Chapter Text
Present
“I can’t wait to see Juudaime again!”
“Kfufufufu. I’m sure Tsunade-chan will be just as appreciative of our visit as you are, puppy-kun.”
“Shut up you stupid pineapple!”
“Maa Maa! Guys just calm down. Tsuna wouldn’t want us to fight.”
“You have no room to talk baseball freak.”
“Ore Ore, Lambo-sama wants you all to be silent so I can take a nap before we meet up with Tsuna-nee.”
“No one asked you stupid cow!”
BANG!
“Are we having an extreme wrestling match? I will extremely join you!!”
The Vongola private jet was full of loud exclamations and arguing as they journeyed through the air to get to the Varia mansion. The headquarters for the Vongola Independent Assasination Squad had been completely closed to visitors for the last few years and Xanxus had been more hostile than usual lately. With the heir of Vongola being in training under the commander of the squad, the current boss felt that it was necessary for a visit to their base of operations without warning in order to find out information about the training she had been under. The Decima had been out of contact recently, and that worried the Nono enough to call in Reborn to head the mission to gain information and asked him to gather her Guardians to bring with him.
The tenth generation Vongola Ring holders were finally going to see their Sky again after over five years apart. All of them were trained individually for at least a year, but Tsuna had been sent into the Varia den almost six years ago. She had been denied the ability to contact her Guardians at the beginning of her stint training with Xanxus and they all missed the shy brunette's calming presence greatly.
Even worse, the Varia had zipped their lips on her current status for over two years now and people were beginning to question where the heir of the Vongola had disappeared to.
Five Days Prior
“It’s time for Tsunade to resume her tutoring with you.”
There was a slight surprise from the figure on the other side of the video call, while the elderly man in the lavish office sat with a grim look upon his face as he continued his paperwork while conducting his conversation. He had held off on calling on this man for too long, but now he was already deprived of crucial information and holding on to his last hope.
The scratch of pen against paper was the only thing heard from the room for a while.
“Has Xanxus finally informed you that he has finished attempting to teach her?”
There was a shake of the head from the old man and he set down his pen, before gazing up at the figure shrouded in darkness on the screen. There was a moment where he could see the smugness coming from the World’s Greatest Hitman on the screen, before it was wiped away into a blank mask as this was a serious conversation.
“That is the issue. I haven't gotten any information from him about Tsunade except for the bare minimum of her welfare and it is beginning to concern me. At first the information was at least semi-accessible, but now I can’t even get a verbal response from Xanxus or a digital one from Tsunade.”
The two stared at each other, grim looks on both of their faces for a full minute and a half, before the contracted killer spoke up again.
“How long has the full information blackout been going on?”
“Two years. The first year and a half I would occasionally get updates from Xanxus, but I haven’t heard anything about the current status of her training since the ball 4 years ago, and they have only gotten worse at communication since.”
The man on the other side of the call lowered the fedora that was already hiding the upper portions of his face, hiding it further and exposing the chameleon on the hat to the light.
“I already gave you my opinion on this plan, you refused to listen.”
The old man gave a remorseful look.
“Mayhaps, had I listened to you, we wouldn't be having this conversation, but wrecking the timeline is not in my future, or past plans. I’m asking you to go in with her Guardians to find out what the situation is before informing her of the change in schedule and bringing her back to the Iron Fort.”
“And if Xanxus gives us resistance?”
“Have the Guardians aid her.”
“And my payment?”
“Already set up to be dispersed my friend.”
The call was closed on that note, from both sides.
In the lavish office, an old man rested his head against his raised palm as he prayed for results from his last resort. Timoteo “Nono” Vongola had done many things that he regretted during his time as a boss in the criminal underworld. He had killed off entire mafia Families due to their threat to his own. He had sealed a young child’s active Sky Flame in a process that hadn’t been tested, and had no idea of what the effects would be. He had frozen his adopted son using a technique only used by Primo centuries before during a coup staged by said adopted son. The reason Xanxus had gotten to the point of usurping power was because of a doubt in the ability of Timoteo's leadership and anger that Xanxus had not been informed that he was adopted and incapable of becoming the boss of the Vongola Mafia Famiglia.
Overall he had done many horrible things that he will never be able to make up for, but the events which both psychologically and physically damaged Tsunade and Xanxus so much were at the top of this list. Which was one of the reasons that he had thought that having Xanxus train the Young Lion’s daughter would allow the two children that he had both unintentionally and intentionally traumatized to bond with each other, allow them to move on from the anger that they still held for him and learn to work together to lead the Vongola into the future.
Perhaps he had held too much faith in Xanxus. With the complete lack of information, the possibilities of what had happened in the last six years were almost limitless, a fact which gave him no comfort. The Varia were a loose cannon on a good day, in the past they had been known to go on killing sprees of allies on a whim or harbor enemies if there was a chance that it could help them later on. Not even including any of the events that have happened during the psychotic breaks that Belphegor went through. Tsuna could have been hurt, traumatized, or damaged in unspeakable ways that could inhibit her future as a strong progressive leader of the Vongola by any of the above reasons. Or even worse she could be held captive there until Nono notices as an incentive for him to change the heir or for some other nefarious purpose.
He had an opportunity to call her back a few years ago at the annual Vongola Christmas Ball, but he had thought that she was improving and let the chance pass him by.
She had arrived with the Varia early enough in the party for her to act as the heir of Vongola, but not early enough for Timoteo to call her into a meeting. The speech she had made had been much more eloquent that year than the one she presented two years prior, and her knowledge on the current Vongola political movements was incredible in the fact that she understood the double and triple meanings as well as the consequences of the actions taken. She maneuvered through the party with grace and an aura of power, which the girl had finally grown into. Combined with the confidence that Xanxus had somehow fostered in the shy kid, her new attitude allowed her to avoid some of the faux pas she had made the first time around and kept the other mafia heirs from taking advantage of her.
Nono had seen this as her finally putting herself into training, and that Xanxus had a positive effect on the girl. He was hoping that with another year or so with him would allow the fluffy brunette child to grow into a powerful leader who could lead the Vongola into a new era. He also hoped that Xanxus would maybe teach the girl that restraint was rarely a good option when dealing with enemies, though her tactics of forgiveness had brought them strong allies. With that reasoning in mind, he met with her quickly after many of the guests had left and informed her that she would be continuing her training with Xanxus until he deemed her ready.
Tsunade had no objections at the time, and actually seemed to be excited to continue training with the angry Wrath-Sky commander. She asked about her Guardians immediately after and he had given her no information as isolation from them would increase her ability to function without their support. This had caused her to close off from him, and the remainder of their conversation that night was tense with her giving a clipped farewell shortly after. The heiress of the most powerful mafia family left with the assassination squad no more than ten minutes later, and since then there was no communication from the young Sky.
Xanxus continued communicating in the name of Varia contract and Family work, but kept most of the heiress’s training information in house. When asked how her skillset had improved, he growled out some variation of ‘she’s not Varia Quality yet’. The man was antagonistically unhelpful when asked about information on a good day, and Timoteo did not want to find out what the sadistic group of psychopaths his son led would do if they found the main Famiglia snooping in their files and territory.
So he let it be.
Then Xanxus cut all communication other than official business.
The only contact into the Varia’s headquarters was the paperwork that was delivered to both sides twice a week. Timoteo had originally assumed that it was because of a possible security breach protocol, but the longer it went on, the more he suspected it was something else. Two months went by, then four, then eight and the ninth generation Guardians and boss had a meeting in order to decide what to do in order to break the communication blackout that they had been in. There had been no decision that came of that meeting, other than to wait, because they couldn’t risk insulting or endangering Xanxus while he was the one responsible for the heir to Vongola.
When they reached the year mark, tensions due to the missing Varia reached a peak and Nono requested a meeting with Xanxus in order to evaluate Tsunade Sawada’s capacity as boss as a way to reestablish the presence of the Varia in larger Family matters. When there wasn’t a response within the first week, another was sent. This would continue until Xanxus acknowledged the request and worry from the ninth generation at the lack of response sparked theories of some sort of threat to or from the Varia.
Xanxus did not respond to the request for two months.
At the beginning of the third month without a response, Timoteo received an email. Short and concise, it read that the Varia was currently restricting their information flow due to an undisclosed house cleaning attempt. There would be no more communication from inside the Varia base until it was sorted and possibly even further into the future as a new protocol to keep Family secrets from being revealed.
The message hadn’t even been from the commander. Xanxus’s Rain had obviously been given the most recent message and the long haired sword fanatic had probably decided that a response was required.
Squalo Superbi had taken over the communication between the Varia and the main Family since Xanxus was frozen, due to being the Varia Commander’s Rain and second in command. Even when Xanxus was prison-broken by his guardians, Squalo continued being recognized as the interim commander and head of the Varia until after the Ring Battles. When there was finally an official declaration that Xanxus was no longer on ice and back in command, the paperwork side of leading the Varia was still mainly left to Squalo to sign since he was more experienced with it and the Wrath-Sky had no patience for it. There had been little change since, though there were times where Xanxus would hand Nono two or three months worth of head paperwork and official Varia movements since Squalo wouldn’t do all of it for him.
Obviously, Squalo had decided that he wasn’t going to wait for Xanxus to respond with this one.
It had given Timoteo some sort of comfort that his original theory was right and that it wasn’t a plan to intentionally separate his heiress from the main Family. She had just got caught in an ill timed Varia internal affair. She was to have, hopefully, completed her training by now and returned to the Vongola’s main base of operations, but it was fine. He could wait another month or so for the Varia to clean house before procuring his heir and beginning her next steps in taking the reins of the Family.
He did so.
But the Varia did not reopen communication after that.
Which put Timoteo in a difficult position. He knew he couldn’t outwait them. They had the patience of saints (well, with their occupation, it had to be corrupted saints), since they had waited a whole eight years to get a chance to release Xanxus. Sending in Vongola members to the Varia always ended in either dead bodies dropped at the front door Iron Fort or live bodies that have broken in both body and mind getting left in the foyer. Neither of which, Nono would like to experience again.
He had reached the pinnacle of desperation when solving problems within the Family.
His only option at this point was to involve a third party.
Or in Reborn’s case, pseudo third party since there was a contract in play.
In a safehouse in Venice, the strongest hitman in the world closed a laptop with a crease in his brows. The meeting had brought up an issue that he was unaware of (a fact that absolutely baffled him, as he had been keeping as close an eye on the situation as he could without suspicion) and left him with an odd order he could not refuse unless he wanted his student’s safety to possibly be in jeopardy.
Reborn had disagreed with Nono’s plan to separate the Guardians and have them train without any contact to any of the others. While he understood the need for individual growth, as he had been tutoring for a long time, the group element of such a volatile collection of people would be damaged by such. There were too many aggressive and violent personalities in the group to leave them to their own devices for too long, and a period separated could lead to the bonds of the group to deteriorate, especially without contact with the harmony that they would gain from their Sky. If that would happen, the tenth generation might not accept being recalled into Vongola service as Guardians and leaders of the Family, which could lead to deterioration of the Family as well as mental and emotional pain for Tsunade Sawada.
Which could mean no pay for him, and his emotional attachment to his students being revealed to every mafia member who was in any way connected to Vongola.
He had a promise to always be completely honest with himself since he was constantly lying to other people, and in order to fulfil that Reborn had to acknowledge that he got attached to people in his care and that he would do pretty much anything for the kids he taught to become powerful mafia bosses. Even if that list only ever included Dino Cavallone and Tsunade Sawada. It was something that, if it ever got out, would put an even bigger target on each of their heads.
In order to prevent that whole scenario and any other possibilities that could come from weak bonds, the group dynamic had to be kept tight enough to allow them to work with each other.
He honestly feared for the sanity of some of the more unhinged Guardians (cough Mukuro cough) being forced to abandon their sky for so long. The shy brunette had become one of the cornerstones in each of her Guardians’ lives. Tsunade had kept her murderous Mist sane enough to work with and was able to pacify the carnivorous Cloud to some extent. Her comfort kept her Lightning calm and she gave her Storm confidence in himself and a reason to keep his borderline suicidal tendencies to a minimum. She gave her Rain a person to be himself with and her secondary Mist someone to rely on. Tsuna gave her Sun someone to protect, but he could also be confident that she would have his back when in battle no matter the fight. Her harmony was something that the group had relied on for safety and support and they had to go through a sudden withdrawal from it during a period where they had just managed to find stability in the mafia world.
All of them had been isolated from her harmony and if they were resentful of the ninth generation and possessive of her when they all returned, well…
Reborn had warned them.
Though his contract kept him as an advisor for Tsunade when not in charge of her learning, he had no say in how they wished her life to go until she took over as boss of Vongola. All he could give was his opinion and his prediction of the outcome which could come from it. Since he was freelance, they weren’t willing to trust him with more than that.
Within the next few days, Reborn would have to gather up the tenth generation Guardians again. They had scattered when Tsuna was forced into elongated boot camp with the Varia and it would take a while to find all their hidey holes they claimed that they were training in. The only two that Reborn had seen since they left were hotheaded Hayato Gokudera, since he had holed up with Dr. Shamal to attempt to convince the womanizer to help him with combining his Storm Flame with his secondary Flames, and Ryohei Sasagawa, as they had requested Reborn take over some of his Sun Flame training since the hitman was the former Sun Arcobaleno. All of the others had either never left Namimori, the only one of which was Kyoya Hibari since he refused to leave his Cloud-claimed territory without prompting from his Sky, or were in the wind with whichever trainers that they had managed to find.
And leaving one out was not an option in this scenario. It’s likely all of them would be needed if a fight would break out while on Varia territory. Unfortunately, with the lack of sanity that all that were under contract with the Varia seemed to share, it was unlikely that they would make it through the front door without any sort of aggressive action.
He only hoped that Xanxus had managed to teach Tsuna something, or all of this troublesome business would be for naught.
Either way, the chaos it would spark to bring her back would be glorious.
Present
There was an all out brawl on the plane, with the impulsive Storm guardian, Hayato Gokudera attempting to strangle the now 15 year old Lambo Bovino, due to the Lightning guardian’s lazy and arrogant temperament. Takeshi Yamamoto was busy laughing and trying to pull the two apart before all three of them were tackled by an enthusiastic Ryohei Sasagawa who insisted on being involved in any sort of fight between anyone.
Including those which hadn’t quite descended into a full physical battle yet.
Which then turned them into such, and brought more people into the fray with the energetic boxer.
In this instance it happened to be one half of the Mist Guardian as one of his legs missed its target of Yamamoto and slammed directly into the lower abdomen of one Mukuro Rokudo.
Who reacted violently with illusions and trident swinging.
The fight culminated to a trident whizzing over Chrome Dokuro’s head after missing the aggressive Storm’s silver locks following a minute of trying to attack both the Sun and Storm, both of whom weren't even focused fully on the Mist.
Everyone froze for a second as Chrome was normally off limits back when Tsuna watched over their battles. She normally was fairly pacifistic when dealing with problems, and her big hearted nature often brought her right into line with the title of “battle referee” which Tsuna had named her. Tsuna would take the role as well from time to time, but she could be just as violent as the others when she would argue, leaving the title and rules that came with it to apply only to the shy Mist. It was out of line to hit one of their self proclaimed judges and no one was quite sure how any of the others, including Chrome herself, would react to that anymore.
Chrome, who had finally begun to outgrow her self confidence issues and had become corrupted by the insanity which plagued the other Guardians, responded with a smirk and a trident of her own, jumping into the fray and restarting the chaos which had taken over the main part of the plane.
There was one Guardian who had refrained from joining in the chaos so far, but that was only because he had been napping in the other section of the plane in order to sleep in peace. Or rather silence.
A small bird was resting on the head of the sleeping Cloud Guardian, while a hedgehog was curled up in his lap as he leisurely stretched across the bench of the plane's bar room. The Vongola tenth generation had already been informed that there were too many breakable objects for them to be allowed in the bar room without their Sky to control them. Kyoya Hibari was among those with absolute restricted access, but over time they let him use it on occasion. His violence tended to happen only if there was another person within the room, so he could be left unsupervised if he was solitary. Which at the time he was. He had been allowed the room this time less for that reason and more with a hope that the violence in the conference room was left only to a level of bruises and minimal lacerations, rather than broken bones and possibly lethal hospital trips.
There was a faint sound of screaming from the other room but the reinforced walls had been soundproofed by the ninth boss after one too many trips with his adopted son and his sadistic and overly vocal guardians. This had come in handy once the tenth generation had come into the picture with a habit of pulling out destructive weapons while in small arguments among themselves, though their Sky did keep them to a minimized level. This room was a sanctuary from angry, violent, boisterous, practically uncontrollable people, making it a perfect place for an undisturbed catnap.
Unfortunately, this reinforcement did not apply to the metal door, which had just been rammed in by a flying 13 year old.
Lambo had been thrown backwards by a punch from the Sun Guardian, after Ryohei had attempted to hit Hayato and missed. He went straight into the door, which broke under the force of Ryohei’s unrestrained strength. The door slowed Lambo down enough that his momentum stopped just through the entryway, landing him flat on his face. The door on the other hand continued its trajectory across the room crashing to a stop right in front of the couch in the middle of the bar room.
The teenage Lighting rolled over groaning in pain from the impact.
Only to see the narrowed eyes of the now fully awake and irritated Demon of Namimori. The violent man had disappeared a while earlier after deciding that the herbivorous actions that they were all partaking in were below his carnivore self. Which had relieved Lambo at the time.
Now, since he had just barged into the area where the skylark had taken sanctuary, no matter how unintentional, he reassessed his previous emotions before deciding that the situation he was in currently was so much worse than anything the skylark would get into with the others.
Lambo only had about three seconds, which his brain spent recognizing the danger he was now in, before there was a growl echoing through the room.
“Herbivore.”
Lambo gulped before scrambling up. He booked it out the door before the threat was even finished. Following him was an angry tonfa and handcuff wielding Cloud, who had just been disturbed from one of the three things in life that brought the violent 23 year old peace, Tsuna (his Sky), taking care of his menagerie of animals (the angry prefect had collected far to many during his time in school and the amount had only grown since) and…
“For interupting my nap, you will be bitten to death.”
The door to a dark study slammed open. The curtains that kept the late morning sun from brightening the room swayed back and forth before settling again, letting a small amount of light illuminate the door frame. Through which, stalked an irate silver haired swordsman in a tan and black combat uniform. He proceeded through the open office room before stopping in front of a cherry wood desk and standing directly across from its occupant. Squalo Superbi stood straight and gave a report of the updated information.
“Voi! Reborn is currently on a plane from Venice to Rome. He had picked up all seven of the mini-boss’s Guardian’s and they plan on arriving at HQ sometime during the early evening today.”
The scarred man in the high backed throne didn’t flinch at the volume of his second in command’s voice or even deign to look even slightly interested in the information after the violent entrance. His bright red eyes glared over the whiskey glass in his right hand at the swordsman before taking a long drink with his eyes closed. Xanxus opened his eyes again, and Squalo took that as a sign to continue talking.
“Tsuna got an email from the Ninth that he is recalling her back to the Iron Fort in order to resume her training with Reborn and begin the transitional period between bosses. The email said they’d be arriving tomorrow to bring her back no exceptions, but with Reborn heading it all, it's likely he’ll bring the brats in with him this afternoon, or at the latest this evening. Sawada bombarded the brats' phone with texts of saving his ‘Tuna-Fishie’ from the big bad Varia. She said she checked her old number after the email from Nono, because she knew her father was shit at keeping secrets. Which he is, but he’s also obstinate and ignorant. The idiot should have realized at this point in his life how her not responding ever means that she’s avoiding his stupid ass.”
The rant honestly was nothing new to Xanxus, just confirmations and commentary. Though Squalo likely had other information to report, it wouldn’t happen until after the issues that a visit from the tenth generation would cause. Though backup would likely be needed to keep the violent, impulsive idiots from destroying the HQ.
“Have the shitty prince and demon-brat checked back in with HQ yet?”
“Yeah, the lovebirds finished their mission this morning.”
“What’s their ETA?”
Squalo let out a snort before responding. “At least a day or two. The brats know that Reborn will be here when they get back, so they’ll probably go out of their way to be extra late. Also, the kid’s been extra cloudy lately, so she’ll probably stop them at a hotel to sate her needs and then be a clingy, possessive teddy bear with Bel.”
Xanxus raised one dark eyebrow before sighing and pouring himself another glass of hard liquor. He took a sip, before glaring up through the ceiling, as though it had done something to put him in this predicament.
“The little shits are going to be horny as fuck when they get back won’t they?”
A cheerful ‘Yup’ escaped Squalo’s mouth as he chuckled at his boss.
He didn’t even manage three seconds of laughter before the glass that Xanxus had just filled shattered on Squalo’s hair. The whiskey dripped through the silver strands, but the Rain wasn’t even phased, and just kept laughing. Though he did stop after Xanxus gave him another glare though.
The swordsman brushed off the larger pieces of glass before managing to get out the customary “Voi! What the hell shitty boss?” though the smile on his face gave away that he was still laughing on the inside.
“Don’t be so happy, shark-trash, or you’ll be the one dealing with their lack of impulse control.”
Squalo gave Xanxus an incredulous look.
Xanxus glared right back at him.
Squalo flipped him the bird and muttered under his breath something along the lines of ‘I already have to deal with all your bullshit, I don’t need anymore.’ Another glass hit its target of his head in retaliation for that comment which was obviously not as quiet as he intended it to be.
The silverette squawked at the impact before quieting. An odd sign that those who knew him well recognized as a want for seriousness. Which wasn’t often as humor and big showy loud fronts put enemies off balance and Squalo thoroughly used his strong vocal chords to his advantage. Xanxus obliged and lessened the glare he had leveled at Squalo’s head.
“Are we gonna let them take her?” Squalo questioned, voice unnaturally soft.
“It’s honestly up to her. But if the brat’s being her usual self, there’s not a chance in hell she’ll let em’.”
Xanxus sounded absolutely confident in his answer and that was exactly what the second in command had needed at the moment. He had gotten attached to the brat, and six long years of training with them had given them all a chance to bond. Tsunade Sawada had managed to wrap all the officers around her finger within the first year of training and they all had gotten used to her presence around the Varia. None of them were very willing to let her go, and she seemed just as possessive of them as they were of her.
And while Squalo had seen the bond between them grow over the time she was here, he needed some sort of confirmation that it wasn’t something that was fostered in an attempt to just get by or make it back to the Iron Fort.
She was his student now, just as much as she was Xanxus and Reborn’s, and he wasn’t gonna let the kid he had trained and basically adopted as a sister leave them for her old tutor.
Xanxus had handed Squalo the girl's diplomacy lessons, since Xanxus would rather just shoot someone in the head than obey the rules of polite society. Both ways would get the job done, but Tsunade was going to be leading the whole Family and not just an assassination squad. While murder was a common problem solving method in the mafia, killing the other party during a negotiation was highly frowned upon. Squalo, while loud and far too fond of battle to put all his teaching into practice all the time, was well trained by his father in the art of negotiation and diplomatic relations and had handled most of the Varia interactions since Xanxus took over. He could teach the kid what he knew and the rules of inter-Family business meetings and Xanxus had known that.
Now, after 6 years with her, he had taught her as much as he could. The brat had grown on him, like a fungus, and he was all the more attached because of it. Getting his fears called out as unreasonable and unlikely, allowed him to trust that the brat he helped wouldn’t be ditching them for anyone else.
Squalo turned from Xanxus, having his worries assuaged and still having more work to complete before the former Arcobaleno arrived with the brats. He walked back towards the door, brushing the remaining glass and whiskey droplets from his waist length hair. He made it all the way to that door before Xanxus called back at his retreating form and he stopped where he stood.
“Shitty Shark, make sure Lussuria is the one to escort our visitors this evening. He makes the brats uncomfortable.”
Squalo smirked and continued his way out the door, shooting back a quick response and closing the door and returning to his work.
“Sure thing, Shitty Boss.”