A/N: First I'll like to say thanks to everyone reading, though I'm not sure if anyone is, I really appreciate it. Secondly, I have to say that this chapter is focusing on how Squalo and Mammon bond with Natsuki. Third, the next chapter will be the start of the Ring Battles so look forward to that. Fourth, I have uploaded an image for the book cover in how I wanted Natsuki to look.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN

Squalo's Story (Squalo's POV)
'What is that girl doing?' I questioned. I was on my way to the training room for my usual early morning training when I caught Natsuki sneaking around. She tip toed slowly, constantly checking her surroundings. Yet she was oblivious to me behind her.

I silently approached her and put my hand on her shoulder. I felt her jump a bit before slowly turning around. "Good morning?" She gave a nervous smile.

"Don't good morning my ass. What the hell are you doing?" I gave her shoulder a squeeze which caused her to stiffen more.

"L-Lussuria showed me a track so I wanted to do some laps. I thought it would be okay since its still Varia grounds." She was avoiding eye contact with me. Now looking at her clothes, I saw that she wearing her ruined school uniform from yesterday.

"If you were going on a run then why are you in your school uniform?"

"Um there the only clothes I have. Bel's clothes are not... practical for running." I raised an eyebrow to her suspicious behaviour. Since she was only kidnapped yesterday, it wouldn't be a surprising for her trying to escape.

"Are you fast?" If she truly was in training then she would be okay with a little race.

"Sort of. I guess? I mean fast is a subjective term. I like to consider myself fast but you do have longer legs. You are also older so you probably have more training. But I have confidence in myself. Sort of. There are other factors to include as well as there's-"

She continue to ramble on about whether or not she considered herself fast. Soon it started to tick me off. "VOOOI IT WAS SIMPLE QUESTION!"

Her posture became as straight as a board. "Yes, Squalo-sama!" She resembled a military solider from her stance. "Follow me."

I lead her to the track field and made her stand by the starting line. "We are going to race. One lap. 800 meters. If you truly were going to train then you wouldn't mind. If you beat me then I'll believe your cover story."

"But I wasn't-" I glared at her making her shut her mouth. She dropped her head in defeat before getting in starting position. "Three... Two... One... GO!" We both broke out into a run.

No matter who her father was she was still 15 years old. I looked behind me to see how far back she was. Instead I found her running beside me. Not wanting to lose, I started to give more effort which she matched. Screw pacing myself, I want to win.

Once we reach the finish line we both dropped to our knees. "W-who w-on?" She asked in between pants. We cut it so close that I couldn't tell who won.

"Hi hi! Good job you two!" We both turned to face Varia's main members. Judging by Lussuria's avid behavior, I figured that he was the one who told everyone to gather. "Congratulations both you! It was a drum-roll please. A tie!" Lussuria applauded us. A tie? No way had I tied with her. "So let's go inside and have breakfast now you two."

"NO WAY! I am going to beat this girl!" There was no way I was letting someone seven years younger than me, win. I watched as Natsuki rolled onto her back and groaned. "GET UP!" I went to kick her in the stomach. Her intuition chipped in as she rolled away from me. Nonetheless she continued to race me until we both couldn't move.

Over the past month Natsuki had participated in my morning warm up. As I watched her train I found that she preferred close combat over distance. Which was strange considering her weapon being a bow and arrow, a long range weapon. I offered to teach her the sword but she declined saying that the sword didn't feel like the answer.

Yet it wasn't until one day that I started to watch over her progression seriously.

Natsuki's POV
"You are late- Are you okay?" I watched as Squalo staggered his way to the track. I ran up to him and gave him support. When his body was against mine, I took note of how high his temperature was. I helped him slowly sit down on the grass. I put my hand up to his forehead.

"Squalo-sama, you're burning up. I think you're sick." He gave a few hefty coughs.

"No. I'm fine. Just a little tired." Squalo gave me a lifeless push. He used my shoulder to push himself back on to his feet. I placed his arm around my shoulder for him to lean on.

"I think a little is an exaggeration. Let's go back to your room." He didn't argue much as I started to drag him away from the track. Since Squalo was much taller than me, I couldn't fully support him leaving us to walk slower. Once we entered his room I made him lie on his bed. "Wait here."

I ran to the infirmary to get him some medicine and quickly returned. I grabbed a water bottle off his nightstand. "Here take this."

He refused by shaking his head, sluggish. "Come on Squalo-sama. Just be a big boy and take some medicine." He coughed a few times.

"That medicine causes... drowsiness. I have a job today. If I skip... my reputation will plummet... I need to be ready to go soon." He said in between his ridged breathes.

'This man and his pride.' I shook my head in disapproval. "How about this? You take the medicine and rest. When the car is ready for you to go, I'll wake you up." I shoved the pills and water in his face. He glared at me before reluctantly taking the pills. He settled into his bed and fell asleep quickly.

After a while I heard light knocking on the door. I opened it to find Lussuria. "Squalo's ride is ready to go." I looked back at Squalo sleeping soundly. "Mou Squalo-chan, I'll wake him up." I held my arms out preventing Lussuria from entering the room.

"I want to take his job." I couldn't let him go off on this mission. He was sick so not only can he get worse but he could be so tired that he would get struck down easily. I brushed Lussuria aside to get my weapon from my room.

"But Nat-chan, you can't leave Varia grounds without an escort." I looked back at Lussuria with a plan. I roughly grabbed his wrist.

"I'm not."

Squalo's POV
I rolled over to check the time. 6:15pm. I shut my eyes again. 6:15pm. I shot up from my bed, fully understanding the situation. No way had the car taken this long to get ready. There was only one answer.

"VOOOI WHERE IS NATSUKI?" I grabbed the nearest grunt to my room by the collar. "Where is Natsuki!" The member started to shake in fear. "Luss-neesan and Natsuki-sama w-were last seen getting into a car together. From their attire I think they were going on a mission." I tossed the man aside.

I took one of the spare cars we had and started to drive to the mission location. I abandoned the car on the edge of the forest. I had to run the rest of the way to the center of the forest where the car couldn't go. There was a small cabin there that was a supposed branch hideout. My job was to intercept a weaponry trade so that enemy families could get the advantage.

I threw open the door in rage. The floor was littered with traders most having grey arrows impaled in them. One masked man stood quietly in the center. I held my sword up. "Was it you who did this?" I kept glancing at each body in an effort to find Natsuki's hopefully not yet to be corpse.

The man bowed to me. With his head still down he said "Please forgive me Squalo-sama. I just wanted to help a little. You were so sick that you could barely walk. I couldn't let you go on this mission. Even now you look a little a little pale." I motioned for him to raise his head.

"Remove your mask." Under the mask was none other than Natsuki. "Is this your work?" Looking closer I found that her arrows pierced them in a non-lethal way. They were so close to the dead spots that a millimeter off could have killed a person in one shot. Instead she choose a way to either let them slowly bleed out or have a slim chance of ever using that body part again. Only a skilled marksman could aim with such precision.

"Yeah. The person who hired you said to keep them alive so that they could spread the word of his attack. Lussuria is also in the back 'playing' with the leaders." Now that I think about it Bel did say that she defeated 4 of our members when she was first taken. I even witnessed myself just how much she had only improved in the time with us.

"You do realize that I would have to tell Boss about today." Her eyes widen in fear. "What? Why? I did the job correctly. Lussuria was my escort today. Xanxus-sama doesn't need to know about this." I found a few spots of sweat developing on her face and her knees starting to shake. 'That attack Boss gave really scared her.'

"Boss has to know that... I want you to be Varia member." Natsuki gasped and covered her mouth. She remained silent for a moment. She didn't make a sound but from her bubbling movements I could tell she was ecstatic.

Five months later, Natsuki was finally an official Varia member under the name Haunting Shadows. The only condition that was placed on her that she must wear a mask to cover her face. If Vongola found out about a female member they would have investigated our new addition. So to add, she lowered her voice when speaking to mimic a male's. Now that she was a member, I would have to take her more seriously.

Mammon's Story (Natsuki's POV)
"Still too weak." Today was illusion training. After doing a few lessons with him, Mammon witnessed how fast of a learner I was and decided to keep my training beyond basics. Deciphering between illusion and reality was simple at times but being able to maintain an illusion was harder. I could only make small animals like bugs and stationary objects. Anything more would be unstable where holes would appear.

"I'm not done yet." I threw illusion vines at him. He split up into hundreds of Mammons, all taunting me. I closed my eyes to help focus. Instead of finding him, I got trapped in his blue tentacles. "Never leave yourself so open."

"I didn't." The one that he captured was an illusion that I was hiding behind. I made spider webs cover the entire room catching the real Mammon. "Got you." He sighed, easily breaking free.

"Look down." My feet was covered in ice. I tried to break free but my feet wouldn't budge. "If you cannot break free it only means that your perception-"

"I know, I know. My perception on reality and imagination is broken. It's just that they caught me off guard. They feel so life like too." Mammon let the ice thaw out. "You're improving but still not good enough." He floated at eye-level with his hand out.

I rolled my eyes at his predictable habits. I handed him his money from my past few jobs. "Thanks Mammon." He counted the money and gave me a nod.

I returned to my room to fill in my report from my last few missions. Sometimes Mafia work could be so dull. After an hour I felt that someone was watching me. "Whose there?!" I put my pen down to scan my room. Nothing happened but the feeling didn't go away. I scanned my room closer.

I jumped up to grab the top beam of my canopy bed. I swung myself up while balancing on the beam. "What are you doing here?" On top of the canopy was Fantasma. He croaked once. "Don't even try that. I know that you and Mammon have some way of communicating. Now why are you here?"

I scooped him up and dropped down. A man's voice echoed in my head. Fantasma must have been communicating with me telepathically. "Master wanted me to follow you around for blackmail. He said that you were very suspicious." Suspicious? Isn't it more suspicious that you send your magical pet frog to stalk me? It was crystal clear that Mammon didn't trust me. We've only talked during training so there was no reason he should. However that didn't mean he could spy on me!

I put Fantasma on my shoulder and went to find Mammon. According to Fantasma he would still be in the training room. I was preparing myself to give him a lecture about spying on me. I slammed opened the door to find that the training room was transformed into a mountain top.

"What is happening?" The entire room was covered from a light snowfall. The sun made the floor sparkled while the wind blew it around. A strong gust of wind pushed me back. I look down the mountain top to find nothing but clouds. Compared to the ice on my feet earlier this was an entirely new feeling. Even the smell of the training room of sweat and blood was gone and replaced with fresh, winter air.

"Master is releasing all of his built up power." I found Mammon at the top of the peak. His Arcobaleno pacifier was glowing in a brilliant indigo light. I've only seen his pacifier with the chain around it. Now that it was unraveled,

"It's all beautiful."

Mammon's POV
"It's all beautiful." I heard Natsuki's voice echo through the mountain. I found her at the door staring at me. Her mouth was slightly open in awe while her eyes were the size of saucers. 'Good grief that annoying woman. Fantasma must have been caught.' The illusion started to disperse and shifted back into the normal training room.

Natsuki came running up to me not caring that Fantasma was practically falling off. "Amazing! Amazing! Mammon that was absolutely amazing!" Her eyes were sparkling with admiration. She didn't even notice that her body was still shivering from the freezing temperatures. I expected her to question Fantasma but she seemed to have forgotten. Never before have I seen someone so mesmerized by an illusion I made.

"It's decided." Natsuki pointed her finger at me. "One day I will become one of the greatest illusionists ever that you will be forced to use that power on me." She took my hands into hers. The moment she touched my hands I shivered from the temperature. I didn't want to pull my hands back. It was a sign that the illusion fully tricked her body. It was also a sign of her determination.

Natsuki was going to become a fully-fledged illusionist worthy of my approval. I look forward to that day. Until then I'll have to keep a close eye on her.