Disclaimer: The characters and concepts presented are created and copyright of Akira Amano. The story is copyright of me, so do not use without permission.


Sawada!? Hibari growled internally.

"About time, Tsuna-san!" Dino shouted. He and Hibari kept up their strength as they fought off the attacking robots. Quickly destroying their heads seemed to leave them motionless. Hibari destroyed them form head to mechanical toe anyway.

"What's he doing now?" Hibari hissed. "Trying to save us?"

"You will not succeed!" a robot shouted. "We will---" Hibari just shattered its head and kicked it away.

"Watch yourself, Kyoya-kun" Dino said, much to Hibari's evident spite. "Don't overpower your ring."

"I'll be fine" Hibari defended, spiking a blast of power from his ring into his tonfa and smashing a robot clean in half with a single strike. "I just wish these things weren't all mechanical. It's only fun when my enemies bleed."

"Allow us to fix that" a harsh voice said. Many troops wielding automatics and geared in mist-augmented military uniforms appeared. A light glow of mist energy was around them. Hibari scowled deep that he wasn't able to sense it earlier.

"Damn" Dino cursed. "We're outgunned."

"We're not outpowered" Hibari growled.

"Give it up, Kyoya-kun" Dino ordered. Hibari's eyes went wide with murder. "We can't fight them back now..."

"Put you weapons down" the soldiers ordered. "You, boy, remove your ring and place it on the ground in front of you." Hibari glared down the soldier for a moment, drawing out as much time as possible, but the gun sights were visibly locked on him, not Dino. Hibari slowly reached for his ring...

"Onii-san" Tsuna said. Ryohei looked up at Tsuna with total awe and noticed his sister in his arms. Tsuna held her out and Ryohei's mind clicked and he held his arms out to receive her. Tsuna carefully, slowly placed Kyoko in the arms of her brother. "Take her back to the cabin" Tsuna said. "Make sure she gets medical attention." Ryohei's eyes started to for tears. He jerked, clenched his teeth and nodded. Ryohei went sprinting down the hill, ignoring the illusions that leaped out at him to stop, and headed for the cabin.

"Boss!" Gokudera shouted with relief. Tsuna turned, still crackling with his flame, to his thankful guardians. Gokudera and Yamamoto were right there, ready to greet him and say how glad they were that he was alive, and even Lambo managed to crawl up and see him.

"Hello, Young Vongola" Lambo greeted.

"Lambo-san" Tsuna said astonished. "How long have you been here?"

"Longer than normal..." Lambo answered. "You're safe now, so I should be gone anytime..." Tsuna smiled down at him, and he even began to laugh a bit, but something stopped him. His Hyper Intuition sounded off with a roar, and he instinctively darted his head skyward. Up on the top of the mountain was Hibari and Dino, surrounded by soldiers. Tsuna furrowed his brows and let his eyes shimmer. His gloves ignited and started roaring with a jet of flames that pushed him into a hover.

"Gokudera-kun! Yamamoto-kun!" he ordered. "Hibari-san is in trouble up there!"

"Hibari-san!?" Gokudera shouted in disbelief. "How? He's-"

"We need to help him!" Yamamoto shouted. From under his coat he unsheathed his special bamboo sword, swung it, and wielded the perfect version of his Shigure Souen sword. "Let's go!"

"He'll probably end up killing us for helping.." Gokudera said, pulling out sticks of low-grade avalanche-proof dynamite, "but we can live another day!"

"Lambo-san!" Tsuna shouted once more. "Get to safety, and make sure everyone's alright back in the cabin." Lambo nodded and tried his hardest to endure the pain and run back to the cabin. "Let's go..." Tsuna ordered. He blasted forward, a dazzling jet that could be seen from down the mountain side and back.

What's he doing...? Hibari growled to himself.

"Three unknown targets approaching" a robot reported mechanically.

"Grr" the lead soldier growled. "I've had it with you Vongolas! Open fire ASA-" he would have said P, but the force and speed of the Rain was far to great for him.

"Shajiku no Ame!" shouted Yamamoto, the first offensive form of his deadly Shigure Souen style! The lead soldier slowly fell as many glimmering orbs came into scene of the rest of the soldiers. They were bombs.

"Light 'em, Boss!" Gokudera shouted. From the sky, Tsuna swooped down, catching Hibari, Dino and his men while lighting all the bombs at the same time. A short distance away, they stopped and all the bombs exploded on the line of guards. "Yeah!" Gokudera celebrated.

"Sawada-san" Hibari growled. "You shouldn't butt into others busine-" Tsuna interrupted him with the Cloud ring, held out in front like a tempting treasure.

"Put it on" Tsuna ordered. The air began to shift with misty energy. Images of a body with an oddly fruit-like hair style began swirling around, and many more soldiers in a standby position became decloaked. The mountain was full of them, all of them wielding dangerous weaponry. "Don't hold back. Not a single ounce of power!" Tsuna shouted. Hibari slipped on his ring and equipped his tonfa. The Vongola Guardians, including Chrome from the cabin, and even Dino, stood tall and ready as the soldiers all moved in, clashing in a violent explosion of power!


"Kyoko-chan!" Ryohei shouted to his sibling's body. "Please, wake up! Can't you tell the voice of your Onii-san? Come on, wake up!" Bianchi paced over and grabbed his ear to pull him away from his resting sister.

"Shouting won't help her recover" Bianchi chided. "Can't you calm down like the rest of us!?"

"That's right!" Haru said, tears still clinging in her eyes from the relief of the news that Tsuna was okay. "You should believe that she'll get better! Just like how we all believed that they were alive the whole time!"

"I'm sorry!" Ryohei apologized. "I was just worried."

"She'll be fine" a medical mafioso from Dino's family said. "She doesn't have hypothermia, she's just lightheaded from fainting before being rescued."

"But she'll wake up, right doc!?" Ryohei pleaded.

"I just said she would" the doctor cautiously replied. "Just leave her be and keep her warm. She'll wake up once her body has readjusted to everything." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the medic left.

"What a great relief" Haru sighed. "Someone should go tell Chrome-chan that everyone's okay. She seemed to be the most worried."

"She's in her room" Bianchi said.

"I'll tell her" Ryohei said.

"No" Reborn ordered, slapping him down to the ground. "I'll tell Chrome-chan that they're okay."

"Oh" Ryohei dizzily said. "Okay, little dude. You can go..." Reborn hopped up to the third floor and peeked into Chrome's room. Sure enough, she already knew. She used her mist ring to harvest upon all of her powers and conjure 'real' illusions far away on the battlefield. Reborn nodded, signifying that all was right with the crime world, and began to leave. Just as he closed her door, however, Chrome came out of her trance with a start. She laid back in her bed and started panting, the energy she expended nearly toppling the other illusionary organs she supported.

Boss... she solemnly thought. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Chrome returned downstairs in her nightgown to meet Dino coming in the door with the unconscious Tsuna on his shoulder. Dino's clothes were tattered and full of small holes. There was a thin trail of blood running down his mouth. Chrome observed everyone who came through the door and illusioned over their gravest wounds. Gokudera's head was bleeding slightly, Yamamoto had a nasty bruise near his temple, Adult Lambo was looking thrashed as usual; she nearly strained herself as she taxed her powers to the limit to protect Haru's concern alone.

"He fainted" Dino explained. He cleared the long couch and laid the Vongola down on it with Kyoko on the couch adjacent to him. It seemed fitting to him. "His temperature is dangerously low."

"No..." Haru quivered. Bianchi pulled her aside and held her as she slowly worked up a dangerous sob. Then, Hibari came in. His shirt was covered in more foreign blood and oil than anyone else. He made a clean break for the stairs, ignoring Chrome peeking around the corner, and ran upstairs.

"Medics!" Dino shouted.

"Yes sir!" four men with contagion masks replied.

"Make sure Tsuna is okay" he ordered. "You three, come with me" he now directed at the other boys.

"What about Hibari-san?" Lambo asked.

"What about him?" Gokudera replied nastily.

"He might not want to hear it" Yamamoto whispered properly. Lambo shrugged and painfully followed them outside. Once they were gone from view, Haru deactivated her illusions on them once more.

"Thank you" Reborn whispered to her. He was perched on her frail shoulder, much to her shock at first. "Haru wouldn't have taken it well if she saw them all. You've done well." Chrome couldn't work up the nerve to respond verbally so she nodded with a stern, serious face. "You should go out there as well..." Reborn suggested. Then he hopped off her shoulder and let her decide her actions while he walked over to Tsuna.

"Poor Tsuna-san..." Haru sniffled. I-pin came up and looked at the sleeping, peaceful Tsuna curiously. She knew he was sleeping, but his face was so clear of harm and his body was so chilled form the snow that he didn't seem to be hurt at all. A quick snap of air breezed through the room and the door was heard shutting.


"I was hoping you'd get out here" Dino admitted seeing Chrome in the doorway. She stepped shyly over to the gathered group, with Dino and his men facing the semi-circled Vongola Guardians.

"We haven't quite met, have we?" Lambo asked Chrome. "I'm Lambo from the future. How do you do?"

"I'm...okay" Chrome answered.

"Gokudera-kun" Dino started. "I have to commend you. You took a bullet for your boss without even thinking. That's true Guardian behavior."

"I would have done it no matter what" Gokudera sternly said, wincing at the pain from the complimented wound in his side. "The Boss is the Boss, and we can never replace him. I'd've died for him. It's what a right hand ma-"

"And you Chrome-chan" Dino now started.

"I wasn't done!" Gokudera shouted. Dino ignored him and smiled at the cautious girl.

"You really helped us up there" Dino complimented. "If you hadn't exposed those soldiers, we wouldn't have won. You even protected us with your mist powers and took them out, somehow."

"I..." she shyly cooed, "...it wasn't all me. Mukuro-sama was there too." The rest of the boys, except Lambo, equipped angry looks at his name. "Uh...I probably shouldn't bring this up, but Mukuro-sama was the one who stepped in and fought them with you. I just concentrated on where he had to be. I didn't even know I could do that, I just desperately wanted to help the Boss..."

"And you did" Dino said, "as unorthodox a method as it was. Employing the help of one of his own enemies to help him. It's verily a Mafia first."

"I'm sorry" Chrome apologetically shouted.

"You shouldn't be" Yamamoto said, laying a calming hand on her. "You helped us, you and Mukuro-san."

"We just don't like him because he nearly killed all of us a while back..." Gokudera added.

"I'm sure he's a stand-up guy" Lambo joked.

"Lambo-kun" Dino said with surprise. "You're still here?"

"I suppose so" Lambo said. "I might not be able to leave until the Young Vongola is feeling better. Who knows?"

"Yamamoto-kun" Dino now began. "You were an astounding asset. I never knew you had such great skills with that sword."

"It wasn't my best" Yamamoto modestly admitted, "even though I'm not that great anyway. I just felt like I had to protect Tsuna-kun no matter what."

"What's what a good Guardian does" Dino said, nodding at Gokudera. With all the Guardians acknowledged, Dino extended a friendly hand to them. One at a time, they shook and bowed, seeing the Chiavorone boss and his men off on a snowmobile fleet that steered gracefully for their hidden mountain retreat.

"So, that's that?" Yamamoto asked. Gokudera grabbed the fedora from his head and shoved it in his face, a spiteful gag from his rival.

"That's it" Gokudera answered. "Let's head in and wash this day off."

"What about your wound?" Lambo asked.

"It'll heal" Gokudera stubbornly replied. "I'll keep that scar with pride, though."

"Everyone" Chrome softly announced. The snow started falling again, and even it seemed louder than she did. "Thank you...so much..." The boys smiled bashfully, even Gokudera had to turn away in embarrassment for having Mukuro's better half move him to blush. "But, it isn't over" she continued. The boys became a bit more startled this time. "I saw you guys fighting through Mukuro-sama's eyes. He told me that the Boss had overexerted himself beyond human limits. He said that if we can't effectively shock him out of his sleep, he might not wake up at all!" The boys were now in urgent shock. Gokudera made a rush for the door and busted inside.


Up on the second story, Haru searched around for a fresh towel in the towel closet, but found none. Someone had taken them all in passing. "Hahi, that's rude" she observed. "I need a towel for Tsuna-san and Kyoko-chan's head. Where can I find one..." She ascended the steps to the third floor and thought she heard a bird happily chirping. She ignored it, seeing that it was almost completely dark out, and opened another closet. Inside was the body of the resort manager, propped up against the wall with tape over his mouth and broken glasses. Haru slammed the door shut, pretended she never saw that, and walked into the bathroom to scream bloody murder...