AN: Hello dear readers! Over 200 follows and 80 reviews! I'm so happy! Thanks for all those of you who reviewed, I'm happy you enjoy my story! This is the chapter in which Tsuna and Reborn have their little 'chat'.

WARNING: This fic may contain many clichés known to fanfic readers everywhere, but I hope that at least some of my ideas are original. If not—well, this is fanfiction people! We can't all be geniuses at literature!

Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Harry Potter, they belong to JK Rowling and Akira Amano. If I did own them, I'd be rich and own a mansion or something.

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Death's Curse: Chapter 6

'This is a disaster!'

The normally calm and composed Timoteo, also widely known throughout the underworld as Vongola Nono didn't know what to do with the current disaster.

It seemed he had his hands tied when it came to the whole affair regarding his successor, the soon to be Vongola Decimo.

When the leader of CEDEF, Iemetsu had come to him all those years ago and made him swear that he'd never involve his youngest son in the mafia, and to only consider his oldest, Natsume as an heir he had agreed, thinking it would never get to the point where Natsume would be the only heir.

In retrospect, he has been way too naive regarding the possible death of his other heirs. He was the head of a mafia famiglia for god's sake! He should have anticipated something like this would happen, ESPECIALLY after the 'cradle affair' a few years ago.

His three sons, the only successors apart from Natsume in Japan were all dead, and and the only available heir had been Natsume. His poor sons were gone from this world, and here he was, forced to make another hard decision.

Xanxus was out of the question, especially because he knew the Vongola rings would never fully accept someone who wasn't his actual son or related to a previous Vongola boss.

He had sent Reborn to Japan immediately, telling him to try and train Natsume into a proper mafia boss but had received a letter not soon after he arrived.

Natsume possessed not the Vongola sky flames, but rather lighting flames!

This was of course, unprecedented, and he didn't think anyone had been expecting this to happen to the only remaining heir. If Natsume didn't have sky flames, then the Sky Vongola Ring would never work for him. He was no longer a possible successor.

And this brought him to the cause of his predicament.

Tsunayoshi Sawada, the youngest son and only remaining descendant eligible to become Vongola Decimo.

He had called for a private meeting with Iemetsu concerning this, he just hoped he didn't have to force his hand on one of his most loyal subordinates.

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Iemetsu Sawada wasn't having a good day.

First, he'd woken up and noticed that his alarm had failed to wake him up, so he was late for an important meeting.

Then, he'd arrived to his office only to find the usual amount of paperwork had TRIPLED somehow in the time he'd been away.

And finally, his coffee was cold.

So it was understandable that when he received the summons of Nono, he wasn't the most gracious to the messenger (let's just say that the poor man had to go to the hospital and get stitches done).

Iemetsu worked as the external advisor to the Vongola, and he was head of CEDEF. He had a family in Japan, but despite loving them very much, he seemed to forget about them once he was at work, only visiting once every four months or more.

'I wonder if this has anything to do with Natsume?'

As far as Iemetsu knew, Natsume was the perfect son, a great leader in the making, he couldn't even imagine his poor little Tuna as a mafia boss, he was too shy and weak.

'At least he has that friend of his... Hibari wasn't it? Yes, at least he has someone else to protect him.'

Soon he reached Timoteo's office and knocked.

"Come in."

As soon as he went inside and noticed the look on Nono's face, he knew this was serious.

"Ah! Iemetsu, I'm glad you're finally here, we have some grave matters to discuss."

Iemetsu sat down. "Does this have anything to do with Natsume? I assure you Nono, he's a perfect candidate for the job, I'm sure if Reborn..."

"Iemetsu!"

He was startled. Nono didn't seem to be in the best of moods, maybe his rambling hadn't helped. He sat, silently acknowledging that Nono was speaking.

"Iemetsu, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to break our agreement regarding Tsunayoshi knowing about the mafia."

Iemetsu let the sentence sink in until..."What? Nono! We agreed that as long as Natsume got training as the future Vongola Decimo you'd allow me to keep Tsuna out of this business!"

Nono just gave him a grave look. "Natsume can't be Vongola Decimo. He doesn't have a sky flame."

"What do you mean he doesn't have a sky flame! Of course he does! He's a descendant of Primo!"

Iemetsu was incredulous. How was it possible that Natsume didn't possess the sky flames, they were hereditary, he'd never heard of this happening before.

"Perhaps...perhaps Reborn got it wrong, maybe his flames just aren't ready to come out?"

Timoteo just sighed. "He possesses lightning flames, Reborn shot him with a dying-will bullet a few days ago."

Iemetsu slouched, defeated. "What do we do now? You have no other heirs."

Nono just pointedly stared at him.

"Oh no! No, no, no, no! I will not let you drag my poor Tsuna into the mafia underworld! He'll be eaten alive!"

"That's not what Reborn seems to think." Nono interrupted. "In his letter he explained that Tsunayoshi didn't seem half as surprised as his brother when he was told about the mafia. Seemed to be resigned towards the information even. Are you sure you didn't let anything slip the last time you visited your family?"

Iemetsu looked affronted. "Of course not! I was very careful whenever I was on the phone with any of my subordinates, I was even speaking in Italian!"

Nono let it go after that. "Nevertheless, Reborn wrote that he'll be having a chat with your son, just to be on the safe side."

He looked at the slightly annoyed Iemetsu apologetically.

"Regardless of your wishes, Tsunayoshi must be trained to succeed me, Vongola cannot lie unclaimed for very long, and he is the only one that's left."

When he saw Iemetsu open his mouth, he cut in quickly. "And, I've already sent Reborn his new orders; to train Tsunayoshi Sawada to the best of his abilities so he'll become a good mafia boss. This meeting was just for me to relay the news to you, you have no say in any further things regarding your son. I'm sorry Iemetsu."

All he could do was nod, and as he walked away, he wondered if his poor family would soon be torn apart by the bloodthirsty life that comes with being a member of the mafia.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

It was nine o'clock at night, and Tsuna was currently having a staring contest with Reborn.

'I can't believe this is happening to me! What do I do?'

The moment he'd gotten home at around seven (all because of evil, evil paperwork!), he'd noticed the Arcobaleno staring at him while he ate his meal. After he'd finished, the baby had followed him into his room, where he'd been ignored while Tsuna worked on his homework (making sure he got around forty percent on the assignment).

Reborn had been living with his family for a day, and something seemed to have trouble the small hitman, he seemed as if he was waiting for something.

He'd finished a few minutes ago, and ever since then, Reborn was just watching him.

Getting tired the staring he snapped. "Is there something you want?"

Instantly he regretted his actions. 'You idiot! You're supposed to be shy, not snap at the world's strongest hitman! Now he'll know for sure that you're hiding something!'

Reborn seemed to have noticed his change in tone from the previous day and smirked. 'So he is hiding something...'

"Dame-Tsuna, I want to know what you know of the mafia. How did you find out?"

'Oh shit. I guess the cat's out of the bag, but what excuse to use?' Suddenly he remembered the assassin from all those years ago.

"You don't think I would have noticed something was fishy when I was attacked by no less than twelve assassins in the past several years? Especially given the fact that they kept mentioning my father as the head of CEDEF? That I wouldn't know of Vongola?"

Reborn was cursing Iemetsu. 'Damn it you idiot! Didn't you send any bodyguards to look after your family while you were in Italy?'

"How did you survive the assassins? If what you're telling me is the truth, then you were only a child then."

He smiled bitterly. "At first, it was mostly luck, to be honest, I could have died dozens of times, but I've been training, Iemetsu sure as hell hasn't been looking after his family. Hibari has been helping me for the last four years or so, getting rid of any 'evidence' left by assassins."

Reborn was surprised. Nothing could have possibly indicated that all of this had been going on. As far as he knew, Nana and Natsume had lived their lives unknowing of all the dangers around them. 'It seems there's more going on in this small town than I was led to believe.'

"That still doesn't explain how you know of CEDEF or Vongola."

Tsuna smiled. "I'm a hacker. Once I began to get curious about all the assassins, and you can't fault me for that because, honestly? I just wanted to know why the hell I was being targeted by people who seemed to belong to the mafia, I managed to get my hands on some low priority, not that well guarded files where I managed to find out that the Vongola was a mafia familia, and that my father was a part of it. To be honest with you, I'd been suspicious of Iemetsu for years, so it wasn't such a surprise."

Reborn quickly went through the conversation in his head. 'So he knows about Vongola and managed to keep it a secret, perhaps he even knew about the possibility of his brother becoming Vongola Decimo. But why keep it a secret?'

Seeing the look on Reborn's face, Tsuna smiled and quickly added. "Don't worry about me spilling the beans, I know about Omertà, it's not like I know any important secrets of the Vongola."

'At least not any recent ones.' He mentally added.

Reborn looked satisfied, and spoke again. "Do you know anything about dying-will flames?"

"Only a little, I heard that the Vongola boss as well as their guardians all have a specific flame."

"Did you know you and your brother are the only remaining heirs to the title of Vongola Decimo?"

Tsuna looked slightly surprised. "I thought only Natsume was considered as an heir."

Reborn turned serious. "That was before the events of yesterday took place."

"What do you mean?" 'I have a bad feeling about this.'

"Your brother doesn't have a sky flame, he has lightning flames. As of right now, you are the only candidate available to become Vongola Decimo."

'You are the only candidate available... Only candidate...'

The words kept repeating themselves in his head. He had promised himself that he wouldn't join a mafia familia again, not after... the problems with his once friend and guardian, Daemon Spade.

'Even if it is Vongola, it's changed a lot since the days when I was in charge. Am I really ready for this? It's not like I have much of a choice. But, if I want to protect my friends and family I have to be strong, and perhaps I can change the Vongola to what it once was. I'll do this, for my family.'

"I accept the position of future Vongola Decimo."

They both looked at each other, a silent, unspoken promise made to themselves. Reborn promised himself to find out Tsuna's secrets, while Tsuna promised himself he'd take his secrets to the grave, no matter how short a time that might end up being.

"I just got the letter from Nono today, starting from now on I'll be your tutor in all subjects, both academics and athletics. I'll make an assessment of your fighting skills tomorrow, preferably you against that friend of yours, Hibari was it?"

'Oh hell, I can't believe the things that happen to me! I really am a trouble magnet aren't I?', Tsuna despaired.

After they finished their conversation, Reborn decided he wanted to sleep on Tsuna's bed (What do you mean you're sleeping on my bed? And what's with all these grenades?!), regardless to say, Tsuna ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room.

He knew that Reborn was still suspicious of him. 'Something still doesn't seem right. What are you hiding Tsunayoshi? I have a feeling all those answers weren't fully truthful, but why not answer truthfully; unless it's something else you're hiding, perhaps even something to do with the mafia.'

'I'll have to keep an eye on my new student.'

The baby soon fell asleep, his eyes wide open, the only sign of his sleeping state being the bubble blowing out of his nose as he breathed.

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Later that night:

Tsuna woke up, slightly disoriented, until he remembered that Reborn had taken his room, so he looked around. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

'Strange, I'm usually a heavy sleeper. I wonder what could have woken me up?'

The room was dark, light coming in through the window, creating eerie shadows across the room.

He noticed something on the small coffee table beside the couch, a small box. Underneath the box was a note. 'Strange, I don't remember seeing that there when I went to sleep.'

Quickly unfolding it, he read its contents.

~Dear Giotto-kun:

I'm so happy you're back, our game can finally begin! The stage is set, it's your move.

PS: you might want to keep an eye on the contents of this box, who knows what might happen to it in the wrong hands?

~A Friend

Tsuna was panicking.

How? How could anyone have found out about his previous life as Giotto? He had shown no signs of being anything but ordinary for years; unless he was dealing with someone new, yet he thought the message seemed familiar. After all, there had only been one man in his entire life to have ever called him that. They had last met each other four hundred years before, when he had accepted the Vongola rings. To this day, he still the remembered the man's mysterious personality and all the hints he'd kept dropping slightly alluding that he knew his greatest secret. How could he possibly still be alive?

Unless he was an immortal. In which case, everything had just gotten even more complicated.

He opened the box and looked at its contents.

'No! It can't be! I thought it was gone forever!'

He was shocked. Inside the box was a ring. A ring he hasn't seen in over seven hundred years. He could already recognize the crack caused by Gryffindor's sword in the stone, ruining the once prominent symbol that was once etched there.

Sitting in the box, almost as if it was mocking him just by its mere presence alone was the Resurrection Stone.

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AN: Hello again readers! I hope you liked the newest chapter! If any of you are wondering why Tsuna agreed so quickly to Reborn's demands and answered all his questions, well, him having once been the head of a mafia familia, he knew what would happen with a family without an heir, and seeing how Natsume was revealed to not have a sky flame, he knew it was his job to take over. Since he only acted clumsy and shy because he didn't want the Maria's attention which he now has, he'll start acting more like himself around others.

As for answering Reborn's questions, his answers were half-truths at best, so he's still keeping his secrets, something he plans to keep doing until he dies. Too bad he won't be able to keep them for long!

In case you're wondering about Natsume, I never really planned for him to be a main character, he'll be sort of like Nana, seen a few times every few chapter or so, but not overly important to the storyline (not saying that Nana's not important because seriously, she's Nana, nuff said). If people really want him in the storyline he might join the CEDEF or something, and his relationship with Tsuna will only get better from here. Those of you that like Lambo, don't worry! He'll still be the lightning guardian!

Me adding the resurrection stone is actually important to the story, but you might not find out why until much, MUCH later on (maybe after the end of the future arc).

If any of you spot anything that doesn't make sense, don't be afraid to point it out, I don't mind! ;)

Once again thanks for all the reviews/favourites/follows!

Don't forget to review! (I might be persuaded to update faster if you do!)