Nana was somewhat inconsolable over the death of her beloved hyenas Bud and Lou. It was understandable as they had been her beloved pets for a very long time.

The hyenas were disposed of properly, and given a green burial with some nice flowers put over them. They were native species, so they would certainly thrive.

It had been a few months since the hyenas were put to rest. They had lived longer lives than most and had died peacefully in their sleep.

Nozomi was mostly skimming through the channels when she happened across a breaking news bulletin regarding a zoo in China. Apparently there had been an incident with one of the lower Triad clans in a zoo and several animals had broken free...including a trio of highly dangerous hyenas who were known to be quite vicious and had no issue attacking humans. The trio had been in their own separate enclosure far from the public and the idiots had stumbled into it, leaving the door wide open for the three to escape.

The report had been broadcast less than an hour ago, and the trio were likely to be killed rather than sent back to the zoo as the repairs to their enclosure were rather costly.

Her phone was already dialing Fon (who she knew to be in China at the moment) before her mind could catch up to her already forming plan.

Fon was not only in the area in question...he was tracking down the idiots who had caused the breach in the first place!

And honestly, relocating the hyenas to Namimori was a small price to cheer Nana up after losing her own.

One month later...

Nana knew her daughter had something special planned for her birthday, but nothing could have prepared her for the large box that had been delivered. She could tell from the sounds it was something alive inside.

Everyone watched as Nana easily broke the rather heavy container with a crowbar, revealing three hyenas. They had been affectionately named after the trio from the Lion King movie, as there was one female and two males.

The female was Shenzi, the oldest male was Banzai and the youngest was Ed.

Nana had tears in her eyes, as the trio just...clicked...with her, the same way Bud and Lou had.

The hyenas were leery of her, as they were used to human handlers who treated them like they were a loaded gun. They soon fell in line with the alpha bitch (Nana) after the first week when she treated them with the same respect she had treated her pack...just with the understanding that what she said was law.

Shenzi was clearly the leader of the small trio, and when she fell in line with Nana's aura, the other two followed without question. Besides, Nana fed them better than the handlers ever did.

Nozomi was happy because her mother wasn't as sad anymore regarding her previous pets. With a little help from the Hibari, they were able to expand the backyard to include a decently sized room that was exclusively used by the hyenas for their den, and was furnished for their comfort.

The hyenas were much happier than they had been in the enclosure, even if they had to get used to the thick, heavy collars around their necks. They learned very quickly that Nozomi was to be obeyed as Nana was, since she had no issue with slamming them on the ground with a pile drive if they thought her an easy mark.

~*~*~~*

Reborn was not so silently vowing to shoot Iemitsu until it stopped being funny. Nowhere in his file he had been given said anything about there being four vicious and apparently trained hyenas in the home! Four very overprotective hyenas at that.

It was taking every bit of his skill to not be turned into a chew toy by the animals who had collars around their necks with tags that clearly indicated they belonged to the mother-daughter duo.

Once he managed to get high enough that they couldn't reach, though they created a clear stalking pattern that made it obvious they would go back to attacking if he came within range of their teeth, Reborn looked at the highly amused girl.

"Ya know, most people in town know better than to try and attack me as blatantly as you did. Even the yakuza give me a good amount of space, especially if I have one of them on a leash," she said amused. "And you managed to piss off all four of them!"

Reborn was mentally reworking how painful he planned to make his retribution on Iemitsu. So far it was pretty damn graphic, but something told him he'd be borrowing from the more biblical methods of punishment by the end of things. He might even go so far as to borrow from the Greeks, who were pretty damn creative with how much damage they could do.

He briefly wondered if Colonello would let him borrow Falco, before dismissing the idea. He didn't want to hear the whining about whatever the bird caught from eating the idiot's liver after all.

"So why is Reborn, the World's Greatest Asshole, doing here?" said Nozomi curiously. Reborn noted sourly she had yet to call off her...pets.

"I'm here to turn you into a mafia boss," he said.

Nozomi frowned.

"Does this have anything to do with that pervert that moron Mama married?" she demanded.

Reborn blinked.

"Pervert?" he repeated confused.

His eyebrows only went up hearing the limited description Nana had given her daughter. What the hell had Timoteo done to leave that impression on the mother?!

Either way, he would have to do some fast talking...and do a lot of digging to find out exactly what he was really dealing with.

Three hours later...

It took everything Reborn had in him not to twitch. He had already thrown out the small file he had been given on the family as utter garbage.

Nana was a 'happy housewife' alright...if happy housewives had a baseball bat that looked entirely too well used and the knowledge of how to turn almost feral hyenas into well trained guard dogs.

While the more feral trio had reluctantly retreated to their little den, the fourth stayed close by Nozomi's side.

Nozomi was a budding Yamato Nadeshiko alright...if the image included a vicious little bitch that had zero issues getting down and dirty with her staff and was a crack aim with her crossbow.

Also, contrary to what Iemitsu's reports claimed, Nozomi was not in the bottom rung of her school. She was in fact the top female student, with her apparently boyfriend being the male counterpart.

None of the other students would dare cross her, and even the local yakuza were respectful to her because if they weren't, they'd be lucky to not end up hospitalized for months. And that was before her boyfriend showed up to demonstrate his opinion of their lack of respect.

At least the mystery of how Nozomi knew of him was solved. If Kyouya wasn't related to Fon, he'd eat his favorite hat.

Nana was perfectly calm on the surface. On the inside, she was pissed as fuck that her daughter was being dragged into the criminal underworld by her husband.

"Am I correct in assuming that since you're here, they plan to claim my baby as their next puppet boss?" said Nana twitching.

"Timoteo is an old school mafioso," said Reborn simply. "However one of his...quirks...is that he believes blood will tell over actual talent."

In his honest opinion, the Vongola would have been better off with Xanxus who was still officially under house arrest. Reborn hadn't even known there was a fifth heir until Timoteo called him in.

Why the fool hadn't just given the position to one of his adult sons well before their deaths was a mystery, but not his problem to solve. That was on Timoteo's head, not his after all.

Either way, the fact he had been sent meant that Nozomi's civilian life was soon to end. One way or another, the Vongola would drag her into their net whether she wanted it or not, unless she gave them an overwhelming reason to leave her the hell alone.

Nana was clearly not happy, but understood that if they wanted a choice in the matter they'd have to gather enough forces to give the Vongola a rather strong reason to leave them the hell alone. Considering how vast their resources were, it would likely take more effort than it was worth. Either way, Nozomi was now stuck joining the criminal underworld unless she wanted to be married off and let someone else do the job.

Considering her personality, there was no way she'd allow herself to be married off and let some man tell her what to do, which meant she had to take control and give the old dinosaurs that made up the Vongola a reason to take her seriously.

He was somewhat glad she was a violent little shit. It made his job just a bit easier.

The first thing he would need to do was get a real assessment of her skills and personality. He was going in blind and with every new 'surprise' his silent vow of making Iemitsu pay for such incompetence became increasingly more violent and disturbing.

At least he had a silent partner in making Iemitsu suffer...the second Fon found out he was in the city and why, he was more than happy to supply new ideas and any number of people all too happy to take the fall if it meant seeing it followed through.

Fon had a much more realistic and comprehensive idea of what his new student was like, even if he wasn't pleased that the Vongola had decided to tap his future granddaughter-in-law as their new 'boss' (read: puppet).

At least he wouldn't have to deal with the headache of trying to find an acceptable match for her. Kyouya was disinterested in leading overall, while at the same time being so ridiculously violent that only the truly idiotic would attempt to take advantage of him.

He did have one question though.

"Why the hyenas?" asked Reborn.

"Honestly, I have no idea," admitted Fon. "But the original pair belonged to Nana before she married Iemitsu, though she had to leave them behind when she moved here. From what I was told by Nana, she reclaimed her 'babies' from the sanctuary she left them at because she worried about the pervert her husband had brought when Nozomi was five, and Nozomi was so smitten with the runt of their litter that they took it with them."

"Original pair?" said Reborn.

"This trio is much less...bloodthirsty...compared to Bud and Lou," said Fon. "Those two were exceptionally vicious, though they respected Nana as the alpha bitch."

Reborn was twitching.

"That being said they are highly intelligent and far more inclined to rip the unwary apart if provoked."

"How the hell did they manage to slip this past the neighbors?" asked Reborn. "Last I checked, hyenas aren't exactly domestic animals!"

Fon shrugged.

"They're well trained, and most of the locals treat them as exotic guard dogs at this point. While Nozomi does take them on walks, she always has papers for the police to inform them that they are trained attack dogs, not pets."

"And the fourth one?"

"She is technically a pet, but she's just as vicious," said Fon. "Fujiko is also the only one allowed inside the house."

He had found that out the first night, which was why his room was next door. He refused to share a room with one of the demon dogs that had almost turned him into a chew toy. Fujiko had come the closest to succeeding.

~*~*~*~

Reborn carefully observed Nozomi on her day to day life, to better gauge how much actual work he'd have to do later.

Nozomi was treated with utmost respect from the civilians around her. She mostly only went to school because it meant spending more time with Kyouya, and was in the top five students of the class and could have easily skipped a few grades.

Reborn was rather pleased to see her skill with a crossbow, and when he later quizzed her on it, was equally pleased that she was very thorough in maintaining it.

While her aim did need some work, that was simple enough to fix.

Her leadership abilities mostly boiled down to being the 'nicer' half of the violent duo, though she could be ten times worse if provoked. Most of her intimidation factor involved her hyenas, who were all too happy to tear apart anyone their pack Alpha designated.

Though she had a lesser intimidation in the form of the Disciplinary Committee, who were very efficient in keeping things tidy. Reborn was actually impressed, because the police apparently had an 'arrangement' with the Disciplinary Committee despite being a middle school group.

Kyouya and Nozomi's influence was that strong, and it meant they had a bit of extra man power whenever outside Yakuza came into town causing trouble.

Not that they had in several years now, and any meeting between the yakuza clans took place outside the town. Though the local group was almost never invited due to being too low ranked to be of any note.

Reborn began making plans on how to help build her guardian positions, though from the look of things she already had a Cloud and possible Storm in the form of Fon. He wasn't sure whether Fon had harmonized with her yet. The Storm was incredibly private with his personal information after all.