Bonds.

Summary: Because sometimes you have things that you need to protect, no matter the cost.

Warnings: Female!Tsuna – her name is Natsumi. Future pairings have been decided, but will not come until later.


Prologue: Beginnings.


Feet moved quickly and quietly against the marble floor, the pair moving as stealthy as they could.

"Iemitsu, are you sure that this will work?" Nana Sawada asked, cradling a child that was covered by a blanket in her arms.

Her husband, muscular and blond, nodded, a rueful expression on his tanned face. "I'm positive. We're in the clear. The 9th has made sure of that."

Nana nodded and continued to hurry as quietly as she could. The two made it to the ground floor without waking anyone in the large mansion, not even the guards, who were slumped over against the walls.

"Paralysis…" Iemistu muttered to himself, grateful that the guardians and his most trusted men were patrolling, in case of an attack. He looked up and saw lights coming in the distance, beyond the windows, just as they planned. "Nana… This is it."

"I know." His wife said, tightening her grip on their child. Her back was erect. She had been waiting for this day for months, and here it finally was.

"I love you. I… I'll try and find a way to see you again… I might take a while." Iemitsu raised a hand, placing it on his wife's cheek. Nana leaned into his hand and said, "I can wait. I love you, too."

Iemistu kissed his wife one last time on the lips as her car drove up. He looked down at his child – his baby, his little girl – and frowned.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get to know her more… I… Tell her about me?" The 9ths Rain Guardian, Schnitten Brabanters, had now pulled to a stop in front of the young couple. They made no haste, the young parents rushing out of the mansion. Schnitten had already popped the trunk, making it so Iemistu could throw the few and small bags of luggage inside. Nana had opened the back doors of the car so she could strap her daughter into the car seat that the 9ths guardians had not forgotten to install.

The trunk closed with a small bang, as did the back door.

Nana sent her husband – the love of her life – a fleeting look, grasping for the passenger door handle blindly. "I will, I promise." She opened the door and climbed in. She did not want to look away for what might have been the last time.

But she had too, because that was life and you couldn't always get what you want.

She closed the door behind her and bit her lip, trying to hold back tears, as the sleek, black car automatically zoomed away, leaving Iemistu behind.

She buckled herself up and looked at Schnitten. The older man, whose dark hair was slicked back as always and was wearing his usual tan blazer, was looking at the road, with a blank expression on his face, but Nana could see the flash of determination in his eyes with the reflected light from the streetlamps.

"I'll get you and the little miss out of here safely, Nana." The Rain Guardian said as the zoomed onto the Italian highway, which was more or less void of other cars.

The 20 year old hummed lowly in response, not wanting to speak; knowing what would happen if she did.

She would burst out in tears. But she couldn't, not now. Right now, she had to be strong.

Strong. For Iemitsu, for herself, and for their child, who was only 3 months old. She could not break down now.

If it meant saving that baby, who was sleeping in the back-seat, clueless to what was currently going on around her, then so be it.

"You know, Nana," Schnitten said, keeping his eyes on the road. "Since I've met you, I've been fond of you. You have a lot more courage than any of the other women, it seems. When the boss told your current situation, I was more than willing to help." He paused for a few seconds. "You are strong, I will not deny that. However, even the strongest of people need to cry. It is not good to keep it in."

Nana looked up at the older man, her brown eyes wide. Her shoulders were starting to shake and her breath was started to come out into small pants. She really didn't want to cry, she didn't...But Schnitten was correct.

She reached over to undo the pony-tail that her hair had been in, letting her long brown hair hit her shoulders and her face, creating a veil and she began to cry, her shoulders rattling.

Quiet sobs filled the car as Schnitten got closer and closer to the airport that would take Nana and her daughter away from their home of Italy and to the land of Japan.


Nana and Natsumi had settled in a small, peaceful town in Japan called Namimori.

It was quite the change for Nana, who had been used to her home in Italy. In fact, she had never really gone anywhere, except for the rare vacation with her maman and papa.

But it was a nice change. Growing up in a mafia family was never peaceful or anything of the sort.

When she moved in, her neighbor's – a sweet old couple who were probably older than the ninth – had greeted her with a housewarming gift –a cake – and they didn't say much about how Nana was alone with her daughter, just saying that they had a grandson maybe a few years older than Natsumi, with another grandchild on the way and maybe they could be friends.

It was a nice change, but it took adjusting too. It was definitely nothing like the fast-paced, tension-filled lifestyle that Nana had once had as a Mafioso. (Even when she had been pregnant and hidden away from most people in the Vongola, it was still as drama-filled as before.)

But this was for her baby, her little Natsumi, who couldn't grow up like both she and Iemitsu had. She would never put her daughter through that, and her husband more than agreed.

With time, she truly began to love this new lifestyle of being a mother who cooked and cleaned and watched over her child, something that she never, ever got to experience before.

Her flame inside her burned with determination, this was just like a mission, but more long-term and much more important than any of those missions that seemed trivial in comparison.


Authors Note: Hello and welcome to 'Bonds'. This is first in the 'Bonds' series (one out of a possible three) and it will be a novel-length story. The proper name is "BONDS: SKY AND SUN".

It is, admittedly, a work in progress, but that does not mean that I do not know what I'm doing – if that is any reassurance.

Updates will range from a week to a month, depending on how much homework I have.

Mmm.