Chapter Summary: Nana realizes something is wrong with Tsuna from a young age and tries to solve the issue.

Please note: I do not own KHR.

However, any mentions of the Riva mafia family and one Alessandro Riva are entirely my own.

I've read the entire manga of KHR and I came to the conclusion that there had to be some sort of reason for Tsuna's obvious lack of intelligence, ability to concentrate and other issues that seem to have arisen. I headcanon that Iemitsu had Tsuna's flames sealed after he was born, in order to keep his family safe. Only, Iemitsu did not realize what sealing the flames of a Sky would do to their overall development.

This will be an AU, obviously. Given Tsuna's nature as well as non-canon families.

Let me know what you think about this and I'll see about continuing it in the future.

-x-

Tsunayoshi was still a baby when Nana noticed that something was wrong with her baby boy. While he had been born a month early, she had noticed that he was reaching his milestones much later than he should be. Her baby's doctor assured her that everything was okay and that some babies develop faster or slower than others. Tsunayoshi simple worked at his own pace, not letting others set his pace according to the pediatrician. As a mother, she /knew/ something was wrong with her baby, but doctor after doctor and even her own husband assured that her baby was alright.

At two years old, when Tsunayoshi should have been walking and starting to talk. He said few words and still could only crawl, barely able to stand on his own. Again, the pediatrician assured her that he was simply behind in his development. Nana's frustration with no doctor listening to her concerns was getting worse and worse. However, when Nana tried to self-diagnose Tsuna and made the doctors test him for developmental issues, they all turned up negative. Still, as a mother, she knew something was wrong and continued trying to solve the issue.

Tsuna started elementary school when he was older than the rest of his classmates, but he was still behind. The nickname dame-Tsuna was born during Tsuna's elementary school years. Nana was beyond words of anger that even his teacher was calling him that. No teacher should bully a child. When the school counselor made Nana consider taking Tsuna to a child center in order to test his IQ for mental retardation, she'd had enough of that school entirely and had him transferred.

Tsuna was eight when something finally changed. Somebody finally realized something was actively wrong with her son. Having just moved into Namimori to transfer schools away from that school who thought her baby body had mental retardation, she made the decision to homeschool her son on her own. Nana sound found how difficult teaching her son was.

However, a new clinic had recently opened in nearby Tokyo and boasted of some of the best doctors in the world. When she did her research, she found the clinic to be owned by Europe's top medical company, the Riva Corporation. This was her last shot. If the Riva's doctors couldn't figure out something was wrong with her child, then she was no longer sure what she'd do.

Nana clutched Tsuna's hand as she made her way into the clinic, her child toddling along behind her. Even his balance was off-kilter at times, she'd noticed. She walked up to the front desk where a woman looked up and smiled brightly. "Welcome to the Riva's Medical Clinic, Miss. How many I be of service to you, today?" Nana signed in, stating that she had a doctor's appointment that day with the pediatrician. The woman smiled down at Tsuna who shyly smiled back at her and the woman coo'd at how cute the boy was before informing her that the doctor would be in after finishing up with a patient.

It wasn't a long wait, but during it, two men entered the clinic. One was a large blond-haired male wearing sunglasses and a crisp suit and another was a shorter male with bright red hair tied up in a long ponytail. His clothes were just as immaculate as the others. He smiled at the people in the waiting room before heading towards the desk. The receptionist darted out of her seat in excitement. "Boss! Welcome!"

The man smiled at her, urging her to return to her work and act like he wasn't there. He was simply doing a tour of their new facility in Japan and he'd wait until she was on break, or until somebody was available to show him around. The two men took a seat next to Nana and Tsunayoshi.

In her distraction by the two men who had entered, Nana didn't notice that Tsunayoshi had wandered over to the red-haired man and was staring at him. "Tsu-chan, don't be rude," the woman scolded breathlessly as she pulled her son back to her and apologized to the man.

"It's fine, ma'am. I have two children of my own. They're a curious lot, aren't they?" the man spoke, his Japanese smooth and controlled, but obviously not his first language from the Italian accent that came out of his mouth. Instead of scolding the child on his own, he held his hand out to the boy. "Hello...Tsu-chan, was it? My name is Alessandro."

Tsunayoshi struggled to pronounce the name before settling on "Arisu!" as his name and grasping onto his hand like a lifeline and bouncing up and down slightly. The man laughed at the child's antics, but frowned slightly into the touch. Red eyes met Tsunayoshi's brown ones for a second before he turned to the blond next to him. The two exchanged a look, which confused Nana.

Before she could ask, the receptionist called her back to see the doctor with her son. She felt Alessandro's gaze on her back as she entered the back to see the doctor and heard several soft Italian words that she couldn't understand between him and the blond.

The doctor they saw was more than helpful in dealing with Tsunayoshi and understood that Nana felt that something was wrong with her son. While they didn't say exactly what was wrong with him, the doctor assured her that he would run some tests to confirm a theory he had about Tsunayoshi.

There was finally some relief in Nana as the doctor assured her that there was indeed something off about Tsunayoshi's development and that he would do some research through his company about the issue. As Nana left, she saw Alessandro and the blond male who's name she didn't catch touring the facility. As the doctor saw her out, she saw him make his way over to the man.

Several days later, the doctor called and said they'd found themselves an answer to Nana's prayers. She headed off on the long drive to Tokyo with Tsunayoshi in hand. Alessandro Riva made an appearance at the clinic again, but the blond was nowhere in sight at the moment. Tsunayoshi enthusiastically greeted "Arisu," to which the man met with equal enthusiasm before leading Nana and Tsunayoshi back to the main office himself and the other doctor joined him in the office.

Alessandro formally introduced himself as Alessandro Riva, CEO of the Riva Medical Corporation. Nana already knew this from the brief exchange she had with him several days prior and had done her research. Alessandro Riva, thirty-eight years old, inherited the company from his mother at the age of seventeen upon her mysterious death. Several years afterwards was when the company made its first breakthrough with "Sunny Pills," a non-addictive anti-depressant, energy pill, and several other medical miracles - such as increased healing and an immune system booster remained on the top of the medical market. Research showed few side-effects of the pills. There was both an over-the-counter and a prescription form to the pills, which the latter was said to have a higher dosage for obvious reasons while the others were essentially sugar pills infused with their 'sunny energy' formula.

The company continued to make medical breakthroughs and has since stayed at the top of the business world in Europe. It seems that the company has recently started to expand into Asia and into America, which Nana was grateful for. They had figured out what was wrong with her son, something that wouldn't happen if they'd still been in Italy.

The two said some medical jargon, which Nana found hard to keep up with, even after years of seeing doctors and doing medical research, so she just sort of nodded for a moment. The doctor rose to his feet after several moments, offering to take Nana with him to get her some coffee, or tea, in their break room. Alessandro offered to keep Tsunayoshi company in his office, citing that he had children of his own.

Something was different when the two doctors came back, Alessandro seemed more tired than when they had left and Tsunayoshi seemed brighter than ever. Their conversation continued as the doctor offered Alessandro some tea and the conversation continued. The doctor wrote a prescription for "sunny pills" for Tsunayoshi, with Alessandro adding in that it was a new formula that was supposedly to stimulate brain development as well as concentration. With more confusion in her mind more than ever, Nana took Tsunayoshi home.

The changes in her son happened almost overnight. He was starting to understand more of the school lessons that she was teaching, his physical development had started to become better. He was more balance and seemed to have more hand-eye-coordination. Nana didn't know what to make of it, really.

Several months passed and Tsuna had been enrolled into Namimori elementary school where he had easily caught up to his classmates and then even surpassed them. Tsuna had already been several years behind them and at his teachers' discretion on the matter, Tsuna found himself returning to his own year group. Nana was astounded.

However, the changed when her husband returned from overseas and then left again. Tsuna slowed down again and Nana couldn't figure out why. His grades slipped again and Nana found herself at a loss again. She returned to the clinic, having long since taken Tsuna off his medication. The doctor frowned in thought as he looked at Tsunayoshi once more, gave him more of the pills and then disappeared into the main office.

Several days later, Alessandro Riva showed up at her door. This time, she was there when she saw bright orange flames ignite on the man's forehead as did Tsuna's. She screamed in surprise and Alessandro smiled tiredly at her as the flames died on both his and Tsuna's foreheads. "Allow me to explain, Ms. Sawada. Your son has a magnificent dying will flame, I must say," Alessandro felt his own sky flames seemingly harmonize with Tsunayoshi's again, having removed the seal upon his flames. "Dying will flames are not known by many...however, they are are a high-density form of energy that is refined by one's life-force, their will to live, essentially."

Nana nodded dumbly as she sat in a chair, staring blankly at where the bright flames had once stood against her son's head. "Is...that what is causing Tsuna's problems?"

"In a way, yes. The flames themselves aren't the issues. However, it has come to my attention that somebody had placed a seal upon his flames...I removed it the last time you were in my office. Sealing flames is not a common practice. However, it seems somebody replaced the seal…" Alessandro spoke casually, brushing his fingers through Tsunayoshi's hair for a moment. "I assure you, I've done my research...and have come to the conclusion that this is your husband's doing. Ma'am, what do you know about Iemitsu Sawada?"

"He's a construction worker in Italy for a powerful company," Nana stated quietly, staring into her cup of tea. "What's my husband got to do with these...flames, though?"

"My professional opinion is that your husband had sealed Tsunayoshi's flames in order to keep him protected. Such a strong sky flame would attract many who wish to exploit it. I, myself, am a Sky. There are other types of flames which sometimes correspond to their overall nature. The blond you saw me with the first time we met, Celino, is a lightning flame," Alessandro's hand ignited in flames again as he waved them over Nana. "You're also a latent sky flame...though, only minor...Fascinating. Yours aren't sealed, more or less...asleep. All humans can have dying will flames, but it takes special people to learn how to access and use them," Alessandro put his flame out before looking at Tsunayoshi, who had remained silent the entire time.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he asked, articulate once again due to the removal of his seal for a second time. "Papa is never home! Why we he do such a thing to me?!"

"Iemitsu could have done many things different, but it is in my opinion that he wanted to protect the both of you from our world. It's a dangerous place. However, given this, I would like to offer both of you Riva protection. My family will protect you and I will not allow Iemitsu Sawada to replace the seal." Alessandro promised. "I don't think he's realized what sealing ones flames, especially such a magnificent sky, would do in the end."