The Dragon and the Clam

Prologue

Gio Dragone spat up blood. His sword, once ablaze with orange fire, clattered to the marble floor. He fell to his knees, his one remaining hand falling limp. He glared at the two who had destroyed his right arm and shoulder. All that remained of it now was a small ring, decorated with the head of a dragon holding an orange gem in its mouth, laying on the ground.

The two who were at the receiving end of his angered glare began to float down to the ground like feathers. The man, a tall, blonde with large spiked hair, had a completely tranquil, almost scarily calm look on his face. There was an orange blaze on both his hands and his forehead, but neither he, nor the woman who was holding his hand, burned in the slightest. The woman was beautiful and graceful, clad in a red gossamer dress, and her feet burning with a yellow glow. The two easily touched down, their feet making only a slight tap as they touched the marble.

"Damn you… Vongola…" Gio Dragone uttered. He was losing blood fast, and was aware that he had little time left.

"It's over, Gio. We've won," the man stated. The bleeding man began to laugh, blood still dripping from his mouth.

"It's not over yet…" He whispered. His body began to shine with orange, as if there was a source of light behind him which shone clear through the remainder of his body. The light slowly began to concentrate in his mouth, which began filling up with the unseen force.

"He can't be…" The man murmured. His eyes widened with realization.

"Damn! Belladonna! Get behind me!" He shouted to the woman. He moved to raise his cloak to defend the woman, only to remember that it had been burned to shreds earlier in the battle. It was too late for them to evade.

Gio let loose all the energy stored up in his mouth straight at the two as an orange blaze, giving him the appearance of breathing fire. The flame enveloped them, hiding them from view. Gio let out a last laugh.

"I'll… be back… Vongola…" He whispered with his last breath, then fell to the floor, dead.

When the blaze cleared, the man stood without a mark on his body, his arms held as if he was guarding another person. There was nobody in his arms. Belladonna, the woman he had been trying to protect, had slipped out of his arms. The man looked up towards Gio's corpse. There she was, her arms spread out to stop the blast. The man's eyes widened in shock.

"Belladonna!" He yelled. She fell down to be caught in the man's arms. She looked up weakly at him.

"Forgive me… mi amore…" She murmured. The man, Giotto, was crying.

"Why, Belladonna? Why did you do that?" Giotto sobbed. She smiled weakly at him.

"I didn't want you… to die… You mean… so much to so many people…" She whispered. She placed one charred hand on his cheek. Giotto grasped it, his large, gloved hands swamping hers.

"Please, Giotto… Promise me that… you'll keep on living…" She asked him, her voice fading. Tears continued to stream down Giotto's face.

"Si, mi amore… just don't die, please…" He sobbed. Upon hearing his promise, Belladonna smiled at her lover. Her barely open eyes closed, and she let out a final sigh. Her hand fell limp in Giotto's.

"BELLADONNA!"

As Giotto mourned the loss of his lover, he failed to notice that the ring that the dead man had worn had disappeared.

The Dragone Famiglia lived on.

Chapter 1

The Ring Battle with the Varia is over. It's been over for about a year now. Yet still, life goes on in Namimori. Sawada Tsunayoshi, the sixteen year old tenth generation Vongola Famiglia boss, is still woken up by a green gun to the head by his (quite possibly sadistic) baby home tutor, still has to rush through his breakfast so that it is not taken by a small child wearing cow print, and still walks to school with a silver haired Mafioso who keeps enough dynamite on his body to blow up a small town, a skilled baseball player/ natural assassin / swordsman / sushi chef who never stops smiling, a white haired boxer whose volume is almost always stuck on eleven, and, of course, Kyoko. His heart warmed just thinking about her.

How was he supposed to know it was all going to change this morning?

There was nothing special about that morning's routine. Woken by a gun to the head. Fighting a small child for his food. Walking to school with a – well, that's beside the point. On this morning, however, Tsuna never arrived at school.

Now then, on with the story. It begins as Tsuna and his friends are walking to school.

"It's been… quiet." Kyoko mused. Yamamoto nodded, still wearing his trademark smile.

"Yeah, but who's complaining?" He asked.

"I AM! I AM EXTREMELY BORED!" Ryohei shouted, throwing his wrapped fists above his head.

"That was a rhetorical question, lawn-head!" Gokudera said. Ryohei laughed.

"I DON'T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD RHETORICAL!" The boxer screamed. Gokudera scoffed.

"I believe you."

"Gokudera-kun, stop it." Tsuna told him.

"YES, DECIMO!" Gokudera shouted, stopping in his tracks and saluting. He had started calling Tsuna "decimo" instead of "jyudaime" soon after the Ring Battle. He thought it sounded more Italian.

"Just keep walking," Yamamoto said.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, BASEBALL-IDIOT!"

"Come on, Gokudera-kun."

"YES, DECIMO!"

"Good work keeping him in line, Dame-Tsuna." The brick wall the group was walking next to said. "Dame-Tsuna" stopped. A small sweat drop rolled down his face as he looked at the wall that had spoken. The section of the wall that had spoken lowered to reveal a small child wearing a black suit, with a yellow pacifier around his neck, and a fedora with a green chameleon on it. The child started folding up the brick pattern cloth that he had covered himself with. It was Reborn, Tsuna's home tutor.

"However, your observational skills leave a lot to be desired. Lambo could have seen me coming." The child said in a ridiculously high pitched voice.

"REBORN!" Tsuna shouted.

"Ciaossu," The child simply said, tucking the sheet into his pocket, "Tsuna, what are you doing walking? I thought I told you to run to school." Reborn held out his hand like he was holding a gun, and the green chameleon on his hat scampered onto it and changed itself into a green pistol, which Reborn aimed directly at Tsuna.

"Now run." Reborn ordered. A look of panic was on Tsuna's face. Yet his salvation was about to come in the form of a barely audible rumbling.

"Wait. Do you guys hear something?" Yamamoto asked. He looked around, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound. Reborn lowered his gun, then placed the now normal chameleon back on his hat and jumped on top of Tsuna's head. It was impossible to tell what emotion was currently on his features.

"Reborn? What's going on?" The bewildered young mafia boss asked. Reborn just frowned.

"It's time," He said simply. Then he looked at the ground where Yamamoto and Kyoko were standing. "You two may want to move." He advised. The two quickly stepped away. His advice came not a moment too soon. The rumbling had changed into a loud roar coming from underground. Slowly, the road where Reborn was staring began to rise up until it broke in a small eruption of dust and small rocks. Tsuna shielded his face with his arms, as did the others.

"What the hell?!" Gokudera yelled, pulling out a few sticks of dynamite from god-knows-where. Yamamoto took out a bamboo kendo sword from the case that was slung over his shoulder and Ryohei assumed a boxing stance. Tsuna and Kyoko just backed away.

The dust began to settle. Standing near the newly formed hole in the street was a panting figure leaning on a shovel made entirely out of gold. The man was wearing a black suit like Reborn's, and had short, spiky light blonde hair. Tsuna instantly recognized him.

"Dad!" He said in disbelief. This man was his father, Sawada Iemitsu, who he had thought to be dead until about a year and a half ago, when he found out that his father was in fact a highly ranked operative in the Vongola Family. Tsuna hurried to his father's side, helping him stand up. Iemitsu looked wearily at his son, still panting.

"T-Tsuna… Perfect. There's … trouble in Italy… gotta go…" Iemitsu panted, with hardly any breath left in him.

"Are you sure you're up to it, Iemitsu?" Reborn asked. The panting man grinned.

"Perfectly fine," He replied, giving a weak thumbs-up sign, but his body's condition spoke for itself.

"Tsuna-kun, what's going on?" She asked worriedly. Tsuna shrugged. Iemitsu looked up at her and chuckled.

"Cute girl. She your girlfriend, Tsuna?" He asked jokingly. Tsuna and Kyoko both turned a light shade of red.

"D-Dad!"

"Iemitsu, don't get off track." Reborn berated him. Iemitsu nodded.

"One of you mind telling the school that Tsuna won't be in for a day or two? Oh, and tell Nana-chan that I took him on a fishing trip," Iemitsu asked Tsuna's friends. Gokudera started forward towards Tsuna and his father.

"Hold it! Wherever the Decimo goes, I go!"

"I AM EXTREMELY COMING ALONG TOO!"

"Heh, seems like fun. I'm in!"

"NO." Reborn firmly stated.

"Why the hell not, Reborn-san?!" Gokudera demanded.

"Iemitsu has trouble pulling off this technique on his own. Two other people is pushing it, especially in this state, but with five others, he'd doubtlessly die en route, even if he was in his prime."

"Technique? What technique?" Tsuna asked. Iemitsu leaned a little bit more on his son and held up his golden shovel. The head of the shovel burst into orange flames with a slight groan from Iemitsu.

"Hold on tight, Tsuna." Iemitsu warned. Tsuna quickly complied. His father changed his grip on the shovel so the burning part was pointed at the street below them.

"IL TUNNEL DEL CIELO!" He shouted as he brought the shovel down, piercing the concrete. There was a bright flash of orange light, and when it faded, Iemitsu, Tsuna, and Reborn had vanished, leaving behind a patch of freshly dug earth and a bewildered Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, and Kyoko.

"What just happened?" Kyoko asked, a confused look on her face.

"SAWADA JUST HAD TO GO TO AN EXTREME BOXING MATCH!"

"Idiot."

"Wh-wh-wh-WHAT THE HECK?! WHERE ARE WE?!" Tsuna screamed. The trio had just emerged from the ground in a rather dark garden, in the middle of the night, with a large mansion about two hundred meters away.

"The Vongola Mansion, Italy." A familiar voice told him. Tsuna turned to its source. It was Dino Chiavallone, a young mafia boss who was a former student / victim of Reborn as well. Dino was wearing a black suit, and had his right arm held out, a small orange flame emanating from the ring on his finger. Standing behind him were several of Dino's subordinates, also wearing dark suits. As Tsuna watched, the fire on his hand extinguished.

"WHAT?! B-B-B-BUT WE WERE JUST IN JAPAN!" Tsuna stuttered.

"Il tunnel del cielo. The tunnel of the sky. It's one of Iemitsu's techniques. It uses the Cielo flames to harmonize with another set of flames, in this case, Dino's, anywhere in the world, and moves the user to that location at high speeds through a rapidly dug and filled in tunnel," Reborn explained, "But it uses a lot of flames, so right now…"

"Flames? What are you talking about, Reborn?" Tsuna asked, completely and totally confused.

"Urghh…G'night, Tsuna…" There was a loud thud from behind them. Iemitsu had passed out on the ground.

"Dad!"

"…That should happen." Reborn finished. Dino motioned for some of his men to pick up Iemitsu, then beckoned for Tsuna to follow him as he walked towards the mansion. Tsuna caught up with him.

"Onii-san, what's going on?" He asked Dino. Reborn answered his question for Dino.

"It's the Nono," Reborn said, "He's on his death bed."

First Chapter Ends

Mi Amore- My Love

Si- Yes

Decimo- Tenth

Nono – Ninth

Hello, readers. This is the prologue and first chapter of my very first KHR fanfic, and I would like to point some out some things that are integral to the story that have occurred in the year since the end of the Ring Battle. Also, I would like to point out that THERE IS NO YAOI IN THIS STORY. IF ANYONE ASKS ME IF THERE IS GOING TO BE ANY GOKUYAMA OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, I WILL DESTROY YOU.

First: This story takes place in a timeline where the TYL arc never happened. Hence, why Tsuna has no clue what the ring flames are and Kyoko is just as clueless as ever as to the Vongola.

Second: I am sticking with a language barrier, so that means that Tsuna will not understand the people that speak in Italian. For the moment.

Third: I am also going to be using a lot of Italian in the naming of new techniques and box weapons, so the translations will be at the bottom of the page.

And Fourth: In this story, several months ago, I-Pin was called back to China by Fong for training, and Fuuta joined CEDEF. Lambo was crushed and very, very lonely.

Please review! Tell me how to improve! I'll try to update at least once a week. And, if you haven't figured out who Giotto is, you are an utter idiot. Belladonna and Gio are OCs, but I'll talk about them more sometime later.