Disclaimer: Not mine.

Author's Notes: A combination effort between my sister and I. Updates are likely to take a while, but chapter length should be okay. Input would be wonderful.

Summary: He's been stuck in a loop, living his life over and over again. But maybe this time he'll get it right. GEN.

Warnings: cursing, mafia, some darker themes. and some very vague hint of past pairings (so vague you'd need an electron microscope to find them), but no obvious romance in this fiction. You have been warned.

Capitolo Due:

Sky Dawns Early

Unfortunately, things didn't get interesting.

Class continued as the day went on. Teachers coming in and out, leaving test papers and lectures, which Tsuna took absolutely no part in. His reputation of being Dame-Tsuna was for once, working for him, as none of the teachers saw any reason to ask him questions, he probably just get wrong anyway.

So, Tsuna was free to think, and doodle on his notebooks as the clock tick forward slowly.

Reborn hadn't arrived yet by the time noon came around so the school day was just short of being boring (except for those times when Ryohei's loud tones echoed throughout the school followed by loud thuds - no doubt the work of his irritable cloud guardian).

Kyoya- Hibari-san hadn't approached him either, surprisingly, and had watched him from the corners of the school corridors during the passing between classes (he ignored the way this reminded of another guardian), instead of openly trying to challenge him like he'd expected.

And so with nothing to do, his mind wandered a bit thinking about his situation.

Everytime he started a new repeat, there was always something slightly different that happened. Last time, Enma's acceptance to Namimori was delayed so the Trials happened later, which meant a certain someone had to explain to Mama why Tsuna was going to Italy unannounced.

And the time before that was a hit that happened while his mother was home (an evil smirk inched onto his face at the conversation had resulted, especially considering how bad Iemitsu was at lying to his wife).

Still, those were tiny things, insignificant ones, that never compared to his family's reaction when they found out.

Because if nothing else, that was a constant.

They always, without a doubt found out.

Reborn liked secrets just as much as failing missions - that is to say, not at all. He wouldn't react well this time either, but there was little he could do about it. Tenth Generation Boss or not, he was terrible at lies. Eventually, he knew someone would question his skill at fighting, or at school or something or other and then he'd be forced to explain.

Usually, it was it was Reborn or Mukuro who'd see something was off, and forcible confront him about it, but there had been exceptions. There was one particular repeat where Hayato tried to interrogate him while apologizing, only to run off before he had said anything, had stood out in his mind, a smile inching itself on to his face.

Living through all these repeats may have given him a significant advantage over his many allies, and enemies, but at the end of the day he simply felt trapped, and so very tired.

He ran a hand through his hair pushing the thoughts away.

Until, something changed there was nothing he could do.

There was no point in getting over upset over things he couldn't change.

"Gao..." Natsu whimpered, from his hand.

Tsuna touched the silver ring, comforting his partner.

As sad and as frustrating as it was too be stuck, it wasn't hopeless. He had accomplished so many things, and helped so many people. He could and wouldn't give up yet. There was still hope-

"Forget it, Sanuda answer." The teacher said shaking her head as yet another student tried and failed to correctly answer the question on the board.

He glanced up to the front of the room.

None of his teachers reprimand him for not paying attention, even though it was obvious he was not listening to them (since his second class, he had stopped taking out his textbooks). No one looked surprised when the teacher skipped him, all of his classmates likely assuming that even had he been paying attention he wouldn't accomplish anything. And they'd have been right, if he hadn't gone through the repeats, but he wouldn't be able to.

Still, even if he was a great deal smarter then he had been the first time, he was content to progress at a resonable speed. If his marks suddenly went up too fast, he'd have Reborn, and his father on his back before long wondering if perhaps he was some sort of mafia spy or something.

The thought of such an idea nearly made him laugh.

If he had been a spy, even a weak, dumb one, would know that drawing attention to himself would've given himself away. The same logic for a better assassin.

Besides what mafia secrets could he hope to gain from living with his mother? She was as clueless as they came about her husband's profession (he ignores the part of himself that wonders if perhaps his mother must be blind or something equally severe, because there was no way any normal person could not see the weapons and torture that Reborn integrated and mistaken it for magic tricks) so the likelihood of there being any top secrets in the household was zero to none.

Iemitsu may have been a terrible a father, but he was an excellent mafioso.

"Class dismissed." Teacher said bowing from the podium.

Tsuna bowed with the rest of his class before sliding his notebooks into his backpack and walking out. There was a few students lingering in the hallways here and there, but for the most part the hallways were empty, many of his fellow classmates having gone to club or home instead of sticking around.

There was a few snickers here and there, but they were background noise, that Tsuna tuned out, as he glanced at the test sheet in his left hand. On it there was a grade in red, a bright eighty-nine stared back at him contrary to his usual zero's and twenties. Even his classmates, most of whom were little better than bullies, had nothing good to say about Tsuna's marked improvement when the test had been passed back mid-day. Most of them whispered of cheating and expensive tutors, because there was obviously there was no way Dame-Tsuna had actually passed.

Tsuna had nearly laughed when he had heard it.

If only they knew...

Even with Reborn's harsh training, school had never really been his forte. Back in the first repeats, he'd tried differently, pouring over textbooks, and books from the library till his fingers bled, learning as much as he could, as well as he could hoping for an escape. But like all those other times, he learned slowly.

Incredibly so.

If anything, he was better at fighting and likely would be for the foreseeable future.

Still, if nothing else his mother would be happy-

A chill down his spine, as something set off his hyper intuition. He glanced around searching for the danger, before it clicked.

If there was no visible danger, then-

He sped off down the street, turning sharply and sliding on the cement.

-the danger was farther away.

A bullet whizzed past him, into the wall, as he ran, criss-crossing behind stone walls, and garbage cans. He ignored the rips and patches of dirt on his uniform pants, and took cover as much as he could, when and where possible. The cold feeling in his stomach worsened as he neared his house. A feeling of anger and disappointment crawling up in him.

About a dozen yards away, situated on top of an abandoned house, and covered by some trees there was an shooter.

Apparently Iemitsu had been slacking off, either in ensuring there were patrols around his house or someone had successfully hacked the CEDEF system again, which meant that Iemitsu had screwed up somehow.

If Tsuna hadn't been trapped in a repeat, he and his mother would most likely be dead.

Or at the very least he, himself would be seriously injured.

He wasn't very clear on the specifics considering he wasn't sure if the shooter was Reborn or some Vongola enemy.

There was still a chance this was a test from his former/current tutor, but until he was able to get some bearing from the shooter, he wouldn't know for sure.

Either way, was this was a change from the original timeline, perhaps as a result of his actions, though not uncommon tend to happened every so often through the timelines, usually in the form of new test of Reborn's or an assassination. Most of the time, this took place after Reborn crashed landed into his life, but there were a few exceptions. These changes often signaled a dangerous, twist in the timeline that he'd have to watch out for just in case.

Dropping his school bag to the ground and throwing off his jacket, he crouched, jumping over the side wall, the bullets flying. He landed clumsily, his body still not used to the workout he was putting through and rolled behind a tree. Instead of entering through the front gate - a place with no cover - Tsuna took refuge in the back yard, eyes scanning for the next attack.

Glancing at the hole made by the bullet, the piece were slowly coming together.

He dropped to the ground as a bullet went past him, barely messing his head by inches.

Ducking behind the trash cans to his left he scoped out his surroundings, seeing the scope's glint of light move across a rooftop and his conclusion clear.

It wasn't Reborn, nor any of the other arcobaleno.

Had it been, the shot would have been cleaner and more accurate with the help of flames. Even Fon who specialized in martial arts knew how to handle a gun (though he loathed to use it), and could shoot a bullet better than most. The fact the the shot was clumy and flame free meant it was probably the work of one of those amateur assassins for hire. Probably a free lance agent who couldn't shoot for anything, and didn't have the skill to join a famiglia. The possiblity was also good that the assassin didn't know he was a candidate for Vongola Decimo or connected to the Vongola.

Weak and expendable, if any found out the mastermind responsibly could plead ignorance and if the assassin was luckily, he get rid of a candidate for Vongola, cripping the strongest mafia famiglia. It was a decent plan, killing several birds with one stone.

Classic mafia thinking.

He frowned, still a bit upset, that someone had managed to crack through Iemitsu's iron defenses so completely that his mother and him were in real danger. He was not happy with his father.

First for letting this happened, and second for not being vigilant enough to stop it.

But that wasn't even the worst part of all this.

If even a lowly assassin of this caliber was targeting his family, things were going to get messy and fast. Before long he'd have to be fighting off dozens of these assassins until Iemitsu got his shit together, and actually did something about it. Sure, Reborn could dispatch all if not most of them, but it wasn't the Sun Arcobaleno's job to defend the Sawada Family, it was Iemitu's.

Whether that protection be in the form of a tighter security detail around, better firewalls or a combination of both, Tsuna didn't care, but something was going to change.

And if it took a phone call from him to get Iemitsu to move, he do it in a heart beat.

But that was something to do later.

For now, he needed to deal with his would-be-killer.

He dived behind another wall, neatly (though exhausting) escaping through the rain of bullets, most of which were badly aimed. Various objects around him become full of bullets, a few of which smashed through the windows on the first floor, while a few imbed themselves into the old tree in a neighbor's yard.

He was more worried about getting hit with the ricochet then he was from the assassin, though he still dodged diligently, ensuring he made no mistakes. Cautious people tend to stay alive in the mafia world.

He glanced at the bullet holes from the corner of his eyes, sighing. It was going to be a pain to clean up later.

"Tsu-kun? Is that you?" A voice called from inside, making his blood run cold.

He could almost hear her walking to the front door. If he didn't do something, there was a good possibility she could be hurt. Fumbling for a reason to keep her inside. He said the first thing he could think of.

"Yes, mama. I'm just going to run back to school! I forgot my test sheet!" He yelled, ducking down behind a trash can.

"Okay, be back soon!" She replied, foot steps stopping only feet from the mess taking place in the backyard and walking off to do something. Thankfully she didn't peak out the front door, as she habitually did to wave good-bye to him.

He waited a second more to be sure she wasn't going to return, before he lit Natsu's ring in sky flames. His partner appeared in a bright orange light, as he landed neatly on his shoulder.

"Gao!" Natsu growled, visibly more upset about the situation then he was., though that was normally the case.

Casting aside his anger, he glanced out of his hiding spot, taking great care to stay covered as he moved forward.

He needed to finished this quickly, if he didn't want his mother getting involved. If she got injured there'd be hell to pay. He really didn't feel like having his life uprooted to Italy yet because Iemitsu was paranoid and stupid.

Still, there was also the problem of his current physical endurance. Without Reborn's training his body was a lot weaker, so hyper dying will mode was beyond him for the moment, as well as anything too fighting intensive.

For now, he'd have to go without and depend solely on his flames. In this era, only the bosses of mafia famiglia knew about flames, so he had an advantage.

"Let's go Natsu." He said, "Cambio Forma; Solo."

He watching as his friend circled around his arms transforming into white spiral.

Although, Natsu was made to be used with the Vongola Sky Ring, it could be used without it. Instead of forming the on his non-existent x-gloves attachments, Natsu transformed into a set of orange gauntlets. A black outline ran down the length of them as they end a little shorter than his elbows, dark gray thin material on his hands instead of hard metal.

Lighting up for a second, the gauntlets loaded.

He dashed out into a small alleyway, feet from his house, and raced down the road, away from his mother. He crisscrossed into several more little alleyways, eventually making his way down the road. There were no bystanders lurking about luckily, and he skid through the rain of bullets, sidestepping them, while ducking for cover.

Finally, he managed to enter into the abandon apartment complex where the assassin was lying in wait. Surveying the rooms one at a time, he moved level by level, making certain, the assassin didn't have any surprises waiting for him.

It took some time but aftit paid off as Tsuna was finally situated outside the room where the hitman was stationed..

Leaning against the wall on the right side of the doorway, he threw open the door keeping cover on a side wall. Instantly a volley of bullets dug themselves into the adjacent wall. Right, were Tsuna would have been standing if he had opened the door normally.

Tsuna waited for the barrage of bullets to stop before he slide into the room, the bullets flying over him as he shifted to his feet, and behind a stack of boxes to the killer's right. Using it as a refuge Tsuna climbed it as sniper ammunition clipped the boxes sides.

Jumped over it Tsuna jumped over the assassin's head, shots ricocheting off the metal of his gauntlets and the ceiling, as he dropped in landing on his enemy. The gun went flying against the wall, as both of them fell to the ground. Putting a few feet between each other Tsuna recovered first. The assassin was faster though and pulled some glocks from his side pockets and started firing. His aim off by a large extent.

Tsuna step-sided the shots gracefully and skid in front of his enemy, slamming his fist into the killer's stomach, throwing him across the room as a loud powerful bang, echoed through the silence.

The man fell to the floor like a brick, unconsious, and still. Small wisps of smoke coming from his chest were already visible were burns were forming. Tiny embers of reddish-orange flames were cooling on both the assassin's clothes and the floor.

His gauntlets may not have been as powerful as his gloves, but they granted versatility in a ways his x-gloves couldn't.

Still that left one problem.

"What do I do with you?" He asked kneeling down.

He rolled the man over, patting his clothes down as he threw out a few more guns. It was better to be safe then sorry.

He had learned his lesson a few repeats ago when he had let his guard down and had half his side blown off. He didn't need to learn the lesson twice. Or feel the pain again.

He could kill them man but, he'd prefer not to. Even as immersed into the mafia world as he was he hated killing. Besides, hiding the body would take connections he didn't have at the moment, and if the Discipline Committee got word of this he had no doubt that a certain carnivore would be after him (for disturbing the peace of Namimori, if not outright challenging him to see how skilled he was to take down an assassin) or the CEDEF would started asking questions.

Either way, he wouldn't enjoy the outcome.

It was one thing to have his cloud guardian curious about him, but it was another to have Hibari Kyoya on the war path looking for a fight.

So, he needed to decide what he was going to do before the hitman woke-

A series of tire screeches, and his hyper intuition flared, as dark vans pulled up in front of the building. He moved from his position on the floor to by the window. He could see the cars - Mafia vehicles - surrounding the building, with a very familiar crest etched on the passenger side door.

It was the crest of CEDEF.

He cursed.

The last thing he needed was to be found by his father's lackeys. If word got back to the Ninth, he'd have more to worry about then a battle hungry Hibari Kyoya. He'd have the half Vongola famiglia breathing down his neck for answers.

Answers, he doubted he felt like giving at the second.

He had no desire to spend the next few months in the Vongola Dungeons.

He needed to leave.

Now.

Climbing onto the window opposite the vans, he climbed out onto a rusted vent pipe on the side of the building, sliding down until he hit the ground. The pipe crashing into pieces on the ground.

Still, even with the noise the pipe was creating, he could hear the CEDEF charging inside, slamming doors, and setting up a perimeter. There were several directives being called out as well as a string of Italian curses as Iemitsu's subordinates made their way through the building.

He ran off into a side street, taking great care to avoid getting caught by the lookouts, or the camera's from a nearby street - those would be deleted later after the CEDEF confiscated them - and deactivated Natsu.

Even if he was fairly positive that CEDEF didn't have the ability to track flames, it was better to be as non-descript as possible. Normal teenagers didn't usually have the ability to call flames.

Picking up his bag from the street and his jacket from the floor, he walked home, a line of tension in his shoulders.

He had enough problems, he didn't need to add more.

XXxxxxxXX

Dozens of miles away a phone ring, a tan hand reached across a desk, filled with paperwork and picked up the phone.

XXxxxxxXX

Solo Cambio Forma: Single Combat Form

Guanti del Cielo: "Gauntlets of the Sky"

Description: They appear as bracelets at first, but when activated, they cover Tsuna's hands and some of his forearms as the gauntlet's metal cover acting as armor. The gauntlets have an orange color. Inside there are chambers that holster a magazine for bullets. A silver-ish gray barrel is concealed in the front of the gauntlet, aligned between the knuckles of the index and middle finger. Tsuna's flame acts as the bullets, hence there being no actual need for real bullets.

Basic Abilities: Although weaker than the X-Gloves made by Leon, these gauntlets do have the ability to transform the sky flame to have more versatility by changing the tint of the sky flame (ex. Storm-Sky Flames). Suited for long distance combat, as well as short range combat. It has other abilities that will be explained later.

Drawbacks: However, there are some drawbacks to it. Usage of "hard" sky flames, such, as for flying cause it to break as the energy is too explosive. Likewise, if too much of the "soft" flame is used the gauntlets can break from too much power.

Basic Attack: Hibana Ishō "Ember Design", standard attack, using storm sky flames. The sky tint flame is turned into a condensed bullet form inside the chamber before being released as a bullet. Much, like Xanxus gun's this increases the flames power explosively.

Author's Note: Some curved balls this chapter, and differences. Hopefully, this chapter is still readable I feel like it was too choppy in some parts, while other parts I fear were to too sharp…

Thanks for reading! Any comments or concerns would be welcome. If you're reading one of my other fanfictions I'm trying to update them before Christmas [Happy Holidays!]. If not, the updates will probably be after New Year's...