Author's Note: I think I should make this short before I dissolve into unintelligible cursing because of how pissed off I am today. This is an old plot bunny I got when I was reading Hacker by 18Tsunayoshi69 only instead of a hacker, he's... something else. :p

Enjoy the read.

Tsuna's fingers stretched over the soft, thin texture of the sheet, seeking out the heat of his beloved Cloud only to find the rough texture of the comforter's design.

'That's right…' Tsuna thought wryly. 'Today's the beginning of the Fall Term. That means Takeshi and Tetsuya are already gone as well.' Oh well. At least he could ditch PE in peace (right up until Kyoya checked the attendance records at the end of the week—paranoid bastard.).

It had been almost four years ago to the day that the four of them rented a penthouse apartment smack-dab in the middle of the business district of Namimori as a sort of weekend getaway—those four being Hibari Kyoya, the resident disciplinarian, Kusakabe Tetsuya, his right hand, Yamamoto Takeshi, the male idol and baseball star of their middle school, and Sawada Tsunayoshi…

…resident Arcobaleno.

Oh yes, thirteen year old Tsunayoshi sneered as he looked in the mirror where he could see the reflection of the cold hard truth resting against his bare chest. Resident Arcobaleno.

He scoffed.

Almost four years ago to the day, he thought snidely. The same day, in fact, that they rented this apartment.

"Take him in here!"

"Set him down gently."

"Tsunayoshi!"

Tsuna recoiled violently, stumbling back until his back hit the wall and he slowly sunk to his knees. 'No. It's only a memory now.' He thought stubbornly as he used his breathing exercises to push the painful memories away. 'Nothing can hurt me as long as no one knows my secret.' He thought, pushing his sweaty bangs out of his face.

Nothing could hurt him as long as no one knew… and last time he checked, no one knew anything about him.

Not even the Vongola.

Their information was contradictory and anything solid that they did possess was useless little facts like what kind of sprinkles he liked on top of his sugar cookies. None of it did the Vongola—or anyone for that matter—any good.

He was safe.

So why was it that he felt anything but?

"Finally made it to school?" A silken voice purred from the shadow of the gate. Tsuna's steps halted and his shoulders slumped. Slowly, he turned to meet his fate. "Rough night?" For once, Kyoya wasn't angry that he skipped over half of the school day. Instead, his eyes were calculating as he assessed Tsuna's condition.

"I don't know… was it?" Tsuna asked in carefully clipped tones. This was a game he played with Kyoya almost every weekend. The closer it got to the anniversary of that day, the worse his restless nights became until all he could do was lay prone as memories assaulted his mind over and over, the phantom pain reminding him of his mistake and what it cost him what seemed like an eternity ago.

It didn't help that his Vongola Hyper Intuition was also acting up.

"Not outwardly."

Tsuna resisted the urge to flinch. He must have sought out Kyoya's strength while he slept. While it was unorthodox to rely so heavily on their Elements, there were times when Skies who needed that strength made exceptions. Tsunayoshi was one of them.

Thankfully, he didn't have to form a bond with his Element in order to draw on their strength because of his standing as the Sky Arcobaleno (one of the few good things that came out of the deal) otherwise he'd have gone mad with the weight of this burden a long time ago.

'And it's only going to get worse from here...' A voice hissed from the back of his mind. Tsuna stiffened and scanned his surroundings, not really understanding the voice or why it spoke of an ominous warning that he couldn't quite grasp.

Funny… why did he feel so cold all of the sudden?

He was quickly jerked from his thoughts when Kyoya grabbed his hand and began to drag him down the hallways. Any protests that Tsunayoshi may have had quickly died on his lips when he caught sight of the look in Kyoya's eyes.

Something was wrong.

When they reached the reception room, Tsuna was surprised to see everyone from his inner circle gathered in the room.

While Tsuna may have known Takeshi, Tetsuya and Kyoya the longest, they were far from the only people in his group. His group included Kurokawa Hana, a sharp-wit and silver-tongued vixen who could loop-hole her way out of any contract, Miura Haru, a quick-minded teen hacker/engineer that went to one of the neighboring schools (which was currently under renovation so as a result, all of the students had to attend classes at Nami-chu) and Mochida Kensuke, the Kendo captain.

Oh, don't get him wrong. He was just as surprised by the last one as anyone would be if they knew of Mochida-sempai's reputation. He fought all of the time and apparently had a few connections to the deep, dark underground world that was the Mafia.

Mochida-sempai was their information source. He kept his ear to the ground and let them know what was on Mafia FM. He gave them the cold hard facts of the Vongola's movement (and right now, the Vongola was their most pressing concern with three heirs dead and the fourth missing—that meant Tsuna's number was up and he did not need that).

Which meant that this meeting could only mean one of two things. Either they'd found the Vongola's missing heir…

…or the Vongola was headed here.

To Namimori.

Tsuna's stomach dropped.

"No…"

The doors opened to the shady back-alley bar. "Reborn… called out by the old man again?" One of the informants drawled lazily. "The popular ones have it tough. I heard about that scheme in Barcelona. Where is it this time? Venice? Rome?"

His lips curled into a smirk that was entirely too much like a snarl. "Japan."

"Japan?! D-does that mean the old man finally decided on an heir?" The blonde asked, spinning around so fast his spine almost cracked in half.

"This one looks like it'll be long." Reborn mused aloud.

"I hear that Japan has some of our most famous assassins retiring there. Tread carefully." The blonde said, recovering his composure and sipping on his tequila. "Primo's bloodline, eh? Good luck drawing it out. I hear he's a civilian."

"He won't be once I'm done with him…" Reborn's fedora dropped over his eyes causing them to gleam maliciously.

"When do you leave?"

If it was at all possible, Reborn's eyes grew more sinister. "Tonight."

The man on the corner smiled wryly. "As I said. Good luck." He pulled his brown beret down. "You're going to need it."

Tsuzukeru.

And that concludes the prologue.

Thanks for reading~!