Summary: Everyone knows that in order to commission the number one hitman in the world for a kill, you must first win over his master, the one he's sworn his eternal loyalty to. However, when said master is an unimpressed 6-year-old who would rather be out playing with his friends, such a feat can be easier said than done.

It was obvious from the moment Sawada Tsunayoshi was born, that he would one day take over the Vongola.

Maybe it was his startling resemblance to Vongola Primo, or maybe it was his worryingly high base body temperature, as if his sky flames were full to the brim and bursting to come out. Or maybe it was simply that none of Vongola Nono's sons wanted to take over after their father.

Either way, Tsuna was always destined for greatness, and that made him a target.

And given that his parents and even his "grandfather" insisted he should be able to have as normal a childhood as possible, Tsuna's safety was, quite predictably, and ongoing concern.

Seventeen bodyguards had come and gone by Tsuna's fourth birthday, each of them fired either for an appalling lack of competence, or because Tsuna thought they were meanie doodooheads.

And one, the asshole, actually decided that there was no such thing as a threat to Tsuna's life and left him alone while on duty. Tsuna didn't get to deal with this one; he walked himself right out, ashamed at himself for not taking his duty seriously, when his ward was kidnapped in the twenty seconds he'd had his back turned.

This incident, in fact, had happened just three days before Tsuna opened the door to find a besuited man standing tall on his doorstep, fedora throwing the top half of his face into shadow. He seemed to loom over Tsuna, imposing without seemingly trying to be.

Tsuna looked up at him with wide, serious eyes.

"You must be the new bodyguard then," he said, crossing his arms. "They told me you'd be arriving tomorrow."

The man looked down, tilting his head to the side the slightest bit, an action that seemed, to a four-year-old's sharp eyes, to communicate surprise.

Bowing deeply, Tsuna said in as mature a voice as he could muster, "I will be in your care from now on."

Coming out of his bow, Tsuna noticed the corners of the man's lips tug upwards into the ghost of a smile.

"I look forward to working with you," replied the man in smooth, slightly accented Japanese, his voice pleasant and deep.

Tsuna perked up, pleasantly surprised – most of his bodyguards were foreigners (as this man seemed to be), and didn't usually know about Japanese manners and etiquette.

Stepping to the side, Tsuna gestured the man inside, requesting, "Please take off your shoes." This man may know more about Japan than the others, but it was still better to be safe than sorry – Tsuna knew his mother wouldn't like it if her pretty, clean carpets had dirt tracked all over them.

Tsuna was rather enjoying playing the host – it made him feel rather grown up. Usually it was his parents welcoming the guests, but since his mother was still out shopping and his father was in the shower, it was up to him.

Doing as told, the man exchanged his shoes for a pair of indoor slippers the Sawadas reserved for guests.

"I apologize for intruding," the stranger replied as he stepped out of the foyer, and Tsuna felt his lips pull into a wide smile as he hurried to close the door and follow after the man.

"You're more com-pi-tant than the others," he said with a giggle, smiling widely up at his companion.

The man chuckled.

"That's quite an impressive vocabulary you have there, child," he purred, resting a hand on Tsuna's head.

Tsuna grinned even brighter at that.

"Thank you! That's how my bodyguards usually talk to me so I learned it from them," he said with another giggle, grabbing at the man's fingers, and swinging their joined hands back and forth as he led the guest to their living room. "So, what's your name?" he asked the man. "You probably already know my name."

"I do, Tsunayoshi-kun," replied the man with a rumbling laugh. "My name is Reborn."

Iemitsu knew about Reborn's arrival from the very moment he set foot in the house, from the way his bloodlust washed through the whole residence, causing a shiver of dread to crawl up his spine.

In theory, Reborn shouldn't be a threat to Tsuna – he was here to discuss with Iemitsu a hit that Nono had commissioned from him after all. But despite his favour towards the Vongola Family, Reborn was still an unaffiliated hitman, and therefore couldn't be counted upon with their heir's safety.

So while Iemitsu didn't go into full battle mode the moment he noticed the hitman's presence in his home, he did hurry to finish his shower as fast as possible and get some clothes on so he could go to his son's side.

In all honesty, Iemitsu wasn't quite sure what he expected to find once he reached the first floor. Maybe he expected to see Reborn sitting on one corner of the sofa with Tsuna sitting across from him, watching him warily.

Instead, he stepped into the living room to find Reborn kneeling in front of his four-year-old son, one pudgy hand held in his own rough, calloused ones. He could only watch, horrified, as the hitman's words registered in his mind.

"-do hereby pledge my loyalty to Sawada Tsunayoshi, heir to the Vongola Famiglia of Italy. By the flames of the sun I pledge, to be loyal only to my sky – to support and protect him so far as it is within my power, so long as we both shall live. Do you, Sawada Tsunayoshi, accept my vow?"

And then, before Iemitsu could make any move to stop them, the words "I do" had spilled from his son's lips, and with a swirl of sun and sky flames, the vow was sealed.

"Tsuna," he wheezed, the breath knocked clean out of him and the implications of what he had just witnessed. "What have you done?"

"Dad!" exclaimed Tsuna, turning to him with his lips stretched into an impossibly wide grin, his hand still gripped in Reborn's much larger one. "Look! My new bodyguard is here! And he's WAY cooler than all the other ones!"

Over his head, Reborn was watching Iemitsu, a sly grin turning up the corners of his mouth.

"Your bodyguard?" asked Iemitsu, voice faint. "But he's-"

"I know I'm a little early, Iemitsu, but that's no reason for you to look so upset," said Reborn, standing up. Tsuna still didn't let go of his hand. "Perhaps you should go call Timoteo now? I'm sure he'll be glad to know that his young heir has someone to protect him again."

SkyGem: That's it for this chapter! This fic won't be long, maybe 4 or 5 chapters, but I hope you guys will look forward to it! It's something Bleach-ed-Na-tsu and I have been talking about for a while now and I'm way glad I finally got a chance to write it out! Please do leave a review and let me know what you thought, yeah? And give Natsu some love too! She helped me out so so much in writing this chapter whenever I got stuck, and some of the lines in here came straight from her. Anyways, I'll see you all next time!

P.S. For those of you who don't follow me on tumblr or who may not have seen my posts yet, Natsu and I will be at Anime North all weekend, and we'll be attending the KHR panel tomorrow, so if any of you all are attending, make sure to keep an eye out for us ;)