Disclaimer: The Reborn manga or anime series does not belong to me

Chapter 1

Tsuna groaned as the early morning sun began to rise above the land. There where times when she really hated it for being there. In the distance she could hear the clanging bell signalling breakfast for the servants and knew that if she was late her food would be fed to the dogs. She pushed herself up off the bed and rubbed her eyes. The food here was far from tasty but it was better then rooting through the rubbish pits for scraps. She swivelled around and put her feet on the cobbled floor, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light. Her room was plain and small; the only things in it were a rickety bed, a small set of drawers and a good luck charm she had been given a couple of years ago.

She could hear the other servants beginning to wake next door, she better hurry for breakfast. Finding her spare set of clothes she quickly changed out of her sleeping gown and into her serving outfit: A black tunic with the family crest on the front, a white belt and a pair of shoes. The only thing different about her outfit to the others was an embroidered pattern round the cuffs, it was a ring of leaves which indicated that she worked for the castle's herb-woman, the healer Nataleya.

Quickly she walked out of her room and down the corridor, past all the servant bedroom doors until she came to the food hall. The cook was already handing out bowls of something and she didn't really want to know what the green and slightly twitching gunk was. It filled her stomach and that was that. There were already a few servants there and she could feel their eyes boring holes in her back. She took a deep breath and ignored the stares she had lived most of her life with.

She joined the back of the queue and idly played with her hair. Seriously, the only reason she was allowed to work for the healer was because she was rubbish at everything else; she couldn't clean or sew at all. When she tried to look after the dogs they chased her half way round the castle, heavy labour tired her out easily and she couldn't do the simplest tasks right. Sure she could cook alright but they hadn't let her near the kitchen since she had accidentally poured some sort of poisonous mushroom juice into the lords soup and well....the maids hadn't stopped glaring at her for weeks. She reached out for her bowl of...goo and turned around to find somewhere to sit. Luckily only some of the others where here so she was able to find an isolated seat with no-one to bother her.

Steeling her stomach she began to eat whatever was in front of her. You learned to eat what you got here, and again the stares didn't stop. A twinge of annoyance snapped inside of her.

"You'd have thought after 13 years they'd have realised what I looked like." She muttered to herself. She had arrived here with her mother 13 years ago when she was 3. Her mother, Nana, had been running from bandits that had destroyed her town somewhere in the West and asked for protection. The lord Sterk had given her it in return for becoming a servant to his household. Her mother had accepted and here they where. Well her mother was now one of the sewers and spent most of her time on the looms. Nana was never stared at. She guesses it was because of her tattoo and the fact that anyone associated with the healer was seen as odd. At the base of her neck there was a tattoo she'd had for as long as she could remember: it was a black V with flames twisting around it. As a child she had scrubbed her skin raw trying to remove it but to no avail the damn thing stayed on.

Her mother said it was something her father had done when she was small but that was all she knew. Tsuna could not remember her father and to be honest she didn't want to. Sure Nana would sometimes go off into a dream world and her cheeks would blush bright pink but Tsuna just could not find it in her to like the man who had abandoned herself and her mother to bandits. Whenever she said this to her mother, she would get angry and tell Tsuna that her father would not have left them without a good reason, then she would go back to blushing and giggling. Now Tsuna, loved her mother she was the only one outside of the healer who didn't seem creeped out by her or avoided her but the way Nana seemed so ready to forgive her no-show father really grated on her nerves.

The hall was starting to fill up now and the idle chatter of the servants created a noisy atmosphere. Tsuna was shy and much preferred to be on her own. Her bowl was nearly empty but she was going to finish off every last scrap of food. She rarely saw her mother these days, usually she was too busy helping the healer or gathering herbs or visiting the healer because she had fallen down the stairs again. It wasn't her fault she was the clumsiest girl on the planet.

She sighed and her eyes turned to the map that hung on the wall. There were 5 main countries in the world Italia, Japan, Inglaterra, Espana and Usa. Each had their own ruler and set of laws but they usually all managed to live in peace. Castle Magla was in Inglaterra. Her mother had come from Japan, near one of its main cities Namimori. Tsuna closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to travel across the world. In all her 16 years she had never set foot outside the village. But oh how she wanted to. Every time a story teller visited the castle she would push her way to the front and listen with a gaping mouth to stories of magic, warriors and the Mafia. The mafia was an organization that spanned across all 5 countries and was made up of different groups or "families". It was made up of warriors, healers, magic users, shape-shifters..everything. They fought with each other and families fought for different countries.

Tsuna could remember seeing some of the mafia from when she was about 6. She had been running around the castle playing hide and seek with her bird, yeah she was a lonely child, and had found herself hiding in a cupboard in a fancy room. Now her 6-year old brain had not realised that she was actually sitting in the Lords study. She had been extra quiet when the door had opened and a man had stepped inside. She had peered out of the key-hole and had been able to make out a very tall men dressed all in black with a cloak covering his face. He had looked around the room for a minute then looked her straight in the eye, she had caught a glimpse of black eyes as sharp as steel and her heart had stopped beating for a second. Then from behind him the lord stepped in. She had known she was in trouble then. If he caught her hiding in his room she or her mother would be punished. Yet the strange cloaked man had not revealed her. She knew he had seen her yet he didn't mention anything to the lord.

They had spoken about something but they were whispering so she couldn't hear all that he was saying but she caught a few words: assassin, contract, money and desperate. At the time they meant nothing to her, she had been too worried about being discovered. The lord had left something on the table and exited the room. Leaving her alone with the cloaked man.

The second t he lord had shut the door he was over by the cupboard and opened the door. It had been so fast that she didn't see him move and as she had been leaning against the door she had been spent sprawling on the floor. As she had been sitting up the man spoke.

"My, my don't you think it's dangerous for little children to be running around unsupervised?" The voice was soft and held a tinge of amusement. As she was 6 and the man hadn't told the lord who she was she had immediately looked him and smiled.

"I was playing hide and seek with my friend Dai. I had to find the best place so he wouldn't find me."

"I see and the best place you could think of was in your masters study."

"Uh-huh. He'd never think to find me in here."

"Very clever little one but you should be more careful around me." She had cocked her head to the side and asked.

"Why?"

He had smirked and she had felt a cold shiver shoot up her spine. "Because I'm a very dangerous man."

"You don't seem dangerous to me and you didn't tell the Lord where I was so you can't be all bad."

It had seemed like she had surprised him for a second and there had been silence between them. Before Dai had flown in chirping at her. She had giggled as he pecked her lightly on the head.

"This bird is your friend?" he had spoken and she nodded eagerly.

"Yeah Dai's my best friend, he doesn't point and whisper like the adults do, they tell their kids to stay away from me so I'm not friends with them. But I have Dai, and now you. You don't stare meanly either. You want to be friends?"

He had put a hand on her head and she had fallen silent, staring up at him with big brown eyes. He had smirked again, though it was less frightening.

"You are the oddest child I've ever met, and you clearly have no sense of self-preservation do you?"

She had blinked at the strange word. "Self-preswervwation? What's that."

He had chuckled and patted her head. "Survival instinct. Anyway I have to go now." He had stood to leave but she had grabbed onto his hand. He had turned back to her and she pouted.

"You didn't answer my question. Will you be my friend?"

There was a silence then. "You won't stop until I say yes will you?" Grinning she had shook her head. He had sighed.

"Very well then." She had missed the amusement in his voice and had started jumping up and down. He led her from the room and back to the servant quarters with her babbling in his ear. At the door he had leant down and reached into his cloak before pulling out a charm: It had been a woven ring with a pentacle inside.

"Here this will bring you luck, which you'll need since you seem to be foolish and have no sense of survival." He had pressed it into her hands and turned to leave.

She had waved goodbye, he turned and waved back.

She had never seen him again and had later figured out that he must have been part of the mafia. Stil she remembered him fondly as her first official "human friend". Dai was old now but still followed her everywhere, and the charm was still hanging on her wall.

Breakfast was over and it was time to clean up. She brought her bowl over to the counter and handed it to a kitchen maid. Scraping her hair back into a bun she headed for the door to see what the healer wanted her to do today. She caught a glimpse of herself in the wall mirror and stared at her reflection: medium height, with an average frame and a slightly big chest she wasn't anything special. Her hair was brown and was usually loose and fell a couple of centimetres pas her shoulders. Her eyes were a little too wide and her face was average. She didn't look any different from anyone else so why was she the odd one out?

Heaving a sigh and shaking off self-pity she began to ascend the tower to where the healer worked. Little did Tsuna Sawada know it was the beginning of a while new chapter in her life.

AN: OK this is my first anime fanfic so I'm not sure If I've wrote it right or not. Please tell me what you think and all advice will be appreciated. Thanks for reading!