Mukuro: Kufufu. You're certainly fond of strange ideas, Yoruko-chan.

Yoruko: Yeah, I guess I am. ^.^

Tsunami: *reading shonen-ai*

Yamamoto: Oi, Tsunami! What are you reading?

Tsunami: *hides* N-nothing!

Hibari: Herbivore, where did you get the idea for making Tsunami Sawada like this?

Yoruko: *thinks: He called me 'herbivore'... though I guess that it would be true in the sense he means it. -.-'* I suppose I got the idea for her personality from a manga called Beauty Pop, sort of.

Summary: Tsunami Sawada is a child with no motivation, but she is certainly not stupid. So she never once thought that Iemitsu was a construction worker. Curious, she decides to go with him to Italy one summer vacation in order to find out. There, she meets a group of older kids who tell her the truth. What will it be like when the hitman tutor, Reborn arrives in Namimori only to find not a 'no good' student but a lazy student who has been trained by and is friends with the Varia? Pairing: fem!Tsuna/Mammon (Mammon will be younger than his fellow Arcobaleno.)

Prologue:

Trip to Italy

Six year old Tsunami Sawada, or Dame-Tsuna to her peers, was clumsy in anything sports related and her grades were merely average. She was not without her own hidden or unnoticed talents, however. She was fast, good at hiding, and had an uncanny knack for escaping. But most importantly, Tsunami was observant and thanks to everyone around her tending to ignore her or to be oblivious no one had realized it, which came in handy. Her mother was a very good example for the oblivious part. Nana once almost crossed the street when the light was red. She was also imaginative and a dreamer, to boot.

Tsuna, as everyone seemed to insist on calling her, was not stupid either, in spite of her average grades, but rather was lazy. She knew her papa kept lying about his job. If his job really had anything to do with construction work, why work all the way in Italy when there was plenty of work closer to home in Japan, or even Korea or China? Tsunami was also pretty sure that no matter what your job was, it was weird to not only call your boss 'Ninth' and for said boss to not only come all the way from Italy to spend his vacation at his worker's house in Japan... But for the boss to even insist that said worker's wife and daughter call him Timoteo and Jii-chan respectively. This was what led to where she was now.

Her papa came home a mere two and a half weeks after his last visit, which had been a longer than usual visit already. (In Tsunami's opinion, it was almost like her papa didn't even live in the same house, he was there so seldom.) To Tsunami's annoyance and Nana's hidden but easily seen disappointment it had been for a reason. He wouldn't be able to come home at all during the summer. Tsunami was suspicious- since when did her papa use as simple an explanation as "Something came up at work."? She thought her papa was actually telling the truth for once in his life. He was even acting the way he tended to when he was unable to go out due to snow keeping them all in (rain didn't bother him) and the time Mama left them to see Obaa-chan in the hospital. So, she had convinced her papa that the only way she'd forgive him was if she got to go to Italy with him for the summer instead of getting a present so Mama could visit her cousin in Okinawa. When would she ever get another chance to figure out what he really did, after all? Besides, she wanted to test the Italian she'd been trying to learn since meeting Papa's boss two years ago. Jii-chan had been nice, yet hadn't treated her like a toddler or a baby.

Tsunami had been surprised when their destination was a mansion in a town that she had never heard of or even read about in the book about Italy she had read. Papa had said that it was his boss' ancestral home- he was descended from nobility and he had turned it into both his office and a home for employees with nowhere else to live. It was neat, and she had explored both the mansion and the gardens. However, being a little girl she had decided that it would be more fun to explore the rest of the mansion if she had a friend. Also, it had been three days and she hadn't left the mansion once. At this rate she would be bored all summer. So today, Tsunami decided that she would take action.

"Papa?" Tsunami said at breakfast. (Jii-chan insisted that they eat breakfast and dinner with him unless he was unavailable so he was there too.)

"Yes Tsu-chan?"

"Can we go out today Papa? I want to see the city." she asked.

Iemitsu blinked slowly. It had never occurred to him that Tsunami would want to leave the mansion. Timoteo, on the other hand, just chuckled quietly. It seemed that Iemitsu, for all that he looked and actually was tough, was just as oblivious as his wife in some ways. The older man had known that the blonde had little experience with children. He wondered if Iemitsu would ever realize that not being home for more than a week or two at a time since his daughter was two meant that he didn't know her at all. Unlike Iemitsu, he even had a good idea as to why the six year old was there.

"But Tsu-chan, Papa has work. I don't have time to take you out today. Maybe another day?" Iemitsu said.

Had he been a lesser man, Timoteo would have face-palmed. As it was, he just sweat-dropped. Poor, poor, fool. Unlike the younger man, Timoteo knew that Tsunami was understanding and mature for her age, and observant to boot. She had had to be, Nana was a wonderful woman but she was oblivious and on some occasions, slightly air-headed or too trusting. As a married woman in love with her husband she was also prone to moments where the only thing keeping Nana afloat in terms of happiness was Tsunami who probably had to take charge somewhat... Even if she was too young to truly understand the situation completely. She was, however, still a six year old who was just denied time with her much cherished but rarely seen parent, one who just might realize any moment now that she was unlikely to get what she wanted any time soon.

Just as predicted, Tsunami's face was now set in a teary-eyed puppy-dog pout. "But I've never left Japan before."

Parental instincts kicking in at the sight of the cute girl he already saw as a granddaughter of sorts almost in tears, Timoteo stepped up to the plate. It was time to defuse the situation before Iemitsu made things worse. The old man was already surprised that the little girl had daddy's girl moments at all anymore, as the younger man was never home to spend time with her. Little did he know he was about to give the girl not just one but two things she wanted just as much.

"Tsuna-chan, how about someone else takes you around the city? He's a child like you but he's old enough to look after you. You might even be able to be friends." Timoteo suggested.

Tsunami agreed without argument or any sort of fuss. She'd never had a friend before, after all. And so, after breakfast she found herself leaving the mansion with a boy with long blonde hair, bangs that hid his eyes, and a tiara-like ornament (of all things) in his hair. He looked to be around eleven or twelve. (AN: Squalo, Belphegor, Dino, and anyone else their age will be around five years older. Xanxus will be a teenager. Tsunami's eventual love interest in this story, will only be ten years older therefore sixteen at this point in time and just became an Arcobaleno. And Fran will be closer to her age, only three years older, if I have him appear earlier than canon because he calls Belphegor 'Bel-senpai' to my knowledge. So when she leaves Italy, she'll be seven and Bel and Squalo will be twelve.) Hoping they really would be friends, Tsunami decided to start off by introducing herself. In her opinion, he seemed nicer than the boys back home.

"I'm Tsunami." she said with a smile.

"Shishishi. Like the giant waves?" he asked.

Tsunami nodded. "But for some reason, everyone calls me Tsuna. What's your name?"

"I'm Prince Belphegor." he said.

Tsunami didn't think he was really a prince but didn't say anything; after all she secretly liked to pretend she was a fairy or an elf when she played alone. "It's nice to meet you Prince-kun." she said, still smiling.

Belphegor's eyes widened behind his hair. He could tell that she doubted that he was a prince, yet she had still gone along with it. It seems the prince has unexpectedly made a friend...

"Shishishi. You're Italian is very good." he praised, "And you may call me Belphegor."

The six year old girl blushed slightly at the praise, making Belphegor wonder how often she received compliments. "Can I call you Bel-kun? I've never had a friend before, so I've never gotten to use a nickname before."

Belphegor frowned, why would a girl like this have no friends? She was really cute.

"Of course. What brings you all the way to Italy, Tsunami? From the "kun", you must be Japanese."

She frowned. "I wanted to find out what Papa's real job is. He wouldn't be here all the time if he was really a construction worker. Do you know, Bel-kun?"

Being a child himself, Belphegor saw no problem in telling the girl what she wanted to know. "Shishishi. Vongola is actually the most powerful mafia famiglia. According to legend and any books that mention the subject, Vongola Primo founded it to be a tool of justice and peace and while they were at it clean up the underworld."

Tsunami took it in stride as only a child could; she knew her papa wasn't a bad guy, just thoughtless and irresponsible. "Really? That's cool! Just like in a manga or anime!"

That night, both Belphegor's and Tsunami's smiles were a little more real. Neither told when asked what had made them so happy. The next day, Belphegor picked her up from the room she had breakfast in. He planned on introducing the princess, as he'd decided to call her since she was unlike anyone he'd ever met or heard of, to his friends. Both he and they would insist that they were only comrades, but they all knew they were really a famiglia in their own right and said denials didn't fool her in the least. The destination turned out to be a field that was farther on the grounds than Tsunami had managed to get. She later learned from Belphegor that it was the Varia's outdoor training grounds.

The group they came upon consisted of boys who were all older than Tsunami, most somewhere around the age of the blonde 'prince' but one boy was a little older. Namely, a sort of scary-looking boy with red eyes and black hair who a teenager while most looked like they were in their last year or so of elementary school.

"Oi, Trash! What's with the brat?" the almost but not quite scary looking boy demanded.

"Shishishi. The princess is no brat, Xanxus. She's the prince's new friend, and her name is Tsunami."

"Voi! Who said you could bring her here?" said a boy Bel's age that had silver hair.

"Oh, she's adorable Bel! Wherever did you find her?" a teen a little younger than Xanxus who had dyed part of his hair green gushed.

"The princess' father is the External Advisor." Belphegor explained, "She could tell that he was lying about his job so she talked him into taking her to Italy with him for the summer because she wanted to know what he really does."

"Is that so, Trash? Then she's pretty perceptive for a brat." 'Xanxus said.

Xanxus, the other two who spoke up when Belphegor and Tsunami arrived, (they eventually introduced themselves as Squalo and Lussuria) and the other boy, Levi, quickly took a liking to her in spite of themselves. (Levi did so begrudgingly because she respected his precious Boss.) They even took to training her so that she could defend herself. Almost a month into her visit, the winds of change were blowing in the mafia world. Rumors of assassins who had met with misfortune and ended up cursed were rampant.

It was a cloudy day when Tsunami met one of them. She was by herself, as her friends were all busy that day. The little girl had already done what training she could without her friends, as she didn't want to disappoint them. Afterward, she had decided to go out to the gardens. He had already been there, staring into the distance. He had clearly been lost in thought. She had heard the talk about a group of people called Arcobaleno but hadn't really been aware of what happened. So all she saw was a kid that was too old to be a baby but didn't seem quite old enough to be a toddler wearing a black cloak that hid most of his face and he had a dark blue pacifier around his neck.

"Excuse me… are you okay?" she asked, "You look sad."

He had looked up at her in shock; no one had ever been able to read him like that before and his eyes weren't even remotely visible to boot. "I… don't know how to answer that."

She'd been surprised at the response. "I didn't know that babies could talk so well."

He snorted bitterly. "Hm. Until recently, I was a teenager."

She blinked, still confused but being able to associate the strange claim with the rumors. "… Are you one of those Arcobaleno the adults keep talking about?"

"Is that what they're calling us?" he asked, still monotone but clearly interested.

She shrugged, not entirely sure. "I guess. By the way, my name's Tsunami. What about you?"

"… Viper." But he flinched at the sound of his own name. "… Well, it was. I don't really feel like Viper anymore."

"Then how about until you break the curse you have a new name?" Tsunami suggested.

"… A… new name?"

Viper didn't know if it was the presence of the girl or if her words had carried an unintended hidden message but for the first time since the mission gone wrong he felt something he hadn't felt or even had a reason to particularly want to feel in a long time: hope. He would never get over having been cursed to be little more than a baby before he could even finish growing up, but it felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Yeah! That way you can pretend it's just a game. How about we call you… Mammon." she said, "How does that sound?"

He gave a small smile in spite of himself.

"… Mammon." He said, trying it out, "Not bad. Thanks, Tsuna."

The slightly pleased grin Mammon was rewarded with was as lazy as Tsunami's posture told him she probably was, but somehow it managed to rival the sun itself. "Don't mention it."

He spent the rest of the day entertaining her with illusions and playing with her while under the illusion of looking like he had at her age. He originally hadn't planned on it, but he figured it would make it easier on the girl since a baby that was more like an adult was clearly unnerving for her at times. When the newly dubbed Mammon and the Varia met, they clicked quickly, surprisingly enough. Mammon even helped her learn how to use her dying will flames. During the training, she was eventually found to be best at hand to hand and using her flames like spirit energy was used in anime and, oddly enough, using it to turn plants into weapons like Kurama from Yuyu Hakusho, which was one of the anime she had roped the Varia into watching with her.

When it was time for her to go back, they all showed up to see her off after her father and the Ninth left. This had been, to her hidden disappointment, right after her ticket and luggage was taken care of. Belated though the Varia's appearance was, their arrival cheered Tsunami up greatly. As they parted ways, none of them knew that this friendship and an innocent promise Tsunami had made upon learning about the different flame types and their roles meant that things would be very different for Tsunami when she met the sun Arcobaleno than if she had never met them or known about the mafia beforehand. The only the then children knew was that the sentiment that they wouldn't change that summer for anything was unanimous.

Owari