Time skip a few weeks.
During these weeks, Tsuna has grown close to Lambo, Ipin, and Yamamoto (though he spends a lot of time with Ieyasu.) Hibari spared with him weekly, though Tsuna was yet to fight seriously with the cloud guardian.
Finally, thought, after all waiting so late, the countdown had started. Tsuna patiently waited for Ieyasu to make his move. Finally, Ieyasu, Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Bianchi headed out, Tsuna behind them, watching their progression carefully through the all too familiar situations.
Lanchia laid on the ground, helpless. His eyes were closed as he awaited death, ready to see his Famiglia again. He didn't pay any mind to the footsteps getting steadily closer to him until he heard a voice.
"Don't move." Lanchia opened his eyes just in time to get engulfed in yellow flames. After a few moments and no burning sensations, Lanchia instead felt some of his minor injuries healing and pain lessening in his bigger ones. When the flames died down and, eventually, vanished, Lanchia looked at who had healed him.
The person kneeling next to him wore a orange hoodie that covered his eyes. He wore black pants and a pair of sneakers. On his hands glittered eight rings, four on each hand, each a different color. The yellow one had a flame burning brightly on it, while the orange one seemed more elaborate than the others.
"Who are you?" Lanchia asked his savior.
"Get out of here." The man instead said, grabbing Lanchia's hand and lifting him to his feet, handing him is wrecking ball. "If you leave, you might be able to find somewhere safe to heal up the rest of the way."
"Why are you helping me?" Lanchia was confused. As far as this kid knew, he was Rokudo Murkuro. Why help him. But the boy seemed to read his thoughts.
"I know you're not Murkuro. Your name is Lanchia, and Murkuro has been controlling you this entire time. But don't worry, after today you won't have to deal with him anymore. Now go!" The boy gave him one more shove before running over to the building.
Reborn watched as Ieyasu, now is Hyper Dying Will Mode, was flung backwards to where Murkuro's three-pronged weapon was imbedded in the wall.
"Ieyasu, show the power of your x-gloves now!" Reborn shouted at his student. But instead of using his gloves, the boy glared at Reborn.
"I don't need you to tell me what to do baby!" Ieyasu spat the last word before beginning to use his gloves, but it was too late. The blade pierced him, blood coming from the wound. Murkuro gave a laugh, a sinister smile across his face as he pulled out his gun once again, bringing it to his head. Before the trigger could be pulled, however, an orange flame shot the gun out of Murkuro's hand. As the gun clattered to the ground, a figure walked into the room and leaned up against the wall.
"You know, I came here to fight the famous Murkuro." The new person said, breaking the sudden silence. "But so far, all I've seen is a guy that can't fight without that little bullet of his. So you wouldn't mind if I challenged you to a little battle, where you can't use that toy of yours, just for kicks, would you?" The boy taunted.
"No, of course not. You should be fun to kill."
"Don't get cocky. Now hit me with your best shot." Murkuro grinned and the floor beneath them cracked, breaking down and falling.
"It's an illusion!" Reborn shouted, finding it strange how familiar shouting at this kid was. But the boy didn't need his help. He simply walked across the floor, the illusion vanishing.
"I suppose this would mean it's my turn." Indigo flames shot out of him, and when they died down he was holding a staff eerily similar to Murkuro's. On each of the spikes burned indigo flames, burning brightly. Murkuro obviously wasn't amused by the weapon, and started towards Tsuna, before stopping abruptly and looking down. Following his view, Reborn saw three prongs poking out of him, just barely missing his organs. Standing behind Murkuro was the new boy, his body language saying that he was not amused in the least.
"Honestly Murkuro, I thought you were good enough to see through a small illusion like that." Snapping his fingers, the figure in front of Murkuro vanished into mist. "Oh well, I'm sure you'll get better."
Murkuro gave a growl, obviously angered by the events. For a moment, Reborn contemplated assisting in the fight against Murkuro, but ruled it out. No, first he wanted to see what the boy would do. You never know who might end up as your enemy.
Boy pulled his staff out of Murkuro, and the second he did, Murkuro snapped around and tried to hit with his fist, but Boy easily blocked (a/n: during this fight, he will be called Boy. He will have an official name later). Boy then grabbed Murkuro's arm and flipped him, slamming him into the ground. While Murkuro was still stunned, Boy brought his foot down on his leg, which gave a sickening crack. He did this to one of his arms and then kicked him, turning Murkuro so that he was looking up.
Walking over, Boy knelt down and picked an object off the ground, the gun that Murkuro had had. For a moment, Reborn thought that must have been why Boy was here, to get his hands on the illegal bullets, but the boy simply threw it over to Murkuro, who frantically grabbed it with his good arm, tucking it into his jacket.
"Much easier than I thought." Boy said, looking at the broken figure that was now Murkuro. "Oh well, all's good in fights and war." Walking around the still room, Boy knelt down and picked up Fuuta, carrying him bridle style and started toward one of the broken was that opened to the outside world.
"Wait!" Reborn called before Boy could leave. Boy froze, turning his head to face Reborn. "What's your name?" The boy hesitated before answering.
"Cielo Dieci." And with that, he disappeared.
Tsuna mentally cursed himself. Of all the aliases that he could have chosen, all the different names in the world, he had to choose that one?! What was freaking wrong with him! He might as well be wearing a shirt that said 'Hi, I want to challenge Ieyasu and be the next Vongola boss!' Way to get yourself on Reborn's hit list!
Finally calming down, Tsuna stopped his running at a small clearing. Setting Fuuta down, Tsuna once again brought out his sun flames, pouring them over Fuuta. His sun flames had really been approving lately, and his mist flames weren't too bad either, if he did say so himself. He then reached into his mouth and got out a small device that he had made last night. Spanner and Shoichi had given him basic lessons on robotics, and it was enough for Tsuna to make a device to change his voice.
Fuuta woke up with a start, knocking his head into Tsuna's.
"Careful, you still need to sleep. The burst of energy you have right now won't last." Tsuna tried to push him back down, but Fuuta refused, instead taking a moment and concentrating before seeming to give up, tears running down his face. "What's wrong."
"I st-still can't r-rank." Fuuta sniffled, bringing his legs to his chest. Tsuna thought of his Fuuta. It had taken some time, but Fuuta had eventually gotten his ranking ability back. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to help this Fuuta a bit too.
"Hey, it's okay. Just, try to keep an open mind." Tsuna gently reached into Fuuta's jacket and took out his Ranking Book, flipping through the pages. "Look at all of these ranks you've done, I'm sure you'll be able to rank again one day. Just remember: Keep An Open Mind." Tsuna then picked up Fuuta, once again carrying him and took him back to their house. "But you can still stay with us. I don't care about your power, I care that you're a kid in a mafia world."
Gokudera groaned as he woke up, finding himself on a hospital bed. Next to his was Yamamoto, Hibari, and Ieyasu, all of whom were awake. An open window blew cool air into the room, the curtains ruffling in the breeze. Reborn sat on a table petting Leon, who had returned to his lizard form.
"Now that's everybody's awake will you tell us what happened?" Ieyasu sounded exasperated, and Gokudera mentally glared at Ieyasu.
"Fine." Reborn then recounted the story of the strange boy, Cielo Dieci, who probably wanted to be the Vongola heir, and how the Vindice had come and took Ken, Chikusa, and Murkuro to Vindicare. At the last part, Ieyasu snorted.
"Serves them right! They deserve the worst face after trying to kill the Vongola heir!" Gokudera held back a smile when Reborn kicked Ieyasu's head. After taking a minute to recover from the new injury, Ieyasu then continued. "And what of that fake Murkuro?"
"No one could find him." Ieyasu looked shocked.
"How could no one find him? He couldn't even move when I last saw him!" Ieyasu seemed genuinely angry.
"Guilty is charged."
All heads turned to the window. A boy sat on the sill, arms folded with a hood covering his head, hiding his eyes so you could only see his mouth.
"Cielo," Reborn looked at the boy. "Why are you here?"
"Just wanted to drop by, see how your student's doing. Do I really need a reason?" Leon slowly crept down Reborn's arm as Cielo talked, until a loud bang ran through the hospital. A miniature explosion could been seen halfway to the window sill. Cielo sighed.
"I guess I know when I'm not wanted. But before I go, just something to keep in mind," Cielo dangled his legs out the window, his head turned to face them. For a second, Gokudera could have sworn he could see a flash of orange, but just as suddenly as it had come, it had vanished.
"Mist flames are far from my strongest." With that, Cielo pushed off, leaving the room quiet for a few moment, before finally Ieyasu spoke up.
"What are mist flames?"
"I'll tell you later." Reborn responded, deep in thought of the newest player.
Tsuna arrived home late, and had to stay up doing his homework. But it had been worth it. Just as he was finishing his math homework, he heard the sound of feet descending the stair and turned to see Fuuta, yawning slightly. Tsuna immediately rushed over to the little boy.
"Fuuta, you should still be asleep! Get back to bed!"
"But Tsuna-nii, I'm hungry." As if to help with his point, a loud grumble came from Fuuta's stomach.
"That's right. You haven't had a proper meal in a while…" Tsuna felt a pang of guilt for not thinking about that sooner. "Well, how about a really late breakfast? How do you feel about an omelet?" Fuuta grinned and took a seat at the table while Tsuna rushed around the kitchen, taking out eggs, ham, cheese, and other various items. Quickly mixing the eggs together and putting them on the pan, Tsuna went about making the omelet that Nana usually made every morning. Which was another thing to add to the list of things he didn't like about this world: Nana was always so busy with work in this one. It was horrible as he watched his mom come back late into the night, only to leave early the next morning.
Finishing and putting the omelet in front of Fuuta, the boy happily dug in, making appreciative sounds as he ate. Smiling, Tsuna went back to his homework. After a few minutes, he finished up. Looking over at Fuuta, he found the boy had fallen asleep in the chair. Picking up the boy, he took him into the guest room, gently tucking him into bed. Looking around the room, he found Ipin and Lambo were both fast asleep, which was to be expected at this hour.
Life was only going to get more complicated from here on out, but Tsuna was ready to welcome it with arms wide open. He would be that twin that didn't do much. He would happily stay in his brother's long shadow, allowing him to take the attention.
But Cielo would burn brightly in Ieyasu's life.
A/N: Just keep getting longer and longer. I'll try and make the next chapter even longer.
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