Hi guys! It's been awhile. I just came back from Borneo for vacation (which was right after my community project in the Philippines), and I'm left with a week free to write before the start of the new semester. Sorry for taking so long to update :')

This chapter was actually completed and beta'ed months ago, but I was not satisfied with the way things were going. I've edited it now, delete some things and added a few more stuff. Still a bit...meh, but it'll do.

Here's an update of the time frame:

Chapter 1-4: Shirou's arrival, 6 years before cannon. Tsuna is 7 years old. (Cradle Affair occurs in the same year.)

Chapter 5: 2 days after Shirou's arrival, Shirou meets Momokyo-kai.

Chapter 6: 6 months after Shirou's arrival, Tsuna's 8th birthday in October. Shirou has a heart-to-heart conversation with Tsuna.

Chapter 7-8: 1 year after Shirou's arrival, Shirou meets Tsuyoshi (properly). 5 years before cannon. Tsuna is 8 years old.

Chapter 9: about 1.5 years after Shirou's arrival. The chapter occurs within the months between Shirou meeting Tsuyoshi and chapter 10 (this chapter). Training for Tsuna and Takeshi has started.

Chapter 10: 2 years after Shirou's arrival. 4 years before cannon. Tsuna is 9 years old.

Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own FSN or KHR, except for some OCs.

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2 years after Shirou's arrival

Tsuna shook badly with fear as he eyed Kunio from behind his brother.

"Tsuna, come on," Shirou urged him to step forward, but the kid planted his feet into the ground and his grip on his brother's shirt tightened even more. "This guy may look big and scary, but he's quite nice."

"H-He's glaring at me, Nii-chan," Tsuna stuttered.

True to his word, Kunio was staring at the young boy intently. He blinked upon hearing the timid voice, before clearing his throat. The big boss patted his pockets until he found a wrapped lollipop.

"Here," Kunio said awkwardly as he crouched down. "A candy for you."

Shirou stared at his boss' strange behavior as Tsuna once again stuttered, "M-Mama said not to accept c-candies from a stranger."

"Well, your … brother and I are no strangers. 'Sides," Kunio pointed at his mechanic, "Your bro would beat me up if I tried do something bad to you, so nothing for you to worry about."

"You make me sounds like a violent person, Shinoda-san."

"What? It's the truth," Kunio shrugged, before crouching down to mock-whisper to Tsuna. "You see, there's this one time with the screwdriver—"

"Aaaanyway," Shirou drawled as he pulled his boss away from Tsuna. Wouldn't do for Kunio to corrupt his little brother. "This is the brother whom I was talking about, Shinoda-san. He has been trained in a few basic kendo katas. I don't know if it's any different from unarmed combat—"

"Right. Before that," Kunio dragged his mechanic to one corner, leaving the kid out of the loop. Then, he whispered harshly, "You said you're bringing your brother!"

Shirou raised an eyebrow, "Yes. I am."

"Then, that boy can't be your lil' bro, Emiya," Kunio narrowed his eyes. "Did you kidnap him?"

"What are you talking about?" Shirou frowned at him in disbelief. "He's really my brother. Well, adopted brother."

"But he's a Sawa—," Kunio stopped himself, blinking rapidly in confusion. "Wait, didn't you say your cousin was Itou Nanase?"

"That's Nana-san's maiden name," Shirou admitted. He'd figured from that incident two years ago that associating himself with the Sawada patriarch would not be wise in the long run. It was now Shirou's turn to look at his boss suspiciously. "You were about to say 'Sawada'. How did you know that he's a Sawada? I only introduced him as Tsuna."

Kunio cursed quietly. He looked back and forth between Shirou and Tsuna, before coming to a decision.

"My boss, Isao Seki. Remember him?" Kunio whispered as if whatever he was about to say was a state secret. "He was actually not from Namimori. Oyabun was stationed here by his superior with a secret mission."

Shirou didn't expect that. "His superior?"

"Even I, his right-hand man, don't know who's above Oyabun," Kunio grunted. "But he did tell us a bit about his mission. He couldn't do it alone, after all."

Shirou leaned in closer. Damn it, Kunio was leaving him hanging there. "Which is?"

"Protecting the Sawadas."

"...What?"

Kunio shrugged. "Well, we used to patrol the area around the Sawada residence when Oyabun was still around. Figured the Sawadas were pretty high-profile. There was even one time when I accidentally exposed an assassin lurking near the house."

"What?" Shirou repeated, baffled. "How come I've never seen any of you around?"

"You came to Namimori two years ago, right?" Kunio recalled. "That was around the time Oyabun passed away from appendicitis. We had to take care of his funeral 'cause he had no family here. By the time my boys were free to patrol again, there were already hundreds of bodyguards dressed in suits standing around the house, so I figured those must be the Sawada patriarch's men."

Shirou hummed in understanding. Nana did mention that before. "So you know that Sawada Iemitsu is a mafioso."

"I suspected," Kunio corrected. "We couldn't come close to the house, but one of my men did manage to catch a glimpse of an old foreigner man playing with that little boy in the house backyard. He was either a very rich businessman or a mafioso, or both. How did you know…?"

"Tsuyoshi-san told me."

"Right. An ex-hitman shoulda known," Kunio muttered, before he stilled. Slowly, he turned towards his mechanic and asked, "Wait, why would he even tell you that? You're just a random boy…"

Crap. "I...uh, I mean…"

"You…," Kunio's eyes slowly widened in shock. "You knocked out one of my men the first day we met, have reflexes as good as Oyabun, and-and alive Sawadas…"

"Err—"

"You're the Hitman Killer!" Kunio exclaimed loudly.

"Wait, what?!" Both Shirou and Tsuna blurted out.

It was then both the yakuza boss and his mechanic realised that they weren't alone in the workshop. Tsuna was staring at them both with wide eyes. Shit, he must've heard—

"I-I mean, I was saying that your big bro is a H-Hip Man with Killer looks," Kunio stammered as he badly pronounced the English words with a thick Japanese accent. "Y'know English, boy? That means your bro is a cool person."

Shirou could feel his face heat up from embarrassment. There was no way Tsuna would believe that—

"R-really?" Tsuna exclaimed in awe.

Kunio nodded vigorously. "I'm serious."

"Woah, amazing!"

Right. Crisis averted.

Not wanting to accidentally blurt out secrets of the Mafia world in front of the innocent boy again, Kunio called one of his closest boys. Shirou recognised the approaching young man – a surprisingly mild-mannered member named Mochida Kaito – and gave a nod to him. His sleeve tattoos clearly scared Tsuna, but, to the guy's credit, Kaito crouched down and put a friendly face to assuage the boy's fear.

"Tsuna, right? I'm Kaito. I have some action figures upstairs. My little brother Kensuke likes them, so I'm guessing you do too," he smiled when Tsuna perked up. "Wanna see them?"

Receiving an assuring nod from Shirou, Tsuna left to follow Kaito. Shirou trusted the Momokyo-kai to be nothing but friendly to his charge. He'd make sure of that.

"...Finally, he's gone," Kunio sighed in relief. "What were we talking about again?"

"Uh, the Hitman Killer?"

"Right," Kunio grunted, before widening his eyes in shock, again. "You're the Hitman Killer?!"

"What are you talking about?" Shirou looked at him weirdly. "What makes you think that?"

"There's a rumour in the local underworld of a mysterious killer," Kunio began in a sombre tone. "Many professional hitmen have come to Namimori to carry out a single mission, but they all failed and got killed in the process."

Uh-oh. Shirou could see where this was going.

"It started with that infamous assassin sniper Fujibayashi Yusuke, who failed his mission two years ago. His body was found splattered on the rooftop of one building, almost unidentifiable. That was the only time a corpse was found, though. The rest simply disappeared," Kunio shivered. "Then, there was also that legendary Chinese assassin from the Triads, Xu Guo Qiang, who went missing a few months ago when doing the bloody same mission."

"...That certainly sounds gruesome, Shinoda-san," Shirou nodded slowly as he tried his best pretending to know absolutely nothing about it. He did have to clean up the mess whenever an assassin came to pay a visit, but rumours never stopped circulating. "Though I fail to see how it relates to me."

Kunio looked him in the eye. "You live with the Sawadas."

"Yeah. So?"

"That damned mission was to kill the Sawadas," Kunio deadpanned. "Someone put out a hit two years ago with a very high bounty, but every single professional hitman who got near the Sawadas went MIA. And there's you, someone who appeared out of nowhere two years ago, is now living with the Sawadas."

"Err…"

"Oh, I'm not finished, Emiya," Kunio continued. "That Hitman Killer rumour was the main reason why my boys refuse to patrol this area anymore. And the same bloody rumour caused the Momokyou-kai to lose fucking half of its members because those pansies decided to flee the town. The best part? They never realised that the very same Hitman Killer is working as my mechanic, right here, right now."

The tension was broken by the yakuza boss' (slightly hysterical) laughter as he wheezed out, "My mechanic is the fucking Hitman Killer!"

Shirou, now informed that he was the mysterious Hitman Killer, was left speechless.

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Tsuyoshi laughed so hard he fell off his chair.

"It's not funny, Tsuyoshi-san," Shirou said exasperatedly as he helped the sushi chef back to his feet. "I didn't mean to mess the criminal world like that!"

"That-that's the best part, Shirou-kun," Tsuyoshi was panting by the time he sat back on his chair. "I've heard of those rumours since last year, which was why I was wary when you first came to visit this shop. It was strange when you claimed that you didn't know much about Dying Will Flames. To think that you actually know absolutely nothing—Hah!"

Shirou groaned in embarrassment. How could he have known about all of that when he first came here? This world and his original world were fundamentally different, and he felt like an alien here. But the local underworld seemed to have a similar taste in labeling notorious people as the magi back in his world did, because Hitman Killer.

Goodness, couldn't they be a bit more creative and find another name?! It sounded too similar to Kiritsugu's old moniker, and he was in another universe! Ironic that he had wanted to be a Hero of Justice.

"Well, in a way, you're a hero, aren't you?" Tsuyoshi grinned at him, before pointing his thumb at the shop's kitchen where Tsuna and Takeshi were busy helping Nana with cooking. "You did save the Sawadas countless of times, even though they're oblivious about it. Man, I would pay to see that jerk's face when he realised that a notorious Killer is living with his family!"

"'That jerk?'" Shirou asked. "You mean Sawada Iemitsu?"

"Yep."

"The last time you told me, I did get the feeling that you're not really fond of him," Shirou recalled. "Did something happen between you two?"

Tsuyoshi sniffed in disdain. It was such uncharacteristic behavior from the usually-bubbly swordsman that Shirou couldn't help but be intrigued.

"I met him when he first came to Namimori," Tsuyoshi grimaced. "I was already a retired hitman back then, just starting my sushi business with Yuriko. Somehow, he knew I was once involved in the underworld and confronted me about it. He interrogated me as if I was guilty or something, and we almost had a bloody fight then and there. Apparently, he wanted to build a family here with his wife, and proceeded to interrogate everyone here who was once involved with the criminal world."

Ouch. "Maybe he was…"

"Paranoid?" Tsuyoshi supplied. "Yeah, I get his concern. Paranoia is good for surviving the Mafia world. But dammit, he was downright disrespectful to my family. A total ass, really."

"Well, your family is still here so it must've turned out well."

"Barely. But that's not why I dislike him," Tsuyoshi glowered. "He left his family here, totally clueless, and went back to the Mafia. Do you know how many times he has visited his family here?"

Shirou slumped in his seat. Nana had told him about this. "...Three times."

"That's right," Tsuyoshi continued angrily. "He went so far as to almost drive my family out of our ancestral home, and then he didn't even bother spending time with his family here. I understand that he might have not wanted to involve his family in the Mafia, but it feels as if he married Sawada-san just so that he could have an heir. Sawada-san must be a saint, honestly."

Both men fell into a contemplative silence. Something nagged at Shirou. "Isn't it strange that the assassins only came to kill the Sawadas recently?"

"You told me that Isao's boys patrolled the neighborhood before you came," Tsuyoshi answered. "That, and they were to protect the Sawadas. Isao might have been one of Iemitsu's men, trusted enough to keep his family safe here. But he passed away from appendicitis two years...ago..."

Tsuyoshi trailed off, brows knitting as he mulled over his own words. "...So why isn't Iemitsu here?"

Shirou nodded, his suspicions confirmed. "I thought he was a careless man, but based on what you've told me, that doesn't seem to be the case. Iemitsu was careful enough to interrogate people before he built his family, to make sure that nothing could pose as a threat to his wife and his son."

"Iemitsu must've stationed Isao here to act as a bodyguard," Tsuyoshi agreed. "Isao was strong; he would have been enough to protect the Sawadas from assassins. But he passed away shortly before Iemitsu came to visit two years ago."

"So how come Iemitsu isn't here?" Shirou repeated the sushi chef's question. "He would have known about Isao-san's death. But he left just like that, without replacing Isao-san with another agent."

They fell into silence, minds whirling with thoughts. Sawada Iemitsu must hold a rank pretty high for his family to be targeted like this. But to not have realised that his agent had been compromised…

"...Shinoda-san said someone has been putting up a bounty to kill the Sawadas," Shirou said, remembering what the yakuza boss had relayed to him.

"Well, it won't surprise me if someone out there hates Iemitsu enough to want to target his family," Tsuyoshi tsked. "He's part of Vongola Family, after all."

Shirou recalled Tsuyoshi telling him that before. Vongola Family was the largest and most powerful Mafia family in the world, and an organisation that big must've had several enemies. Not only that, Iemitsu was one of the highest-ranked members in the Family. As the saying goes, the higher you go, the more enemies you make. Any weakness could be exploited by the enemy, and Iemitsu's family in Namimori was a prime target to harm him.

"Still doesn't explain his absence, though," Tsuyoshi stroke his chin. "Iemitsu should've checked on Isao while he was in Namimori."

"Maybe someone impersonated him when Iemitsu visited?" Shirou suggested. "You said Mist Flames are capable to produce illusions."

"Possible," Tsuyoshi agreed after a thought. "But from what I know, it's very difficult to impersonate someone perfectly, even for a Mist expert. The perpetrator must've known a lot about Isao, enough to pretend to be him and fool Iemitsu."

They fell into another contemplative silence.

"What's with the long face?" Nana came with a tray of food, followed by Tsuna and Takeshi—who were carrying more food to the table. Shirou understood that there were five people to feed now, including two growing boys, but the staggering amount of food she made for every dinner always made him think that she cooked for an army. Of Sabers. At least, Shirou knew Kunio was one call away.

"Nothing to worry about, Sawada-san," Tsuyoshi waved to dismiss her concern.

"Oh…"

Everyone flinched. Tsuna's puppy eyes must have come from somewhere. And it seemed that Tsuyoshi had taken a full brunt of Nana's disappointed stare because he quickly blurted out, "Wanna work for me?"

Shirou stared at him. That...really came out of nowhere. Nana must've agreed because she dumbly replied, "Huh?"

Tsuyoshi laughed to defuse the awkwardness. "I mean as a part-timer. I've been thinking about it. Your skill as a cook is certainly being wasted if you only cook for your family and occasionally for us," he nodded at the buffet in front of them, courtesy of her. "Besides, you told me you have a lot of free time at home ever since Tsuna started school. And you spend most of your time in TakeSushi since Tsuna and Shirou always hang out here. How about it?"

Shirou admitted it was a good idea. He was always nervous about leaving her alone whenever he had to follow Tsuna out (despite the Bounded Field he'd set around the house), but by working in TakeSushi, she will be under Tsuyoshi's protection during the day. Moreover, ever since Yamamoto Yuriko passed away, Tsuyoshi could barely handle the diner on his own. Nana could help him with his business and in turn, he'd ensure her safety.

Shirou knew she was on board when she pursed her lips and straightened up.

"It'll be good to have another source of income," Nana said, pointing out another valid reason. She reached out to side hug her son, who looked at her worriedly. "Iemitsu always provides for us, but just in case…"

"It won't come to that," Tsuyoshi grinned assuredly at her. "I'll make sure to drag him here and make him beg for your forgiveness should that happen."

The glint in his eyes suggested he'd do a lot more than dragging Iemitsu here, though Shirou wisely said nothing. For a man who smiled a lot, Tsuyoshi's smile sure turned deadly whenever he talked about things that displeased him.

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A few days later - CEDEF Headquarter, Italy

Sawada Iemitsu felt his blood run cold.

"...What did you say?"

"The Hitman Killer," one of his most trusted agents, Oregano, panted after rushing to deliver the news. "They are in Namimori, sir."

Impossible! Of all places in Japan, why Namimori? Iemitsu was aware of the rumour about a killer of hitmen in the country, but he didn't expect it to specifically be there. His two agents stationed in the town had said nothing out of the ordinary, so how…?

Nana. Tsuna. His family was in danger—

Scrambling for a phone, Iemitsu quickly dialed his home number. Seconds ticked by yet it went unanswered. He swore and thought the worst, before dialing a second, less used number—her cell phone number. Time went agonizingly slow as he waited for the beeping sound to be replaced with—

"Hello?" A feminine voice he so loved answered.

"Nana, it's me," Iemitsu breathed in relief. "Are you okay? Where's Tsuna?"

"Iemitsu?" his wife replied, voice a bit static. "Oh, it's been so long since the last time you called! Tsuna is in school right now. Why, do you want to talk to him?"

There was something off about her voice. She sounded like in a rush, and there were noises in the background. He paid them no mind. So long as his family was safe, nothing else matters.

"No, no, it's fine," Iemitsu glanced at Oregano and signaled with his hand to prepare for an emergency meeting. It was one thing to leave his family behind to protect them from the Mafia, but it was another thing to do so knowing they were in immediate danger. "Anyway, I just want to tell you that my boss has finally given me a vacation time!" Nono's orders be damned. "I'll be back home tomorrow, dear, so wait for me!"

Iemitsu laughed boisterously, trying to cover up his anxiety. He didn't realise that there was only silence from the other side of the phone.

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Thanks for reading!

Bear in mind that my main purpose in this chapter is not bashing Iemitsu, though I admit it's difficult to paint him in a good light. This fic is also AU, so while most of the canon stuff would still happen, I'm planning to give the characters a little bit more background here.

So, Iemitsu will be in Namimori soon. I wonder what will happen?

Chaos, of course.

(Don't kill me for the Hitman Killer thing—)