A Tsuna-is-Seto Kaiba story. Enjoy!
"It's such a tragedy...bad enough to lose his only parent, but to have it happen right in front of him."
"Has he spoken?"
"Not a word. And whatever contact information she had for her 'husband' is fake."
"A true pity the orphanage in town is already too full to accept him," said the first woman.
Nearby the child they were speaking about listened quietly, not saying a word. It was like they didn't care if he heard the cold "caring" words or not.
In reality while he was suffering from minor shock over the sudden loss of his mother, the truth was he was handling it far more maturely than most would believe.
What the adults didn't know was that the a few days before he was sent to the orphanage, he broke into the place and changed his name on the intake paperwork.
Originally it read "Tsunayoshi Sawada"...thanks to a little creative forging and a bit of hacking, it was soon changed into "Seth Sawada" or "Seto" considering how difficult some Western names were to pronounce.
Once the funeral was over and his poor mother laid to rest, Seto was swiftly dumped on an orphanage and more or less forgotten about.
That might have been the end of it, except for one thing.
Seto wasn't a normal child in the least. He had gotten hit again by that blasted modified ten year bazooka ammo and had ended up in his childhood.
He really needed to keep those idiot scientists away from that thing.
Seto, formally Tsunayoshi Sawada, had already mentally prepared himself for a boring ten years while he discreetly got himself ready to enter the Underworld and disappear. He had done it before, and despite what one might think, it had been relaxing even though he always had to keep an eye out for the idiocy of the Vongola after him.
He knew he should feel guilty that his mother died just before his fifth birthday. But in reality the dark part of himself was just relieved because it meant he wouldn't have to find a way to deal with that half-assed seal the Ninth put on him.
The other kids were so plain they were boring...he spent most of his time reading the harder books and practicing his skills secretly. The adults more or less left him alone because he wasn't doing anything that they disapproved of and assumed that he was still recovering from the shock of his mother's sudden death in front of him.
He had only just turned seven when he met him. A tiny slip of a kid with black hair and a mischievous personality. What really drew his attention was the weak Sun Flames pouring off the kid.
Seto said nothing when the caretakers put Mokuba into his room. Sure, he had to share with another boy, but that kid had been adopted and they hadn't gotten around to rearranging the children quite yet so he had it to himself.
The kid was terrified, and had likely been through some rather traumatic experience if his flames were already active.
The last thing he wanted on his conscience was the Triads finding this baby Sun without anyone to protect him. He remembered all too well the fear I-Pin went through before Fon took her in, and how those bastards had continued to use her once her gift manifested. Fon had been relieved when the Vongola took her under their protection, because Tsuna had adamantly refused to send her on any more killing missions and let her live as normal a life as one could in the underworld.
Seto didn't try to bond with the kid immediately. He was still clearly traumatized by whatever had orphaned him. Instead he stayed nearby and waited for the younger boy to approach him. He knew Sky attraction would insure that, if nothing else. His patience won out a month later.
On the plus side, the caretakers weren't giving him any 'concerned' looks anymore. On the downside they started giving him exasperated ones, because he refused to be adopted out without Mokuba being part of the bargain. He felt responsible for the baby Sun, and he wasn't about to let some asshole pretend to adopt him only to turn the kid into their devoted minion and meat shield.
While the fact Mokuba had latched on to him was expected, the fact he had apparently deluded himself into believing Seto was his biological older brother wasn't. Then again there was no telling what sort of trauma the kid had gone through, and it was a harmless enough connection. Especially since Seto had been acting as an overprotective older brother for months once Mokuba latched on to him.
Well, it wasn't like he didn't want to have a little brother to dote on...
Hyper-Intuition made beating this arrogant bastard too easy. Normally he could have waited to find a suitable set of parents capable of handling two kids at the same time, except his intuition was telling him that his best chance was to be adopted by this rich asshole who clearly only showed up for a publicity stunt.
Gozaburo Kaiba was definitely not a good father figure. Seto had known that from the start. However he had underworld connections and once he established himself in the household, it was ridiculously easy to use them for himself to find out the state of the Cosa Nostra.
Besides, the man had a fortune and made it clear from the beginning he intended his new adopted sons to take it over.
Too bad for him, Seto was already well versed in scum like his step father and was already making plans, counterplans and back-ups for when he could shuffle the overbearing jerk off the mortal coil. Gozaburo's time would be up once Seto had established himself firmly as a player in his own right.
He might have felt sorry for the man...if he wasn't such an irredeemable bastard.
He felt more pity for Mokuba. Gozaburo was not a nice person, and knowing him would likely try to play the brother's against each other in an attempt to control them. Too bad he had no idea Seto was a powerful Sky, one who had created a minor bond with Mokuba as a Sun. The boy's instincts would prevent him from betraying his older brother, and Seto made a point to reinforce the 'sibling' image the younger one had built up.
He naturally doted on younger children, and he worked his ass off to keep his younger brother safe from the older man's plots.
Some time later...
"Seto...do we really have to keep doing this?" asked Mokuba. "That man isn't a nice person...You never look like you have enough sleep, you're always looking over your shoulder and he's always pressuring you even when you do perfectly on tests. When will it be enough?"
Seto was exhausted. However his preparations were almost complete. Soon he could begin the plan to dispose of Gozaburo and keep control of his company.
"It's almost over," said Seto, tiredly. "I'm just waiting for the right time to begin my plan, and then we'll be free."
"When? And what plan?" asked Mokuba innocently.
"I can't tell you. It's not something I can explain without fear of that man overhearing it and giving me more trouble than it's worth."
Seto fully planned to undermine Gozaburo and get as much blackmail as possible on the Big Five. It was the only way he could retain his position of power on the company and protect the future of himself and Mokuba.
After all...if the Vongola ever became aware that Iemitsu's first born still lived, then they wouldn't hesitate to reclaim him and mold him into a pawn of their own benefit. He had endured the incompetence of the Ninth and that braying jackass for two lifetimes, which was two too many in his opinion.
This time he was going to make his stance on becoming the Tenth so clear that not even they could make him budge.
Gozaburo became increasingly incoherent and made a point of pressuring his 'heir' even more as his supporters began to drop off one by one. At first, they seemed like random accidents or simple bad luck.
Except it was happening with far too much consistency for it to be simple 'bad luck'.
Gozaburo knew someone was after him...he just didn't know who. You didn't become the biggest exporter of weapons by playing nice. And whoever was after his life or his company wasn't being very subtle...once he realized what was going on, the 'accidents' and outright assassinations started becoming more obvious.
Not enough to draw the attention of the cops, but enough to make it clear to anyone with underworld connections that someone was after him specifically. And they meant business.
Unnoticed, his 'son' observed his swift descent into paranoia and rage with dark satisfaction.
Honestly, the man was so outclassed it wasn't even funny. Seto had been trained (in his previous lifetime) by the World's Greatest Hitman. Setting up a small fry like Gozaburo who didn't even register as more than a blip on the Cosa Nostra's radar and was absolutely clueless about Dying Will Flames to fall was pathetically easy he had come up with a basic plan in his sleep.
Compared to some of the more...annoying...famiglia he had to set up in order to create an 'excuse' to destroy them completely (usually by setting Hibari or Mukuro after them, if the Varia didn't take on the job), this man was weak.
Best of all, since he was a civilian who had managed to obtain underworld contacts, it was highly unlikely the Vindice would give a damn about his methods of taking control so long as Omerta was kept and the secret of Flames was never exposed.
Seto's eyes gleamed. Placing hits on Gozaburo's supporters was fun...though he would save the bigger fish for the Varia. After all, if you wanted it done right the first time you hired professionals.
He wanted them all suitably paranoid so that when he took over, the Big 5 understood not to screw with him just because of his age. Even if his wallet took a hit as a result...Mammon was expensive as hell, but he knew for a fact that the World's Greatest Information broker could find blackmail on anyone if they were paid for it.
"Nii-sama, I'm scared," said Mokuba. Ever since it became clear someone was after their stepfather, security around the house had been upgraded.
Seto ruffled his hair.
"Relax Mokuba," he said confidently.
Gozaburo put too much money into the two to kill them off without a damn good reason...like the oldest coming up with a viable plan to remove him permanently from the mortal coil and actually following through with it to the point he was an actual threat to him.
Mokuba clung to his older brother. He knew his big brother was confident, but Gozaburo scared him...especially now.
"How about I introduce you to someone interesting?" said Seto.
"Interesting?" said Mokuba.
"He likes to play games too," said Seto.
During his plan to remove Gozaburo from the land of the living, he had stumbled across something interesting. Namely that the man originally did have a child...except the boy had 'died' in a tragic accident.
Considering the flare his intuition gave, Seto had delved into what happened to Noah. What he found was both impressive and would have been highly disturbing had he not experienced half the crap the mafia could throw at him.
Noah's body might have been destroyed...but his father had somehow found a way to place his mind and soul into a computer. Seto could easily guess Gozaburo's plan, had the accident not robbed Noah of his body.
Noah had been openly shocked to meet his 'brother'...but it had been nothing to how confused he was when he realized Seto still treated him like he was alive and not trapped in a computer.
Mokuba took the addition of Noah to their group easily...he was lonely and bored while Seto was trapped by Gozaburo's mad ambitions for power. Having someone to talk to, even if he couldn't be there physically eased that ache.
"Nii-sama, why is Noah trapped in the phone?"
"Because I don't have the resources or the ability to give him a new body at the moment," said Seto.
That had been one of the major selling points for why Noah had agreed to help his adopted brother. Gozaburo had abandoned his son once he was safely inside the computer and not even the technicians did more than make sure it was running.
Seto had not only given him the first real interaction with the outside with an actual human in almost five years, but he was openly confident that he could find a way to give him a new body. All he wanted was Noah's help once he was out. Well, that and the agreement that Noah not attempt to claim the company for himself. Seto had put far too much work into taking it from the foolish adult to let the man's son take over.
Instead he offered Noah something far more tantalizing and ironically enough less headache inducing. Noah had the same lack of morals of his biological father when it came to the laws of society. He had no problems working in the criminal underworld, however most of the older groups would look down on a newcomer like him. Particularly a former civilian who had no idea of the little tricks and games that the more established groups could play to gain control over the weaker newcomer.
Seto had run one of the oldest famiglia successfully for almost ten years before the accident, and had been trained by an old world mafioso who happened to be the World's Greatest Hitman. He knew how to work in that world and was damn good at it, because Reborn would tolerate nothing but the best.
And while they wouldn't respect a former civilian, they would respect an Element running a group for their Sky on the side. Even if the Sky was a relative unknown. Especially if said Sky was ruthless and rich enough to afford the Varia Elite on a regular basis.