Natsu's hand lashed out and grabbed a small child about four or five with ridiculously fluffy hair and cow-print onesie glaring at Reborn holding a gun at him.

In a single move he had the kid tied up and his weapons confiscated.

Then he yawned widely.

"Kid, it is entirely too early in the morning for any murder attempts on people who would ignore it entirely, and Reborn is cranky when he hasn't had his morning coffee. So for all our sakes and your own, chill until after breakfast, okay?" said Natsu tiredly. Seeing a tantrum in the works, Natsu cringed. "Do you want any juice? We have grape, apple and orange."

That did the trick.

"Can Lambo have some grape?"

Natsu narrowed his eyes at him.

"What do we say when we're asking for something?"

"Please?" said Lambo slowly.

"Good. Here's your juice," said Natsu, easily poking the hole in the top and making sure it was within reach of the kid without untying him.

He set about making breakfast while the kid sipped his juice and calmed down. Reborn barely batted an eye at his presence.

"Why is the Bovino brat on the counter tied up?" he asked sourly.

"Caught him trying to sneak into the house. It's too early for guns and explosions," said Natsu tiredly.

"The kid likes grapes," supplied Reborn. He knew that much about him.

Natsu smirked and reached in the fridge for something. Lambo's eyes were firmly on him as he pulled out a large batch of grapes, as well as some grape jam and some bread.

"If you behave I'll make you something to eat and you can eat these, okay? But you have to leave Reborn alone and explain why you're trying to attack him," said Natsu firmly.

"Lambo will behave," said the boy.

Natsu started making breakfast, including some toast that he cut up into halves and slathered some grape jam on. He untied Lambo and the boy set about eating like he hadn't had anything in days. From the condition of his clothes, he probably hadn't.

"Now why are you after Reborn?"

"The Boss said I had to take out Reborn to be considered a full member of the family," said Lambo.

Natsu looked at him.

"Lambo is the nephew of the man who leads the Bovino familigia. His parents are dead and he doesn't really have any proper minders. Most people find him too annoying to deal with," said Reborn. You could tell from his tone he was among those people.

"So he's an orphan who hasn't had any real family to take care of him and raise him properly. And he's Active, from what I can tell to boot."

Lambo felt like a straight Lightning, and if trained could be just as strong as Gon was. But he was little and hadn't had anyone to take care of him, making him reckless.

Why did he kept attracting the broken ones? Even Hayato was damaged to some extent from the way his sister and father treated him.

Natsu sighed.

"Lambo, how would you like to stay here with us?"

Seeing the child's eyes widen in shock, Natsu smiled tiredly.

"I know what it's like to live on the street, and if you stay with us I promise we won't leave you or make you do something stupid like try to kill Reborn."

The boy's eyes filled up with tears before he started bawling. Natsu hugged him gently and let him get it out.

"It's okay Lambo-kun. You're not going to be alone anymore."

Alluka pouted a bit finding out she had to share her Natsu-nii, but she took the role of big sister very well considering. Even if Lambo was a bit of a brat.

Most of that calmed down when Lambo realized Natsu wasn't going to kick him out and actually listened to what he had to say. More than that, Natsu had a strange knack with kids that left some baffled.

Until he explained having to use them on his brother Ken far too often, with much laughter from his nii-san. Mukuro found his ability to make Ken behave around others hilarious. Chigusa would just give the boy a stare down like you wouldn't believe, and Ken followed any order from Mukuro without hesitation.

Besides, it was either gentle discipline or Natsu would break out the dog whistle again. Ken hated those.

Natsu had been having a hectic month, but then something happened that made his life so much more amusing.

Reborn had a friend by the name of Trident Shamal, who happened to be a doctor. Now normally this wouldn't be interesting in itself, regardless of Shamal's usual method of fighting and the fact he had diseases canceling each other out.

Except Shamal had recently taken on an apprentice/intern, who would be acting as his assistant in his 'job' as the school doctor.

Natsu had taken one look at the "assistant" and started laughing his ass off, and for good reason.

"How the hell did you run into this idiot, Leorio?" he said, once he had his breath back.

Leorio grumbled under his breath once he realized who it was.

"I blame you," he said flatly. "When were you going to tell me that the damn mafia tracks down Flame actives?"

"I thought I already explained that, considering why I had to take the exam in the first place," said Natsu openly amused.

"Shamal was nice enough to take me on as his apprentice, so I can still get my doctorate and get the training required to be a full hunter. He's a pretty good drinking buddy. Wasn't expecting to run into you so soon though," grumbled the twenty-something year old.

"The feelings mutual. On an unrelated note where are you two staying?"

"Shamal said something about hopefully crashing at a friend's place. Why?"

Natsu smirked.

"Well my old house is still vacant and it's not like I'm planning to use it anytime soon. So long as you can manage the upkeep you're welcome to use it. Unless you don't mind rooming with a bunch of teens and a few kids."

"...Let me see how bad it is at your place before I take you up on the offer of the house," said Leorio.

In the end they took up the offer of staying at Natsu's old home, though Leorio did take the opportunity to find out about the teen.

From what he saw, the boy's father was nonexistent and he had been very, very close to his mother.

Shamal hadn't said anything about the suspicious stain on the floor, but Leorio had his own thoughts about what it was. Mostly from the limited amount Natsu had told them during the third phase.

If this was the same house his mother was killed in, then he didn't blame the kid for a minute for not wanting to come back.

"Ciaossu."

Leorio only stared for ten seconds before he shook his head. Gon was a major powerhouse at eleven, so it was entirely possible this guy was even stronger.

"I take it you're Reborn?" he asked cautiously.

"Natsu mentioned you were a Sun, but you have no training."

"Yeah, Natsu helped me unlock my Flames a few months ago to save my life. I'd be dead right now if not for him," said Leorio, lifting up his shirt to show a spectacularly nasty scar on his side. The healing was rough, and it wasn't pretty to look at, but the mere fact he was alive was a testament to how stubborn the man was.

No wonder Natsu had harmonized with him so fast. Saving his life would have sped up the process immeasurably.

"I hope you don't mind being humiliated repeatedly, because I'm going to be putting your ass through the wringer until you get the basics down," smirked Reborn.

Natsu was damaged and too well trained for most of his tricks to work. His civilian Sun, on the other hand... he looked like he would be fun to train.

Leorio winced, but didn't complain. He needed all the training he could get, if only so he could become a proper doctor later. He had the basics of Nen down, but Flames eluded him considering Shamal was a Mist and not much help.

Though he did bitch when Natsu somehow tricked him into acting as a damn babysitter for the little cow brat during school hours.

Natsu merely had to look at the calendar before sighing. He hadn't properly celebrated his birthday since his mother died. Either he was too busy trying to avoid the damn mafioso out to capture him, or he was training with Fon. All it meant to him was another year without his mother, a fact that pained him every time it came around.

To say nothing of how depressed he got on the actual date he had been able to work out when she died. He was inconsolable for a week whenever that day came up.

He didn't really care for anything at all.

Reborn observed his student from the shadows, and frowned at how depressed the boy was. Even though he knew damn well the kid's birthday was in less than a week. Not to mention his own.

Well, Natsu had been keeping that annoying Bovino brat out of his hair since the kid showed up, and it wasn't like he cared to celebrate his birthday much anyway... it wouldn't kill him to do something nice for the kid every once in a while.

Using his mother's old photos was more than enough motivation for Natsu to listen to his orders. While it was less entertaining than the hell he put Dino through, the simple fact was that even he couldn't fault the kid for loving his mother and keeping her memory alive.

Mafioso were very big on respecting one's mother...hell, even Xanxus was big on that, and he was a total brat growing up!

"EH?! Natsu-sama's birthday is next week?!"

"Keep it down, idiot puppy. And yes, from the file I was given his birthday is the day after mine. I highly doubt he's bothered to celebrate it since his mother died," said Reborn.

Alluka puffed up.

"We need to make it extra special then!" she said with a determined look on her face.

Natsu was nice to her and wasn't afraid of Nanika. Even when she pestered him, the only thing he wished for was for Alluka/Nanika to be happy and stay they way they were.

Needless to say he won over her "other" self pretty fast. No one had made a wish for Nanika to be happy or ask for anything just for her. As such he had become more or less immune to Alluka's pestering and Nanika's retribution.

The others she only left alone because it would upset Natsu-nii-san. She didn't want to be locked up again...it had been so hard to get out the first time!

"Which is why I'm calling in the cavalry...and giving you all Iemitsu's bank information. Have fun," said Reborn wickedly.

Hayato blinked.

"Who's Iemitsu?"

"The idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut and never bothered to put up a proper guard around his civilian family," said Reborn. Seeing Hayato didn't get it, he simplified it further. "Natsu's other genetic donor, the one that left them alone when they should have been protected."

"In that case I think we'll be draining his accounts dry, or as close as possible. Can we upgrade our weapon's vault?" asked Hayato darkly.

Natsu explained why he couldn't go near his old home to them one night when he accidentally mistook grape wine for Lambo's favorite grape juice. After the first bottle he had broken into the liquor cabinet which only he and Reborn had the combination too and got absolutely drunk.

He didn't talk about his time with the Esterneo, but he did tell them of why he hated the mafia.

Finding out his genetic donor hadn't even bothered to do his damn job and protect them like he should have hurt. It hurt a lot. Iemitsu had long since forfeited any rights to being considered a father years ago, and nothing he did would ever make up for what happened.

"Do I look like I give a damn if you bleed him dry? Though if you really want to and upgrade our intel with accurate data..." said Reborn thoughtfully. "Get what you need for the party and any presents, and I'll drain the rest."

Mammon would love the idea of draining Iemitsu's accounts dry, especially as Reborn would be using the Arcobaleno Mist to find the missing trio that Natsu called his brothers. He had an idea of where the Lightning Sun, Misty Cloud and Cloudy Mist were (Gon, Killua and Kurapika respectively), but they were busy finishing their other training. If he needed them, Natsu could always reach them through his phone. They had exchanged phone numbers after all.

Payback was a bitch and Iemitsu had a very long, long list of things he deserved to have come back with karmic vengeance for. Especially when it came to his former family, because there was no way in hell Natsu would ever acknowledge him as anything that had power over him, much less a relation to him. He'd probably take to Xanxus before he ever trusted his "father".

(And yes, Mammon was more than happy to overcharge Iemitsu's account for information regarding Mukuro's whereabouts. From the sound of things, the teen and his group were steadily making their way to Japan anyway.)