Chapter 7:The Sun battle

Disclaimer: I Don't Own KHR.

It was finally the first day of the battle between the Varia and Tsuna and his family. Reborn ordered Natsuki to join alongside him to watch the battles. Of course both siblings refused to have that happen. But reborn, being reborn got what he wanted in the end, Natsuki being even more displeased realizing that Alek had to go with her. And that was how Natsuki ended up having Tsuna meet her subordinate in uncomfortable circumstances.

"This is Alek," Natsuki said once she arrived with the tall blond man by her side. "He's a friend."

Alek bowed, ignoring the glare coming from Gokudera. "It's nice to finally meet my Boss' brother."

Natsuki's eye twitch as Tsuna once again paled and looked at her with a silent demand of an explanation.

"eff you Alek," Natsuki growled while glaring at him. "I specifically told you to not make my little tsu worry."

Alek just smirked and kept quiet.

"Are you listening?!" Natsuki exclaimed. "My little tsu's face is pale because of you...YOU!"

Alek hummed, ignoring Natsuki's little rant while his smirk turned into an amused smile. Yamamoto just laughed while Tsuna was trying to calm down Natsuki, who was about to say a whole bunch of embarrassing things.

"Ah wait are they here yet?" Yamamoto asked, breaking away from the whole scene.

"They've been on standby for a while," A pink haired woman replied. "Though I am not aware that you are allowed here."

"Alek's with me Cervello," Natsuki replied. "Vindice just recently released him and his gaurd is nearby, no worries."

Tsuna gaped and quickly looked around to see the Vindice gaurd show up beside Alek. Though he did now understand what that horrible feeling around them was. Both women looked at each other then nodded, signalling that there is no problem with his presence. Once again the Vindice disappeared after turning his head towards Natsuki and bowing a bit.

"Natsuki," Tsuna said with a pleading tone. "Please tell me after this.."

"I will," Natsuki replied wth a thin smile. She looked over to the Varia members who seem eager to get this over with. Squalo on the other hand looked ready to murder them especially her which made her chest tighten.

"This battle tonight will be the sun battle," one of the women said. Natsuki looked over to Sasagawa Ryohei then to Lussuria who stepped up with a small amused smile on his face. Beside her, she could sense Alek shifting exitedly, ready to witness the battle.

"Good luck Sasagawa-san," Natsuki said with a small heart warming smile. Ryhei grinned at her upon hearing her.

"I'll make sure to give Hana that love letter of yours too," Natsuki added with a wink and smirk. Ryohei sputtered as his face turned red and tried to deny what she had said. Natsuki just laughed and soon stopped as soon as the Cervello showed them the arena, which was specifically set for the qualities of the sun.

Natsuki looked at the traces of sun flames coming out of both men with her specially made sunglasses. She was glad that she had brought them along with her. The girl had not expected the ring to be so bright yet she could see why the ring was set up as it was.

"Destroying the misfortune that attacks the family with their own body, they become the sun that brightly shines upon an area," Reborn had said to them.

Natsuki had evaluated the two, she had already knew Luss from her memories from Catrina and Ryohei she knew a bit from her childhood. So far from what she could observe, both were about evenly matched despite the appearance of Luss' white hair was slightly drenched from perspiration, suddenly making her eyes widen a bit.

"Knuckle," she murmured in awe and soft enough so only she could hear it.

As Natsuki watched, she also noted her little brother's expressions. It went from shock to awe then down to worry. Especially when the boy's sister came by in the middle of the match to gave him a psychological power up. She could feel herself relax a bit upon noticing small stream of sun flames clearly coming off the girl.

By the time Lussuria was defeated the Gola Mosca sent out a missile, she felt the shockwaves of an explosion nearby. Her eyes went wide with shock as she looked over to source only to see a very nearly dead Lussuria. Her lips curl downwards in distaste and her eyes narrowed down to a glare that was beamed towards the Varia.

"Another hint," she hissed, her voice dripping with venom. "She just saw that."

Squalo watched as Natsuki just sharply turned around and left angrily, stomping slightly on the ground. He then looked around to see no one. He frowned slightly but just left as soon as he said a few confident words.

Going back in defeat didn't seem to faze their Boss the slightest. Squalo didn't care either way, he was still thinking back to the brown haired girl's words. If Catrina was still alive that would mean she would have improved too.

He scoffed silently. As if that would happen. She was inexperienced even when she was alive. He would have sensed someone watching them nearby, Mammon too would have felt her presence. Even if she did improve, the time frame would have been too short to actually catch up to their level. After all it was only more than six months since her death.

Yet his gut was telling him otherwise; That she was alive, that she was watching. That the girl's words were true. Squalo had never felt more conflicted. Yet he couldn't just blab out these things with Xanxus. In truth, the guy was truly crushed when she died. The way he would go around and help Squalo take care of her, it was obvious he loved her dearly. Guilt started to coil up in his heart and squeezing it tightly.

The other Varia members knew that something was up with their long haired captain after he had returned to Italy with those fake rings. The guy had paced back and forth in his room with a pensive look in his face. Even his ear shattering voice was not present in the Headquarters during that time he was in his room.

Now once again, they saw the long haired captain looking out of the window with a distracted look. His eyes were glazed over with a milky thin layer on top of his eyes. Everyone almost fell down to the ground to see their Captain in such a tranquil state. Bel had had to pinch his cheeks to just see if he wasn't dreaming. Levi turned into a frozen statue, while Mammon just checked and rechecked the state of his mind just to make sure that it was no illusion.

Then Squalo turned his head over to their direction.

"Oh," he said with a troubled frown and then went back to staring at the window.

Everyone was horrified. A tranquil Squalo was much more to be feared. With quick strides, the other members just left and closed the door, not even daring on asking Squalo about his recent behavior.

Omake:Catrina's adventures

Squalo looked down at Catrina and frowned slightly.

"What are you doing brat?" He asked as Catrina looked up from her hug.

Her brown eyes just glimmered and her smile was huge and big. Sparkles seem to surround the girl, hurting Squalo's eyes just slightly.

"Happy Father's day," Catrina happily said.

Squalo tensed up.

"Father's day?" Squalo asked.

"Yep," Catrina replied then let go of him.

Squalo inwardly sighed, his body wanted him to hug the girl again. Yet he was more curious about what the girl would do for the event. He looked down at her raven black hair as she bended down to reach the gift in his bag.

"Here," Catrina said and held out the box of chocolates. "Happy Father's day papa."

Squalo's mouth twitched upwards as he ruffled her hair and took the box of chocolates.

"You made these?" He asked in a gentle tone.

"Ah yeah," the girl replied. "When you eat it, you have to make sure to tell me how it is."

Squalo's smile quickly sharpened into an amused smirk.

"Of course," he replied.

Another bright smile with sparkles.

Squalo swore that he might go blind as he watched his daughter skips upwards to Xanxus' room.

Catrina had managed to sneak by Levi. Thankfully, the guy was a bit dense to be fooled by checking out the small distraction that she had made. Gently twisting the metal knob, she opened the door just enough for her to go in. Once in, she gently closed the door.

"What do you want trash?" Xanxus asked coldly from his desk.

"Boss it's me Catrina," Catrina replied, a small smile coming from her lips. "Happy Father's day."

Xanxus sighed and stood up from his seat and from his paperwork. Inwardly he was glad that he could escape this paperwork even if it was a short time.

"Squalo's your dad you brat," Xanxus said. "What's the point of including me?"

"Both of you are my dads," Catrina replied cheerfully. "Because even you helped me to take care of me when I was fazed with my memory loss."

Xanxus snorted, about to retort only to be stopped by a box of chocolates waved in front of his face. He just took the box and smirked slightly before opening the box and popping in one of the chocolates into his mouth.

"Not bad brat," Xanxus said as soon as he swallowed the chocolate.

A huge sparkling grin appeared from her face. Xanxus almost did a doubletake. Yet inside of him, something warm spread through his body, something that he hadn't experience in a long time.

Happiness.

"Alright brat," Xanxus said with a reluctant sigh. "I gotta do my paperwork…..good work ya brat."

Catrina smiled again with one of those bright sparkly smiles before leaving his office and running into an angry looking Levi.

"Eeep," she squeaked quietly before running away from the angry man.