A/N

It's officially 2019. And I only just got used to it being 2018 too... Hello to everyone who is following and/or favouriting the story~ :)

.:Chapter Six: Those Magic Changes:.

Tsuna had long since developed the belief that nine was the year in which one experiences several defining moments of their life.

Vanessa Smith had been nine when her parents finally went through with the divorce. She was nine when she lost all faith in justice, the law and the court system. At age nine, her heart had been shattered in knowing that her mother would rather pay her jackass of a father a huge alimony check each month than fight for custody of her only daughter. Left entirely alone, she'd been forced to grow up and become an adult at only nine.

But more importantly, nine had been the year she'd gotten her hands on her first lighter.

All of these events had been key factors in shaping the person known as Vanessa Smith. All the choices she made from then on had been influenced by these events. She firmly believes that nine was the year she'd started down the road to hell.

She walked the rest of the way herself though… It almost seems like a miracle that she was able to walk through hell and still come out the other side...

It makes her think she should've been reborn as Mukuro instead of Tsuna, as apparently he went through hell and came back too. Still, she doesn't think she'd like being a psychotic pineapple head. (Also, fanfiction has made it so she can't view Mukuro as anything other than a creepy pervert…)

She was quite happy being the most adorable badass motherfucker the mafia world will ever see, thank you very much.

Although she'd be a lot happier if she didn't have to deal with her parent's shit.

Rays of golden sunlight had made their way onto the kitchen floor by the time Nana had returned from the wonderful world of unconsciousness. With a haggard cough she rolled over, propping herself up on her elbows. Blearily, she ran a hand through her matted hair and eyed the room in utter confusion, groaning as she stretched her stiff, aching limbs.

Tsuna imagined this is what it must be like for a person to wake up with a hangover and no recollection of what had occurred the previous night.

Moaning with effort, her mother hauled herself up into a sitting position. There she sat hunched over, head in her hands and muttering something incoherent under her breath, all the while completely unaware of her son's burning gaze on her back.

Of course, she eventually noticed the line of hardened wax puddles trailing on the floor, under the table, ending in a neat semi-circle around a nest of pillows and blankets. At a dreadfully slow pace, those large chocolate brown eyes rose up to meet the half-lidded golden-orange eyes belonging to the only other occupant of the house.

The phrase "deer in the headlights" would perfectly describe the look on Nana face in that moment.

Time stretched on as the two just stared at each other, somewhat awkwardly on Nana's part. Tsuna blinked lazily, and rose to her feet, the teddy still in her arms and music still playing from the headphones around her neck. Nana's jaw dropped open as she attempted to conjure up…something (an excuse maybe?), but no noise came out.

"Kaa-san…" Tsuna started.

Nana's mouth promptly clicked shut.

Now, there were many things she had planned on saying to her mother, none of them nice. Mostly it was just reiterations of the phrase: "If you're going to kill yourself, please do it in your own time."

But the weary shell of a woman before her just looked so defeated, so empty, so… pathetic, just sitting there like a puppet who's strings had been cut… she just couldn't bring herself to be angry at her anymore. Her mother was already broken enough as is.

They go back to staring at one another. Thankfully, the silence is filled by the soft hum of music from Tsuna's headphones. A new song starts playing, one which she recognises from her previous life. Despite the low volume, she hears every lyric clearly. She thinks Nana does too given the way her eyes travel down to the source of the disturbance.

Perhaps it has something to do with the perfect stillness of the room.

An odd sense of nostalgia strikes her as she listens to the song. It's plain fucking weird to even think she would ever feel anything akin to homesickness for that shitty kind of life. Maybe she just misses knowing who she was… not having to fight through phantom emotions, nearly losing herself altogether…

She doesn't need to be reminded every fucking day about whose body this really is! She doesn't need a mother who can't even take care of herself, let alone a nine year old brat! She doesn't need a shitty father that can't even be there for his loved ones in their time of need! Why does she have to shoulder Tsunayoshi's burdens?

She never fucking asked for this bullshit!

But the Real Tsuna is dead and there's only her now. There's no going back. One things for sure though, she's going to live, both her share and his. And she's going to have the fucking time of her life. And no one, not even her "mother", is going to stop her!

It's as the song says, she'll never look away. Not from the truth, not from life, not from death, not from anything. She'll face it all and still come out on top! Heh, bring it on motherfuckers~.

As the music fades away, she turns her gaze back to her mother's, her eyes ignited with the flame of resolve, "Kaa-san, I'm going to become strong."

Her piece said, she spins on her heel and heads back up to her room, leaving Nana to gaze after her with a mystified look adorning her face.

….…..

Six words. Six short words, was all it took for Nana to start turning her life around. Not some inspirational speech, or even some supportive therapeutical sessions; not even any of that romantic heart-to-heart bullshit you see in movies. Just six fucking insignificant words.

Well, shit.

Now all Tsuna needs to do is get a blue box and she can start calling herself the Lord of Time~.

Sure, things are far from being okay and Nana's nowhere near as happy-go-lucky as she was in the anime. But, she's finally starting to get her act together. Before it was like how in those old cartoons when there's a dark raincloud only following one person. Except now the cloud is gone and the sun finally came out.

Maybe she'll be seeing Sasagawa Ryohei soon, or his sparkly sister… (No. She does not want to meet and fall in love with fucking Miss Sunshine and Sparkles. Even if she was a guy, it ain't fucking happening.)

Okay sure, her mother's smiles may have become far less frequent (to the point of being rare), but they're genuine now. Which is a good thing because it seemed like her face would surely break under the strain of those forced smiles.

And while Tsuna isn't exactly an expert on parenting, she's fairly certain it's kids that sneak into their mum's beds at night when they've woken from a nightmare, not the other way around. Well, she doesn't particularly mind; it makes her feel like Nana trusts her more now. She never liked how her mother would try to hide her tears anyway.

Though it can be a bit of a pain sometimes; Tsuna's single sized children's bed wasn't made to fit more than two small kids, much less an adult… Also, Tsuna is an incredibly light sleeper (often waking up from nightmares she can't remember) and is woken up at every little movement or sound. But Nana desperately needs comforting and, right now, her son is the only person who can offer her any.

So for the time being, she lets her weary-eyed mother slip into her room every other night and use her as a human teddy bear. She had always been fascinated by the concept of comfort through physical touch, as it was quite a foreign experience for her.

The one thing had not yet changed was Nana's severe overprotective tendencies. In fact, one might even suggest it had gotten much worse.

Tsuna does not know whether or not to be worried.

….

She should have been worried. Or at least, paid a little more attention…

She gets into one little fight and everything just goes to hell.

Rather than 'fight' it was more or less just a bunch of idiot seniors trying to beat her up for her lunch money or some such shit, and failing. Because despite that fact she knows next to nothing about fighting, she's not the wimpy weakling everyone pegged Tsunayoshi to be.

So when the fatass senior she had dubbed 'Arrogant Fucktard' and three of his goons had her surrounded, instead of trembling in fear like they expected she merely gave them a bored look (while resisting the urge to examine her nails). Clearly Fucktard wasn't happy with her lack of fear and seized her harshly by the collar.

Naturally she bit Arrogant Fucktard's hand and then proceeded to kick him in the nuts.

The original plan had been to knock one out and make a quick getaway while the others were still in shock. But looking at those dumbstruck faces while the ringleader sprawled out on the floor clutching his crotch, well, she just couldn't resist giving one of the fatass followers a good punch in the face…

It all went downhill from there.

Yeah, she has way too much fucking pride than she needs… Why did she have to be so damn cocky?

Fortunately, no one believed "Dame-Tsuna" could possibly fight back, thus she got off scot-free. The Fucktard gang, however, all got suspended, making the black eye and the dozen or so bruises littering her scrawny ass body partially worth it. At least until Nana found out…

No kidding here, she went fucking ballistic. Tsuna pretty much had to get down on her knees and beg not to be taken to hospital. Of course, she had to live with being under complete house arrest for the next few weeks, with her mother hovering over her shoulder all the fucking time…

The only good thing that came out of it was that Nana thought learning a martial art would teach her discipline as well as self-defence. Thus she was enrolled in a karate school.

The dojo was located on the other side of town and the instructor was very enthusiastic, and really strict. He made half the kids cry on the first lesson, and sent at least two thirds of them away because they weren't serious enough about learning. He even outright said, "If you're only here because you thought karate would make you cool, GTFO now."

But apparently Tsuna was a serious student in his eyes, despite the fact she couldn't hold a pose more than three seconds before falling over. (Fucking non-existent balance…)

Even when she accidentally (yes it actually was accidental… this time…) landed a kick to some annoying brat's face, all he did was give her pointers on how to do it without falling on her butt next time. She also learned of several ways to break a person's nose.

Best teacher she's ever had?

Hell yeah.

…

Iemitsu did not come home for Christmas or New Years. He may have called, but Tsuna didn't talk to him so she doesn't really know.

Nana and Tsuna spent the Christmas holidays in the comfort of each other's presence. It was a hell of a lot less awkward than the summer holidays had been, though they still spent most of their time snuggled up on the couch watching animated movies. (Goddammit, she's going to have Frozen songs stuck in her head for fucking years now…)

For New Year's she was dressed up in a manly winter kimono (dark blue with a white floral pattern) and dragged out to Namimori Shrine at the crack of dawn. She had wanted to do one of these shrine visits one day… just not so goddamn early in the freezing cold!

Aside from waiting out in the cold for god knows how fucking long, the whole thing was actually quite interesting.

She got "Moderately Lucky. Like a flower distressed by rain." on her fortune slip (she thinks Real Tsuna would have considered that to be amazingly lucky). Hey, maybe she'll get to meet Yamamoto Takeshi soon-ish? There have been several times when she's spotted someone that might be him across the playground at school…

It also said her "expected person" will "be out of contact but arrive eventually" or some such shit like that.

Speaking of expected people, she swears she saw the Sasagawa siblings at the shrine. A white haired brat was shouting "EXTREME" at the top of his lungs as he ran around, and was being followed by a very worried, sparkly, pink (because of her kimono) little girl.

It had to be them. Had to be.

…Is it bad that she really doesn't want to meet Kyoko, purely because she feels like gagging at the thought of Real Tsuna ever falling in love with her?

Not that she disliked Kyoko or anything, the girl seemed nice enough… It's just, come on, she a very substandard female lead, practically a minor character with the only thing she offers to the plot is simply being Tsuna's love interest. There was so much more potential in the episode where the girls finally learn about the mafia properly, but it just didn't deliver…

She had been expecting the girls to learn how to defend themselves, but nooo, they're just fucking moral support… just there to cook and clean and kiss all their booboos better~.

Ugh, it makes her feel sick just thinking about it.

Hey, she still considers herself a woman and a feminist. Equal rights and all that shit.

All things considered, she'd rather not get to know Kyoko or Haru for that matter. They are civilians, and far too innocent for the mafia. Look what it did to Nana; imagine what it'd do to them. Real Tsuna always felt bad about involving them anyways, better to just avoid them altogether.

That being said, there's no telling what they'll actually be like in this world… Tsuna has long since decided she ended up in a parallel world to the Canon timeline, so shit's going to be different no matter what.

She had the advantage of knowing how one alternate timeline will play out (it's a good thing she has a very good memory and was really into KHR…), as well as the freedom to move as she pleases. Though, it's still very strange seeing people act differently to how she remembers from the manga.

Strange, but nothing worth freaking out over… yet…

Anyways, the holidays ended and she was dumped back at school. She couldn't wait for Saturday afternoons to roll around, so she can kill some stress by beating up wooden slabs. Although, the majority of the time, she ends up flat on her back or with very sore hands…

By the end of the school term, the nickname "Dame-Tsuna" was really losing its popularity (though "Cheating-Tsuna" was still going strong). At this rate, it'll be history by the time she gets to middle school. Sometimes she wonders how this would affect things when Reborn shows up.

But most of the time, she doesn't give a crap.

….

It took all of Tsuna's self-control to resist the urge to huff and roll her eyes as her mother fussed over her. The first day of school tended to be a big deal for parents and their children (or so she had observed), even though really she was only moving up a grade.

But she had to admit this year was already proving to be better.

The reason?

Well for one thing, the rumours about Nana had finally begun to die down. More importantly, she's got a different teacher. Plus the classes have been shuffled around so she'll have different classmates too. Hopefully she won't be stuck with a bunch of mindless idiots again.

"Now you're sure you have everything, Tsu?" Her mum asked. (Ever since her Birthday, Nana had dropped the 'kun' from her nickname. She sort of likes it better this way.)

"Yes." Tsuna answered dully, readjusting the strap of her backpack.

"Okay. I'll be here to pick you up after school then." She bent down, leaving one last kiss on Tsuna's cheek. "Bye sweetie, have fun~!"

"Bye Kaa-san." She answered with a slight smile, while rubbing the lipstick stain off.

A little ways off, a kid was crying out indignantly, trying his hardest to avoid his mother's smothering kisses. Another brat was wailing and clinging tightly to his mother, who looked desperate to get away. Tsuna rolled her eyes and made her way to her new classroom, following the stream of chattering kids.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to find her room this time.

Tsuna settled into her seat and idly surveyed the other students scattered around the room. They stood in groups babbling away at whatever nine-year-olds talk about. Some faces she recognised from last year, though she never cared to learn any of their names.

Stifling a yawn, she put on her headphones and lazily draped her arms and head over her desk while she waited for the bell to ring.

The teacher arrived just before the bell. She was young looking, probably a newbie. "Ohayo! My name is Minami-sensei! Let's all have fun together ne~!"

Oh god. She's one of those types…

"How about we play a little game to get to know one another?" At the word 'game', pretty much all the kids cried out with joy.

Tsuna on the other hand inches away from banging her head on her desk. Kill me now…

The game was a standard ice-breaker. They had to write down three facts about themselves; two of them would be true, one a lie. Everyone would then try to guess which one was the lie.

Predictably, everyone came up with very simple childish facts. Simple to the point where you'd have to be blind and deaf not to know which was the lie… Things like "My name is Princess Bubblegum!" and then "I have a pet dinosaur!" made Tsuna want to question the IQ level of the room.

Eventually her turn came up. Trying not to look too bored she stood up and read aloud in a clear voice, "I am part Italian. I despise eggplant. My greatest fear is bats."

Silence ensues. Head shook. Shoulders were shrugged.

Tsuna scoffed inwardly. She understood it really. No one knew Sawada Tsunayoshi. He was just the no good kid everyone picked on, a door mat for people to walk all over. No one bothered to get to know the kid, no matter how many years they had spent together.

Tsuna seethed inwardly, hiding her anger with a smirk, while someone made a guess, "The first one?"

"The second one?" Someone else shouted when Tsuna shook her head.

"No. The third one is a lie." She drawled uninterestedly.

Minami-sensei gasped, apparently very impressed, "Ara! Tsunayoshi-kun, you're not scared of bats?"

Tsuna gave her a flat look, "Sensei, in this world there a far more fitting things to fear than mere bats."

The smile froze on her face, and Tsuna relished in the ominous atmosphere circling the room, sending shivers down everyone else's spines.

As she sat down again, Minami-sensei encouraging the next kid to stand, she felt eyes burning holes in her back. Turning around in search of the culprit, she locked gazes with a girl who had wavy dark brown hair. Her expression clearly says "I'm onto you." To which Tsuna shrugged at, as she wasn't plotting anything… not yet anyway~.

The rest of class was boring as hell.

Seconds after the bell for lunch finally rang someone cleared their throat, their shadow casting over my desk, "You realise IPods and phones aren't allowed at school."

She looked up to find the same dark haired girl from before standing there with her arms folded and tapping her foot impatiently.

She blinked innocently, idly playing with headphones around her neck, "Minami-sensei doesn't mind."

The girl scoffed, "Minami-sensei is an idiot."

"True, but so is half the town." Was her snarky response.

The girl scoffed again. "Well, aren't you bold? You'll get in serious trouble one day if you keep that attitude up."

She smiled (though it probably looked pretty damn evil) and showed off her puppy-dog eyes, "No, I won't. I'm the most adorable BAMF you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting."

"Yeah, right." She snorted dryly then flopped heavily into the seat in front of Tsuna, propped an elbow on her desk and pulled out a phone.

Tsuna titled her head to the side, "You realise phones aren't allowed at school?"

"Sensei doesn't mind." She replied smoothly. They stared blankly at each other, before both cracked into smiles.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi." She introduced herself.

The girl rolled her eyes, "I remember; the part Italian who hates eggplant, right?"

"Well, unfortunately I stopped listening after 'Princess Bubblegum' made her speech, so I don't know who are."

"Oh god, don't remind me." She groaned (somebody doesn't like Adventure Time) "It's Kurokawa Hana. Try not to forget it."

Tsuna opened her mouth to say something moderately rude in response, but then did a double take. Wasn't that the name of Kyoko's best friend? How the heck did Miss Sparkles get this sarcastic, indifferent and highly intelligent girl as a friend? They seem like polar opposites…

Well, it's none of her business anyways. And it's not like she's going to not befriend her just because of Kyoko. It would be nice to be able to have an intelligent conversation once in a while. "Don't worry yourself, Petal, I won't forget."

"Ooh, flower puns. How mature." There's enough sarcasm there to fill a bucket. "And here I thought you had some measure of intelligence…"

"Bitch."

"Cunt."

"How do you even know that word?" Tsuna stared incredulously at her.

"How do you know that word?" Hana countered lightly.

"I'm just amazing like that." She answered without missing a beat.

"Of course you are." Came the dry response.

"I'm glad you agree with me Hana."

"I hate you."

"Aw thanks, I love you too~."

Hana rolled her eyes and huffed in exasperation, but it quickly morphed into a smile shared by Tsuna.

And thus, Tsuna obtained her very first real friend (in both lives).

This is a really long chapter...This is actually the point where I had stopped updating about two years ago. I had made a start on the next chapter, and had a vague plan for the next couple of chapters at the time, but I just stopped writing.

Except, every once in a while, I would get a comment from someone telling me how much liked the story and wanted an update. It would inspire me to take another look at the story, and I'd be reminded of how much fun I had thinking up the kind of crazy shit Tsuna would get up to. I slowly added to that unfinished chapter over time until I had most of it written, but not finished. Until a couple of months ago that is. I had intended to take a break from this fic to work on another, but randomly got inspired a couple of weeks ago and finished the next next chapter too.

I dunno how long updates are gonna take after chapter eight is up (especially since I still really want to be focusing more on "Prelude to Inheritance"), but we'll see how we go.

Hugs for Frozen Teen for their review! I'm so glad you're liking the story! :D

See you soon, NyanNyan-suru