Chapter 1 ~ Mist

The ringing of the bell tore through the sleepy spring afternoon, jerking awake more than a few hundred students.

"Time's up, students!" the teacher said. "Hand in your exam papers!"

The teacher glanced at a certain student who was still frantically trying to answer his question paper.

"I said, time's up, Sawada!"

The students snickered among themselves as Tsuna went into panic mode, but instantly went silent when a silver-haired guy gave them a deadly glare which said 'Shut-up-or-you-are-dead'

Tsuna scrambled up front to pass up his paper, but as usual, tripped up on a stray bag and fell down. The teacher sighed and took Sawada's stray exam paper on the floor while Sawada was still moaning in pain on the floor.

"Dismissed!" the teacher snapped and the sound of more than thirty chairs being dragged across the room echoed loudly.

Once outside the classroom, Tsuna gave a groan. He knew he had flunked the exam big time, and if he didn't do well, which he knew he hadn't, his Spartan home tutor, Reborn will make him run at the very least 60 laps around Namimori.

"Jyuudaime!" the silver-haired guy yelled as he ran to catch up.

"Yo, Tsuna!" the baseball star of Namimori Middle School smiled brightly.

"Gokudera-kun! And Yamamoto too!" Tsuna said in delight.

"Are you alright, Jyuudaime?" Gokudera yelled. "I'll get those people who laughed at you!"

"Now, now, Gokudera." Yamamoto said. "Calm down, man"

Gokudera turned on him viciously. "Shut up! Don't tell me what to do!"

The two started bickering while Tsuna lagged behind, dreading how to tell Reborn about his test results when a nearby tree suddenly said "Ciaossu"

Tsuna screeched and fell down for the second time that day. Reborn had camouflaged himself into the tree so perfectly that not even Tsuna, who was the one to usually spot him, had not even noticed him.

"What was that about test results, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn asked as he leapt onto Tsuna's shoulder which instantly ceased the bickering between the two guardians.

"No-Nothing, Reborn" Tsuna stammered.

"Reeeeally?" Reborn said, eyeing Tsuna skeptically.

They were now walking through Namimori. It was a cold spring afternoon, as winter had only just recently ended. Mist was slowly gathering, blurring the group's vision.

"Strange" Gokudera muttered. "There shouldn't be mist this thick at this time of the year." He turned to face his boss. "Jyuudaime, is there…."

The words trailed off as all he could see was the pure white of the mist, obscuring his vision. He couldn't see anything at all.

"Crap!" Gokudera growled. "Jyuudaime! Reborn-san!" he yelled into the mist. "Can you hear me?" he paused. "Baseball nut! Are you there? Someone answer me!"

Meanwhile, Tsuna too had lost his friends in the mist, except for Reborn on his shoulder, who was looking a bit grim. Tsuna's senses were screaming the word 'DANGER' in his head, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't backtrack. His only option was to move forward, which was probably what this peculiar mist wanted him to do.

"Reborn," Tsuna whispered. "What's going on?"

"Even I don't know" Reborn replied. "We just have to keep moving forward."

"But it might be dangerous" Tsuna protested.

"Or you rather be stuck in the mist for eternity?" Reborn retorted. "Make your choice"

Tsuna decided on the latter. He stepped tentively forward, stretching out his hands, in case he ran into a wall or something, considering his luck.

'Strange' Tsuna thought. 'Is it my imagination or am I walking on grass?'

He bent down to touch the ground, but instead of feeling the hard concrete of the road, he felt grass, wet with dew, brushing against his palm.

'Eh?' Tsuna thought. 'Grass?' Reborn remained silent, apparently deep in thought.

"Can't…..see…..through this…..damn mist!" Tsuna said in despair when suddenly his foot struck a rock on the ground, and down he went for the third time. When he recovered from his fall, the mist had thinned out, allowing him to (finally) see his surroundings. The concrete wall beside the roads had disappeared, replaced by shady trees. The houses were gone too. All Tsuna could see for miles were trees and more trees. In the far distance, he could make out a large mansion, shrouded by the irritating mist that had mysteriously transported him here.

'Reborn, should we head for that mansion?" Tsuna asked the baby hitman, who had leapt down from his shoulder, and was currently surveying the area with trained eyes.

"That would be the best course of action" Reborn admitted. "But even though the mist has thinned out, we have a limited scope of vision." He glanced at his student. "Be on your guard."

"And we still have to look for Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto," Tsuna groaned. "We got separated, even though we were walking together."

Reborn and Tsuna made their way silently to the mansion. It was further than they thought, and after 15 minutes they were still walking. Tsuna was getting exhausted, but Reborn urged him on (with the usual threats) and they were slowly making progress, as the mansion looked closer than before. Unfortunately, they couldn't find either Gokudera or Yamamoto.

And unknown to them, a pair of bright eyes were watching them from the trees…

Chapter 2 ~ Disappearance

Yamamoto was getting a little jumpy, and the mist wasn't helping at all. He had lost Reborn, Tsuna and Gokudera in the mist. One second they were there, the next they had disappeared. He frowned. Maybe they had just went somewhere to get something, but it wasn't like Tsuna to leave him out.

He had gone to Tsuna's and Gokudera's house, but they weren't there. He had gone to almost the whole of Namimori, but they were nowhere to be found.

He sighed. Maybe they'll return tomorrow. He'll resume his search for them then, assuming they still haven't turned up.

Tsuna suddenly stopped in his tracks. His hyper intuition alerted him that there was someone nearby. He glanced around, but he saw nobody.

Suddenly, something or someone knocked Tsuna heads over heel from above. Tsuna tried to yell, but instead inhaled in a clump of wet grass, choking him.

He tried to fight off the attacker but instantly stopped when the familiar call of "Jyuudaime!" rang in his ears.

"Go-Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna cried in surprise. "What were you doing up in the tree?"

Gokudera clambered off Tsuna. "I'm very very very sorry, Jyuudaime!" He knocked his head continuously on the ground. "I apologise deeply for hurting you, and I'm….."

"Why were you in the tree, Gokudera?" Reborn cut in.

Gokudera faced Reborn and flushed, "I got lost in the mist, and uh…. I found myself stuck on a branch."

Tsuna stared at Gokudera, trying to get over the fright of being attacked by Gokudera.

"By the way, Jyuudaime," Gokudera said, changing the subject. "Did you see that baseball idiot anywhere?"

"No, we didn't," Tsuna paused for a moment, thinking. "Wasn't he with you?"

"As if!" Gokudera spat. "Jyuudaime, do you happen to know where are we?"

Tsuna pointed towards the mansion. "We can ask the people staying at that mansion."

Inwardly he thought. 'At least I hope so…'

"This doesn't look like Japan to me, anyway," Gokudera said. He started striding towards the mansion. "And those people staying there are gonna tell me where this is freaking place is, or I'll blow them and their mansion fifty ways to Sunday."

"Hey! Wait up, G-Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna cried as he stumbled to catch up with his right-hand man.

Vongola Primo was having a relaxing day. For once, his paperwork was done and good riddance! His guardians were all off-duty at the moment, except for Alaude, who was on an undercover mission in England. And as usual, Daemon Spade was nowhere to be found. He only appeared when he wanted something.

But why then, was he feeling so uneasy?

Primo leaned back in his chair and glanced out of the window. It had been a very misty day, and he couldn't see two metres out of the window. He was just about to open the window when someone knocked on the door.

"Come in" Primo called.

The door opened and Asari Ugetsu, the first-generation rain guardian entered, wearing his usual bright smile.

"Good afternoon, Giotto," Asari said, "I was thinking of going for a quick inspection of the grounds. Will you accompany me?"

Primo shook his head regretfully. "I'm sorry, Asari. I promised G that I'll meet him at the village in another hour or so."

Asari nodded. "Never mind then. I'll ask Knuckles to accompany me. I think he's in his room at the moment." He glanced at Primo. "After all, we have to make sure that there are no spies posted by the Xernus in out own backyard."

"Be careful, Asari," Primo said. "You never know what might be out there, even though it's our own area."

Asari smiled grimly. "What can be out there other than a few low-grade spies? I'll deal with them, and you can question them later, if you wish to do so, Giotto."

"Okay, but please, Asari. Be extra careful." Giotto reminded him. "Lampo got hurt on his way here, and I don't want the same thing to happen to the rest of the guardians."

Asari chuckled as he left the room. "What can a few spies do to us?" He asked. The door closed silently behind him, and he was gone.

Primo opened the window and gave a quick glance around. There wasn't anything out of the norm happening, but he still couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling that something was going to happen.

Something really, really bad.

Chapter 3 ~ Uneasiness

Yamamoto rang the doorbell of Tsuna's house. Tsuna's mother, Nana answered the door.

"Ah, Yamamoto-kun," Nana said. "Is Tsuna with you?"

Yamamoto blinked in surprise. "Isn't he at home?"

Nana sighed. "He hasn't been back since last afternoon, along with Reborn-chan. I wonder where he could be….."

'I'm wondering about that myself' Yamamoto thought. Out loud, he said, "Thanks, but I'd better get…."

Before he could complete his sentence, a very familiar sound of "Nyahaha-hah!" rang out, and Lambo came barreling at Yamamoto at a speed so fast Reborn would've applauded. He hit Yamamoto at roughly the same impact as a truck hitting a cement wall, nearly knocking down poor Yamamoto in the process.

"Hey, hey, Yamamoto!" Lambo yelled out. "Where's stupid Tsuna? Did he fall into a hole or something? Lambo-san wanna know what happened!"

"Alright, alright, Lambo," Yamamoto assured him. "You can accompany me to search for Tsuna." He looked at Nana. "Will that be alright?"

"Sure, no problem," Tsuna's mother gushed. "Lambo-chan was getting a little lonely, since Tsuna wasn't here to play with him."

'You mean he wasn't around to be Lambo's punchbag,' Yamamoto thought as he exited the house with Lambo clinging precariously on his shoulder.

"C'mon, Yamamoto! What happened to stupid Tsuna? Did he get rolled down by a truck?" Lambo asked gleefully

"No," Yamamoto admitted. "Tsuna, Reborn and Gokudera disappeared yesterday. I lost sight of them in that thick mist yesterday."

"Stupidera's missing too?" Lambo said. "This is Lambo-san's SUPER LUCKY DAY!"

After a few hours of turning the entire Namimori inside out, there still wasn't a single hint of Tsuna's whereabouts. Yamamoto decided to call it a day, when he suddenly noticed that it was getting misty again, like yesterday.

'Not again' Yamamoto thought. He turned around to face Lambo, who had been trailing behind him just a minute ago, whining something about his candies at home. But now, there wasn't a trace of Lambo at all. He had, as the other three had, disappeared.

"Lambo!" Yamamoto called loudly. "Come on, Lambo, now's not the time to play games!"

Yamamoto strained his ears. He could hear Lambo in the distance, in front of him, yelling something. 'When did he get in front of me?' Yamamoto thought as he ran towards Lambo's position. 'He was walking behind me the whole time. Damn, this mist is getting thicker.'

Yamamoto was so intent on getting to Lambo, he didn't take notice of anybody, until he accidentally knocked into someone walking in the opposite direction. Both of them rebounded off each other and fell down onto the hard pavement.

"Ow ," Yamamoto groaned. He looked to the other person and ran over to help him up. "Are you alright? I couldn't see snything through this thick mist, and I'm so-"but was rewarded for his efforts. A slap on the hand he extended and a sharp "Leave me alone" from the person.

Yamamoto stared at the person and instantly recognized him. "Hibari-san!" he exclaimed. "I'm really sorry about what happened earlier, I -"

"Spare me your babbling, herbivore," Hibari said coldly as he stood up and brushed dirt off his coat. "You've wasted my time enough with your pathetic conversation." He gave a glare at Yamamoto, daring him to challenge him.

"Okay, okay, chill, man." Yamamoto said hastily. He glanced into the other direction, but Lambo's voice had already faded into the mist. 'Oh no' Yamamoto thought. 'I lost Lambo again. But really, why is this mist getting thicker? What's happening?'

"Hibari-san, do you know wh-" the question died on his lips as he turned around. The mist had become so thick that he could feel it. Hibari had vanished, and was nowhere to be found. Yamamoto turned around, uncertain, trying to make out something, or anything, in the mist. He stretched out his hands, trying to make heads or tails of where he currently was, but failing utterly and miserably.

'I can only hope this doesn't lead to trouble,' Yamamoto thought as he moved into the strange mist.

Boy, he was so wrong.

Hibari wasn't a great day.

At all.

Actually, it had started out pretty normal. He had bitten a mob of gangsters who were trying to wreck the playground to death, sending to screaming back to their mommies. And then, he had done a thorough inspection of the school to sniff out any potential troublemakers, and of course, he had found a lot of them. They were now currently receiving counseling at the Namimori Hospital.

Then it started going downhill when the mist appeared.

Firstly, the mist restricted his vision, something which he really, really hated. Secondly, (and sadly) mist couldn't be cleared by hitting them with tonfas. And thirdly, mist reminded him of his infamous rival, Rokudo Mukuro, someone whom he really wanted to bite to death, then have him used as a speed bump on Namimori's busiest road. Preferably one which had plenty of heavy trucks travelling on it.

He had been thinking some really dark thoughts, primarily directed at the mist, so much that he hadn't seen the person running in his direction, and only noticed him when they had collided with each other. And of all people, it had turned out to be Yamamoto.

'This guy really has no sense of personal space' Hibari irritatedly thought as he slapped away Yamamoto's hand. Hibari got up and dusted himself, while Yamamoto was rattling on about how sorry he was, apologizing to him again and again and sounding very much like a parrot. Hibari was just about to tell him to shut up or he'll bite him to death when Yamamoto suddenly faded.

'The mist's getting thicker.' Hibari noted. 'I should get going'

Hibari turned to face the direction he wanted to go but found that irritating mist had clouded everything, to the point that nothing was visible. No matter where he turned, it was nothing but the white emptiness of the mist mocking him, restricting his movements and trapping him.

"Hmm? You plan to trap me in here?" Hibari thought aloud. "Not going to happen, sorry to say. But I guess I don't have any other choices."

He started walking forward into the mist, just as Yamamoto had.

"Gyahahaha~" Lambo laughed as he skipped along the streets of Namimori happily, totally ignoring the mist around him. "Yamamoto's just as dumb as stupid Tsuna and Stupidera, he can't even catch Lambo-san, the nice bomberhead calf~~~ " Lambo sang out loud. He turned around to taunt Yamamoto again, only to find that he couldn't find Yamamoto as the mist had thickened.

"Stupid Yamamoto!" Lambo yelled out. "Lambo-san's hungry! Wanna eat candies!" He waited for a reply, but nothing came. Lambo tried again.

"OI! Stupid Yamamoto! Lambo-san's really hungry!" No response came again, and Lambo started to panic real fast.

"L-L-Lambo-san's not gonna cry!" Lambo said to himself, sniffling softly while trotting forward slowly.

"Gotta…stay…calm…." he muttered to continuously to himself, snuffling his nose occasionally, trying to find his companion in the thick mist, and totally ignoring his surroundings, which turned out to be a massive mistake later on.

Chapter 4 ~ Attack

Asari Ugetsu strode into the garden, his robes trailing behind him. The mist was thinning out slightly, but it was still considerably misty. The Xernus spies might be hidden just behind any of the trees and bushes. Asari sighed, and took out one of his short swords in case of a surprise attack. He advanced cautiously, his eyes taking in every detail he saw.

Asari frowned, glaring at every single tree that came into his view. It was a little unfortunate that Giotto loved plants. Trees and bushes grew neatly on the Vongola's mansion, with carefully manicured grass covering the grounds like a green velvet carpet. And there even was a large pond, situated right in front of the mansion, along with a dozen ducks patronizing it.

Asari didn't had anything against plants, but sometimes too many of them could be used to conceal spies or assassins. Especially on the mansion grounds itself. A twig snapped nearby and Asari instantly stopped, becoming as silent as a ghost.

"Jyuudaime, we're almost there!" a male voice said excitedly.

'Jyuudaime?' Asari thought. 'That's my native language for Tenth, isn't it?'

"Thank goodness!" another voice said in relief. "We've been walking for about 20 minutes already!"

"Be on your guard, Tsuna." a high-pitched voice said. "You won't want to be killed before you go back, right?"

"I know that!" the second male voice responded hysterically. "And I'm on my guard!"

'I won't bet on it,' Asari thought silently as he slid his second short sword out. 'Just as I suspected. Xernus spies have penetrated into our territory. They should be dealt with quickly.'

And with that thought, he sprang towards the source of the voices, swords held out in attack mode.

Tsuna was just about to open his mouth to say something to Gokudera when the tree beside him started to fall above him.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-?" Tsuna screeched in terror at the giant tree falling on top of him.

"Jyu-jyudaime!" Gokudera yelled and managed to pull Tsuna away just in time before the tree fell down on the exact spot Tsuna had been standing on just a second ago, flattening everything in its path.

"That was close," Tsuna squeaked. He looked at the fallen tree. "Did it fall by accident or…"

"It was cut down." Reborn said calmly. "There are marks of a very sharp object at the base of the tree."

"Eh?"Tsuna cried. "But I didn't do anything wrong! Who would want to-"

"That would be me," Asari said, stepping out of the shadows, his swords held loosely in his hands. "Why don't you three kids come quietly with me, and nobody gets hurt."

Tsuna stumbled a step back in shock. He heard a sharp intake from Gokudera, and Reborn was wearing his serious face. He knew that they too, recognized the man standing in front of them, swords akimbo.

"H-hey," Tsuna said shakily. "Aren't you Asari Ugetsu, the first Vongola guardian of the rain?"

Asari didn't reply. His face was impassive and didn't give anything away.

Gokudera's voice cut into the awkward silence. "That's impossible! All of the first generation guardians are dead, and will stay dead, for a few centuries! They're all dead and gone!"

Asari glared sharply at Gokudera. "I have no idea what you're talking about, or how you might know my name. Which is why you are coming with me, Xernus spies, to explain to Primo what you're doing trespassing on Vongola's territory."

Tsuna tried to take it all at the same time. His head felt like it was going to burst. "Spies? Primo?" he stuttered. "We're not spies! We don't even know where we are!" He took a deep breath to try to calm himself. Things are moving too fast for his incapable brain to even understand them anymore.

Asari shifted his swords upwards. "So you deny that you're a spy. That is as expected. Looks like I'll have to use force instead!" On his last words, he swung his sword at another tree's base. The sword passed cleanly through the thick trunk, a clean cut. The tree shuddered for a while, then started to fall slowly towards the group, who stared wide-eyed at it.

"R-RUN!" Tsuna screamed as he and Gokudera ran as fast as they could away from the crazy guy and his insanely sharp swords. They crashed through the forest, all too aware that they were creating such an obvious trail for him to follow. But what other choice did they have?

"Reborn-san, do you have any idea what the hell is going on in this godforsaken place?" Gokudera yelled over the sound of 20 feet tall trees crashing down directly behind them.

"From what I've seen, it seems that we've landed right into Vongola's mansion in Italy. No wonder it looked familiar to me."

"And you neglected telling us that just now?" Tsuna yelled. He looked behind him and saw that Asari was still in pursuit, and he was getting way too close for comfort. He was slashing down the trees which Tsuna was having a difficult time evading, jumping and crawling under them to get away from the insane guy and his swords, and Reborn was so not helping.

"We need to do something, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled.

"What?" Tsuna cried out as a branch narrowly missed him by an inch or two.

"I have a plan, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled. He took out his dynamites and turned around to face Asari. "Get down!" He yelled at Tsuna and threw his bombs directly at Asari.

Asari was just about to go for the killing blow when the silver-haired guy threw dynamites at him. Asari instantly backtracked to shield himself from the impact, but instead of exploding, the dynamites released a large amount of black smoke, blocking the trio from Asari's view.

'Curses!' Asari thought. 'They tricked me into thinking they were going to attack , but instead they created a smokescreen to distract me. Clever, but still…..'

Asari slashed his swords sideways, the swords' impact creating a sonic wave that cleared the black smoke in a few seconds. But a few seconds were all the Tsuna and his group needed.

Asari strode forward, scanning the area, but the group was nowhere to be found. He carefully walked forward, his eyes and ears alert for any sign of the group.

Hibari's day was getting from bad to worse.

And the reason why?

He had (somehow) landed in a duck pond.

The occupants of the pond were quacking and flapping their wings angrily at him, as they had had their daily swim interrupted by a human that had apparently appeared out of nowhere, and was now treating the pond as if he owned it.

The head duck squawked angrily and pecked the human. And soon the other occupants started following their leader, pecking that annoying human. The human suddenly turned and glared at them with such force that all the ducks looked at him, wide-eyed, scared of what might happen next.

Hibari was irritated to the max. He was being pecked by a bunch of low-class herbivores. He usually didn't hurt small animals or label them as low-class, but this bunch was an exception. He glared at them with such a murderous aura that a few ducks could feel their feathers wilting under its force.

The head duck, however, didn't give up. It was feeling very annoyed at the human and started splashing water on the human by flapping its wings, challenging the human to fight.

Hibari had enough. He was already soaked to the skin, and this low-class herbivore was adding the salt to the wounds by splashing his face with water! It quite dented his ego, sitting in a pond with some obviously mental ducks trying to send him to heaven.

With one quick slash of his tonfas, two ducks went flying out of the pond and into the wide blue sky and beyond. The last he saw of them was their surprised faces as the disappeared in the sky.

Hibari stepped out of the pond, throwing one last glare to the noisy ducks, who had suddenly ceased their actions and stared at the spot where their two companions had disappeared with huge eyes.

Vongola Primo was glancing out of the open window when he suddenly saw his precious garden being destroyed. Trees were falling down one after the other.

"What th-?" He was cut off by the sight of two ducks flying past his window, their stunned faces staring at him for a second before they flew out of sight. He stared in shock, his expression equally matching the ducks at the window, wondering if the stress over the Xernus had gotten to his head when suddenly he heard someone stomping loudly on the roof above him.

He grinded his teeth. "A-SA-RI! YOU ARE SO DEAD WHEN YOU COME BACK! WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU DESTROYING MY GARDEN! AND MY PRECIOUS DUCKS! AND WHO THE HELL IS MAKING THOSE NOISES ON THE ROOF?"

"GUUHPYYAAAAAA!" Lambo screamed in fear as he stared 300 m down from where he currently was, holding on for dear life atop the wind-blown rooftop of the Vongola mansion.

"Lambo-san's scared!" Lambo cried out. "Stupid Tsuna! Yamamoto! Stupidera! Someone help Lambo-san!" Obviously, none of the three person mentioned above appeared magically to help Lambo, who was now jumping up and down the roof due to pure fear of dropping 300 m down to his death.

Another gust of wind nearly blew Lambo off the roof, forcing another "GUUHPPYYYAAAAAAAAHHH!" from poor Lambo. Winds from all sort of directions pounded Lambo, forcing him nearer to the edge of the roof, but he was fast losing his grip on the tiles. He kicked loose several tiles in his haste to scramble back onto the roof, but it was all in vain.

Lambo started to slip from the roof, and soon his hand was the only thing gripping the edge of the roof…

Chapter 5 ~ Fear

The dim lights in the conference room softly illuminated the face of a young man sitting at the head of the conference table.

His long, black hair was tied back into a ponytail, and he wore a dark coat over his dark red polo shirt. His brilliant violet eyes looked boredly at the person currently giving his speech.

"…the Vongola have been expanding quickly. Far quicker that we've expected, Lord Xernus." The man droned on in his monotous voice. "We've also been losing our partners fast to Vongola. Sponsors for us are down by 70% ever since the Vongola came onto the scene…."

"Vick." the young man said softly. "Isn't it your job to lure sponsors over to our family? We've been paying you a lot, and yet you dare stand here and tell me that the sponsorship is down by 70%?" The rest of the people started mumbling softly. The man called Vick was trembling visibly as he said shakily, "I apologize deeply for my incompetence, Lord Xernus. I promise I'll…."

"There is no need to promise anything." The young man said in a polite, yet dangerous tone as he shifted slightly in his seat.

Vick looked relieved. "Will be alright then, Lord -" His last word was cut off when he suddenly stumbled forward, smoke pouring out of a small, neat hole in his forehead. Blood gushed out as he tried to comprehend what had happened, but he quickly succumbed to the wound, falling to the floor slowly. His body lay lifeless on the floor, blood pooling around him. The rest of the members shifted uneasily in their seats, not daring to look up to their lord and master.

Chiro Xernus twirled his smoking gun which he had shot Vick with. "Next." he said boredly.

Tsuna glanced nervously from behind the tree trunk they had taken shelter in. Gokudera was currently trying to catch his breath and Reborn was sitting next to him, resting. Tsuna could hear Asari chopping down every tree in sight to expose them.

Tsuna shuddered. If Asari found them, it'll be all over. Gokudera had sprained his ankle in their attempt to escape. Gokudera had asked Tsuna to leave him, but Tsuna had refused. Now they were just sitting here like deers waiting for the tiger to pounce.

"Jyuudaime" Gokudera started, wincing in pain as he sat up. "Just leave me here and move on, I-"

"No, Gokudera-kun" Tsuna said firmly. "I won't leave you here alone."

Gokudera sighed in defeat. "If you insist….." he laid down on the grass slowly again.

Tsuna turned to keep a lookout for Asari when Gokudera suddenly gave a startled yell. Tsuna quickly turned around and a surprising scene awaited him.

Yamamoto was standing right on top of Gokudera's sprained ankle, a very blank look on his face, as though he didn't believe that he was standing on Gokudera. His wooden sword, his Shigure Kintoki, was strapped to his back, while its owner looked around the place in amazement and for the first time, ignoring Gokudera's yells of pain and cuss words directed at him. And then he spotted Tsuna and (finally!) discovered he was stepping on a very pissed off Gokudera.

"Ah, Tsuna!" Yamamoto said in a puzzled tone, picking his way over Gokudera ( who would've murdered him on the spot had his ankle not been sprained) and facing Tsuna. "I've been looking for you guys everywhere. Is this where you went to play with the kid and Gokudera?"

"PLAY?" Gokudera yelled in frustration. "You baseball idiot! Do we look like we are playing to you?"

Yamamoto smiled happily at Gokudera. "Every way I look at it!" Ignoring Gokudera's murderous glare and continued, "And this must be some game, for Gokudera to be this badly injured right?" He chuckled.

Tsuna stared open-mouthed at Yamamoto. 'He still thinks we're playing a mafia game!' Tsuna thought blankly.

"Uh…..Y-Yamamoto, how did you end up here?" Tsuna asked, just to break the slow build-up tension between Yamamoto and Gokudera.

Yamamoto frowned. "About that, I'm not exactly sure….. I-"

He was cut off by the sound of a blade going through the trunk of the tree they were hiding behind. Tsuna slowly turned and saw Asari pointing his sword at his throat, the tip a mere inch from his throat. One wrong move and he'll be decapitated into pieces. The other sword was at Yamamoto's throat, who was looking really surprised at the unexpected change of events. Tsuna really couldn't blame him. Yamamoto had just jumped through time, and now he was having a sword pointed at his throat by a weird person wearing robes.

"Why don't you just come peacefully with me?" Asari said sharply. "There'll be no escape this time. And by the way, he glanced over to Gokudera who was desperately trying to get up. "You should lie down there until Knuckle comes to treat you, or you'll injure your ankle further." Gokudera looked furiously at Asari, but he had no choice but to wait on the grass. And of all times, Reborn had to be sleeping!

"Move" Asari said sharply to Yamamoto and Tsuna. The mist had cleared out already, and it turned out to be a sunny Italian afternoon, complete with butterflies fluttering around. Dew hung on the leaves of the plants and birds chirped in the distance. It was just unfortunate that the weather didn't match the events happening.

Primo really had enough. Even though trees had stopped falling and there wasn't any ducks flying past his window anymore, the pounding noise on the roof was still there and he was getting a little irritated about it. And so, he decided to do something drastic about it.

He had gone out of the mansion and onto the front porch. He craned his neck up to the roof to try make sense of what was happening up there when suddenly he heard a voice shouting "GUHHPYAAAAAA!" He rushed to the top of the roof stealthily but cautiously, in fear of dropping down 300 m. He saw a child (or calf [?]) clinging onto the edge of the roof, shouting for help while hanging on for dear life. He quickly grabbed the small hand and lifted him up.

The mini-cow looked at him for a moment before shouting loudly, "Stupid Tsuna! Why didn't you come earlier? Lambo-san was very scared!" He burst out crying buckets of tears.

'Tsuna?' Primo thought. 'Who's that?'

Suddenly, Primo noticed the mini-cow grimacing and muttering something.

He went closer and he heard the mini-cow say, "Gotta….pee.."

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" both of them shouted at the same time. Primo, because a fountain of pee had started cascading down from the cow's butt and onto the roof. Lambo, because he felt the pee coming out. A contented look spreaded over Lambo's face as he sighed in relief.

A scream echoed.

Knuckle looked up from where he was standing on the front porch. 'Was it just my imagination or did I hear the boss scream from the top of the roof?' He paused. 'Nah, it was probably just my imagination.'

He proceeded carefully into the forest. Primo had instructed him to check on Asari, who by the looks of it, had gone all out against just a few Xernus spies. Trees were forlornly lying down on the ground everywhere, their trunks sliced off by Asari's swords. Knuckle sighed and was just about to call out for Asari when he appeared and together with him, two scruffy looking boys half-carrying, half-dragging a silver-haired boy as his companions carried him. And Knuckle also noticed, a baby sitting amidst the hair of the brown-haired boy, a bubble blowing out from his nose.

"Asari" Knuckle said in relief, raising an eyebrow at the boys. "I see that you have caught quite a catch."

Asari shrugged. "Primo's probably waiting to wring my neck after what I did to his precious garden. But oh well, I at least managed to rope in the Xernus spies."

The silver-haired boy in the middle exploded. "For the 'effing last time, you sword-crazy idiot, we are NOT spies sent by whoever-you're-talking-about! We're only some people who was in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Having said that, he groaned in pain.

'G-Gokudera-kun? Are you okay?" Tsuna fussed over Gokudera to Gokudera's immense pleasure.

"Now,now.. You should calm down, man..." Yamamoto said, his efforts being rewarded with a glare.

Asari sighed in defeat. "That one has been shooting his mouth off ever since they picked him up." He looked at Knuckle. "He sprained his ankle. Think you can patch it up?"

Knuckle rolled his eyes. "And why should I patch up the brat who doesn't know who he's dealing with?" Asari shot him a look and Knuckle laughed out loud at Asari's expression. "Don't worry. I'll do it. Where do you think we should put them?"

"It's up to Primo." Asari said, pointing his sword at Tsuna and the others who had been slowly trying to creep away. "Do that again and this sword will go through your body, understand?" Tsuna shrank behind Yamamoto, trying to disappear into the landscape but failing pathetically.

"I thought I heard the boss scream just now," Knuckle scratched his head, puzzled. "Ah well, bring them to the guest room. Then we'll inform Primo. He should be in his office at this time."

And with that, Asari and Knuckle marched Tsuna and Yamamoto, who were carrying a swearing Gokudera, who was yelling some obscene words about Asari and Yamamoto (who stepped on his sprained ankle) back to Vongola's mansion.

"Lord Xernus." The aide called the young man standing by the wide window and staring vacantly at the beautiful night city of Venice, his hands clasped behind his back. The meeting had just recently ended, and the members of the Xernus family were slowly dispersing, muttering and discussing the night's events. "We have a message by the spies posted in Vongola's mansion. They say that they have something really important to tell you."

For the first time that night, Xernus smiled, a lazy smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Let's hear it then." he said softly.

Chapter 6 ~ Coincidence

G was getting impatient. He had been waiting in the village at the designated meeting place for more than an hour already, and Primo still hadn't turn up. It wasn't like Primo to be late for their meeting as he was usually punctual (more or less).

Either he had been held up by the pesky spies, or he had more urgent matters to deal with. But G couldn't imagine anything more important than this meeting. He had red-coded this meeting just to show Primo that it was top priority, but he had obviously ignored it.

And unknown to G, his every movement was being monitored by a pair of binoculars whose owner, a man in a black coat and hat, sat as still as a statue on a nearby hill overlooking the village. He signaled his companion who was currently on the intercom with their master, and did a series of hand signals to him. The companion nodded and went back to his conversation with their master.

The order came. They were to shoot Vongola Primo on first sight, then only his guardian. The companion protested against the order, as he felt that Primo and his guardians should be shot together, but a sharp word from their master shut him up fast enough. The companion nodded again, and then put down the intercom. He spoke in fast Italian to the man with the binoculars that instantly looked up a sniper rifle and started loading it, one eye on the Vongola Guardian of the Storm who was waiting for his boss.

And who'll be getting a surprise when he arrives.

Hibari was getting tired. In other words, he was getting irritated.

He had first wandered for minutes around Vongola's mansion when he had finally found an open window on the highest floor (Actually, the open window belonged to Primo's office.) Hibari had climbed up to the window via the pipe that ran parallel to the window. He had jumped into the office, not caring one hoot about it and coming out from the office into a long but elegantly furnished corridor. He had walked past many locked rooms and finally found a room which was unlocked. He looked inside it and had found a comfortable-looking bed. As he was feeling tired, he instantly fell on the bed and in a minute was fast asleep, not knowing nor caring where he was at all.

"Stupid person! Let Lambo-san go!" the mini-cow shouted at the top of his lungs, kicking his legs up and down and waving his hands crazily. "Lambo-san's very hungry!" he yelled and tried to aim a kick at the person holding him, but his short legs couldn't reach half-way across to his target, causing the mini-cow to burst into tears again for about the 10th time.

Primo groaned. He was stuck with the mini-cow (who had after a few minutes stopped calling him Tsuna, thank goodness) and having a hard time just to get him up to the guest rooms on the highest floor. Primo had had to change out of his formal attire (no thanks to the mini-cow) into a white shirt and dark pants after he came down from the roof.

"Hey, hey, stupid person!" The mini-cow yelled after he had cried. "Lambo-san wants candies and chocolates and hamburgers and omelettes!"

Primo shook his head in exasperation. "I'll give you food after I settle you into the guest room. And of course, if you don't make so much noise, maybe you'll get some candies. Or chocolates. Whatever. Now don't make so much noise or you're going out of the window on the double, kid."

That comment instantly sent the mini-cow bawling his eyes out again.

Primo just ignored him (which was a really difficult thing to do) and started climbing up the stairs to the top floor. After he reached the top, he went straight to the guest room and was about to turn the handle when he felt someone approaching him from behind. He spun around to face the person, only to find Asari and Knuckle looking at him, surprised to see the boss out of his formal attire, and on top of that, holding something that looked like a cow with a bomber head hairstyle, kicking its leg up and down and screaming at the top of his lungs.

Tsuna, who was leading the rear end of the party, peeked out from behind Yamamoto and he yelped in shock when he saw something that looked like Lambo.

And in all places, the Lambo look-alike was with… Tsuna tried to get a closer look but the dim lighting and Yamamoto blocked him from view. Tsuna could not see the person's face, as it was in the shadows.

"We found the spies, Primo." Asari said in an airy tone, obviously hoping that Primo will forgive him for destroying his garden. "They were hiding in the forest, and they didn't set off any alarm when they entered Vongola's ground."

"So you're saying that they bypassed the security by falling from the sky?" Primo raised his voice over the mini-cow's screams. "That's impossible. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am, "Asari yelled, trying to cover the mini-cow's increasingly loud screams. "If I may ask, Primo, just where on earth did you find that…cow?"

"Cow?" Yamamoto said in surprise and peeked over Asari's shoulder. "Hey! It's Lambo!" he exclaimed loudly.

"Eeeeeeeeehhhhh?" Tsuna screeched and nearly dropped Gokudera's head onto the floor, causing the silent Gokudera to yell loudly in pain. La-Lambo? Since when?"

'AND I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST A LOOK- ALIKE!' An extremely bewildered Tsuna thought.

Yamamoto looked over to Tsuna apologetically. "I brought Lambo with me when I went searching for you and Gokudera. He got lost in the mist too."

Tsuna groaned. And all hell broke loose suddenly.

Lambo had stopped his screaming for a second to catch his breath. And then, he spotted Tsuna tip-toeing, trying to peek over Yamamoto's shoulder.

"STUPID TSUNAAA!" Lambo screamed his loudest and broke free of Primo's grip. He instantly jumped on Tsuna, forcing Tsuna to let go of Gokudera instinctively in order to catch Lambo and knocking him down in the process. Gokudera hit the floor with a dull thud and a loud yell. Over the mini-cow's screaming, the silver-haired boy's swearing and yelling and Yamamoto's apologies, Asari yelled over to Knuckle and Primo, who were both looking stunned by the sudden turn of events, "Why don't we discuss this in the office after we lock them into the guest room?"

"Good idea!" Knuckle yelled back and Primo nodded in agreement. It took all their might to haul a swearing Gokudera onto the sofa in the guest room. Yamamoto went without a struggle, simply shrugging and lifting his hands in surrender. And Reborn was continuing to sleep during the chaos, but this time on Yamamoto's shoulder and no one knew how he got there.

Primo turned to face the last one (Tsuna, was it?), holding the mini-cow, who started squealing when he saw Primo and scrambling crazily all over Tsuna, causing him to yelp.

Tsuna was quaking in his shoes. This Primo was obviously different from the will of Primo in his ring, which was currently nestled in an inside pocket of his jacket. How would he react when he saw Tsuna? Attack him? Tsuna didn't know. He had earlier told Gokudera and Yamamoto to hide their rings, for if the first generation guardians saw them, no doubt they'll think that they had killed the rest of the guardians and stolen the rings. And Tsuna was already in enough trouble.

Primo stared at the quavering brunette who was holding the mini-cow. Primo stared even harder and wondered if his brain was really going haywire.

'He looks exactly like me,' Primo frowned. 'Wait, strike that. He looks exactly like me with brown hair and brown eyes. And come to think of it, all his friends resemble my guardians, except for that annoying cow, of course. Coincidence? Just exactly what is going on here?'

The brunette stared back at him unblinkingly, backtracking one step at a time slowly. The mini-cow then decided that things were getting too quiet and decided to hype them up a little.

"TSUNA!" he screamed directly into the brunette's ear. "THAT STUPID PERSON OVER THERE WON'T GIVE LAMBO-SAN CANDY!" The mini-cow crawled over the brunette's face, yelling something incomprehensible. The unfortunate brunette fell down onto the floor, screeching while trying to force the mini-cow off his face, but failing.

Tsuna then decided the only noble way out of this totally humiliating situation was to faint. And faint he did.

The mini-cow started laughing. "Gyahahahaha, stupid Tsuna fainted! Gyahahahaha!"

Primo groaned and lugged the brunette (together with the mini-cow) into the guest room. After closing the door, he took out a key and locked it.

Now there'll be no escape for them.

Chapter 7 ~ Spies or not?

Knuckle and Asari were already waiting when Primo entered his office.

"Do you really think they're spies, Primo?" Knuckle immediately asked when Primo had sat down in his chair. "They look like some lost school kids to me." He glared at Asari. "But Asari obviously doesn't think so."

Asari sighed. "I made a mistake. So what're you going to do about them, Primo? Let them stay for a while, then send them home?"

"But do you think they're Italian?" Primo asked softly. "Their accent is not Italian, and on top of that, they do not speak Italian. How can we send them home if we don't know where they come from?"

Asari looked up. "They speak Japanese," Asari replied. "So they're probably from Japan, my native country. But," Asari frowned. "How can some unknown Japanese kids break in without us knowing? There's something wrong here. And their outfits are totally weird. I've never seen anything like those before."

Knuckle spoke up. "That guy with the sprained ankle. I think he's from around here, though, the rest might not be. He does have that accent, even though most of the time he's yelling so loudly you can't hear it. And no need to worry, boss, I've treated his ankle and tied it up." Knuckle glanced at Primo who was looking vacantly at space. "Boss? Are you alright?"

Primo jerked out of his thoughts. "Huh? Yeah, alright. Maybe we should all just ask them directly instead of beating around the bush."

"Sure," Asari said as he stood up. "No problem, Primo." Asari walked towards the door and was about to turn the handle when Primo spoke.

"Oh, yeah, Asari. About my garden…" Asari tensed, waiting for the blow to come, but it never did. "Don't worry about it. I'll forgive you this time, but you're going to have to pay for the damage. Including the cost of two of my ducks."

Asari's expression was priceless. " What ducks?" he asked innocently. " I didn't go anyway near the duck pond."

Primo groaned inwardly. " Never mind then." Asari opened the door and left, but not before glancing at his boss in concern. Knuckles followed after him, closing the door with a silent thud.

'Asari's right,' Primo thought. 'There's something really wrong going on here ever since this morning. Could this be related to Xernus? And why do the kids, in some way, resemble me and my guardians? Coincidence? I think not.'

A thought suddenly struck Primo like a stray lightning bolt.

'Shoot! I was supposed to meet G at the village about almost an hour ago,' Primo sat up in horror. 'G's going to kill me when he sees me. He even red-coded this meeting! He must've had some information on the Xernus to tell me. I've got to go.'

'I'm not in formal attire,' Primo admitted. 'But it'll have to do.'

With that, he exited the room, closing the door behind him with a loud bang.

Hibari woke up suddenly. He could sense someone nearby. He leapt out of bed and held his tonfas up in a fighting stance.

"Who's there?" He said menacingly. "If you don't show yourself, I'll bite you to death."

A cold laugh echoed around the room. "You'll bite me to death? How utterly amusing." Hibari tensed as a human shape slowly formed in the shadows.

Daemon Spade stepped out of the shadows, his boots making no sound at all on the floor. His eyes narrowed as he saw Hibari.

"What're you doing in Vongola's mansion, you inept boy?" Daemon asked, the tip of his mouth curling up. "You do know that only Vongola Primo, his guardians and a few other trusted personnel are allowed to enter the mansion?"

Hibari didn't bother to reply. He rushed at Daemon and slashed him with his tonfas, but he only hit thin air. Hibari spun around and saw Daemon at the open door, looking amusingly at him.

"You'll have to be faster than that, kid." Daemon said in a cheery tone. "And I have a question. Why do you attack me with such ferocity? You haven't seen me before, and neither have I. Why bother attacking at all?"

Hibari smirked. "Firstly, you woke me up from my sleep, and I'm feeling really irritated at this moment. Secondly, your face and that pineapple hairstyle of yours reminds me of someone I really want to bite to death. You can be a great substitute for him." With that, he ran at Daemon and slashed him directly in the face. Daemon dodged the attack with ease, his smile taunting Hibari as he sought to find an opening in his defense. The mist guardian made no attempt to attack, preferring to dodge and watch Hibari's blood pressure slowly rise to dangerous levels.

Hibari's attacks gave no hint of slowing down. Moreover, they seemed to be increasing in terms of ferocity. One of his slashed actually struck Daemon's hand, but he simply smirked and waved it off, continuing to dodge all the attacks from the crazy kid, who showed no signs of tiring at all.

"Tsuna! Hey, Tsuna!"

"Jyuudaime!"

"Ahaha, Stupid Tsuna's still fast asleep."

Tsuna slowly opened his eyes. He had a throbbing headache building up in his skull. He tried to sit up and found that he was on a bed.

"Jyuudaime! You've finally woken up!" A voice to his left cried out and he saw Gokudera sitting on the edge of the bed, a worried look on his face.

"Eh, Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna said in surprise. "Is your ankle alright?"

Gokudera grimaced. "That priest bandaged it. It still hurts, but not as bad as before though. As opposed to…."

"Aw, Gokudera," said a voice to Tsuna's right and he saw Yamamoto grinning way. "You should rest too. It hasn't been easy for all of us, coming all the way here."

"I guess so….." Suddenly Tsuna remembered. "Where's Lam-" He was cut off abruptly when Lambo jumped onto his stomach making him go "Oof!"

"Ahaha, Stupid Tsuna woke up!" Lambo said gleefully. "Lambo-san's really hungry! Gimme some food!"

"I'm hungry too, Lambo." Tsuna's stomach growled in agreement. "Where's Reborn?"

"I'm here, Useless Tsuna." Reborn jumped onto the bed sheets. "You've been unconscious for about 15 minutes already."

"Reborn!" Tsuna yelled. "And you were sleeping the whole time we were fighting against the first generation rain guardian!"

"It was my nap time. And you're being noisy." Reborn kicked Tsuna on the cheek and poor Tsuna fell out of the bed and landed on the floor unceremoniously. "Yamamoto told me everything." Reborn said as Tsuna struggled to get up. "Tsuna, where's your ring and box?"

"Oww…" Tsuna muttered, wincing in pain. "Huh? My ring and box? I kept it in my internal pocket."

"Good." Reborn replied serenely. "It'll be a little unfortunate if the first generation guardian find out about the rings. Their reaction might be a little dangerous."

"Dangerous. Right." Tsuna remembered Asari and his swords and couldn't help shivering a little. "Yeah, I get the picture." He looked at Reborn. "What're we going to do now?"

"Escape?" Gokudera suggested. He looked at the door, as though expecting it to spring magically open for him.

"We can't." Yamamoto said glumly. "The door's locked and there's no use trying to cut through it because it's made of highly reinforced steel. Believe me, I've tried. As for the window, I think it'll be easier trying to break down the door than the window."

A curtain of gloom surrounded the group.

"Things can't possibly get any worse, right?" Gokudera commented, trying to lighten the mood, but not quite succeeding. "At least they didn't had any intention of killing us." He winced in pain. "Okay, maybe not all of them. But still, Primo looked like a nice guy. And he should be able to control his guardians…..right?"

"I sure hope so." Tsuna muttered. The gloomy atmosphere didn't change until a voice suddenly broke in, yelling.

"SAWADAAA! WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE?"

That instantly changed the atmosphere fast. Tsuna sat up in an instant, his mouth wide open and Lambo flew off Tsuna's head with an indignant yell. Yamamoto turned his neck so fast that he heard it crack. Gokudera tried to leap to his feet but forgot that he had sprained his ankle, causing him to collapse back onto the floor, swearing. Reborn's face expression didn't change.

Tsuna stared at the person on the floor.

'Impossible,' he thought in a daze. 'Why him of all people?'

"Turf head!" Lambo screeched loudly and ran the person sitting on the floor. "Lambo-san's bored! Play with me!"

Sasagawa Ryohei stared at Tsuna as he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

And in that case, neither could Tsuna.

G was still waiting patiently, glancing at his watch occasionally, fuming inwardly.

'Primo said he'll be here,' G thought. 'And he will be. He never breaks his promises." He paused. "Unless he really couldn't make it…."

G wondered if this was one of those sometimes.

'Maybe I should go back to the Vongola mansion.' G thought. 'And see if anything's happened to Primo. Or maybe he's already on the way. Hm, I wonder what I should so…'

G wasn't the only one getting impatient. The spy with the sniper rifle was also getting a little jumpy, as would anyone sitting up in a tree for more than half a day would.

"Is he there yet?" His companion on the ground asked for the 101th time.

"No." He replied curtly. "I think the guardian's getting tired of waiting too." And the intercom chose that particular time to ring. He and his companion exchanged fearful glances with each other. Their master was calling for any updates. If there weren't any, he would probably have them killed. Or give them a pay raise. The master could be very unpredictable at times.

The companion picked up the intercom with a shaky hand. "Yes, my lord. This is unit B23 reporting."

"Ah, of course." The master spoke with cheerfulness. Was this some kind of trick? "Has Vongola Primo been sighted?"

"N-No, my lord." The companion replied, his face turning pale with fear. "He is late."

"Hm, that's unlike him." The master mused. "Never mind then. If the guardian leaves, shoot him. Never mind Primo. Just shoot if Primo hasn't appear and if the guardian attempts to leave, okay?"

"Yes, sir!" This he understood. He looked up at his companion on the tree. "Shoot the guardian If he tries to leave."

The spy nodded. He looked into his sniper scope and aimed it carefully at the guardian with the tattoo and red hair. And just at that moment, the guardian started to move out, his steps quick and precise.

"Shoot!" The spy's companion barked in Italian at him.

The spy pulled the trigger, his aim true.

The sound of the shot echoed for miles throughout the valley.

Chapter 8 ~ Sniper

G heard the shot coming, but he never expected it to be so fast. He managed to dodge it at the last minute, but it still grazed his shoulder. The impact felt like a burning hot piece of steel applied to his shoulder. He grabbed his shoulder, attempting to stem the flow of blood. He succeeded, but his shoulder felt like it was on fire. He glanced at the direction the shot had come from. He could see the sunlight glinting off the rifle, which was angled directly at his face.

'Crap!' He swore and threw himself to his side as the bullet whistled past him, a few inches from his ear. A few strands of his hair were clipped off in the messy process. G gritted his teeth in frustration. He couldn't do anything to defend himself. The spy was too far away. And he hadn't brought any of his weapons with him.

G silently cursed himself. How could he be so careless? He had thought the current truce would hold off the Xernus, but apparently truces weren't honored by the Xernus family. The only option he had left, even though he hated to admit it, was to run as fast as he could away from the sniper into the forest surrounding Vongola's mansion.

G waited for a while more, knowing that the sniper was currently reloading his gun. When he heard the shot, he sprinted forward as fast as a bat out of hell towards the forest.

The bullet behind him had created a 5 cm deep hole in the ground, smoking slightly as it cooled down.

"Stupido!" His companion yelled at him. (I don't think you need a translation for that word.) "You missed! Again! For the third time! What are you, my grandmother? Why, even my grandmother can do better than you!"

The sniper tried to ignore his companion's ranting which were really getting to his head. He looked into his scope again. He swore loudly in Italian. The guardian had decided to make his way into the forest. Smart guy. But still…..

He shot, and missed again. His companion started yelling again, forgetting that his boss was still on the intercom, listening to the ruckus in amusement and chuckling occasionally.

The sniper finally lost his cool at his partner. "Chiudere il becco!" He snapped back loudly. (Translation = Shut up)

He fired again. This time, he got lucky and the shot hit the guardian's hand. The guardian fell down, but got up in a second and continued running.

"What the hell?" the sniper swore.

"Hit his legs! The legs!" The companion yelled in frustration. "That way he won't be able to run!"

'Finally, something worthwhile coming from his mouth.' The sniper thought irritatedly.

He reloaded the gun and adjusted it slightly to face the runaway guardian.

Chiro Xernus chuckled softly. He could hear everything the idiotic spies were yelling at each other. Infighting was a necessity. Kept the people on their toes, trying to outsmart each other.

Today he was dressed in a simple red shirt, black tie and coat. He loved the color red. It was a beautiful color, untainted and untouched by the rest of the ugly colors. Red was also the color of blood. Xernus loved it.

He was seated behind his desk, facing a spacious room with carpeted floors and green plants dotted around here and there around his office. Behind him, instead of a wall, was a transparent window overlooking the city of Venice in all its finest glory. Xernus loved Venice. It was the place where he was born and the place where he had grown up in.

'Soon,' he said silently to himself. 'Soon, the Vongola will be eliminated and the Xernus will take their place, just as they'd taken ours.'

The door to his office slided open and an aide walked. His boots clacked sharply on the floor, snapping his boots together. "Sir, Commander Carl is here."

Xernus looked up sharply at the aide. "Carl? Isn't he supposed to be on an undercover mission in England?"

The aide answered in a shaky voice. "He says that he has completed his mission and wishes to speak to you immediately."

"Hm. Whatever." Xernus said in a bored tone, twirling his gun around his finger. "Send him in."

The aide exited the room gladly. A moment later, a man entered, shown in by the same aide.

The man looked almost normal. He had long blonde hair that was tied up in a short ponytail. He wore the typical mafia white shirt, black coat and tie. The only thing that made him stood out was his blank grey eyes which pierced through anyone looking at them and a livid red scar marked by stitches that ran half-way over his face from his left cheek down to his neck. He never told anyone where he got it, but Xernus assumed it was from one of their many fights with the Vongola.

Xernus leaned forward, smiling to greet him. "Carl? How did the mission go?"

Carl answered emotionlessly. "I ran into a few Vongola stooges there."

Xernus grinned. It was no doubt that those Vongola stooges were currently lying dead somewhere with a knife in their back. Carl's specialty, after all, was knives.

"Good, good." Xernus sang out. "Any classified info found there?"

Carl stared at Xernus, but he didn't flinch. He was used to it. "I also ran into the Vongola's cloud guardian along the way."

That sentence instantly popped Xernus's happy bubble. He stood up abruptly and glared menacingly at thin air. "Vongola's cloud guardian? Did you deal with him too?"

Carl looked confused at his boss's outburst. "I was undercover, remember? If I killed any of Vongola's guardians, they'll instantly know that we broke the truce and come after us. If I recalled correctly, the last time we fought, Vongola Primo gave you such a beating that you were hospitalized for almost a month, boss."

Xernus grinded his teeth in frustration. "Don't ever remind me." That had been one of the most humiliating moments in his life. Being beaten up by Vongola Primo in front of all the Vongola guardians. And it hadn't been an unfair match. The whole Xernus family had been behind him during that time. He was going to have to avenge that particular defeat. And to top of it, he had begged Primo to kill him in front of his whole family, rather than let him live, but Primo had refused, saying that he had no right to end anyone's life. Xernus had lived through it, but had become the laughing stock of the entire Mafia. Him, Chiro Xernus, head of the Xernus family, who was one of the oldest and original Mafia family in the whole world, had been beaten by Vongola, one of the new kids on the block.

Even though the Vongola family was new, they had shot through the rankings fast and were now currently the most famous family around, knocking the Xernus off the top spot for the first time in a hundred years. Not only had this caused embarrassment for them, their dealers, sponsors, informants and most of the people supporting them had gone over to Vongola's side. The rest of the Mafia families had cut their deals with them, making them lose their profits faster than a stone sinking.

The Xernus was now currently at a truce with the Vongola, but then again, Chiro Xernus hadn't gotten to be the boss of one of the oldest Mafia family in the world at a young age by acting like an angel. In fact, he was notorious for playing dirty, but of course the naive Vongola didn't know his reputation yet. But they'll know it very soon.

"And the truce," Xernus said softly, his face alighted with a maniacal light. "Carl, how long have you known me? Ten years, right?"

Carl's smile grew wider. "What did you do now, boss?" he said in a reprimanding tone of voice.

Xernus laughed, a psychotic laugh that echoed around the room. "The spies are currently trying to finish off Vongola's storm guardian, and I've dispatched Neah into Vongola's territory. He won't fail."

Carl narrowed his eyes. "Neah?" he growled. "That incompetent fool doesn't even know right from left without his leading commander."

"Faith, my friend. Faith." Xernus sang out, plopping down onto his seat and twirling it around to face the city of Venice, a smile on his lips. "It is not necessary to dispatch the stronger commanders to eliminate the Vongola."

Carl just sighed. "I hope you're right, boss" he muttered softly. "I sure hope you're right."

The incompetent person Xernus had dispatched, Neah, stood on a tree branch in a tree, overlooking the elegant mansion of Vongola. The team he was commanding, group A02, were all placed in strategic positions around the mansion. His master had instructed to kill Primo, if possible with his own hands.

They had easily bypassed Vongola's pathetic security system. The guards were currently taking a nap in Dreamland, and all the alarms had been disarmed. Neah snorted. He wondered how in the world Vongola had managed to be the most famous mafia group, what with their pathetic guards and even more pathetic security systems.

Of all the Xernus commanders (there were a grand total of four commanders.) Neah was the proudest and the youngest. His successor had failed in a mission, and the master had him killed him on the spot, and Neah, who had been second in command to his successor had been promoted. Neah was only seventeen, the youngest (and the most inexperienced) commander. But what he lacked in experience, he made it up in skill. His favorite method of killing was decapitating his opponents with a pair of special gloves that had retractable energy claws built into them. The energy in the claws exceeded those of a lightning bolt, and those unlucky enough to touch them, will receive a mild shock which will stun them for a few precious moments in which Neah will get his move in, by slicing them into thin, red, bloody ribbons.

Neah's long hair touched his shoulders, waving slightly in the wind. Suddenly, Neah's sharp ears caught the sound of a door opening, and shutting. Neah shifted his position and saw a blond man hurry out of the mansion.

'Was that Primo?' Neah thought. 'He usually dresses more formal than that. Should I confront him, or let him go?'

Neah decided on the latter. 'He'll have to come back anyway.' Neah thought as he watched the figure hurry into the forest. 'I'll get him then. And anyway if it isn't Primo, boss will break my neck and toss me to the sharks.'

So Neah settled back onto the branch, his eyes never leaving Vongola's mansion.

Chapter 9 ~ Appearance

Primo hurried through the forest, his cloak trailing behind him. Earlier, his hyper intuition had alerted him to several presences around the mansion, but he had brushed them off. He could deal with them after he had finished his meeting with G.

'Obviously, Xernus hadn't bother to adhere to the truce.' Primo thought as he walked rapidly towards the village. 'But then again, G did warn me about making a truce with the Xernus family, as he's the one who usually deals with them. Well, too late for any regrets now.'

Primo abruptly stopped walking. He could sense a very familiar presence nearby. Was it G? He turned towards the presence, which was currently residing under a tree and turned the corner. But it wasn't G.

Alaude glared coldly at Primo. Primo noticed that Alaude's traveling cloak was tattered and wondered if he had ran into any trouble during his mission in England. Alaude's face was also bruised, which pointed to the fact that he had been involved in a fight. And if he had been involved in a fight, Alaude usually won.

"Finally, you're back, Alaude." Primo said in relief. "Are you alright? Need any help?"

Alaude glanced over his shoulder. "The guards around the perimeter have been taken out by someone." He said in a monotone, totally ignoring Primo. "And there were footprints all around them. I estimate at least 30 men and, at the most, a commander with his entire company."

Primo nodded. He had expected that much. "Get back to the mansion to have your injuries treated, Alaude. I'm Knuckle is free at the moment."

The cloud guardian snorted in derision. "I'll never let that **** (self-censored) priest touch me." He shot back to Primo as he walked away.

G continued running for dear life. There was little chance of hitting him from this range but this sniper was from Xernus. They only hire the best of the best, even though so far, the sniper hadn't been able to get in a killing shot and live up to his reputation, thank goodness.

G leaned against a tree, his breathing ragged. His shoulder wound was still bleeding, the blood staining the right side of his shirt. His right hand was a mess. The bullet had entered and exited the hand, but it still hurt like hell. The sniper, after hitting his hand, had attempted to go for his legs, but had so far missed all of his shots, but some of the shots had come way too close for G's liking.

The loss of blood was making G dizzy. He banged himself repeatedly against the hardest tree he knew in the forest to keep himself in check, but it only worked for a few seconds before the dizziness came back.

'I can't die here.' G thought angrily. 'Primo's relying on me as his second-in-command. I can't be taken down by some cowardly sniper who probably doesn't even know the difference between a piece of wood and a sniper rifle.'

G stumbled forward a few more meters before his legs gave out from weariness beneath him. He crashed down onto the grass and leaves that carpeted the forest's ground, the light from his vision fading. Black spots started to dance in front of his eyes, taunting him as he faded into unconsciousness. His last thought, strangely, was of Asari, one of the most irritating person on earth he had ever met.

'I wonder what Asari's doing now.' G thought dreamily. 'Maybe he's playing his flute or training…or annoying the crap out of Knuckle. Who knows… ?'

Ryohei tried again, smashing his fists straight at the door. The door didn't even budge an inch and Ryohei's fists felt as though someone had deliberately snapped all the bones within it to tiny pieces.

"Argh, this is an extreme door!" Ryohei yelled at no one at particular. "But I should beat it to the extreme!"

"Give it up, lawn head." Gokudera muttered from where he was lying down on the sofa, his bandaged ankle propped up on the sofa's armrest. "They'll only let us out when they feel like it." Reborn had told Ryohei everything because everyone had been too stunned to do anything else, except gape with their mouths wide open at Ryohei, starting from where they had arrived and to their current situation. Ryohei's ring and box had been carelessly chucked by the owner into his jacket pocket, leading to protests from Gokudera.

"If your ring rolls out and they kill you," Gokudera snapped. "We'll help them dig your grave!"

"And if yours roll out, octopus head," Ryohei retorted back. "We'll help you escape by booting you out of the window!"

The familiar bickering had somehow helped Tsuna calm down, which allowed him to do a little thinking. The window and door were both locked, and were immune to attacks. But what if he used X-Burner against them?

"Reborn, do you think a X-Burner can fire through the window?" Tsuna asked the diminutive hitman hopefully.

"Most certainly it would," Reborn answered cheerfully. "But then, the impact would also knock everyone else out too."

"I can't think of anything else!" Tsuna cried, throwing his hands up in desperation. "Unless the guardians open the door and we run out of it when they unlock it….."

An idea suddenly hit Tsuna. He looked over to the window, an escape plan forming slowly in his mind.

"I think…." Tsuna said slowly to the whole room at large. "That we are about to commit an arson attack. I really hope Primo doesn't mind losing his window."

The pain in G's hand and shoulder had diminished. His vision slowly returned to him and he saw the last person he expected to meet kneeling and bandaging his shoulder, his cloak brushing against him.

"Giotto?" G slurred out in confusion.

"Hm?" Primo answered as he finished bandaging G's shoulder. Already, the bandage was turning red as the blood seeped out from the wound.

G took a deep breath. He knew he was about to do something unforgivable but it was unavoidable. He drew back his uninjured hand and with the force of an elephant stampeding, punched Primo in the face. Primo fell backwards and hit the floor hard but he didn't complain. He merely rubbed his face and winced.

"Huh, I guess I really deserved it." Primo sighed. He stood back up and looked at G. "I'm so sorry, G. I apologize deeply. There was a major situation back at the mansion and I forgot about our meeting in the village."

G laughed weakly. "Just as well you didn't come," he muttered. "There were Xernus snipers up at the hill, and they were probably waiting for you since they didn't start shooting until I moved out." Primo hoisted G up by the arm and slung G's arm around his shoulder.

"We've got to get you back to the mansion," Primo said urgently. First Lampo, now Alaude and G. All of his guardians were being attacked by the Xernus. Was Xernus that indifferent when it comes to truces? If he was, it just wasted Primo's time making the truce in the first place. Beside him, G coughed weakly, his breathing labored. He had lost too much blood already and it was probably going to take a few days for him to recover.

"And there're still spies to deal with." He muttered glumly. He knew it was normal for the Xernus to place spies around the mansion. Primo didn't mind them as long as they didn't interfere or harm the Vongola in any way. But this was getting too much. First Lampo, then Alaude and now G. The only way to stop this petty backstabbing by the Xernus was to march straight to their headquarters and cave in to their demands. Oh yes, Xernus was one of the mafia families that used every single dirty trick in the book and more. They were used to getting what they want by bullying or intimidation. But Primo was determined not to give in, no matter what. At least, that had been what he would've said before his guardians had gotten attacked. Now, what choice did he have but to agree to their demands? If he continued defying them, one of his guardians were going to end up dead one way or another, and Primo would never let that happen.

"Boss," G coughed out. "Don't worry about me now. What happened at the mansion?"

Before Primo could reply, a young girl suddenly stepped into their path. Her right eye was covered by an eye-patch and she carried a lethal-looking weapon with three sharp points. But her expression was different from her appearance. She timidly shuffled her feet as she stared shyly at Primo and G, not daring to move an inch. Was she lost?

G broke the silence. "What're you doing on Vongola's property?" He started asking aggressively, and then started to cough just as aggressively. Primo held him up and sighed. He looked towards the girl, who was looking a little taken aback by G's outburst. "I think you should follow us." He said neutrally. The girl nodded just slightly, a nod of acknowledgment. 'Maybe she was just lost.' Primo thought hopefully.

'Nah, who am I kidding? She might after all, be another spy sent by the Xernus' Primo shrugged as he started to walk back to the mansion, lugging G with him, the girl silently following from behind, her boots making no sound at all on the forest ground.

(Back in the present…..)

Location: Vindice Prison, Italy

The guard was feeling bored. He had thought that being assigned to one of Vindice's most escape-prone prisoner would be interesting, but it had turned out to be no different from the rest of the prisoners he had guarded.

He yawned, and looked at the door he was guarding. Behind that door, locked in chains and suspended in a water tank, was Rokudo Mukuro. His face was expressionless, suspended for an eternity in the water. Neither air nor light could enter his cell, and even the guard was forced to wear an oxygen mask.

The guard had heard (from his friends over a mug of beer) that Mukuro had escaped from Vindice once, which was the reason he was now being held in one of the cells with the tightest security ever. There was no way he could escape.

Suddenly, the alarm that had been built into the ceiling started flashing red. A wailing siren started sounding, its sound loud enough to fill the entire Vindice prison. The guard knew what it meant. A prisoner had escaped. Calmly, he took a large bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door's six locks. It couldn't possibly be Mukuro. His chains would've held him had he tried to escape.

The guard opened the door, expecting to see Mukuro in his watery prison, but what greeted him was the water tank. Minus Mukuro in it.

Later, when he was questioned, the guard vehemently denied that anyone had entered the room, protesting his innocence. However, whatever the guard said didn't matter to the masters of the Vindice prison as it didn't change the fact that Mukuro still couldn't be found.

The guard was never seen again.

Chapter 10 ~ Warning

The Vongola mansion came into sight.

Primo opened the door of the mansion with one hand while balancing G with the other. He motioned to the girl to follow him. She nervously followed him into the grand hall, glancing left and right furtively as if she was looking for an escape route.

Just at that moment, Knuckle ran down the main staircase at top speed, nearly colliding into Primo and G in the process. It didn't help at all that G was in a very bad mood.

"Watch it, you ******!" G barked at Knuckle.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, G." Knuckle answered back in a tone that meant the exact opposite.

"What is it now, Knuckle?" Primo intervened before G or Knuckle blew up at each other.

Knuckle glanced at Primo. "Daemon Spade appeared upstairs," he said in a rushed voice. "And he's currently fighting with another intruder who also seems to have appeared out of nowhere. And to top it off, Lampo's trying to stop them but we all know that Lampo's negotiation skills are lower than a fence post and he'll be better off trying to negotiate with the wall."

The girl's eyes widen (in fear?) when Daemon Spade was mentioned. Primo gave a brief sideways look at her. He turned back to Knuckle. "Where's Asari? He should be able to calm down Daemon, but I'm not so sure about the other intruder…"

Knuckle grimaced. "Asari's guarding the guest room and he's not budging, no matter what I tell him to do. I don't know what's going on in that head of his today. He's usually not that stubborn.

Another thought struck Primo. "Has Alaude reached the mansion yet? Maybe he can help…."

Knuckle looked at Primo in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Alaude is one of the most self-centered person in the galaxy. Wait, strike that. Alaude's the most self-centered person in the entire universe. He's currently in his room sulking, if you want to convince him to settle the mess upstairs, even though I don't recommend it… because if someone talks to Alaude when he's in a bad mood, that someone is going to end up head first in the duck pond."

Primo made up his mind. He unwrapped his arm that was holding G up and handed him to Knuckle, ignoring both G and Knuckle protests. "I'm going upstairs to settle Daemon. Knuckle, treat G and let him rest. And G, try not to kill Knuckle."

"How about that girl?" Knuckle added as he tried to convince G to let him hold him up instead of dragging him along like a rag doll.

"I'm taking her to the guest room." Primo said as he started to climb up the stairs. The girl followed silently, her eyes fearful and nervous. Behind Primo, he could already hear G and Knuckle going at each other with raised voices. Only when he reached the top floor did their voices faded, replaced instead with the sound of combat echoing from the other side of the corridor.

Primo reached the guest room first, but Asari wasn't there. Maybe Knuckle was wrong and Asari had gone to settle the dispute on the other side of the mansion. Primo unlocked the door of the guest room. He spotted all five of the intruders staring at him, probably wondering if they could dash out of the door in time before he closed it. He motioned the girl to enter and ignoring the gasps of the intruders, slammed the door and locked it again. He was in such a rush that he didn't notice a sixth person in the room at all.

"Now, as for Daemon Spade…" Primo muttered as he hurried to the other side of the corridor.

Tsuna was pondering about how he was going to explain to the guardians about the window if he destroyed it. It was as Reborn said. The sound of his X-Burner, even if he didn't use it at full power, would doubtlessly be heard throughout the entire mansion and even bring it down. Yamamoto had suggested using an illusion to fool the guardians into thinking the window was still there, and then jump out of it. And Gokudera had happily answered back by saying that no one in the room was an illusionist.

Then Chrome shot into the room.

Tsuna gaped at her and he doubted he was the only one. This day was turning out so weirdly and now Chrome was here too. What next, Mukuro?

"Er..Uhm…Hi, Chrome?" Tsuna said lamely, ignoring Reborn's sighs.

"Boss?" Chrome muttered softly. "Where is this…place?"

"Eh?" Tsuna thought for a while. "I don't know, Chrome"

Chrome slumped on the floor, her back against the wall. "I was just going out to buy some food for Ken and Chikusa," she mumbled. "And I got lost on the way. I don't know what happened and then I found myself in a forest..."

Gokudera's voice shred into her musings. "Forget that, Jyuudaime! More importantly, we have an illusionist now. We can burn that window, then that girl can create an illusion to cover the fact that there's no window left!"

Chrome looked up nervously. "You…need an illusionist, boss?"

"Yeah, sort of." Tsuna turned to face Chrome. "Can you help us, Chrome?"

"What do you want me to do, boss?" Chrome answered.

"We need you to help us create an illusion of that window," Tsuna jerked his thumb behind him, pointing at the window. "After I'm finished with it, there'll no doubt be a gaping hole in the wall. Can you hide it with an illusion?"

Chrome smiled a shy smile. "No problem, boss." She said softly, but confidently.

"Quit it, guys!" Asari yelled, his throat hoarse but Daemon and Mr. Unknown continued ignoring him, preferring instead to resume their fight with each other instead of listening to poor Asari who was yelling himself hoarse.

"Jeez, what are they?" Lampo shook his head in defeat while slowly edging away from the two combantants. "Long-lost lovers?"

Daemon ignored both Asari and the irritating lightning brat, focusing instead on his fight with the obviously insane boy and his weird choice of weapon. Daemon was past defending, choosing to attack with quick punches, kicks and jabs. He didn't feel like using his trademark illusions against the boy, because he had a bad feeling that it wouldn't work. He was about to execute a roundhouse kick on the boy when of all the people to appear, Primo appeared, running at top speed.

"OK, TIME OUT!" Primo yelled as loud as he could. Both combatants froze, and in that instance, Asari bonked his sword handle on the boy's head, knocking him out in a flash. The boy's stunned face told it all as he fell onto the floor, his weapons dropping uselessly onto the floor beside him. Lampo breathed a sigh of relief.

Primo faced Daemon, who was trying his best to look innocent, which didn't work on Primo at all. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Daemon. Starting from why you didn't inform any of us that there was another intruder in the mansion grounds."

Daemon smirked. "There're plenty of intruders out there on the grounds, from what I've seen. One more doesn't make a difference. And why are you not dealing with those pathetic intruders, instead preferring to waste your time on trivial things like this? You're way too soft, Primo." He turned his back onto Primo. "I'll be going now."

"Wait!" Primo yelled at Daemon. "Why did you come here? Do you have anything to say? Is that why you came to the mansion?"

Daemon looked back at Primo over his shoulder. "Maybe." He answered as the mist around him thickened and he disappeared. "Whatever. I've lost the mood to say it now though."

"Well, that's Daemon Spade for you." Lampo said with false cheeriness.

Primo glared at Lampo who shrank behind Asari, attempting to hide himself from Primo. Asari prodded the unconscious boy with his foot.

"What went wrong with our security today?" Asari asked to no one in particular. "So many people are appearing all over the grounds ever since the mist cleared."

"There're still plenty of people out there," Primo said as he dragged the unknown intruder into the nearest guest room. "We're are going to have to deal with them after this business is settled."

"Xernus spies?" Lampo asked in concern, scratching his head. "But isn't the truce still in effect?"

Asari swung his sword over his shoulder. "They broke it already when they injured you and Alaude." He turned to Primo. "Where's G, by the way?"

Primo sighed. "They sniped him. Knuckle," Primo winced. "is currently treating G, but it'll take him a few days to recover, at the very least. So G's out. Alaude's out too, and so is Lampo."

"Hey!" Lampo yelled. "I can still fight!"

"You're injured, kid." Asari replied. "You'll have to rest."

At that moment, a 'boom' echoed around the mansion, rattling all the furniture and vibrating the occupants. Lampo fell to the ground with an 'Eek!' and Asari held onto the wall with all his might. Primo just stood still, ignoring the vibrations and trying to focus instead on where the sound of the explosion had come from.

"Primo!" Asari groaned. "What's going on?"

"We're going to check the guest room." Primo replied. "I have a feeling it's coming from there."

"G-g-g-guest r-room?" Lampo stuttered out. "We have g-guests?"

Asari turned to follow Primo. "Not the sort of guests that you'll welcome with open arms."

Chapter 11 ~ Surprise

Primo ran towards the guest room, Asari and Lampo following closely behind him. Half-way, he saw a determined G trying to shake off Knuckle who was trying to drag G back downstairs.

"I told you to leave me alone, you idiot priest!" G yelled. "I heard something upstairs and I'm gonna find out what is it!"

"Don't be so reckless, G!" Knuckle replied back. "I've only just bandaged your wounds. You're in no condition to do anything at all!"

"Leave me alone!" G yelled. "The boss might be hurt! If Daemon Spade did anything to him…"

"I'm here." Primo said, striding forward. G and Knuckle instantly ceased their argument. Primo looked at G. "Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine." G growled. "I heard something just now. Was it that Daemon? If it was…"

"It wasn't Daemon." Asari said in his usual cheerful tone of voice. "We think it came from the guest room."

"What?" G yelled. He stared at Primo. "Was it the major situation you told me about?"

"Yeah. We caught the offenders." Primo started running towards the guest room, even though he didn't know why. "Move out!" He said to his guardians urgently. "The intruders might be up to something!"

"Yes, boss." All his guardians said in unison and started to run and catch up with their boss.

The smoke settled in, and Tsuna was able to see the result of his handiwork.

"Hm, not bad, Tsuna." Reborn commented, staring at what used to be an almost invincible window and part of a wall. "But there's still room for improvement."

The dying will flame on Tsuna's head extinguished almost immediately when he heard that particular comment. "Are you complimenting or insulting me?" He yelled at Reborn.

"Who knows." Reborn said, shrugging his shoulders in response.

"What sort of reply is that?" Tsuna cried out at his home tutor.

"Good one, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera said as he peered out of the hole which overlooked the entire Vongola estate, and beyond it, a village.

"So, what do we do now?"

Tsuna turned to Chrome and smiled, "It's all yours now, Chrome."

Chrome smiled timidly. "Ok, boss." She took a deep breath and tapped the bottom of her trident onto the floor. Instantly, the hole in the wall disappeared and whatever that had been previously destroyed by the X-Burner reappeared, causing Gokudera to yell in surprise as half of his body was already leaning out of the hole. Yamamoto pulled him back to Gokudera's immense disapproval.

Tsuna stared at the window. "So, basically, we can jump through the hole anytime, and all the rest who don't know about it will think we just went through the wall like ghosts."

"Yes, boss." Chrome blushed furiously. At that exact moment, the door slammed open and Primo entered the room, followed by his guardians. Tsuna and the rest instantly scooted away from them, making sure to keep a sizable distance from the unpredictable guardians and their even more unpredicted boss.

"What happened?" Primo glared at Tsuna, his eyes hard and unfriendly. "We heard something just now."

"Huh?" Tsuna tried to play the innocent person, but it wasn't working really well. "Was there?" He scratched his head in fake concern.

G lost his temper. "Spit it out, boy!" He yelled. "Don't lie to us!"

Ryohei instantly took offence. "What do you want with us, octopus head no.2?" He yelled back at the Storm Guardian. (Oops. Biggest mistake ever. XD)

G spluttered out every single swear word he knew and was about to take a step forward when he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. G glanced behind and saw Asari shaking his head. G took a deep calming breath and willed himself to calm down, but he was still glaring daggers at Ryohei.

Primo stared at Ryohei. "Who're you? You weren't with the rest when I locked them in. How did you enter the room?"

Ryohei stood up, his eyes blazing fire. "I AM THE EXTREME BOXER, SASAGAWA RYOHEI!" He yelled to the whole room at large. Knuckle, Asari, Tsuna and Yamamoto clapped their hands instantly over their ears to avoid going deaf.

"But you still haven't answered my second question." Primo said pointedly, ignoring Ryohei's yells.

"Hm? And what was it again?" Ryohei yelled into Primo's face.

"You bastard!" G yelled back. "Show some respect for the boss!"

"What boss?" Ryohei yelled. "My boss is Sawada to the extreme!" He pointed at poor Tsuna, who was taking in the scene with large eyes.

"Eh?" Tsuna cried. 'Why did Ryohei tell them I'm boss? Now they'll be gunning for me!' Tsuna thought in desperation.

Gokudera was apparently having the same thoughts as Tsuna. "You lawn head!" He yelled towards Ryohei. "Look what you've done now! You're exposing our cover!"

"Cover?" Knuckle asked. "What cover?"

'Gokudera just blown our cover even more!' Tsuna thought gloomily.

Gokudera grabbed Ryohei from the back. "Back down now, turf top!" He snapped at Ryohei. "I'll handle this!"

"Like hell you will!" Ryohei snapped back, slapping Gokudera's arm away. In the scuffle, the ring in Ryohei's pocket was jostled loose and fell out with a tinkle onto the floor. It rolled a meter and finally came to rest at Primo's feet who was staring at it with shocked eyes.

The awkward silence that followed was the worst Tsuna had ever encountered. Ryohei grabbed his ring and stuffed it back into his pocket, but the damage was already done.

G was the first to react. "You bastard!" He yelled and grabbed Ryohei by the scruff of his neck. "How did you get the ring? Did you hurt Knuckle or something?"

Asari waded into the situation. "Calm sown, G." He said in an urgent voice. "Look at the situation rationally." Asari glanced at Primo, whose eyes had gone colder than an Arctic wind. "Knuckle is here with us and he's perfectly well." Asari argued. "Perhaps that boy's ring is an imitation."

"What sort of crap are you sprouting?" Ryohei yelled, trying to force G's hand off his neck. "That ring is as real as it can get!"

"Stupid turf top!" Gokudera screamed in disbelief while Tsuna and the rest groaned and slapped their foreheads in equal disbelief. "How dense can you get?"

Primo stepped up. "Knuckle, do you have your ring?" He asked sharply to the stunned priest.

"Yeah, Primo." Knuckle said as he held up his right hand, the ring glinting under the light. "It's right here."

"Hm, then I guess the only reason for that boy's ring is that it is an imitation." Primo frowned. "But it looked pretty real to me though."

"Of course it looked real to you!" Ryohei snapped. "Because it's extremely real!"

Tsuna then decided that things were getting way too out of control and that it was time to revert to plan B. "Bail out!" He yelled. "Now!"

"Gotcha, Tsuna!" Yamamoto yelled. With one swift kick, Yamamoto sent Gokudera out of the illusionary wall and onto the ground below. Gokudera's curses could be heard three floors below where he had landed on the ground. Fortunately, the grass was very soft and had cushioned his fall, but it was still not enough for Gokudera.

Yamamoto grabbed the sleeping Lambo (Reborn leapt on Yamamoto's shoulder) and threw himself through the illusionary wall too. Gokudera's yells started up again as Yamamoto landed on his back. Chrome went next, jumping daintily out of the hole.

Now, only Tsuna and Ryohei were left. Ryohei aimed a quick punch at G, forcing G to release him to avoid the blow. Ryohei charged out of the hole with a yell, spreading his arms and legs wide. Gokudera yelled again when yet another person landed on his back for the third time in a day.

Tsuna ran towards the hole. By then, the guardians and Primo had recovered from their initial shock of seeing Tsuna and his family disappear through what they thought was a solid, reinforced, steel wall. Primo now knew it was an illusion and grabbed Tsuna's ankle as he attempted to jump off.

"Hiiiiiiiiii!" Tsuna screeched and tried to tug his ankle from Primo's iron grip. "Let me go!"

"Reel him in, Giotto!" G yelled.

Unfortunately, Tsuna was already halfway out of the hole. Tsuna's other foot slipped and he suddenly found himself dangling upside down from the hole with Primo holding his other ankle.

Primo gritted his teeth and tried to keep his balance, but the boy's weight was dragging him towards the hole. The tip of his shoes touched the edge of the ground as he used his other hand to grab the side of the wall, but his efforts were in vain.

"Giotto!" G yelled as he tried to pull Primo back. "Let the boy go! Drop him!"

"I can't do that!" Primo yelled back. "At the position he's in, he might end up breaking his neck!"

"But you'll fall down too, boss!" Knuckle cried out.

Primo's hand slackened around Tsuna's ankle and Tsuna took the opportunity to bring up his other leg to kick Primo's arm. Primo yelped and had no choice but to let Tsuna go, causing Tsuna to plunge down onto the same spot Gokudera and the rest had landed.

Fortunately for Tsuna (but unfortunately for Gokudera) he landed onto something soft. Tsuna groaned as he twisted his neck to check if it was broken but a loud yell from the soft thing below him snapped Tsuna back to reality.

"G-Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna cried and leapt off Gokudera. "Are you alright?"

"I-I-I'm fine, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera groaned as he rubbed his poor, broken back. Gokudera turned around and glared at Yamamoto, who was staring at the trees surrounding the mansion. "That baseball nut weighed a ton though." Gokudera paused. "Hey, baseball idiot! Did you hear what I said?" Yamamoto continued ignoring Gokudera. "Hey!" Gokudera yelled. "Don't ignore me, dammit!"

Yamamoto suddenly drew his sword from his back, his face tensed as he stared at the surrounding trees.

"We've got company."

Chapter 12 ~ Strike

Neah watched the side of the wall explode with the force of a small bomb in amazement. A second later, the wreckage of the wall simmered and the wall reappeared. Neah raised his eyebrows until it was in danger of disappearing into his hair.

'An illusion?' Neah thought. 'It's probably the Vongola's Mist Guardian playing some pranks.'

Well, he was right. In a way.

A few minutes later, a silver-haired boy suddenly shot through the illusionary wall, cursing and flapping his hands in mid-air. The boy fell down with a 'thud!' onto the floor of the ground.

Neah winced. "That looked really painful." He muttered to himself.

Another boy suddenly leapt out from the illusionary wall, hooting with laughter as he jumped out. On his head sat a baby wearing a black and orange fedora while the boy held a cow with a bomberhead hairstyle, who was wailing so loudly that Neah closed both his ears while gritting his teeth in irritation. The boy landed onto the first boy and some yelling ensued. Neah watched as a girl jumped out, followed by another boy.

And they all landed on the same spot, which was the behind of the silver-haired boy, who looked like he was having a terrible day. Neah was so engrossed in what was happening below that he didn't notice one of his henchmen tapping his shoulder until the henchman whispered into his ear. "Sir, shall we attack?"

"Hm?" Neah turned to face his henchman with an irritated eye. "Don't disturb me now, ya idiot." He hissed softly. "Or I'll dispose of ya first."

The henchman retreated backwards but there was not enough space on the branch for him to move any further. "I'm sorry, sir. I apologise. Please forgive me."

"Hmph, maybe this time." Neah licked his lips in anticipation as he turned back to the scene. Another boy had landed on the ground. Neah squinted. Was that Primo? It did look like him. From this distance, Neah couldn't really see properly and Valkyr did say he needed glasses. Hm.

"Attack now." Neah hissed as he slipped on his gloves. The gloves hummed as the energy coursed through them. "Aim for the others. I'll personally take care of Vongola Primo."

"Huh?" The henchman said in disbelief. "But sir, that's not Pr—"

"Shut up, you moron and listen to me!" Neah snapped as he jumped off the branch to intercept the Vongola. The henchman sighed in defeat and gave the order to the rest of his comrades.

"Attack!" He ordered.

"Huh?" Tsuna blinked his eyes at Yamamoto. "Company? Where?"

Tsuna's question was answered when Neah suddenly jumped out at him, claws ready. Neah's eyes widened in shock when he saw Tsuna's face up close.

'Crap!' He thought in horror. 'This ain't Primo! The boss is gonna murder me!' Neah stopped in mid-jump and fell down onto the ground, groaning at his own mistake.

"H-hey!" Tsuna said in alarm. "Are you alright?"

"Huh, who's this kid?" Yamamoto asked curiously.

Neah instantly sprang back onto his feet when he heard the 'kid' word, his eyes blazing with an internal fire. "And can a kid do this?" He yelled and rushed towards Yamamoto, claws at the ready. Yamamoto's mouth fell open and he dodged the attack just in time, his sword hanging loosely from his hand as he did so.

At that moment, the rest of the Xernus attacked, engaging Yamamoto and the rest in battle. Gokudera yelled and started throwing dynamites everywhere, causing chaos as the smoke blocked the Xernus and his allies' visions. Lambo was just simply screeching, pulling pins out of grenades and randomly tossing them at any shadow that moved in the smoke regardless of friend or foe. Chrome was trying to avoid the attacks by the enemy, but not many of them targeted her, instead choosing to go for Ryohei, who was standing beside her, throwing punches at anyone who dared to come close to him.

And Reborn? He was making quick work of the Xernus by shooting them with his gun, even though he knew he was badly outnumbered. The Xernus responded by shooting back furiously with their own guns, scattering the Vongola in all directions as they dodged the bullets desperately.

Neah smiled at Tsuna, his eyes glinting. "Don't you just love this chaos?" he said softly. "Blood splattering everywhere, life after life being snatched away." Neah laughed. "It's just glorious, ain't it?" He glanced at Tsuna. "Don't worry. Your end shall be quick and painless. I prefer not to toy with weak people like you. It wastes my time fighting some weakling."

Tsuna stared at Neah, his eyes going hard. "What's so glorious about people dying?" He asked in a shaky voice as he stood up. "What's so wonderful about a life being snatched away? Nothing in this world can replace a human life, and yet you," Tsuna paused to take a deep breath. He glared at Neah with the full force of his anger. "You talk about them like they're mere toys for you to play with!"

Neah looked taken aback at Tsuna's sudden outburst. "Of course they are," he replies, smirking. "Humans are such foolish beings, and oh so easy to manipulate, if you know how. People are my puppets. They dance along the way I pull the strings. That's how pathetic people are. And you, the Vongola, are the perfect example! You think you are the best, when actually you're just dancing along to my master's whim!" Neah paused for a while. "Oops. Sorry, kid. I shouldn't have said that to you. Never mind. I'll kill you right here, right now even though you're so young. Shouldn't have entered the mafia at such a young age, eh?"

Tsuna backtracked as fast as he could but the wall of the house blocked his progress any further. He gulped. Should he go into Hyper Dying-Will mode and risk revealing his identity to Primo and his dysfunctional guardians or (gulp!) get his ass kicked by the psycho person standing in front of him, a sneer on his face.

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled, his dynamite in his hands as he gave a beautifully planted kick on the face of a Xernus spy who had tried to sneak up on him. The poor spy went flying and hit the wall with a 'bam!'. "That's the commander of all the useless morons here! I'll get him for you!"

"Get out of the way, boy." Neah said coldly. "This is a fight between the kid and me. I recommend ya to not interfere."

"Stuff it, loser!" Gokudera yelled in anger. "I shall protect the Tenth with my life!"

"Tenth?" Neah's eyes narrowed, a cruel light glinting in them. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Neah activated his energy claws and with one click slash, struck Gokudera on the shoulder. Gokudera cried out in pain as he stumbled and fell onto the ground clutching his shoulder, dropping his unlit dynamite on the floor.

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna yelled and attempted to go to his friend's rescue but a bullet suddenly whizzed pass his nose, missing it by a mere inch. Tsuna turned and saw Neah holding a pistol which was smoking slightly.

"You should pay attention in a fight, boy." Neah said in a bored voice, but his expression was a total contrast to his voice, glowing with a maniacal aura as he stared as Tsuna hungrily. "Leave that kid as he is. Oh, don't worry," Neah commented as he saw Tsuna's expression. "He won't die. I just knock him out for a while."

Tsuna's anger gauge finally reached its limit with a 'zing!'

"That does it," Tsuna said softly. "To hell with what Primo and his guardians think if they see me. I don't care anymore." Tsuna pulled on his mittens and gulped down his pills. The orange flame sprouted on Tsuna's head as he positioned himself into a fighting stance. "Why don't you just face me one-on-one instead of targeting someone else?" Tsuna yelled at Neah.

"Heh," Neah grinned, pocketing his pistol into its holster. "So you've finally decided to come out and play, didja?" Neah activated his claws again. "Now, don't go crying for your mummy if I kick your pathetic ass, okay?"

Tsuna snorted, "I should be the one saying that, ya know."

G stared down the hole in the wall, gaping at what he was seeing. "It looks like a party that has gone seriously out of control, Primo!" He said in amazement.

Primo instantly asserted the situation, "If those kids had been spies, don't you think it's weird that the Xernus are attacking them?"

"That happens all the time within the Xernus," G said dismissively. "Nothing uncommon."

Primo raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, its called the chronic backstabbing disease." G deadpanned.

Someone in the room snorted.

"Primo," Asari said urgently. "Me, Knuckle and Lampo are going down to keep the situation from exploding. Just give us the go ahead to do so."

"Alright," Primo said. "Just try not to kill anyone. And recapture the kids. I have thousands of questions to ask them."

"Roger that." Knuckle said. He strode out of the room, dragging a protesting Lampo with him by his neck collar. Asari followed suit, his robes trailing on the floor behind him.

"What're we going to do now, Primo?" G asked the blond man. "Get down there to drive the spies out?"

"I'll do that." Primo said. "G, you stay here."

"Eh?" G blinked in surprise. "Are you sure you'll be alright by yourself, Primo?"

"I'll be fine." With that, Primo jumped through the illusionary wall. It was like jumping through liquid that didn't drench you wet and left you perfectly dry when you go through it. He landed with a thump on the ground, his eyes already taking in the action (or chaos).

A few smart spies (sadly, there are very few of them) spotted Primo and charged towards him, guns flaring bullets. Primo put up one leg against the wall and pushed himself airborne, avoiding all the bullets. He smashed the spies with a well-placed spinning kick that knocked all their guns away.

"Bastard!" One of the spies growled and pulled out a knife which glinted ominously in the sunlight. Primo noticed it and kicked the said spy's hand, forcing him to release the knife. Primo then aimed a chop down on the spy's neck, knocking him out of commission temporarily.

"One." Primo counted silently.

Another two rushed towards him, one from his right and the other from his left. Primo took the sight and noted the good news. They weren't holding any weapons.

But the bad news was that they were holding flash bangs.

Primo quickly jumped out of the way. A second later, the flash bangs went off, blinding everyone looking at it. Luckily, Primo had shielded his eyes in time to avoid going blind. While everyone looked dazedly around for a few seconds, not noticing what had happened, Primo quickly took down as many spies as he could, knocking them unconscious onto the ground.

"Six down." Primo sighed and looked around.

"And about 40 more to go." He added silently.

Hibari woke up to an annoying headache throbbing in his skull.

He remembered everything that had happened to him. He growled. It was so humiliating to be knocked out by such a primitive trick. He had been so focused on Mr. Irritating-And-Jerk ass-Pineapple-Head-2 that he hadn't notice the other herbivore creeping up on him and knocking him out.

Hibari looked around the room. There weren't any windows for him to destroy to escape and he had no doubt that the door was modified specially to keep intruders in their place. It was impossible to escape from the room.

Unfortunately for the room, Hibari excelled in the impossible.

Tsuna avoided blow after blow, countering with punches and fast kicks. It wasn't enough though to hit Neah.

"Come on, man!" Neah taunted. "I've seen a thirteen year old do better than you! What are ya, too chicken to attack me directly?"

"Shut…up!" Tsuna yelled and propelled himself forward directly into Neah's face, slamming his fist into Neah's face. Neah was faster though and his energy claws met Tsuna's gloves in a flurry of orange sparks, lighting up both their faces.

"Not bad, boy," Neah said through gritted teeth, his mouth stretched into a tight smile. "But too bad for you…"

Neah's leg caught Tsuna in the stomach and Tsuna gasped, his body bending over in pain. Neah took the advantage to slam his fists into the boy's face, knocking him backwards by about a meter. He saw the blood flowing out of the boy's nose and mouth and smirked. Neah walked over to the boy and pulled his head up by the hair.

"Don't die on me so fast," Neah said, his eyes wild. "I haven't even started yet!" On his last word, Neah kicked the boy on his head and heard something cracked in response. Neah sighed and stood up, looking down with contempt at the boy's broken body. He gave it another kick. Neah knew the boy was still alive, because his dying will flame was still burning, although it had went down considerably in terms of brilliance. Had the boy lost his will to fight? If so, then all Neah had to do was to beat it into him.

Neah lifted his leg to give the boy another kick, but halfway, his leg was suddenly stopped. Neah frowned and looked down. He saw a gloved hand grabbing his leg, stopping any further progress. Neah wrenched his leg out of the boy's grip and flipped himself into a backward somersault, making sure to put some distance between him and his unpredictable opponent who was staggering to stand up, wiping the blood away from his face.

"Hey, you're still alive after the beating I gave you?" Neah mused. "Why are you so difficult to kill?"

Tsuna spat out the blood in his mouth, wiping the rest of it away. "I can't die yet," he muttered softly and slowly. "Not until I return everyone to the future."

Neah laughed. "Everyone? You mean your friends? Give it up! Return them to the future? Jeez man, are you having delusions of grandeur? I don't even know what sorta crap ya're spouting. Maybe I kicked you too hard on the head, doncha think so?" Neah took out his pistol, reloading it with trained hands. "Man, I don't even feel like fighting you anymore, so I'll just shoot you!" Neah fired off a shot, but Tsuna dodged. Like the previous bullet, the shot missed him by barely an inch, whistling past his hair as it did so.

Tsuna glared at Neah. Was he missing his shots on purpose?

His question was answered when Neah sent another stream of bullets his way. All but one missed. The one that didn't miss struck Tsuna on the cheek, grazing the side of his face like a knife. Tsuna coughed up blood and tried to wipe away the blood from his wound, but Neah sent another hailstorm of bullets towards him, forcing him to jump into the air with his gloves.

Tsuna knew that he was badly overpowered by his opponent. But what could he do about it? He could use his X-Burner again, but at what cost to the surroundings? And what if his friends were caught in it? No, he couldn't use it. Not here, not now. He couldn't afford to. So…

"Kufufu….what a big mess you've landed yourself into, Sawada Tsunayoshi." A voice suddenly sliced into Tsuna's desperate thoughts, jerking him back to the situation. "Not to mention that I too have been dragged into this pathetic mess together with Vongola lackeys. What an insult."

Chrome suddenly looked up, her eye shining with disbelief and hope. "Could it be…?" She said softly

Gokudera also heard the voice. "The retarded pineapple head is here too?" He yelled at the spy whom he had been about to attack a second ago and who was looking blankly back at his opponent.

"Allow me to handle this." Mukuro's voice said from out of nowhere.

"You bastard!" Gokudera yelled. "Show yourself first!"

"Hmph." Mukuro's voice said disdainfully. "I don't take orders from Vongola's lackeys but just this once…"

The mist that was ever present around the mansion suddenly started to thicken behind Neah. Neah whipped his head around and jumped back by a meter to avoid ramming into Mukuro.

"Wha—" Neah growled. "What the hell's going on here? Is it Vongola's Mist Guardian?"

"I'll prefer you to not brand me with that title." The mist cleared and Tsuna saw Mukuro, standing in front of him in all his demonic glory. His usual smirk was in place as he glanced at Tsuna. "It's nice to meet you again, Sawada."

"Now, hang on a minute!" Gokudera barked. "Weren't you at the Vindice? How did you get out? Or are you an illusion?"

Mukuro glared at Gokudera, who returned the glare with one of his own. "Foolish boy." Mukuro said primly. "I'm not an illusion. Of course, you can touch me if you want proof."

Gokudera almost collapsed on the floor upon hearing that. "Hell no!" He yelled. "Who the heck wants to touch you, you perverted pineapple head?"

Neah yawned. "I'm growing old here, man," he sneered. "If you're finished with ya touching reunion speech, maybe it's time to focus on the battle!" With that, he took out another pistol (Goodness, how many pistols does he have?) and started shooting two of his pistols at the same time at Mukuro and Tsuna. Tsuna yelped and blasted himself into the air. Mukuro simply smirked and disappeared. Again.

Neah gritted his teeth. "God, I hate illusionists." He muttered.

Chapter 13~ Operation Successful

"Oh. My. God." For the first time ever in a long time, Primo was at a total lost for words to describe what was happening before his very eyes.

The thing that had caught his attention was the wimpy brunette he had seen earlier. The brunette was now flying in the air, a dying will flame burning brightly on his head. Primo gawked openly at the scene. Wait a minute, was that brunette wearing gloves too? What the hell was going on here?

Below the brunette, a Xernus commander (Primo didn't recognise him, but he could see the Xernus family crest pinned on his uniform) was firing off his pistols at the brunette to no avail. None of the bullets actually hit the brunette, but Primo could see that he was having a hard time avoiding them as he turned cartwheels and backflips in the air.

Primo made his choice then. Even though he still didn't know whether the brunette was on the Xernus' side, the Xernus commander was still priority number one. Primo could deal with the brunette later. Primo then charged into the chaos, aiming at the unknown commander's back , completely taking him by surprise. Primo swung his right leg around to knock the guns out from the coommander's hands, but the commander had not received his rank by accident. Even though he had been taken by surprise by Primo's first attack, he had already anticipated Primo's next attack and had jerked his guns out of Primo's reach. That was when Primo realised with a sickening lurch that he had left his other leg unguarded. The commander instantly took advantage of Primo's momentary pause by sweeping his legs under Primo, kicking Primo's unguarded leg and causing Primo to lose his balance.

" Oh crap." Primo muttered as he rubbed his numb leg. This commander wasn't as easy as he looked, as Primo had learned the hard way. Right now, the commander was pressing his advantage by attempting to clobber his guns on Primo's head, an attack that Primo barely managed to avoid by jumping backwards.

" Giotto!" A familiar voice yelled. Primo looked up and saw Knuckle running towards him at full speed, Asari and Lampo following closely behind. "Are you alright?"

" Stay back!" Primo yelled in desperation.

" Don't interfere with us!" The commander snarled, his voice surprisingly venomous for one his age. He sent a few warning shots over the heads of Knuckle, Asari and Lampo, forcing them to flatten themselves on the grass.

" Great, more Xernus." Asari said. " Are they sending some more kids to do the dirty jobs for them?" As Asari spoke, Asari took his long sword, just in case 'the kid' turned out to be too aggressive.

Asari had uttered the magic word. The moment the commander had heard the word 'kid', he flew at Asari, his eyes screaming the word 'KILL!'. He tried to bang his guns on Asari, which was in turn blocked in the nick of time by Asari's sword, whose owner was looking a little taken aback at his enemy's reaction.

"Asari!" Primo shouted urgently. Something was wrong with the commander's sudden attack. "Get away from-!"

A bang suddenly sounded in the air. Primo's warning faded away as Asari's sword tumbled from its owner's hand, clattering soundlessly onto the grass. Asari stumbled away from the commander, his hands clutched over his stomach. Asari's hands were bloody as he tried to stem the flow of blood coming from the gun wound in his stomach, but his efforts were in vain. The commander grinned as Asari fell to his knees, his eyes blanking out due to the pain.

All Primo could do was to watch helplessly as his friend fell down, his blood already making a puddle around him. Asari didn't move at all after he fell down, but to Primo's relief, he could still sense some traces of life in his friend.

The commander blew the amoke away from his gun, his expression twisted with hate as he glanced at Asari. He turned his gaze to a quavering Lampo and shocked Lampo. "Who's next?" his eyes asked them silently.

Something in Primo's mind tingled. Primo glanced up at the sky sharp ly. He could sense someone coming, but from where?

The young commander was suddenly thrown forward a few metres by something that had hit him in the back. Primo managed to catch a glimspe of brown hair as the commander skidde past him at roughly the speed of a bullet.

" The brunette?" Primo thought blankly. " Is the backstabbing that serious in the Xernus family?" Another thought quickly overwhelmed the rest in Primo's mind. " Asari!"he cried and ran to his fallen rain guardian's side. Lampo and Knuckle were already by Asari's side, trying to stem the blood coming from Asari's wound desperately.

Primo turned to Knuckle, who was quite and experienced medic. "How's his condition?" he asked urgently.

Knuckle gave Asari a quick glance, then replied. "Pretty bad." he said in a shaky voice. "If he doesn't get immediate treatment, he's not going to make it." Knuckle took a deep breathe to clam himself down, then continued. " The bullet went clean through him. I can't be too sure whether the bullet hit his spine. If it did, Asari will be lucky if he doesn't get paralyzed from the the waist down. We'll just going to have to hope for the best."

Just as Tsuna's had previously did, Primo's anger gauge finally hit the top with a 'zing'!

" Get Asari away from here and call a doctor immediately." Primo said in a calm and controlled voice, pulling on his gloves and adjusting them. "Lampo, follow Knuckle. Try to stay out of trouble and don't piss off G."

" S-sure, Giotto." Lampo squeaked, his voice unaturally high. He had never seen Primo this mad in a very long time. The last time he had seen Primo this pissed off had been the time when he had emptied all of Primo's ink bottles into the guardians laundry basket. Needless to say, all the guardians except for Lampo were seen parading around the mansion in ink-stained clothes and boy, had all of them been really mad. As punishment, Lampo had been forced by them to wash the clothes clean by using only a tootbrush. And Lampo had not been able to escape that particular punishment because Alaude and Primo had been hovering over him during the whole time, their frowns more than enough to motivate Lampo to finish his task fast.

Fortunately for Lampo, Giotto was a relatively happy go lucky person (sometimes to the extent of being tactless) who wouldn't even mind if a whole group of penguins marched into the mansion, carrying an igloo with them. But if anybody so much as hurt the people close to him...BOOM. Lately though, Giotto had turned a blind eye to the Xernus's actions, prefering to settle matters diplomatically. However, sadly for the idiotic Xernus, shooting Asari in front of Primo had been the last straw. Now, anyone could see that Primo was rearing to kick some Xernus's butt.

" Um, you know what Knuckle?" Lampo said nervously. "We better get out of here before Primo goes on a rampage." Lampo's tone of voice hinted that Primo on a rampage wasn't exactly the prettiest thing to see.

"Uh-huh." Knuckle agreed wholeheartedly. "But we can't move Asari too far now. He's already lost too much blood, he'll die from the shock if we move him too fast."

" How about we move him to the back porch?" Lampo suggested.

"Alright, alright." Knuckle replied. He took hold of Asari's bloodstained body and motioned for Lampo to help him. Lampo swore loudly as he took hold of Asari's legs. "Gosh, just how heavy IS this guy? You wouldn't know it by looking at him."

"Quit your mumbling, Lampo!" Knuckle barked loudly as the familiar orange flame appeared on Primo's head. "Move it!"

" I am trying. Mr Beastly Priesty!" Lampo whined. "It so doesn't help that Asari weighs heavier than a whale and an elephant combined together!"

After a minute, Lampo and Knuckle finally managed to move Asari to the back porch, away from the fighting. Just that short trip had left Asari gasping for air, his face ghostly white. It was clear that he wasn't going to last another day if the doctor didn't attend to him in time.

"Should I call the doctor?" Lampo asked Knuckle.

" Hurry then, Lampo." Knuckle said. "I'll stay with Asari, in case he takes a turn for the worse."

" Righto~" With that, Lampo fled to the back door, happy that he was finally able to escape from the battlefield.

Tsuna grappled with Neah, his face tightening in concentration as he searched for Neah's weak spot. Tsuna couldn't believe that Neah was still alright after the collison with him. Sure, Neah had been thrown a few metres forward by the impact, but it didn't look like he was injured at all. A normal person would've had all his bones shattered, but not Neah. What else did Tsuna had to do to stop Neah?

"Wassup, ya chicken?" Neah said as he tried to overpower Tsuna without touching the flames on Tsuna's gloves. " Ya've gotta be better than this to beat me."

Tsuna concentrated, ignoring Neah's comments, on the pistols in his enemy's hands.

'Zero Point Breakthrough, First Edition.' Tsuna thought silentlt as he grabbed Neah's pistols.

"Sonova-" Neah tried to yank his pistols away, but it was too late. His guns were already frozen, rendering them perfectly useless except to be used as ice cubes.

" What the heck?" Neah said incredously, reaching inside his jacket to pull out another gun. "What sort of technique was that?" Neah barked at Tsuna.

" A special technique to freeze noisy people." Tsuna answered back.

" Why you-!" Neah aimed at Tsuna's face. Tsuna tensed, preparing to dodge the attack.

"Get out of the way, kid!" Tsuna suddenly heard someon yelling at him. By instinct, Tsuna jetted himself upwards. He then watched as Primo flew at Neah, knocking the young commander down and out with a well placed flying kick. Before Neah could so much as even utter a single word, Primo grabbed his gun and threw it into some bushed nearby, rendering Neah weaponless.

"Now then." Primo said. "Why don't you just surrender yourself? Your comrades have all been taken down. Oh, don't worry." Primo added as an afterthought. "We won't hurt you. We'll just ask you some questions, then jettison you via third class cargo shipment back to your boss."

Neah's eyes went even madder. " Go...to...HELL!" he screamed. Neah got up and in a flash, aimed an uppercut at Primo, which Primo deftly dodged. In one swift movement that was too fast for even Tsuna to follow, Primo pinned Neah's hands behind his back and forced him back to the ground.

"Damn you..." Neah muttered as he tried to kick Primo.

Tsuna watched the action, amazed by Primo's speed and power. "Wow," he muttered to himself.

" Oi, Dame-Tsuna." a familiar voice said right into his ear.

" Reborn?" Tsuna said as he turned to his right. "What're you doing here?"

" Watching everything, of course. " Reborn said cheerfully.

" Nice hot air ballon. " Tsuna commented dryly as soon as he got a good look at what was supporting Reborn in the air.

" It's my trusty Leon hot air ballon version 981." Reborn said smugly. "Jealous?"

"As if. " Tsuna replied.

" My,my..." a voice suddenly said to Tsuna's left side, causing him to jump in surprise. " This game didn't really last that long this time, hm?"

" Ciaossu, Mukuro." Reborn said happily, as though friends regularly popped up when you're in the air. " Nice of you to join us here in viewing this battle."

"Kufufu...naturally I'll be here, Acrobaleno." Mukuro said with a smirk on his face. "I won't miss this out for the world."

Primo stared up at Mukuro. "Daemon...Spade?" he said slowly, cocking his head to one side out of curiousity. " What're you doing here?"

"Huh? Mukuro said blankly.

" I'm offended that my dearest boss can't even recognise me." a voice replied Primo's question, coming from behing Primo. " My beauty is absolutely better compared to pineapple kid over there."

Mukuro bristled visibly, although it was unknown whether he was mad due to the insult to his visage or hairstyle. " Show yourself!" Mukuro snapped in a dangrous voice as he banged the tip of his trident on some invisible ground in the air. Instantly, as though a veil was being peeled back, Daemon Spade appeared from behind Primo, looking a little pissed as his illusion was destroyed by said pineapple kid.

Tsuna's dying will flame extinguished almost immediately when he saw Daemon Spade. " Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" he screamed, while in the mean time he fell down almost half a kilometre from the sky. "OW!" he yelled as he hit the ground, to Daemon's amusement.

" Daemon. " Primo said, choosing to ignore Tsuna's discomfort. ( He still thinks Tsuna is a spy.) " A little help here?"

" Hm? Help what?" Daemon asked innocently.

" Help me move this kid into the basement." Primo said tiredly.

Neah lashed out at Primo violently. " I-TOLD-YOU-I'M-NOT-A-KID-DO-I-LOOK-SMALL-TO-YOU?" he screamed loudly, causing a flock of birds nearby to take flight in alarm.

Daemon glared coldly at Neah. "Sorry Giotto. But I'm not going anywhere near that kid without a ten foot long pole. He tried to do me in before when I, ahem, went to Venice for negotiations with some rival mafia family."

"Alright, alright." Primo huffed. He produced a rope out of his inner pocket and proceeded to tie up Neah, making sure to check Neah's pockets and jacket for any objects that could be used as a weapon. Out came a wide assortment of items such as a spare gun, rounds of bullets, gum, a pair of spectacles, a yo-yo and a stray piece of paper. Primo took a sudden interest in the paper, picking it up to read it, then tucking it into his pocket.

" Er, how about the rest of the spies?" Tsuna asked timidly, totally forgetting that he had trashed Primo's garden and guest room. He suddenly remembered when Primo and Daemon both gave him the evil look.

"Tie that one up too." Primo ordered, tossing a coil of rope at Daemon. " And tie up the pineapple head too. I'm going to round up the rest of the kids."

Daemon smiled innocently. " Roger, Primo. " he said in a sickly sweet voice, then tied up Tsuna so tightly that Tsuna was actually gasping for air like a goldfish out of water.

" Ack." Tsuna tried to say something, but it was lost halfway.

Daemon turned around to looked for ol' pineapple head, only to find out that he had disappeared along with the fedora wearing infant. Daemon suspected it had something to do with his almighty rope tying skills.

" Move along," he said to Tsuna and Neah, shooting the latter a frosty look. " Try to pull anything fuuny here, and I don't care what Primo says, I'm going to dunk your head into the duck pond until you stop breathing."

With that, Daemon marched Tsuna and Neah up the front porch, an unusually grim look on his face.

Chapter 14 ~ Confrontation

"Ow! Ow! OW!" Tsuna yelled as Daemon Spade mercilessly dragged him and Neah over the front porch which was scattered all over with sharp stones.

To his credit, Neah didn't shout 'Ow!' but instead said snappishly. "Can you be a little more gentle with your hostages?"

Daemon Spade just smirked at Tsuna and Neah's discomfort. Tsuna could almost swear that Daemon was purposely dragging them onto the rocks with the sharpest edges to torture the hell out of them.

After a few minutes of torture, Daemon hurled them into the storage basement unceremoniously. He left the ropes in their place as he was taking no chance with them. And that was how Tsuna ended up in the dark and gloomy basement together with Neah, who was ignoring Tsuna.

Tsuna had no idea how much time had passed. His watch wasn't working, as it had been damaged during his earlier fight with Asari. He looked over to his partner in the dark, who was blatantly ignoring him.

"Er.." Tsuna tried to create small talk with Neah, but was only met with stony silence.

"Er…" Tsuna tried again. "Hey, why do you hate the Vongola so much?" He asked timidly to Neah.

This time, Tsuna got a response. Neah turned to look at him, eyes blazing. But suddenly, the fire in his eyes disappeared and he turned his back on Tsuna again. "I don't know." He answered flatly. "It doesn't matter anyway."

The door to the basement creaked open. "Hey, both of you," Daemon called, one hand grasping the door's handle. "Get up here right now. On the double."

Tsuna stumbled as he stood up while Neah just glided effortlessly to the door. Daemon tapped his foot impatiently as Tsuna groped his way to the entrance. After Tsuna managed to make his way to Daemon, Daemon grabbed him by his shirt collar and yanked him up to the floor of the kitchen. Tsuna only managed to get one breath of fresh air before he heard Daemon say, "Get a move on."

With some prodding by Daemon, Tsuna and Neah found themselves on the second floor facing a huge door which had been decorated ornately. Daemon threw open the door and marched straight in, hauling Tsuna and Neah behind him. Tsuna took in the whole room instantly. A long table was set in the middle of the room, an equally long piece of glass laying on its surface as a covering, Chairs, beautifully carved wooden chairs, were placed around the table. It was pretty obvious that this was the Vongola's main conference room. At the head of the table, was Giotto. He had changed back into his formal attire, his cloak sweeping against the ground. On his right side was G, Lampo (who looked uncomfortable) and Alaude. On his left was Knuckles. Asari was missing.

The sky beyond the window Giotto had turned dark. It's already night? Tsuna thought blankly as Daemon untied his ropes. However, Daemon left Neah's ropes in place.

Primo leaned forward as he stared long and hard at Tsuna, his forehead creasing. Minutes ticked by slowly. Just when Tsuna was starting to get a little fidgety, Primo spoke up.

"Are you a Xernus spy?" He asked.

Tsuna sweatdropped. He's quick to the point. Out loud, he said, "No! I'm not a spy! I don't even know what or who these Xernus spies are!"

"A likely story," Daemon smirked. "And what will you do if we don't believe your story?"

"Peace, Daemon," Knuckle said gently, earning himself a glare from the Mist Guardian. "Let us hear him out first."

"Hear him out?" Daemon repeated in disbelief. "Isn't it obvious he's the culprit for the mess? After Asari captured him and his cronies in the forest, he must've sent a signal to the Xernus to rescue him. Didn't the Xernus attack after the children escaped via the window?"

"The Xernus were attacking us, not saving us!" Tsuna said loudly.

"Silence, you spy!" Daemon snapped. "Do not interrupt!"

"Get off your high horse, Daemon!" G retorted. "Don't act so high and mighty, or I'll help bring you down to earth!"

Daemon's eyes glinted ominously as he leaned towards G, "Try me." He said in a dangerous tone to G. "I'll like to see you try."

Both the Storm and Mist Guardian glared at each other and didn't stop until Primo intervened. "Stop this senseless argument," He said. "There's no point of us in fighting."

G and Daemon relaxed back into their chairs but their expressions were far from happy, which led Tsuna to believe that there was bad blood involved between the two of them.

"How about the other one?" This came from Alaude, who was looking as cold and indifferent as usual. "He's a commander, right?"

"Let's just take him to the back and shoot him." G's uninjured hand hovered over his gun holster. "Job done."

"As much as I hate to say this," Daemon shot a glare at G. "I agree with octopus head over there. He's too dangerous to be left alive."

G instantly reacted. "And who're you calling an octopus head?" He yelled at Daemon as he stood up, shoving his chair away.

Daemon just shrugged his shoulders cheerfully. "I thought I heard someone call you by that name earlier, and felt that it suited you very well."

"Enough of this!" Giotto finally said loudly. "G, sit down. Daemon, control your mouth."

G smirked visibly as he heard Primo reprimand Daemon. A muscle in Daemon's face twitched as he glared at G. Other than that, he didn't do anything and instead preferred to take out his irritation on Tsuna and Neah. "Who sent you here?" Daemon said softly in a voice of steel. "The Xernus brat?"

Neah grinned widely. "Yes. Lord Xernus did send me here."

Tsuna just squeaked out something that sounded like, "Lord what?"

Giotto sighed. It was pretty obvious to him that the brunette was no a spy, judging by his reactions. But the dying will flame he had seen on the brunette's forehead earlier, and that freezing technique… Could it be?

Lampo groaned in boredom. "Can I go?" He asked in a voice that was dangerously close to a whine. "You don't need me here right?"

The look that Alaude shot Lampo was more than enough to relieve Lampo's boredom, Lampo shrank as he attempted to hide from Alaude, You couldn't put it past Alaude to suddenly whip out his handcuffs and kick your ass just because you had interrupted his thoughts, as Lampo could testify.

"Er…" Tsuna started, his legs trembling as he addressed Primo. "Where are my friends?"

Daemon answered his question. "Each of them has been placed in individual rooms, so that they can't escape." Daemon suddenly frowned. "However, there was one irritating brat we couldn't catch. He's probably still running wild in the forest. I hope he runs into one of those holes Alaude dug out when he was feeling paranoid."

"Huh?" Tsuna instantly ran through his list of friends that had accompanied him to the past, wondering which one could actually manage to evade Daemon Spade in his own territory, and came up blank.

Primo interrupted Tsuna;s thoughts. "Who're you?" He asked simply.

Tsuna gulped as all the guardians' heads swiveled to him, watching him carefully. Like a hawk watching his prey, their eyes x-rayed Tsuna as they stared at him. Tsuna then decided that the game was up. I'm sorry, Gokudera-kun. I'm sorry, everyone. He said silently. I'm so sorry.

"I'm -" Tsuna mentally prepared himself for a long night ahead in the conference room.

3 hours later

"Unbelievable." G muttered softly. "It's completely illogical!"

"I agree with octo –" Daemon caught G's eye and hurriedly corrected himself. "I agree with G. This story is even more farfetched than the other one!"

"Time travelling?" Lampo drawled out lazily, his eyebrow arched. "Sounds quite fun to me."

"Hmph." Alaude said, summarizing his summary.

"Amazing!" Knuckle said, his eyes shining. "So time travelling does exist!"

G turned towards Primo, who hadn't said a word since the boy had finished his story. "Say something, Giotto!" G said loudly. "Do you believe this kid?"

Giotto looked up, his eyes boring into Tsuna. "I believe him." Giotto said, standing up. "He's not lying."

Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief. If he had managed to convince Primo, maybe his guardians will follow their boss' example. Even though it was looking far from it at the moment, judging by G and Daemon's scowls.

"So you're saying 'it', 'G pointed at Tsuna, who instantly felt irked at being called 'it'. "Is telling the truth?"

"Yes." Giotto said, his tone final. "Bring the rest here. Knuckle can treat them here."

"Huh?" G blanched. "They're staying with us?"

"Oh, come on, G," Primo said cheerfully. "These kids don't have any place to go. So why not let them stay? We have plenty of spare rooms for them to use. No problem right?"

G and Daemon's faces said the exact opposite. Lampo just ogled at Primo as though he had grown another pair of hands. Knuckle looked like he was the one who supported the boss' grand idea. Alaude just stared at the wall, absentmindedly tugging his sleeve.

"No offense, Primo," G started, trying to reason with his boss. "But the party is just five days away, and extra babysitting means we won't get to finish the decorations in time. And not to mention, our best friend, Chiro Xernus," G glanced briefly at the door. Standing outside the room was Neah. Daemon had gleefully kicked him out of the room when Tsuna had been about to confess everything. But not to worry, Daemon had tied up Neah up with more ropes, so there was no way he could escape. "….Chiro Xernus will also be attending. We're going to have to tread carefully around that snake of a man."

"The truce's off already." Alaude said, his voice resonating around the room. "Chiro Xernus will be trying a new approach with you during the party."

"Even so," G said disgustedly. "How are we going to explain the sudden appearance of kids around the mansion to the rest of the mafia families? It's going to look like we just took in an entire orphanage!"

"That's a great idea, G!" Primo said brightly. "We can tell the other families that we took in a few orphans –" Alaude snorted at the words 'a few' "—for a few days because –"

"Because out boss is a compassionate, lenient idiot, who can stand even some 'orphans' who should all belong to a mental institution." Daemon completed the sentence for Giotto.

"Speak for yourself, Daemon," Knuckle said as he stood up. "I'm going to bring them in, Primo."

"Go on." Primo responded.

Knuckle flung open the door, and a gasp was suddenly heard from him. In an instant, all guardians ceased whatever they were doing and gave their total attention to Knuckle.

"What's wrong, Knuckle?" Lampo asked curiously.

In response, Knuckle bent down and picked up a coil of rope that had been sliced into tiny pieces from the floor. "The commander's gone."

"What?" G and Daemon both yelled in unison.

"And that's not all," Knuckle said urgently. He glanced to his right. A window had been shattered and fragments of glass were scattered everywhere. "He escaped through the window. I'm surprised we didn't hear anything."

Primo sighed. "I should've known," he muttered. "Never mind the commander for now." Primo said sharply. "Let him report back to his boss. It wouldn't do us any harm for the time being."

"But what if he overheard me telling you about myself?" Tsuna piped up to Primo.

"Holy crap –" G swore. "I didn't think of that!"

"Figures," Daemon smirked. "With that tiny brain of yours."

G ignored Daemon. "What shall we do now, Giotto?" He asked.

"Knuckle, just bring the kids in." Primo said. "We're going to have to explain everything to them."

"You're going to tell them everything?" Alaude snapped, which was in fact, pretty unusual.

"Yes," Primo said firmly. He glanced at Tsuna. "After all, this boy was kind enough to tell us who he was. I think we should return the favour."

Alaude snorted, G groaned and Lampo banged his head on the table and Daemon rolled his eyes. Here the boss went again, talking about how thou should always be kind and help others. They were half expecting him to burst out singing something along the lines of love thy neighbours and enemies.

"Oh yeah," Primo remembered. He turned to Tsuna. "I still don't know your name. I can't keep calling you 'boy'"

"Or 'brat'" Daemon said cuttingly.

Tsuna ignored Daemon. He looked at Primo.

"Sawada." Tsuna said confidently. "My name's Sawada Tsunayoshi. But you can just call me Tsuna. I believe I didn't tell you this earlier, but I'm actually your great-great-great grandson."

Chapter 15 ~ Preparations

The silence that followed after Tsuna's proclamation was so bad, Tsuna swore he could hear a cricket chirping outside in the garden.

" Great-great-great grandson?" G rose an eyebrow. " Yeah, sure."

" Congratulations, Primo." Daemon smirked widely. " You're now officially a great-great-great grandfather. Watch out for all the white hair though."

" But it's true!" Tsuna protested. He could see that Primo was deciding whether to believe him or now. " I even have the Vongola's Sky ring to prove it!"

Primo rubbed his head. " I believe you, Tsuna." He said softly. " You're not lying. However..."

Tsuna tensed.

Primo laughed out loud at Tsuna's reaction. " Take it easy." he said, " I was just going to tell you this. There will be a party at this mansion in a few days time, and I was wondering, since you're here with your friends, if you could lend us a hand with the preparations?"

G, Daemon and Alaude weren't looking very happy, but Primo just ignored them for the time being.

" S-sure!" Tsuna answered in relief. He had been expecting something far worse than this, like for example, sending him to beat up the Xernus family.

" Tch." G snorted as Tsuna and Primo exited the room. " I have a bad feeling about this."

Daemon stared at the door. " I can't help but agree with you, octopus head."

"Hey, you," G said to Gokudera. "Take this box over to Knuckle."

"My name's Gokudera!" Gokudera snapped angrily as he snatched the box from G and marched over to Knuckle.

G just rolled his eyes, "You Japanese and your names." He muttered before turning back to his job.

The ballroom of the Vongola was looking completely different than it had four days ago. Now, flowers were twirled around the pillars, tables were set out and chairs were also arranged carefully. But the decorations were not completed yet, which explained why Primo's guardians and Tsuna's guardians were working feverishly to complete the decorations by tomorrow night.

"That should do it." G said to himself as he tugged the tablecloth on the buffet table. "Now…"

A loud 'kaboom!' interrupted G. He turned around, annoyed at having been disturbed. He got even more pissed when he saw all the crates of wine which had been stacked up neatly lying around the floor messily.

"Damn it!" He growled as he stalked over to the wine crates. G dug his hand among the crates and found what he was looking for. He pulled it out and gave it a death glare. "You stupid cow!" He yelled as he shook it roughly. "This is the third time today already! Stop playing among the crates!"

Lambo started wailing loudly. "Lambo-san's bored!" He cried out, "Play with me, stupid G!"

"I said, no!" G yelled. He started shaking Lambo even harder. "This is not the time to play around!"

"Stupid G! Stupid G! Octopus head!" Lambo screamed while crying. "Bleeeeeeeeeehh!"

"Why you *****!" G yelled angrily and pinched Lambo on the cheek. It quickly turned into a battle between Lambo and G to see who got in the best insult. Amazingly, G was losing fast to Lambo.

Tsuna gaped as he watched G and Lambo slug it out. "Shouldn't we stop them?" He asked Knuckle and Gokudera, who were both wounding some tinsel around the chairs.

Gokudera smirked evilly. "No way," he said in relish. "That stupid cow and G can fight as much as they want. But if Jyuudaime wishes for me to stop them…"

"Just let them be," Knuckle said as he glanced at G and Lambo. "It's better not to interfere with G when he's this pissed."

"Octopus head!" Ryohei yelled as he entered the room, balancing two stacks of plates in his hands. "Where do these go?"

"On the table, right at the end of it," Gokudera replied back. "Be careful with those plates though!" He yelled as Ryohei nearly tripped on some tinsel.

Yamamoto, Chrome and Lampo entered the room with more cutleries. "Yo, Tsuna!" Yamamoto said cheerfully as he carried a box of spoons, forks and knives. "Still hard at work?"

Chrome delicately carried the wine glasses to the table, taking care to arrange them carefully on each other, creating a pyramid of wine glasses.

Lampo sighed as he saw everyone hard at work. "Why is everyone slaving away like crazy?" He mumbled to himself.

Knuckle heard Lampo. "If you have nothing to do, Lampo, you can help Alaude and Daemon with the food." He suggested.

Lampo instantly paled, and so did everyone else. "Daemon's preparing the food?" G yelled as he hung Lambo upside down.

"Remind me not to eat anything at the party tomorrow." Gokudera muttered.

"Oh, come on, people." Knuckle said encouragingly. "Daemon's actually quite good at cooking, if he wants to. Alaude's not bad either."

"…"

"ALAUDE AND DAEMON?"

"Pffffttt…"

"Those two actually cook?"

"I'm still not eating anything tomorrow."

"And I believe," Knuckle continued. "That your other friend is helping them too."

"Mukuro?" Tsuna instantly said in horror. "Why are those three working in the kitchen together?" He screeched.

An image of a grinning Mukuro wearing a pineapple print apron while holding a spatula instantly popped up in everyone's mind.

"NO WAY!" Everyone (except Knuckle, G and Lampo) chorused in unison and disbelief.

"I'm going to check on them!" Tsuna yelled as he dashed out of the room in lightning speed.

"Wait for me, Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled as he followed Tsuna.

Tsuna ran out of the room and went downstairs, Gokudera following closely behind. Tsuna flung open the kitchen door, but what he saw surpassed his expectations. Tsuna had been expecting some fighting between Alaude, Daemon and Mukuro, but instead they were all chopping up vegetable, weighing ingredients or decorating dishes. And they were all wearing aprons (thankfully none of them had a pineapple print) that looked like it came directly from the baker's shop.

"Oya, oya, Sawada Tsunayoshi," Mukuro smirked as he spotted Tsuna with his mouth wide open standing at the door. "Are you here to help us with the food for tomorrow?"

"N-no, I-I just wanted to see if you were all g-getting along!" Tsuna stammered as he backtracked. "Excuse me for my i-i-intrusion!"

Daemon Spade looked up from the stubborn dish of pie he was trying to bake to no success. "Alaude!" He said irritatedly. "Are you sure I'm supposed to bake this pie at 210 degree Celsius?"

"Yes" came the short reply.

"Well, whatever it is, it's not working!" Daemon said through gritted teeth. "You sure it's not supposed to be at 400?"

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Tsuna screeched. "Do you want to burn down the whole house? 400 degree Celsius?" That oven's gonna spoil!"

Daemon gave Tsuna the irritated eye. "If you're so clever, boy, then you can help us!" With that, Daemon took off his flowery pinny and threw it to Tsuna. "I'm out of here"

"Daemon." This came from Alaude who had finally looked up from the vegetables he was chopping. "You're supposed to help."

"Fine, fine," Daemon grumbled and took back the flowery apron from Tsuna. "Just get out of here and tell G everything is alright."

At that moment, something exploded in the oven. Something told Tsuna that it was the pie Daemon was trying to bake.

"THE PIE!" Daemon yelled as he rushed back to the oven, but not before he kicked Tsuna out of the kitchen and locked the door.

"Ow~" Tsuna groaned as he rubbed his backside. "He could've just told me politely to get out…"

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled as he ran to Tsuna's side. "What happened?"

A distant explosion was heard again in the kitchen.

Gokudera rolled his eyes. "I can guess," he answered his own question. "Let's hope that explosion did away with Mukuro."

"Mukuro's not that easy to take out," Tsuna muttered. "Where were you just now, Gokudera?"

"I got lost," Gokudera frowned. "Again! This mansion's like a maze!"

"Don't worry," Tsuna said as he got up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Tsuna and Gokudera walked back to the ballroom. Halfway, they met a very flustered Primo.

"Primo!" Tsuna and Gokudera both said at the same time.

"I heard something in the kitchen," Primo said worriedly. "Did something happened, Tsuna? Gokudera?"

Tsuna felt bad for Primo. "I think you need a new oven, Primo." He said lightly.

Primo groaned. "And what happened to the old oven?"

Tsuna cleared his throat. "Daemon tried to bake a pie."

"Figures," Primo rushed past them to the kitchen. Tsuna could smell something burning from the kitchen and wrinkled up his nose in disgust.

"Jyuudaime, how're we going to pull this party off?" Gokudera asked.

"They'll think up of something," Tsuna sighed. "I hope."

"Hmm?" Chiro Xernus looked at his aide sharply. "The party's tomorrow?"

"Yes, sir." The aide replied while looking at his clipboard. "Tomorrow at the Vongola's mansion, seven o' clock in the evening."

Xernus leaned back in his chair. "I see, he said cheerily. "Hm, it's going to be fun there." He glanced outside his window, watching the city of Venice. "Who else will be there?"

The aide looked at his clipboard. "Most of the Mafia families will be there. It's going to be a big scale party by the Vongola."

"Oh?" Xernus smiled, but it was more of a smirk. "Thanks for telling me. You're dismissed."

As soon as the aide went out, Xernus stood up and walked towards his cupboard where he kept his files. He opened up a small black file, and took out a small piece of paper with a phone number scribbled on it.

Xernus went back to his desk and picked up the telephone. He dialed in the number and got an immediate response.

"Valkyr?" Xernus asked cheerily, popping a sweet into his mouth. "I've got something for you to do… Yeah, it's tomorrow… yes, I'm going….yeah, Neah told me everything…..alright, I'll call Carl and Ariana too….hm, my sister? Oh, Neah'll be with her tomorrow, so no worries there….hm, yes, the square'll be a great place…..alright." Xernus hung up the phone. He glanced up as the door to his office opened, and his aide stuck his head in.

"S-sir," the aide stammered shakily. "W-we have an –" He didn't get any further than that before he was steamrolled by a young girl with two cute ponytails.

"Big brother!" The young girl cried out happily as she ran to Xernus and hugged him. A poodle dog followed the girl, its tail wagging non-stop. And behind them was Neah whose face was heavily bandaged. "A-Alice!" Neah tried to say the name in a civil tone, but it came out more as a snarl. "I told ya before, no running in the hallways! And you let Scamper out of his cage too!"

The poodle just growled at Neah, showing its sharp teeth.

"Big brother," Alice whined. "Uncle Neah's being very noisy today. He forgot to give me my medicine too…"

Over his sister's head, Xernus shot Neah a we'll-talk-about-this-later look. To Alice, he said kindly, "Just put up with Uncle Neah for one more day, okay? He'll treat you better tomorrow. I'll personally see to that."

I bet ya will, Neah thought bitterly. Ever since he got back from his failed mission, Xernus had been giving him the cold shoulder and basically, ignoring him. And to top it off, Ariana was in Xernus' favour, and she hadn't kept quiet about it to Neah either, taunting him whenever he saw her.

Alice looked up at her brother, her eyes worried. "I'm sorry, big bother," she said in a subdued tone of voice. "D-did I disturb your important work?"

"Huh?" Xernus was caught off guard. "N-no, sweetie," he said hastily, patting her head. "Your brother wasn't doing anything important. Why don't you run along now, and bring Scamper with you, to the sweet shop? I'll be with you in five minutes."

"Alright!" Alice bent down and scooped up her dog, then proceeded to run out of the office, but not before sticking her tongue out at a visibly steaming Neah. Her dress whipped around the corner and she was gone.

Neah scowled furiously. "Good riddance" He muttered angrily.

Xernus looked at Neah, an eyebrow raised. "Hm?"

"N-nothing, sir." Neah said hurriedly.

Xernus just glared at Neah coldly. "You'll be in charge of her tomorrow, Neah," he said in a voice as cold as his glare. "One more complaint from Alice…"

Neah gulped. "I-I-I understand, sir," he said, defeated.

"Hm, that's good." Xernus smiled brightly, his mood changing abruptly again. "Alice thinks I'll be away for a conference tomorrow, so it'll be fine."

Neah looked at his boss directly in the eye. "Sir, she still thinks this is a trading company that ya're the head of?"

"Of course," Xernus frowned. "Why?"

"She'll find out that her precious brother's a mafia boss soon." Neah insisted. "Why don't ya just tell her the truth and get over it fast?"

"And why should I?" Xernus snapped as he took his coat off the clothes rack. "There's obviously no need for it. As long as she's safe and happy, she doesn't need to be told the truth. I," Xernus's face softened. "I don't want her to get involved in this mess. This is something only I will undertake. There is no need to drag anyone else in.

"That's not the point!" Neah replied back, surprised at his boldness to talk back to his boss. "I don't care who ya drag in with ya! I'm just worried how ya sister will react if she finds out the true reason ya become a Mafia boss! Ya know your sister wouldn't like it, yet ya continue to do it because ya think it'll create a safe world for her to live in! I tell ya, boss, sooner or later she'll find out and she'll be heartbroken at what ya did!"

Xernus stopped in his tracks, back facing Neah, "And since when, Neah," Xernus said softly in a dangerous tone that made Neah flinch. "Did you care about Alice so much? You and Alice used to be at loggerheads everyday. Hm?"

Neah backtracked. "I-I apologise, boss," he said quietly. "I forgot who I was talking to."

"Good thing you remembered in time, then." Xernus said, his hand drifting to his hidden gun holster. "It pains me to kill my pawns, y'know." Xernus pulled his coat over his shirt. "Now, if you'll kindly excuse me. I'm going to meet Alice at the sweet shop."

Neah watched as his boss walked out, his brow furrowed in thought. Neah replayed the conversation he had had with Ariana ( who was another commander) yesterday.

Chapter 16 ~ Party Time

Her eyes tracked the movement of anything that moved in her vision. The dog in her arms whimpered softly as it attempted to break free of its master's grip.

"Shh, Scamper!" Alice whispered as she clapped one hand over her pet's mouth. "Not now!"

Scamper fell silent, but its eyes gazed reproachingly at its own master.

Alice gazed around the port. The afternoon sun burned on her skin, but the sea breeze from the Mediterranean made up for it. She had tracked her brother to the main port of Venice, where he'll be boarding a boat to Italy for his important meeting conference in a few minutes.

She had given her babysitter AKA Neah the slip. Right now, he was probably turning Venice upside down in his search for her, but Alice had used Venice's infamous back alleys to evade him successfully. Alice giggled as she thought of Neah searching frantically for her.

Alice's big brother was always busy with his trading company, but he always found time to play with her. In Alice's eyes, her brother was her hero, a kind-hearted hero who treated her nicely, unlike her other uncles. Uncle Neah had a rude mouth and a forgetful memory, Uncle Carl was like a stone statue and Uncle Valkyr was even scarier than a tiger. Auntie Ariana was the only one who was nice to her, but she hadn't come by to see Alice lately. But recently, Alice had noticed her brother becoming withdrawn from her and he was always coming home late. Alice was worried about her brother. And he was always travelling overseas to deal with his company business, leaving Alice behind. So this time, Alice was determined to follow him but she knew that this would have to be done on the sly as her brother wouldn't take too kindly to his sister following him.

Alice tensed as she saw her brother come out of a car that had pulled up near the boat. Valkyr followed after him, his bowler hat shadowing the top part of his face. Her brother walked up to the gangplank to the boat but suddenly stopped halfway. He swept the area over with cold eyes. Alice thanked her lucky stars that she had chosen this particular area to hide in. She was currently hidden behind some old crates that were stacked up against an old warehouse that overlooked the sea. Nevertheless, her brother said something to Valkyr and Alice overheard everything.

"Check this area. Make sure there is absolutely nobody around."

"If there is, boss?"

There was no hesitation in her brother's voice. "Shoot to kill."

Alice shivered, a chill running up her spine. Shoot to kill? It sounded like something out of a Mafia movie. Surely her brother didn't mean it. I mean, what was the reason anyway? Competition from rival trading companies shouldn't have amounted to this level that her brother shot whoever that was looking at him.

Valkyr just nodded, his one eye glinting.

I have to get out of here, Alice thought silently as she scrambled away from the crates. But where can I go?

A knife suddenly flashed out of nowhere and hit the place where Alice had been a second ago. Alice instantly let out a squeak of alarm, and then cursed herself for her own stupidity. Valkyr instantly grinned when he heard Alice's squeak. He strolled closer to the crates, taking his time. After all, what could the spy behind the crates do? Whoever it was, they were in no position to attack back.

So imagine Valkyr's surprise when he found no one behind the crates.

"Strange," he muttered as he picked up the knife he had thrown earlier. "I was absolutely sure that I heard someone just now."

And unknown to Valkyr, Alice and her dog had snuck on board the boat behind his back. Alice had managed to make no noise as she ran up the gangplank with her dog in her arms.

Now, Alice entered the main room of the ship. This was obviously the main room, for its size and beauty outshone the rest of the rooms Alice had peeked into. She found a small cupboard leaning against the wall and instantly shut herself in, leaving open a tiny gap to let some air enter the cupboard.

Alice was just in time. The moment she shut the door, her brother and Valkyr entered, the former looking annoyed.

"There wasn't anyone around?"

Valkyr bowed his head. "Footprints were scattered around the area. It is my guess that whoever was spying on us left the moment we arrived."

Her brother smiled. "Maybe they got scared off," he threw himself onto a sofa. "I can't wait for the party that the Vongola are going to throw," he chuckled. "Can't imagine what they're going to do."

Inside the cupboard, Alice heard everything and was left puzzled. Party? Vongola? Didn't her brother told her he was going for a meeting? And was the Vongola another rival trading company? In her hands, Scamper whimpered softly.

Alice hugged Scamper. "Oh Scamper, I don't know what to do anymore," she whispered tearfully. "What's big brother up to now?"

Finally the day of the party arrived.

After Primo had intervened, the food had turned out great but no thanks to Daemon, the kitchen resembled something like a battlefield that had just been bombed. But otherwise, everything was fine. The decorations had been completed in time. Now, all that was left was…

"Why do we have to stay in our rooms?"

Knuckle tried to calm everyone down. "Primo thought it'll be better that way," he said earnestly while plucking Lambo off his head. "He doesn't want you to get messed up with the other families. After all, this isn't even your own time. You might do something here that might affect your future."

"He's right," this came from Reborn who was sitting on Tsuna's head. "The time paradox theory comes into effect here."

"Time paradox?" Yamamoto scratched his head. "What's that?"

"Damn baseball nut!" Gokudera yelled at him. "That means if we…er…how do I explain it?"

"Stupid Gokudera!" Lambo yelled. "Gyahaha~"

"You stupid cow!" Gokudera seethed in irritation and started squashing Lambo with his hand. "If you're so smart, explain it yourself!"

"Gotta…stay…calm…," Lambo sniffed and started wailing loudly.

"My, my…," Mukuro sighed. "It really is an insult to be seen together with this group of kids."

"What?" Ryohei yelled. He stood up, eyes blazing. "We won't stay in our rooms to the extreme! A real man never sits still and wait!"

"R-Ryohei!" Tsuna cried in despair and tried to make Ryohei sit down. "It's just a few hours! It won't harm us!"

Reborn sighed. "You really are useless, Tsuna. You can't even control your own guardians. Such a useless boss."

"Who said anything about being a boss?" Tsuna cried as he tried to drag Ryohei back down to his seat.

"Well, alright, whatever," Knuckle rose his voice around Lambo's wailing and Ryohei's yelling. "If you have any complaints, take it to Primo. He's the one who made the arrangements. I'm just relaying the order to you."

"I understand, Knuckle," Tsuna tried to say in a civil manner, but his guardians' yelling weren't helping him one bit.

A vein pulsed visibly on Reborn's head. "Silence!" he snapped loudly, firing off his gun to get everyone's attention. Reborn's plan worked. Everyone instantly zipped their mouths, including Lambo.

Reborn shot everyone (even poor innocent Tsuna) except Knuckle a stony glare. "Shut up and listen to what Knuckle is trying to say."

Knuckle cleared his throat in order to break the sudden and awkward silence. "Uh…to continue where I left off, Primo said you were to stay in your rooms, but only when the dinner is over. He said he has a job for all of you here that you might find interesting."

"What job?" Tsuna asked curiously.

Knuckle smiled, glad that he was finally able to catch the children's attention. "Well…"

"Y'know, when Primo was talking about a job…" Gokudera mumbled. "I didn't know that he was talking about… THIS!"

Tsuna winced at Gokudera's sudden outburst. "It's natural that a party on this scale will need waiters, Gokudera-kun."

Gokudera pulled at the tie around his neck. "If…if Jyuudaime says so," he said automatically.

"Now, now, Gokudera," Yamamoto said cheerfully. "The guests will be arriving shortly and we have to look smart."

"RARRR! I WILL SERVE THE GUESTS TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei yelled, punching his fists into the air to emphasis his point.

"Ne, ne, stupid Tsuna," Lambo said excitedly while picking his nose. "Can Lambo-san eat all the food now?"

"No, Lambo!" Tsuna cried as he grabbed Lambo. "Do you want to become grilled beef? We can eat later!"

"B-But Lambo-san's hungry…," Lambo sniffed. "So hungry…"

"You can eat later, stupid cow," Reborn said ruthlessly. "For now, shut up and sit still."

"Damn you, Reborn!" Lambo screeched. He started rummaging through his hair nad pulled out his infamous hand grenade. "Take this!" Lambo tugged out the pin of the grenade and threw it at Reborn.

Reborn's Leon instantly transformed into a huge hammer and was used to bat away the grenade back to Lambo. The grenade hit Lambo in the face and sent him flying out of the window together with the grenade. A distant explosion was heard a few seconds later.

Mukuro sighed in disapproval. "What a bunch of morons," he mumbled darkly as he smoothed his hair. "I shouldn't even be doing this."

Chrome glanced up timidly at Mukuro. "Mukuro-sama," she said shyly. "Will we be alright?"

"Of course, Nagi," Mukuro assured her. "Everything will soon be over, and then we can go back to the future."

Chrome didn't look completely reassured. Mukuro couldn't entirely blame her. Even he wasn't feeling very reassured by his own claims.

The doors to the ballroom opened. Everyone instantly tensed, preparing themselves for the guests. However, all that entered was Alaude and Daemon, both looking grim. And behind them, tied up in ropes was…

Tsuna nearly had a heart attack on the spot. "H-Hibari-san?" he screeched loudly. "What's going on here?"

Daemon glared at Tsuna. "Friend of yours, Decimo?" he asked sharply. Yamamoto, in his usual carefree nature said, "Sure!" Ryohei's response to Hibari's appearance was to yell, "An extreme person appears!"

"He is Tsuna's Cloud Guardian," Reborn said to Alaude and Daemon. "How did you catch him?" There was a tinge of admiration in Reborn's tone of voice.

"How?" Alaude replied in usual monotonous voice. "What do you mean by how?"

"He fell into Alaude's pit trap," Daemon answered smugly. It was quite obvious that he was enjoying every moment of it. "And I just happened to be patrolling around at the moment. Pretty unfortunate for the brat, hm?"

Hibari just snorted. His eyes then just happened to fall on Mukuro who stood out among Tsuna's group because of his height and oddly matched eyes.

Hibari growled angrily. He wasn't in a good mood, and seeing Mukuro had worsened his mood drastically. And god knows what Hibari's capable of when he's in a foul mood.

"Out of my way, herbivore," he said calmly and his ropes fell off him. It appeared that Hibari had been slowly cutting his ropes, and Daemon hadn't noticed it at all. Now, Hibari's ring lit with its purple flames and Hibari thrust them inside his Vongola box.

"Hibari-san?" Tsuna cried out in despair. "We shouldn't be opening out boxes here! What if someone sees them? We'll be dead!"

"You're noisy, herbivore," Hibari said in a deadly tone that shut Tsuna up instantly. "I'll bite you to death."

"HIIII!" Tsuna squeaked in terror.

"Bastard!" Gokudera yelled. "Are you threatening Jyuudaime?"

Reborn sighed and pulled his fedora down. "Ciaossu, Hibari," he said cheerfully to the fuming Hibari. "Nice of you to join us."

"Infant," Hibari acknowledged Reborn while twirling his handcuffs, which had appeared when he had opened his purple Vongola box.

"Listen here, Hibari," Reborn said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "I know you want to fight with that pineapple head over there.." (Mukuro twitched in irritation at his unofficial nickname which was fast becoming his official nickname), "...but this is not the right time. However, I promise you that you'll get your chance to beat him up without him running away when we get back to the future. So for now, just try to get along or….," Reborn's eyes glinted ominously.

"Beat me up?" Mukuro smirked. "Like it'll ever happen."

"Wanna bet?" Reborn stared at Mukuro, a similar smirk on his baby face.

"Uh, maybe not," Mukuro instantly backtracked.

Hibari lowered his handcuffs. "Alright," he said in a monotone. "Then, I'll be making my move, infant."

"Sure," Reborn said cheerfully. He turned to Daemon. "You there, pineapple head Number 2. Get Hibari a room."

Daemon gritted his teeth but said nothing. Reborn was already cementing his authority over Primo's guardians in record time. Primo was well aware of it and he just had to take his hat off to Reborn.

After Daemon and Hibari left the room, Tsuna sighed in pure relief. "That went pretty well," he muttered.

The doorbell suddenly rang, jerking everyone except Alaude back into their current situation.

"The guests are here!"

Alice stared wide-eyed at the mansion. Never before had she seen something so majestic. It surpassed even her brother's own mansion.

Alice had managed to endure the boat trip, which had left both her and Scamper seriously seasick. She had then hitched a ride with a friendly cart driver who had sympathized with her to the Vongola mansion.

"Wow," she whispered excitedly from where she was hiding, which just happened to be some bushes near the mansion. Alice could see plenty of people mingling around, one by one shown into the mansion by the Vongola's henchmen. Beautiful Italian women, wearing heavy silk dresses and strings of pearl necklace smiled at each other and passed comments about each others dresses. The men were wearing black coats and white shirts, greeting one another casually with handshakes.

This sure is a big company meeting, Alice thought dazedly. I wonder where big brother is….

A silence suddenly fell upon everyone lining up to get inside the mansion. Uneasy whispers were heard among the crowd. Alice craned her neck to see who was causing the silence.

Chiro Xernus walked slowly up to the mansion's front porch, glancing occasionally at the people staring and mumbling softly. He smiled to see the disturbance his very appearance was causing among the crowd. Beside him, Valkyr was silent, acting as his trusty bodyguard in case anyone decided to get a little too smart.

Alice stared at her brother, mesmerized by his smile. She had never seen her brother look like this before, and an uneasy voice was whispering in her head.

Is he the person you know as your big brother? The voice whispered. Or was everything he did for you just an act to conceal his true nature?

Shut up! Alice yelled back silently.

You can't deny it, Alice, the voice whispered back. You heard and saw what he ordered Uncle Valkyr to do just because he thought someone was spying on him. Just because you're his cute little sister doesn't mean he'll spare you, will he?

O-of course he will! Alice's defiance was slowly being replaced with doubt. He's the only family I have left! He can't be bad, right?

Well, Alice, the voice whispered slyly. Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself. The only way to find out is to sneak inside the mansion, hm? Or would you rather stay here and doubt your brother forever?

"I'm going in!" Alice said out loud as she scrambled over the bushes. She wiped away the tears building up in her eyes. "And I'll prove to myself that my brother is a good person!"

With that, Alice mentally prepared herself. First of all, how do I gain access into the mansion? She thought furiously.

Alice glanced around, her brain trying frantically to think up of some excuse to fool the guards into letting her into the mansion and not let her brother recognize her. As she glanced at the number of people milling around, an idea struck her.

First of all, she thought silently. A disguise will be useful…

Chapter 17 ~ Chaos

Tsuna almost tripped on the hem of a lady's dress. Luckily, Tsuna managed to maintain his balance and not fall down like a klutz in front of the Mafia guests. He heaved a sigh of relief at his narrow escape.

"Jyuudaime!" Gokudera yelled as he swerved to avoid a young couple holding hands. "How's everything over there?"

Tsuna winced slightly. "Gokudera-kun, we shouldn't talk too loud here."

Indeed, everyone nearby them was staring at the loud-mouthed brat wearing the smart suit, their eyes showing their annoyance at the disturbance.

Gokudera shot them all a glare. "Tch," he said shortly. "I can't stand these sort of low class Mafia families."

Tsuna sweatdropped. "Uh.. Gokudera-kun... I don't think you should be saying this sort of stuff here." He glanced around to look for the rest of his friends. "Well, it looks like everyone else is getting along pretty well."

"Pah," Gokudera snorted. He could see the baseball nut offering drinks to the Italian women, his usual smile on his face as he bowed graciously to the ladies.

"Would you like a drink?" Yamamoto asked politely in fluent Italian, despite the fact that his Japanese accent could still be heard very clearly.

The ladies giggled at the handsome foreigner's valiant effort to speak Italian, and happily accepted the glasses of wine from him. Yamamoto gave them another bow, and then went on to serve a bemused Mafia boss.

"Yamamoto-kun is pretty popular," Tsuna said admiringly.

"Yeah," Gokudera admitted grudgingly. "As opposed to..." He shot a glare at Ryohei.

"ARGH! ACCEPT THIS DRINK!" Ryohei yelled, his sentence spoken half in Italian, and the other half in Japanese. Unfortunately, the last half of Ryohei's sentence was in Italian, leading the people nearby to avoid him because everyone was under the impression that he had a little too much to drink.

Tsuna had nothing to comment on Ryohei's abnormal behaviour. But then again, Ryohei was always abnormal.

"That stupid turf top," Gokudera growled. "Didn't he listen when G was giving us a crash course in Italian?"

Tsuna's response was lost when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Enjoying yourselves?" Primo asked cheerfully.

"Yes!" Tsuna answered.

Gokudera just glanced at Ryohei, a sneer on his face.

Primo followed Gokudera's glance. He gave a small laugh as he saw Ryohei running around like a mad dog. "Your friend seems really excited."

"Excited my ass," Gokudera said. "More like crazy to me."

Tsuna didn't reply. His eyes had fallen upon a handsome, young man wearing a red shirt and black coat. Something about him caught Tsuna's attention. Tsuna could sense that there was a darker, more evil side to him, despite the way he was currently smiling. In that instant, Tsuna knew that that was not a person to trifle with.

"Jyuudaime?" Gokudera asked in concern. "Anything wrong?"

Primo was also staring at the young man. His grip on Tsuna's shoulder tightened considerably.

"Chiro Xernus," he whispered softly for Tsuna and Gokudera's benefil.

As if he had heard his own name, Xernus strolled over to Primo, his violet eyes staring into Primo's own blue eues. Behind him was another man. His left eyes was entirely obscured by the black eyepatch that covered mostly the left side of his face. His expression was totally blank, but Tsuna could see the determination burning in his remaining eye. This was a man who will willingly give his life to his boss.

"Giotto," Surprisingly, Xernus' voice was melodic and soft. "It has been a long time."

Primo was tiff. "Xernus, you have a lot of explaining to do after the party is over."

Xernus shrugged his shoulders cheerfully. "Fine by me. You know that I have absolutely nothing to hide from you."

Primo glanced at the man behind Xernus. "I see you brought Valkyr with you," he noted in an expressionless tone. "Where's your other commander? Neah, was it?"

Tsuna noticed Xernus stiffened in response to Primo's question. "Neah is under probation now," he said, but this time Tsuna could hear a malicious tone underneath the polite facade. "For failing his orders."

"That's a little harsh, isn't it?" G growled as he came up from behind Primo. "So Xernus, give me one really good reason why I shouldn't shoot you on the spot and in return, do a good deed for the community."

"G!" Primo said in a reprimanding tone. "Not now. We will discuss this later with Xernus in half an hour's time! For now, make sure all the guests are safe and accounted. Then, assemble all the guardians into my office. We will have a meeting with our friends here then. Tsu – I mean, the orphans can manage things while we are gone."

G didn't really approve with his boss' plan, but all the same, he slinked away to complete his orders. Xernus watched in amusement as G stalked away, head held high in the air. Then, all of what Primo said registered in his head.

"Orphans?" Xernus smirked. "Giotto, don't tell me: you adopted an entire orphanage to show the entire Italy that the Vongola are a good Mafia group."

"Well, Vongola did start out as a vigilante protection group," Primo said calmly. "And no, I only invited the orphans to stay with us for a few weeks."

Xernus stared at Tsuna with his piercing violet eyes. Tsuna knew that Xernus was sizing him up. "Hm, this one looks a lot like you, yes?"

Tsuna's heart sank fast. Xernus was really sharp.

"My nephew," Primo lied with ease. "He was among one of the orphans at the orphanage. We do look alike. That's what everyone else says."

"Hmph," Tsuna could see that Xernus wasn't entirely convinced. "What's your name, boy?"

"Tsu – Leonard," Tsuna remembered what Reborn had taught him just in time. He could almost visualize Reborn's hammer smashing him on the head for his slip. That was something Tsuna hoped that will never happen to him again for as long as he lived.

"Well then, Leonard," Xernus said smoothly. "How do you find your stay here, together with the Mafia? Didn't you find it scary? Or perhaps, you plan to join your uncle when you're older?"

"Eh?" Tsuna blinked at Xernus. "Er, I guess it is a little scary here, together with all the Mafia. But everyone's being nice to my friends and I here, it's like the home I never had," Tsuna rolled out what Reborn had taught him. "I'm really grateful to Uncle Giotto for taking me in, even if it's just for a few weeks."

Primo smiled at Tsuna warmly. "So far, so good. Now, time to get back to business."

"Xernus," Primo said quietly. "If you'll follow me, the meeting will begin."

Xernus bowed his head humbly, but not before Tsuna caught a glance at the expression in his face. It was hatred. Pure hatred for Primo and the Vongola. The room temperature suddenly felt like it had dropped by a few degrees in the span of a few seconds. Tsuna shivered involuntarily.

Primo exited the room, followed by Xernus and his ever silent bodyguard. The door closed silently behind them.

I wonder is they'll be alright, Tsuna thought, scratching his head absent-mindedly. Xernus seemed like a scary person to me.

"So that was Xernus," a cheerful voice broke in Tsuna's thoughts. "A very nice and polite guy."

Tsuna nearly broke his neck by attempting to twist it a 180 degrees. "Reborn!" he cried. "What do you mean by nice and polite? He's the total opposite of it!" Tsuna nearly died when he saw what Reborn was doing, or rather drinking. "And don't drink wine! It's not good for someone like you!"

Reborn pouted, puckering up his lips cutely. "But I don't go to Mafia parties very often. And this wine's really good."

Tsuna snatched the bottle of wine from Reborn and threw it clean out of the window. "This's not the time to be drinking yourself stone drunk! You've gotta help me, Reborn! I can't handle this entire party, even with Gokudera-kun and the rest! With all of Primo's guardians gone," Tsuna shuddered in fear. "We'll just be lost kids in some random Mafia party!"

Reborn pulled down the fedora on his head, causing it to throw a shadow across the upper part of his face. "You're the boss, Tsuna. If you panic, the family will start to panic too. So stop acting liek a wuss," Tsuna gulped audibly. "However, I've managed to convince Primo to let one of his guardians stay behind to monitor the party, so don't worry too much."

"R-really?" Tsuna cried in delight. He grabbed Reborn by the hand. "Thank you, Reborn!"

"Oh, here he comes," Reborn said cheerfully. "Ciaossu, Alaude."

Tsuna's moment of happiness evaporated like dew on a sunny day.

"A-ALAUDE?" Tsuna screeched. "What did I do to deserve this kind of punishment, Reborn?"

"Who knows," Reborn replied.

Alaude threw Tsuna a shut-up look. "One must never yell when attending a formal party. Or did G neglected to tell you that?"

"Is everything going on as planned, Alaude?" Reborn asked as he jumped down from the table onto Tsuna's shoulder.

"Alaude turned to Reborn, his eyes giving nothing away. "Yes," came his reply. Tsuna sensed that he wasn't happy to be excluded from the meeting just to take care of some kids and make sure the party was running smoothly.

"You there," Alaude said monotously. "Tsuna."

"HIIII?" Tsuna screeched.

Alaude sighed in frustration. He had never liked kids to begin with and now, Primo had officially made him the temporary babysitter for the while bunch . It sort of explained his current mood. "Your pineapple head is flirting with the wives of the big Mafia bosses. Stop him, or I will."

"Huh?" Tsuna cried out in horror. "M-Mukuro? Flirting?" He turned to Reborn. "Reborn, help me prove that this isn't a dream turning into a nightmare!"

"Happy to!" Reborn said and whacked Tsuna on the head with his Leon hammew, causing Tsuna to fall down on the floor, a huge bump forming on his head.

"Okay, this isn't a dream," Tsuma mumbled while rubbing his poor head. He got up and caught a glimpse of purple-blue hair at the other side of the room. Tsuna instantly started towards Mukuro while expertly manoeuvring between the guests, but luck wasn't on his side. He tripped and fell at least a couple of times, stepped on someone's foot a grand total of eight times and just generally made a fool of himself.

Great. Just great, Tsuna thought desperately. Thanks, Reborn. He suddenly felt someone tugging on his sleeve. Now what?

Tsuna turned around to find out who had pulled his sleeve and got a little surprise, A young girl with two ponytails stared up at him with teary violet eyes. Her lower lip was trembling as she sniffled softly.

Tsuna was instantly taken aback. He hadn't expected to find a girl this young in a Mafia party like this. And had he seen her somewhere before? She did look awfully familiar.

Tsuna decided the best thing to do for now was to stop her from crying. He knelt down awkwardly and took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping the tears from her eyes gently. "Um, hey, are you alright? Are you lost, kid?"

The young girl stared at Tsuna curiously, her violet eyes unblinkingly, After a long silence, she spoke albeit in a shaky voice. "I'm looking for my b-big brother. Have you seen him around?"

"Big brother?" Tsuna echoed. Suddenly, he realized why the girl looked so awfully familiar. He took the girl by the shoulder. "Don't tell me. Is that creepy, Xernus dude your big brother?" He couldn't believe it. This girl was Xernus' sister?

The girl looked confused at Tsuna's reaction. "Uh, yes. My name's Alice Xernus."

Tsuna groaned deeply. One problem after the other. And Mukuro was still on the loose somewhere. "Do you want to see your big brother?" he asked politely.

The girl shook her head violently. "No! I j-just want to know what he's up to!" She glanced up at Tsuna bravely. "Er, mister? A-are you part of the Vongola trading company?"

"Trading company?" Tsuna echoed, confused. "Uhm, kid, this is the Mafia. And this is your typical Mafia party, Not a trading company," Tsuna couldn't believe what the girl was saying. What in the name of the penguins did her brother tell her?

Alice trembled, and her knees bucked slightly. "M-Mafia?" she whispered. "My b-big brother's a Mafia boss? He l-lied to m-me? B-but why?"

Tsuna nearly banged his own head on the table. He pitied the poor girl. It must've been hard for her, after all these years to learn that her brother was a Mafia boss. Tsuna silently berated himself for blurting out so much information to Alice all of a sudden.

Alice stubbornly dried her eyes. She took a deep breath and stared into Tsuna's eyes. "My big brother. Is he... does he...?"

Tsuna couldn't bring himself to tell the girl, but Alice had a right to know. On the other hand, Tsuna didn't want to be the one to ruin the girl's world by telling the girl what her brother had done since she obviously used to look up to him as her comforter, friend, hero and vice versa. "I-I have no right to judge anyone," Tsuna started. "And I'm new here," Well, that was kinda true in a way. "So I don't know much about him, but what I do know is that he's ruthless, and er... considers people below him to be his pawns. Uh, that's all," Tsuna finished lamely. And sneaked a peek at Alice to see her reaction.

Surprisingly, Alice took it calmly, even though her heart was slowly breaking apart.

My brother's a Mafia boss, she thought silently, clenching her fists angrily. He lied to me all this time about everything. I have no reason to trust him anymore. But, he's still my only family left, since Mum and Dad passed away. So, what do I do now?

At that moment, Alice made her decision.

I will walk on my own two feet, she thought silently, firmly. I will not depend on my big brother anymore. From now on, what I do, the consequences, everything will depend on what I have decided.

Alice looked up at Tsuna, her eyes filled with resolve.

"Mister," she said. "I've decided to join the Vongola."

Tsuna stared at her. "B-but why?" he stuttered. Uh-oh. Alarm bells were blaring in his head now, all screaming WATCH OUT!

Alice's mouth tightened. "All I want now is to be free from my brother. I don't want to be near him at all, in fact, after all he did. But in the mean time, I-I want to stop my brother from doing any more bad deeds. He," Alice's voice faltered slightly. "He brought me up by himself after my parents died, I still owe him one."

Tsuna nodded sympathetically. "I'll see what I can do for you," he said firmly. Tsuna silently vowed to himself that he'll help the girl, and not let her down, no matter what.

At the meeting in the Vongola's conference room, nothing was going on well for either side,

Xernus gritted his teeth in frustration. He had tried to reopen negotiations with Primo, but so far, the latter wasn't accepting them. Xernus didn't really blame him, after all, he, Chiro Xernus, had broken the truce first. And to top it off, Xernus' foolish commanded, Neah, had apparently shot the Vongola's Rain Guardian point blank. Secretly, Xernus applauded Neah's handiwork, but he wasn't going to say anything out loud because the Vongola's Storm and Mist Guardians were drilling holes into his head with the power of their eyes.

Xernus leaned back into his chair and gave a sigh. "Look, Primo. This is really going nowhere, Why don't we just give this issue a rest? Then, we can get back to stabbing each other."

"Give the issue a rest?" The Storm Guardian shouted angrily, his fist clenched tightly. "You were the one who ignited the whole thing first! Even as we speak, Asari still hasn't regained consciousness! Is that your idea of a rest, eh, Xernus?"

Valkyr stiffened, his hand drifting slowly to his gun holster. Xernus stopped him with a glare, and Valkyr's hand dropped.

Primo stared at Xernus coldly. "As I've previously stated Xernus, unless I get a full guarantee that your family will not attack us, I'll not agree to a new truce," he paused for a moment to let the statement sink in. "And, Vongola overpowers your family in terms of military strength. So, if you intend to play dirty with us, well, two can play the game."

Xernus smirked. "Oh please, Primo. Enough of the boasting. We all know that you'll never sacrifice any of your family members just to get back at us. You're always too soft. Don't even ask me how you made it big as the Vongola's boss."

"You bastard!" G growled and stood up furiously, but Knuckle, who was sitting next to him, quickly pulled him down.

"Fine with me," Xernus shrugged as he stood up, prepared to leave the room. "Then, I'll be leaving. Call me anything if you suddenly feel like negotiating a truce."

With that, Xernus walked out on Primo and his guardians, ignoring G's curses at him and the whispers of the rest of the guardians. Xernus reached into his pocket for his glasses (he's short-sighted), but no matter how much he dug, he couldn't find it.

"Crips," Xernus muttered, He must've dropped it in the Vongola's banquet hall just now, because he remembered feeling his pocket for his glasses before he entered the hall. Oh well, extra work again.

"Valkyr!" Xernus called. "I'm going back to the hall to search for my glasses. You wait outside. I'll be right back."

"Huh? But boss...!" Valkyr protested. "It's dangerous to go in there alone! Someone might attack you!"

"Really, Valkyr," Xernus said irritably, running a hand through his long, black hair. "I'm perfectly capable of fending off myself. Don't worry so much."

Valkyr was about to happily point out the fact that the last time his boss had said the exact same thing, he had nearly got steamrolled by a train, but then decided that reminding his sometimes inept boss of his past errors wasn't really the best thing to do right now.

Vernus pushed open the hall's doors. Instantly, the people near the door scattered away as far as they could from him. Xernus gave them the usual smirk. He loved to see the chaos his very appearance caused.

Xernus strode to the spot where he thought he had lost his glasses. He bent down, and started the treasure hunt, the ultimate prize being his glasses. That was when he heard a sickeningly familiar voice saying:

"...brother went for a meeting with the Vongola's boss?"

No, Xernus instantly thought, his brain jamming up all of a sudden. Tell me that's not who I think it is. What's she doing here anyway?

Another voice answered. Xernus recognised it as Primo's nephew, Leonard.

"Yeah, so you don't need to worry about him spotting you here."

Xernus' mind couldn't think up of any words except something along the lines of WHAT THE HELL IS EFFIN' GOING ON HERE?

His anger was really building up now, and it was so intense that the few people near him started edging away fast.

Did the Vongola do something to her? Xernus seethed as he stood up, abandoning his treasure hunt. If they did..., He stalked towards Leonard, who he had spotted a second ago. And trembling behind him was...

"ALICE!" Xernus screamed, his eyes demented. The whole banquet hall fell silent all of a sudden. Leonard quailed as soon as he saw Xernus looming over him, his hands trembling in fear as Xernus breathed down heavily on his and Alice, his eyes mad.

"B-b-b-big brother?" Alice squeaked, her eyes wide. "What're you doing here?"

"Good question," Xernus growled out. "I should be asking you that on instead, Why are you even here in the first place? Where's Neah?"

Alice hid behind Leonard, her eyes fearful. It seems as though she was too petrified to even say anything.

That was when Xernus snapped. The whole day had been really stressful for him, but Alice here, in the Vongola's mansion, finally broke his self-control. In a swift motion, he yanked Alice from behind Leonard by the arm and started shaking her hardly.

Alice started crying, tears streaking down her cheeks, This infuriated Xernus farther and he shook her even harder, his hands as hard as stone.

Leonard then decided to barge in. "Wh-What're you doing to your own sister, Xernus?" he cried furiously, clamping a hand on Xernus' hand to stop him from shaking his sister. "She's scared of you, can't you see?"

"Get lost, Leonard!" Xernus snarled, his other hand withdrawing his gun. He cocked the gun and aimed it directly at the teen's forehead.

Alice's eyes widened when she saw the gun. She mustered up all her courage. "STOP IT!" she screamed as loudly as she could. "STOP!"

Xernus and Leonard froze. And so did everyone else in the hall.

Alice's breathing was ragged. She looked her brother directly in the eyes, even though it took a lot of effort on her part. She gulped as she slowly backed away, her friend prying her brother's steel grip from her shoulder. Surprisingly, her brother let her go. His eyes weren't mad anymore. Instead, they were sad and confused, silently grieving.

Alice went to Leonard's side, her hand grasping his suit. Then she spoke softly, sadly. "I'm sorry, big brother," she could feel the tears overflowing. "I'm really sorry, big brother but I can't follow you anymore."

The look in her brother's eyes was something Alice will remember forever. His confused and sad expression, mixed to gether with his fury and anger, were conflicting and left a deep impression on Alice.

"But why?" Xernus' voice was hoarse. "Why would you do this so me, Alice?"

Alice's own anger was mounting. "What do you mean by why?" she demanded angrily. "You lied about everything to me! That's why! You," Alice cried out loudly. "Killed people on your own whim and fancy! You set Valkyr on me when I was spying on you in the port in Venice! Bet you didn't know it was me, right?"

Xernus had frozen. "It was you at the port?" he breathed.

Alice nodded fiercely. "That's why I've decided to join the Vongola!"

That was instantly the final straw for Xernus. "WHAT?" he yelled loudly, his face twisted in anger. "How could you, you little runt? Do you know who these Vongola really are?" Xernus was screaming now, his fists clenched. "They're just murderers who kill anyone they think is in the way!"

"You're wrong!" Leonard yelled back. "The Vongola doesn't operate like that!"

"Oh yeah?" Xernus snarled. "Listen, Alice," he attempted to speak calmly. "Our parents didn't die in a boat accident in Venice's canals! They were murdered," Xernus' eyes glinted. "By the Vongola!"

"What?" Leonard stammered out. "You're lying, Xernus!"

Alice had gone rigid, her eyes confused. "B-but you told me..." she whispered.

"I didn't want to tell you this," Xernus took a deep breath, trying to steady himself after his sudden temper outburst. It had been a long time since he'd exploded like that. "I just wanted to protect you from this world I lived in. I didn't want to hurt you. After Mum and Dad died," Xernus rubbed his head. "It was really tough for me. I had to raise you too, you had no idea..." Xernus' voice broke off.

Leonard shuffled his feet uncomfortably. He glanced at Xernus. "That still doesn't change the fact that you're a killer," he said softly.

Xernus' eyes hardened considerably. "And what does that had to do with you?" he hissed, snake-like. "Hand Alice back to me and nobody in this room's getting hurt," Xernus could sense the tension in the hall climb up a few degrees. Everyone instantly start whispering frantically to one another. Not even the few Mafia bosses were lifting a finger to save themselves. They were just too scared to do anything in front of Xernus.

Seconds ticked by painfully.

"Last chance, boy," Xernus said, amused at the Leonard's courage. "Before I start shooting a few people here, boy."

Xernus could see that the boy was in a dilemma, deciding what to do next. He'll give the boy a few minutes to decide, then he'd take things into his own hands.

Now, Xernus thought grimly. What'll you do, Leonard?

hapter 18 ~ Rage

While chaos reigned in the ballroom below, all five first generation Vongola guardians debated hotly among themselves.

"That Xernus is really asking for a thrashing!" G yelled furiously. "I vote that we throw him off Italy's highest mountain immediately!"

"Now, don't think like that," Knuckle intervened. "Peace is always better than war. We should all pray for peace among us and the Xernus."

"No way!" came the immediate reply from G.

Daemon Spade chuckled darkly. "Throwing Xernus off a mountain?" he mused aloud. "Doesn't sound too bad to me."

"Enough!" Primo snapped loudly. Instantly, everyone stopped their bickering and paid full attention to their boss.

"Look," Primo started tiredly. "I know everyone's getting impatient with the situation and believe me, so am I. I wish to resolve this quickly, and there's still the other problem with the kids to solve," he paused to let his words sink in. Primo inhaled deeply. "What I'm proposing now might sound absurd but in the long run, it might turn out to be the best course of action. So I'm asking everyone to please, be patient for a little longer."

"So what's your proposal, Giotto?" G called out, tapping his foot impatiently on the marble floor.

"I've got a bad feeling about this...," Daemon muttered under his breath, his eyes never leaving his boss.

"So what I'm thinking of right now is to take up Xernus' offer of a truce," Primo said bluntly.

As expected, the silence in the room was so heavy that Lampo swore he heard something break.

"T-truce..?" G spluttered out.

"Yes, G. Truce," Primo nodded in agreement with himself, somehow managing to ignore the looks of disbelief on his guardians' faces.

"Uh...Giotto?" Knuckle called out. "Care to explain why this might turn out to be the best course of action in the long run?" His emphasis on the word 'might' was clearly heard.

"Yeah, Giotto," Daemon interrupted. "How is this going to benefit us in the future?"

Primo started. "Well, it's..." but before he could say any further, he was stopped once again when he heard knocking on the meeting room's doors.

"What now?" G exclaimed angrily. He strode to the door and opened it violently. "Hey, we're having a meeting here, don't...!" he paused halfway and stared down at the person who had knocked the door. "...oh"

Chrome stared back up at G with her one eye, her hands trembling beside her. She was whispering something very quickly under her breath. G leaned in to listen to what she was whispering.

"What's she muttering about, G?" Daemon asked impatiently.

G's eyes widened in horror. "She said that Xernus is in the hall, holding everyone at gunpoint and demanding for his sister to be returned."

"WHAT?" everyone in the room chorused in disbelief.

"Wait a sec!" Primo stood up desperately. "Gunpoint? And asking for his sister?"

"Does he even have a sister?" Lampo mumbled incredulously.

"I knew it was a bad idea inviting him!" Knuckle said angrily, banging his fists on the table. "I'm going down there right now!"

"Picking an enemy's territory to start a fight?" Daemon snickered. "Either he's dumb or really brave."

"I'll go with dumb," G growled. He shoved Chrome aside and drew his gun. "I'll get him for you, Primo," he called back to Primo as he strode out.

"Wait, G," Primo forced himself to speak calmly, even htough he was feeling anything but calm. "No use rushing in together. It'll be just what Xernus wants."

"Then what do we do?" Lampo asked timidly.

Primo inhaled deeply. "I'll go in myself," he announced, albeit a little shakily. He held up his hands to stop his guardians from interrupting him. "We don't have time to waste. G, stay here and guard over the rest. Do not - I repeat - DO NOT go downstairs no matter what."

Everyone didn't look very happy but what other choice did they have? Reluctantly, G stepped aside to allow Primo to pass. "Be careful, Giotto," G muttered softly in his old friend's ear. "You don't want to end up like that idiot Asari."

Primo just chanced a quick smile at G. Then, with a flourish of his cloak, he disappeared into the the darkness of the corridor.

Alice trembled behind her newfound friend who called himself Leonard.

She glanced up at him furtively. "Don't let him take me, please," her eyes pleaded silently, She was, for the first time in her life, terrified of her brother. Her shoulder still hurt where he had grabbed and shook her.

Leonard stood stiffly, blocking Alice from view, just in case Xernus got a little too trigger-happy with his gun.

"Time's up, Leonard," Xernus breathed maniacally. Without warning, in a split second, he aimed a shot directly at a young man near him and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed in the room with the high ceiling.

The crowd screamed in horror. The young man had fallen onto the floor, blood leaking out from the wound in his chest, a surprised expression on hi face. A small trickle of blood flowed out of his mouth. He didn't get up again.

"Holy...!" Leonard swore and pulled Alice down onto the ground, just as a storm of bullets flew past where they had been just a few seconds ago.

Alice crawled on the ground, following Leonard. She could hear more gunshots, and glass breaking. A few mafiaso had pulled out their own guns and had attempted to combat Xernus. Alice shook her head in despair. Even though her brother was vastly outnumbered, those men will never stand a chance against him.

The whole crowd was stampeding in a their rush to get out of the ballroom (battlefield). Tables and chairs smashed, wine glasses broken and the walls were soon riddled with bulletshots. A disaster.

"Under here, Alice!" Leonard yelled over the ruckus. He grabbed her by her hand and shoved her underneath a table made out of pure gold. "Don't get out of there!" he shouted to make himself heard.

Alice nodded frantically. She didn't need to be told twice in a situation like this. But that didn't stop her from peeking out, just a little, from under the tablecloth.

She had never seen so much blood running freely before. Every minute or two, a man fell, his body filled with bulletholes. The floor turned crimson as puddles of blood pooled around the dead bodies. Alice nearly got sick.

In the middle of the fight stood her brother in all his frenzied glory. He was currently dueling with a silver blonde haired man who looked like he was giving her brother a run for his money. Silently, Alice stared as her brother avoided the man's handcuffs over and over again. The silver blonde man smiled triumphantly as his handcuffs got a hold on her brother's gun and with a flick of his wrist, sent it flying over to the other side of the hall.

Her brother didn't even so much as went "Crap!". Instead, he charged headfirst at the silver blonde man.

Even though Alice didn't want to, she couldn't help but cry "What out!" as her brother rushed recklessly at his opponent without a weapon.

His enemy blinked in surprise, then smirked. Clearly, he had thought that Xernus had gone suicidal, charging in like a mad bull.

At the last possible moment though, her brother's hand flicked into his sleeve collar. When it came out, it was gripping a nasty-looking knife.

His opponent's eyes widened in horror although his face showed nothing. He tried to sidestep Xernus but was half a second too slow. The knife ripped into his arm from one end to the other. The man gritted his teeth as his handcuffs slided out of his grip but Alice marvelled at the man's discipline. He didn't fall down nor scream in pain but just continued his fight even though his steps were getting a little disorientated.

Alice's brother was taking full advantage of his enemy's wobbly steps to attack. One quick stap of the knife there, another stab over there. His enemy was slowly being drained out of his energy, his pale face even whiter that before. However, he didn't look like he was giving up anytime soon.

Alice closed her eyes lightly as her brother drove his knife into his enemy. She heard the sickening splatter of blood hitting the floor and a high-pitched scream. It wasn't until a few seconds later that she realised that she had been the one screaming in pure terror.

It was over. The next thing Alice saw when she had opened her eyes was her brother. He was crouching down, his violet eyes calm and peaceful. He pulled the tablecloth aside to get to his sister.

"Why are you hiding like a trapped mouse, Alice?" his voice was soft and strangely...sad.

Alice instantly scooted as far as she could away from her brother. "S-stay away from me!" she said in a quivering voice. "Don't come any closer!"

Her brother smiled his usual smile. "I'm afraid I can't comply with that, Alice," he held out a hand. "Come with me, I promise I will never harm you again. I'll make up from everything I've done wrong."

For a moment, Alice was tempted by the offer. Her brother looked genuinely sincere in his offer. But she could see the blood dripping from his hand offered to her, a testimony to what he'd just done in front of her. She felt her stomach lurch in disgust. She clapped a hand to her mouth, gagging.

Then the world exploded around her, a colourful symphony of lights and destruction.

"Gokudera, stop it!" Tsuna screamed at his friend. "There's someone under the table!"

Gokudera stopeed midway in lighting up his dynamites, stunned. "I-I-I'm sorry, Tenth!" he cried while performing a spectacular head-bang on the floor. "I threw my dynamites without thinking! Please forgive me!"

Tsuna ran to what remained of the table, searching among the wreckage. "Alice!" he yelled desperately.

Alice's world spun around her, the colours blurring together to form wild images. Her head his something with a dull 'thud'. With pain building up in her head, she glanced up dazedly at the ceiling of the ballroom. She couldn't hear anything. Rather, it was like hearing underwater. She tried to call out for help but her mouth disobeyed. She could taste blood in her mouth and tried to spit it out.

Her last thought before she passed out was, "Am I dying?"

"Tsuna!" Yamamoto shouted, rummaging through the wreckage. "I found someone!" Gokudera's dynamite had blown away almost the whole ballroom to kingdom come, and the moon's pale light could be seen through the holes in the grand ceiling.

Whatever remained of the door flew open and Primo stared wide-eyed at the wreckage. He couldn't help but say 'Wow' at the amount of destruction done to his ballroom.

Alaude turned his head sharply over to Primo, his eyes blank. "You're late, Primo," he said in a monotone. He had staunched the bleeding in his arm by ripping off part of a tablecloth to use as a makeshift bandage but the other wounds still bled profusely, something which Alaude ignored.

Yamamoto dragged out a limp body. "Tsuna!" he shouted urgently.

"C-coming, Yamamoto!" Tsuna yelped in pain as Reborn whacked him on the head. "Ouch!"

"Hurry up, Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn said, his expression grim.

Tsuna and Primo ran over to whoever Yamamoto had dragged out from the rubble. When he went in closer for a better view of the person's face, Tsuna almost fainted.

"OMG!" he screeched. "It's Xernus!" he gestured to Yamamoto panickedly. "Get away from him, Yamamoto!"

Yamamoto blinked. "Oh, okay," he grabbed Xernus' hand. "Shall I throw him back into the wreckage?"

Gokudera instantly replied. "Yes," but Primo and Tsuna said. "No." Yamamoto shrugged his shoulders and let go of Xernus.

Primo crouched down and pried the knife from Xernus' hand. "Where's his younger sister?" he asked.

Tsuna and the rest started digging through the rubble furiously, calling out Alice's name but to no success.

Primo took in the situation fast. "We need to clear out everything in the room now or else the girl won't survive..."

Tsuna turned around to face Primo and his mouth fell open. Behind Primo, Xernus had risen up, his hand holding a jagged piece of rock, the tip facing directly at Primo's back. His eyes were surprisingly calm, as though killing Primo was an everyday, normal task.

"L-l-l-look out, Primo!" Tsuna cried out.

Xernus lunged down, his hand moving faster that ever before. Primo whirled around, his gloved hands stopping Xernus from striking him down. Their eyes met each other violently, blue into violet.

Primo gritted his teeth as Xernus fought back aginst his grip on his hands. "Stop this, Xernus. We need your help to find your sister."

"I don't care!" Xernus spat out, his expression suddenly twisted beyond hate. "You Vongola corrupted her! It's all your damn fault!"

"Calm down!" Primo urged. "No use getting all worked up!"

Xernus then smirked. "I'm going to destroy the Vongola," he breathed heavily. "You took away my family when I was young! Now, Vongola Primo," he uttered the name like a curse. "I will destroy your family that you love one by one, starting with your nephew!"

"Me?" Tsuan squeaked. "Eek?"

"Bastard!" Gokudera growled as he stepped in front of Tsuna, dynamites in hand. Yamamoto, Ryohei and Chrome tensed as they took defensive positions around Tsuna.

"Oh, not now," Xernus said, clearly amused. "I won't kill you now. First I'll toy with you, only then I'll kill you!" On his final word, he drove his knee into Primo's stomach. Without pausing, he swung his leg around and caught Primo in the chest, sending him flying to the other side. Primo hit the wall hard and crumpled to the floor.

Tsuna gasped. In that instant, all his guardians charged at Xernus, intent on beating his up.

"Stop!" Alaude growled. A sudden pain shot up his arm and he fell down, his breathing becoming shallow and fast.

Xernus just took on everybody. With another kick, Yamamoto was thrown back by a few metres. Gokudera was taken out with a chop to his neck and Ryohei, even though he was an experienced boxer was taken out by a few punches to his vital points. Xernus left Chrome until the last, thinking that a girl like her wouldn't be that much of a problem. He learned otherwise when she swung her trident at him, narrowly missing him by a hair's breadth.

Xernus hit the girl on the head, causing her to fall unconscious on the floor. He felt a little guilty at what he had just done but quickly brushed the feeling aside. No time to let his mind wander. He had to focus on what he had to do right now.

Tsuna was really scared. Everyone except him was down. What am I gonna do? he thought silently, his hands on his head. I'm totally useless! I can't fight against Xernus! But, I have to save everyone!

"Then do it!" A clear, familiar voice, one that Tsuna dreaded a LOT rang out. Tsuna turned around and found himself staring down a green coloured gun.

"N-n-no!" Tsuna screeched and backed away.

Reborn ignored his student's plea and fired his gun.

Xernus couldn't believe what had just happened. A tiny infant (with a fedora to top it off) had just fired point blank at Tsuna. What exactly was going on here?

Reborn waited calmly and soon, he was rewarded for his effort when an orange flame appeared on Tsuna's head.

"RE-BORN!" Tsuna roared. "DEFEAT XERNUS WITH MY DYING WILL!"

"...the heck?" Xernus managed to say between his laughter. "You're gonna defeat me in your underwear?"

Tsuna leapt at Xernus, expression mad. "Hiyah!" he yelled as he kicked Xernus in the face. Xernus stumbled back, a hand over his mouth that was bleeding heavily.

Xernus swore like a drunken sailor on a bad hair day. He backed up against a window, the jagged pieces of glass tearing his clothes in countless areas.

"Crap!" was one of the less offensive words he uttered at that moment.

"Rawr!" Tsuna charged at Xernus, eyes mad.

Xernus however, had predicted Tsuna's mad charge. He stepped calmly aside and grabbed Tsuna by the arm. He swung his leg around and scored a direct hit into the boy's face. Tsuna stuttered but only for a while. He was up in an instant and charging towards Xernus again.

"Tch!" Xernus mumbled. He ducked his head and Tsuna flew over him and out of the window. Xernus could hear him hit the ground outside with a loud 'bam!'

"That's him done with," Xernus said, a smirk on his face, ignoring the steady drip of blood from his mouth.

The infant looked up at him, an equally evil smirk on his face. "I'll think twice if I were you."

A shadow fell across Xernuss. He gaped as Tsuna flew towards him, his mind processing just what had happened. Impossible as it was, Tsuna had managed (in a few seconds) to climb up the wall and back into the ballroom.

Another bolt of pain wrenched Xernus. He groaned. His body was already near its limits after being battered by dynamites and countless fights. He had to end the fight now.

"YOU'RE DEAD NOW, XERNUS!" Tsuna yelled as he went in for the finishing blow.

Xernus took out the emergency gun he stored in his coat. His finger tentively touched the trigger as he aimed at Tsuna.

Blood spurted out of Tsuna's leg. At that moment, his orange flame died out.

"OUCH!" Tsuna screeched in pain. "OWOWOWOWOWOW!"

Xernus blinked in surprise. He was absolutely sure he had not aimed at the boy's leg. He had been aiming at the head instead. So who had helped him? Xernus turned around and got a mild surprise. Valkyr was standing in the doorway, a gun in his hand. Note that said gun was smoking slightly.

"Boss!" Valkyr rasped out. "What're you doing?" he sounded apalled.

Xernus lowered his gun. "Let's get out of here," he said in a hoarse voice.

Valkyr was confused. His expression said it all. "But how about the...?"

Xernus snapped. "Just get the hell out of here!" he snarled, stamping towards the doorway angrily. "I've had enough for one day!"

Valkyr backed out fast, allowing his boss to pass. Then, with a last look at the ruined ballroom, he turned and followed his boss out of the mansion.

Reborn just stood and watch Xernus. He didn't try to stop him from leaving. He knew that whatever he did in the past would affect the future so he just stood still, watching.

In the future where Reborn belonged, there WAS a Xernus family. But Reborn had never dealt with them so he wasn't all too sure what was going to happen to them in the end.

He watched as Tsuna was shot in the leg and glowered at Xernus as he left the room. Cowards, he summarised.

Reborn strode over to where Tsuna was rolling around in pain and slapped him straight in the face. "Stop whining, Dame-Tsuna," he said sternly. "It's not a major wound."

Tsuna rubbed his stinging cheek. His leg still hurt, as though it was on fire. But desperation took hold of him.

"How can a single person decimate us?" Tsuna wailed unhappily.

"You need more training," Reborn said sharply. "And you should worry about something else too."

Tsuna instantly knew what Reborn was talking about. Around him, his friends lay injured and unconscious.

"Go and call the guardians upstairs, Tsuna," Reborn ordered as Leon transformed into a green bandage and wrapped itself around Tsuna's leg. "Now,"

With one last look at his fallen friends, Tsuna nodded and scrambled out of the ballroom.

Chapter 19 ~ Of Venice and Disguises

The crash resounded throughout the entire mansion.

"A-Alice!" Tsuna yelled panickedly, rushing over to the girl, who had slipped on the staircase. "Be careful! Your leg's not fully healed yet!"

Alice grimaced and hurled herself up from the floor. "I'm fine, Tsuna," she said softly. "It doesn't hurt anymore. Look!" she lifted her left leg which was bandaged.

Tsuna grinned. "But you still can't go running all over the place like a mad hare. G and Spade won't be happy if you mess up the place."

Alice was puzzled. " And why won't they be happy?"

Tsuna was spared with answering when he heard heavy footsteps coming towards him. He turned around to find G towering over him, his eyes hard.

"You, boy," G said curtly. "Bring the girl to the conference room. Primo needs her."

The way G had said 'her' sounded like the way he'd usually say 'Chiro Xernus' or 'Giotto's budget'.

Tsuna decided the wisest decision was to agree with G. "I'll be right along. Give us 5 minutes," he said.

G turned around and walked away. Tsuna could hear him mumbling something under his breath as he walked away. Tsuna knew that G wasn't happy with having him and his friends around. And now, Alice was staying together with them, so G's mood was especially foul.

"Come on, Alice," Tsuna said to Alice encouragingly. "We better go to the conference room before G decides that we need a dunking in the pond. Need any help?"

"I can manage," Alice said and nearly crashed down again when her injured leg struck the stairs at the wrong angle.

Tsuna sighed and hurled Alice gently up the stairs to the conference room.

In the conference room, Primo was leaning over a huge map spread over the spacious conference table, his brow creased. Next to him was Asari, who'd made a fast recovery. He was looking worried, his eyes darting around the room.

Daemon Spade stood a distance away, an amused smirk on his face. It was pretty obvious he considered the whole thing a waste of time. G was shooting fiery glares at him from time to time, but it was like water off a duck's back. Knuckle was scanning the map but he looked up at Tsuna when he entered the room together with a limping Alice. Lampo and Alaude were M.I.A (missing in action) as usual.

Primo gestured for Tsuna to join him. Tsuna went over to Primo's side, his eyes straying to the map laid on the table. "What country is this?" he enquired curiously.

Primo smiled gently. "It's a detailed map of Venice. Do you know what country Venice is in, Tsuna?"

Tsuna blushed. "Geography was never my strong point," And so was every subject at school, he added silently.

Surprisingly, Alice answered the question. "Venice is in northern Italy. It's famous for it's scenic views because it overlooks the sea. The houses are built on platforms above the water surface, so it's almost like a floating village."

All the guardians looked at Alie and she almost crumbled under the pressure but fortunately, Primo changed the subject.

"Yes, nothern Italy," Primo said briskly. "A beautiful country."

"The beautiful country where our friend, Xernus is based in," Daemon slotted in helpfully.

G glared at Daemon who was trying his best to look innocent. "Thank you so much for that snippet," G said in his special tone that meant the opposite.

Primo just ignored them. Their bickering was normal. In fact, if one day went by without the both of them trying to kill each other at least once, then only Primo would start worrying.

"We're pinpointing where Xernus headquarters are," Knuckle said, tapping a section of the map which had been circled with thick, red ink. "We only know it's near the main waterway of Venice, and that it's next to a warehouse." He looked at Alice pointedly. "We're hoping that Alice will help us find his base."

"What?" Tsuna said, horrified. "Whoa, hang on there, you're asking Alice to tell you the location of Xernus' base?"

"Well, she's the best option available right now," Knuckle said apologetically, shrugging his shoulders.

Primo frowned. It was clear that he wasn't very happy with the idea too. "I was suggesting that we can just scout the place and get information on where the base is. Alaude can help us with that."

Daemon groaned. "I told you before, Primo. The scouting will take at least a month for it to be effective. We can't afford to waste time."

"How about just marching into Venice and yelling for Xernus to come out?" G suggested.

"That's a reckless plan with not an inch of strategy at all." Daemon scoffed.

"Yeah?" G said, his eyes glinting. "And yours have all the strategy in it?"

"Now, now," Asari said soothingly. "No use quarelling over something so trivial. We have more important matters to settle at the moment."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, flute dude," G grumbled.

Primo turned to Alice. "Do you know where you brother's headquarters is?" he asked softly. Quickly he added. "If you don't want to tell us, don't worry. We'll think up of another way."

"No, we won't," Daemon and G said at the same time.

Alice appeared to be deep in thought for a while. After a tense silence, she limped over the huge table and looked at the map. She took up the the feather pen that was lying next to the map and marked a big 'X' on a building on the map.

"It's here," she said. It's near Venice's main waterway because then big brother will get his shipment of goods fast and the warehouse next to it is used to store all hie illegal goods."

"But isn't it kind of bold?" Asari mused. "He's unloading all his illegal stuff at the main waterway. Won't the water patrol catch him if he's doing it in broad daylight?"

Alice chuckled. "He's well known in Venice for being in the trading business, that's why he can pull it off."

"Smart git," G admitted grudgingly while running a hand roughly through his crimson hair.

At that moment, the door creaked open, and Reborn entered, a smile/smirk on his face. "Ciaossu everyone." he said grandly. Daemon shrank a little away from the door.

" Hello, Mr Reborn." Primo said humbly. " We were just starting."

"Sorry, I was taking a little nap. " Reborn reassured Primo. "Now, you said you needed me for something. What is it?"

"Well, we were hoping you had an idea on how to get us undetected into Venice." Primo said.

Tsuna wanted to shout. " DANGER! Don't ask Reborn for help! He'll just make a fool out of you!" But of course, he couldn't say it in front of Reborn himself, or he'll get himself another nice whack on the head.

Reborn looked at Tsuna, as though he could read Tsuna's mind (which he claimed he could). " I do have a few things for you to use if you want to disguise yourself." Reborn addressed Primo

"Yeah, yeah, hurray." Daemon yawned. "Can you just get on with it, infant?"

Reborn picked up the feather pen and threw it at Daemon. The tip scratched Daemon's cheek as it flew past him.

"HEY!" Daemon yelled, annoyed.

"Oops." Reborn said cheerfully before turning his back on a fuming Daemon. "I have a few items from our future that might help."

Primo brightened up. "What is it?"

Reborn started emptying all sorts of items out of his pockets. Out came contact lenses, mascara, eyeliner, foundation, and lipstick.

Tsuna's eye twitched. Why the hell did Reborn keep lipstick in his pocket?

However, the guardians had no idea that Reborn had just pulled out female cosmetics. Daemon picked up the lipstick. " And what is this supposed to be, infant?" he snapped.

"Oh, that?" Tsuna could almost see the evil plan that was spinning away in Reborn's mind. "It's for guys who want to make their lips look fresher. You can try that."

Daemone unscrewed the top and stared at the lipstick. "Why is it red?"

"Red is a lucky colour." Reborn said. "And in our future, it's a manly colour."

Tsuna nearly cracked up there and there, but a glare from Reborn silenced him instantly.

"How about this?" Primo called out, fingering the contact lenses.

"That can change your eye colour." Reborn said cheerfully, as usual. "I have clothes as well. Anybody wants them?"

Tsuna stifled a small laugh as he witnessed Daemon trying his (?) best to put on the lipstick.

"It's not working, infant!" Daemon said through a mouthful of red lipstick.

G was laughing openly, unlike Tsuna. "Hey Daemon, you look really manly."

Daemon picked up the foundation and tossed it at G. It nearly hit G in the face, but he managed to catch it in time.

G examined the foundation. "Now, what's this?"

"Manly stuff." Daemon snapped

Primo sighed. He turned to Reborn. "Are you sure these er... things are safe to use?"

"Oh yes, it's perfectly safe." Reborn said, ignoring the fact that Daemon was nearly choking on lipstick.

Tsuna groaned at the chaos Reborn had created. "Typical," he though silently as he watched G dab some foundation into his hair.

The flowerpot nearly smashed Neah's face and had he not duck in time, it would have smashed him.

Neah rubbed his grazed cheek, his eyes downcast. He dare not look up at his boss who'd thrown all sorts of stuff at him ever since he'd come back from Italy two weeks ago. Neah suspected that it had something to do with his less than perfect babysitting skills.

Xernus was in a towering rage. He paced up and down his office like a cat, occasionally picking up random stuff and throwing them at his poor commander, who was trying his utmost best to avoid them.

Finally, after a few minutes, Xernus calmed down. He sat down in his office chair, tilting it around to face his huge window which overlooked Venice's lovely waterways. There were trading boats docked at the port, some even from the country of China. Gondolas glided up and down the canals, oblivious to the fact that one of the Mafia's most vicious boss was watching them with a slightly amused expression on his face.

Xernus' head was wrapped up in bandages, evidence of his fight against the Vongola. His right hand had been sprained but Xernus wasn't too worried about it. He could use his left hand just as well as his right, so no problems there.

"Say, Neah," Xernus said softly, eyes fixeted on the gondolas. "What're the chances of the Vongola attacking our base in Venice?"

Neah looked up, startled. "None at all, sir," he muttered.

Xernus laughed. "That's why they're going to attack us, Neah," he turned his chair aorund to face his young commander. "I want you down at the waterway with another boat. You can take one of the minor commanders with you."

Neah was confused. It was pretty obvious by the expression on his face. "Eh? But why? Won't that stunt just attract attention to us?"

Xernus spinned a pen between his fingers. "That's because Alice would have told them by now where our HQ is, so...," Xernus stood up and grabbed a teacup on his table.

"Get on with it!" Xernus yelled, his voice raised. With deadly aim, he threw the teacup at Neah. It shattered instantly when it made contact with Neah's head.

"Yes sir," Neah said through gritted teeth and hurried out of his boss' office, his hand stained with blood as he tried to stop the blood flowing from his head. Once he was out of the office, he glared at the office door.

"Stupid boss." he said to himself. " I haven't told you everything yet. Like how Tsuna's from the future. Hmph. One day, you'll regret what you did to me." Neah's eyes glimmered. "I'll just take things into my own hand. Once I capture that boy, I'll grill him about everything he knows. That'll show the boss..."

"This disguise is totally useless."

"For the first time ever, I agree with Octopus head no. 2"

"Shut up, pineapple head no. 2. I can hit you with this paddle and you'll go sinking into Venice's canals forever and ever."

"Stop arguing guys. Remember, we're supposed to be tourists."

"Do I look like a damn tourist to you, Knuckle?"

Primo let his guardians' bickering calm him down. He too was feeling nervous. The contacts in his eyes stung and made him blink tears.

The contacts had been supplied by Reborn, who'd also helpfully explain to a very puzzled Primo what they were and how to use it. Apparently, it was something that had been invented in the future. Primo had to admist it was handy for disguises even though it hurt.

G was standing at the back of the gondola, using a long paddle to glide them across Venice's waterway. He was wearing a jacket with a hood (which;d been supplied by Reborn) to hide his hair and tattoo. He'd refused to wear a wig to hide his hair, claiming that it was too troublesome for him. Well, it was going to turn out troublesome for them if they get caught by the police on water patrol, since Primo had used his contacts near Venice to smuggle them in. In other words, they didn't have the legal paperwork to prove that they were tourists.

Alice sat next to Primo, her face partially hidden by the huge straw hat decorated with flowers. From afar, if anyone saw her, they'll just see a young girl with black hair enjoying the scenic views.

Knuckle and Daemon sat near the prow of the gondola, trying their best to look like tourists. However, no matter how hard they tried, the two just stood out awkwardly. Maybe it was Daemon's strikingly red lipstick. Or the way Daemon had used too much eyeliner.

Primo leaned back in the gondola, thinking. Lampo was back at the mansion, along with all the other kids. Only Tsuna was going to join them in this dangerous mission, and he was already at the Vongola's hideout in Venice. Primo had insisted on it. No way Tsuna was going yo accompany them when they scouted out for Xernus' warehouse. Primo had had to also reason with the rest of the angry kids over why he was leaving them. It was very dangerous, he'd explained, too dangerous for kids. Tsuna was going to join them only because he was the only one that Alice trusted and confided in. If Tsuna wasn't around, Alicewould just clam up and not reveal a single thing at all.

Alaude was already in Venice. He had been scouting around for a few days, just to see if there were any leads lying around the place but unfortunately for them, Xernus was a very tidy person. All traces of his trail had been erased completely and his associates had all disappeared off the faces of the earth.

The Vongola's gondola glided slowly, mile to mile to Xernus' base. All the while G, who was rowing the gondola, kept an alert watch over all the other boats just in case any of them turned out to be a boatload of Xernus cronies.

Primo leaned forward. "Alright, listen up please," he paused for a moment to make sure that Daemon was paying attention to him. "We might be storming Xernus' base but whatever you do, no maiming or killing and that includes you, Daemon."

Daemon sulked. "You just had to say it, huh?"

"Listen to Primo!" G hissed vehemently at Daemon.

"Fine, fine," Daemon growled. "I promise I'll do my best not to murder anyone..."

"...or maim them," Asari added.

"...or maim their bodies," Daemon finished but not before glaring at Asari.

Primo nodded, satisfied. But he made a mental note to remind G to watch over Daemon just in case he didn't keep to his promise.

"Is Alaude joining us?" Knuckle asked.

Primo shrugged. "Depends whether he feels like it."

"Depends?" G snapped. "Why, that self-centred pig!"

"Er, G?" Knuckle said nervously. "It's not very wise to call Alaude a pig."

"I don't care," G answered back. "That Alaude deserves it. Evrytime running off and disappearing when we need him the most!"

"That's just his personality," Primo shrugged. "You know he doesn't like to be grouped together with us."

"That's still no excuse for him to run off," Daemon said under his breath.

"Hark who's talking right now," G said sarcastically.

"At least I'm still here, right?" Daemon said evenly.

"Yeah, and who knows? Any moment you might decide to go 'poof'!"

"Like I'll ever do that, you stupid tattoo freak."

While G and Daemon were busy having their verbal battle, the rest were glancing all over the place, looking for any trouble that might headed their way.

It was Alice who spotted trouble first. She tugged at Primo's sleeve urgently, trying to get his attention.

"Hm?" Primo looked down at the girl. "You need something?"

Alice shook her head violently. She leaned out of the gondola and pointed at one of the boat that wasn't too far away from theirs.

"What is it?" Primo said in concern. He squinted at the boat that Alice had pointed out. It didn't stand out among the rest of the boats sailing up and down the waterway. But unlike the rest, it was floating slowly as though is was waiting for something or someone. Primo saw something on the deck glinting in the sunlight. A gun?

"Asari," Primo's tone was dead serious. "Pass me the telescope."

Asari got the telescope out of a random tool bag and passed it to Primo. He pressed his eye against the glass and squinted. He could see that all the boat's occupants were armed, their faces blank. One of them even had a sniper rifle.

Great. Things just couldn't get any better than that. Primo looked the boat up and down.

And he found Neah standing on the deck.

Primo nearly swore out loud. How did Xernus know they were coming?

"Hey, Giotto!" G asked. "What did you see?"

Without a word, Primo passed the telescope to G, who stopped his paddling for a while. After a few minutes, G uttered a single sentence that summed up their horrible situation.

"Oh, crap!"