Tsuna shifted uncomfortably in his sleep as he cracked his heavy eyelids open, only to find himself on a cold stone floor. Confused, he attempted to sit upright but only to fall back into an unceremonious heap when he finally noticed his wrists and ankles had been painfully bounded. What the hell –

Jumbled memories hit him hard as images flooded his mind. Tsuna groaned. How could he have been so careless? He should have taken his mother to a much more secure location for the dinner he promised so long ago.

But – at the very least, he had managed to secure a hiding spot for her in the ventilator shaft that he was sure was safe, at least until his reinforcements arrived to pick her up.

Squirming in discomfort, Tsuna hissed in pain as he threw his head back to bite back a silent scream when he felt his wrists dislocate after he gave them a sharp twist. His eyes were watering but the action had allowed his hands enough space to wriggle out of the tight contraptions that limited his movements.

He was finally free.

Frowning at his unresponsive wrist, the teen took a deep breath. His body unconsciously jerked with the sudden pain when he quickly popped his joints into place.

Cold sweat trickled down his face as he slumped tiredly against the wall, gasping at the effort while flexing his fingers experimentally. He could not understand how did his tutor made dislocation look so easy during the fight with his father. He flinched immediately at the thought.

Reborn was going to murder him for getting kidnapped.

The creaking of the wooden planks under the weight of a body outside his imprisonment was the only warning of the approach. Tsuna instantly threw his body back onto the ground and slowed his breathing to a steady rhythm.

Not a second to late, the door creaked open.

"I told you he's still out cold. You must have been hearing things."

Tsuna heard a grunt in reply from somewhere further down door. He heard his first captor laugh as the man slammed the door behind him. "We gave him enough drugs to take a lion down! He wouldn't be up for two days at the least."

Tsuna sat up quietly. Well then, it's too bad for you guys that Reborn had started on the drugs and poison training a year ago.

Slipping his hands into his empty pockets, the nineteen-year old captive grimaced. His gloves weren't there. This was going to be harder than expected. Although he had every ounce of confidence in his guardians and his father to save him, Tsuna had no intention to act like a damsel in distress. Furthermore, he was rather certain that if he left his rescue up to them, his kidnappers would most definitely end up dead, an ending Tsuna prefer not chose despite the fact that he was the victim here.

He was being naive. It was something told countless times by the adults in his life. It would come back to bite him one day, but Tsuna felt uncomfortable at the very thought of losing his humanity and destroying the life of people with a snap of his fingers.

Slowly, his past training kicked in as Tsuna began to untie his ankles while he cautiously studied his surroundings for any information or items he could make use of in this situation.

He was in a small room, almost the size of the bedroom he had back when he was in middle school. There were two windows on different walls that were boarded up, indicating he was most likely in a corner room, and the soft light streaming through the cracks indicated that it was dawn.

Brown eyes fell onto the dusty cupboard tucked in the corner. Kicking off the last coil of rope, he carefully walked towards it. As expected, it was pretty empty, save for two items, which he tucked into his pockets. A pair of chopsticks and a lighter.

Then, leaning up against the wall, Tsuna inched over to the windows and peeked out of the small gap and nodded to himself. He was on the second storey of an isolated house with a large field surrounding the perimeter on this end of window.

Tapping his fingers on his chin, he organized his assessment. He had been held hostage for a at least six hours, in a house he had no idea was where or how big it was. That meant that Vongola would have likely made a move already. There were at least two captors in this house, although he suspected more. He did not have any weapons expect his body and the items he collected.

What should he do? Breaking the planks of the windows would make too much noise and the field was too open. The door was his only chance then.

Tsuna sighed. It was risky and too predictable on simply using the door.

With the rusty hinges creaking every time he shifted weight, creeping out of the room proved to be difficult. Tsuna ultimately managed to squeeze out the room with the minimum amount of noise he could though.

Tsuna let out the breath he was unconsciously holding and began to make his way carefully forward.

"Tsu-kun," a familiar voice whispered behind him. "Is that you?"

Tsuna froze. How could this be? How could she be here? How they find her? Did she not escape?

Hesitantly, he whispered back without turning, "Mom?"

"Tsu-kun…"

Snapping out of his shock, Tsuna spun around to see his ditzy mother throwing herself at him. She sniffed, pulling herself away from the stunned boy while checking him for any visible injuries. "Tsu-kun! Are you alright?"

"Mom! I'm fine!" Tsuna blurted. "Are YOU alright? How did they catch you? Did they do anything to you? Did they hurt you? Did they – "

Nana silenced Tsuna by putting a finger on his lips. "Hush, I'm fine, Tsu-kun." She could not help but smile softly. She had not seen this hysterical side of her baby for years. Her little boy was all grown up.

"I…," Tsuna's mind began to race. If his mother was here, it was imperative he needed to get them out. There was no way he was going to let his mother remain hostage in this place. They could use her to get to him or his dad!

"We need to get out before they come and get us , mom," he whispered urgently. "But don't worry;.I'll protect you, so just follow me. Alright?"

Nana giggled quietly. "My Tsu-kun is all grown up., protecting me just like his father."

"Mom…." Tsuna grumbled. "I'm nothing like dad."

Nevertheless, he was comforted that his mother was calm enough to act like her normal self. His dad, on the other hand, was properly wetting his pants right now, looking for his beloved wife and his dear little son. Tsuna wrinkled his nose at his ridiculous nickname.

Hurried footsteps resounded behind them and Tsuna cussed under his breath. He must have been too loud when he found his mother. Immediately, he scooped up his mother, who squeaked in surprise, and raced down the corridor and dived into an empty room.

"SHIT! HE ESCAPED!" The door slammed and he could hear the men coming closer.

Tsuna gazed at the room, shoving his mother into a walk-in cupboard as he readied himself for the upcoming fight. He took a shaky breath. There was no way he would lose, not when his mother was just behind him in the cupboard.

Without another word, he placed himself just beside the door and felt his foot hit something solid. Looking down, he grinned manically as he picked the object up.

This was going to be fun.

The moment the door of the room's door was opened, was also the moment the men who rushed ran out screaming in pain. Bright flames flickered out for a second more before the two captives in the room raced out, leaving behind a lighter and an empty bottle of spray paint.

"I've always wanted to try that," the boy laughed, tugging his exasperated but speechless mother along down the stairs. He sobered up after a while. "They are coming again, but our help's coming too."

"How do you know?" Nana asked curiously looking around. She could not hear anyone coming.

"Erm… Sixth sense?" Tsuna winked at his mother mischievously leading his mother around a corner as his intuition indicated.

Three men dashed past the living room, completely missing the two hidden shadows. They could hear the havoc as the men raced time to look for their hostage with no avail.

"Tsu-kun…" Nana suddenly stopped, causing Tsuna to turn back in confusion. She looked uncharacteristically nervous. "I just wanted to tell you that no matter what happens, I love you and your father very much."

Tsuna blinked bewildered at the abrupt sentence.

"Mom? What's wrong? Vongo – I mean the police is here. Don't worry too much alright?" Tsuna hugged his mother lightly before gently taking her hands and leading her to safely. "After we get out of here, I shall take a long break and take you and dad for a long holiday in Hawaii like you've always wanted."

Nana laughed sadly. "That would be nice…"

"But I can imagine Bianchi poisoning the drinks," Tsuna shivered. "Or Reborn recreating some sort of games to haunt me so I would rather have a holiday just with us and the kids."

"That isn't nice," his mother rebuked him gently, giggling.

"Then we can go to the many beaches and could also take Lambo and I-pin to play on the sand too!" Tsuna continued, relieved that he had broken his mother out of the weird mood. "And then we could – LOOK MOM! THE EXIT!"

The young teen tugged his mother on and hurried out of the door to welcome the familiar sight of his guardians, members of the CEDEF and tons of his friends who threw themselves at him.

Soon, the overly relieved crowd of people crushed him, surrounding him protectively whilst leading him to an ambulance for a check-up.

"I'm fine!" Tsuna finally snapped at the sixteenth medic who tried to check on him. "Go check and see if my mom is alright."

His guardians suddenly froze.

Tsuna blinked at the unexpected response. "What's wrong?"

"Tsuna," Takeshi replied with difficulty as he slowly kneeled in front of perplexed teen. "Your mom. She's… she's gone, Tsuna…"

Tsuna looked blankly at his best friend. "What are you talking about, Yamamoto? She… I… She was with me a moment ago! Didn't you see her leave the building with me? She–"

"TSUNA!" Yamamoto grabbed his shoulders and shook the brunet when Tsuna began to look desperately around for his mother.

"Juudaime," Gokudera hovered anxiously beside him. "you were alone when they took you hostage."

Tsuna looked back at Gokudera and almost growled in anger. "NO!"

What's wrong with all of them? His mother had left the building with him! Why were they saying that he was alone?

His friends winced at the outburst, but when Tsuna attempted to leave his seat to look for his mother, a neon green rope forced him back to his seat.

"Let me go, Reborn." Tsuna hissed, glaring at the man.

"No."

The teen gritted his teeth. "I said, let me go!"

"No."

"LET ME GO!"

The brunet's futile attempt to struggle out of the Leon-rope seemed to pain his audience, but no one would step forward to help him look for his mother. He felt an intense desire to punch his tutor.

Why? Why are they acting this way?

"I'm sorry," Yamamoto whispered.

"I'm sorry," Gokudera echoed painfully.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry."

One after another, his friends murmured those same words and started to cry. Tsuna froze, his mind going blank.

Why were they apologizing? There was nothing to apologize for!

Yamamoto closed his eyes "She died in the restaurant, Tsuna."

"They would have not found her if she stayed in the ventilator shaft, but she saw you fall unconscious and ran out to help you," Gokudera whispered in a trembling voice. "Then…then they shot her…"

"It can't be," Tsuna slumped back onto seat and buried his face into in his hands when the rope disappeared. "She – she – she was with me the whole time and then we said we would go to Hawaii and then…"

It was Reborn who quietly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then maman must have wanted to make sure you were safe, Dame-Tsuna."

As Tsuna sat unmoving in the silence that followed, feeling devoid of any emotion, he realized he was crying. But he could not bring himself to care as he finally noticed that his headstrong father had curled up into a ball, like a small child, on the ground.

Iemitsu Sawada had waited till his only son was rescued before letting himself fall into despair. By this point, all kidnappers had been rounded up and the group was surrounded by large group of pissed guards.

"How did you want us to deal with them?" Basil asked carefully as he kneeled in front of the young boss. Another moment of silence rippled through the crowd and all eyes turned towards Tsuna.

Slowly, the Vongola Decimo lifted his face up and with a hard voice, he simply said, "Kill them. Leave no one alive."


In which Tsuna orders his first death sentence.

A/N:

This story is what I believe might be a more "realistic" version that leads to show Tsuna the harsher side of the life as a mafia boss and loses his innocence in the process.