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.
Hibari Kyoya had been having a wonderful disciplinary session with a bunch of misbehaving herbivores in his beloved Namimori when suddenly, a puff of pink smoke had engulfed him and he found himself unbelievably traveling through time and space masked as a tube-like portal of brilliant rainbow colors, until everything went black. He opened his eyes again when he heard gunfire and a lot of commotion, like useless herbivores crowding together not far from him, which immediately set him off.
Namimori's scariest and most dangerous citizen hated crowds.
It was perhaps a very good thing that he was so annoyed, because when he saw a bright flash coming at him and his instincts screamed DANGER!, it was incredibly easy to bring up his right hand and let the purple Flames coming out of his Vongola Ring take the brunt of what appeared to be a Flame-induced attack. Hibari was actually a bit stunned by that, as he had acted on instinct entirely, but he didn't bother to contemplate it at that moment, as there were herbivores to be bitten to death and they dared crowd around him even closer. They all had weapons, all of them glowing like the Vongola Rings, if not as intensely as the Rings had when they were used to unfreeze that Xanxus herbivore after the little animal had defeated him.
Apparently, that damned Bucking Horse had been right when he had said, during his last visit, that the Flames and the Rings will soon be major powers in future battles, though Hibari had not expected it to happen so fast.
"What's the meaning of this?" Someone shouted from the herbivore herd, staring at Hibari as though he were the devil himself. Which wouldn't really surprise Hibari. He's been called demon, devil and monster enough times since he took the discipline of Namimori into his own hands, so to have someone show such fear did not surprise him. What was a bit surprising, though, was the gall of the herbivore - the leader of this herd, it would seem - when he pointed his blue Flames coated saber in his direction and yelled. "Never mind, just kill it! Don't hesitate! Kill Hibari Kyoya!"
"Tch," was all Hibari let loose from his mouth before he took out his tonfa and fell into a fighting stance. Seeing as everyone's weapons were coated in Flames, he figured they must be of great help in a fight, perhaps making weapons more durable or adding an additional power behind each hit, so he tried to mimic it with his own Flames. Since he was so annoyed, it took little to no effort on his part for the Flames from his ring to erupt to his tonfa, not burning them but engulfing them, power radiating from the purple light. When the long range attackers fired at him and he lifted his tonfa to block the attacks, his Flames easily held up against the assault and when the first person dared come close enough to attack him but Kyoya whirled around and punched them in the gut with the tip of his weapon, the person was sent flying through what appeared to be a reinforced concrete wall. He gave a contemplative, impressed look at the Flame-covered weapon before a smirk pulled across his lips and he felt the usual thrill of battle and a spike of blood-lust course through him.
The men flinched back, but the leader held strong. "Activate your Box Weapons and attack at will!"
Something interesting happened after that order. People started taking out what looked like music boxes, usually in the same color as their Flames, and shoving rings lit up with Flames into the small, circular opening at the top. Kyoya watched in well hidden fascination as all types of animals, usually burning with Dying Will Flames on some part of their body, sprang out, charging at him almost immediately and while he could push them away or even disperse them back into Flames and into their containers, they had more than doubled the enemies' numbers, making an even bigger crowd, which only annoyed Kyoya further.
Then he caught sight of a purple box decorated with cloud designs laying at his feet innocently, as if calling to him, and he ducked down swiftly to pick it up. He'd seen how the others had done it, so he lit his Ring with Flames and wondered if this was a box actually meant for him. Yes, it matched the color of his Flames and yes, he was that 'Guardian of the Vongola Cloud Ring', but he'd never seen even the Baby use something like this and not even those Varia idiots had weapons like these. Bucking Horse had also never mentioned this and given how easily he had grown attached and protective of Kyoya, he would have definitely told him if he knew of such weapons that could be used against the 'Vongola'. He wasn't really sure how all of this worked and he was actually a bit hesitant to lay his life in the hands of such strange technology, but there was no way he was going to be defeated by a bunch of herbivores just because he was new to a fighting style or technique.
So he shoved the Cloud Ring, lit with Cloud Flames, into the Cloud Box and out came the cutest little hedgehog Hibari had ever seen. It was almost as cute as Hibird. Maybe even equally as cute as his Hibird, whom he was worried about since the yellow bird didn't seem to have made the trip with him, wherever he was now.
The attacks stopped coming, people freezing in place and the place becoming stifling with fear. The hedgehog looked around, found Hibari and let out a cute coo, but when someone managed to snap out of their shock and tried to attack its master, the small creature showed its spikes - literally - as it grew into a huge purple sphere with sharp spikes everywhere and then started multiplying until Hibari was out of range of enemy attack. It cooed down at Hibari in worry from its now higher position in the middle of the huge first sphere, the hedgehog still as small as it had been even if its spikes were much bigger now, and Hibari realized that this creature could be used as a weapon.
He used it as a partner instead.
Together with its propagating abilities and Hibari's merciless assault of brunt trauma, it took them a couple of hours to clear out most of the rest of what appears to be some sort of base. It's already been in a really rough shape when Hibari had appeared in it, but it bore the same marks of battle as he himself left in his wake, as though Hibari had been fighting here before even having been there. Kyoya wouldn't actually brush it off as impossible, given how strange his life had gotten since he met the Baby and started noticing Sawada Tsunayoshi as more than just one of the herbivores he had to look after in his school. If flying herbivores were possible and flames that didn't actually burn, then why would this be impossible?
Then what might have been reinforcements came, the first one in being a man almost identical to Kyoya in appearance save for the chocolate brown eyes and the long braid cascading his back, and Hibari felt his temper snap because this should be impossible, since his uncle, when he had last seen him, had been cursed into the form of an infant with a red magical pacifier but still the same mentality, memories and skills as his older self and the man - now a baby - had left and never visited Kyoya and his family again. Fon tried to ease his temper, but Kyoya was annoyed just enough that not even the Baby or Bucking Horse could calm him down or talk him down from a fight, and so Fon indulged him and they brawled. Destroying what was left of the already pitiful remains of the base in the process.
Eventually, Kyoya actually let go of his tonfa and allowed Fon to drag him into a frantic hug, checking him over for injuries and then fretting when he discovered that Hibari may have been using too much Flames. Others trickled in but Kyoya paid them no mind, as he suddenly found himself surprisingly tired and sleepy. He actually fell asleep leaning on his estranged uncle.
He woke up the next day to the sound of Hibrid singing the Nami-chuu anthem and it was almost as if it had all been a dream, but Fon, still an adult, was sitting at his bedside, napping in the chair, obviously exhausted. At the further side of the room, in a similar position, was what looked like an older Kusakabe Tetsuya, though he wore a suit and no red and gold Disciplinary Committee armband. Hibarid, when it noticed its master was awake, started happily chirping his name, flying over to him and landing on his finger when he extended it out of habit. The happy chirping woke the other two up and after some more fretting and being roped into eating and drinking something, Fon and Kusakabe Tetsuya explained the situation.
Hibari wanted to go back to that base and make sure there were, indeed, no stragglers that had managed to run from the carnage, but the Storm Arcobaleno was having none of that, saying something about how Hibari had used too much Flames when he had never used them before and how that could be damaging to his body. He didn't care. All he wanted to do was hunt down and bite to death all the bastards that had dared to try and take out his prey, his Bucking Horse. Dino's last breaths were promised to Hibari by the man himself. That someone would even dare even think they had the privilege to that pissed him off!
Unfortunately, before he could express to his estranged uncle just how likely it was that he would listen to the man, the door opened and suddenly his room was full of even more fretting herbivores. He recognized each and every one of them and it was only then that it truly sank in that he had somehow ended up ten years in the future. Seeing Yamamoto Takeshi, Sasagawa Ryohei, Gokudera Hayato and Sawada Tsunayoshi all older than him, dressed in expensive suits and shoes and all of them wearing the Vongola Rings was just a bit too surreal for his tastes, and that was not even mentioning Sasagawa's little sister or her friend or the girl from Midori all girls middle school that often hung out with Sawada Tsunayoshi.
The most surprising, though, happened to be the Baby, who was no longer actually a baby but rather a grown man. Apparently, at some point, the Vongola Tenth Generation - including himself, which was also a shocker, as he had thought they'd replace him when he finally got bored and stopped bothering with the herbivores - had helped the Arcobaleno lift their curse, at least the part that kept them trapped in baby bodies. They still wore their Pacifiers and they still protected them and something called Tri-ni-sette, but the Baby and Fon agreed that it was for the best that he didn't learn too many details about the future. The Baby then shooed everyone out of the room and told them to leave Hibari be until the meeting that will take place tomorrow so they can figure out what to do now that ten-years-after Hibari's plan, whatever it was, was set in motion.
The meeting ... Didn't exactly go as planned. For one, Kyoya was ambushed by several people as soon as he and Fon stepped foot into the meeting room, all from different divisions of Vongola or their allies.
"Hibari-dono! No! Please, I beg thou, return to the Hibari-dono I work for! I have no desire to lead CEDEF again, least of all for real!" A young man that would probably be his older self's age fell to his knees before Kyoya's feet and actually dared hug the prefect around his middle, all but sobbing into his stomach as he pleaded.
"Oi! What did you trash do!? I can't believe you swapped the feral trash for the baby feral trash! Who am I supposed to decimate stupid trash with this Sunday?!" An older version of Xanxus growled, stomping his way over to the prefect, glaring holes down at him. Hibari glared right back, as unintimidated as he had been the first time he met this monkey king playing at being carnivore.
"Oya, oya, this is troublesome," Mukuro Rokudo complained with a pout, smart enough to stay out of the teen's reach because he clearly remembered how Kyoya was at that age. "Just when I finally managed to get into his good graces that he doesn't try to kill me every time we're in the same room."
"Maa, maa, as happy as I am to meet this cute version of Hibari-chan, I prefer the Hibari-chan we all know and love," a white haired man said from a holographic screen, apparently not able to attend the meeting in person. "Who am I supposed to share top secret information with and annoy with my marshmallows?"
"I don't think any of you have a right to complain, given it's my nephew that's in this situation," Fon said serenely but Kyoya could clearly hear the dangerous, slightly pissed off edge to his voice. Which, fair. Kyoya may have been very young - only five years old if he remembered well - when Fon had turned up to their doorstep as an infant, but he remembered very well how enraged he had been to hear what had happened to his uncle.
"Guys, let's not get competitive about this," Sawada Tsunayoshi, twenty four years old, tried to defuse the situation. "I mean, I lost my strongest Guardian in this mess but you don't hear me complaining." That, of course, only set off the others more and Kyoya could only watch in mild fascination as his Sky and fellow Guardians started screaming - in the case of Gokudera Hayato and Sasagawa Ryohei - or throwing pointed arguments - in the case of Yamamoto Takeshi and Mukuro Rokudo - at the other complainers while Sawada Tsunayoshi and the other Mist Guardian tried to calm everyone down, only for the rest of the Varia to join in, as well as CEDEF member Lal Mirch until the Baby shot a single bullet from his green gun and everyone immediately shut up.
"I just lost my drinking companion. If I hear any of you utter a single complaint, you'll be getting a Chaos Shot to the head. Now stop squabbling like children and let's figure out what we'll do to best deal with this situation and help Hibari in his mission."
Some of the main points ended up being getting more Cloud rings to the older Hibari through Lambo, most of them provided by Bucking Horse himself, who was not yet informed of the switch between the two Hibaris, which was probably for the best. It was then agreed that while Verde might be a spectacular scientist, they were better off not letting him play with the time-space continuum. Byakuran, the marshmallow obsessed one on the screen, highly stressed the importance of not letting timelines and parallel worlds even accidentally collide. Teams were to be sent out to recover everything from the enemy base, Hibari was not to be experimented on - that was shot at the scientists and engineers, Irie Shoichi, a blond named Spanner and an Italian called Giannini, especially stressed for Verde with a Leon gun and a Storm Dragon pointed at his head to make the point stick - but people were allowed to observe him if he wished to train as long as they didn't get away and, most importantly, his presence was to be kept a secret from everyone who had not been present at the meeting. He was settled into his older self's room and left to his own devices for the rest of the day.
Hibari decided to test out just how much he can do with Roll - the Cloud hedgehog - and ended up accidentally making it drunk on his Flames and causing quite a bit of property damage to the Vongola Mansion, which was in Italy. He wanted to go back to Namimori, but everyone refused.
People kept bothering him over the next couple of days, showing up at random and trying to make him do things with them. Sasagawa Ryohei challenged him to a spar, Yamamoto Takeshi invited him for a walk, Gokudera Hayato tried to grumpily offer him some explanations on what his future self did without revealing important details; an exasperated Chrome Dokuro was sent several times to check up on him on that pineapplehead's request while said pineapple did show up once to offer a spar if Hibari was getting bored or frustrated. Xanxus once spent three hours tailing after him, commenting on random topics like how he had a liger named Bester, how he was itching for a spar or how he was craving certain types of meat. Kyoya did his best to ignore him and ended up going to the Baby to lose the would-be carnivore.
Kusakabe Tetsuya eventually took it upon himself to stop the herbivores from bothering his leader when he noticed the teen was becoming twitchy, which thankfully Fon and Sawada Tsunayoshi also took note of and did their best to discourage the others from bothering Hibari. Then the Marshmallow-addict came and Kyoya let Roll nearly kill the man which, unfortunately, happened when Bucking Horse was on his way to visit Vongola Decimo on some important business. The blond rushed to the scene where Byakuran was doing his best not to fight the irate teenager, only to freeze at the sight of the prefect instead of the adult Hibari Kyoya.
All hell broke loose, but all Kyoya could think about was how older Dino was, how he hadn't changed all that much and how he had aged well. He was definitely more mature now and didn't need to be as close to his subordinates to be competent. He was even stronger, too, and he took a few hours to train some with Hibari before the idiot ran off to Verde with the schematics for the time travel device in an attempt to go after the older Kyoya, whom he accidentally let slip he was in love with. Kyoya threatened to bite him to death and tell the others immediately what he was doing if he didn't let him be involved, to which the blond protested, but Hibari was Hibari and Dino couldn't really deny him anything, it would seem, always the doting tutor, for all that Hibari had never seen him as such.
The last couple of days he spent in the future, Kyoya actually indulged the herbivores, as they knew that at that point, it was useless to try and stop Dino from his plan since Hibari was involved, too. He mostly spent his time with Fon and Reborn, though, because they seemed to understand him best, and the rest of his time was spent with the Bucking Horse.
Unlike the device that had swapped him and his older self, Bucking Horse had challenged Verde to create one that would allow, temporarily and for a rather short time, for the future and past selves of the travelers to coexist in the same time without destroying that dimension. Byakuran, when he heard about the project, the lover of chaos that he was, had been all too eager to give Verde some pointers. Hibari was still skeptical about anyone possessing the ability to share knowledge with alternate versions of themselves, but he let it be and just accepted the Marshmallow's assistance.
When the machine was done, it was just in time for the future Hibari's last few hours in the past. Since Cavallone was still around and the future hadn't changed, they could only guess his mission was successful. Cavallone still insisted that they should go, so Hibari said goodbye to everyone - something he usually really wouldn't bother doing, but it would seem his older self had gotten somewhat attached to these herbivores he was taking care of - promised the Baby they'd definitely get a drink together as soon as Hibari was the right age and reassured his fretting no-longer-estranged uncle that he'll take care of himself.
When they arrived in Sawada's bedroom - because the baby Lambo was there, and so was the Ten Year Bazooka, which acted as an anchor for Verde's machine - Bucking Horse spent the entire walk to Nami-chuu remiscenting about how nostalgic it all was. Kyoya was just relieved to be back in Namimori and his own time again, that is until he realized there was smoke coming from his school and knew that a fight had just ended. They sped into a sprint and soon found them as witnesses of the result of older Hibari's battle with the assassins sent after Bucking Horse.
The herbivores were talking between themselves but all Hibari could register was the destroyed courtyard, the missing chunks of the wall fence, the few uprooted trees and the damage done to the school building itself.
All done because Cavallone got stupid over an insignificant matter that he didn't even deal with properly.
"I'll bite you to death!" He said in perfect tandem to his older self, who was also pissed but for a different reason.
Both Dinos paled.