A/N: I wrote this (and Chapter 2) ages ago but I took so much time with my uncertainties that by the time exams came I totally forgot to publish this... ;-;

I was kind of paranoid with this story because I didn't want to disappoint M. Tyche I triple triple checked this.

I don't own Khr.

Story's general idea adopted from M. Tyche.

:D But I own everything else :D

The sixteenth of June.

The sun shone as brightly as ever in Namimori despite it being the first week of June, and Tsunayoshi could not help be thankful for Namimori's good fortune. Despite it being the rainy season in the rest of Japan, Namimori's weather was usually stable during these months, a little like Hokkaido. Fortunately however, it was not a popular tourist spot, unlike Hokkaido during June, for Namimori was a quiet, peaceful, and inconspicuous town that was rarely heard of by foreigners.

Tourists would surely be considered as unwelcome if they enraged the Hibari Kyoya by further crowding Namimori, after all. From Tsuna's observations, he was pretty territorial and irritable. The direction of his thoughts led to an instinctual shudder borne of deeply and physically ingrained fear. He detested how his body betrayed him, but it couldn't be helped if reality caught up with him when he was not the Fox. The thought of Hibari biting tourists to death was certainly terrifying enough to justify his reaction.

Kami, he pleaded, for the good of Namimori.

However, the sunlight was blinding, scorching, and almost sadistically relentless. It seemed to be glaring everyone to death and sapping energy like an invisible leech. Should he really be pleading good fortune for this? He was trudging home, his school clothes damp with perspiration and his sight obscured with irritating light. He was tired, but even he knew that he'd prefer the un-spring-like summer weather than actual devastating rainfall.

Stay content, Tsuna.

Even so, pushing away his irritation only attracted something else for him to stress over. He could not help it. He had not completely rid himself of his 'dame'ness it seemed. He was working on it, but it didn't seem to work well enough without his mask to convince him that he could become awesome.

His dread built itself up in gradual waves, and no matter how he had tried dismissing the matter out of his mind, it would only temporarily ebb... and then flow back in a bigger, more aggressive wave that crashed onto the shores of his brain violently. His tender mind couldn't possibly take it well, and he thus had a throbbing headache that came and went It was not a physical headache in any way, despite what Tsunayoshi crashing his head against the wall might have implied.

The truth was...

The Night of the Wandering Fox, one of the most celebrated and anticipated holiday, popular with all ages due to the openness and simplicity of its 'festivities'—

Indeed, a wild, crazed chase of the whole of Namimori targeting a single, deified entity could be considered to be 'simple' to understand, though difficult to actually accomplish. It was very 'open' too, you could join for as long as you'd like, for as long as you could keep up. That was, if anyone could find the real Fox.

—That, was the source of his dread.

He could blame the 'Fox' in him for enjoying the event as he teased his relentless pursuers, sure, but in the end, it was the same as blaming himself. It was better not to think about it, or try blaming anyone, he thought. Even so, his mind proceeded to vindictively add, blame the Kitsunetsuki then.

Unfortunately, a huge part of him agreed wholeheartedly, happily, and perhaps a little too bloodthirstily. Coincidentally, that was also the part of him that functioned as a third of his 'Fox' persona, the part that suggested the most vicious of punishments to him. But he could not possibly prank his followers, for that would ruin the image of unity in his army of (unknowing) minions, and recruitment would be more difficult if the terms were unappealing. Getting pranked was unappealing. His mother would then lecture him about what it takes to be the leader of an organization, again.

Ah, yes, he remembered, there was once that horrible moment when he had thought his mother was actually preparing him for something...

"Mom... Oh please. It's not like I'd grow up to lead a Mafia organization and have thousands or millions of minions to manage... right? ...Mom? Why aren't you answering me? Mom, are you okay?"

She had explained that she was just distracted, that it was nothing and she was just thinking about his father, and Tsuna decided to believe in the only truth that seemed favourable to his finer sensibilities. Un, it couldn't really possibly mean anything like what he suspected, he had decided. In fact, please don't let her have meant that, Kami.

Tsuna shut his eyes in avoidance of the unpleasant memory and sped up, his steps becoming strides. The occasional breezy reprieve from the heat was doing a good job in ridding him his horrible thoughts.

He soon reached home, but not before dodging the neighbor's dog's attempt at assaulting him. He was determined that no matter what his mother told him, the devil spawn would never be considered cute or harmless in his eyes. That Chihuahua was an evil thing.

He removed his shoes at the doorsteps, letting out the usual, "I'm home!"

Silence filled the house, an empty, tense silence. No one had responded to his declaration. His brows furrowed with concern, and hesitantly, he called out to the empty house. "Kaa-san? Are you here?"

Stepping forth into the kitchen and finding no one, he quickly took the stairs instead and called out again. "Mom!"

Silence was his reply yet again, and he let out a strangled sound. "Mom?"

Seriously, what the fudge did he do in his life to deserve this?

'Well, I mean, with the exception of pranking people under the guise of divine punishment,' he thought, and faux coughed sheepishly.

But really.

"Mother?" He tried again, a suspicion forming at the back of her mind. When there didn't seem to be any sign of his mother again, Tsuna sighed. He could guess where she was now.

He stared at his room morosely. He was just a small distance away from his comfortable, warm and humble abode... But oh well.

He ran a hand through his hair as if frustrated, and scratched his head, messing his hair up. In spite of that display of negative emotion, his lips tilted up in an almost unnoticeable smirk. Turning back to his shoes, he sighed, before he slipped them on and rushed out again. His caramel eyes glinted with purpose, and his lips pulled into an excited grin without his consent.

Next destination, Takesushi.

It has been months since his last visit to the Yamamoto family after all, despite frequent contact with them through messaging.

XXXXXXX

Somewhere else in Namimori...

It was mid afternoon, with the blinding, relentless sun hung right up in the sky proudly, scorching the ground and all those without protection. The sky was nearly cloudless, unnaturally so, giving over the reins of the sky over to the tyrant sun temporarily. It burnt every single surface it could touch, raising tempers, diminishing patience, dying Namimori in a golden light.

Ah yes, it was such a day, where the wise were home to avoid the sun.

However, in the dark, dingy alley where the rays of the sun could not reach, lurked two shadowy figures. The alley was a narrow, concrete path between Takesushi and an empty, forsaken shop, strategically dispersing all sounds so that any conversation would not escape to any ears on the street.

The two silhouettes were hooded, their faces hidden, shadowed by cloth. Anything that could identify them was carefully hidden in the flowing, inky black cloak. The cloak was like woven ebony, descending into vicious embroidered flames that licked the hem. The two mysterious figures stood in the darkest, quietest corner of the alley, and spoke in hushed exclamations.

"Do you have it then?"

One of them suddenly blurted out those words with a high pitched, feminine voice, anxiously, as if it might determine her life or death. Unseen to anyone, the young girl was clutching a tiny but intricately made charm of a small fox, strung with orange yarn beneath her cloak. The charm was a popular sign of devotion to the Fox Guardian of Namimori, Kitsune-sama, that originated from the girl's small group of friends. Unfortunately, the Kitsunetsuki had quickly caught on and spread the practise, and the little symbol of loyalty in her group suddenly became a widespread fashion for any admirers of the Fox's deeds. That soon became one of the reasons behind the fervent rivalry between the two groups, other than the Nine Tail's closer association with Kitsune-sama.

The girl's group, the 'Nine Tails Sect' coined jokingly by the Fox himself, was in truth not a big a group as most thought. The group consisted of only the closest and most trusted of the Fox's friends, despite it being rumored to be an underground cult, or yakuza, or even a secret organization of magic users!

"Yes, of course! The Kitsunetsuki idiots have volunteered to help distribute, so everything was done quicker than expected."

The other replied with his boyish voice in clear disdain, though there was a tinge of relief.

"The original copies won't be late then? We have to get the videos to the High Priest along with the Kitsunetsuki's tributes to our Fox if we don't want the bastards of the Kitsunetsuki Sect to question our devotion!" She questioned, agitation lacing her tone. Several auburn strands of her hair poked out of her hood as she fidgeted in impatience.

"Yes, yes, stop fussing! We won't lose to them delusional people! Even if they question how worthy we are to have met with the Fox himself, fact is that they're just jealous!" He reasoned, a smug, confident smirk revealing itself under the hood.

"Oh indeed, even if I am too, like them, curious about Kitsune-sama's true identity, I would never pry into his real life without consent! That's right, as if Nine Tails could ever lose to the likes of those shallow wannabes from Kitsunetsuki! Like they could be considered to be devout followers of the Fox's cause if they do not respect His wishes to remain anonymous! If Kitsune didn't ask for us to keep it down, we would've proved our worth to them by now!" She pouted after her exclamation, but otherwise had a tiny, concealed smile on her face.

"Yes, yes… Now shut it. We have to hurry back now meet with the others now."

"Alright. Let's go. But why were we sneaking around when no one else's around in this alley again?"

"I said shut it! As long as we are in this cloak, the single most identifiable feature of the true followers of Kitsune-sama to the demon prefect Hibari Kyoya, stealth is the only option!" He looked at her like one would a lunatic, his eyebrows raised and furrowed in incomprehension, then in a flabbergasted tone, he demanded of her, "Do you want to be bitten to death?"

"...Fine, fine… That may have been a stupid question... Tch."

As soon the two figures rounded the bend, they removed their cloaks and blended in with the crowd seamlessly, a casual and normal conversation between the two becoming part of their natural disguise. In fact, they acted and seemed so normal, so unassuming, that despite their statuses as the two best looking students of Namimori, so very few had realized that they've been on the street.

It was in this setting that Tsunayoshi had brushed past the two unknowingly, as he rushed to Takesushi with an air of childish anticipation.

This was just another day in Namimori.

This was a mere few days before one of the most celebrated festival in Namimori, rivalling the Summer Festival, the Night of Wandering Kitsune — when everyone tried their luck to discover Kitsune-sama's identity, and the Nine Tails donned kitsune half masks to misdirect them. That was of course, the festival that was simultaneously the most dreaded and most anticipated by the Fox himself. He would hate for his identity to be exposed by such a frivolous festival, even though he could not help but find their attempts amusing.

The rumours within Nine Tails were that Kitsunetsuki had established the stupid festival, as a petty attempt to find out the Fox's identity, despite his orders for them to leave it alone. Sorry to say, but it was only all too easy to believe those rumours.

Another day passed as usual, as normal as it could be for residents of Namimori, but those were merely the so called calm before the storm.

XXXXXXX

The fifteenth of June.

The day before in Sicily, Italy...

The bar was dim with little light, obscuring visibility to an extent. The smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol pervaded the air, and sound was usually kept to a minimum. Whatever happened in the bar stayed within it, as was the common rule when shady people not only ran the place, but frequented it.

Two middle aged men nursed their drinks on the counter of the bar, blending in with the rest of the customers naturally. Suspicious people were unfortunately, all too common in this part of Italy, especially as the dark approached to purge the day.

The wooden door creaked loudly as it opened, flooding the place with unwelcome orange light of late dusk. A long stretch of shadow touched the filthy ground of the bar as the door opened enough to reveal a mysterious infant that wore a black fedora with an orange ribbon. His figure was an infamous thing even amongst the dredges of the underworld, and his name was fearfully uttered by many.

Even so, the two mafiaso did not turn around, nor did they glance back.

Perhaps with respect, though it was hard to tell with mafiaso, the blond had greeted the infant, "Reborn."

"Called out by the Old Man again?" On the other hand, his grey haired companion had cut the pleasantries to the heart of the subject of their curiosity. "The popular ones have it tough. Is it Rome this time? Venice?"

The strange infant smirked, and despite his physical appearance, he seemed to fit well with the atmosphere of the shady bar. Almost as if he anticipated their reactions to his answer, he let his voice cut clear through the murmuring of the other patrons of the bar, though he spoke low enough for his voice to be ignored.

"It's Japan." He adjusted his fedora to hide the sadistic anticipation on his face.

There were sharp intakes of breath from both men, and with shock and comprehension lacing their voice, they spun around from their seats to exclaim, "Japan! The Old Man has finally decided?"

"This one will probably be a long journey," the infant hitman muttered as a dark, anticipatory look flashed across his face, confirming the suspicions of the two mafiaso to their dread. The underworld would be in absolute flabbergasted turmoil over a choice like that, and all the political implications! The life of a mafiaso would not be any easier from now on...

Calmly, he turned around just in time for his chameleon to morph into a green gun reminiscent of a toy water gun, with its business end pointed to the head of a third rate assailant. "This isn't a toy," he warned, his voice squeaky but expressing an underlying danger.

The poor soul dropped his knife like he was scalded and squeezed his eyes shut in fear, waiting for his demise as he gritted his teeth.

Having determined the no name thug as harmless, the gun morphed back into a green chameleon, and the hitman left the thug on the ground where he had collapsed in relief. The hired hand was only glad to be alive.

His next target was in Namimori, Japan, except he won't be turning his target into a corpse this time. If his student was anything like Dino, their time together would be fun.

He looked forward to seeing his student's potential. And torturing him into shape.

Correction: He looked forward to 'tutoring' his new student.

XXXXXXX

Tsunayoshi skidded to a stop before the front of Takesushi. "Kaa-san!" He called out as he walked in, weaving through tables, chairs and people with a familiarity that could only stem from years of experience. He went under the blue cloth to the back of the store, turning into a private corner, and found his mother chatting with Yamamoto Senior... predictably. At this time of the day, there were few customers, mostly because there was an air conditioned option known as the fast food restaurant. Thus, Yamamoto-san found the time to have idle conversations with his mother, instead of being too busy manning the sushi restaurant.

Or, he should say, Yamamoto-san found the time to try woo his mother. That was how he saw it anyway.

The two were laughing and talking together with an ease and familiarity that anyone would be jealous of. The usually tensed lines on his mother's face were relaxed, and that was a very rare thing that Tsuna was glad to see. He knew that his mother hid it really well, but she was constantly stressed about something, and that pressure only seemed to increase when his useless father was around. Although she always tried to look happy, Tsuna knew that she was often far from it, even if she refused to tell him the reason why.

In that respect, he felt that Yamamoto-san was good for his mother.

"Tsu-kun?" His mother turned to him smiling, oblivious to his brooding thoughts. She giggled a little when Takeshi finished cleaning up in the kitchen and began walking towards them. The glint in her chocolate eyes seemed extra bright, just like it sometimes appeared when she was particularly interested in his endeavors as the Fox. "Oh you must look at how much Takeshi-kun has grown in these past months! He's even taller than me now!"

'He was taller than you ever since last year...' was what he wanted to say, but wisely did not risk her wrath. Ignoring the comment, he waved hello to his childhood friend with a smile.

His first glance at Yamamoto Takeshi closer up showed that his mother's words were true indeed.

His friend had always been a healthy, growing child, tall and sturdy compared to the rest of their contemporaries. But in a few months, Takeshi-kun had grown a good ten centimeters, that freakishly tall... tall... idiot. Tsuna felt as if he would cry. Would Tsuna forever remain this short?

He gritted his teeth and watched as Yamamoto Junior waved back to him. No, he will not, he decided firmly. A fire had been lit in his honey brown eyes - a fire of resolution. He will surpass his mother's shorty genes!

At that moment of undying conviction, a familiar chuckle reached his ears. "It's been a while, Tsuna." He shook off his mental image to focus on the towering figure before him, whose shoulder was nearly aligned with his head. Takeshi's smile was bright as usual, a comforting sight for sore female eyes.

Unfortunately, Tsuna was not female.

"You really haven't grown at all in the height department huh." Takeshi teased, ruffling Tsuna's chocolate brown locks. Said person pouted, but was already used to it as the shortest amongst his contemporaries. That didn't mean that he would admit defeat to his biological fate though. "It's been so long since the last time we've hung out."

"It can't be helped, Takeshi. You've been busy with many things too," Tsuna replied conversationally. He then sighed dramatically, and lowered his head as if he was forlorn. "Besides, to be seen hanging out with the great school idol would be truly a sin that would get me lynched by your fangirls for it... "

"Well... We have been in contact via phone calls, but that simply doesn't cut it for us. I mean, after next week I'd be quite free of my extra curricular activities for a while anyway, so we'll be free to mess around together again!" Tsuna whispered, winking conspiratorially with when he exaggerated the words 'extra curricular activities'. It made his friend bite down a grin, but he understood and agreed to the insinuation. The silent understanding between the two childhood friends was after all cultivated by years of tutelage under the Queen of Pranks, so it was needless to say that their version of bonding would be less than approved by the common adults.

"There's still time today, so we can still have fun together! That is, if Nana-san agrees." Takeshi cheerfully turned to the smiling woman who was interrupted mid conversation with his father. A look of alarm flashed across Tsuna's visage, and slowly distorted into one of panic when his mother smiled, nodded, and agreed, throwing him into the tiger's jaws.

"Oh my, go ahead and have fun! Just be back here before seven, since Tsuyoshi-san has invited us to have dinner here tonight. Be careful of the ledges on your way out!" Her smile did not even falter as she handed her son over to Yamamoto Junior, knowing that his version of 'having fun' without pranks included only included either baseball or any random thing they came across. So far, it was looking likely that they would be hitting the baseball machine this time. Poor tortured Tsuna whose luck with ball sports equaled getting hit by the ball.

What about his opinion...?

He cried silent, invisible tears.

"Come on Tsuna, it'll be fun!"

At that time, he did not think much about the implications of his mother's last comment. After all, she could not possibly have visited so often that she would notice that he had hollowed out the ledges, right?

That was so long ago anyway, and that little prank had actually yet to bear any fruit...