That Which Obscures The Sky
Summary: When Reborn comes to Namimori on Vongola Nono's request, he was NOT expecting to find a Sky all for himself. This was not in his job description and the hauntingly familiar face wasn't helping him any. The question now is, what will he do?
Japan, Namimori, present day
Reborn had not expected it to be possible to find a more dame dame student than his previous one, Dino Cavallone, who he had thought was as dame as you can get when not around his men, but then he had come to Namimori and met Sawada Tsunayoshi and he had learned just how wrong he was. Dino's grades had at least been average and he had some physical abilities that he could base his training on. He'd had friends - as strange as his friendship with one Superbi Squalo might be - had known two other languages and had at least some knowledge on how Dying Will Flames worked and the dynamics that could be formed with them.
Sawada Tsunayoshi's grades were worse than dismal, he had no friends and was a bit socially awkward at best. He might even be clumsier than Dino ever was, but Reborn's not entirely sure. He'd known Dino for five years and had managed to condition the young man into competence when his Family was around. Tsuna looked like the type of person to be clumsy regardless of everything. Reborn had hopes training would get the kid going, that awakening his Dying Will Flames might help him get some physical coordination, but the first few Deathperation Shots did nothing to help.
It also didn't help that Tsuna was a wimp, a civilian and had no fighting experience beyond maybe getting bullied, though thankfully Reborn didn't have to deal with that idiocy as well. It would seem that Tsuna's school - and apparently the entirety of Namimori, as far as his brief scouting of the area could tell before he went to meet with his student - had a zero tolerance policy where disrupting the discipline and breaking the rules was concerned. Which was rather interesting, considering the fact that he had recognized several retired mafioso, freelance hitmen and assassins and even a former Todd Guardian. The town was ruled by an iron fist and Reborn was interested to meet the person who had this place under such strict control.
Things might get troublesome if they have something against the chaos Reborn's methods inevitably cause. He's not here to butt heads with some arrogant prick; he's here to train the future mafia boss, the Tenth of the powerful, influential Vongola Family. Timoteo Vongola, the Ninth boss himself had asked Reborn to complete his task, to return a favor he owed Timoteo from years ago. Reborn really would not have the patience to deal with some random oyabun in a neutral zone like Namimori. If the person were to show up to cause trouble, he'd probably just shoot them on the spot.
Then the incident happened, about two weeks into his training with Tsuna.
That day, in the Reception Room, Reborn finally officially met Hibari Kyoya.
He'd noticed the boy before, of course. It was impossible not to and not just because the kid exuded the type of aura Reborn was used to feeling from the strongest and deadliest assassins and hitmen in the underworld. What had first drawn Reborns attention to him was, indeed, the feel of him. He could tell at a glance, judging by his posture, his easy confidence, the elegance with which he moved, that he was strong and skilled and deadly.
It was still the boy's face that had truly captured his interest. Because that was a face he knew very well, though the color of his eyes was all wrong. Steely silver-blue instead of warm chocolate brown. But if you ignore that fact, Reborn felt like he was seeing Fon, the Storm Arcobaleno, restored to his full glory, if a few years younger.
And that was a jarring experience.
So jarring that Reborn would have gladly ignored Hibari Kyoya, if only he had not sensed something very interesting in the kid besides his aura. Strong, pure Cloud Flames with an undercurrent of something else he could not feel without getting closer to the teenager. Clouds were rare, especially ones that showed as much potential as Fon's lookalike. After observing the boy for a day, he decided he wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out Hibari was related to Fon in some way. He actually knew very little about his ... old friend, especially about his personal life. Hibari could very well be Fon's son, for all he knew. The teen looked like he was about a year older than Tsuna, so the age matched up. Seeing him fight that day, the speed that was very clearly not as fast as he could go, the skill as he took down Gokudera and Yamamoto ...
Yes, Hibari Kyoya was definitely related to Fon and a strong potential Guardian for Tsuna. He just needed to check their compatibility, he had thought as he watched Hibari beat everyone up and then advance on Tsuna as he tried, in Dying Will Mode, to prevent his friends from falling out of the second story window. They just needed to have over 0,5% compatibility for them to be able to form a bond. Hopefully, they'd have just over that, because it would be a shame if someone as strong as Hibari slipped them by. He doubted Tsuna and Hibari were actually compatible above maybe an optimistic 5%. Compatibility of Flames can often be seen in compatibility of character, especially where Clouds and their potential Skies were concerned. If Tsuna is more than five percent compatible with Hibari, Reborn will eat his own fedora.
Drawing the older teen's attention to himself brought him some entertainment, as the boy immediately attacked him. He noted that Hibari did not care for age, or perhaps he saw Reborn as the truly biggest threat in the room and didn't care for his size. Whatever it was, Reborn had Leon, his ever fateful chameleon partner, turned into a poker as he was and he used him to block the upcoming tonfa. Hibari's eyes widened in surprise and delight.
"Wao, you're amazing," the Disciplinary Committee Chairman praised, looking excited. Reborn couldn't help but smirk, pleased. He opened his mouth to say something, but was surprised into momentary silence when his Flames lurched forward suddenly and latched onto another ones.
Reborn actually felt his eyes widen when overwhelming Clouds parted for an obscuring Mist before a warm, pretty Sky opened for his Sun and a spark danced between poker!Leon and the tonfa. Hibari's eyes suddenly flashed orange, the teen's face contorting into surprise as a bond tried to snap into place but Reborn pulled back in something shamefully close to panic. He threw a grenade into the Reception Room and all but snatched up Tsuna, who was still clinging on to Yamamoto and Gokudera, and used Leon in the form of a hang-glider to get them all out of there.
When Tsuna later questioned him why he would do something like that to them as to set them up to be hated by Hibari, Reborn had simply said he had thought the prefect would be a good addition to Tsuna's Family.
The teen had blinked at him a bit in confusion when he registered that the sentence was in past tense.
"I don't think you're compatible," Reborn had said to his student's silent question and watched with something akin to mild annoyance when Tsuna relaxed instantly in relief. Tsuna doesn't know how lucky he would be to have a Cloud like Hibari, a dual user of Cloud and Mist in his Family. His current Elements were second-rate at best, at least for now. They had a long way to go, though they showed promise. It's probably a little sad, though, that that Stupid Cow, Lambo, showed more promise than Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi, even if it didn't seem like it. The annoying brat had strong, pure Lightning Flames and a body that was rather resistant to electricity, not to mention that he knew how to handle various weaponry. Sasagawa Ryohei wasn't too bad, but Reborn wouldn't exactly rely on him to watch his back. Not because the teenager was untrustworthy, but simply because he was currently the weakest of the potential Guardians Tsuna had met.
His sister, Tsuna's little crush, Kyoko, actually had more potential as a Guardian.
That little encounter in the Reception Room, though, created quite a few problems for the hitman tutor. For one, he now had to scour Namimori for a new potential Cloud for Tsuna, which would not be easy. The reason Clouds were so rare was because, usually, their Flames fit their personality to a T and that means that Clouds were not likely to be in places with a lot of people. There was, actually, a Cloud in Tsuna's own classroom, Kurokawa Hana, but she was completely incompatible with Tsuna as well, especially with the rest of his Guardians when Lambo was one and she hated kids. Reborn will have to carefully search through Namimori if he wants to find another Cloud besides these two. It was unlikely. The town wasn't all that big and he doubted there was another Cloud anywhere nearby, not with a strong one like Hibari around.
Another problem that arose after the incident in the Reception Room was that he now found himself avoiding the head prefect at all costs. Call it cowardly or even stupid - and he'll kill you for it, don't doubt it - but Reborn honestly had no idea how to react to this. He'd been sent here to train Vongola Decimo. He had not expected to find a Sky of his own, especially not one with such a hauntingly familiar face. Goodness, but Reborn hadn't seen Fon in years, not since The Fated Day and the fight he'd had with the master martial artist just after they'd become Arcobaleno. He had lashed out at the younger man - now baby - in all his anger and helplessness brought on by the fate they were now cursed to suffer and he had said things that had finally managed to drain the pool of patience that had always seemed to be infinite in Fon and the Asian Storm had simply told him goodbye and left, never to be seen or heard from again. Reborn saw more of Viper before they disappeared than from Fon since that accursed day.
And now, he had a carbon copy of his fellow Arcobaleno who turned out to be his Sky of all things. Reborn was not overly young. Had it not been for the Arcobaleno curse, he'd be entering his early forties now. Never in his life had he encountered a Sky even remotely compatible with him, which he feared might mean Hibari Kyoya could very well be one hundred percent his match.
Just like Fon's Storm was one hundred percent compatible with his Sun...
Damn it.
Reborn didn't want to deal with this, okay? He's here to train Tsuna, to make him into a proper mafia boss, to make sure he can defend himself and survive in the mafia world that will, sooner rather than later, catch up to him as inevitably as the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. He doesn't have the time to play footsies with a child Sky who, as it turns out, runs the whole town with an iron tonfa, which means he'd have to unless he wants Hibari to interfere with his training methods.
Reborn still - and he hates that he has to admit to this - hesitates before he approaches the teen. He takes time when he's not plotting Tsuna's next test/exercise/training session to observe Hibari, to see what the triple Flame user does in his free time, how he behaves, how likely it is that they're actually very compatible as opposed to their Flames simply sparking due to proximity and a lower compatibility. (Which he already knows isn't very likely because they hadn't even been directly touching, skin to skin, when the sparks had jumped and a bond had tried to form between them. Only true compatibility can create such a reaction, nothing less. Reborn was just in denial. He recognized this but chose to ignore it anyway.)
It is during one such recon mission that he discovers he's far from Hibari's first Guardian. The Vice-Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, one Kusakabe Tetsuya, is his bonded Lightning and the two seem very compatible with each other. Kusakabe even seems to have fallen into place as Hibari's right hand man, if we're going by mafia status ranks. Following that discovery was a brief observation of Kusakabe as well. It turns out he comes from a former yakuza family, one that's been wiped from the underworld dealings over ten years ago. Kusakabe Tetsuya hadn't even been born yet when the Kusakabe family bowed out. However, Reborn noted that they seem to have been affiliated, even after 'retiring', with a bigger clan that had once ruled over Namimori. Kusakabe's whole family now followed his Chairman, his Sky, so it made Reborn wonder about the rumors he'd once heard whispers of, about a strange organization in the East that was local to Japan but had reach over the rest of the continent as well.
Hibari's overall profile information, no matter how deep he dug, brought up almost nothing, so Reborn was left to wonder.
Just as he was left to wonder how Iemitsu hadn't realized there was another Sky in his own hometown that, apparently, had more control over it than Vognola could ever hope. Hibari should have been discovered by now with how pure his Flames were. Even if no one could quite detect the Sky under his other two Flame Types, a strong, pure Cloud would garner just as much attention, if not more. Clouds were aggressive. Clouds were possessive and protected that which they considered theirs. They were territorial. They were strong, usually one of the strongest Elements in any Family. People even often called them 'Sky-bait' and yet a classic Cloud like Hibari went undetected? No, not even Iemitsu's that stupid, surely. Did Hibari have someone to help him keep unnoticed? A Mist, perhaps? But surely there is no Mist stronger than the Arcobaleno, Viper.
Reborn has too many unanswered questions already and observing Hibari seems to have only brought up more. Like why did he seem to live in a huge traditional Japanese mansion all by himself with big grounds surrounding it so that his closest neighbor was the temple in Namimori almost half a mile away? How did he get total control over Namimori? How much did he know about the mafia? Was he Flame Active or just Flame Aware? How well could he use his Flames? How had he ended up with a tertiary Sky!? (Hibari himself probably didn't know the answer to that, so it would be unfair to ask him. Actually, it was likely no one could answer that question. The phenomenon is unheard of. Secondary Skies were thought to be impossible and yet here Hibari was, with a tertiary Sky Flame? Reborn's not sure if he'd be a freak show or a rare treasure back in Italy. Somehow, neither option sat well with the hitman.) What other Guardians, if any, did he have? What was his relation to Fon? What would he expect of Reborn if they are indeed completely compatible?
If he wants to find out, he'd have to confront the Cloud-Mist-Sky and ask for himself.
So, one day, he left Tsuna to his own devices during Physical Education and went in search of the Disciplinary Committee Chairman. Due to his brief research of his 'target', Reborn knew that, right now, at this time of day, there were only two places Hibari could be: the Reception Room, napping on the couch, or on the roof, napping in the sun. He really liked napping. Reborn had concluded he was very cat-like, given the boy hates physical contact unless he was the one to instigate it - usually through violence - slept whenever he felt like, could be really grumpy, hated loud noise and people crowding around him and lost interest easily if someone was being an idiot or not interesting enough. His tendency to spend as much time away from other people as he can now allowed Reborn the unique opportunity to visit him on the roof, where he found Hibari, as he had known he would, napping.
Hibari didn't react to his presence, which kind of annoyed him because he knew damn well that a single leaf hitting the ground could wake him up. He had seen many unfortunate fools with bruises and broken bones to prove it, that one time he had seen Hibari being accidentally woken up by some students ditching class and going up to the rooftop. Was the Cloud ignoring him? Well, Reborn had left him hanging for two months while he debated with himself whether he should confront the teen about their potential bond at all ... Maybe he was pissed?
Too bad, because Reborn's pissed with this entire situation to begin with. Hibari can throw a teenager temper tantrum to someone else.
So he half marched, half sauntered over to where the prefect was sleeping, footsteps as light as inaudible, and came to a stop by Hibari's head. He debated reaching for his gun or leaking some killing intent, but he wasn't here to start a fight. Regardless of if this boy was his Sky or not, Reborn's almost one hundred percent sure he was related to Fon somehow and the Storm was already plenty pissed at him without him adding permanent maiming of a possibly loved one on top of his list of grievances against Fon. He had a feeling that, should something happen to Hibari, Fon would truly never forgive him, might even try to kill him.
And Reborn didn't want that.
So he settled for a simple "Hibari," as a way of greeting and watched as those sharp silver-blue eyes opened and blinked sleepily up at him. The teen actually looked a bit surprised for a moment, which struck Reborn as odd, because there was no way a self-proclaimed predator - and the teen was a predator, even if he was still technically sharpening his claws and teeth, young as he was - like Hibari had not sensed his presence.
And then it dawned on him that Hibari had sensed his presence but had not felt threatened by it, had found it comforting and pleasant enough to continue sleeping because Reborn only now noticed how his Sun had reached out to greet the heavily protected, sleepy Sky.
It was clear the moment when Hibari fully registered who was standing before him because a small smirk curled on his lips in greeting.
"Akanbou."