This chapter in particular was extremely difficult to write, that it took me 2 whole years, because it was the chapter that caused me burn out as well. See, I didn't really want to write the plan I have for this chapter, and I tried forcing myself too, and it didn't work out. So I now said, screw it, I'll let the chapter run for itself.

So yeah, we have some stuff going on in the background now. It'll start to get darker from now on, but to be honest, this story has already showcased quite a number of darker elements, just subtly, except for that PTSD one, which was quite the ride, even for me.

So this chapter, well, have fun, my entire plan for the story has now been derailed, (not so, just things happening that I have no control over), and let's see where this ride takes us.

It's still going to be found family-like, especially with Tsuna and co, but the darker undertones will start showing themselves more.

Case in point, and spoiler for this chapter, the three skies have been exposed to the mafia since young, is it really surprising that they would know how to use guns?

Another thing, I can't write romance, I physically can't, that's another burn out topic for me, so any romantic or ships going on here, will only be subtle and up to interpretation, finding out I'm ace makes a lot of sense.

I really want to go through a full rewrite of this story, since my writing style has definitely changed, but student life so.......

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Chapter 23

An Unsettling Turn of Events

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"Who are these men? They don't seem like they're from any of the local Yakuza or gangs."

"Some mafiosi looking to stake a claim over Namimori, specifically, the YUNIted area, this has never happened before, so I'm not surprised it finally did. This is just a wager, I doubt it's only staking a claim."

"So we don't know their actual motives?"

"Correct."

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That morning started weirdly for Tsuna.

He woke up with his normal 6am alarm, before anyone else did. Or so he thought. The second his feet touched the first floor, he immediately wanted to say 'nope' and walk back up to his bed, ignoring the fact that he had already showered and tidied his bed.

"Bianchi-san, what are you doing here?" He yawned, blinking twice to make sure that yes, Bianchi was laying down on the couch throwing a...... knife? Well, it was a slightly eroded knife, probably due to her poison cooking. Throwing a knife up and down. Yep, she was still there, okay he wasn't dreaming. And Reborn was somewhere around, great....

"Oh hello Tsunayoshi. I realise we haven't formally been introduced," Bianchi glanced at him. Not wrong, he thought, for the entire summer, it was rare to see Tsuna at home, and Bianchi was often around Namimori or Reborn or Ieyoshi anyway. "Apologies for our first meeting, I thought you were the Decimo."

She didn't sound sorry at all, he thought wryly.

"That is fine, Bianchi-san." He was still confused, he wouldn't have guessed that she would apologise, or rather, just carry out the motion of apologizing. He had a feeling that she was trying to get somewhere, but in a round-a-bout fashion, funny, very typical of a mafioso.

They were very unused to actually apologizing, that he knew.

The hitwoman sighed and sat up from the couch, startling Tsuna a bit who eyed her curiously. She hesitated for a few seconds, as if trying to compose her thoughts, or get the words out, who knows, but she eventually spoke. "I want to thank you for being there for Hayato, I haven't........ I haven't seen him smile or act so carefreely ever since his mother died. And I suppose, I wasn't really a good sister to him, his body seems to curl on itself when I'm near him, quite odd." she mused.

Tsuna raised his eyebrows subtly at the last one. "He's my friend, I will always be there for him." He said with resolve which resulted in a grateful and approving smile from the other.

"You may not be a future boss, but I think that he would do anything for you too. A Sky, a good Sky, is rare and difficult to come by." She said with a far-off gaze, and Tsuna couldn't help but have a dreading feeling at that gaze.

Could she be...... Scorched? Or in Discord? He couldn't tell without feeling her flames first, but seeing as how Reborn brought her here to be the Decimo's Guardian, it probably wouldn't be a good idea...

Tsuna merely nodded in acknowledgement and gratitude as he silently walked out of the room, seeing as how she was already in lost in her memories.

As soon as he left, Reborn walked out from wherever he had been hiding the entire time. "The summer has been good to him, hasn't it, Reborn?" Bianchi said, thinking of the kid she met. A stuttering mess, that turned out to be because of a traumatic past. "His stutter is lessening, very noticeably. He's starting to become confidence, you can hear the beginnings of it in his voice."

Reborn tipped his fedora, his eyes held a satisfied glint, yet still determined to uncover the teen's secrets. Just like any other Sky, a lot of mental damage could be repaired just by having close bonds with their elements. However,......

"Bianchi, what does he feel like to you?"

Bianchi looked thoughtful. "Now that you mention it, if I didn't give it a second thought, I would say Sky. But now considering it, there seems to be a secondary element to him."

"Indeed, I should test him for Flame Alignment when he gets back." The hitman smirked, another piece of the puzzle that was Sawada Tsunayoshi would soon be falling in place.

Somewhere in the kitchen where Tsuna was still preparing some breakfast, an extra two plates for Reborn and Bianchi alongside his and mama's, he felt a shiver run down his spine and he glared at the living room, knowing that the cause of this sudden feeling of dread originated from there.

Reborn......

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"Hey! You picked up! L-let me just, hold on, itekimasu!! Okay, so-"

Tsuna walked out the door, with a quick 'itekimasu' and his phone to his ear, and once the door shut, Bianchi turned to Reborn , her eyes asking a million questions at once. "Who do you think he is speaking to? I haven't seen him call anyone before, it's easier for him to just look for his friends. This is a small town, not even Ieyoshi calls his friends."

5 minutes to 8, 35 minutes to reach Namichuu, Baka-Ie is going to be late. Reborn absent-mindedly noted, not as if it matters much to him, it gives him more chances to play his games with the younger twin. "Mama, do you know?" he instead turned the question over to Tsuna's mother, who obviously knew more than the two of them did. It was times like these that made him mourn over the fact that he couldn't spend more time stalking the older twin.

He isn't ashamed to say it's stalking, though he would claim it's just 'mild and curious observation' to anyone who asks.

The smiling housewife had been cheerfully enjoying the dish Tsuna had prepared --kedgeree, that's different from his usual, it tasted mediocre, perhaps he was experimenting-- and her eyes seemed to reflect the light with the joy she was radiating. "Oh Tsu-kun, it's probably a foreign friend. I'm so happy he keeps in contact with them."

Reborn's mind immediately went to a few suspects, namely the suspicious online friends who could've recently exchanged phone numbers, maybe even that white-haired child, or, dare he hope, the Giglio Nero family. From the tone when Tsuna greeted whoever was on the other end, it was someone around the same age and probably someone with either timezone problems --which would make sense with all the suspects-- or maybe someone he didn't expect to actually answer? Then that could narrow it down to the..... nevermind, that narrowed down nothing.

He clicked his tongue in irritation, there was nothing as of yet for him to go off of in figuring out whoever this foreign friend was.

That's if it even was foreign, it could even be someone he hadn't come across mentions of yet.

Gokudera and Yamamoto would have already been waiting for Tsuna, as per normal, same with the skylark in doing his duties, the two girls he knew the enigma was close with wouldn't call him, not right now when they were all already waiting for him just like normal.

Damn it. He was going to lead himself into a wild goose chase without any substantial leads.

He hopped off of his chair, after finishing his breakfast of course, and mentally noting down every single criticism so he could be a good mentor to the older boy afterwards, and ventured up the stairs to Baka-Ie's room, where he could take out his frustrations.

He listened as Bianchi entered the shower and Lambo still doing whatever he was doing in the only other remaining toilet and a devilish smile made itself a home on his face, oh yes, Ieyoshi was going to make an excellent stress relief.

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"-is going good. Oh, I'll hang up here, s-someone's selling bao. Bye!"

Tsuna walked up to the stand where a short, dressed-head-to-toe person stood on the counter. Fon, he remembered, Aria had taught him how to identify most of the arcobaleno. Such as Fon can make his own chinese delicacies and sells bao as a street vendor whenever he has to give his student, whoever they are --Fon hides them good, and Viper won't betray that knowledge to anyone-- a mission, or that Viper levitates and is never away from their familiar, how Reborn is always where a good cup of espresso is and more.

Strange, why is he here in Namimori though? He pondered, but ultimately decided to leave it be, buying a char siew bao from the disguised Arcobaleno, since his intuition wasn't exactly going off.

Whatever it was, he decided it wasn't any of his business, until it does become one. Besides, Namimori was Kyoya's territory, whatever the Arcobaleno and his student wanted to do here, if it was dangerous to the town Kyoya could handle it.

He couldn't help but remember the sudden tension and aggression Kyoya had when he talked about the Arcobaleno to him, back when he had brought them up to the skylark, a good time ago. No doubt something to do with Fon, but whatever it was seemed rather personal, he didn't pry, Kyoya was his friend after all, and any past or anything tying back to the Arcobaleno was flimsy at best, and non-existent at worst, which was most of the time.

He didn't particularly had the mood to deal with much of anything that happened throughout the day, to be completely honest. Going through the day seemed very much like a chore, things were just weighing on his mind constantly. He knew that the people around him had noticed, but the commotion the entire day just made them turn their focus on other things, after all, he was just lost in his head a lot.

Even when the little assassin Ipin accidentally mistook him, and then Ieyoshi, for her original target, he just stood there, letting Hayato, Ieyoshi, Takeshi and the rest deal with it. The cause for this mood?

Well, it is to do with his earlier call.

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"Okay so, I'm not apologizing for waking you up if you were asleep, just to set things clear."

"Meanie Tsu-chan! Of course I'm awake! It's only 1am!"

"That's still l-late, Bya-kun! Anyway, I've some, um, bad news to share." Tsuna sounded rather apologetic, contrary to his words, but not because he interrupted the albino's night time, no, he would never feel guilty for that. In fact, he would delight in doing it, if only he weren't at school, he would definitely have done it. It was because Byakuran had just went back to Italy, when problems started to arise.

"We found mafiosi skulking about YUNIted, they were planning to break-in, for whatever reason. Michaelo took care of them before anything happened. We speculate whoever sent them are looking to destabilize the neutral zone."

There was a loud bang from the other side of the call, and Tsuna spared a second to wonder if it was the albino slamming his fist on something in anger, or there was a gun nearby and his friend got trigger-happy. After all, Yuni was still in Namimori, and the cafe was their pet project and another home.

Tsuna hummed when he heard three more consecutive bangs and waited for the albino to get his fury out, before continuing in a nonchalant tone.

It wasn't the first time guns were shot in anger, but they, being him, Yuni and Byakuran, usually don't like using the weapon that much, it ruins their image of innocence to the outside world, which is quite the weapon when utilized properly.

Not to say they won't, they know better than that. It's just not their first option, not usually anyway.

"Yu-chan is fine, no one spotted her or connected the dots, they didn't even make it inside the building, we're closing the cafe for two weeks, maybe more."

There was a huff, some sounds that made Tsuna wince, glass crashing to the floor, yeah, Byakuran was definitely already in a mood before he had called.

The older was always careful to push away any moodiness or psychotic feelings that would abruptly arise in him whenever he's around his fellow Trinisette skies, he suspected Yuni doesn't know about this problem, but Tsuna definitely does, and Bya-kun knows he knows too. Having the Mare ring had amplified those problems to 11, but where it started, no one knew, perhaps it was also the Mare ring that was the cause of it.

Oh, now he felt some guilt that he didn't start off with any pleasantries, but it was rather urgent anyway. He probably should buy some marshmallows for him for when he inevitably comes back, probably within the week.

"Tsu-chan," even with the nickname, Tsuna could feel the rage from Byakuran's voice. "Did you manage to find out their motives? How many were there? Who are they associated with?"

Tsuna paused by the roadside, leaning against a lamp pole to sigh and rub his head, feeling a headache welling up again at the thought of the previous day's discovery.

"Surface guess was that they were looking to take over our cafe and the neutral area here, a-as for why, maybe because Namimori is Vongola's territory, and t-taking over a land here will give them an edge, lack of security and all." Flimsy reason, flimsy guess, with primarily taking the publicly (to the mafia at least) known thing of Namimori into account.

Personally, that was just a surface guess, he had another speculation that was far worse when put into reality. "There were, if I remember correctly, over 15, Michaelo killed one or two that tried to escape, the others were taken and captured by Michaelo to somewhere only he knows." The bodies had been destroyed easily, Michaelo was an expert after all.

Thankfully, it being after school hours meant that Kyoya was patrolling elsewhere that usually had more 'traffic'. Else, everything would get a lot more complicated, involving technically civilians in this matter.

"The Hibari do not know about this?" he was interrupted by Byakuran's sharp tone, oh, he was in Boss mode, and he was furious too, Tsuna wondered if he should wish the best for the lives of those mafiosi, but decided to just shrug and make a note to get Byakuran to save some for him.

"No, they do not. Michaelo took care of it quickly, I was near enough to hear the commotion."

"Why did he not text us?"

"He broke his phone, in anger. You understand." there was a little tease in the end, referring to Byakuran's breaking everything around him over where he was at, and Tsuna was rewarded with a very genuine and familiar Bya-kun whine, he could hear the pout in his voice too.

He'd try his best to drag Bya-kun out of the madness that was clouding his brain, especially when Michaelo was not around to help him instead.

"I could not find any identifying famiglia insignias on their bodies or clothes." Tsuna frowned, looking at the time, he still had a good amount of time before he had to get to class in time. "Some committed suicide, we managed to stop some other suicides, but we had already lost some."

"Cyanide pill?"

"Cyanide pill."

"Continue."

Tsuna had a half-hearted thought to tease the albino that he was being 'Bossy', but vanished the thought. He had the right to, after all, he was already drifting in madness, anger and worry, and despite his childlishness, he was the agreed-upon leader of him, Yuni, and Tsuna.

"I tried getting into their minds, like Lal did for me years ago." A pause. "It didn't work, I don't know how to do it, it seems. So I tried fooling their minds into thinking I was their respective superiors demanding their reports. It worked, on half of them. I'll text you the famiglie names later."

"Only half? And plural? You mean multiple famiglie are involved in this?" The albino's tone rose sharply, and a few other bangs and glass smashing went off.

Tsuna groaned. "Please don't shoot your windows." When there was nothing but silence, he sighed. "Great, have f-fun fixing them. And yes, the other half seemed to be hired hitmen with no connections to any famiglia, they didn't need to submit reports to anyone, so they caught on quickly. Michaelo told me that he'd deal with interrogating them."

"Hitmen. Third party. Hired. Hitmen."

"....Yes."

He could hear an audible inhale being taken. "Anything else~?"

"I have a... speculation?" He frowned at his own thoughts. "A very, worse-case scenario one."

"Tell me."

"They might be after hostages."

"So, you mean Yuni, or you. Only the truly insane and suicidal would dare target Michaelo after all~" speaking of insane, Tsuna could hear a maniacal cackle coming from the other side of the line.

"Basically yes, and that it might be an alliance of Famiglie."

"Is that your intuition telling you?"

Tsuna paused to think about it, he wasn't really relying on his intuition that much, it forewarns him of danger but that's really all it does, no matter how useful it is. "It's my speculation, I plan on hacking into some enemy famiglie of the Vongola once I'm away from the hitman in my house."

"As long as you'll be safe, Tsu-chan~" Ah, and there he goes again, pretense or sincere playfulness? Could the madness have cleared already, or was this another issue of suppression? Tsuna wished that he was there with him. "And where is Yu-chan? Oh! And you'd better buy me marshies!! You interrupted my night time!" the albino whined.

To anyone who wasn't used to dealing with these shifts in personality due to the madness level in the albino's mind, they might find it unsettling and disturbing, but Tsuna was used to it.

"Yuni has been moved elsewhere, Michaelo is doing who-knows-what, Yuni's location is a safe one, but I have a feeling she might have to fly back to Italy if it happens again."

A moment of silence before the albino's voice, softer and duller this time, came through the line.

"If they were looking to take hostages to draw out the benefactor of cafe YUNIted, you're a target too, Tsuna-kun."

There was no playfulness there, just a dull, fact-stating tone that betrayed no other emotion, but Byakuran resorting to such tone could only tell Tsuna that he was extremely worried, and the madness was returning.

And not even the playful nickname too.

The madness that Michaelo had feared, that he thought had vanished because of Sky Stability, but Byakuran had always hidden it away from everyone, except him, his fellow sky, because he knew, oh, he knew, he was all too familiar with it, and his intuition would be annoying if he attempted to ignore it.

"They won't find me, they don't know what I look like, or even Yu-chan."

"I will return to Namimori within the next few days."

"Where will you stay?" Tsuna furrowed his brows, he expected that, but YUNIted was compromised for the time being, if any of the mafiosi ran into Bya-kun, a slaughter would commence and they couldn't have that right now. His house had too many individuals and Reborn. Even Michaelo was staying elsewhere for the time being, somewhere different from Yuni.

"Don't worry about it. Can you skip school today? Or tomorrow?" At this, Tsuna paused in his pacing --when did he even start pacing, he must've been anxious-- to stare at the distance in confusion.

"Not today, Reborn would wonder and hunt me down. Tomorrow..... I don't know how will I fool Reborn, in such short notice...."

"Find a way."

That tone was sharp, something was cooking in Bya-kun's mind if he has detached himself in such a manner, something big. He doubted Bya-kun even noticed his tells, but Tsuna had learnt from a young age that being observant meant the difference between death and life.

"Fine. I need to hang up now however, it's getting close to class time." he started speed walking down alleys and shortcuts where Ieyoshi and Reborn didn't take usually when walking, or running, to Namichuu.

"One last thing, Tsu-chan~"

Oh, he's back now, is he? That mischievous tone, Tsuna wondered what he wanted to say now and prepared himself for the most ridiculous thing ever. Or it could be something normal, who knows with Bya-kun sometimes.

"How's playing with the hitman going, hm, Tsu-chan? His strings are so tempting to pull isn't it!!" Another laughter rang through the line, but this time it was more playful and scheming, definitely different from the first one.

Tsuna sighed and couldn't help but smile and lightly laughed, there had been many close calls, too many for comfort, and he was sure there was going to be another that very well could mess up his plans later on in the day, but he'll deal with that later.

"Everything is going good." At that, he spotted a food stall across the street and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, I'll hang up here, s-someone's selling bao. Bye!"

He left the call on for a few more seconds, on the off case that the person in interest in front of him could hear him, and on the off case said person was in contact with Reborn, but he knew that he had already given important information to Bya-kun with that sentence.

On the other side, the albino softly giggled to himself.

"The storm Arcobaleno in Namimori? Interesting."

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Long time since I've updated this, I'm going to have to reread this entire thing to pull together the strings I've laid and to not accidentally contradict anything. I do hope you enjoy this chapter, I've tried so hard, to follow my outline of this story, but I kept getting burn out, so I decided to just let the story run by itself, and this is what happened.

Well, this should be fun to write for me.