HEY GUYS I'M BACK

long story, finals, sickness, vacation, more sick, LOST PRETTY MUCH ALL OF MY WRITING, then much sadness and nihilism, then school, but still no writing and now i'm back because i found out some asshole deleted my story. i'm going to be updating soon, but the story is all going up tonight.

however, the chapters might be different from how they were before.

fortunately, for me though...i...may have saved the email of every review i've ever received?

heh

heh

i know it's super creepy but hey, i still have all of my reviews!

Song: Blackbird by the beatles

XXXX

Just another day in paradise.

That was what Reborn thought grimly as he took care of the house of assassins. He was able to gun them down in a moment. It was almost too easy.

He was never quite sure what to think. He enjoyed getting rid of traitors to Vongola. He enjoyed killing disgusting people like those who resided in the house he was leaving. He enjoyed relieving his stress. But he didn't enjoy taking lives. That was why he could never be sure if his previous statement was sarcastic, or with some truth. Because really, he loved his job. He cleaned his Leon gun as he left, closing the door behind him, and taking out his cell phone to call in.

"Reborn?" The voice on the other line asked.

"The job is finished-,"

"Nono needs your help." Reborn's mouth promptly closed. Vongola was far more important than him finishing the job. The voice took this as a sign to go on. "He needs you to go to Japan….something about training a boy. Please report back to Vongola HQ for more information."

"Understood." He hung up, a demonic smirk spreading across his face. He had been suspecting that he would train the candidate for Vongola Decimo for a long time, whether it be Nono's own sons, or anyone else. He was, after all, the world's best hitman.

XXXX

Tsuna really couldn't bring himself to blame them.

Once again, he had been left behind to clean up the area after school. They had practically thrown the broom at him, yelled, "Thanks Dame-Tsuna!" and run off. It was downright rude, and perhaps even seeming a little cruel, when you realized that this happened constantly. But Tsuna didn't hold a grudge against them. It wasn't that he was too forgiving; when he was mad, believe him, he knew how to hold a grudge like no other. But after years of simply being…empty, things had become much more clear. Being mean or disregarding Dame-Tsuna was normal. Everyone did it. No one cared. Few felt sympathy. He was just Dame-Tsuna. Everyone else did it, so why not them?

That was why he wasn't holding a grudge. The kids who had ditched him on the field were usually the bystanders. They never outright targeted him. They never outright tried to harm him. They didn't trip him in class; just sat back and laughed with everyone else when someone did. They didn't push him down in the halls and kick away his things while he tried to pick them up; they just walked past, hardly sparing him a glance.

It wasn't cruel, it was just…cold.

But he had lost the game in gym, so he figured they had some merit in leaving him to clean up. He wasn't just naively blaming himself; he really had lost them the game. So he could handle the consequences of his flopping all over the field and practically handling the other team the ball. Honestly. He'd tripped and it rolled to his opponent's feet.

And maybe he was just a teensy bit glad that no one had tried to stay behind and help. People always wanted to make conversation. And that wasn't something Tsuna did. He didn't even talk. Not even to his mother, brother, or teachers when they called on him to answer a question. So the interaction with any co-cleaner would have been extremely awkward.

After he finished up, it was well past afterschool. He headed out the front gates, head low, headphones in. He glanced up at the rooftop when he was leaving, to see Hibari at the top. Hibari stood still for a moment, before turning and leaving the roof. Unlike most students, Tsuna had been in situations around Hibari often enough for them to create some sort of mutual understanding. If Tsuna was afterschool, then Hibari trusted him not to loiter, or do anything he wasn't supposed to. It wasn't trust fall-worthy, but it was a lot more than most others got. Somehow, because of Tsuna's lack of "useless herbivore blabbering", he had managed to make the very selective list of Slightly More Tolerable Herbivores. It was a very short list.

When Tsuna finally opened the front door to his house, driven by mother's intuition, Nana poked her head out of the kitchen, saying,

"Tsu-kun, are you home?" She spotted her son, who nodded back, before removing his shoes. There was a loud, derisive snort from the kitchen.

"Oi, Dame-Tsuna's home? I thought Hibari-san had eaten him!" Ieyoshi, Tsuna's brother laughed, hard. "Maybe he should have!" A small frown found its way to Nana's face.

"Iey-kun, don't say things like that." Tsuna shrugged and touched his mother's shoulder comfortingly, before heading up to his room. It wasn't the worst thing his brother had said. He shut out the barking laughter from his brother in the kitchen.

Tsuna and Ieyoshi were twins; fraternal, however. People always mistook them for identical at the first glance, because they looked similar. However, once you looked at them a little longer, you realize Ieyoshi was much taller and built stronger. He was still skinny and lanky, but he had the body structure that said, one day, he could turn into a tall, broad-shouldered man. Sleek brown hair didn't stick up as much as Tsuna's, and brown eyes were deeper set than Tsuna's.

Tsuna, on the other hand, was petite, with no promise of a beefy young man one day. Ieyoshi had always been a little arrogant and greedy, so Nana liked to say that he stole it all from Tsuna in the womb. Tsuna's hair was fluffy and gravity-defying, a few shades difference between their hair color. Finally, Tsuna's eyes were a lighter shade, closer to a sort of gold hue.

Their only similarities were their bad grades; Ieyoshi because he had a superiority complex and refused to acknowledge that his teachers were ever going to be able to teach him anything useful and failed out of sheer willpower, Tsuna, because he had lost all faith in the educational system and couldn't communicate with questions when he didn't understand something. If not for the events to come, no one would have ever guessed that Tsuna was actually much smarter than his brother when it came to academics. No one ever thought about it- because Dame-Tsuna just failed at everything he tried, right?

He set his things on his bed, and just as he was opening his backpack, he heard Ieyoshi's voice downstairs;

"Mom, what's this flyer?" Nana's absent minded voice rang in the house.

"Oh, just a flyer for a new home tutor! It says that he'll make your children the leader of the next generation! Isn't that nice, Iey-kun?" Ieyoshi's condescending tone could be heard from downstairs.

"Yeah, certainly sounds nice to be scammed out of half of your life savings."

"Iey-kun, don't be so judgemental of other people! He could be a perfectly nice man, with the goal of truly turning you into the leader of the next generation. It's not nice to be so skeptical of someone you've never met." Usually, Tsuna had to agree with Nana on almost everything. But oddly enough, he found himself taking his brother's side on this one. It smelled like a scam. A flyer? Really? It didn't inspire any trust in Tsuna, or it wouldn't, regularly. But he had a strange gut feeling that his mother should call the home tutor.

"Whatever, just say you didn't call." Dead silence. It Tsuna had decided to suddenly make any noise, he would have laughed. "Mom? You didn't call, did you?" Ieyoshi's voice had suddenly become very, very cold, and any urge to laugh was immediately purged from Tsuna.

"I-I thought it would be nice…" Came their mother's nervous reply.

"Mom! Don't be so naïve!" Ieyoshi exploded, but less vehemently than he could have. Tsuna was relieved. Ieyoshi was being "playfully reprimanding". It could have been much, much worse. Nana let out a girlish giggle, but Tsuna could hear the plain relief in her voice. She had a hard time confronting her sons; she was a soft spoken woman to begin with, and she loved her boys too dearly to ever speak a word against them. But Tsuna couldn't help but think that raising her voice at them every once in a while would have done their family a great deal of good.

"Mama's sorry, Ieyoshi, but I couldn't just let an opportunity like this slip away! Besides, if it's a scam, we'll just send him away. But why don't we at least try?" There was an unmistakable tone of pleading in her voice. Ieyoshi snorted, like his mother was a foolish child who he would humor out of the goodness of his own heart.

"Fine, but if you ask me, Dame-Tsuna needs more work than I do." Tsuna didn't even flinch. Not anymore. Fine, but if you ask me, Ieyoshi-baka needs more work than I do. He mimicked in his head immaturely. Especially since he has an ego the size of Mount Fuji. He was silent; not emotionless. (AN; he's a person, not a rock. Not speaking takes a lot of effort as is, denying himself of all emotion means he's essentially a puppet on a string. Consider yourself forewarned; he shall be snide).

In an hour, after Tsuna came downstairs to find that Nana had forgotten to yell to him about dinner and Ieyoshi had eaten every last crumb of the share that was meant for Tsuna, the doorbell rang. Tsuna didn't say anything, but went to move up. Ieyoshi said loudly,

"Get it, Dame-Tsuna." I was already going to get it. You don't have to make a point of it. Tsuna got up from his chair, which he hadn't really been using anyways, according to Ieyoshi, and opened the door. It was probably the home tutor, he decided.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting as he opened the door, but what he found was nowhere on the spectrum of probability.

It was a baby. In an Italian suit, with a fedora, and a green chameleon sitting on the brim of his hat. The child didn't even come up to his knee, yet his outfit probably cost more than everything in Tsuna's room put together.
"Ciaossu." The baby greeted him. "My name is Reborn. I'm the home tutor." Tsuna couldn't help but wonder why he felt a strange chill down his spine at those words. Not like he was in danger; the feeling was nothing like that. It was like meeting the spawn of Satan, as he told you that he was here to collect the soul of your beloved pet. Disturbing and intriguing, but no immediate threat.

IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Tsuna couldn't help but wonder why he felt the warning bells going off in his head. It was like he knew that somewhere, among all the alternate universes, some poor bastard like him was meeting Reborn for the first time.

A sharp kick caught him in the head, and his forehead slammed against the table.

"Ow!" He shouted. "Reborn…" He whined, as he turned his head to see the baby hitman, who had his Leon gun pointed at him.

"Do it with your dying will." After an extremely uncomfortable resurrection, a wayward shout of, "REBORN! I WILL FINISH MY MATH HOMEWORK WITH MY DYING WILL!" and wearing down the led on eight pencils, Tsuna had his math homework finished. He breathed heavily over his paper. Before he could look at it clearly himself, Reborn, snatched it up and inspected it.

"Good speed, Dame-Tsuna. But they're all wrong." Tsuna wailed and slammed his face on his table as Reborn began to pull out the TNT, muttering something about returning to the "traditional methods".

BACK IN OUR UNIVERSE

Tsuna blinked at the baby in front of him for a moment, before silently opened the door wider and gestured for Reborn to come inside. Reborn toddled past him, asking,

"You're the older twin, Tsunayoshi, right?" Tsuna nodded and led him to the kitchen. When he came in, no one noticed him, so he knocked on the wall to gain their attention. Nana set the dishes she was washing down, and turned around. Ieyoshi barely flicked his eyes up.

"Oh, Tsu-kun, what's a baby doing here." He did his best to communicate with his eyes. He's the home tutor. I don't think he's really a baby. Nana didn't seem to get the clear message, but she understood that Tsuna meant, he's not what he seems. She crouched down to look at Reborn. "Are you lost, little boy?"

"I'm the home tutor." Reborn said bluntly. "I'm here for Ieyoshi." Nana blinked at him, but must have sensed that he wasn't what he seemed in the same way Tsuna did. She nodded.

"Iey-kun? The home tutor is here." Ieyoshi scoffed.

"There's no way that's the home tutor, Mom! It's a little baby! Honestly, what the hell could it teach me?!" Ieyoshi demanded. Clearly, Tsuna had inherited all of his mother's intuition.

In the next moment, Ieyoshi was nailed in the head by Reborn's foot, and knocked off his chair, unconscious. Reborn turned to Tsuna still with that cutesy smile on his face.

"Do you have a problem also?" Tsuna held up his hands, and raised an eyebrow at Reborn, who tilted his fedora over his eyes, grinning. He started to drag Ieyoshi up the stairs, with strength no baby should have. Tsuna followed warily. His brother could be a jackass, but Tsuna felt like Reborn was dangerous. And he still loved his brother, so there was no way he was going to let Reborn harm him anymore than he had to. As he clambered up the stairs after them, he heard Nana downstairs;

"Oh! Iey-kun must have taken a nap! So nice of that tutor to bring him upstairs." Tsuna felt his mouth twitch in amusement. He followed Reborn to Ieyoshi's room, who soon came to. Ieyoshi sat down, arms crossed, and glaring at the figure that had just knocked him out.

"Alright, kid. What do you want with me?"

"Don't call me kid. I'm a hitman. I'm really here to train you to be a mafia boss." Reborn informed them, without so much a change in expression. Ieyoshi reacted violently, falling back, arms flailing, while Tsuna sat quietly off to the side, letting the information sink in.

"Don't say such outrageous things, kid!" Ieyoshi demanded. Suddenly, there was a gun in Reborn's hand and it was pointed at Ieyoshi's head. Unfortunately, for both of them, just as Reborn had been taking the gun out, Tsuna had sensed that something was wrong. By the time it was pointed at Ieyoshi's head (a second later) Tsuna was in between them. The cold metal touched his forehead it was so close. Reborn's expression didn't change, but for someone like Tsuna, who constantly observed body language and subtle expressions, he saw the surprise flicker in Reborn's eyes.

"Please move." Reborn said simply. "It's not you that I want to shoot." Tsuna shook his head, not willing to leave his spot. "I'm here to train Ieyoshi as a mafia boss. I can show you his relation to the mafia and everything on a family tree."

A fist connected with the side of his head, and lights exploded in front of his eyes as he hit the ground.

"The kid said to move, you better move, Dame-Tsuna!" Ieyoshi exclaimed. Tsuna's head still hurt, but he managed to turn it to see the greedy look in Ieyoshi's eyes. That was why he had forced Tsuna out of the way. If there was a small chance he could really be a mafia boss, then he wanted it. Otherwise, he would have cowered pathetically behind his brother.

A gun pressed against Ieyoshi's forehead.

"Treat your elders with respect." Reborn informed him, in the same cutesy child voice, but with a hint of rage that Ieyoshi sure as hell didn't detect. Ieyoshi snorted.

"He's Dame-Tsuna. Why should I?" As Tsuna sat up, he made brief eye contact with Reborn and gave a slight shake of his head. Reborn seemed to get the message. He was relatively unhappy about it, though his demeanor didn't show it.

XXXX

Twenty minutes later, after family trees and pictures of Nono's sons getting killed, Reborn was finished. Ieyoshi's eyes glittered.

"I can really be a mafia boss?"

"You'll be the mafia boss." Reborn corrected. "Of the strongest mafia family in the world." Reborn had been watching Ieyoshi's expression change as he talked. Reborn knew it was probably too early to judge him, but he couldn't get rid of that feeling in his gut that Vongola would be better off with the other twin as its boss. Normally, he would have listened to that feeling. But it was so ridiculous right now that he couldn't.

Tsuna was small and petite, with none of the promise of the well-built young man Ieyoshi could be. His grades were low. He was clumsy. He was shy. He probably couldn't hurt a fly. He got bullied constantly, by his younger brother too. And he was mute. There was no way he could ever be a mafia boss. He knew it. Nono knew it. Iemitsu knew it. Hell, Tsuna himself probably knew it.

But Reborn did not want to train Ieyoshi.

Then again, there was that small hint. Tsuna was mute. But why? People didn't just stop talking. And there was the reason why he was wary to train Ieyoshi, in a nutshell.

But Reborn could work with dame. He'd turned Dino into a satisfactory mafia boss, and Dino may have possibly been worse off than Tsuna, when it came to dame-ness. But Reborn couldn't always work with arrogance and greed. But he had to try.

"Tsuna, I need to get straight to work with Ieyoshi, can you please leave us?" Tsuna looked warily between them, and made eye contact with Reborn. For someone who didn't speak, Reborn found that he was surprisingly adept at communicating. His eyes clearly said, You won't hurt him, will you? "Not critically, or permanently." Reborn promised. Tsuna looked unhappy about leaving, but he did it all the same, with Ieyoshi yelling after him,

"Get out of here, Dame-Tsuna! No one wants you here!" Tsuna closed the door gently behind him. Now that the quiet boy was out of the room, Reborn felt like he could reveal his true identity as demon spawn. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason, he hadn't wanted to commit any of his evil acts in front of the boy. Hm. Good trait for a boss. He brushed the thought aside and turned to Ieyoshi.

"Lesson one; RESPECT YOUR FAMILY." He pulled out the Leon Hammer and proceeded to pound Ieyoshi as he ran screaming around his room.

Outside in the hall, Tsuna paused to listen to the erratic screaming and crashes coming from inside the room, but shrugged, as he didn't sense any danger.

Meanwhile, Reborn was finding a cowering student entirely too entertaining.

XXXX

Tsuna felt a little guilty for enjoying the sequence of events. And very relieved that it wasn't him.

That Dying Will bullet? Not only was the idea of being shot in the head terrifying, but the part where you ran around half naked left him completely unable to take it seriously.

First, Ieyoshi had ran up to Sasagawa Kyoko, the school's idol, in his boxers to confess to her. Then, after jokingly being called a hentai by mostly everyone in school, Ieyoshi got made and ended up in several fights. Tsuna had watched Hibari chase down his brother (for disturbing the peace and public indecency), trying not to grin. Despite being bloodthirsty, Tsuna knew that Hibari wouldn't damage Ieyoshi too badly.

Since there was a lot of commotion about his twin, Tsuna had been left alone for the majority of the day. Which he liked. It would be nice not to go home with bruises for once.

Feeling better than he had in a while, he found himself doing something he rarely did; singing.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night,

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

All your life,

You were only waiting for this moment to arise."

His voice was hoarse from lack of use, but the song was still melodic and heartfelt, and beyond beautiful. In fact, the roughness added a lovely effect. He tapped the tempo.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night,

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.

All your life,

You were only waiting for this moment to be free…."

"Herbivore." Tsuna almost had a heart attack. His mouth snapped shut and any remnants of a voice died in his throat. He turned nervously to see HIbari, with n unreadable expression on his face. Most people would say that Hibari's expression was always unreadable, but Tsuna found him to be quite expressive. But then again, most people weren't looking at what they should.

Tsuna hurried to pick up his stuff.

"Why did you stop?" Hibari questioned. Tsuna froze. He looked up at HIbari and opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but then he realized he couldn't even if he tried and closed it again. What looked like an amused expression at his struggling found its way to Hibari's face. "Well, herbivore?"

You know I can't talk. Tsuna's face clearly said, red with embarrassment.

"Can't or don't?" Hibari asked calmly. Tsuna froze up again. After a moment, he shook his head and gave the skylark a sorrowful look.

Both.

"And that is why you are still an herbivore." Hibari said, matter-of-factly. The one-sided conversation was pretty much over, so Tsuna grabbed his things and hurried off. While he was opening the door, Hibari's hand latched on to the edge of it. Tsuna paused. "It was very beautiful." Hibari said quietly. Tsuna's face flamed, and he shook his head furiously before practically sprinting down the stairs, magically not tripping.

Once he was in the school, he almost collapsed in the hallway. If Ieyoshi ever found out what had just transpired, he would kill Tsuna.

XXXX

In the DC's office, Hibari was tapping a pencil on one of the many forms he had to fill out, a curious expression on his face. He couldn't help but wonder about the fluffy haired herbivore he frequently saw around. The one who had been singing.

He was well aware that the boy was a mass of contradictions. The clearly had the capacity to be a carnivore one day; Hibari was aware that the amount of self-control needed not to speak to anyone for years on end was massive. That kind of control was power. Yet the boy allowed himself to be bullied and pushed around. The boy had relatively innocent eyes; but Hibari had noticed the times when they narrowed and were filled with unexplainable depth. The flinch whenever anyone mentioned the name of his brother, the cringe whenever his brother came near, but the dignified strength he held himself with every time he was beaten. The pride never left his eyes, and that only made the bullies furious. It was a fascinating puzzle.

Why the boy remained an herbivore was beyond him, but he planned to eliminate the problem, if just in order to have a fellow carnivore to battle one day.

He faced a single problem. He knew the other herbivores thought of the boy as dame, because of his lack of balance and failing grades, but those were things that could be fixed easily. The real problem was that he didn't even know the boy's name.

A knock sounded on the door of the Disciplinary Committee's office.

"Come in." He responded. A teen with a pompadour poked his head in.

"I have the report, Kyo-san-,"

"What's the herbivore's name?" Hibari interrupted nonchalantly. Kusakabe blinked.

"Uh…could you be a little more specific?" Hibari wanted to roll his eyes. But he did not.

"The fluffy-haired one that never speaks. The herbivores call him dame." Hibari got the closest to giddy as he had ever been when he saw the recognition in Kusakabe's eyes. But Hibari did not do giddy, so it was merely a feeling of being passingly pleased.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi." Kusakabe informed him, but raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to know, Kyo-san?" Hibari was silent, so long that Kusakabe wondered if Hibari had forgotten. But he had not.

"Have you ever heard him?" Hibari asked abruptly. He didn't know why he was asking this question, but he didn't ignore his instinct to ask it.

"Hm?"

"Sing." Kusakabe looked surprised.

"Wait, does Sawada-san sin-,"

"You are dismissed." Hibari cut him off. Kusakabe opened his mouth to say something, but the cutting glare that came tumbling his way closed his mouth for him and picked him up to throw him out the door, which he closed behind him. Hibari set his feet on his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. Thankfully, no one else was in the room, or they would have ran screaming at the bloodthirsty smirk on his face. He had found a fascinating project.

Kusakabe could swear he heard the prefect say,

"His name is fitting…" from inside, but he didn't dare to take his chances to find out for sure. He felt like he should warn Sawada, though.

XXXX

"You're late, Dame-Tsuna!" Ieyoshi bellowed when he heard the door open. Tsuna flinched a little, but took off his shoes to head towards the kitchen for dinner. He had been caught on the way home by a group of students who simply didn't seem to want him to spend one day without being beaten. He was everyone's favorite target. Thankfully, they had avoided his face, so he could eat in piece before limping off to treat his wounds. When he came in, he found Ieyoshi was stuffing his face with Tsuna's food. The angry beast known as hunger practically gnawed through Tsuna's stomach as disappointment rose.

He hadn't received any dinner the night before, because of Reborn liked to steal Ieyoshi's food, so Ieyoshi took Tsuna's Tsuna was known for being notoriously late for meals, but Ieyoshi would have taken it, even if he had been there. He skipped breakfast usually, and had opened his bento at lunch today only to find that Ieyoshi, desperate for food after Reborn had taken his, had devoured it, and left nothing but half eaten, spit-coated scraps, unfit for Tsuna to eat. Tsuna blinked weakly at his family.

"Mama, do we have any food left for Tsuna?" Reborn suggested, glaring at his student, clearly angry that he had eaten the food meant for his brother. Nana glanced up, and her eyes went round as she realized there was nothing left for Tsuna.

"Tsu-kun! I'm so sorry! Iey-kun, it wasn't nice to eat Tsu-kun's food. I'll make you something else." She promised, rising from her seat. Tsuna shook his head, and gave her a soft look. He tapped his bag, which was still slung onto his back. He gave a small gesture with his hand. Nana managed to interpret his words; I have a lot of homework, but if I'm hungry later I'll handle it myself. Nana sighed and smiled at her son. "Okay, but if you get too hungry, just let me know and I'll make you something and bring it up." Tsuna nodded, and headed upstairs, before his mother could hear his stomach growl. There was no way in hell that Ieyoshi was going to let Tsuna eat at all tonight, not without incessant bitching and possibly even getting physical. When Ieyoshi was irritated, and he most definitely was about today, he liked to see Tsuna suffer. He'd said on several different occasions that Tsuna was a great stress outlet. Cheerfully, and to his friends, who laughed, but there was nothing funny about it. They just didn't understand.

It was only a few minutes before Tsuna heard the shots from the demon tutor downstairs, Ieyoshi shouting and swearing, and eventually, the loud thud of the Leon hammer. After Reborn finished eating, Reborn chased Ieyoshi outside, forced him to run three laps around town, because "you're going to get huge, fatass. Burn off the calories while your metabolism is still high."

After some time, they came back, with Reborn practically dragging Ieyoshi, who he dumped unceremoniously in his room and slammed the door on. Tsuna had been on the computer, but as soon as he sensed Reborn coming near, he closed the computer, and looked to the door, feeling very much like a timid deer. Reborn entered, looking unfazed that Tsuna had been expecting him to enter. He closed the door behind him.

"Tsuna, even though you're not going to be a mafia boss, I thought that I needed to inform you that your life may be in danger as well." Tsuna took this quietly, as usual, and gestured for Reborn to continue. "Even though we're trying to keep you as uninvolved as possible, I highly recommend that you stay as anonymous as possible, but get your grades up, as it would be unfitting for a mafia boss to have a family people could use as leverage. Both you and Nana will soon enough receive defense training, you sooner. Since you don't seem as much as the fighting type, you do have some other options besides just being the brother of the Vongola Boss." Reborn explained. Tsuna blinked at him, and tilted his head.

What kind of options?

"Intel. Things like that. Think about it." Reborn said.

Really, this little venture into Tsuna's room was less about informing him about his options, and more of Reborn observing Tsuna. He had been planning on being blunt and demon spawn, to get some sort of reaction from the silent boy, but he found that he couldn't force himself to misbehave in his presence. It was the same as before, and now Reborn knew why. In front of his brother, Tsuna cowered. He kept his head low. Any possible sort of "boss aura" vanished without a trace. But talking to him now….his head was high, his eyes alive and strong, and he held himself in his own dignified way, his face looking more like a man's than a child's. He had a boss aura. His silence….no longer seemed like fear. Tsuna was in control.

Needless to say, Reborn liked what he found. He tilted his fedora, and turned to leave the room, but not before pausing to look at Tsuna with a demonic smile.

"There's another candidate." He said quietly. Whatever you considered Xanxus to be-

From Tsuna's expression, he clearly understood what that meant. Someone else had a claim to the title of Vongola Boss and they could fight Ieyoshi for it. But he didn't understand why Reborn was telling him. But Reborn left.

The moment Reborn was out of the room, he pulled his laptop open. He disregarded the window he had open, and opened up a new one. He headed straight for the Cavallone website.

As soon as he had found out about Vongola yesterday, he had a sneaking suspicion which websites might be the backdoor into Vongola. He found it, only by testing their security. He couldn't get it, so he targeted the allied families. Allies in mafia meant that you helped them up, but you held onto some intel in case you needed to attack. The Cavallone security wasn't as strong, and he easily had broken in the other day. Because if there was one thing Tsuna knew how to do, it was to hack.

It was kind of…disturbing, about that being his only skill. He just had a knack for this sort of thing. It was a gift he had discovered in years of silence. It only took him a moment to hunt down information of candidates.

What he found was unhappily vague. Any reports were very obscure, which meant that this other candidate was on the lockdown. Things about some "Crib" incident, the name Xanxus, and the word Varia. If this "Xanxus" was the other candidate, they must really not want him to take over Vongola. He was clearly more qualified, if only from the words left behind. And he was still alive. It would have been simple to say he was dead; the other three candidates deaths' were obvious. But if Vongola was willing to suggest an arrogant Japanese teenager with a mute twin brother, then they must be desperate to keep Xanxus out of Vongola.

Eventually, Tsuna was forced to close out of Cavallone. There wasn't any more information to be gleaned. He glanced at the clock and decided that it was enough hacking for one night. He closed everything down and went to bed.