Important note at the bottom! Please read!

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The irony of the situation wouldn't dawn on Tsunayoshi for a while.

He was 'Dame'. No good. The least liked person of the school. The person the downtrodden beat on and made fun of to feel better about themselves because they were bad off, but at least they weren't 'Dame-Tsuna.'

The 'rock bottom' for the rest of the school to compare to.

Any yet…

When the time comes, it is Tsuna who stands at the front, Tsuna who takes a stand and commands 'no more'. It is 'rock bottom' that refuses to bend, refuses to yield and becomes the wall that stands between the people and the others.

Tsuna isn't sure how it happened, what caused the outbreak, or why there was next to no warning. All he knows is that when it happens, Kyoko had been behind him and everyone else was screaming and crying and panicking.

No one had been doing anything.

Something inside him had snapped when the infected the undead: whatever the hell was left of what used to be people tried to eat them.

Tsuna had been between the undead and the only person in the entire town who had never called him no good (because as much as he loved and adored his mother, she had called him no good before) the only person besides his mother who had always had a kind smile and a word for him.

No one else had been doing anything to help- so Tsuna had.

He wouldn't find out for years about the seal that had been on him since he was five. He wouldn't find out for years that his Will that his Resolve in that moment had been strong enough to shatter it like it had never been there as his determination to live and go home to his mother, his determination to make sure Kyoko lived, his will to defy death was stronger than the resolve of the Sky that had sealed him.

His Flames had surged under that seal and burned through it from the inside until they were free.

It would be a long while before Tsuna would find out that he had learned to 'run before he walked' as it were that day, his Flames plunging him straight into what he would later learn to identify as Hyper Dying Will Mode.

All Tsuna had been aware of at the moment was that the undead were walking, everyone around him was being torn apart and eaten, the streets were lined in blood from those who hadn't been quick enough and Kyoko was behind him. All he had known in that moment was the Will to live and take Kyoko with him.

And so he had.

Flames had come into being and Tsuna had torn through everything in his way with his bare hands and the fire that coated them.

He'd taken Kyoko to his home and found his mother in the kitchen, her apron coated in red and a frying pan gripped in one hand. It had been a relief to see her there and she had rushed to greet him, babbling about the men that had come into the house who had already been dead, but trying to hurt her. She babbled about panicking and hitting them with the pan only for them to get back up until she managed to hit one in the head. She told her son how she had dragged them out of the house.

Tsuna had been calm as he rubbed her back, whispering soothingly into her ear before he had asked her to watch Kyoko for him. His mother had latched onto the normalcy.

Tsuna had gone upstairs and following his instincts had gathered what he thought he might need into bags. One for him, one for his mother and one for Kyoko. When he came back downstairs the two women had been in the kitchen while his mother tried to coax Kyoko into eating some rice balls from the fridge.

Tsuna had been the one to lead them to the school, the one that carved a path through the undead from their home to the school picking up the odd couple of things as his instincts demanded of him.

When he arrived at the school there were a few bodies lining the halls, alongside broken classrooms and blood splatters, but Tsuna has a destination in mind. He knows where he needs to go even if he isn't sure why. (Once again- he will later learn to call this the 'Vongola Intuition')

He climbs the stairways, using the bits and pieces he had picked up on his way there (mostly poles and things of that nature) to latch the doors shut behind himself. He plans absently to come back and do a better job of it, but for now it will slow any undead down which is what he needs.

He eventually makes it to the third story of the school- the top floor not including the roof- and he finds what his instincts had been guiding him to: Hibari and a diminished Disciplinary Committee guarding the terrified remains of the student and teacher body.

"Here" his instincts-his intuition- purrs. "Here is where we can rest. The girls will be safe- we will be safe."

The warm feeling that had fueled him pulls back, the Flames on his fists that no one had mentioned (Tsuna will later find out that only those who can use the Flames or are aware of their own Flames and can feel them even if they can't use them are capable of actually seeing the Flames themselves) disappearing and he sways sharply.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

When he comes too, there's a silver-white haired boy leaning over him with his fists clenched. He recognizes Kyoko's older brother. "Thank you for saving Kyoko and bringing her to me!" the boy screams in Tsuna's face and even though his head hurts and his body feels like it may have been beaten into putty by Hibari, Tsuna smiles at the boy and tells him 'you're welcome.'

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Tsuna isn't aware of the impression he made on the group of students in the school on his way to them. Most of the students had been watching out the windows as the boy they had called 'no good' carved his way through the undead with his bare hands.

The hallways of the school itself had been mostly empty with a few stragglers thanks to Hibari, but outside the school? That had been a whole other story. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies had stood in his way, all of them drawn to the living bodies like flies to honey, and Tsuna had flitted between the chaos of the undead like he was born to fight them, keeping the two noncombatants with him alive and safe as the undead fell to his hands.

The boy they had thought to be a loser, a push over, someone who would always be the 'rock bottom' a boy they classified as no good had just carved his way into the school with a path of chaos and blood and made it look easy.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Hibari had seen the Herbivore fight his way to the herd he and his Committee had been shielding. He had watched as one of the weakest Herbivores he had ever seen had fought like a Carnivore. There had been no hesitation, every strike he had made had been lethal to the undead, and despite the numbers between him and them as well as the women he was protecting, he had refused to waver.

It was faint, but Hibari couldn't help the small whisper that escaped him.

"Wao"

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Tsuna wasn't a leader as far as he was concerned. He was just someone who could do something and so had when everyone else was too scared or horrified to do it themselves. As far as he was concerned he never had been. Had never been someone anyone had thought was worth following.

The undead outbreak had changed that. Everyone else had been too terrified to take the mantle, and his remaining classmates- gathered and kept safe by Hibari and his Committee- had witnessed the barehanded crusade into the school when he arrived. It meant they looked his way in their terror because they had seen that Tsuna could fight the undead and win. (And he wasn't as terrifying as Hibari)

Tsuna had never considered himself to be a leader, and would tell anyone that thought to ask that he wasn't one. He was just a protector. A boy who had the ability to do something and so had.

If anyone asked the classmates that had dismissed Tsuna so easily, who had held their foothold in the school for the last six months by his side...who had fought, slept, plotted and planned at his side, who had been sure that 'this was it' this was the moment they were going to be eaten, they were going to die only to open there eyes and see Tsuna's back between them and the undead…

If anyone asked the children Tsuna had gone out personally to collect and bring back to the school…the children who had been so hungry, so cold, and so, so scared with no one to turn to or no idea what do before warm brown eyes had found them and extended a warm callused hand out to them and offered safety…

If anyone asked the adults that Tsuna had gone after beside classmates, the parents of those who had been caught in their homes or in the grocery stores, those that had been caught at work and prayed with everything that they were that their child was still alive…the parents who would later look into the orange-tinted brown eyes of the boy who had protected their children, and them followed them out of their safe-zone to find them and bring them back for their children…

If anyone were to ask them who they considered to be the 'leader' of those who called the school their safe-zone…each of them would answer "Tsuna" with a warm grin and sure eyes.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~ O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The idea here is that Tsuna is a magnetic little Sky and has a serious protective streak where it's needed, and we've already seen that when it matters and this is especially true if he's protecting someone Tsuna will stare God in the face and command 'Enough' or 'No' and win.

I just wanted a situation where Tsuna came into himself, became the boss we all know he can be without Reborn there to cause it. Where he did it himself.

And I wanted a fic where he accidently created the core of his Vongola through this situation- where he accidently earns the loyalty of the people who would help him bring Vongola back to its roots as that Vigilante group right here and doesn't even realize what he did.

It is my personal head cannon that Namimori is basically Mafia Neutral because it's the Mafia Retirement spot. (Which is why no one bats and eye at the shenanigans of the 10th Gen. and the town just rolls with the explosions and craziness) There are Civilians there of course to balance it out, but a good chunk of the town is Mafia Retirees in my head and go to Namimori to have families and retire and Tsuna has just saved their children and then gone out to get them just because their children asked him to and he didn't want the kids to go by themselves with no ulterior motive thus earning some Mafia-savvy peoples' loyalty.

And I want the Vongola to find this. To come for their only heir and find Tsuna leading the survival effort of Mafia retirees and these retirees letting him to see these retirees are loyal to him. (Because Tsuna is one hell of a Sky and protector and like hell he would waver in the defense of his People and these retirees are smart enough to see a damn good Sky worthy of loyalty and protection when he's right there even if he is a baby Sky.)

I want a confident Tsuna, a Tsuna who has come into his Flames and honed them, who is comfortable in his own skin, who will stare the likes of the Vindice in the face and scoff if they try to touch what is his.

And travellergirl read my mind a bit in the sense that in this AU I figured the only survivors of this are Mafia retirees because they are paranoid sons-a-bitches and they'd make it out. The only civilians to make it out better be pretty damn bad ass or with a Mafia retiree. This means after Tsuna takes them in and they see this little Sky is worth it…they'd teach the group. They'd teach them to survive and fight, to fight dirty and hard and win. Even if they don't mention that they're mafia. They'd help.

So: PLEASE someone SOMEONE adopt this from me and make it a fic? SOMEONE please? I do have more background info on this if you need help somewhere (PM for it) but I have a plateful of my own here and would like someone to flesh this out while I can't. I imagined this fic as a very powerful Family focused fic. The bonds forged in this hell through struggle and blood and close calls, but if you want romance go ahead. I don't mind.

AND TELL ME IF YOU ADOPT IT SO I CAN POST IT HERE AND READ IT. THANKS. (anyone is free to try their hand at this so long as they tell me they are, and actually intend to finish it at some point.)

Blazin'Blue has offered to adopt this though I have been warned to expect slow updates.
NatureAura offered to adopt as well.
Lucy's Dreamland adopted this and the first chapter is up.

TheSocialBookworm offered as well and the first chapter will be up soon.