SkyGem: Waaai! I'm so happy that even after so long, this fic is still popular! I feel so touched that I have so many loyal readers! At this rate, reaching a thousand reviews isn't just a dream (I hope)! I'm so happy, and I'll let you guys in on something really awesome, but you'll have to wait until the end of the chapter to see what it is, otherwise you won't be able to pay any attention~ Anyways, let us move on to the story!

"Tsunayoshi Taru is, as of a few hours ago, dead."

The silence in the room was so profound, you could almost hear the Earth rotate.

Giotto stared up at the younger Don with an uncomprehending expression on his face. In his mind, the words "Tsuna" and "dead" didn't belong together in the same breath. It was only when the three Vongola women let out simultaneous wails of grief that the full weight of what Byakuran had said sunk in.

Slowly shaking his head, Giotto said in a quiet voice, "No…" After a short silence, he looked up at Byakuran with an expression as if the world was coming to an end, and shouted in a louder voice, "NO!"

The Millefiore Primo merely arched one elegant eyebrow, but remained silent. He watched as Giotto's eyes flickered between sky blue and orange the colour of his sky flames, and wondered if the man even had enough energy to go into dying will mode. The next moment, though, his question was answered as Giotto's eyes settled into solid blue, but the enraged blonde was not to be deterred.

Slowly getting to his feet in the confined space, he suddenly lunged at Byakuran, a ferocious growl ripping from his throat as he battled against the restraining chains around his wrists and ankles. "I'm going to kill you!" he threatened, and Byakuran just smirked.

"I'd honestly like to see you try, Giotto. I-"

Before the white-haired man could finish, he was cut off as the rest of the Vongola guardians broke out of their stupors and slammed themselves against the cages they were in, trying to get at the man that had killed their nephew. For a second, Byakuran honestly looked a little scared that they would be able to escape, so furious they were. When the cages refused to let them escape, he smirked and turned to leave the room.

"I hope you understand now that there's no hope of you ever escaping. But don't worry. As soon as Shou-chan has killed the others, you'll be following them." And with that said, he left the room, chuckling quietly to himself.

After he had left, the guardians stared after him, not quite knowing what to do. The women were still keening loudly, and after a moment of stunned silence, the guardians all slumped to the floor in defeat, the tears they had been holding back finally escaping onto their faces. They all sobbed quietly to themselves, both out of the immense grief of losing Tsuna, but also out of the suffocating fear that their kids would also be taken from them.

Tsuna can't be dead, thought Giotto, shaking his head in denial. His heart wouldn't accept the thought that his son wasn't in this world anymore; that small voice in his mind kept telling him that his Tuna fish was definitely still alive. Deep down though, he knew it wasn't possible. Tsuna was dead, and Giotto would never be able to forgive himself.

Ten Years Back

A fourteen-year-old Tsuna yawned lazily and turned onto his side, squinting at the sunlight that was streaming in through his bedroom window at the Vongola's Japan mansion, where he had been living for almost two years now. Propping himself up on one elbow, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around. When he saw the clock, he almost didn't believe it was already eleven. This was the first time Reborn hadn't woken him up at the crack of dawn.

Shrugging and thinking that maybe his tutor had decided to give him a day of rest, the young heir made his way to the washroom to take a quick shower.

When Tsuna came out almost half an hour later, dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans, a white t-shirt, and an orange hoodie with the number twenty-seven on it, his stomach started doing flip-flops for some reason. It wasn't that he was nervous or anything like that (why would he be?), but it was almost as if something were terribly wrong.

Trying to ignore the feeling, Tsuna absentmindedly headed downstairs for breakfast, wondering where the sun arcobaleno could possibly have gone. When next he realised where he was, the brunette found he had walked straight past the dining room and was headed towards the foyer. He was confused for a second, wondering why his feet had carried him there. After a moment of thinking, though, he slipped on his shoes and quietly slipped out the door, deciding to trust his intuition which, at this moment in time, was telling him to go look for Reborn in town.

It wasn't until, just a few feet outside the gates of his family's manor, he was engulfed in a cloud of pink smoke, did he remember that he probably should have let at least one of his siblings know where he was going.

Ten Years Later

Everyone's favourite silver-haired bomber was strolling slowly down a path in a thickly canopied forest, but his thoughts were nowhere near as relaxed as his gait. Ever since that fateful event almost a month ago, the family he belonged to, the family that had always been so close, had practically fallen apart. Everyone blamed themselves for letting Tsuna go into the conference room alone and for not being able to save him. Now, they couldn't all stay in the same room without one of the older kids getting into a fight, and even Takeshi didn't have it in him to stop them anymore. The rain that was supposed to wash away all the pain of the family refused to fall.

As Hayato kept walking, he saw that it was starting to get lighter up ahead, and knew that he was not far from the clearing where his younger brother's coffin was waiting for him. The clearing was his temporary resting place until it was safe enough to have his body transported back to Italy, back to his home, to be buried in his family's ancestral burial grounds.

He almost turned back right there, not wishing to see the elaborately decorated coffin lying in the field of brightly blooming fire lilies; a sight too beautiful for all the pain it caused him.

Just then, though, Hayato heard a sound, the sound of a coffin lid sliding off, and his eyes widened as he rushed towards the clearing, determined to protect his nidaime's body with his life. When he got to the clearing, though, he froze at the sight he saw before him, and his heart ached painfully for the sight before him.

There, sitting in the coffin, on a bed of white trilliums that contrasted starkly with the red of the fire lilies, was the one person he thought he'd never see alive again.

Soft chocolate locks shone in the sun as their owner turned to look at Hayato, having heard him approaching.

"Hayato?"

SkyGem: Hehe, seems pretty familiar, don't it? But I assure you, even though it's similar, Giotto and his guardians' involvement this time will change things quite a bit. Anyways, please do leave a review, and tell me what you thought, ne? Arigatou gozaimasu!

P.S. I almost forgot! I was supposed to tell you something amazing, wasn't I? Well, here goes: next Friday is my last day of school before winter break, and I'm going see if I can try and start updating daily again for those two weeks! So I hope you're ready for it, mukirome! If you're not up to it, or if you've changed your mind, then send me a PM, hm? Otherwise, I look forward to your assistance.