"So you're Sawada Tsunayoshi? Kufufufu~ Entertain me a bit."

"Oi, Pineapple head!" Takeo yelled. "Why are you after No-Good Tsuna?"

It was then that Mukuro realized he REALLY didn't like this kid. He laughed darkly. "I hear you want to die."

Takeo rethought his question before it dawned on him that Mukuro MIGHT not like being called a pineapple head. Due to experience (aka Reborn), he knew it was best to not piss off the dangerous mafioso's that could kill him, so he fearfully replied, "I actually quite like living." In a whisper he added, "Please don't kill me."

Everyone looked at the scared Vongola don; their expressions all said, 'Seriously?'.

"Kufufufu~ I'm here for your brother anyway. You can always just die later!" The pinea- Mukuro exclaimed cheerfully.

"Bakeo was right to ask what you wanted with Tsuna," He held up his gun. "Tell me, or I'll shoot."

"My resources tell me he's the strongest in Namimori. I can't argue with him. He seems to be quite a famous informant; you might have heard of him?" Mukuro curiously looked at Tsuna. "His codename is Uomo Grigio."

For a fraction of a second, one could clearly see Tsuna's eyes widen before he regained control of his expressions. 'There's nothing I want more than to yell at that idiot,' he thought.

Suddenly, Mukuro was behind the brunette. "And what do we have in here?" He questioned, forcefully taking Tsuna's bag. This time, it was his turn to be surprised.

What was the one most noticeable thing in all of Mafia history? The answer: the cloak and gloves of the first boss of the strongest Mafia famiglia, in other words, precisely what Tsuna had in his bag. Seeing the shock as a chance to take the items back, Tsuna dashed forward and snatched his bag out of unsuspecting hands.

"What?" The confused man asked. "Why do you have those?!"

Tsuna turned slightly, not quite facing the group and his enemy. He flashed Mukuro a quick smirk before sprinting towards the Kokuyo Land school building.

Confused expressions littered the group's faces, friend and foe alike.

Takeo was the first to snap back to reality. "W-WAIT! DON'T RUN AWAY, YOU MORON!"

.....

"He never fails to amuse me," a teen clad in gray stated. He was hidden in the trees, watching his client's expression turn from shock and confusion to anger and rage. Tsuna had just taken off, and it took his friends a few minutes to comprehend what was going on.

Whatever was in that bag must've been important. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so desperate to get it back, and Mukuro would've been able to keep it away. So what was in that bag?

Grigio sank back into the shadows of the small forest and prepared to sneak his way across the clearing to the building (ultimately failing because he was wearing dark clothes in broad daylight, but he likes to imagine he was being sneaky).

He got another call and winced. This time, he'd ignore it.

.....

Tsuna ran into the demolished school building. During his run through the incredibly long hallway, he came across a black haired man with a scar on his cheek. "You won't get by. Mukuro is going to catch you," the man said.

"I don't have time for you!" Instead of stopping to acknowledge the fact that this man had basically just threatened him, he kept running. When he got to the surprised man's side, he used his momentum to swing around and send a kick to the taller man's back. It turned out he kicked so hard, the man was knocked out cold.

That's five down, how many more to go?

As far as he knew, there could be hundreds more just waiting for him deeper inside the building. he doubted that was the case, though. 'Let's see. M.M.; Birds; the twins; this guy, or Lanchia... I think there's only three left!' he thought.

'Now to find Hibari...'

He saw a staircase going down to his left. 'There.'

He flew down the stairs and came to a room full of rubble, the stairs being the only exit. That couldn't be right; his intuition never failed him before.

In the dim lighting, he spotted something shimmering on the floor. He walked over to the object, to be greeted with one of Hibari's tonfas. Looking more carefully, traversing behind a bigger piece of rubble, he found that this particular piece was a blown-out part of the wall, connecting this room to the one next to it. That's where Hibari was sitting, with his back against the opposite wall.

Tsuna grinned. 'Target found! He doesn't seem to be in very good shape though.'

And he wasn't. Hibari glared up at Tsuna, blood that looked to be dry left trails on his face. There were also bloodstains on his school shirt, which was definitely a bad sign. Hibari would never purposefully tarnish the pride of his Namimori by getting the uniform dirty with opponents blood. That must mean it was his.

"Can you stand?" Tsuna asked.

Hibari paid no attention to the fact that Tsuna was suddenly talking, but instead got up to his feet only to stumble and almost fall. Luckily for him, Tsuna caught him, and threw Hibari's arm over his own shoulder for support. Tsuna practically dragged the injured teen to the neighboring room before having him sit on a part of the wall.

"I'll be right back," Tsuna said. He glared at Hibari. "You saw and heard nothing, understand?"

"Hn."

"I'll take that as a yes." Tsuna walked back to the room he found Hibari in to change his clothes. He took out the cloak and gloves from Primo, a hat, and a face mask.

Tsuna came back out with no bag and a completely different outfit. This would be one of those rare times when Hibari showed any emotion aside from anger. This time, he showed confusion. What he saw was the (previously identified as) carnivore come back out of the room they had just come from wearing a different set of clothes; a cloak; a fedora, to cover most of his gravity-defying hair; and a black mask that showed nothing but his brown eyes. Unless you saw him go to change, as Hibari did, you wouldn't be able to figure out who it was, even if you did know Tsuna.

He helped Hibari get up, so they could walk.

.....

The two arrived in a large room. It seemed that, at some point, everyone had moved here for the final battle. Why? Well who cares anyway.

All conscious people (which weren't many) turned their eyes towards the newcomers. Hibari immediately ran towards Mukuro to attack. Everyone stood there and watched as the severely injured teen swung one tonfa at Mukuro.

Before they knew what was happening, sakura trees were surrounding them. Hibari stopped for a moment, then continued to attack (though he was NOT pleased with the sakura).

Sadly, Mukuro was able to defend himself, and Hibari went out like a light.

Gokudera, Takeo, and Reborn turned to Tsuna, as they were the only ones conscious. However, they couldn't tell it was him.

"Kufufu~ Who's next?" Mukuro asked. He smiled creepily.

Everyone ignored him. "Tell us who you are," Reborn demanded.

"The person you've been looking for," Tsuna replied.

The student and teacher sported looks of shock. Gokudera and Mukuro smirked.

"Where's Tsuna?" Reborn asked calmly.

"I assume since you're asking he's somewhere around here."

"WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE?!" Takeo screamed at him.

Tsuna winced. "I just so happened to be passing through and heard screams of pain. It interested me. Then I found that guy," he pointed to Hibari, "and I continued to this room."

What he said was only a partial lie. Well, he could hear screaming down the hall... and he did find Hibari...

"Kufufufu~" A weird laugh could be heard from across the room. It seemed everyone had forgotten about Mukuro for the moment. "You're Sawada, aren't you?" He pointed towards Tsuna.

"I believe you have me mixed up with someone else. You see, I'm not a part of the Vongola. He technically is." Tsuna lied.

"Interesting. Then how do you explain your clothes?" Mukuro wittingly asked.

"Hm? Gift from Vongola Primo. We hit it off quite well." Tsuna mused.

"WAIT, you met Primo?! Degli, why didn't you tell us?" Takeo walked towards his brother, fully prepared to yank the mask off the hacker's face.

Mukuro smirked. "So that's your big secret! Kufufu~"

"Mukuro," Reborn said. "You know his identity?" He looked like a very dangerous baby in that moment. His fedora shadowed his eyes; killing intent seemed to roll off of him in waves. How could Mukuro figure it out so easily?

Tsuna was unfazed by this. It was the time when Mukuro saw what was in the bag. Primo's cloak. It was a dead-giveaway. "Now then, Rokudo Mukuro. I assume you wanted a fight?" Tsuna turned to Mukuro. He put on the Vongola Primo's gloves.

"Of course. Grigio did praise you for your fighting techniques," Mukuro readied his trident.

Tsuna's gloved hands lit with orange flames, and his brown eyes turned orange.

"Hm, a sky flame? Kufufu~ How fascinating!" Mukuro cheered. "You'd be a useful pawn."

Reborn, Takeo, and Gokudera stood on the sidelines and watched as Mukuro charged towards the hacker. Mukuro seemed ready to dice him up into little pieces.

Mukuro charged, his trident out in front of him. Just before he reached Tsuna, said person sidestepped and grabbed the trident with a fiery flash. He automatically twisted and delivered a blow to Mukuro's back.

Mukuro, who had just flown about 10 feet and into a wall, gave his creepy laugh. Suddenly, pillars of lava shot up from the ground, casting a reddish tint over the room.

"So you have mist flames," Tsuna observed.

"What would you except of an illusionist?" Mukuro smirked and charged forward again.

Tsuna easily dodged. "You're playing dirty. Hiding rocks in an illusion; did you not think I would notice?"

"Kufufufu~ Well done. I don't think I will be able to win this." Mukuro brought a gun up to his head and pulled the trigger. He fell dead to the ground.

"That was a bit morbid. You can come out now, Mukuro. I know you're not dead!" Tsuna called.

Takeo chuckled. "Very good, Degli. You saw right through me."

"Possession bullet, right? My, how'd you get your hands on that?"

"I was experimented on by the Estraneo famiglia," he deadpanned.

"How did I forget that? Oh well, it doesn't matter, because," he suddenly disappeared from their sight. He was behind Takeo's body in a second, "I can just knock out this body. Hayato, do you think you can take care of the others?"

Gokudera saluted Tsuna. "Of course!"

"Good. That leaves one target."

Mukuro rose again in his own body. "I didn't expect you to see through it so fast. You are, in fact, a frightening opponent."

"What a pity you're so weak. I thought this would've been fun," Tsuna complained. "It seems my work here is almost done."

Gokudera walked back into the room with two people in tow. He dragged them by their shirt collars. "I've got them!"

"That was surprisingly fast. Now, it's time to end this, Mukuro. The Vindice will be here soon; neither of us want to be captured."

"Kufufufu~" Mukuro laughed. "There's one path, of the six, you haven't seen yet. This is the fifth path, the path of humans!" He practically dug his fingers into his eye to activate the supposedly dangerous skill. When he took his hand away, his one red eye showed the symbol for "5", and his body was surrounded by indigo flames.

With his power-up, Mukuro charged forward towards Tsuna, who in turn caught the trident the other was holding with one hand. His other hand followed. The orange flames surrounding his gloves flared, and he bent the hot, metal piece to a ninety degree angle.

"What?!" Pure shock filled Mukuro's face as Tsuna proceeded with a counterattack. He jumped back just in time. "How is the aura emitting heat?! That's impossible!"

"It isn't an aura. The dying will flame is a compressed energy that possesses it's own destructive properties," Reborn explained.

"Not only that," Tsuna started, "it can be used as a boost." He appeared behind Mukuro and delivered a powerful kick to the head, knocking him unconscious.

Tsuna smirked. "You never had a chance."

Chains came out of nowhere as Mukuro and Gokudera's two hostages (Ken and Chikusa) were dragged over to three men wrapped in bandages.

'Crap! Vindice is here!'

"Degli twenty-seven."

Tsuna looked around nervously. "Yeah, that's me."

"You are threat to the Mafia," The one in the middle said.

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. It isn't like I'm going to do anything bad. At least not by your standards."

"We will keep a close eye on you."

Tsuna sighed in relief. "Thanks."

And just like that, Vindice wasn't after him anymore. Should it really have been that easy? He had a bad feeling about this...

.....

No! The future depended on Degli's alliance with the Vongola (so says his future self. A time paradox messaging system. Who would've thought?), who would in turn keep him away from Vindice. Grigio had thought getting Vindice on the scene would force this, but it seems that he needed another plan.

Wait, the Varia were coming soon, right? Maybe if he brings the Vindice back, to where there was no way of escape, he would end up using the Bazooka. Would that be his thought process, though? In all respect, Degli IS smart, maybe he should contact him about the future peril. For now, though, go through with the plan.