Ciaossu everyone~! I'm sorry for the long delay, since my dear editor took so long to type it in. Never mind that! Recently, I've been thinking of writing a new story (of course I'll still continue this one!) about Hibari and probably an OC too. But oh well, I'm already so busy with this one, so I'll store that idea on the shelve for a while first. And PrimoWing and I are constantly skipping school now since exams are over, so we've only seen each other once a week, and that was when I passed chapter 12 to PrimoWing which was on Monday.

Special thanks to all the readers! Your reviews have inspired me to write more and more stories!

And of course, special thanks to my editor PrimoWing, for taking the time to correct all my grammar mistakes!


Chapter 12 ~ Strike

Neah watched the side of the wall explode with the force of a small bomb in amazement. A second later, the wreckage of the wall simmered and the wall reappeared. Neah raised his eyebrows until it was in danger of disappearing into his hair.

'An illusion?' Neah thought. 'It's probably the Vongola's Mist Guardian playing some pranks.'

Well, he was right. In a way.

A few minutes later, a silver-haired boy suddenly shot through the illusionary wall, cursing and flapping his hands in mid-air. The boy fell down with a 'thud!' onto the floor of the ground.

Neah winced. "That looked really painful." He muttered to himself.

Another boy suddenly leapt out from the illusionary wall, hooting with laughter as he jumped out. On his head sat a baby wearing a black and orange fedora while the boy held a cow with a bomberhead hairstyle, who was wailing so loudly that Neah closed both his ears while gritting his teeth in irritation. The boy landed onto the first boy and some yelling ensued. Neah watched as a girl jumped out, followed by another boy.

And they all landed on the same spot, which was the behind of the silver-haired boy, who looked like he was having a terrible day. Neah was so engrossed in what was happening below that he didn't notice one of his henchmen tapping his shoulder until the henchman whispered into his ear. "Sir, shall we attack?"

"Hm?" Neah turned to face his henchman with an irritated eye. "Don't disturb me now, ya idiot." He hissed softly. "Or I'll dispose of ya first."

The henchman retreated backwards but there was not enough space on the branch for him to move any further. "I'm sorry, sir. I apologise. Please forgive me."

"Hmph, maybe this time." Neah licked his lips in anticipation as he turned back to the scene. Another boy had landed on the ground. Neah squinted. Was that Primo? It did look like him. From this distance, Neah couldn't really see properly and Valkyr did say he needed glasses. Hm.

"Attack now." Neah hissed as he slipped on his gloves. The gloves hummed as the energy coursed through them. "Aim for the others. I'll personally take care of Vongola Primo."

"Huh?" The henchman said in disbelief. "But sir, that's not Pr—"

"Shut up, you moron and listen to me!" Neah snapped as he jumped off the branch to intercept the Vongola. The henchman sighed in defeat and gave the order to the rest of his comrades.

"Attack!" He ordered.


"Huh?" Tsuna blinked his eyes at Yamamoto. "Company? Where?"

Tsuna's question was answered when Neah suddenly jumped out at him, claws ready. Neah's eyes widened in shock when he saw Tsuna's face up close.

'Crap!' He thought in horror. 'This ain't Primo! The boss is gonna murder me!' Neah stopped in mid-jump and fell down onto the ground, groaning at his own mistake.

"H-hey!" Tsuna said in alarm. "Are you alright?"

"Huh, who's this kid?" Yamamoto asked curiously.

Neah instantly sprang back onto his feet when he heard the 'kid' word, his eyes blazing with an internal fire. "And can a kid do this?" He yelled and rushed towards Yamamoto, claws at the ready. Yamamoto's mouth fell open and he dodged the attack just in time, his sword hanging loosely from his hand as he did so.

At that moment, the rest of the Xernus attacked, engaging Yamamoto and the rest in battle. Gokudera yelled and started throwing dynamites everywhere, causing chaos as the smoke blocked the Xernus and his allies' visions. Lambo was just simply screeching, pulling pins out of grenades and randomly tossing them at any shadow that moved in the smoke regardless of friend or foe. Chrome was trying to avoid the attacks by the enemy, but not many of them targeted her, instead choosing to go for Ryohei, who was standing beside her, throwing punches at anyone who dared to come close to him.

And Reborn? He was making quick work of the Xernus by shooting them with his gun, even though he knew he was badly outnumbered. The Xernus responded by shooting back furiously with their own guns, scattering the Vongola in all directions as they dodged the bullets desperately.

Neah smiled at Tsuna, his eyes glinting. "Don't you just love this chaos?" he said softly. "Blood splattering everywhere, life after life being snatched away." Neah laughed. "It's just glorious, ain't it?" He glanced at Tsuna. "Don't worry. Your end shall be quick and painless. I prefer not to toy with weak people like you. It wastes my time fighting some weakling."

Tsuna stared at Neah, his eyes going hard. "What's so glorious about people dying?" He asked in a shaky voice as he stood up. "What's so wonderful about a life being snatched away? Nothing in this world can replace a human life, and yet you," Tsuna paused to take a deep breath. He glared at Neah with the full force of his anger. "You talk about them like they're mere toys for you to play with!"

Neah looked taken aback at Tsuna's sudden outburst. "Of course they are," he replies, smirking. "Humans are such foolish beings, and oh so easy to manipulate, if you know how. People are my puppets. They dance along the way I pull the strings. That's how pathetic people are. And you, the Vongola, are the perfect example! You think you are the best, when actually you're just dancing along to my master's whim!" Neah paused for a while. "Oops. Sorry, kid. I shouldn't have said that to you. Never mind. I'll kill you right here, right now even though you're so young. Shouldn't have entered the mafia at such a young age, eh?"

Tsuna backtracked as fast as he could but the wall of the house blocked his progress any further. He gulped. Should he go into Hyper Dying-Will mode and risk revealing his identity to Primo and his dysfunctional guardians or (gulp!) get his ass kicked by the psycho person standing in front of him, a sneer on his face.

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled, his dynamite in his hands as he gave a beautifully planted kick on the face of a Xernus spy who had tried to sneak up on him. The poor spy went flying and hit the wall with a 'bam!'. "That's the commander of all the useless morons here! I'll get him for you!"

"Get out of the way, boy." Neah said coldly. "This is a fight between the kid and me. I recommend ya to not interfere."

"Stuff it, loser!" Gokudera yelled in anger. "I shall protect the Tenth with my life!"

"Tenth?" Neah's eyes narrowed, a cruel light glinting in them. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Neah activated his energy claws and with one click slash, struck Gokudera on the shoulder. Gokudera cried out in pain as he stumbled and fell onto the ground clutching his shoulder, dropping his unlit dynamite on the floor.

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna yelled and attempted to go to his friend's rescue but a bullet suddenly whizzed pass his nose, missing it by a mere inch. Tsuna turned and saw Neah holding a pistol which was smoking slightly.

"You should pay attention in a fight, boy." Neah said in a bored voice, but his expression was a total contrast to his voice, glowing with a maniacal aura as he stared as Tsuna hungrily. "Leave that kid as he is. Oh, don't worry," Neah commented as he saw Tsuna's expression. "He won't die. I just knock him out for a while."

Tsuna's anger gauge finally reached its limit with a 'zing!'

"That does it," Tsuna said softly. "To hell with what Primo and his guardians think if they see me. I don't care anymore." Tsuna pulled on his mittens and gulped down his pills. The orange flame sprouted on Tsuna's head as he positioned himself into a fighting stance. "Why don't you just face me one-on-one instead of targeting someone else?" Tsuna yelled at Neah.

"Heh," Neah grinned, pocketing his pistol into its holster. "So you've finally decided to come out and play, didja?" Neah activated his claws again. "Now, don't go crying for your mummy if I kick your pathetic ass, okay?"

Tsuna snorted, "I should be the one saying that, ya know."


G stared down the hole in the wall, gaping at what he was seeing. "It looks like a party that has gone seriously out of control, Primo!" He said in amazement.

Primo instantly asserted the situation, "If those kids had been spies, don't you think it's weird that the Xernus are attacking them?"

"That happens all the time within the Xernus," G said dismissively. "Nothing uncommon."

Primo raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, its called the chronic backstabbing disease." G deadpanned.

Someone in the room snorted.

"Primo," Asari said urgently. "Me, Knuckle and Lampo are going down to keep the situation from exploding. Just give us the go ahead to do so."

"Alright," Primo said. "Just try not to kill anyone. And recapture the kids. I have thousands of questions to ask them."

"Roger that." Knuckle said. He strode out of the room, dragging a protesting Lampo with him by his neck collar. Asari followed suit, his robes trailing on the floor behind him.

"What're we going to do now, Primo?" G asked the blond man. "Get down there to drive the spies out?"

"I'll do that." Primo said. "G, you stay here."

"Eh?" G blinked in surprise. "Are you sure you'll be alright by yourself, Primo?"

"I'll be fine." With that, Primo jumped through the illusionary wall. It was like jumping through liquid that didn't drench you wet and left you perfectly dry when you go through it. He landed with a thump on the ground, his eyes already taking in the action (or chaos).

A few smart spies (sadly, there are very few of them) spotted Primo and charged towards him, guns flaring bullets. Primo put up one leg against the wall and pushed himself airborne, avoiding all the bullets. He smashed the spies with a well-placed spinning kick that knocked all their guns away.

"Bastard!" One of the spies growled and pulled out a knife which glinted ominously in the sunlight. Primo noticed it and kicked the said spy's hand, forcing him to release the knife. Primo then aimed a chop down on the spy's neck, knocking him out of commission temporarily.

"One." Primo counted silently.

Another two rushed towards him, one from his right and the other from his left. Primo took the sight and noted the good news. They weren't holding any weapons.

But the bad news was that they were holding flash bangs.

Primo quickly jumped out of the way. A second later, the flash bangs went off, blinding everyone looking at it. Luckily, Primo had shielded his eyes in time to avoid going blind. While everyone looked dazedly around for a few seconds, not noticing what had happened, Primo quickly took down as many spies as he could, knocking them unconscious onto the ground.

"Six down." Primo sighed and looked around.

"And about 40 more to go." He added silently.


Hibari woke up to an annoying headache throbbing in his skull.

He remembered everything that had happened to him. He growled. It was so humiliating to be knocked out by such a primitive trick. He had been so focused on Mr. Irritating-And-Jerk ass-Pineapple-Head-2 that he hadn't notice the other herbivore creeping up on him and knocking him out.

Hibari looked around the room. There weren't any windows for him to destroy to escape and he had no doubt that the door was modified specially to keep intruders in their place. It was impossible to escape from the room.

Unfortunately for the room, Hibari excelled in the impossible.


Tsuna avoided blow after blow, countering with punches and fast kicks. It wasn't enough though to hit Neah.

"Come on, man!" Neah taunted. "I've seen a thirteen year old do better than you! What are ya, too chicken to attack me directly?"

"Shut…up!" Tsuna yelled and propelled himself forward directly into Neah's face, slamming his fist into Neah's face. Neah was faster though and his energy claws met Tsuna's gloves in a flurry of orange sparks, lighting up both their faces.

"Not bad, boy," Neah said through gritted teeth, his mouth stretched into a tight smile. "But too bad for you…"

Neah's leg caught Tsuna in the stomach and Tsuna gasped, his body bending over in pain. Neah took the advantage to slam his fists into the boy's face, knocking him backwards by about a meter. He saw the blood flowing out of the boy's nose and mouth and smirked. Neah walked over to the boy and pulled his head up by the hair.

"Don't die on me so fast," Neah said, his eyes wild. "I haven't even started yet!" On his last word, Neah kicked the boy on his head and heard something cracked in response. Neah sighed and stood up, looking down with contempt at the boy's broken body. He gave it another kick. Neah knew the boy was still alive, because his dying will flame was still burning, although it had went down considerably in terms of brilliance. Had the boy lost his will to fight? If so, then all Neah had to do was to beat it into him.

Neah lifted his leg to give the boy another kick, but halfway, his leg was suddenly stopped. Neah frowned and looked down. He saw a gloved hand grabbing his leg, stopping any further progress. Neah wrenched his leg out of the boy's grip and flipped himself into a backward somersault, making sure to put some distance between him and his unpredictable opponent who was staggering to stand up, wiping the blood away from his face.

"Hey, you're still alive after the beating I gave you?" Neah mused. "Why are you so difficult to kill?"

Tsuna spat out the blood in his mouth, wiping the rest of it away. "I can't die yet," he muttered softly and slowly. "Not until I return everyone to the future."

Neah laughed. "Everyone? You mean your friends? Give it up! Return them to the future? Jeez man, are you having delusions of grandeur? I don't even know what sorta crap ya're spouting. Maybe I kicked you too hard on the head, doncha think so?" Neah took out his pistol, reloading it with trained hands. "Man, I don't even feel like fighting you anymore, so I'll just shoot you!" Neah fired off a shot, but Tsuna dodged. Like the previous bullet, the shot missed him by barely an inch, whistling past his hair as it did so.

Tsuna glared at Neah. Was he missing his shots on purpose?

His question was answered when Neah sent another stream of bullets his way. All but one missed. The one that didn't miss struck Tsuna on the cheek, grazing the side of his face like a knife. Tsuna coughed up blood and tried to wipe away the blood from his wound, but Neah sent another hailstorm of bullets towards him, forcing him to jump into the air with his gloves.

Tsuna knew that he was badly overpowered by his opponent. But what could he do about it? He could use his X-Burner again, but at what cost to the surroundings? And what if his friends were caught in it? No, he couldn't use it. Not here, not now. He couldn't afford to. So…

"Kufufu….what a big mess you've landed yourself into, Sawada Tsunayoshi." A voice suddenly sliced into Tsuna's desperate thoughts, jerking him back to the situation. "Not to mention that I too have been dragged into this pathetic mess together with Vongola lackeys. What an insult."

Chrome suddenly looked up, her eye shining with disbelief and hope. "Could it be…?" She said softly

Gokudera also heard the voice. "The retarded pineapple head is here too?" He yelled at the spy whom he had been about to attack a second ago and who was looking blankly back at his opponent.

"Allow me to handle this." Mukuro's voice said from out of nowhere.

"You bastard!" Gokudera yelled. "Show yourself first!"

"Hmph." Mukuro's voice said disdainfully. "I don't take orders from Vongola's lackeys but just this once…"

The mist that was ever present around the mansion suddenly started to thicken behind Neah. Neah whipped his head around and jumped back by a meter to avoid ramming into Mukuro.

"Wha—" Neah growled. "What the hell's going on here? Is it Vongola's Mist Guardian?"

"I'll prefer you to not brand me with that title." The mist cleared and Tsuna saw Mukuro, standing in front of him in all his demonic glory. His usual smirk was in place as he glanced at Tsuna. "It's nice to meet you again, Sawada."

"Now, hang on a minute!" Gokudera barked. "Weren't you at the Vindice? How did you get out? Or are you an illusion?"

Mukuro glared at Gokudera, who returned the glare with one of his own. "Foolish boy." Mukuro said primly. "I'm not an illusion. Of course, you can touch me if you want proof."

Gokudera almost collapsed on the floor upon hearing that. "Hell no!" He yelled. "Who the heck wants to touch you, you perverted pineapple head?"

Neah yawned. "I'm growing old here, man," he sneered. "If you're finished with ya touching reunion speech, maybe it's time to focus on the battle!" With that, he took out another pistol (Goodness, how many pistols does he have?) and started shooting two of his pistols at the same time at Mukuro and Tsuna. Tsuna yelped and blasted himself into the air. Mukuro simply smirked and disappeared. Again.

Neah gritted his teeth. "God, I hate illusionists." He muttered.


About Neah's name, it was actually PrimoWing's idea. I had already thought up of names for all the commanders except for one. Then PrimoWing said "Hey how about Neah?". I was like " Huh? Neah? And where did that come from?" PrimoWing just said "Well it came from my favourite anime!" Then I researched it and found out it was the name of some 14th Noah dude from D. Gray Man. LOL, I've just only started watching D. Gray Man so I'm pretty blur on this issue.

Please review if you liked this chapter!

Ciao for now~!