Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"My, Tsuna, you seem to be in a good mood today." Nana comments idly as she watches her son eat breakfast. Usually, Tsuna picks at his food until it's time to go to school. She may love her son, but he can be a real sulker when it comes to going to school in the morning.

Today is different. He seems to be digging in with a foreign gusto she's never seen before. It actually makes her happy he seems to be enjoying himself for once. Between mouthfuls of rice, he nods. "I guess."

"Did something good happen?" Then, after a pause, she adds slyly. "Did that Sasagawa girl talk to you or something?"

It's cute how he thinks she doesn't notice his obvious crush on their neighbor. 'The prettiest girl in the school', she thinks may be a boy talking through rose tinted glasses. Young love is so beautiful. It doesn't always work out in the long run, but it's beautiful while it lasts.

Tsuna chokes on his rice, proving that inhaling his food may not have been the best idea. Nana thinks she hit the nail on the head when Tsuna stutters, reaching for the water glass and trying to fumble out a half-baked excuse. "Mom, it's not- we're not like that, I haven't spoken to her before."

She notices he doesn't say anything like 'she'd never talk to a loser like me'. That's usually his excuse when she asks him about it. Sasagawa probably did talk to him, then.

Nana laughs. Well, it really doesn't matter as long as he's happy.

Tsuna smiles again, sheepish. "It's really not like that, mom."

"I'm just... feeling good about today."

---

Tsuna is seventy two when he passes away.

He spent years of his life wondering when it was finally going to end-- in a fiery explosion, in the heat of battle, protecting his family from death. He didn't quite imagine it would be sitting in his own bed, recovering from a cold.

It's his time, and when he thinks that there's no fear or regret. Being the tenth, or Neo Primo if you want to be technical, isn't a title he should selfishly cling to until he's long past his expiration date. It's like the ending of a long book, a quiet conclusion to a story that started outrageously.

He may not have been surrounded by friends and family in his last moments-- but he doesn't care because he doesn't want it to be ceremonious. He doesn't want this to be the last thing they remember of him.

The last thing he remembers is bright light as he falls back into bed-- a light that looks eerily similar to his dying will.

---

"--Sawada."

He's so sleepy.

"Sawada!"

A projectile is coming his way, but it's slow. Without opening his eyes, Tsuna lifts a hand to catch it in midair. That'll teach Reborn to try and throw something at him when he's sleeping on his break.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

... This doesn't feel like headquarters.

Tsuna raises his head, only to stare straight into the eyes of what looks like his middle school math teacher. He's holding a piece of chalk between his fingers.

Huh?

---

Tsuna doesn't bolt upright in his chair. Which, he feels would be a reasonable reaction, but-- he's still tired from his nap that he doesn't quite register that something is wrong with the situation at first. It's probably a nightmare about middle school, or something...

The teacher blinks at Tsuna, looks at the chalk in his hand. The projectile he caught.

He's acutely aware of the blank stares he's receiving from his dream-classmates and his teacher.

He wishes he could remember the name of the bespectacled professor who's looking at him with a bewildered expression on his face. The nameless teacher who stares at Tsuna, unmoving for a few seconds, before straightening and coughing awkwardly. "Ahem. Now that you're awake, you shouldn't mind answering the question on the board."

At least the dream is accurate-- it wouldn't sum up his hellish middle school experience if it didn't involve a ridiculously challenging problem for him to inevitably get wrong. He squints at the problem on the board. If he's right, the answer should be...

"Four."

"Wrong again, Sawada."

That's pretty much what I expected. He thinks, ignoring the laughing classmates. In his dreams, even if he knows how to solve the answer, the teacher always says it's wrong. Though. It's true he hasn't flexed his mathematical muscle in a while, considering he's been busy with planning the Vongola's anniversary celebration and that annoying problem with enemy family spies and--

He crushes the chalk in his hand.

This isn't a dream, is it.

Because Tsuna passed away at age seventy two, in his bed.

The jeering of his peers feels more real all of a sudden.

---

Congratulations! You lived a fulfilling life. You gained friends, a family. People you suffered hardships with, suffered through hell and back. But it was all worth it.

Now...

Would you like to do it all again?

Chapter Text

Tsuna pinches his cheek. Stares in the mirror.

It feels real, all right.

He really is back in the past. And judging by the lack of spare guns and ammo lying around his room, he can safely assume this is middle school pre-Reborn. It's a normal, if not messy bedroom with video games and comics scattered on the floor. It feels so weird, looking at it now.

Being back in the beginning-- it feels a little too good to be true.

He's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's going to be hard, but he's actually excited. He can't wait to meet his best friends all over again, from the beginning.

"Tsuna, is everything alright?" Sawada Nana shouts from the bottom of the stairs. "You're missing school, you know."

"I'm all right!" He shouts back, because that's how they used to talk, he remembers. Mom would shout something from the stairwell about how his grades were suffering and he would give a generic response, not leaving his room.

She doesn't say anything, so Tsuna guesses she went back downstairs. A quick glance at his watch tells him it's only noon, so she couldn't possibly be making dinner yet.

The house is so quiet without Lambo and I-Pin and Fuuta...

It makes him think about how much he took their presence for granted-- not just the kid's, but his friends as well. They're not here right now, and they may not be here for a little while. But, thinking about seeing them again gives Tsuna a light feeling in his chest.

---

"Are you really okay, Tsuna?" Mom asks when he finally heads downstairs. She's sitting in a chair in the living room, reading a magazine.

Tsuna smiles. "Yeah. Better than I've felt in a long time."

---

Tsuna has to confess-- he doesn't have an exact memory of the timeline of his life.

He can remember important details, and there are parts that stick out to him just because he thought they were important at the time. He can remember the time Miura Haru (who he hasn't met in this timeline yet) came to his house dressed as a boat. He can remember the snowball fights they had on Nami school grounds.

But he can't remember the exact date Reborn shows up at his house to start training him for the mafia. He can't help but feel embarrassed every time he checks his mailbox after school, looking for a shady flier advertising a home tutor.

It was a deal that was too good to be true then, and it still is now. He just hopes nothing has changed enough to the point where mom would think he has no need for a home tutor. (After all, he's only been "back" for a week, and his grades are still atrocious.)

He's on his way back from checking the mail one day when he thinks he can feel eyes staring at the back of his head, from a distance. Reborn. Excited, he whips his head around to find the familiar figure hidden in the trees, watching. He's a little disappointed when he finds nothing.

Could something have changed...?

No. It's fine.

He checks the mailbox again the next day and almost sighs in frustration when he only finds bills and a coupon for half off eggs at the store.

---

Tsuna is a patient man (or, he can be).

But waiting is hard. If he were any younger he wouldn't admit it, but it's boring when he's not around his family.

---

Reborn often gets an itch, if he's away from the business for long enough.

An itch to kill, that is.

So his information is somewhat inaccurate. That's a problem he can fix, but not one he particularly wants to. Somehow, slightly inaccurate information bothers him rode than if Iemitsu had been completely wrong.

Sawada Tsunayoshi is a wimp and a loser as reported, but there's something more. He couldn't for the life of him figure it out, until the brat-- student, lovely student-- turned around and looked right at Reborn's hiding spot.

Well, maybe not right at it. He was a couple trees off.

It makes Reborn a little more than irritated, that his future student isn't quite the way he's supposed to be. That should make his job easier for him.

Reborn watches and waits as the target (STUDENT) enters his house after looking around suspiciously.

Reborn clicks his tongue and flips open his file in irritation.

The Sawada household is a lonely family of two. The mother, whose origin is well documented in the Vongola database but inherently boring, and the son-- whose boring, average life is about to be turned upside down.

Boring. And civilian.

He's not going to be cut out for this world no matter what the ninth thinks. No matter what Iemitsu thinks.

His trigger finger itches.

Oh well. It wouldn't be fun if it wasn't a challenge, and Reborn is better at tackling those than most. His results as a hitman and a tutor speak for themselves-- he's the right person for the job.

He looks at the plain, brown haired boy through his binoculars and thinks, I'm going to mold you into something great.

---

"Oh, Tsuna?" Nana holds up the bright flier she found in the mail earlier. A personal, live-in home tutor. This is going to be great, she thinks. "I hired you a home tutor!"

Chapter Text

Although he had asked for it not to be a public event, he supposes that the Decimo's (or Neo Primo's if you want to be technical) induction is probably too big an event to be private. He can see everyone ranging from those dubbed as potential allies, to well wishing families. He's fairly certain that some families heard there was free food and showed up despite the lack of an invitation. He can't see hide nor hair of any of his own family or friends, and maybe that's what sets him a little on edge.

Tsuna tugs at the collar of his suit uncomfortably. As if being alone in a crowded venue wasn't enough, this tight suit feels like it's going to strangle him, which is. Not a good feeling. Formal wear is too stiff, not free enough to move around and fight in. (And he's acutely aware of what judging your clothes by their battle functionality says about his mindset, and how much it's changed since he was younger). Or maybe he should just suck it up and admit that he doesn't like wearing suits.

"You mess up that tie and tomorrow morning you'll wake up dead."

"Oh. Reborn."

"Chaossu, Tsuna." Ten year old reborn says with a blank smile, taking the empty chair next to Tsuna. Hayato had been sitting there earlier, but then he got... tied up in something, and never came back. Tsuna smiles in greeting, though he feels too weary for it to be natural and he lacks the charisma to make it seem so.

Apparently, Reborn is feeling a little talkative because he launches right into conversation. This is usually the case, but today more so than usual. He hopes it's not because Reborn found his way into the alcohol stash-- even though he's an adult mentally, physically he's only ten years old and Tsuna doesn't want to deal with that impending mess. "How does it feel to be Neo Primo?"

Not drunk then. Just sentimental, maybe. Tsuna sighs, leans back in his chair. Overwhelming is probably he right word, looking at all these people he's going to be expected to lead, but tonight's party isn't about the responsibility tomorrow. "You don't have to call me that."

"I came up with it, I may as well use it."

Tsuna can't really argue with that. "Fair enough."

"You didn't answer my question."

Right. Tsuna closes his eyes and thinks about all the conflicting emotions swirling around him about being an actual Mafia boss, and what it took to get to this point. He never thought he would do it-- but now he's here, and it feels so weird. "I guess... I'd say it's a challenge?"

"Oh, please. Any student of mine could handle such a job without any problem." Reborn states with the upmost confidence in Tsuna-- or, rather maybe confidence in his teaching. Like he's completely sure that Tsuna can handle this job, that he's ready. Even if not everybody else thinks he can.

That's what Tsuna appreciates about Reborn. Even if his methods are incredibly harsh and demanding, the proof is in the results. "... I guess you're right."

"I'm looking forward to seeing what you do." Reborn says, and they shake hands while somewhere, in the mansion, Hayato and the others are probably blowing things up again.

---

Reborn meets his new student in the privacy of the Sawada household, except it isn't as private as he would have liked because Nana is there, scolding him about homework. And, well-- he isn't going to pass up the opportunity to arrive with style and comically good timing, so through the window it is right when Sawada Nana asks, when are your grades going to start getting better?

"Chaossu. I am your home tutor, Reborn."

Nana screams at his arrival, which is understandable because he practically broke into their house. Tsuna just blinks curiously, like a child who's just seen something interesting.

Oddity No. 1-- he doesn't scare easily. This actually blatantly contradicts what Iemitsu had told Reborn about his only son. Cowardly and shy, my ass. I'm going to strangle Iemitsu with his own tie, just because I feel like it.

"Hello, Reborn. I'm Tsuna. Please take care of me."

As Sawada Nana praises her child for how polite and considerate he is to a child, Reborn can't help but think, this is a new reaction.

---

Tsuna often wonders. If he hadn't been the one to overreact to things when he was younger, (I.e., a baby walking into your home and declaring himself a home tutor,) then nobody would because he often seemed to be the only normal person he knew.

Apparently, this is correct because after Tsuna introduces himself to his teacher, Mom completely accepts this as a reality and goes downstairs to make dinner. He doesn't remember Mom being so accepting of him before, when he said it was clearly a scam.

(Come to think of it, wasn't Reborn a world renowned math prodigy and Muay Thai boxer, too? The world certainly is strange.)

With the two of them alone, Reborn finally speaks up. "Are you an only child, Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

Huh? "... I am?"

"Okay." He looks critical, and this is not how Tsuna remembers their first meeting going. Last time, it's probably because Tsuna came off as so cowardly and defenseless that Reborn thought he'd have no trouble with Tsuna. At least, trouble in the way of defiance and fighting back. Last go round- Tsuna had been kind of spineless, easy for Reborn to mold into a good Mafia boss.

... He feels a little bad talking about himself this way. It was him, after all.

"Now. I'm here, so I'm going to take a look at homework. Just to see the level you're at." Reborn says, and snatches the papers out of Tsuna's hands. He's actually a little bit embarrassed of them-- less so than his first time being here, because those grades were understandable for how little he comprehended but hard to show other people.

Having Reborn look over his work with such a critical eye this time is weird because he knows all this stuff has been drilled into his head before. But his worries are apparently unfounded because Reborn looks through the work-- really looks, not just glancing at the scores, and nods with what looks like the beginnings of approval.

If Reborn decides to ask who tutored him before now, Tsuna wonders how funny it would be to respond with you, in another timeline. He'd probably end up with a bullet in his head, and not of the dying will variety.

Then his tutor decides to cut to the chase. "Not bad. Not good either, but something to work with. We'll make a Mafia boss out of you yet."

---

Call him quick to the draw. But Reborn doesn't like to play around. Dropping the M word around a kid with no relation to said M word is bound to be a bit of a shock, but that's what he's here for. To deliver the swift blow and play damage control to an anxiety ridden teen civilian.

But the reaction doesn't come.

It's a bit similar to Dino's reaction when Reborn arrived as a live in tutor/Mafia instructor, in that there was no reaction. But therein lies the problem.

Dino Cavalone was raised in a Mafia family, in Italy. Tsuna was raised in a middle class home in Japan, where just the mention of crime on the streets gives middle-aged moms a heart attack.

So this either makes oddity No. 2-- his student is completely deaf, or oddity No. 2-- Tsuna already knows about his relation to the Mafia... somehow.

"Mafia boss?" He asks, sounding a little bit amused. Irritation courses through Reborn, because he's the one who has the upper hand here, should be the one amused at Tsuna's completely over the top reaction (not just because he was expecting an over the top reaction, but something in him feels wrong when he doesn't receive one, like he's missing a critical piece in this puzzle).

"Does this have something to do with my dad?" He asks, hitting the nail on the head with one question. But Reborn probably shouldn't tell him that his own father was one of the people that helped nominate him.

"If you've already guessed then I'm not going to confirm or deny that statement." He can, however, launch into a detailed explanation of the Vongola lineage-- starting with the elusive first boss, Sawada Ieyasu, the three recently deceased children of the Ninth, and how the bloodlines all related.

Tsuna just sits passively, listening to the explanations with minute nods every now and then. The most reaction Reborn gets out of him is a flinch at the pile of bones picture.

Are all teens this desensitized to actual murder, or is Tsuna just weird? Is it the result of a personality trait... or something else?

And if his information is wildly inaccurate...

He's going to kill the CEDEF leader in his sleep.

---

In the kitchen, Sawada Nana hums. "I didn't think we'd get a child prodigy as a tutor!"

---

It's morning and Tsuna's walking to school with Reborn in a way that's so familiar to him it's nostalgic. The foreboding feeling that he's about to loose all of his clothes... he's admittedly less excited about.

He'd packed a spare uniform this morning, just in case. He was really proud of himself for remembering, too, even though Reborn was giving him odd looks as he did. He'd much rather get odd looks at home than odd looks at school for being literally naked.

"You seem chipper this morning." Reborn comments idly. Digging for information. He missed how nosy Reborn can be at the strangest times, trying to dig for any personal information.

Tsuna shrugs. "It's just going to be a good day, I think."

"I didn't peg you for an optimist."

"I'm realistic."

"Is that so?"

He actually kind of enjoys the witty banter, too-- if it can be rightfully called so. He didn't have this kind of relationship with Reborn until a bit later in the game, when he was a little more adapted to the craziness that is his entire existence.

He wonders if that means Reborn respects him more right off the bat, or if he's still just trying to dig. Probably the latter.

He's not surprised, either, when the two of them run into Sasagawa Kyouko on their way to school. Tsuna smiles. It feels like it's been forever since he's seen her. If he were a waxing poetic, he might say her smile is a breath of fresh air.

Reborn, the child sized devil he is, picks up on this immediately. "Oh, so you like this girl?"

"Not really... romantically, but I'd like to get to know her."

Reborn says, "I see," at the same time Kyouko shrieks in that way that people do upon losing all rationality when they see a baby.

"Hello, Tsuna. I didn't know you had a brother!"

He thinks Reborn looks a little peeved at that. "I'm not his brother. I'm--"

Last go round, Tsuna's pretty sure he made up some bullshit story about Reborn being his cousin (which nobody stuck with or believed, anyways-- it was all pretense for the sake of pretense). "He's my hitman home tutor."

To his credit, once he's phased once, Reborn bounces back quickly because he doesn't react too much to that one. It was probably useless of him to say because Reborn was going to say it anyways, but it's worth it when Kyouko cracks up with laughter.

So apparently coming straight out with the truth as deadpan as possible arouses less suspicion than any fake cover story Tsuna tried to use. Who knew?

"I didn't know you were funny, Tsuna!" She wipes a fake tear from her eye. "Is it some sort of game? It sounds fun."

So the Yamamoto™, huh?

"I remember when I used to play games with my brother as a kid. You know, your standard martial arts master fights an ancient dragon kind of thing."

That... doesn't sound standard at all, Tsuna wants to say, but it actually seems something par the course for her brother. Very Sasagawa Ryohei.

"Anyways, I've got to go ahead. I promised Mochida I would meet him--" she pauses, and looks around as if to make sure no one's listening. They're the only two on the street, but she still looks relieved that there's no one hiding nearby. "Anyways, I have to go. Talk to you later Tsuna, Tsuna's brother!"

She looks vaguely miserable as she walks away.

As much as Mochida may be taken as a joke, a nineties stereotype villain, he's still a narcissistic asshole and rude to Kyouko. That's something that stands out in Tsuna's memory, mostly because it was his first actual experience fighting and his first time actually getting involved in Kyouko's life. It's kind of what kick started their friendship.

"You should go talk to her." Reborn prompts, and Tsuna doesn't need to see the glint in his eye to know that he's planning something dangerous. He's already lived through Reborn's risky schemes after all. That something dangerous he happens to be shooting Tsuna. "Ask her out."

"I couldn't. I don't like her that way,"

The look in Reborn's eye gleams stronger.

And you already know what happens next.

---

Reborn blows the smoke away from the barrel of his gun, looking at the body of his student on the ground. Tsuna had been an odd duck from the beginning, but this will truly tell him what he needs to know.

Tsuna's motivations, his ambition, everything becomes clear under the dying will bullet. There's that unfortunate side effect that your clothes get burned off if your will is explosive enough, if you'll mind the pun, but it's worth it.

It's not like Tsuna's been particularly elusive. But he's a bit of an Enigma. Something about him gives Reborn a headache.

Then he realizes, as his gun changes back into Leon--

Tsuna's not moving.

Could he have possibly misread the situation? He had been sure that, even if the feelings weren't romantic, Tsuna clearly had some attachment to the girl. His regrets didn't even have to be about the situation at hand-- hell, it could have been a regret about not running the dishwasher in the morning and that would have been enough to bring him back.

But dying with no regrets is--

Calm down, Reborn. Focus and compartmentalize. He has some form of regret, and if he didn't, then he wasn't as cut out to be Tenth anyways. he reminds himself-- it was his job to test Tsuna, not hold his hand-- but it leaves a sour taste in his mouth.

It can't end before it's begun.

Then, Tsuna's finger twitches.

And he abruptly sits up-- but there's something wrong, something different. And it might not be a big deal, since every situation is different, but he could have sworn it would happen the way Iemitsu had predicted. Yeah, well. Iemitsu's been wrong about a couple things recently, so I should probably stop relying on his shit information.

Oddity No. 3-- Tsuna's dying will state is completely calm, collected and composed.