Author Notes:

This was actually inspired because of this one video I found on youtube. Even now, being fully caught up with the manga, I still feel moved when I watch that video.

Video Link:

.com/watch?v=6E_HCr1msi0&feature=PlayList&p=939DD79711B86C22&index=16

Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or the above placed video. KHR and all related characters are the property of Akira Amano-sensei.

**May contain spoilers**

The Letter

Tsuna heaved a sigh as he looked out the window of his office. The sky was a beautiful turquoise and a few clouds ran through it in wisps of white. He glanced down at the rose garden; the flowers were only beginning to bud. In a few days, they would be roses whose colors matched the rainbow.

It had been almost ten years since he had first been told that he'd inherit a rather large and suspicious "company" in Italy by a talking baby. Before the baby's arrival, he was no good and couldn't manage to do anything without messing up. But after much training and quite a number of obstacles, Tsuna lost his childhood nickname of "No Good Tsuna" and became a formidable boss and heir. And, it was all thanks to that baby hitman, Reborn.

Knock. Knock.

Tsuna opened his eyes. He hadn't realized when he'd fallen asleep. After recomposing himself, he stood up from his leather swivel chair and as he left the seat, it squeaked.

"The door's open, come in please."

The oak creaked silently at the hinges as the door opened and revealed a silver-haired Italian. "Tenth, I brought in my mission report as well as the files and new information concerning the strange take-downs of several Families around the world," he announced while he walked in with a stack of papers in his arms. The silver-haired man stopped a few feet away from Tsuna's desk. "Tenth? Is something wrong?"

Tsuna smiled, "Nothing's wrong, Gokudera."

It looked like smiling was hurting him, but Gokudera didn't press further. After being by Tsuna's side for so long, he learned that if Tsuna wanted to share his problem with the Family, he would.

"Sorry I'm late Tsuna," a black-haired man walked into the room. "The mission took a little longer than I expected, so…" He stopped after realizing that Gokudera was in the room. "Is something wrong, Tsuna?"

Tsuna smiled again, shook his head, and turned to look out the window. "Please close the door, Yamamoto."

Without a word, Yamamoto did as he was told before he stood next to Gokudera.

Tsuna looked up at the sky again from behind the bullet-proof glass. "Do you two have your Vongola rings with you?"

Yamamoto and Gokudera exchanged looks of confusion and worry.

"We do."

"The rings are what mark us as the Tenth's Guardians. There's no way we wouldn't have this symbol on our person."

Tsuna closed his eyes and let out a small sigh. "That's good," he murmured.

"Tsuna, is there something wrong?" Yamamoto asked again. Gokudera shot Yamamoto a warning glare, but the swordsman ignored it. He knew that he shouldn't delve too much into Tsuna's business, but his instincts told him that he needed to ask. "You don't seem like your normal self. Is it something concerning us or the rest of the Family?"

"No, it's about the rings." Tsuna answered.

"What about the rings?" Yamamoto asked, his worry grew.

He turned so that he could see his childhood friends from the corner of his eyes, "Destroy them."

"What? Tsuna, I don't understand…"

"Destroy the Vongola rings," Tsuna repeated.

Yamamoto's worry deepened. Without the Vongola ring, he'd only have one other ring to open up his box weapon. "But, Tsuna…"

"An order's an order, Yamamoto," Gokudera said as he pulled his Vongola ring off his finger. The removed ring left a thick, pale mark on the Italian's finger. He placed the ring on Tsuna's desk. "I want to know why you want us to destroy them, but I won't force you to explain, Tenth."

"Thank you, Gokudera."

The Storm Guardian looked over to the Rain Guardian, "You, too, Yamamoto."

Yamamoto glanced down at the floor before he walked over to the desk and set his ring on the desk. "Tsuna…"

"If you see Chrome, Hibari, or Ryohei, tell them to come see me," Tsuna didn't face his two friends. "You're dismissed."

"Later then, Tsuna…" Yamamoto's foot steps echoed as he reached the door. But as he was about to turn the handles of the oak door, he stopped. "I…I…I"

Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! Yamamoto grabbed his cellphone from his pocket. "Yamamoto, who—"

He stood quietly listening to the message. "What?" his voice rose sharply, causing Gokudera to look at the Rain Guardian in shock. Tsuna also turned for a short while, but returned his gaze towards the garden. "I-I'm coming right now…No, don't do anything until I get there…"

There was a small click and Yamamoto let his hand drop to his side before closing it. "I-I'll be leaving now…" he announced, his voice shaking as the oak's hinges creaked. Then he ran out, slamming the door behind him.

Tsuna and his Storm Guardian stood quietly, not moving from their positions. After thirty seconds that had felt like an eternity had passed, Gokudera broke the silence. "Tenth, about the rings—"

"You said you had information on the Families that were recently annihilated, right?" he interrupted, not turning around.

Gokudera's eyebrows knit together, but he held down his question. What Tsuna wanted came first. He set down his brief case next to the rings and took out eight manila folders as well as a thin envelope. "These folders describe the business these Families were conducting in recent years. Other than being in the mafia and being relatively unknown families, there are no outstanding transactions or activities." He explained as he closed his brief case. "The envelope was found in the mail and addressed specifically to you. I went to check on Gianini's work and he's almost completed the new secret base."

"Thank you, Gokudera."

"Tenth, you're acting strange lately. Not just the Vongola rings, but lately as I go over your work there are more mistakes than usual. You're up late at night and don't come back home until early morning. I'm worried about you, Tenth."

Tsuna sighed, "Hayato…"

"Y-Yes?" Gokudera answered after recovering from the shock of hearing his first name. Tsuna rarely did that; it was only on three occasions that Tsuna did such a thing: [1] when he was angry, [2] had something serious to say, and [3] when he was drunk.

"My recent behavior is nothing you need to worry about. It's just that my intuition has been telling me to do this. I'm not clear on what exactly 'this' is, but you know just as well as I do that when my intuition is telling me to do something, it should be done. You're the first friend I made and my right-hand man. If anything bad was to happen or anything that I couldn't handle was to come up, you'd be the first to know."

"I believe in your judgment, so I won't doubt your words. Just remember, I'll always be there by your side to protect you and the Family." Then the Storm Guardian picked up his briefcase and headed for the door. "I'll try to get in contact with Ryohei and Chrome. It's just an assumption, but you have Lambo's ring already, right? I'll see you later."

After he heard the door close, Tsuna sat down at his desk, reclining back in his seat with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he looked at was the two Vongola rings his childhood friends left on his desk. He reached out for them, holding them in his palm in front of him. The two rings that had gone through generations of battles and owners looked shiny and new like they were just bought yesterday.

He smiled as he closed the rings in his hand. He remembered the night Gokudera, Yamamoto, and he walked back home after the ring conflict had finally ended. They were exhausted and tired from their fight with the Varia, which was like fighting death itself, but they were happy and smiling.

Before Tsuna realized it, tears had formed in his eyes and blurred his vision before streaming down his cheek. He quickly wiped them away with his sleeve and picked up the files that Gokudera had brought in. Almost immediately, he recognized five of the eight Family files piled on his desk.

Taking up the other three, Tsuna skimmed the information that was paper-clipped into the folder. "Maybe…"

The mafia boss set the files back down on his desk as well as the Guardians' rings and hurried out of his office towards the informational hall that housed the Vongola archives and library.

"Sawada…I heard you wanted to…" Hibari stopped at the open doorway, only to find the room devoid of life. He scanned the room over carefully before stepping into office. Each step he took on the brown carpet echoed silence.

The former disciplinary member stopped at his boss's desk. He didn't want to admit it, that Tsuna, a mere herbivore during his middle school days, had become his boss and even beat him once in a battle, but he accepted it. "Hn? What's this?" he picked up the files on the desk, thumbing through one and then the rest before he came upon the envelope, which was buried under all the files that were now in a neat stack on the Vongola boss's desk.

Despite seeing the envelope still sealed together with seal-less red wax, the Cloud Guardian tore it open from the fold and took out the letter. As he processed every word on the sheet, his eyes widened. It was when Hibari was finished reading the letter that Tsuna came back.

"Sawada, what's the meaning of this?" he growled as Tsuna walked in. Tsuna looked at the letter then at Hibari then back to the letter. The mafia boss closed the doors and locked them.

"Lately, there have been recent attacks on several Families throughout the world, mainly in Italy," Tsuna started.

"I was aware…but what does it have to do with this?" He held up the paper and envelope up in the air, firmly clutched in his hand. "When did you start contacting this man and when did you start talking about—"

"After our last contact with the Millefiore Family, I realized that Byakuran held a Mare Ring. The Mare Rings, however, belong to the Giglio Nero, whose boss holds the Sky Pacifier. That's when my intuition first started to warn me that something bad was going to happen or that there was something wrong; it was also then that I received my first letter from Irie Shoichi."

"I suppose then," Hibari interrupted, "that the first letter contained something concerning a rendezvous?"

Tsuna looked up at Hibari in surprise.

"Your right-hand man isn't the only one who notices what goes on in this mansion."

Tsuna walked towards the window, looking out at the rose garden again. "You're correct: the letter did tell me to meet with Irie. This was to be outside of both our Family's knowledge and I was to burn the letter after reading it. At first, I was a bit wary and suspicious of the letter and this 'Irie' that I hadn't recalled ever meeting. But when I met him in person, I knew that he was a good person, someone I could trust."

"Is he more trustworthy than your childhood friends? Than us?" Hibari snapped.

"It's not like that, Kyouya," Tsuna's voice rose. "If I were to tell everyone about Irie and the plan that we were coming up with, they would all try to join in. Irie wants it to be just the two of us."

"So you're only telling me because I found out? Do you not trust—"

Tsuna turned around, facing his Cloud Guardian. His eyebrows were knit together in slight annoyance. "Kyouya, I already told you, it's not like that. I trust Gokudera, Yamamoto, Chrome, Ryohei, Lambo, I-pin, Reborn, you—everyone—with my life. I know that you all would save me without thinking. That's why I couldn't let you guys in on the plan."

"Then why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I need your help. You're smart, Kyouya, and your information network is the best in the Vongola's. You also have a very strong sense of justice, although sometimes a bit corrupt, you know that there are some things that should not be left undone or should not happen. I'm guessing you've already gone through all those files, correct?"

"Yes," Hibari answered, calmer now.

Tsuna turned back to his window, "And you've noticed the attribute that all of them share, yes?"

The two stood still, letting dead silence chatter away. "I have," he answered solemnly.

"Then you know what I need to do and what I need you to do, right?"

"I do, but I don't like the idea of you going on your own. I'm going with you to your next meeting."

Tsuna couldn't help but feel pain build up deep inside him from hearing Hibari's concern, but he smiled, "I thought you'd say that."

End Chapter One

Originally, I was only going to have this be a one-shot, but…oh well…

I'm probably not able to create the kind of mood I want for this story because I'm such an amateur. Review please! And if you're going to criticize it, give some advice to go with it!