Future's Past: A dark dawn
by shizuke
Despite having more news about their 'future', Tsuna didn't share it with his friends. It was obvious that with all they had done after being transported into the future, their own future would change. It was unnecessary to dig up more about the dark future they had helped alter.
But he wanted to satisfy his own curiosity without dragging his friends along. So Tsuna continued attending school and training as if nothing was wrong, patiently waiting for Lambo to be hit by the Ten Year Bazooka. Unfortunately, the next time TYL Lambo appeared was during group training with Yamamoto and Gokudera.
The swanky cow youth appeared in the midst of their combat training and called out to Tsuna. "Young Vongola, would you like to continue our conversation?"
Tsuna paused his attacks on Gokudera and Yamamoto, and stared, gobsmacked, at Lambo. He forgot to tell Lambo that he meant to keep this a secret from the others.
"What conversation is he talking about, Tenth?" asked Gokudera, who was curious about all things Tsuna.
Come to think about it, Gokudera was passionate whenever it came to Tsuna. Could he be the one Tsuna was infatuated with in future? The possibility was definitely there. Good, he could ask Lambo now.
"Lambo, meet me in my room. I'll bring the coffee up," said Tsuna. He turned to his friends apologetically. "Sorry, I have to talk to Lambo about something. Can we continue training later?"
"No problem, Tsuna," replied Yamamoto easily. "Can we come with you anyway? It's been some time since we spoke with the older Lambo."
"What?" squawked Tsuna.
"You have good ideas every now and then, don't you, baseball idiot?" said Gokudera with less venom than usual, mostly because this meant he could spend more time with Tsuna. "It's alright, right Tenth? You go on ahead upstairs. Yamamoto will bring the coffee for us."
Tsuna sighed, giving in. When Gokudera was pumped up like this, it was useless to try and diffuse him. Besides, it wasn't like he was trying to hide some big secret. "Aren't you helping Yamamoto with the coffee?"
"No, I'm checking the perimeters for my sister first. I must be careful at all times," said Gokudera before taking off to make sure that Bianchi wasn't anywhere near before following Tsuna to his room.
Lambo was already seated on the floor, waiting for Tsuna. He was slightly surprised when he saw Gokudera coming in with Tsuna and Yamamoto bringing in a tray of coffee for four. "They're joining?"
"Does it bother you?" asked Tsuna anxiously.
Lambo shook his head. "It's more likely to bother them than the either of us."
Tsuna lifted his eyebrows. What did Lambo mean by that? "So, we have less than five minutes now, right?"
"Don't worry, I've got Giannini to modify the bazooka a little for me," said Lambo with a smile. "I can stay for an extra ten minutes now."
"That's a relief." Tsuna sat down opposite Lambo. Gokudera took the spot to his right while Yamamoto sat on Tsuna's left. Lambo looked on with an amused grin on his face.
"What's so funny, stupid cow?" asked Gokudera, rude as ever to everyone except Tsuna.
Already used to this sort of abuse, Lambo didn't even rise to the bait. "Sorry, personal joke. Maybe you'll understand it when I end my story."
"Story?" said Yamamoto, confused. "I thought you and Tsuna were catching up."
"Actually, I've been to talking to Lambo about the future," revealed Tsuna. Gokudera and Yamamoto tensed up visibly. Tsuna couldn't blame them. He had already made peace with his eventual death but that subject was still a little sensitive with his two friends. "He's telling me what the situation was like before we went over to help."
Gokudera suddenly snapped to his feet. "That's right! You knew what was happening in the future all along, didn't you, stupid cow? Why didn't you tell us?! Shouldn't you have shared important news like the Tenth's death with us?" His voice kept rising until the whole neighbourhood could hear him.
Tsuna tugged on Gokudera's pants leg weakly. "Gokudera-kun, please sit down. Lambo isn't comfortable about this either."
"Yeah, sit down," said Yamamoto, strangely devoid of his usual cheer. "I want to hear the story too."
Gokudera complied reluctantly but not without a withering glare at Lambo. The youth from the future took a deep breath. "I'll continued from where I left off the last time, okay, young Vongola?"
Tsuna nodded.
"Since I was still receiving education at my time in the future, I didn't know too much about what was going on in the mafia world," said Lambo. "I-pin and myself attended Namimori Junior High before it was closed down due to mafia feuds. You were one of our most distinguished alumni members, young Vongola, and you made frequent trips to your old school.
"During one visit to the school, a rival mafia group tried to assassinate you by planting explosives in one of the school buildings and detonating it while you were still in the building. You managed to come out unscathed but many students, including five teachers, perished in that attack. Ever since then, you were banned from visiting Namimori Junior High."
"What?" growled Gokudera, slamming his fist against the floor. "That isn't the Tenth's fault. Can you blame him for being a target?"
"No but I can blame you for not checking the building before the young Vongola went in," replied Lambo sharply.
"Gokudera, Lambo, please don't start." pleaded Tsuna.
The silver-haired bomber retracted his claws again, shaken by the truth in Lambo's words more than anything.
Lambo continued, "Our futures were changed by that school bombing. After our enemies exploded the foundations of the school building, the first box weapon was unearthed. It was Hibari who took custody of that box weapon, declaring it to be his since it was found in Namimori soil. That box weapon is his ancient hedgehog box - the first among many box weapons that will be found in the coming months.
"After finding the box, Hibari devoted himself to discovering its origins as well as how it worked. Eventually, he even found out how to manufacture them. When the time came, the Millefiore would pilfer his research to make their own box weapons but that's not important right now. What's important is that with the discovery of the box weapons, the mafia world suddenly became a lot more dangerous.
"The future Vongola Decimo knew that it was imperative to learn how to operate the box weapons," Lambo looked at Tsuna straight in the eye. "You established an office in the Vongola especially for box weapon research and training. Although it was Hibari who pioneered the search and knew most about the boxes, Hibari would never agree to divulge information and training, even to the Vongola.
"To make sure everyone wasn't left behind, you called the Vongola guardians to gather in Japan again so that you all could train together. Sasagawa Ryohei returned from America with Miura Haru-neesan. As of that time, the both of them had been dating for nine months."
Lambo smiled indulgently at the three shocked faces looking at him. Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto couldn't believe it. Ryohei and Haru?!
Lambo didn't wait for them to recover from the shock to continue. "Chrome Dokuro didn't show up. It is suspected that Mukuro had been learning about the secrets of the box weapon even from the darkness of the Vendici prison and had transferred his knowledge and skill to Chrome. Yamamoto returned from China-"
"I was in China? Cool!" exclaimed Yamamoto.
To which, Gokudera retorted, "Don't interrupt, you idiot!"
"-with a wife and child," ended Lambo.
"EH?!" cried the three listeners simultaneously.
"I don't remember Yamamoto having a wife and child in the future!" exclaimed Tsuna.
"He doesn't. I was just joking," said Lambo. Within a second, he found himself against the wall with Gokudera nearly choking him.
"This isn't the time to joke, you stupid cow!" snapped the silver-haired arsonist.
"Gokudera-kun!" yelled Tsuna worriedly.
"Gokudera, release him!" cried Yamamoto, struggling to pry Gokudera's fingers from Lambo's neck.
It unnerved Tsuna the most to see Lambo so unaffected by this. Before this, he would've kicked, screamed and made a fuss, being the crybaby that he was. Or was he merely playing up the fact that he was a crybaby to cover up the darkness of the future he was living in? Had Lambo been acting all this while?
"Let me leave you with something interesting before I go," said Lambo, calm even in the face of Gokudera's seething anger. "Yamamoto Takeshi would never have a wife and child because in the future that I know of, the Rain guardian was hopelessly and irrevocably in love with the Storm."
With a flair of drama, Lambo disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Gokudera holding a baby against the wall. He relinquished his hold on baby Lambo and took several steps backwards, numb from shock. He slowly turned his head towards Yamamoto, who was staring hard at the ground, a rare frown marring his features.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Tsuna. I'm not feeling so well right now." Yamamoto picked up his bag and left the Sawada household without another word. Back in Tsuna's room, Gokudera stayed uncharacteristically silent, reeling from the shock of the discovery.
Tsuna sympathised with his friend. So it wasn't just in the future. Yamamoto was already in love with Gokudera. Tsuna wasn't as surprised, since he already had an inkling of what Yamamoto felt for Gokudera. But to think that even nine years into the future, Yamamoto's love would still be unrequited.
It was really sad.
For the first time, Tsuna was second-guessing his decision to hear the story of the future's past from Lambo. It seemed to be filled with sadness and what Lambo had just revealed was only the tip of the iceberg. He knew the story would only end when Lambo revealed how he, Sawada Tsunayoshi, would die.
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== D0 Y0u W4N+ +o H3r M0R3? ==
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The next day at school, Yamamoto was back to being his cheerful self. He completely ignored the heated looks Gokudera gave him the same way he ignored Gokudera's insulting jabs before. Every time Tsuna or Gokudera tried to bring it up, Yamamoto would laugh loudly and change the subject.
Tsuna decided to just let him be and sort out his feelings. They weren't short of time for that sort of thing, after all. After hearing Lambo's story, Tsuna started seeing Kyoko in a different way. His attraction towards her was slipping bit by bit, much to his dismay. She became more of a sister figure than potential wife material.
The future Kyoko must've known about him being the tenth boss of the Vongola. He made a note to himself to remember to ask Lambo how he had revealed his profession to Kyoko in the future.
It wasn't only Tsuna who started seeing his friends in a different light. Three of them - Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto - began observing Ryohei and Haru more often, trying to see if they could see the spark of attraction between them. But they failed. The present Haru was still as Tsuna-crazy as ever. In a sense, her hyper-craziness matched Ryohei's extremeness.
Additionally, Gokudera had started sneaking glances at Yamamoto whenever he thought nobody else was looking. He looked as if he couldn't decide his own feelings towards the baseball player. Tsuna decided to be kind and not call his friend on it.
But the three of them shared a common yearning to hear more of Lambo's story the next time he appeared in that time.
The next time TYL Lambo appeared, the three of them were having History class. The swanky youth just burst into their classroom asking if they wanted to continue the story. Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto were immediately sent out of class for the disturbance. Naturally, Hibari was present to oversee their punishment.
But when he found all of them sitting in a circle on the rooftop, he was curious in spite of himself."Why are you crowding at the rooftop during lesson hours?"
"I'm telling them a story," replied Lambo before Gokudera could pull out his dynamites in defense. "Would you like to join us?"
"Eh?!!!" exclaimed Tsuna. Gokudera and Yamamoto he could understand but Lambo was inviting Hibari to join them now? Did he want to get bitten to death?
To his utmost surprise, Hibari didn't leave. He didn't join them but he didn't leave the rooftop. "Continue on with your tale. If it's something ridiculous, I'll bite you all to death." Then again, Hibari had been to the future as well. He must be at least a little bit interested.
Lambo cleared his throat and began. "During those times of turmoil, Mafia Land had been converted into a training centre where allied mafia families could train one another. Young Vongola here was the head of that training facility, mainly because you had the most influence in the mafia world and also, you had the strongest dying will flame in the world. The only one who came close to your flame was Cloud guardian, Hibari Kyoya.
"By that time, the box weapons were quickly becoming primary weapons of every mafioso because they were so much more powerful than a sword or the gun. But to become powerful with a box weapon, you need heaps of determination, a good box weapon and a powerful ring. Good box weapons can be manufactured but the number of rings with high purity were very, very limited.
"Only the very powerful and rich could even dream of getting their hands on a class A ring. The Vongola rings had a purity above class A. Naturally, people wanted to snatch them for their own. The Mafia Land training facility soon became a battlefield for the Vongola rings. Fortunately, all Vongola guardians were capable of fending off their enemies. Obviously, Mafia Land had to be closed down.
"But it wasn't only the people from other mafia families who wanted the Vongola rings. Even those within the Vongola group wanted the rings for themselves. It soon became an issue of who was worthy to have the Vongola rings. Nobody questioned people like Hibari or Yamamoto but everyone was skeptical that someone as young as I should inherit the Vongola ring. Not to mention, the Mist guardian, Chrome Dokuro, had not been seen in years.
"Everyone in the Vongola started to demand for a competition to see who was worthy of inheriting the Vongola rings. Needless to say, the future young Vongola didn't stand for it and ordered for the rings to be destroyed. The future you said, 'Class A rings are good enough for us. There is no need for such powerful rings to exist in this world.' And so the Vongola rings were no more.
"Shortly after that, the Millefiore appeared."
Lambo paused to take a drink from Tsuna's water bottle. The audience remained silent in the serious mood of the story.
"You already know the story of the Millefiore so I'm not going to go into that," said Lambo. "That family began wreaking havoc the moment they appeared from the darkness. It was then that Hibari approached the Vongola boss after his long disappearance since finding the box weapon."
Tsuna turned to look at Hibari the same moment Hibari did so. Their eyes met for a bare second before Tsuna quickly averted his out of fear.
Lambo continued, "Aside from researching the box weapons, Hibari Kyoya and his disciplinary committee were also the unofficial watchmen of the mafia world. They observe the working and going ons of other mafioso and step in when the order was upset. Hibari came to Vongola that time because he suspected that there were traitors within the Vongola inner circle.
"Despite a thorough investigation, none of us could stop what was about to happen. Weeks later, the Cervello left the Vongola to serve the Millefiore. The Cervello handed a list of important Vongola personnel to the Millefiore. That was how the Vongola hunt began."
Tsuna swallowed. Cold sweat was sliding down his neck. He wondered if the others were feeling as antsy as him at the moment. Gokudera and Yamamoto were fidgeting. No doubt there were thinking about his death again. Hibari, however, looked as unperturbed as ever.
"The Millefiore struck Italy first," said Lambo, "since Italy was originally their home base. Gokudera-san, who was stationed at Italy received the blow. The Vongola headquarters was wiped out in a single day. Tens of people died and many more injured. I remembered seeing Gokudera-san being wheeled into the emergency ward with blood all over his body. He couldn't see out of his left eye after that."
Gokudera breathed in sharply while Yamamoto bit down hard on his lip, looking very troubled indeed.
"Yamamoto-san wanted to rush to where Gokudera-san was," continued Lambo, "but the Vongola boss ordered him to remain in China and reinforce their base there. They could not afford to let the Millefiore claim China as well. For that, Yamamoto-san hated the young Vongola boss a little bit."
"I did?" said Yamamoto, very surprised. He couldn't imagine hating Tsuna at all.
Lambo nodded. "If I remember correctly, your exact words over the phone were: 'If Hayato dies, I won't ever forgive you, Tsuna.'"
Tsuna swallowed, edging away from Yamamoto a little. Who knew Yamamoto could be so scary?
"You! How dare you threaten the Tenth like that!" exclaimed Gokudera with visibly less vigour than usual. He seemed conflicted between being moved that Yamamoto cared that much about him and being angry that the baseball idiot had threatened his beloved Tenth.
As Gokudera and Yamamoto continued to bicker harmlessly, Tsuna saw Lambo lower his head. Concerned, the approached the the other boy and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Lambo, are you alright?"
Lambo snapped his head up immediately, a strained smile on his lips. "Yes, I'm fine. Just...thinking," he said softly. "I used to quarrel all the time with him too."
Hibari's voice cut the commotion short as he raised his tonfa. "This is slowly becoming ridiculous. If no more information can be gotten out of you, it's time to bite you all to death."
"In the future, you were involved with someone too, Hibari-san," Lambo spoke up, catching everyone's attention once again. Gokudera, Yamamoto and Tsuna froze with disbelief. Hibari? Dating? That prospect seemed impossible. Lambo went on, "Not many people knew about it since the both of you were very low profile about your relationship. Even in the Vongola, the only ones who knew were the guardians."
"Speak," snapped Hibari, eyes narrowing.
"Sasagawa Kyoko," said Lambo. "You were in a secretly dating the Sun's sister."
Hibari lowered his tonfa. "Understandable. That girl is a tolerable individual."
"EH?!?!" cried the other three boys.
"Kyoko-chan and Hibari-san?" exclaimed Tsuna. "But I thought I was dating her!"
"You were only pretending to date her, remember?" reminded Lambo.
Even Yamamoto was stunned. "I can't believe it. That Kyoko-chan will date Hibari?"
The bell rung, signaling the end of an hour and the start of another lesson. Hibari made for the door leading to the rooftop. "This conversation is over. The three of you better get to class before I bite you to death." It surprised the other boys that Hibari left without a fuss. Perhaps Hibari was more fond of Kyoko than he let on.
Tsuna turned to Lambo stiffly, still trying to process the new information. "Let me get this straight. I'm pretending to date Kyoko, who's actually dating Hibari-san?"
"Tenth! You are so honourable!" exclaimed Gokudera passionately. "You pretended to go out with Sasagawa to protect her while she's two-timing behind your back! You deserve someone better, Tenth!"
It sounded strangely like Gokudera was offering himself to be Tsuna's partner, much to Yamamoto's displeasure. Tsuna smiled sheepishly. "It's alright Gokudera-kun. Kyoko-chan wasn't two-timing me behind my back. I probably knew about Kyoko-chan and Hibari's relationship at the time, right Lambo?"
Lambo was staring wide-eyed at him. "Young Vongola, you're alright with that?"
Tsuna blinked confusedly. "Shouldn't I be? You told me that I wasn't in love with Kyoko in the future."
"That's true but," Lambo bit his lip, "you were in love with Hibari-san."
Author's Notes: Ahaha, I wonder how many more twists I can make before it stops making sense! 8D