Smile

A/N: Ugh. What on earth was I thinking a few months ago? I really had to stop myself from deleting the first 10 chapters or so. Anyway, sorry for the late update even though I said it would be quick. I had a few problems. Forgive me, haha.

Summary: The look in his eyes changed, even his voice changed; Tsuna came back bad-ass. His guardians want the old Tsuna back, but it won't be easy with everyday mishaps and enemies. Yaoi/1827

Chapter 14: Suspicion

Recap:

The bench was reduced into a pile of jagged spikes of burnt wood, and moreover, there was no person or such buried in it.

"What...?" Takeshi managed to mouth those words, finally snapping back to reality a moment later to frantically scan the area with his eyes.

Everyone else with the exception of Reborn and Hibari did the same. The two just stood in front of the former-bench, lost in their thoughts.

"No way..." a few of them chorused together after an entire five minutes, as Hayato dropped to his knees shakily. "Juudaime..."

Sawada Tsunayoshi; Vongola Decimo. Missing in action - suspected kidnapping by unidentified person(s).

End of Recap

The skies were dyed an alluring shade of crimson red, licking every detail on the brunet's face with a light red shade. The brunet himself, was standing at the corner of a run-down street, which seemed vaguely familiar. He was confused. Very confused.

He didn't believe that he was truly inside a dream. After all - if you pinch yourself and it hurts, you're awake alright.

Though, nor did he believe he was at the Vongola headquarters or anywhere near that in fact.

Nor did he want to believe this was some kind of alternate world.

"T-this is," he took a hesitant step forward, locking his gaze on a couple of torn-down shops further down the road. "-my dream; no, Italy." his subconsciousness accidentally let 'his dream' slip.

The scenery was all too familiar. His eyes gazed from the rundown buildings bathed in a frightening red glow and to the poor surrounding environment which had to suffer equal damage. Pictures of the normal land flashed through his mind, contrasting from red to blue over and over again, to the point of frustration.

"Dammit!" he cursed softly, grabbing a small fistful of hair as he spun around, "Where am I?" he wondered, walking up the street with no destination in mind. He just wanted to walk away from the scene that was forever locked into his memory; he just wanted to walk away from reality.

As he walked, the scenery seemed to be overlapping and repeating with no end. Tsuna picked up his pace - he jogged lightly despite the cursing pain all over his body. All of a sudden, his jogging began to falter as he felt his world spin.

"Dammit!" he cursed again, shouting it out quite loudly. With a few battering blinks with his eye, he gave into his fatigue and lost mind, collapsing in the middle of the sidewalk.

As the brunet fell to his knees, a taller figure came running up the road, calling out for him.

"Oi, you there," the voice sounded like a males, and to Tsuna's luck, it sounded worried. "-are you alright?" Tsuna managed a brief smile onto his lips, knowing at least he wouldn't be waking up in the spot he was in now. He didn't care who it was, anybody was fine.

The figure stopped running as he reached up to the unconscious brunet lying motionless on the dirty ground face down. Worried, he bent down and adjusted his sunglasses, turning the body over onto its' back.

"Oh my," the man said in a worried tone, adjusting his sunglasses again as he turned the person around on his back. Though, if he wasn't wearing the sunglasses, his eyes would've visibly widened.

"T-this person is...!"

Recovering from his brief shock after a whole minute or two, the tall man picked up the unconscious boy and carried him on his back, huffing and jogging back to his destination with only his newly found 'shock' in mind.

-Vongola Vicinity-

"Maybe it's those bastards!" Hayato shouted angrily, abruptly standing from his seat around the large mahogany table where everyone was gathered.

Reborn shot a glare. Not because he was angry at anyone - just himself, his stupid student and the annoyance of not knowing where he was or if he was even still alive.

"Sit down." he demanded, feeling his patience and uncontainable anger rise every minute. "We won't get anywhere without a lead or clue." the infant started, his eyes shadowed by the deep tilt of his fedora.

"Dammit," Dino cursed softly, thinking of nothing but his younger brother. "We found nothing during the investigation!"

The people in the room sitting in the chairs and scattered about the room hushed, as an uncomfortable silence approached them. Hibari, one of the few who stood around the room, closed his eyes, trying to maintain his 'calm and cool'. Though, it was hard - even for him.

When the person you love the most has been kidnapped and could well be in danger this very moment, sitting around in a meeting room discussing things wasn't exactly ideal. Though, it was safe enough to say that he couldn't go anywhere without any leads.

"This is Tsuna we're talking about, right?" Takeshi suddenly asked out of the blue, earning a few curious glances.

"Obviously, have you been paying attention you damned baseball idiot!" Gokudera fumed, refraining himself from attacking the raven-haired male in any way.

"No, I meant," Takeshi started, earning more curious glances or stares at this stage. "If this is Tsuna we're talking about, he should be fine, right?" he said, though he said it without a grin or anything alike. He was dead serious.

A few people perked their heads up at the optimism coming from the rain guardian, who was well known for his optimism and calmness in any type of situation. Except when it was about Tsuna, which was a real shocker in this case.

"But-"

"Well, this is Juudaime we're talking about..." Gokudera said thoughtfully, putting a hand to his chin in a thinking manner.

"Yeah, Sawada will be extremely fine." Ryohei added in, not shouting for once.

Without another addition of some kind of optimistic suggestion, it stopped there. Though, Reborn spoke up this time.

"Mukuro, mind sharing your suspicion with us?" the infant hitman inquired, his eyes still shadowed by his fedora.

"Oya, quite perceptive of you." a deep voice replied, as a figure shrouded by purple mist entered the room. As the mist cleared, Mukuro was seen with a straight face, not with the usual smirk he had on.

"What suspicion, Mukuro?" Dino asked, narrowing his eyes. "Tell us."

"I have a lead." with that said, everyone's attention was focused on him entirely. "-a lead I'm sure that will lead us to Tsunayoshi-kun."

"You-" Reborn started, though he was interrupted, which wasn't very pleasing. But nevertheless, this is Mukuro we're talking about.

"One of the attackers who took Tsunayoshi-kun was no doubt a former member of my Kokuyo gang." the illusionist said bitterly, making eyes go wide.

Though, at the mentioning of 'his Kokuyo gang', chaos erupted.

-Somewhere else-

"Ushishi~Lussuria, this is a lame joke." a blond haired man with full bangs said, his tiara shining brightly at the side of his head.

"T-this isn't a joke, bel-chan." Lussuria said uneasily, shifting his gaze back and forth from his fellow Varia members then the unconscious boy lying on the bed. "I found him exactly as he collapsed in the middle of the street."

"VOOI!" Squalo shouted, turning the attention on himself. "THE FUCKING BRAT ISN'T S-!"

"I think we all know that, Mr. long-haired captain." Fran interjected, his voice sounding the least bit surprised with the flat tone of his.

"B-boss will be shocked." said Levi, staring in disbelief at the boy on the bed.

From there on, another argument started. An argument over the unconscious boy who didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon.

Squalo and Bel went out at each other, both frustrated and confused at the same time. Levi was still speechless, Fran interjected at times and Lussuria hopelessly tried to calm them down. Seeing as his efforts weren't helping, the multi-colour haired man took out a small box from the inside of his coat.

"Open box." he murmured, as a bright light enveloped around a peacock at the foot of the bed. "I'm counting on you." Lussuria said rather solemnly, sighing at his comrades who were still arguing like a rabble, in which this case and all the time, was a fact.

The peacock's elegant feathers lighted up, directly a warm light to Tsuna, who still didn't move a single muscle despite being healed. As the light grew to its' brightest, the various cuts and bruises disappeared without a scar and his skin regained its' healthy colour instead of the pale it was a few seconds ago. On top of that, his bangs and back hair grew longer and his nails become much longer.

Then, as the light disappeared, the arguing stopped; the arguers hoping he would come to.

An hour later, Lussuria, who was keeping watch of the brunet (and cut his nails), called his fellow members as Tsuna finally eyebrows knitted together as if he was in pain and then, his eyes open slowly. Tsuna sat up slowly, eyes half-lidded. The Varia members held their breaths.

"..." Tsuna said nothing, but a second later, his eyes widened and his head shot up further - as if he had snapped out of a trance. Looking at the person at the foot of his bed, his eyebrows furrowed together in a confused manner.

"Lussuria...W-why am I at the Varia headquarters?" asked Tsuna, a look of confusion across his face. Looking around, he saw all the other Varia members with the exception of Xanxus. Though, he seemed to notice he wasn't the only one that was confused.

"H-how do you feel, honey?" Lussuria said in return, walking to the side of the bed so he could come closer.

Tsuna blinked without a reply. "Why do they seemed so shocked? Moreover, why am I here in the first place and-"

"Where's Reborn and everyone else?" he asked, perplexed, as he finished his thoughts out loud. Though, he grew even more curious and confused when the five men standing around the bed remained silent - every single one of them looking more confused than before in their own way.

-Vongola Vicinity-

Mukuro glared at the former-bench where 'his' Tsunayoshi was. Sighing through his nose as he turned away, he headed towards a large tree and leaned against it under the shade.

Taking out the piece of folded paper from his pocket, Mukuro re-read the contents of the small note over and over again.

'Mukuro-chan,'

'I know you've already found out by now - about what I'm doing.

I'm doing a favour for you, so just wait for me.

I'll get rid of those eyesore Vongola and take you back.

Though you may disagree with my decision now, you'll definitely thank me later,

You'll thank me and we'll go back to how it was during "those" times.'

Sincerely, XXX'

Scrunching up the note in his hand, he growled angrily and shoved it back into his pants' pocket.

He should have shown it to the other occupants during the meeting earlier, but he had knew the consequences of doing so. In the vulnerable state the Vongola was currently in, anything could break them. This note was no exception. Rather, it was probably the thing that would rile them up the most.

-Somewhere else-

"...the Vongola have fallen, and my funeral was held a few weeks ago?" said Tsuna disbelievingly, repeating the exact words Squalo had said to him. "This is a dream. It's a dream, Tsuna. Wake up."

"It's not a dream." said Fran, staring at Tsuna's strange behaviour like the others' did. Tsuna blinked. "I didn't say that out loud though..."

"Even if this was a dream, it would only be fair you tell us your 'story' since we did." the green-haired Varia member added in, ignoring the knife that was stabbed into his back. "Right now we're all thinking you rose from the dead."

"Shut up froggy, let the peasant talk already." Belphegor said impatiently, stabbing two more knives into the others' back.

Tsuna opened his mouth, but no words came out, so he closed it again. Repeating that twice more, he finally spoke. "I..." he began, noticing the eager reactions he was given.

He was in a fucking damned complex situation - he was screwed. Nothing made sense and his ability to tell the difference between reality and a dream had disappeared along with half of his sanity.

A/N: Uh, that was a freakishly short chapter. I'm so sorry! ANYWAY~ There's probably only one character in the Reborn series that calls Mukuro with the '-chan' at the end. Guess who :D Oh, and I didn't check this chapter properly because I got bored of it after reading over it really quickly twice. Ciao, until the next chapter.