Summary: Hibari loves Hibird. He teaches it how to speak, follow orders, and is pretty much the only thing that Hibari doesn't get irritated with. But what if Hibird is actually hiding a sinister secret that may threaten the power of the Vongola, Shimon, and the rest of its' allied Famiglias?

(Ano… please forgive me if the story is bad, this is my first attempt at one… but please read! I did my best at it.)

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Or anything related to it. Though I wish I did. But whatever. Read the story.

Hibari rested against the hard, tiled roof of the Namimori Middle School building, his black uniform acting as a mat to support his back. The pin the infamous disciplinary leader wore was pinned loosely to his uniform and barely latched on, one end fluttering in the billowing wind.

Normally Hibari liked the whole band actually wrapped around his arm; if not tight, at least tight enough to stay on. And of course, being the single, solitary Cloud Guardian of the Vongola Famiglia, who preferred to stray from the paths of the rest of the Guardians, didn't necessarily prefer any of the very few things he genuinely appreciated to be taken away from him.

Which had happened about thirty minutes earlier, courtesy of Gokudera, the ever-so-raging Storm Guardian and his new ability to fling out more dynamite with the new Cambio Forma XX Version. Thankfully, Gokudera, after one of his dynamites exploded near Hibari's sleeve and nearly butchered off the disciplinary committee band, had bonked his bloated head against a tree trunk after tripping over a root and then further bonked it ten times more on the soil as an apparent apology to Tsuna, who had looked on warily.

This had fortunately taken place in Namimori Forest. And even more fortunate, Hibari was in one of his rare good moods and decided to leave Gokudera's self-inflicted, Vongola-style concussion (as Reborn noted) as it was.

At the moment, the great Hibari-san was at his moment of peace. The winds bustled hurriedly against him which would have made shiver, but they were balanced out by the sun's welcoming rays. And he definitely did not mean any compliments about that extreme Sun Guardian, Ryohei Sasagawa. To Hibari, that guy was a total idiot and a sore loser whose vocabulary was reduced to the word 'extreme'. At least Hibari was a bit better- one word, 'herbivore', and one phrase, 'I'll bite you to death', seemed more than enough to get any unaware person scurrying for their dear lives. That Sasagawa moron had nothing better to do than say his special word and feel good about himself. At least he had a decent younger sister. Coco, or something. Hibari didn't bother himself with names. 'Herbivore' suited everyone just about right. Though lately several people were rising as exceptions to this, which Hibari really didn't like.

"Hibari!" squeaked a high-pitched little voice, so fast it almost sounded like gibberish.

Hibari grunted and shifted over to one side, bangs falling over his pale skin, shadowing him from the rest of the world. Just like the Cloud he was.

"Hibari!" the little voice squeaked again. "Kamikorosu! Kamikorosu!"

The corners of Hibari's lips perked up slightly beneath the shadow of the veil his bangs made. How could he ever forget his beloved pet bird, whom he had taught endlessly to speak like he did?

Few people at Namimori Middle were able to grasp the fact that the herbivore-killing vampire (if that's even possible) actually took a liking to small children and animals. Hibari never thought of small children as herbivores. In fact, he was quite affectionate to them. He had accepted a box of Valentine's Day chocolates from I-Pin and even smiled at her. That would have made breaking news worldwide. He was also tolerant of Lambo and his antics.

And he dearly cared about small animals, because he knew that they always had tricks up their sleeves to defend themselves against much larger predators. Hibari didn't just care a lot for them. He respected their abilities.

So when he came across his soon-to-be pet bird after the fight between Tsuna and that misty pineapple-headed, pedo-pervert, he immediately took a liking to it after realizing it wasn't able to take care of itself.

Hibird was one of the only things he cared about.

And then Hibird had become his trademark. After months of being together with its' owner, people realized that it didn't just have to be his classic catchphrase echoing down the hall for them to know that Hibari-sama was on his way to kick some butt- a tiny, fluffy yellow bird with downy feathers, small black eyes, and cute orange feet with a beak fluttering cheerily and chanting 'Hibari' was the cue for them to step aside.

Hibari sat up so Hibird could perch on his shoulder easily. It fluffed up its' feathers and nuzzled closer against Hibari's cheek. Hibari smiled and sighed, reaching his hand up to pet the little bird.

"Get up," commanded an annoyed female voice from out of the blue. "Lazy bum."

Startled, Hibird squawked and fluttered a bit into the air and chimed Hibari's name twice before landing again.

Hibari's eyes narrowed. He grit his teeth. The busty Shimon herbivore, Hibari internally growled. But instead of whipping out his tonfas and lashing out at the girl behind him, he kept his already broiling anger inside of him, got up, and turned around to face the leader of the liquidation committee- Adelheid Suzuki, Shimon Glacier Guardian and Hibari's Cloud Flame counterpart.

Why was he acting calmly all of a sudden?

Recently, she had learned the art of slapping people. She was so skilled at this that just the day before, she had yanked the tonfas out of Hibari's tough grip and slapped him. Hard. Add to that, she had grown her nails- not only to make her new black nail polish fetish look nice- but to come to aid when slapping people.

Hibari had gotten so many cuts on his face the past few days, he could even beat Enma's record Band-Aid count. And he had learned to control his temper by a fraction.

List of people to get revenge on: 1) The misty, perverted, crappy illusionist. 2) The big-chested slapping freak. 3) The dynamite-blasting, non-thinking, fanatic albino midget.

Hibari glared at Adelheid through his icy gray eyes, right into her eyes. She stared back defiantly.

The epic staring contest between the two strongest Guardians of the two strongest Famiglias (other than Julie Katou and Rokudo Mukuro) ended when Adelheid got fed up and began to talk. "I have to work on beating up that baseball-loving maniac for slicing the fence. Apparently he accidentally used his katana instead of his bat."

"…Hn."

"And the fight you had with the silver-haired geek the other day. Some of the bombs damaged property in the forest. You have to check it out."

"Hn."

"There's a catch, Kyoya. It's not as simple as it sounds." Adelheid's slightly maroon-tinged eyes glinted sharply in the blurred sun. Hibari raised an eyebrow. He knew that she knew the disciplinary committee leader was incredibly strong and capable- what, in the forest he knew like the back of his hand, would prove as a danger to the formidable skylark?

"…"

"Kyoya, I've heard rumors that several people have been killed in the deep parts of the forest the past few weeks, and that's where the property is- it's marked by a small fence. Some of Dino's subordinates were murdered also."

Hibari couldn't suppress a smirk. "Checking property is a difficult job for me?" he chuckled. "A woman such as you is believing mere rumors?"

"I'm being serious, Hibari," Adelheid snapped at him. "You want to know something else?"

"…"

"A bird that looked exactly like yours was hovering beside each dead body found so far in the forest."

Now this caught Hibari off guard. He took a glimpse of the bird next to him- it didn't show any sign of understanding the conversation. It looked so agonizingly innocent that Hibari was practically against believing the rumors. Even though… they might be true. Hibird had not been next to him the past couple of days, even when he wanted the bird to be there. Just when Hibari was about to start one of its' lessons, the bird chanted his name twice and fluttered away from the school and into the forest's depths, despite its' owners protests.

But how could a bird as tiny as this be able to accomplish such a feat? How could it murder people? How could it betray the owner who had taken care of it for at least a year?

Hibari glowered at the young woman in front of him. "…You lie," was all he said.

Adelheid stared back, her short black hair whipping to the side in the wind. "It's not me who may be lying," she countered, talking slowly to give the impact. "It's the rumors. If you discover it is true, or it isn't, the things to be blamed are the bird and the rumors. I have nothing to do with it."

With that, she took a step back, turned, and walked away to the stair entrance. Before descending, she glanced back and said two words.

Be careful.

C:/C:/C:/C:/C:/C:C:

Hibari-kun, the youth thought, looking quietly down at the bulky man sprawled broken and battered on the bloody soil, no expression on his face.

And then the youth's mouth stretched. Wider and wider until all his gleaming white teeth were visible and glinted in the sun barely visible through the dark trees. His grin had become almost Cheshire-like. Like that weird Storm Guardian of the Varia, who thought he was a prince.

"Hibari-kun," the youth whispered aloud this time, and cackled cruelly into the dense atmosphere of the forest floor before leaving the dead body to rot away into the ground.

So… That's it for now! I hope it wasn't too horrible… again, this is my first story ever. I promise, if I get good-enough reviews- some criticism accepted (note the word some)- then I'll continue this story and try to make the chapters longer. Be aware that it'll probably take a long time to update each chapter.