Sawada Tsunayoshi was having a dream. In it, he a little kid again, couldn't have been much older than 5. He was crying on the ground, picked on even when he was that young. Other kids were taunting him, talking about how dame-Tsuna couldn't color inside the lines and other trivial things that in retrospect didn't really matter at all. Next to him, also taking a beating, was his twin with the 'loving' nickname of baka-Ieyasu. Eventually the bullies grew tired of them and walked off. Tsuna was crying and had curled up into a ball. He looked up as something tapped his head.

Ieyasu had crawled over where he had been beaten. He looked just as hurt as Tsuna felt, maybe even more, but he managed to smile at his slightly younger brother. Sniffling a bit, Tsuna wiped away his tears and did his best to smile back. At least Ieyasu was here with him. They would be together forever.

"Cheer up Tsuna, we'll be okay. Let's go home, maybe Mama came home early today."

Ieyasu tried to get up, as did Tsuna, but their beaten bodies hurt so much. They didn't get very far before they had to rest. Tsuna was whimpering again, but Ieyasu seemed just as up-beat as ever. If it wasn't for his brother, Tsuna wasn't sure how far he'd manage to get in this world full of mean people.

The dream probably would've continued on, but Tsuna woke up as light hit his face. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, yawning a bit. He opened his eyes and expected to see his cluttered room around him and to find out that the whole parallel world him, Byakuran, and mafia boss thing was all just a vivid dream that he'd had. But instead Tsuna found a very neat and tidy room. It was at least twice as big as the one he had at home. The bed he was in was also very large and comfy. The entire room looked fit for a king. It was a little bit off-putting. Tsuna slowly slipped out of the bed, quietly padding over to one of the doors, which turned out to lead to the fanciest bathroom he had ever seen.

A large mirror covered an entire wall, allowing somebody to see a full-body view of them. Tsuna didn't see too much difference in himself, but he looked… older, a little more mature and a little less feminine (though not a whole lot). He was pretty sure that he didn't own a pair of pajamas that looked like this. They sure were soft though. But upon further inspection, he did notice some other differences. He had a scar on his face that definitely hadn't been there before. As he reached up to touch it, his eyes were drawn to the elaborate ring on his finger. The other Tsuna's ring. The last thing he remembered was the flames exploding from it. After that, everything had faded to black. Could it be what brought him to this strange place?

He opened the door cautiously, looking down the hall. It was a long hallway, stretching far beyond the room to either side. He started to walk down one side, going as quietly as he could, but His parallel self hadn't taught him how to be sneaky yet. Tsuna thought he was doing pretty well until he rounded the corner and promptly tripped. Before he could get up he heard footsteps pounding over to him followed by strong, calloused hands lifting him up, the smell of smoke hanging in the air.

"Jyuudaime, are you okay? When did you get back? That marshmallow-eating idiot said you were on a mission." Tsuna looked up and was greeted by none other than Gokudera Hayato. Yet, instead of glaring down at Tsuna like he was a waste of space, he actually seemed happy to see Tsuna.

"G-gokudera." That was all Tsuna was able to stutter out. Then, because the entire thing wasn't strange or awkward enough, his stomach let out a large growl, begging to be fed. It was only now that Tsuna realized that he was absolutely starving, like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

"Tenth, you must have just gotten back and are starving. I'm sorry for stalling you on your way to breakfast!" Gokudera bowed low, making Tsuna feel impossibly more awkward.

"G-gokudera, it's okay." Gokudera looked back up, eyes sparkling.

"You are so forgiving, Jyuudaime! Let's get to breakfast, it's Sunday so the chefs prepared a multiple-course breakfast. Just the thing you'll need after a long mission!" Gokudera grabbed Tsuna's wrist and promptly dragged him through twisting hallways.

Which is how Tsuna found himself sitting at the head of a long, ornate table. 4 people sat on one side while another 3 sat on the other side. He was internally panicking when he saw just who the people were. Obviously there was Gokudera, sitting directly on his right followed by Kyoko's older brother, Ryohei, and Lambo. To his left sat Yamamoto, Hibari, Mukuro, and a girl who he didn't recognized but looked a lot like Murkuro, maybe his sister. Everbody was eating, but they also were arguing with one-another, yelling death threats. They all had different weapons out and at some points were standing on top of the table and fighting against each other. The only thing that stopped them was the maids coming in with the next course.

Tsuna - after getting some-what over his initial shock - gave in to his stomach's orders and started to eat some of the food and found that it was absolutely delectable. Near the end of every course, a man who Tsuna guessed was the head chef came over and asked Tsuna if everything tasted good, and Tsuna always said that everything was perfect. By this time he had decided that this was just an elaborate dream.

But then came pounding footsteps and maids' screaming.

"Gesso-sama!"

"Sorry, out of my way, coming through, important Mafioso business to take care of n' all." The doors to the Dining Room were slammed open to reveal the white-haired mafia boss that Tsuna had become familiar with over the past year. His eyes scanned the people, landing on Tsuna, and for a second they narrowed like an animal that had found its prey before he reverted back to his usual, cheerful self.

"Marshmallow-idiot, what the hell are you doing here?!" Gokudera demanded, glaring.

"Ah, just need to borrow your little boss there, some things from our last mission we have to clean up." Byakuran replied, walking across the table to Tsuna as he talked. "Tsu-chan and I are going to be real quick, you just continue to destroy the dining room; we'll be back before you even noticed we left." Byakuran leaned down, hand outstretched to Tsuna, who reluctantly took it and climbed onto the table, heading towards the door. He did his best to not step on anything while he walked. Byakuran paid the food and the dishes no mind, stepping on anything in his path. Tsuna stayed close to Byakuran in an effort to hide from all of the looks the men around the table were giving him.

Once they were out of the room and the door had closed behind them, Byakuran took off running. Tsuna tried to keep up, but he was steadily falling farther and farther behind. When Byakuran noticed this, his solution was to pick up his friend and carry him bridle style. Tsuna gave a small shriek at that, causing a few maids to look over at them, but none seemed too surprised by what was going on.

They burst through the front door and as soon as they were out Tsuna saw a bright light behind Byakuran. He gaped as white, angelic wings spread from Byakuran's back, seeming to glow faintly. The mafia boss took off to the sky, until they were but mere dots in the sky. Tsuna expected it to be cold so far up, but a veil of warmth seemed to surround him.

"You're Reru, aren't you?" Tsuna jumped slightly and fell out of Byakuran's arms, heart skipping a beat, but landed on a white dragon. He didn't even question it. At least he could look at Byakuran easier like this. Byakuran didn't seem to need Tsuna to answer. He crossed his legs, hand on his chin like he was thinking, a strange expression on the Marshmallow-lover.

"You didn't… wish for something, did you?" Tsuna blushed slightly and looked away.

"I w-wanted to s-see the world w-w-where I m-mattered." Tsuna stammered, not meeting Byakuran's eyes.

"Oh Tsu-chan, I of all people can understand something like that~" Byakuran smiled. "Look at little Tsu2 with his adorable little wishes~"

"B-but wishes don't u-usually c-come t-true!" Tsuna was slightly panicked, still not understanding why this happened.

"Well, by my best guess, you were without a body which probably made it super easy for you to just hop from one world to another. Your flame and Vongola ring react to your Will. The Ring probably wanted to come back to this world anyway. Not that it really matters. There's so many fun things we can do here~ The only problem will be telling the guardians what happened."

"Uh, okay." Tsuna wasn't really sure he liked that glint in Byakuran's eyes when he mentioned possibilities, but it was his own fault he was here. "Just one question: what are guardians."

"Oh Tsu2, you're so naïve and innocent." Byakuran leaned over and ruffled Tsuna's hair like an older brother would do.

-0-

Tsunayoshi didn't need to pretend to be useless for once. He was actually so freaked out and worried that he had reverted back to BR (Before Reborn) Tsuna. Although 6 more rings decorated his hand, Tsuna noticed the single one that was missing. He almost wanted to cry out in anger and sadness, to burn the school to the ground in his anguish, but he knew it wasn't worth the problems it would cause.

Tsuna didn't want to be here in this school, and eventually he feigned a stomach ache. From the Nurse's office he climbed/fell out of the window and then just sort of lay on the ground for a while. Eventually he decided the laziness was not worth the discomfort. He scaled one of the building, dodging the windows (and almost falling many times) and had planned to just sort of half sleep half die on the roof when he spotted Hibari, standing just a little ways in front of him.

"Omnivore, get up so I can bite you to death for skipping class."

Tsuna was just barely able to dodge an attack, shrieking as he did so. How was he supposed to fight without his Vongola ring? He continued to run around, dodging Hibari the best he could. He might have even just continued on like that, maybe even eventually just jump off of the building and run away, but then a scolding voice echoed in his head. It sounded a lot like Reborn's.

Dame-Tsuna, what are you doing? Show him how powerful your resolve is.

Tsuna clenched his fists and spun around. His sadness evaporated into anger at himself. What was he doing, moping around? Sure his ring was gone, but he wasn't useless now. He wasn't dame-Tsuna. He was Sawada Tsunayoshi, Neo Vongola Primo. He would not be defeated so easily. How dare he have shown such weakness? Hibari seemed a little surprised at the sudden change, but the only way he showed it was with a smirk.

The cloud ring burst into flame on Tsuna's hand, shining brightly and confidently.

Tsuna sent a kick, aiming for Hibari's stomach, but he dodged. Tsuna expected no less from his cloud guardian. He darted to the right and then punched Hibari's stomach, sending the boy reeling for a second. Hibari's eyes now burned with a light, saying that he had found someone he wanted desperately to bite to death. Tsuna smirked, the flame on his ring growing larger.

"The omnivore is finally showing his teeth I see." Hibari commented.

"You'll be sad I did." By now, Tsuna's entire hand was covered in flames as his Will steadily increased, boosted by anger at himself and the desire to actually achieve something that proved he was still strong. Hibari caught sight of fist and just barely was able to duck in time to avoid getting hit. He raised an eyebrow at the odd color of the flames.

Tsuna could tell that Hibari was having a harder and harder time dodging his blows that were ever-increasing in speed. The prefect had been forced to take the complete defensive side. With one, final punch Tsuna nailed Hibari in the neck. His eyes widened minutely as he fell backwards, tumbling off the building. If it hadn't been for Kusakabe running out of the building and catching him, Tsuna would've had to be jump down after him, but hid HI had told him that Hibari was in no danger.

Kusakabe looked up to where Tsuna was, meeting his eyes before giving a curt nod and going back inside. Now alone, Tsuna leaned against the door, slowly sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. He inspected his hand, which was still covered in flames. He'd never been able to create one this large before. Tsuna didn't particularly enjoy using his bare fists as a fighting method, but he had left his box weapons at home and, whether he felt a little surer of himself or not, he still didn't have his ring.

Tsuna looked up to the sky, completely covered in clouds.

It was going to be a long day. Or life.

Gokudera looked at the ring on his finger with mixed emotions.

On one hand, he had done his research after he had been told that he had the chance to be Decimo. He knew the Half-Vongola ring when he saw it. If the partial symbol he saw was anything to go off of, this was the Storm Guardian ring. He should be overjoyed to be such an important part of the Vongola, the largest and most powerful mafia family.

But on the other hand, it was another thing that tied him to Ieyasu. And he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Ieyasu had treated Gokudera sort of like a weapon, a tool to be used when needed but thrown to the side the rest of the time. Was that really how he was going to live the rest of his life? Was that how he wanted to live his life? Gokudera hadn't thought that far ahead, about what role he might end up playing to Ieyasu. So far, he wasn't any closer to figuring out who saved him than he was before. Well, that wasn't true. Gokudera had an itching suspicion that this Cielo Dieci guy was the man who saved him. But seeing as the only thing Gokudera could saw clearly of his savior was his bright orange eyes and he had never seen Cielo's eyes, he had no way of knowing.

Well, time to go and see if Dino knew anything.

"Hey, Gokudera!" Gokudera stopped in his tracks at the obnoxious voice of the baseball idiot. He turned a bit to see the grinning face of Yamamoto. "Imagine running into you here!"

"What are you doing baseball-idiot?" Gokudera glared Yamamoto, who just kept up grinning like his face was permanently stuck like that.

"Maa, maa, Gokudera, I was just saying hi. My dad found this in our mailbox this morning. I wanted to see if maybe Dino knew what it was. Maybe it's part of the mafia game, we seem to be playing it more often lately." Yamamoto held up his hand to reveal a dark blue ring on his finger. The gem looked like it had been cut perfectly in half. Another Half-Vongola ring.

"Do you even know how important that is?!" Gokudera demanded angrily. Yamamoto shrugged.

"No, but something weird seems to be going on. I bet its part of the mafia game." Gokudera snorted at that. How was this guy supposed to be a guardian? "Hey, do you think Tsuna will be playing this time?"

Tsuna… that was a can of worms if Gokudera had ever seen one. Something about the kid just made Gokudera's 6th mafia sense catch on fire, practically screaming that there was something different, something unique about this kid. Every time Gokudera saw the kid, usually smiling at him, he felt the strangest feeling to smile back. But before the hitman could put in his 2 cents Ieyasu was calling out and running over, looking at both of them with that slight scowl on his face, like he had just smelled something bad. He usually looked like that when it had to do with them.

"What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to see if Dino-san knew what these were." Yamamoto help up his ring, grin as wide as ever. Gokudera raised his fist so that Jyuudaime could see his too. The boy looked a bit taken aback and looked between Yamamoto and Gokudera for a while.

"Hey, how'd you guys get those? They're supposed to belong to me!"

"Actually, they've been chosen. It's theirs." Gokudera turned to see Dino walking towards them, Reborn on the window ledge right next to him with a knowing smile on his face.

"There are 7 total Vongola rings and are meant to be held by 7 different people. The 6 that aren't your have been given to the people who will be able to protect you best."

"Wait, what?! Shouldn't I have gotten to choose them?! Who were the others given to then?" Reborn just smirked at Ieyasu's outburst, going on to say that the rings were given to the core members of the family.

"Tenth, it is such an honor to wear this ring!" Gokudera yelled with as much excitement as he could scrounge up from the mix of elation and dread in the pit of his stomach.

"What's more, Gokudera has the 'Ring of Storm' and Yamamoto holds the 'Ring of Rain'. The first Vongola each were very different from each other. Primo was said to be the enveloping sky that surrounds everything, thus Ieyasu has the 'Ring of Sky'. His guardians then took up other aspects of Rain, Storm, Cloud, Sun, Mist and Thunder. But the rings you right now still aren't the full Vongola rings, only half of them."

"Well, it looks cool and all, but I play baseball. I don't really need a ring." Yamamoto took off the ring.

"That really is too bad then." Reborn sighed, an evil glint in his eyes. "If you kept that ring, you would've had a chance to fight the man from yesterday again."

Yamamoto tensed up at the mention of the long-haired man, grip tightening on the ring as Reborn reached to take it from him. Gokudera couldn't blame him. Just thinking about humiliating defeat yesterday lit a burning resolve to get better and redeem himself.

"In only ten short days he will be back. Really, it's probably for the best that somebody at you skill level stays out of this. You'd probably be more of a liability than anything."

"This is mine right? On second thought, I think I'll keep it. Guess I don't want to just stay there as a loser." Grinning, Yamamoto closed his first around the ring and away from Reborn before running off.

"I promise I will change completely in these 10 days so that I will not be the embarrassment I was yesterday and be worthy of this ring!" Gokudera yelled, already planning out a training routine in his head.

"You'd better!" Ieyasu called after him. Gokudera only stopped running once he got to the woods, finally taking a breather and walking a more measured pace. Perhaps he should call in a favor from that man to help with his training… For a while the bomber walked on autopilot, thoughts running a million miles an hour. It wasn't until he smelled burning leaves that he was brought back down to Earth and realized he wasn't the only one out here. Now walking more stealthily Gokudera spied a very familiar purple jacket through the leaves.

Cielo was sitting on a rock, hand encased in Dying Will flames. For all Gokudera knew, he wasn't too bold to admit that he knew next to nothing on the subject of DW. It was a secret closely guarded by the Vongola family. All Gokudera really knew was that it was the flame that had burned on Ieyasu and Basil's foreheads and that there were different colors. Currently Cielo's were purple, though the coloring didn't mean much to him. As the hitman watched the flames flickered out to be replaced by bright red ones. With a flick of Cielo's wrist a few sparks hit some leaves on the ground, causing them to immediately start decaying.

Just as Gokudera was considering confronting Cielo said boy was climbing to his feet, hand reaching into his hood to probably run through his hair. A sigh escaped his mouth and then he was off, running through the trees and away from Gokudera. Not knowing exactly what had just happened, Gokudera went over to the stop where a few red sparks still flickered and glowed.

Cielo was an enigma, perhaps even a UMA. But Gokudera was determined to find out just who or what he was.

-0-

A/N: What is this? An update? After like a year and a half of nothing? Well, yeah. Surprise! In all honestly most of this has been typed up for some time now.