shared by three other pairs of eyes. "No… w-what happened? It wasn't a normal accident, was it?"

"Kyoko…" The pale grey haired man sighed as he hugged his crying sister close.

"Oi, Ryohei… maybe you should take her home and calm her down." Yamamoto suggested with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Don't worry… we'll call you if anything… happens."

Ryohei looked at him for a minute, as though he might object, before considering the matter and nodding his head in understanding. "Right. …Later."

Gathering his sister into his arms bridal style, he carried her off leaving a sighing Yamamoto, grieving Gokudera, and curious Lambo.

"What did happen? I didn't get a call until the fight was over." Lambo asked as he scratched his cheek lightly, Vongola Ring of Thunder glinting on his right middle finger. He really hoped it wasn't once again an issue of him being too young.

"Even we don't know fully what happened yet… it was a surprise. Obviously we had been infiltrated by a spy…" Yamamoto started to explain heavily as Gokudera growled, unforgiving, at his side.

xXx

-4 Hours Earlier-

Yamamoto laughed graciously as Gokudera growled and pointedly ignored him, annoyance clearly written on his face. If the damned baseball idiot didn't stop laughing like that, he swore he would kick him in the junk just to hear him moan piteously in pain! God, he's so annoying!

The explosion happened so fast that if it wasn't for the destruction left afterward they wouldn't have known what had happened. With no warning Yamamoto frowned that he had not been able to protect the smaller man like his instinct told him to. Gokudera sat up, mumbling curses before his eyes took in the disaster. The location of the explosion was–!

"Juudaime!" He started to run forward until he was suddenly shoved none-too-gently to the side. "What the hell, Yama—"

Yamamoto had easily deflected the objects that were sent at Gokudera, who, in his haste to find his boss, apparently hadn't noticed them. Both men looked down and jumped back in time as the grenades the swordsman had deflected detonated.

"We've got company." Yamamoto said seriously as a rarely seen frown graced his gentle features.

"No shit!" Gokudera growled back, extremely, God he had to stop hanging around the boxing idiot!, pissed off. Anyone who dared to keep him from his precious boss when he may be in trouble was fated to meet their end at the wrath that raged like a violent storm of the 10th Vongola's right hand man.

After about ten minutes of fighting in which more people kept coming, they were able to conclude that this was actually serious. This wasn't a simple fight were an attempted kidnapping of their boss was the goal… these people seemed to be trying to wipe their family out.

"Shit! Shit! We can't move forward! The bastards just keep coming and they're not exactly pushovers!" Gokudera complained, silver hair flying as the force of his stick bombs' explosions blew his hair back.

"I think they're trying to purposely keep us from Tsu—Gokudera, look out!" Yamamoto felt his heart skip a beat as a fast man was able to get behind the other and lunged at him with a metal weapon in hand.

A cry of focus was heard before the sight of a young man with long honey-brown hair was seen lunging down at the man on attack, cutting him back with his katar.

"Basil!" Yamamoto called out happily at the sight of the other rescuing one of the most precious people to him.

"Where is Juudaime?" Gokudera asked immediately of the new arrival, seeming oblivious to the fact he almost got stabbed in the back—literally. Yamamoto shook his head. Sometimes the man had a one-track mind. Especially when it came to his '10th's' safety, which wasn't really a bad thing. Maybe.

"Sawada-dono is safe with Reborn-san! From the news I hath been able to receive, it was Rino who instigated this! To get to Sawada-dono." Basil filled them in quickly as he got into a fighting stance as more men approached them.

"Rino? That annoying gutter bastard! I told Juudaime not to trust him!" Gokudera spat in rage as he helped Basil clear the way to the main house, Yamamoto covering them wonderfully.

"Tsuna's always been the trusting kind. I like that about him." Yamamoto said cheerfully when given a break to breathe. He also knew that Gokudera didn't like Rino simply because he was too close to Tsuna all the time.

"Juudaime is the best! But he should curb that nature of his if it's only going to get him kill—" Gokudera stopped there, not wanting to finish his sentence. He wouldn't let anything like that happen!

It seemed to take a minute or two to get over the shock of the surprise attack but once they did, Vongola fought back with their strongest too. It took Ryohei and Gokudera's older half sister, Bianchi, to finally allow Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Basil to push through to the main house. They all raced inside, helping their family when they could, until they made it to the Vongola's offices. As they ran for the door, Yamamoto twitched in intuition and lunged at Gokudera and Basil, knocking them both to the marble floor in time as two people came flying out of the room ahead. Looking up they saw a tall man in a dark suit and fedora standing in the frame, eyes hidden, swirled sideburns, and a gun.

"Reborn!" Bianchi called out happily until a sudden scream made all who were out in the hall jump.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera pushed Yamamoto off of him and hurried to his feet before running to the room.

Reborn turned in time to see Rino and Tsuna fall out of where a large window use to be but was now a gaping hole from the earlier fighting, a man who had not previously been there lunging after them.

They all hurried to the window to see their boss had made it safely to the grounds and was now in Hyper Dying Will mode, engaged in battle. They watched as Tsuna was fine for a few hits then started stumbling around, his flame flickering unnaturally… as if trying to keep burning.

"Something's wrong!" Gokudera worried, turning quickly and leaving the room only to come running back and jump out of the hole.

"Gokudera!" Yamamoto called out angrily at his stupidity—what if he died?

Ryohei growled at his Storm brother as he hurried to summon Kangaryuu. She sprung forth with great speed, jumping after Gokudera and catching Uri, who Gokudera must have summoned from his own box as he jumped, in her pouch. Uri emerged in his full grown state, catching Gokudera before he ate pavement as his 'last supper'.

Reborn removed his finger from the trigger, opting to punish Gokudera later for his rash decisions. At least he was no longer completely suicidal when it came to doing anything for the Vongola boss and now he was close enough to help Tsuna if need be. He instead turned his attention to the man fighting with his previous student, trying to figure out who he was so he could make an effective decision on how to deal with him as Ryohei and Yamamoto rushed out of the room to their boss' aid as well. The man! He looked familiar… yet—

"Reborn!"

His attention jumped back to Tsuna at the call of Bianchi's worried voice, the Vongola was on his knees and at the enemy's mercy. There was no helping it! Taking aim, he targeted to kill. Tsuna's wishes came second to the preservation his life! A second before he could pull the trigger the man took a shot of his own.

"May Vongola crumble to the dust!"

Another huge explosion shook the ground as a blindingly bright light surrounded the man and Tsuna, lasting for a few long seconds before disappearing, leaving only smoke and rubble behind. …Where was Tsuna?

"Damn!" Pulling Leon from his hat again he jumped out of the window in Gokudera-fashion, the chameleon turning into a parachute to slow his fall. As he landed Yamamoto and Ryohei came darting out of the house, catching up with Reborn as he took off toward where Tsuna had been.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera called as he finally took out the last man that had tried to stop him from reaching his boss. The four men stared in shock at the bodiless crater. Only some scraps of clothes remained.

"N-No…" Gokudera denied, his voice trembling lightly.

Reborn stared for about three more seconds before his eyes darkened dangerously as he looked around at the still fighting men with no mercy. "Kill them all… but Rino."

Yamamoto's head shot to Reborn with a furrowed frown. "But—"

"Kill. Them. All." Reborn repeated with deadly calm before taking off.

"Yamamoto. Follow Reborn's orders." Gokudera said lightly before charging into the fight as well.

Yamamoto stared at his blade. Tsuna had insisted not to kill if not necessary… but if he was really—Gokudera was his right hand man… closing his eyes tightly for a second, he opened them and charged forward, keeping the sharp side of his blade out for once as he cut down those who opposed him. Forgive me, Tsuna.

With orders to actually kill, their enemies fell fast as the Vongola struck back with a fury for their attacked family and fallen boss. At the end the once beautiful estate now looked like a fallen king, his body broken and bathed in the blood of his own and those who wished to destroy him. Rino was caught, crying and apologizing to a boss who was no longer there.

xXx

Lambo frowned thoughtfully as silence fell over them. He let Yamamoto's story sink in while the emotions of realization and understanding started to claw their way out. Vongola was attacked… and Tsuna was gone?

A sudden pained scream caught their attention, making them all turn to see a crying young woman pulled into the comforting arms of her male look-a-like. Apparently they were being filled in on what happened.

"Kiri no Souseiji…" Lambo commented at the sight of the two, making Yamamoto give a genuine smile at the nickname. Twins of Mist, indeed.

The smile faded, however, when he felt the air grow tense and the fury that suddenly seemed to come from the two as the male turned to glare mismatched eyes in their direction. Lambo took an unconscious step toward Gokudera with a now apprehensive frown as the silver haired man turned stormy eyes of his own at the other.

"Now that creepy bastard is here too? And why is he glaring at us?" Gokudera hissed in annoyance as he took in the other two.

Yamamoto figured it would be pointless to remind him they were guardians too… and he could kind of see his unmade point. Mukuro could be a lot to handle—really only Reborn and Tsuna could manage that feat. And that seemed to only be because he chose to yield to them. Considering neither were around at the moment, it would have been better to meet with Chrome first… and then let her break the news to him.

They were spared having to deal with him, though, when Reborn suddenly reappeared with Basil and Bianchi. All attention turned toward them as he made his way over to where Gokudera stood.

"Nothing. It appears that blast, whatever it was, was fatal." Reborn said to the waiting faces, watching as they all became pained and unbelieving.

"R-Reborn-san!" Chrome called out, running toward them as Mukuro slowly followed. "Reborn-san, did you—"

She gasped at the sight of her fellow guardians' faces, hers too soon mirroring theirs as it sunk in irrefutably. "No…"

"Reborn-san…" Gokudera said lightly, holding out the incomplete Sky ring for his inspection. It received a curious look as Yamamoto turned his back on them and called Ryohei like he said he would.

A shuddering gasp was heard before stifled sobbing was followed as Lambo held a hand to his mouth, tears streaking his cheeks. "Tsuna-san…"

It escalated to anguished wailing after a brief pause of shock when Gokudera pulled his head to his chest, crushing him in a one armed hug like an older brother might.

Chrome could no longer hold back at the sound as she too started crying anew, falling to her knees and covering her face with her hands while Mukuro squatted next to her, whispering lightly in her ear as he stroked her long dark mane of slate blue hair.

Reborn left them there to make the call to Tsuna's parents in private. Iemitsu… what would he say? And would he have to hear the hysterical sobs of Nana… as she screamed in misery at the loss of her baby boy? Tsuna, for your sake… you'd better indeed be dead.

xxXXxx

Pained breathing could be heard slowly, as he was coming to. What happened? He remembered a flash of light… and then… oh yeah. He died. For his family. To protect them. Slowly he opened his eyes and found himself in an unfamiliar Italian neighborhood, face down in the grass. Strange. Did the odd light bring him here? And why? Sitting up slowly he winced as pain shot through his body. Getting to his feet slowly he winced at the terrible aches before noticing something in the grass. Retrieving it he saw it was… half of the Sky ring? But—! Staring at it he had half a mind to cast it away but as he made to throw it… he decided to keep it. It was the only thing of his family he had left after all.

Everyone, please forgive me.

-Chapter 1 End-

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Author's Notes: So it's been edited a little. Nothing too big. Hopefully I've corrected most of the spelling mistakes now and all that.

Soooo... what to say about this one. Well... I got the idea loosely from one of my favorite manga reads ever: Kimi wa Petto (Tramps Like Us in the US). I kinda make the beginning similar... so I will have to dutifully credit that when that chapter comes... :D (Actually, that's next! )

In this story... I've placed Tsuna and them around... 21. In the manga when Lambo is introduced he is 5... and Tsuna is between 13 and 14- well, I am making him 14 in this story... so when he is 21, that would make Lambo around 12. I say this to explain to some who might be confused about his thoughts on he wasn't called for being too young. And Kyoko... now that we are farther along in the manga I've decided she will basically know what is going on. Not everything-but that they are mafia and why they are in Italy. She won't tell anyone else, though.

I've decided it-and now that you can read further into the story you should know-Gokudera and Yamamoto shall be paired together. :3 It won't be for a while and it will be light.

Basil's "katar"!~ XD I looked up WTF that odd thing might be called... and it seems to be a katar. I'm not sure if that's 100% correct, but it seemed to match pretty well... so yeah. If you don't know what one is... Google it.

Rino! An OC. (I usually don't like making them... but you know... sometimes you gotta) His actual name is Adriano. Adriano is shortened to "Rino" for Tsuna... I explain him later- I just thought I would share that now... so people don't think I'm a dork and trying to rhyme him with Dino or anything. :D

Since this is an AU... points of the past will be different from how it is in the original plot, but it's still pretty much the same... the biggest differences are... Reborn being there, the lack of Hibari, and... all that.

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NEXT CHAPTER:

The Trash Contains A Treasure?