From Mafioso to Pirate

Chapter 8: Moving Forward

XXX

"Decimo, a package came for you."

Tsuna blinked and looked up from his paperwork to see one of his many subordinates standing by the door, holding what looked like a small box in his hands. "A package? From who?"

"It appears to be from the Lightning Guardian, sir."

"From Lambo? Does it say what it is?"

The man frowned and shook his head. "No, sir. There is a note written on the box, though."

"What does it say?"

"It's an instruction not to open it until his three weeks are over," the man answered, obviously just as confused by the whole situation as he was.

"What? Let me take a look at it."

The man walked over to the desk and deposited the note and box onto it, being mindful of the stacks upon stacks of paperwork already taking up most of the available space. Tsuna nodded his thanks to the man, who nodded back before leaving the room.

Tsuna frowned at the object before removing the note from inside the envelope and reading it over.

Tsuna,

My first day in Shells Town was a lot different than how I thought it would be. The people living here are nice and I've made some interesting friends. One of them's really hyperactive and childish, but he's a good guy. So, I just want you to know that you don't have to worry, I'm doing fine. And the Marines here aren't giving me that much trouble, either. I hear that their captain is going to be replaced soon, too.

As for the box I sent you, please don't open it until my vacation's over. You'll understand someday.

Goodbye.

-Lambo

Tsuna frowned. This was more than a little strange. What could Lambo have sent him? And why couldn't he open it until then?

He glanced at the box, his frown deepening. What could be in there that Lambo didn't want him to see until he got back. And those words...

You'll understand someday.

Goodbye.

Something about those words sounded...strange.

He weighed the pros and cons of peeking into the box early before deciding that it was best to just do as Lambo had asked. The younger boy would probably get very angry with him or cry if he found out that Tsuna had opened the box prematurely. He reread the note again a few times before convincing himself that he was just overthinking things.

He put the note back into its envelope and gently placed both in one of the drawers in his desk. Making a quick note on his calendar to remind himself, he gave a sigh and went back to his stacks of paperwork (which he swore tripled in size while he was reading the note).

Three Days Later

"I'm hungry..." Luffy whined, slumped over on the side of the ship.

"I still can't believe you managed to eat a week's worth of food in three days," Lambo mumbled, staring down into the water below and watching as the fish all swam away from the boat as it drew near.

"How long until we reach land?" Zoro asked.

Luffy shrugged. "Who knows? I just go wherever the wind takes me, you know?"

"What?!" Zoro exclaimed. "How do you plan to be Pirate King if you don't even know the first thing about navigation?" His eye twitched in irritation when the boy just shrugged. "Hey," he said, turning to Lambo. "Do you know anything about navigation?"

"Nope. This is the first time I've ever sailed before," Lambo admitted, causing the swordsman to sigh in frustration. He turned and looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "What about you? You're a bounty hunter, right? So you must know how to get from place to place."

Zoro sighed and leaned back. "I never said I was a bounty hunter. I went out to sea in order to find someone, but I couldn't find my way back to the village, so I took up bounty hunting in order to have money to eat."

"So you just got lost," Luffy and Lambo said simultaneously, giving him looks that could only be described as pity.

"That's pretty sad," Lambo added, sighing and looking up at the sky.

"Oi! Don't say it like that!" Zoro shouted angrily, rocking the boat.

"Whoa! Hey!" Lambo shouted, clutching onto the edge to avoid falling into the water. "Watch it!"

"My hat!" Luffy suddenly shouted in a panic. Both quickly turned in his direction to see that his signature straw hat was knocked right off his head and was now sailing through the air. At the angle it was going, it would no doubt fall into the water.

Lambo, being the closest, quickly shot out his hand and made a grasp for it, barely managing to catch it before it could fall into the sea. Luffy gave a relieved smile as Lambo slumped down again and sighed, the hat clutched tightly in his fingers.

"Good catch, Lambo!" The black-haired boy exclaimed as the other just rolled his eyes and handed him the hat.

"That was a close one," Zoro said as he watched their captain put the hat back onto his head where it belonged. "Good job."

"Just don't rock the boat like that again, please," the cow-boy said, giving him a slight glare. "This boat's so small that you could cause us all to go overboard."

Zoro ignored his remark and looked at Luffy. "That hat seems pretty important to you. Any story behind it?"

Luffy nodded. "Yeah. I got this from someone really important to me."

"Really?" Lambo asked, looking at the hat with new interest.

"Yep!" Luffy grinned and reached up to touch the hat fondly. "This hat is proof of our promise. It's my treasure."

"Your treasure, huh...?" Zoro muttered, looking like he understood exactly what Luffy was talking about.

"Hey, do you guys have any treasures?" Luffy asked, tilting his head to the side in question.

"This sword is mine," Zoro answered, holding out his one white sword, in contrast to the two black ones. "It's proof of my own promise."

"What promises are you guys talking about?" Lambo asked curiously.

"Oh, I promised the guy who gave me this hat that I'd get a great pirate crew and find One Piece," Luffy answered easily, grinning all the while.

"I made a promise to a friend of mine that I would become the world's greatest swordsman," Zoro answered with a shrug, putting his sword back in its place.

"So both your dreams are tied to those treasures of yours, huh?" Lambo said, looking at both the objects closely from where he was sitting.

"Do you have anything like that?" Zoro asked the youngest of the three curiously. Luffy also turned his full attention to him, bouncing slightly as he waited for an answer.

Lambo frowned. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have anything like that."

"Aw, you don't?" Luffy whined in disappointment. "That's too bad."

"Well, I'm sure you'll find something eventually," Zoro stated.

"Maybe," the cow-boy sighed and looked back up at the sky. He felt oddly left out, not that he'd ever admit to that.

"Hey, Lambo," Luffy suddenly started. "What's your dream?"

The other boy looked back at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I wanna become Pirate King, and Zoro wants to become the world's greatest swordsman," Luffy answered, pointing at himself and Zoro in turn. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"Hmm..." Lambo frowned and thought for a long moment. "I've never really thought about it much... I guess I do have one dream... It's nothing as grand as becoming Pirate King or the greatest swordsman, though."

"There's no rule that says it has to be," Zoro answered with a shrug. "If it's your dream, then it's important either way, right?"

"What is it? What is it?" Luffy asked impatiently, looking at the other boy eagerly.

"Well..." Lambo frowned. He reasoned that, since they were pirates and had no interest in things such as the Mafia, it was safe to tell them. "Well, you see, my family is actually a Mafia family."

"Mafia?" Luffy asked, frowning in obvious confusion. "What's that?"

"I think I've heard of those," Zoro said thoughtfully. "They're some kind of criminal underground organization or something, right? I hear the strongest one around here is called Von... Von-something."

"Vongola," Lambo corrected.

"Yeah, them," Zoro said, nodding. "So what family are you from?"

"Vongola," Lambo said again.

"Whoa, seriously?" Zoro asked in surprise, eyes slightly wide. "Must be something, being part of such a strong Mafia family," he added, not noticing Lambo's subtle wince at those words.

"Yeah..."

"What does that have to do with your dream, though?" Luffy asked with a confused frown.

"Oh, right," Lambo said, remembering the topic at hand. He thought back to Tsuna, the other guardians, his family... "...My dream is to become stronger than any of them." He paused for a moment before looking at Luffy. "I told you it wasn't as grand as your dream."

"Huh?" Luffy looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean? That sounds like a great dream! You wanna be the world's strongest Mafia guy, right?"

Lambo blinked in surprise at that statement. "Oh, uh, well, I'm not really a Mafioso anymore, but I guess that's one way to look at it." He looked up at the sky and thought for a moment before a smile lit up his features. World's strongest Mafioso actually sounded pretty cool... And it wasn't really that far off, he did want to become stronger than anyone in the Vongola, after all. But that included the current generation, past generation, the Varia, and the Arcobaleno. He frowned, troubled. "It'll be pretty tough, though."

"My dream isn't exactly a walk in the park, either," Zoro said, arching an eyebrow. "And neither is Luffy's. I don't think any dream is, really."

"Guess you have a point there..." The cow-boy admitted with a small smile. He was about to say something else when a sound similar to an angry lion roaring reverberated around the area.

"What the hell was that?!" Zoro said, putting one hand on his sword as both he and Lambo looked around nervously, expecting a Sea King to jump out at them any minute.

There was a long moment of silence until...

"I'm hungry," Luffy groaned.

"Seriously, Luffy..." Lambo muttered, sighing in relief while Zoro frowned and went into a more relaxed position.

Luffy just groaned again before something caught his eye. "Ooooh! That bird looks tasty!"

Both blinked and looked up to see what their captain was talking about. There was in fact a pink bird flying lazily in the air just above them.

"Hey, we should eat that bird!" Luffy decided, standing up.

"And how do you propose we get it down from there?" Zoro asked.

"How would we even cook it?" Lambo added, wincing from the sun as he tried to get a better look at the animal.

"Don't worry, I'll get it down no problem!" Luffy said brightly as he stretched his arms out. "Gomu Gomu no ROCKET!"

The two just watched as the boy sent himself flying towards the poor bird with the ease of someone used to that sort of thing. After a few seconds, however, Lambo frowned.

"Zoro?"

"Hm?"

"He's not coming back down."

"What?" Zoro shot up and looked up into the sky, eyes widening. Apparently, the bird was a lot bigger than it first appeared. Its beak was trapping Luffy's head as the boy struggled to free himself. "Goddammit, Luffy!" Zoro groaned as he took both oars. He turned to Lambo, about to say something, when he stopped and stared. "Is that smoke?"

Lambo blinked and looked around himself to see the beginnings of pink smoke surrounding him. He couldn't help but facepalm. "Not now..." He turned to Zoro, who was looking on in a mixture of confusion and concern. "Don't worry, this happens somethimes. I'll explain everything later, so just get going after Luffy!"

"Uh, okay? But, what-"

There was no time to say anything more, however, as there was a sudden "pop," and Lambo was gone. In his place was a small, sniveling five-year-old child. "Gotta stay calm..." The little boy muttered before bursting out into tears. "I can't!"

"...What the hell?"

'Seriously, this is the worst possible timing...' Lambo thought as he found himself in a very familiar setting. It was Tsuna's room when he still lived with Nana. Tsuna was looking at him with wide eyes while Gokudera just glared at him. 'Even after I leave, I still can't escape them...'

"A-Adult Lambo!" Tsuna shouted in surprise.

'I'm fifteen, that's hardly an adult,' Lambo sighed. "Hey, Decimo. What did my younger self do this time?"

"Don't talk to Juudaime so familiarly, you stupid co-" Gokudera started, but was cut off when the door suddenly slammed open. His eyes widened comically, skin starting to look slightly green. "A-Aneki..." He muttered before falling into a pathetic, groaning mess on the floor, causing Tsuna to panic.

Lambo froze and slowly turned around.

"Romeo!"

Lambo wisely decided to run like hell.