I posted this way back in June 10, 2014, then removed it from FFN in August 4, 2018.

Summary: After the Representative Battles of the Rainbow, Tsuna's going to be Vongola Decimo in more than just name, and the world is going to realise that Vongola's tenth generation is more than just a bunch of kids. All those rumours of their power? Not exaggerated ENOUGH, apparently.

Original A/N: Chapter updates are slow, as they depend on when my efforts at organisation see portions of my fanfic notes into releasable "raw chapters" like Chapter 11. At the end of the day, I aim to at least reveal the villains' identities, their plans, Tsuna's (secret) plans, and how it all comes to a conclusion.

Thank you for all your support! It's unfortunate that I had to migrate all my works off because of my loss of anonymity. I wouldn't have gone this far as a writer without all of you dear readers anyway. Thanks again, and please feel free to PM me your comments or questions!

New A/N: Since many of you have been PMing me about the struggle of finding HSB, I've decided to post it on FFN again. Please do not repost this without my permission! Thank you. I'm mortally embarrassed about my chuuni-age writing style, and am flattered that you guys like it. New readers, please feel free to leave a review!

Chapter 1

Mafia children everywhere followed the tenth generation Vongola guardians like they were sports stars.

Mukuro of the Six Paths could almost completely fool Vendice with illusions by the age of fifteen, and at the same time was also deadly in close-combat, which no illusionist had ever accomplished before – even the ex-Arcobaleno Mammon. Aspiring illusionists looked up to Mukuro in wonder.

His girl counterpart, Chrome, was said to be a quiet, shy character, but could fool trained eyes with illusions just the same like Mukuro, proving that gender did not dictate how strong one could be. She was mafia girls' favourite.

Sasagawa Ryohei gave hope to those wishing to join the medical field, as he did not let his inherently support-type flame attribute stop him from dishing out the most explosive, destructive punches when needed – punches even ex-Arcobaleno Colonello had to acknowledge. Ryohei was proof a medic didn't have to be someone who could only sit at the sidelines.

Lambo was a role-model to the much, much younger mafiosi. Despite his becoming guardian at half the age of the other guardians, Lambo always tolerated when the going seemed tough. To even the older children's shock, it was rumoured he attacked Reborn often and still walked away unscathed. Indeed, it was said the young Lightning Guardian could take grenades, a punch from the Reborn, or even three million volts of electricity and simply pop back up a beat later.

Hibari Kyouya's renown spread like him: in few words and great impact. Young mafiosi were awed that even the adults had to respect the raw power and fighting prowess of the "strongest tenth generation Vongola guardian," as well as his ability to lead a disciplinary group.

The Vongola Decimo's right- and left-hand men, Smokin' Bomb Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi respectively, were many children's stars as well.

Most in the mafia scorned those whose fighting style was mid to long-range, but Gokudera Hayato had risen not only from an aimless punk in Italy to a guardian of the strongest mafia famiglia, but had become the Decimo's right-hand man. It was an honoured position in any mafia famiglia, much less that of Vongola.

Yamamoto Takeshi's natural talent amazed many with his flawless transition of wielding one sword to four to two without changing his inherent style, and it was rumoured even Reborn had commented that Yamamoto was a natural hitman.

No one, however, amazed the younger generations of the mafia like the Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi.

He began as a civilian, which already inspired scepticism in the mafia world over if he could truly become worthy of leading the strongest mafia famiglia, especially as civilians in Tsuna's own area called him useless. When this "no good" civilian beat Rokudo Mukuro and his gang, however, mafia children became curious while the adults scoffed, claiming it was but a small scuffle in Japan. Yet when Tsuna won against Xanxus in a ring battle for position as Vongola Decimo just weeks following the Kokuyo incident, somehow, even the adults couldn't think of the faceless Japanese boy as a mere civilian anymore.

When Vongola announced it would conduct the Inheritance Ceremony, privileged famiglias that came burned with curiosity over the tenth generation, but the guardians' failure in stopping a surprise attack from the Shimon Famiglia simply made the mafia world sceptical again. Perhaps all those stories about the Vongola X Generation were just rumours Vongola spread to prevent them from seeming weak?

How the Shimon conflict was resolved, the clam famiglia was silent about, but it was said that young Sawada had touched the Shimon don's heart, and the tenth generation gained a new ally in the Shimon Famiglia following that. It was also said that Vendice and the long deceased Vongola Primo's mist guardian Daemon Spade were supposedly involved in the conflict as well, so no one hurried to believe the stories right away. The children didn't stop believing in the Vongola Decimo, though, when they heard Rokudo Mukuro was walking around in Japan in the flesh after the conflict. After all, how could the ex-convict be around unless Vendice freed him? Vendice couldn't have a change of heart unless something happened during the Shimon conflict.

News of the Rainbow Representative Battles was the real killer.

The famiglias involved were tight-lipped about the details, but no one could escape hearing how Sawada Tsunayoshi gathered allies and even people who were once his greatest opponents – including Six Paths Mukuro and his gang, the Shimon boss Enma Kozato, and the stubborn and powerful Xanxus of Varia. Tsuna held a meeting with such characters that led to the ultimate resolving of the Arcobaleno representative battles. Supposedly, there were too many witnesses of the meeting to deny the story – something about Dino Cavallone's men crowding around the house – but adults still had trouble believing it. Children did not, for if there was evidence or as close as one could get to it, then why try denying something extraordinary?

After the Rainbow Representative Battles, any news of the Vongola Tenth Generation had suddenly gone silent, and the young generations of the mafia were disappointed to no longer hear of their "sports stars." What both the children and the adults of the mafia didn't know was that there was a certain Namimori student whose grandfather figure decided after the Rainbow Representative Battle that it was time for the boy to take on responsibilities as Vongola Decimo.

And so the wheels started turning.

Reborn looked at a framed picture that sat on the desk of Tsuna's bedroom, his lips twitching in a smile at the memory. The photo was taken when the ex-Arcobaleno had thanked Tsuna greatly for what he did the day following the final Rainbow Representative Battle. Nana had exclaimed she had never seen her son be hugged by so many infants, but when Uni and Lal bent over to kiss Tsuna on the cheek, not even Tsuna's desperate pleas to his mother could calm the woman, and the picture Nana took was shared with Iemitsu.

Basil mischievously leaked to the other agents of CEDEF how the grown man cried and smothered Tsuna in a hug with, "My precious Tsunayoshi! Why do you have to attract girls at so young an age? Daddy won't hand you over so easily–––!"

When they heard of it, the CEDEF members rolled their eyes in the immature act of their leader, who especially sounded obnoxious when he couldn't even finish a sentence without sobbing.

When Dino's voice broke over Reborn's recollecting, the hitman inwardly sighed.

Reborn knew Dino had a tendency to talk much when excited or stressed on a subject, but this was quite lengthy, even for the blonde. After the final Rainbow Representative Battle, Dino had finally wished to speak of the Vongola Nono's decision choosing Tsuna as his successor with such bad timing, and his emotions bled into his speech since the Cavallone had grown to know Tsuna personally over the course of the year.

"Tsuna was raised outside of the mafia up until recently, so I see the logic in having Tsuna involved in matters he theoretically should have been introduced to in the beginning, but famiglia matters and boss responsibilities differ greatly in the energy required to put in! It is true that Tsuna and I started tutorship under you at the same age, and are now individuals who have surpassed our ancestors, but it took me years to arrive to where I am. Tsuna took nine months."

Dino scratched his recent injury, a slash that vertically ran from his shoulder to his waist, courtesy to Jaeger.

"That level of growth is unheard of, Reborn. Considering Tsuna's accomplishments, the span of time it took to complete them, and that his ancestors include the founder of Vongola himself, one day of rest after the final representative battle doesn't sound like enough!"

Dino knew his tutor wasn't completely cold-hearted, but in light of recent knowledge that Tsuna was willing to risk dying at Vendice's hands or taking on the burden as an Arcobaleno, the young don at least deserved a break. That the Ninth was now pushing several boss responsibilities on Tsuna was enough for Dino to pull his hair out in worry for his little brother figure.

Reborn huffed. "There's corruption in Vongola; the Ninth recognises he has been running the famiglia the old-fashioned way and wants a fresher mind to take the reins. Tsuna is needed as soon as possible." Reborn was composed until he looked away. Dino knew that his ex-tutor felt the same.

The Cavallone sighed, as he couldn't deny the truth of Reborn's statement. When the blonde dropped his head, a yellow object caught his eye, and his head lifted in curiosity.

"Why do you wear that?"

Reborn followed Dino's gaze to the fake yellow pacifier on his chest–

"Why did you say you've never expected to die a decent death!?"

Dame-Tsuna.

"Have you been thinking like that the entire time you were at my side! Even when we were all having fun…were you thinking of something so bad!?" Tsuna was shouting in anger, but Reborn could see in his student's eyes that Tsuna was inwardly crying. "You're a failure as a home tutor! This time, I will teach you…!"

Tsuna's voice suddenly failed, and he turned away to collapse on the temple steps. Reborn thought his student was crying, but when he sat down as well and saw a bone-deep weariness, he realised that Tsuna had simply grown tired of crying.

"Reborn…" Tsuna murmured softly, triggering a soft fear in Reborn,

"…I'm not going to let you die."

Reborn was eventually alone.

Of course he was, he liked tricking Tsuna to leave him alone.

"You finally became like I wanted," Reborn murmured, "but impossible things are impossible." There was a suddenly deep twist in his heart, and Reborn knew it was the same sadness he saw reflected in Tsuna's eyes.

Tch.

"How troublesome."

—and looked up to smirk at Dino. "Habit," Reborn lied.

The pacifier reminded him of the one person who made a professional hitman like Reborn experience genuine emotion again. It was a reminder, and he didn't feel like getting rid of it.

Reborn did not miss the irony that a schoolboy called "no good" by his own classmates – an existence too pathetic and forgettable to the old Reborn's eyes – was the precise person who touched his heart when he already doubted he had one.

Dino shot a look at his former tutor that conveyed, I'm trusting you to watch over Tsuna despite what Nono might command.

Reborn didn't give a response to that, but the two mafiosi understood that come fire or ice, they would never abandon Tsuna.

Aside from Dino and Reborn's serious talk, the daily life following the Rainbow Representative Battle was certainly entertaining.

Reborn amusedly watched Tsuna run about in a state of distress as he shouted an exasperated reminder after his cloud guardian that his collarbone was still broken and patrolling could be left to Kusakabe, so he didn't even have be at school with his condition, really! and checking up on his sun guardian nervously with a constant, go straight home once you start feeling tired, Onii-san, because healing many people can be exhausting, and we're all very grateful for it– but Reborn also observed that several of his student's guardians were keeping a watchful eye of their own.

Gokudera was rearing to knock down Tsuna's bullies if they so much as looked at the brunette wrong, and the dynamite user had a good harvest since the other usual bully target was gone due to the Shimon boss and his famiglia returning to Simon Middle after the Representative Battle.

Yamamoto was more sensitive to Tsuna's needs as well, and the brunette would often turn to find his dropped pencil mysteriously back on his desk, or a bottle of water already in hand's reach when his throat went dry from fretting over Ryohei and Hibari.

Chrome, Kyoko, and Hana seemed to have understood something of the situation, for they managed to deflect enough suspicion or attention from Namichuu faculty and students from Tsuna and his guardians.

Tsuna was also quick to reach home while being mindful of his friends' states. Hibari may have had the worst injury, but Ryohei had used flames the longest among his fellow guardians on the day of the last Representative Battle, and Yamamoto, Gokudera, and Chrome had fought Vendice. The last three weren't spared Tsuna's mother-henning once the brunette was given the chance. It was only Haru's often unexpected but welcomed appearances and combined adamance with Kyoko that the two girls would walk Chrome home to Kokuyo Land that Tsuna didn't escort the female illusionist himself in fear that Chrome would suddenly grow tired and get lost. Or be attacked by robbers. Or–

Reborn's student had quite the imagination.

Once Tsuna, Yamamoto, and Gokudera would reach the Sawada Residence, Tsuna would check up on his dad, Basil, and Dino. The former was persuaded (forced) to stay for a while, and the latter two had agreed to stay with the Sawadas after they were released from the hospital, with Dino pulling out of his teacher cover due to his healing injuries.

(Iemitsu wasn't going to so easily admit that his son's private speech with him, after the Arcobaleno curse was lifted, made him feel really guilty about leaving Nana home alone for long periods of time.)

After the humorous wife-choosing prank Reborn pulled on Tsuna and the congratulations he gave to his student in being a future Neo Primo – which was the same as Vongola Decimo, really, and Tsuna huffed at that – the brunette's fretting over everyone's condition seemed to tame a bit.

A bit.

Tsuna would still send glances in the general direction of where Varia, the Kokuyo gang, and "Millefiore" stayed in Japan before their key members recovered enough to return to responsibilities. Reborn could only sigh at his student's unnecessary concern, because really, what small Japanese kid worried over foreign assassins and mafiosi who had threatened the safety of himself and his friends at least once? These guys could obviously take care of themselves.

By the seventh day, however, Reborn finally decided action had to be taken.

With stolen phone numbers in hand and a telephone Leon in the other, Reborn located a Hibari and Mukuro fighting in the middle of a Namimori forest, with Dino trailing behind his ex-tutor. The two guardians' breaths were laboured despite their best efforts, and their faces contorted with pain whenever their broken collarbone shifted. All in all, the pair were total idiots for moving about in their condition — something Reborn caught Tsuna mutter under his breath once and amusedly filed away in his mind — and the sluggish pace they fought could have hardly deemed their interaction a battle.

It was easy stopping the two teens and forcing them to listen to Reborn as he rang a hotel room and Byakuran, before continuing on to explain the main topic of the group discussion to be Tsuna, primarily his recent behaviour.

"Ah, Tsuna's been like that the entire week," Dino smiled with laughing eyes at Reborn's description of the brunette for the past several days, but when Reborn reflected no such amusement, Dino's smile melted off, and Mukuro and Hibari looked up at the hitman's silence from where they were staring elsewhere in a resolute attempt to appear uninterested.

"He gets nightmares."

Far away, Byakuran's smiling eyes opened, and his lips thinned to a small frown. In an extravagant hotel a distance away from where former Team Uni stayed, Xanxus's hand that was stirring a glass of wine stilled. Red eyes glanced at a part of his arm where under his sleeves was scarring from a mix of illusions, sun flame regeneration, and stitching to mend his arm back together. Squalo said nothing as he continued to hold the phone put on speaker.

"Of the battle," Reborn elaborated. "Of coming to a scene where he thinks everyone is dead or at least almost there."

Dino felt extremely guilty for not understanding his "lil' bro's" recent behaviour better, and Mukuro and Hibari shared a glance for the briefest of moments. Unbeknownst to the six, they subconsciously touched the place on themselves where a scar would forever remind them of their one-sided battle with Jaeger.

"All of you," Reborn said with a deceptively even tone, "better pick up your weight and properly prove to Tsuna that he is someone to you, or I will show you something scarier than Jaeger." It wasn't an empty threat. Without having to look at Reborn, everyone understood that the hitman was serious.

With the message then shared, Reborn hung up on his phone and disappeared into the forest to who knew where — most likely to watch everyone's effort unseen — and Dino silently trudged to the Sawada Residence with his head bowed in thought while periodically tripping over nothing.

Hibari and Mukuro stood up to fight some more. Of the group who had originally faced Jaeger, they had been the last line of attack, yet they would have failed if Tsuna had not come. Their reason for sparring, while a common sight, had changed since that battle. They couldn't forget how pathetically the six of them – Byakuran, Xanxus, Squalo, Dino, Mukuro, and Hibari – had fallen like flies at Jaeger's hands, how Tsuna had conducted a condensed X Burner just in time, how Mukuro and Hibari had collapsed to the ground with broken collarbones, glad the battle was over. And then to hear the final words of present please….

Trident and tonfa clashed again, and when the two fighters made eye contact, they silently made an agreement. Never again would they be too weak to help Sawada Tsunayoshi.

Instead of a round of bullets or a two-ton hammer, Tsuna woke up to marshmallows.

Nana claimed the countless bags of the treat had been shipped to the house and addressed for Tsuna, and Lambo had attempted eating them, except I-Pin had interfered to stop the boy from stealing from Tsuna. The end result was a collision of children, plastic bags, and Tsuna, where the bags had burst and sent marshmallows everywhere. The sound of the bags bursting was what had woken Tsuna up, but the avalanche of marshmallows was what had kept him in bed, albeit unwillingly.

After Tsuna managed to surface himself and clean the mess up, he rushed out of the house in order to make it to class on time. Dino tried helping Tsuna leave quickly but mostly made things worse with Romario absent. Tsuna curiously wondered over his self-proclaimed older brother's awkward behaviour that morning until the brunette realised he had scant minutes before the bell rang.

At school, Hibari delayed Tsuna — an act that was out of character, as the prefect strictly enforced the school rules — and looked as if he was struggling to do or say something, but class was really going to start! Tsuna managed to make it to his seat, only for his exhausted state to shoot up when the teacher introduced a new student, Rokudo Mukuro.

Rokudo Mukuro.

In Hibari's territory.

Just the acceptance of the fact made Tsuna weary for what was to come.

The teacher explained that Rokudo-kun had past medical problems, so despite his older age, he was going to be in the class's grade. The girls were naturally pleased, and Chrome sensed she was about to be showered by gifts from her female classmates in the near future when Mukuro greeted her as a dear cousin. Very quickly, Tsuna really, really wished he had just allowed himself to drown in marshmallows for the rest of the morning so that he could miss Mukuro directly approaching him and kissing him on the cheek.

It had been overwhelming for Chrome to do it the first time with a proceeding, "Bossu," but Mukuro doing it with a suave, "Ciao, Tsunayoshi-kun" was enough to make Tsuna blanch in apprehension of what his male mist guardian was planning and freeze in shock.

Gokudera was quick to put the pineapple freak a safe distance from the Tenth before checking that his beloved boss wasn't physically ill. Yamamoto just burst in laughter, though this time, it was not due to the lack of understanding of what recently occurred.

After calming Gokudera and pleading Yamamoto to not laugh at his situation, Tsuna found the school day moving on smoothly, aside from classmates' interrogations which were vaguely answered or outright avoided. Yet come lunchtime, at the sight of Hibari and Mukuro approaching Tsuna with a purpose, Tsuna thought it was a good time to figure out what in the name of Reborn's espresso was going on, or prepare for a fight that might not end with him in one piece. Or even the school building.

At Tsuna's stern gaze, cloud and mist fidgeted and immediately regretted moving their healing collarbones, when Yamamoto broke the serious atmosphere with a cheery announcement that his dad had prepared everyone lunch from a ten-pound fish Squalo had caught and ordered TakeSushi to make a dish out of. Yamamoto added that Squalo had provided wine from Xanxus, but Yamamoto had not brought the bottle due to them being underage.

Mukuro was going to school; Hibari wasn't paying attention to rules; Yamamoto, Squalo, and Xanxus seemed to have conspired over lunch food; and Gokudera and Ryohei were the least abnormal people present. Tsuna felt his brow twitch.

"Reborn!"

The answer to everything.

The infant hitman had the audacity to smile, entertained, as he came into the scene via Leon-paraglider and simply reply that everything was going fine. Tsuna stared hard at his tutor who didn't blink at his student's scrutiny, before Tsuna's hyper intuition acted up. The guardians curiously watched as the brunette suddenly exhaled slowly.

"It's okay," Tsuna assured, before he briefly laughed looking back on his morning. "In the beginning, I shouldn't be worrying over everyone so much like I have lately. I should trust you guys more."

Here, Tsuna addressed everyone, and Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Ryohei shared a look. Their boss had calmed down. Tsuna made sure to communicate with Byakuran, Xanxus, Squalo, and Dino as well that any promises Reborn must have made wouldn't happen and that he was grateful for their concern.

Apparently, when Mukuro decided to attend Namichuu in order to speak with Tsuna properly, the others of the Kokuyo gang agreed – begrudgingly – that perhaps education was a little important, and Tsuna was…pleasantly surprised to hear from Fuuta that Chikusa, Ken, and MM were the boy's new classmates. The three had the same excuse as Mukuro for their significant age difference from the majority of their grade. Fran also became Fuuta's classmate since the two were the same age.

The day's horror finally kicked in when Tsuna learned that the Kokuyo gang, Gokudera, and Spanner were staying in the same apartment.

The old man who was the landlord didn't know what to make of the envelope of money that was anonymously left for him at his kitchen table, but Tsuna knew repairs were costly. There was also a little extra to make up for the stress the man would undoubtedly experience. Tsuna almost volunteered housing the young mafiosi himself just to spare the old man, except the Sawada household wasn't that big, and Tsuna wasn't that desperate to grow grey hair just yet.

That was how Mukuro joined Namichuu without first being bitten to death.

A/N: Tsuna is my absolute, most favourite KHR character, so there will obviously be some praise about him in this fic. He won't always be the main character in every chapter, though, because there were a lot of open ends in the final KHR chapter, i.e. the existence of Millefiore — the famiglia, and not Team Uni — which has yet to be explained or confirmed, among other loose ends.

Let me know what you think so far! ^_^

New A/N: Some edits made to allow the text to flow. Paragraph breaks have become a thing while I've been gone, huh.