The Cloud That Bites The Skies
Summary: A scary person with a fearsome reputation finds Tsuna and Co on a normal, sunny day, bringing news of an assassination plot on Don Cavallone. Insanity ensues.
As two more days passed by with no sign of either Kumo-san or Hibari-san, Tsuna was officially in a state of panic. Kumo-san should be returning to the future today, a week since he appeared last Friday, and yet there was no news about the man, even though two Arcobaleno had teamed up to search for him.
Hibari-san, too, remained absent, though the Disciplinary Committee seem to have spread the word that Hibari-san had some family issues to deal with and won't be available for the foreseeable future.
Which sounded like quite a lie, except Tsuna didn't actually know if Hibari-san even had any family to speak off, so if he hadn't been in on the fact that the prefect was missing from the start, he probably would have bought it just like the rest of Nami-chuu. It's not exactly like someone would be suicidal enough to question the Disciplinary Committee, especially if their leader happened to be in an even worse mood than usual due to family problems. And since no one but the Disciplinary Committee members - and apparently Dino-san and Romario-san, too, as of relatively recently - knew where the Chairman lived, no one could try to check on him, either.
These last two days have been very stressful for the entire school. No one dared cause trouble since no one knew when the Chairman might return and no one wanted to be his first victim if he was indeed pissed. It was especially stressful for Tsuna and his 'family', since they spent hours upon hours after school searching for two Clouds, though with Dino-san's attention mostly turned towards finding Hibari-san, they could focus on Kumo-san. Both searches still wound up empty on both days with no sign of either of them anywhere and Reborn had started looking a little murderous that morning when they found, yet again, that Kumo-san had not returned to the guest room he had been using at the Sawada household.
Dino-san had huge eyebags when he stepped out of his red Ferrari with Romario hot on his heels just before school starts. The students of Nami-chuu were curious but quickly ushered inside by the Disciplinary Committee, though Kusakabe-san stayed behind when Romario-san waved at him. Hibird flew from Dino-san's hair to Kusakabe-san's shoulder and chirped sadly, obviously missing its master dearly.
Reborn was the only Arcobaleno with them this morning, Colonello having gone off early to search some more for either of the two missing Clouds. The hiteman was sitting on Yamamoto's shoulder again, as tense as he had been since Kumo-san's unexplained, sudden disappearance.
"We found some news about Kyoya from some Yakuza he seems to have been bitting to death at the time of his disappearance. We're not sure how reliable their information is, since they're still being treated at the hospital for severe blunt trauma to the head," Dino-san gave an exasperated sigh while everyone else pretty much sweat dropped at the perfectly Hibari-like method. "And their story doesn't exactly cover all that much ground. Basically, Kyoya found them lurking about before school hours, trying to vandalize Nami-chuu's grounds." Everyone winced upon hearing that. Yeah, those guys were pretty much lucky to be alive at all. You don't mess with Nami-chuu. Ever. Especially not when Hibari-san was close enough to see you and swiftly deliver punishment while his temper was still running hot. "As he was finishing up with them, one of the guys said that there was a very bright light and a puff of smoke, but he blacked out before he could see what had happened. The next time he woke up, he was already in the hospital, getting threats of punishment from his boss for getting beat up by a middle schooler and he defending himself and his comrades that it was Namimor Middle's Disciplinary Committee's Chairman. He presumed someone happened upon them while Kyoya was finishing them off and that they had thrown explosives on him."
Tsuna exchanged looks with his friends. Hibari-san can't be taken out so easily with explosives. Most of the time, Hibari-san seemed invincible.
"We searched the site where the Yakuza members say it happened, but we could find no traces of any explosive or flammable materials around. We're guessing it was a smoke bomb with sleeping gas," Romario-san filled in, seeing their looks.
"That still doesn't really make sense. That guy could move under the influence of the Death Heather poison that's strong enough to leave elephants down," Gokudera-kun argued, looking agitated. "There's no way just any sleeping gas could knock him out."
"There's no additional signs of struggle, beside the one-sided fight between Kyoya and those Yakuza idiots," Dino-san says resignedly. "That's the only explanation, and given how much time has passed, it's quite possible that any trace of the gas is long gone, so we can't exactly tell if it's maybe something stronger than Death Heather poison."
"No, I agree with Gokudera," Reborn said seriously. "Hibari is not the type to be taken down by such means."
"But then why is he suddenly gone, Reborn!?" Snapped the Cavallone, looking extremely stressed and very angry at the moment. Tsuna had never seen him like this before. "Where is he? Why didn't he return to school?"
"Could someone really kidnap Hibari?" Ryohei-oniisan sounded as dumbfounded as the rest of them felt, no doubt. Even though Mukuro had once managed to contain Hibari-san for a short while, that was because Shamal had screwed Hibari-san over with one of his Trident Mosquitos that carried the Sakura-kura disease, but once he got the cure for that, Hibari-san was back in top form even with several broken bones! Hibari-san took down Gola Mosca with two swings! Yes, he hadn't completely shut it off, but it had taken Tsuna using Dying Will Flames and Hyper Deathperation Mode to take it fully down! Hibari-san isn't a person that can be so easily kidnapped!
"I think you should worry more about yourselves, Vongola Tenth Generation, Don Cavallone," an unfamiliar voice said and they all whirled around to face a man dressed in some sort of fighting uniform with some strange weapon in his hand that looked kind of like a bo staff, but there were Dying Will Flames lit on either side of the weapon. Suddenly, more men and women dressed similarly to him emerged from behind the school's wall fence or dropped down out of the trees in the courtyard and a few even flew down from the sky, hovering above them on some sort of Flame powered flying boots. "My, my. I wonder how big of a bonus we'd get if we were to take you all out along with Haneuma. It would compensate nicely for all the trouble we went through to deal with Vongola Decimo's Cloud lapdog. He cost us a lot of equipment."
"Are you the ones that are responsible for Kumo-san's disappearance?" Tsuna asked, hand already inching towards his pocket, where he'd started to always carry Basil's Dying Will pills and his X Gloves. Just in case something like this might happen. He'd started at Reborn's insistence even before Kumo-san had appeared in his house with news that there were assassins from the future coming to kill Dino-san.
"Tsuna, what's going on?" Said blond demanded now, though he'd already taken out his whip.
"We're here to kill you, Cavallone Decimo, for the sins you will commit ten years in the future against our families," the apparent leader of the group said, glaring at the Don. Dino-san just narrowed his eyes, looking even more confused but nevertheless, he and his men, as well as Tsuna and his Guardians and Kusakabe-san all fell into fighting stances, taking out whatever weaponry they had with them. Tsuna actually kind of lamented that Lambo wasn't around, too, for once, because even if it is only his child self, the Bovino at least had ample amounts of explosives and other weaponry on hand.
"Reborn, Tsuna, what is going on?" Dino-san demanded with more authority and Tsuna found himself explaining in as much detail as he could manage in short sentences.
"Last Friday, a man from the future allied with Vongola came with news that some three families created a time machine of sorts to travel to our time to kill you for some reason and he followed to make sure it doesn't happen. He disappeared three days ago, in the fight that broke out in Midnight Mafioso. We've been searching for him ever since."
"Are you the ones behind his absence?" Reborn asked, Leon gun in hand and a sharp look in his eyes.
"One of our groups certainly did," another of the assassins says, sounding smug and greatly amused. "It wasn't exactly easy, since we lost a lot of men, but it could have been harder, too. A simple poisoned dart to the neck imbued with Sun Flame's activity factor and he was down in minutes. It was rather impressive that he didn't go down immediately, but whatever."
"He should be dead by now," the leader said conversationally, and Tsuna felt his heart freeze. "He was an arrogant bastard, from what I've heard. We'll be taking the body back to send it to Vongola as a message. I'm sure it will bring us great fame and many allies in the future, for taking down a Vongola hitman, especially one that skilled."
"You bastards!" Growled their resident bomber, looking more pissed than Tsuna's ever seen him.
"But you shouldn't worry about a corpse," the leader continued, smirking at the group. "You should be more concerned about yourselves. This is, after all, your judgment day for how you've treated our families!"
"I've never struck down a famiglia that wasn't the opposite of what the Cavallone stand for or if they haven't attacked my family first," the Cavallone boss said, tightening the grip on his whip. "What have you done to provoke my older self into making you his enemies? Drugs? Human trafficking? Organs trafficking? Children trafficking?"
"You bastards destroyed our warehouses with a lot of good quality meth and cocaine!" Another of the assassins yelled, sounding enraged. "All of our clients who have paid patronage to our fields and chemists came knocking and nearly desolated our famiglia! It was none of the Cavallone's business! We weren't even doing it on your territory, but ours! Where do you get off acting as if you have the moral high ground when your money is just as bloody as ours was!?"
"What's worse, he attacked us because his little whore got injected with some of the good stuff while traveling through our territory," sneered the man next to him. "The stiff-backed little Asian prick, all arrogant and high and mighty because he's a Vongola Guardian, preaching about discipline." Everyone tensed at that, because there was only one person that could fit that description that they knew of. "Gotta give it to that bastard Cavallone, he's got good taste. He should be fucking grateful to us because that stuff should have finally loosened up that tight little ass."
Tsuna's Hyper Intuition screamed danger when a wave of unadulterated killing intent and blood-lust rushed from Dino-san. He tried not to flinch away from the blond, but it was really hard. And Reborn wasn't exactly helping any. Or Yamamoto, for that fact. Maybe Reborn is on to something when he says that the baseball star is a born hitman. He could understand their fury, of course. Yamamoto seemed kind of fond of Hibari-san and his strange ways, even though he's still wisely wary of the prefect. Reborn had never hidden the fact that he wanted the aloof teen drawn more into their group, their family, even though he never tried to get any of them to try to force the matter. Hibari-san would always be there when they really needed him, so everyone was content. And Dino-san, well ... Dino-san actually liked Hibari-san just as he was, for who he is and what he stands for and he didn't mind the other's aloof, oftentimes almost cold demeanor. Dino-san seemed to understand Hibari-san and appreciated him just as he was.
To hear these men talking about the future Hibari-san suffering through some drug's effects like that, and so casually and crudely ...
Well, Gokudera-kun, who wasn't very fond of Hibari-san, was also incredibly pissed and even the always positive Onii-san seemed to be rearing for a blood fight. Hell, even Tsuna wanted to fight for the very first time without having to be forced into it.
Because Hibari-san is family and he would be damned before he let something happen to the people who have become his family.
"You will die for your offense," Reborn said in a deadly tone, gun trained at the enemies.
The assassins all seemed rather amused. "Can you really promise that, Arcobaleno? We are way out of your league. You've probably never even seen one of these, have you?" The leader proudly took out a Box Weapon, though his was significantly different from Kumo-san's. For one, it was green in color and didn't have cloud designs etched into the Box.
"Actually, we have," Reborn said. "That's not going to save you. You don't honestly think your little toy can stand up against an Arcobaleno, do you?"
"Why don't we fight and find out, baby bastard?" Another of the men said and the assassins all took out their own Box Weapons. Tsuna and the others were treated to seeing their first Box Weapons usage as the assassins from the future all lit up different Flames on their rings - no Sky Flames or Clouds in sight, only a couple of Mists, mostly Lightning and Storms with a handful Rains in the mix - and shoved the ignited crystals on the rings into the openings on the Boxes, activating them and releasing various weapons or strange Flames-burning animals. It doubled or even tripled their numbers, which seriously wasn't favorable to the small group that the Vongola-Cavallone side made up.
Tsuna quickly put on his gloves and popped a Dying Will pill, his senses sharpening as he fell into his fighting mentality. Gokudera-kun already had hands full of dynamites and Yamamoto had taken up a Shigure Soen Ryu stance, making his Shigure Kintoki that he's been carrying around since the double Cloud disappearances transform into a steel katana instead of the shinai it first appears to be and Ryohei-oniisan had fallen into a boxing stance but seemed to be concentrating hard so he can use that terrifying Maximum Cannon of his. Romario-san had a gun out as well and Dino-san looked ready to literally whip every single one of the assassins into shape and Kusakabe-san seems to have grabbed a metal pole from somewhere to protect himself.
The ones from the future just laughed at them before the leader ordered an attack and the battle began.
It didn't take long at all for them to realize they, save Reborn and maybe Tsuna if he gets a lucky shot, stood no chance. Reborn's Chaos Bullets - which appear to be made up of pure and powerful Sun Flames - could fight against and maybe even take down some of the Box Weapons in their animal form and the little hitman knew how to fight even if someone manages to get close to him, but the numbers were not on their side and Reborn had to look out for the Tenth Generation Guardians and his two students. Tsuna could easily use Zero Point Breakthrough, but the assassins wizened up when they saw him freeze their Box Animals or Weapons and made sure not to give him time to complete the technique. Ryohei-oniisan's Maximum Cannon could knock back Box Animals, but they would just get back up or return to the Boxes, where the assassins would just summon them back out.
Dino-san could keep the assassins themselves away with the help of his whip, but he had to doge Box Weapon attacks regardless and hide behind his very expensive car lest he lose his life. Gokudera-kun's dynamites had little effect, even if they did make the assassins scramble out of the way. The rocket ones were really useful for the few that were hovering in the sky with those Flame-flying boots, because at least if they were busy enough dodging the seemingly random attacks, they can't rain down their own attacks on the family. They could all just hope that Gokudera-kun packed enough dynamite today to last them through the fight until they figure out some sort of strategy, because even with Reborn on their side, this fight wasn't going to have a happy ending.
"Enough games," the leader said after twenty minutes of fighting, when Yamamoto managed to get in close and leave a nasty gash on the man's left bicep. "It's time to end this."
"Not good!" Tsuna whispered to himself, quickly calling for everyone to gather around and he flew down, using Zero Point Breakthrough to make a dome of ice around them, just in time as every single one of the assassins and their Box Animals surged forward in a synchronized attack. Even though the rings these guys were using apparently can't hold a candle to the Flames released by Vongola Rings, they still started chipping and melting away at the ice. It just took longer.
"Damn it, this can't be the end!" Gokudera-kun screamed in outrage, holding an injured side while reluctantly leaning on a heavily breathing and rather bruised Yamamoto. Ryohei-oniisan seemed to be supporting Kusakabe-san, who had a big gash on his left temple, having fought with them bravely despite having no idea what was going on, just saying that as Vice-Chairman, it was his duty to protect Nami-chuu in Hibari-san's absence. It was admirable and enviable loyalty, but also suicidal, as it turned out. Tsuna couldn't believe Kumo-san had called these people weak.
'Then who is strong?' Was the even scarier question that Tsuna didn't want to contemplate, though he had a feeling the answer might just be Kumo-san himself.
"Shit, the ice is breaking!" Dino-san cursed.
"I don't think we can stay in here for much longer," Yamamoto agreed, looking around for a way out that would allow them to escape and regroup for a second round.
"We extremely can't let these guys win!" Ryohei-oniisan insisted, but wasn't as loud as he would usually be, apparently in consideration for the no doubt concussed Kusakabe-san.
"They want me, right? I'll bait them away. You guys just get the hell out of here," Dino-san said and took a step forward, as if to plant himself as a shield for when the thinning ice inevitable breaks.
"You heard them, you stupid Bucking Bronco!" Gokudera-kun snapped, a hand lashing out to grab onto the blond's shoulder. "You may have been their initial target, but they'll go after us as a bonus regardless! We stand a better chance fighting together than scattering like frightened gazelles!"
"Actually, we just make a really nice, big target if we stay like this," the Disciplinary Committee Vice-Chairman argued. "Incho always says that crowding always only gives a predator more prey to hunt and makes it easier, because the strength in numbers means nothing if we trample over ourselves in the fight or escape. If we separate, it's more dangerous, yes, but we'll have higher chances of survival because it's easier to lose a pursuer by oneself or in a smaller group than in a bigger one."
"And here I thought that tonfa freak was just more antisocial than anyone else," Gokudera-kun grumbled to himself, mostly, but seemed to accept the reasoning.
"I'm afraid it won't matter," Romario-san says, stepping in front of Dino-san to protect his boss, even if it was only for a moment longer. Tsuna inwardly cursed, because he knew making another dome would only prolong the inevitable when they had no idea how to fight these guys. He understood why Kumo-san had said that they shouldn't get involved in any fights against the assassins from the future. The Box Weapons can only be fought with Box Weapons and Dying Will Flames, which none of them knew how to ignite, even though Reborn had told them resolve was the key. They simply couldn't concentrate on a foreign fighting style while fighting for their lives.
"It's been an extreme honor, Sawada," Ryohei-oniisan said when the first crack appeared on the inside of the ice dome.
"I'm glad we could be friends, Tsuna, everyone," Yamamoto followed as it spread, branching out further.
"I'm sorry I failed you, Juudaime," Gokudera-kun said with a pained tone of voice.
"It was an honor protecting Namimori Middle School with you," Kusakabe-san even joined in. "Thank you for looking after our Incho."
"I'm sorry, Boss," Romario-san said to Dino-san.
The blond gave them all a bitter smile. "It was fun, but it looks like this is it."
"I'm sorry, everyone, Reborn. I wish I could have been a better friend, a better boss," Tsuna said, closing his eyes as chips started falling out of the cracked ice.
"Dame-Tsuna, you should really put more faith into your Guardians," Reborn said just as the dome was about to shatter, but the attack suddenly came to a stop as something purple with silver spikes sailed through the air, prowling right over the Box Animals, some of them unlucky to get stuck on the huge spikes, others being thrown away several dozen meters and some being crushed into submission, making them retreat into their Boxes. The dome was fragile enough to shatter anyway, but a whole army of those same weird spheres was now floating in front of them defensively, moving to block any long range attacks that the assassins tried to shoot. The spheres didn't so much as budge when the attacks hit, though some at the front started rotating and barreling towards the enemy.
"Wao," a familiar, incredibly reassuring voice - because it was so dangerous and belonged to someone equally as dangerous and very powerful - said from somewhere behind them and they heard approaching footsteps of expensive Italian leather shoes. They all whirled around, eyes widening when they saw who was casually marching towards them. The clothing was a bit ripped and rather dirty in some places, but there were no wounds on pale flesh and the stride was confident, sure, predatory as wind ruffled jet black hair messily. "People are getting more and more foolish each day. To truly believe you can restrain a Cloud ... "
"No way," breathed one of the assassins as all attacks stopped, everyone turning to focus on the new arrival.
"It can't be!" Another exclaimed, looking shaken.
"Why would Vongola send him!?"
The cause of the new commotion walked casually past Tsuna and his group, silver-blue eyes barely sparing them a once-over glance to ensure they won't die without immediate medical treatment before focusing back on the assassins. "You have committed several atrocities that I will not forgive," the owner of the sharp eyes says. "For targeting Dino Cavallone, trespassing on Vongola and Cavallone territory with your drug cartel, trespassing in Namimori and damaging Nami-chuu's school property-"
"No way," Yamamoto breathed this time, eyes widening as the man took out a Box Weapon with cloud designs on it, inserting a very familiar silver decorated Ring into the opening.
"It can't be," Ryohei-oniisan actually whispered, probably for the first time in his life, as familiar silvery steel weapons sprang out of the Box, immediately expertly held by the handles, parallel to the forearm from wrist to elbow.
"Why would he come for Haneuma?" Gokudera-kun asked seemingly no one as Cloud Flames charged with killing intent lit on the tonfa, making the man's hair whip around even more as the power of them surged forward, some of the purple spiked spheres moving to flank him. Tsuna only idly noted that the biggest one seemed to have a really cute little hedgehog in the center before the hedgehog turned to face the enemies with it's master.
"You," the leader of the assassins said in a shaken voice. "Why are you here!? What could possibly make the Cloud that bites the Skies get involved in such petty matters!?"
"Kumo-san, could you be?" Tsuna asked, unable to believe he had not realized it sooner. "Are you Hibari-"
"-I will bite you to death."
"Kyoya!?"