Chapter One

Intro Reborn and the Dying Will Bullet!

It had been business as usual in Namimori Town that day. The third years in middle school were graduating, which caused there to be much excitement between the Yamamoto and Sasagawa households. Takeshi had to stop Haru from fussing over their daughter before the graduation ceremony and Hana almost did not make it back from the airport in time with Ryohei, as his flight in from Sri Lanka was delayed over two hours. They made it though, with only a few minutes to spare.

The ceremony was forgettable; the principal spoke in a monotonous drone and ended up saying nothing of importance. Some girl received the highest grades and a boy took home the perfect attendance award. The rest of the students wanted to break free of the droll formalities that they paced through so much so that there was a collective cheer amongst them once the principal informed them that it was over.

It took until everyone was outside for Ryohei to finally snap a photograph of the teens. His son had an arm wrapped around his nephew’s shoulder, pulling the smaller boy into a potentially deadly grip. The Yamamoto girl tried to get in on the fun as well, yet only ended up leaning on the Sasagawa boy’s other side with a grin plastered on her face.

“You know Ryohei,” Hana said as she saw the image on the camera screen, “I think I have a picture like that at home.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Masaru would need a high school uniform and Kiyohiko and Haruhi would have to trade genders, but it’s a picture of you with Kyoko and Yamamoto at their graduation.”

“You have a picture like that Hana?” Haru asked. “That seems oddly nostalgic.”

“I manage.” The women shared a laugh before Ryohei shattered the moment.

“Where’d the kids go?” he asked. “I’ll be extremely disappointed if I only got the one shot in.”

“They probably ran off,” Takeshi chuckled. “They are our kids after all.”

“Yeah, but I think Kyoko and Tsuna would be upset if they only get one picture of their son on his graduation day,” Haru explained. Takeshi thought for a moment and nodded.

“I guess you’re right, but they’ll understand. Those children are unstoppable.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“So, do you think they followed us?” Haruhi asked as Masaru poked his head out of the alleyway.

“Nope,” the light-haired boy replied. “I think we’re good. All that extreme training we did certainly helped out when Osamu-kun chased us in the park last weekend, didn’t it Little Cousin?” The two glanced over at Kiyohiko, who was leaning against the wall as he tried to catch his breath.

“What is the matter with you two!?” he panted. “Don’t you think we should’ve stayed with Ryo-oji-san and Hana-san and Haruhi-san’s parents?”

“Yohi-kun,” Haruhi said through one of her million-watt smiles inherited from her father, “We have a week off to do whatever we want with no homework or consequences… don’t you think we should make the best of it?”

“…but that was our graduation back there!”

“It’s not like we won’t graduate again in three years,” Haruhi said. “Besides, there’s a new sporting goods store in the shopping district I wanted to check out. It’s supposed to have some of the equipment they use overseas in America!”

“Fine, then let’s go,” Kiyohiko sighed. All it meant to him was that there was going to be another store in the world where he did not really belong in.

“Hey, man, we are not going to go to the extreme shopping district dressed as middle school brats,” Masaru said, pulling his cousin back by the elbow. He tilted his head towards the other end of the alley and chuckled. “We’re gonna go get changed first so we look more like real high school kids. Haruhi already dropped some clothes off at our house, so we only gotta make one stop.”

“Lovely,” Kiyohiko sighed as he followed his cousin and friend down the alley. “…and here I was thinking I might get some rest this week.”

It was not a long walk back to the Sasagawa-Kurokawa-Sawada residence. When they saw that Hana’s car was parked outside the gate, they had to sneak in through the back in order to avoid being caught. Luckily for them, she and Ryohei were preoccupied with going through a large box of pictures to make much note of them being there. The kids crept up the stairs and opened the door to Kiyohiko’s room, only to be met with a baby sporting a suit and a fedora sitting on his bed.

“Sawada Kiyohiko, I have come to train you in preparation for becoming a proper Mafia boss. Die now.”

The three teenagers stood in the entrance of the room, frozen in disbelief. The baby frowned at the trio, who were displaying a myriad of emotions. Kiyohiko was frightened and Masaru was confused, while Haruhi killed the moment by laughing.

“What a cute kid!” she chuckled. Haruhi walked up to the baby and grinned broadly. “Are you Masaru-kun and Yohi-kun’s new neighbor? I saw the moving van down the street before going to school, but I didn’t think there were little kids moving in.”

“You are wrong Yamamoto Haruhi. My name is Reborn and I am here to tutor Sawada Kiyohiko as he trains to become a mafia boss,” the baby said. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Haruhi’s forehead. “Move aside if you value your life.”

“I guess he wants to play,” Haruhi grinned.

“I don’t think that he wants to play Haruhi-san!” Kiyohiko panicked, pulling his friend away from the baby by her neckerchief. It felt strange for him to do so, as she normally wore the boys’ uniform yet opted out that day since it was graduation (he normally pulled her back by her jacket collar).

“Come on Little Cousin! I don’t think the kid means any harm,” Masaru laughed. “If he got in with Hana-san in the house, I’m sure he’s alright; she doesn’t let in just anyone you know.”

“Come on kid, just put the gun down,” Kiyohiko said, trying his best not to panic.

“Sawada Kiyohiko, you are next in line to become the next Vongola boss,” Reborn said.

“No, I don’t! Why do you think I moved to Japan? I don’t want that!”

“You are not strong yet; you are weak with despair and regret.” Reborn cocked the gun and smirked. “Die.”

Reborn pulled the trigger and shot Kiyohiko in the forehead. The teen was flung backwards due to the bullet’s momentum and landed on the floor with a thud.

“Whoa, what’d you do that for?!” Masaru shouted. Reborn put away his gun and stayed emotionless.

“It is his first step to becoming a good mafia boss,” the infant replied. Haruhi and Masaru both jumped when they heard Ryohei charge up the stairs and slam the door open.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!” he demanded upon seeing Kiyohiko bleeding out on the floor. Once the man looked up and saw Reborn, a seemed to click in his brain and he sighed in relief. “Oh, it’s just you. I thought you were coming Tuesday.”

“Check your notes,” Reborn said, hopping down from the bed and poking the still teen with his foot. “This one seems to be taking a while.”

“Hiiii! You killed him!” Haruhi screeched.

“Be patient Yamamoto,” Reborn said. He turned to look at Kiyohiko and paused. Suddenly, the teen popped out of his clothes, the Dying Will Flame burning brightly upon his forehead. Masaru and Haruhi both did a double-take as he roared in determination.

“BECOME LIKE MY FATHER WITH MY DYING WILL!!”

“Wha…?” Masaru and Haruhi gaped as the boy bolted from the room. Ryohei chuckled as his nephew nearly ran him over.

“Better go get him,” the man snickered. “He’s likely to get himself into some extreme trouble like that if you two don’t stop him.”

Masaru and Haruhi both looked at one another before it simultaneously came to them—Kiyohiko was their voice of reason. Lose him and things were sure to not end well.

“Yohi-kun! Snap out of it!” Haruhi yelled as the two rushed out into the hall. They almost ran over Hana as she came up the stairs clutching a photograph and Ryohei’s digital camera.

“Watch it you two!” she scolded.

“Extremely sorry!” Masaru shouted out behind him. Muttering sourly, Hana walked up to Ryohei and showed him the photograph and the camera.

“See, I told you.” Sure enough, the snapshot they had taken earlier of Masaru, Haruhi and Kiyohiko matched up to the one of the teenage Ryohei, Takeshi and Kyoko perfectly. Hana caught Reborn from the corner of her eye and shuddered. “What’s the kid doing in here?”

“This is the home tutor I was telling you about on the way home,” Ryohei laughed. “It seems like he came extremely early for his assignment to Kiyohiko. Only Reborn is this efficient when it comes to tutoring; Sawada-kun told me himself.”

“You look familiar…” Hana said, scrutinizing the infant carefully. Reborn shrugged off the acid look and looked up at her.

“That is not the issue right now,” he said. “We have to see whether that boy of Tsuna’s did anything particularly useful.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Hiii… did you see where he went Masaru-kun!?” Haruhi asked, completely out of breath.

“Nope. All I know is that I’m extremely tired. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Little Cousin run so fast before in my life,” Masaru panted. A fire lit in his eyes as his fists clenched in excitement. “Maybe I can finally get him to join sports with me once we get into high school!”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Haruhi sighed. She pointed over towards the elementary school’s park, where Kiyohiko was attempting to hide within the playscape. A gaggle of small children were gathered around, pointing and laughing.

“Pervert! Pervert!” they chanted. Kiyohiko seemed to be on the verge of tears by the time Masaru and Haruhi were able to disperse the children and hand over a sweater to tie around his waist.

“Thanks for coming to get me guys,” Kiyohiko sniffled. “I don’t know what happened, but right after that crazy baby shot me I woke up in the shop across the street without my clothes.”

“It’s okay Little Cousin,” Masaru said as they crossed the street to look inside the shop. “What you did was pretty extreme, not even putting out that fire on your forehead or anything!”

“…but look at what I did to the shop!” Kiyohiko cried, pointing beyond the glass window. Masaru and Haruhi peeked through and saw that there were people strewn about on the inside, as if they were beaten up by an incredible force.

“Woah, how extremely awesome is that?!” Masaru grinned, the fire lighting in his eyes once more. “Did you do that Little Cousin?”

“Yeah, but… I didn’t mean to! I dunno how I did it! Masaru-nii…!”

“I see what you have done young Vongola,” Reborn said, appearing randomly on Kiyohiko’s shoulder. The teens jumped at the tutor’s appearance. “This place has been owned by and serves a local yakuza gang. You still need a clear focus on what it is like to become your father.”

“Wha…?!” Kiyohiko gasped, his face turning bright red. “I-I-I’ve never told anyone that…!”

“Well, you did shout something about wanting to become a man like Tsuna-oji when you popped out of your clothes,” Masaru mused. “I think that’s a pretty cool goal, since Tsuna-oji is such an extreme guy and all…”

“No! One of the last things on my mind is becoming like my dad!” Kiyohiko lied. “If I become like Dad, then I inherit the family business and I don’t want that!”

“…but you have no choice Kiyohiko. You are the only candidate. I am going to be your new tutor from now on. We have much work to do,” Reborn said. Kiyohiko groaned in reply.

“Hey, it won’t be so bad Yohi-kun,” Haruhi said, patting her friend on the back. “Tsuna-oji’s a really neat guy and they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Just look at Masaru-kun!” The two glanced over at the boy in question, who just stared blankly back at them lost in his own thought processes.

“Hey, you little brat!” shouted a voice from inside the shop. Kiyohiko, Masaru and Haruhi all looked to find that the men Kiyohiko had previously knocked out were beginning to recuperate and they did not seem very happy about the ordeal.

“RUN!” Kiyohiko shouted before sprinting off down the street. Masaru and Haruhi took off right behind him, both with stupid grins upon their faces.

…and that was how Sawada Kiyohiko began his path down the road to becoming a Vongola.