KitusneFreak: I'm worried already, school will be coming up any moment and I'm already trying to write a long scale story. Still the lack of 1st Gen stories is bothering me! Well, to make up for my lack of posts, I'll just make each chapter longer so that I'll post less to finish the plot. That works out for everyone right?

Here is a 1st Gen / 10th Gen crossover. Granted, that plot has been done about… four legitimate times (without random OCs or newfound brothers etc.) but my new take on it with ALL the Guardians and not just Tsuna. Yes, Giannini, you have totally outdone yourself this time.

I'm probably not going to update this as regularly as 'Clams Much' (as in every other day) because this is a much different style of writing than I'm used to, but I'm currently working on chapter 2 so…yeah. I'm crossing my fingers here.

Disclaimer: Mou, if I owned it there would be several changes here and there, like more 1st Gen back story… I applaud the anime for taking that step despite the fact that they were fillers.

{Badger, Badger, Badger, Mushroom, Mushroom…}

A flashing white light.

A searing pain shot through Chrome's shoulder. Mukuro just had to tire out at the worst possible time. She didn't know how it happened, but she knew for a certain fact that she was falling. Clutching onto her trident tightly she braced herself for the landing. The sweet aroma of flowers and spongy moss were the last things that she smelled and felt before she blacked out.

..8.9.

"Boss? I'm afraid to report an intrusion," said a man with a flaming red tattoo on his face as he burst through the oak doors of his boss' office.

"Where? And whose family is it from?" Giotto asked quickly, looking up from his paperwork.

"In the private gardens, it's a…" at that moment, the man, whose name was G, faltered.

Sensing his right hand man's discomfort, Giotto quickly stood up to head on over to the gardens, motioning for G to follow.

"Yes, G? Please continue."

"Actually, we have no idea what family she comes from."

Giotto looked up in surprise, "She?"

Women in the mafia were not exactly uncommon, Giotto reasoned to himself. However, sending one woman into the Vongola mansion that served as headquarters without backup either meant that she was exceptionally strong or just plain suicide. Sending a message from an enemy family perhaps? Wouldn't that be useless if they couldn't figure out what family she came from?

"Who did she engage in combat with?" Giotto asked, looking ahead as they neared their destination. The private gardens, in accordance to their name, were not exactly a place where everyone was privy to walk through. It was mostly a place reserved for the boss and his Guardians so that they could relax in private, or more likely, pass out highly classified missions without too many people knowing. For all Giotto knew, that woman was lucky to even have been found since it was used so rarely.

"That's the problem" G replied with a grimace. "No one claims to have done so. However, she's covered in fresh injuries which would make anyone guess that she's been in a bad fight."

"Where is she now?"

"Knuckle is currently attending to her wounds in the gardens, we planned on getting her transferred to one of the guest rooms later so that she wouldn't attract too much attention. It would be a problem if rumors started flying around of an attack or something of the like."

Giotto would have replied back to compliment his right hand man's clever thinking but they arrived at the spot where the mysterious woman was found. Even with Knuckle bent over to attend to the injuries, the woman still was a sight to see.

She looked to be only in her early twenties. A black skull ornamented eye patch covered her right eye. From what Giotto could see, the gash on her shoulder was the worst of her injuries, the scratches and scrapes that covered the rest of her were like paper cuts in comparison. Even while unconscious, Giotto mused at how tightly she was still able to clutch onto her trident, her only visible weapon. Left hand over her right, it appeared as though she were just a child who was holding onto the only doll that she owned. 'Perhaps a dear possession?'

However, Giotto was brought out of his reverie when the golden glow emitted by Knuckle' ring dissipated. The man in priestly attire promptly stood up, turning to his boss.

"I've managed to get her to stop bleeding."

"How about the rest of her injuries?" Giotto asked, taking mild notice of the fact that the woman wore a black dress suit with heeled boots.

"Except for the injury to her shoulder, the rest are all healed. However, I would prefer to bandage it tomorrow morning to prevent any damage to the skin that just healed over."

The three men stood around the woman, with varying levels of puzzled looks on their faces as they all wondered who she was, where she came from and why she ended up at the Vongola mansion in such a terrible state.

After a while G broke the silence, "I guess we ought to be taking her up to the guest rooms then?"

Stooping over, G picked up the girl and carried her bridal style and walked a little ways before turning back to the other men.

After a moment's pondering, Giotto strode up with Knuckle trailing behind. "I think it'd be best if she were placed in the guest rooms that are closer to the Guardians"

"Why would you want to do that, Giotto?" Knuckle asked worriedly, "What if she is part of an enemy family?"

"Then there's all the more reason to keep her where we can make sure that she isn't up to anything."

The three men proceeded in silence, and Knuckle only left the group at times to attend to the stares that they received from various subordinates. It was something mostly along the lines of a 'do not worry and don't mention that you saw this to anyone'. However, it was easier said than done, especially when the unconscious woman that G was carrying had some blood streaking her white blouse. Indeed, it was one of those few moments when Giotto wanted to disappear into a wall and lament the fact that they sometimes had one too many subordinates sprinkling the hallways. Nonetheless, he remembered to keep an impassive and calm face, lest it should betray worry.

..8.9.

"Rokudo-san!" Giannini cried out in fear as he saw the tall mist illusionist collapse on the hard floor.

Fuuta quickly rushed over in equal surprise and a certain level of dread. He knew that Mukuro often preferred to close his eyes while standing when taking control of Chrome's body but collapsing has never occurred before.

"Mukuro!" Fuuta shook the illusionist but no avail.

Cursing inwardly, he slung the older man over his shoulder as he made a rush for the medical ward.

'Tsuna-nii is going to freak out if I screw this up'

For the most part, since the past half year, bargaining with the Vendice actually lead to the release of the infamous Rokudo Mukuro. There might have been many strings attached to the release, but for the most part, things seemed to have taken a turn for the better. Even though Mukuro still openly talked about possessing the Vongola Decimo's body in order to destroy the mafia (much to Gokudera's explosive anger and Tsuna's exasperation), everyone slowly grew to see it as an empty threat. In the short six months, though the mist illusionist would rather die than admit it, he was grateful and very much surprised that Sawada Tsunayoshi would do so much to help a 'truly cruel' enemy like himself.

After spending years floating in a tank, the great Rokudo Mukuro, needless to say, didn't exactly have complete control of all his motor skills when he went free. Wincing slightly, Fuuta remembered the general uproar that was created when Mukuro was put under the equivalent of house arrest for an entire year by Tsuna in order to protect the illusionist from harm. He was not to enter combat until the year was up and his physical combat abilities in addition to his motor skills have all been regained. In the meantime, if he wanted to somehow enter combat, he had to settle with using Chrome's body as a vessel.

With the medical ward looming ahead, Fuuta was snapped out of his reverie and shoved the door open surprising Bianchi, who was inside tending to several injured….were those…. ex-disciplinary members?

Looking up and nodding quickly, the pink haired woman led Fuuta out of the medical ward and into one of the private patient rooms.

"What happened?" Bianchi asked, deftly putting the mist illusionist into the bed and covering him slightly with the sheets.

"I have not the slightest idea Bianchi-nee," Fuuta scratched his head. "If I'm not mistaken, he was in the midst of possessing Chrome's body to help in her fight but halfway through he just collapsed without warning. Giannini is still trying to reestablish the connection between headquarters and Tsuna-nii."

"If that's the case, we must assume the worst and believe that Chrome, along with Mukuro, is out of commission," Bianchi said grimly as she bit the nail of her thumb.

Glancing worriedly between Bianchi and Mukuro's unconscious figure, Fuuta back tracked towards the door. "I should get back to help Giannini, if anything should happen, tell me okay, Bianchi-nee?"

..8.9.

Panting heavily, Tsuna along with his Guardians took cover behind a wall of boulders. He looked around to assess the situation. Even though they tried to take this fight as far away as possible, it somehow ended on the outskirts of the Vongola estate. Only the natural landscape was giving them the upper hand at this point. Everyone that should have been there was present. There was Gokudera checking his supply of dynamite and making sure that shields of his CAI system held up enough protection for them all. Yamamoto was looking from behind the boulders to see where the enemy was. Ryohei was wounding another layer of bandages around his fists. Lambo was left back at the mansion headquarters along with Hibari so they could oversee the grander plan of keeping out the enemy.

It took only a moment before a feeling of dread made his stomach lurch when he realized that Chrome was missing. Wait; there had been a bright flash of white light earlier.

'Oh dear god, please let that not be an attack. What if Chrome was injured, or worse, dead?'

"Yamamoto, do you see Chrome anywhere?"

"I thought she switched places with Mukuro earlier." Yamamoto asked puzzled, but looked over anyway. "Either way, I see no signs of any of them."

If there was a word to describe the myriad of feelings Tsuna was feeling at that moment, it probably would have been very much along the lines of dread.

..8.9.

A bright ray of light filtered through a crack in the curtains as it made its way across the unprotected eye of Chrome. Still she chose to keep her eyes closed. The gentle way with which a pair of hands tended to her painful shoulder was soothing to say the least. However, she stiffened just a tad when she heard unfamiliar voices.

"–uckle and I were walking," a voice said, "and it was only by chance that we had stumbled upon her in a bed of flowers clutching that trident."

'Are they talking about me? Wait, then where am I?'

"She looks so young. Too young to be drawn into the works of the mafia," another voice commented softly.

'Bossu? No, he definitely has a different voice, yet so similar in tone…'

A pain in her shoulder caused her to inadvertently wince and her visible eye flashed open.

"Oh, you're awake I see."

Chrome quickly utilized the moment to look at the speaker before her eyes widened in shock. It took every ounce of her being to prevent herself from uttering the word 'Bossu'. The similarities were uncanny. He had blonde hair instead of the chocolate brown that she was used to. Despite the softness that she thought she heard in his voice earlier, his face now betrayed no such mercy. It was cold and emotionless.

'Kind of like Cloud-man's' Chrome mused, frowning internally.

Seeing the fear that was coming from the woman, Knuckle directed her attention back to himself. "Sorry about earlier, I didn't realize I hurt you, but the good news is that you're all patched up now and ready to go!"

Chrome turned her attention to the man who was tending to her wounds beside her before uttering ever so eloquently a single, "Huh?"

The man attending to her, she noticed, had a bandage across the nose, and pitch black dark hair. A lengthy red sash hung across his shoulders and draped across his front. Overall, he seemed rather priestly in appearance.

"A priest?" Chrome asked tentatively.

"The name's Knuckle, what's yours?" the man, now identified to Chrome as Knuckle, extended his hand to her as if to shake it.

"It's… uh… it's… Chrome," responded, shyly looking away as she took the hand. Apparently she gave up on shaking it in her shyness and ended up just holding the hand before letting go.

The blonde haired man cleared his throat. "You were found on these premises injured. Do you mind explaining how this came to be?"

"I… don't know."

The man with red hair and an intricate red tattoo on his face walked from behind the blonde and spoke up suddenly, much to Chrome's surprise. "Not a single thing? Surely you at least remember how you got here or even how you got your injuries."

Chrome weighed her options carefully, deciding on how much she should tell them.

"I was fighting… with my friends… Some people attacked us." She took a deep breath. "All I remember was a bright light…and then you …helped…me."

Giotto's hyper intuition nagged at him. He could tell that this woman wasn't telling the whole story. Still, whatever part that she did decide to share, didn't feel to be a lie. Still, he wouldn't push it – for now at least.

"I'd recommend for you to get some rest. Knuckle will be back to check up you later." Turning, he made for the door with his right hand man following swiftly behind him. Her voice stopped him abruptly as he reached for the handle of the door.

"Thank you…."

Without turning, the blonde answered the expectant pause evenly, "Giotto." And he left.

"Thank you, Giotto."

{Badger, Badger, Badger, Mushroom, Mushroom…}

KitsuneFreak: How was it? I tend to limit my stories in the humor department and it's one of my first tries at a more serious plotline. Nothing like angst, though, I just hate those. I will put in the humor soon, I promise, I just need to get the plot skeleton down.

I thought it was nice to start with Chrome; she never really gets major screen time.

GAH, I just finished watching episode 197. Noooo, Hibari are you OKAY? As you can tell, I haven't read the entire manga; I just got to the Mukuro arc.

Anyway, here comes the redundant R's.

R&R!

Toodles!