In the tiny smoke-clogged room where the great Vongola Decimo chose to convene with his guardians and assasins, Sawada Tsunayoshi, age twenty-seven, had finaly become the man Reborn had shaped.
He had become a mob boss.
"All right, gentlemen. Let's get down to business." The Don began, "First of all is the little problems. There's been some drug trafficing going on in Shibuya back home. I want to get a handle on this before the Yakuza steps in- it may not be a big thing, but with the problems we had back when we took over the area, I don't wanna get soft. I don't want the Yakuza to start thinking they still run the country."
"I'll send someone." Hibari volunteered.
Decimo shook his head. "I've got something more important for you. I'm putting Lambo in charge of this one."
The Bovino confirmed. "Got it."
"Excellent. Now the next one is a snowball. Some jackass borrowed money and didn't pay us back, we broke his thumbs; which is usually adequately convincing, but this guy decided that instead of being reasonable, he'd use the money he should have used to pay us back to hire a third party consultant. Chrome, Yamamoto, I want you two to put him in line."
Yamamoto blinked. "You need two guardians for one guy?"
"The third party consultant I mentioned? The Bonanno Family."
"Oh. Well. That's kind of dumb of him, huh? Getting in trouble with the mafia and then hiring a rival family to get him out. That's twice as dumb as coming to us in the first place." Yamamoto observed.
"That's more than just double. Probably hoped by pitting the mafia against eachother he'd slip out. The dumbass." Gokudera said.
"But anything involving the Bonanno is enough to warrant a Guradian or two. Anyway, that's still small stuff compared to the next order." the boss began, "That's America. We've got a hold on all but one of the major Italian families; the Gambinos. It seems Don Gambino has connections with America's Russian, Irish and Chinese mafias. Word is he's even got a couple of feds. They're mostly set up in the east, but it looks like he's got plans to expand- cross country. We've let it go this long because we'd figured our American families would take care of it even without orders, but it's clearly not happening. Squalo, I'm giving this one to the Varia. Now, taking out Gambini won't do any good- he's got a lot of people under him and beside him, so someone else will just take his place. I want you to take out the heads of all the families he's working with. Also, I want you to take out his underboss- preferably while he's watching. I want Gambino to know we can kill him at any moment- he'll be eating out of the palm of our hand whether he likes it or not. the boss finished sullenly.
"But Boss, " Chrome started gently, "Won't that make the Russian Irish and Chinese mafias angry at us? It sounds dangerous."
"I've taken this into consideration. That's why I'm sending the Varia- by involving the Vongola's Assassination Squad, any retaliation will will have to be taken directly against me. No international families planted in America has the power or guts to go against the Vongola- any actions they do take can be thwarted or contained."
"If that's the large-scale business, what did you need me for?" Hibari demanded impatiently.
"That's the next order of business. There's been an infiltration. Half the Castellano, some of the top DeCicco, and nearly all of the Gotti are in cells. I want you to contain the leak before another family winds up in jail. Got it?"
"Any leads?"
"Just a tapped gambling parlor that's already been shut down."
"I see. I'll take care of it. Anyone turn?"
"I don't know. But the DeCicco is one of the Cavallone's families, Dino might know something."
"Very well. But if he insists on helping, I'm holding you responsible."
"Yeah, yeah. Now, the final order of business is another American problem."
"Che. America's such a troublesome place." Gokudera scoffed.
Sawada eyed him. "Yeah, but it's also important. We let go of America and we might as well invite them to trample allover us."
"I know that, Juudaime."
"In any case, there's been something brewing for a while in Florida. A couple of 'retired' Dons have been tangling with the Colombians."
"Oh shit." Ryohei muttered.
"'Oh shit' is right. Anything involving the Colombians generally involves a whole lot of 'oh shit.'" Lambo added.
"Do we know any details?" Hibari asked.
Decimo shook his head. "Only a few names. We'll need to send someone for surveillance, its the best bet."
"But doesn't that mean we'll need someone who speaks English AND Spanish?" Yamamoto asked.
"If we want anyone we trust they'll speak Japanese and Italian as well." Lambo added. "Do we know anyone like that?"
"We do." Said a voice from the far end of the table. The man, physically teen-aged, smiled slyly from under the brim of his fedora. "I speak seven languages. The four mentioned, plus French, Russian and Cantonese. My Mandarin's a little too rusty to count as fluent."
"Ah. I should have expected as much from you, Reborn. You'll take care of this, then?"
"Consider it done, Decimo." The hitman said confidently.
"Everyone else continue with their previous assignments. Meeting adjourned." The Tenth stated with an air of finality. The others nodded and they all filed out of the room, their boss the last out as allways. As Sawada exited, he found Reborn leaning on the door frame, apparently waiting for him.
"Come have a drink with me, Loser."
The Vongola laughed. "Still calling me that after all these years, Reborn?"
His tutor smirked. "You'll allways be a loser to me, Tsuna. You coming or not?"
"Yeah," he sighed. "A drink sounds nice right about now, Reborn. Real nice."