79"100% again, Sawada. Good job," though Nezu—the chemistry teacher—praises her, his tone is almost bored. "See class, your student council president can excel academically and athletically. It's not impossible." Sakura accepts her paper and then tucks it out of sight.
She can feel the weight of envious eyes on her and she does not care for it.
Nezu, her least liked teacher (and the most incompetent), seems to be snidely picking on Yamamoto Takeshi next, considering his pointed glare over to the sheepish boy.
It's a pointless task. Popular and friendly to a fault, Nezu would only bring trouble upon himself if he was picking on Takeshi openly. Meanwhile, Takeshi takes it all in stride as he laughs at the sight of his own near-failing paper.
She wonders how he is still on the baseball team with marks such as his.
Well, it was not as if they could kick him off, he is the next ace after all.
Sakura sighs as she gazes out the window, her chin resting on her palm.
She has already studied ahead of the material and have flipped through her textbook a few times. Middle school is very much a chore. Long hours sitting down, interacting with peers whose only care is to gossip at all hours of the day, if it was possible to die of boredom this civilian life of hers would do her in years ago.
A prickling sensation crawls up her arms.
She wonders who has the time to stalk her this time. Considering, it's been like this for the last day or so, she ignores it.
..
..
"I'm home!" Sakura calls as she enters her childhood home and tucks away her shoes. There was a time when she used to kick them off but... that was another life.
"Oh, Sa-chan, welcome back! You're home early!" Sawada Nana calls from the kitchen.
Sakura hums in agreement, entering the kitchen and setting her bag on a chair. Today, she did not feel like staying back to complete her share of Student Council paperwork, it made more sense for her to return home. She could always wake earlier tomorrow morning to catch up on planning the Sports Festival after all.
Sometimes, she wonders what it would be like to have a team instead of only her on the board.
But that would be like wondering what would life be like without Hibari Kyoya scaring her school into obedience. Useless daydreams but nice in theory. It would mean less work on her end.
But its fine, she's used to being a one-woman show.
"There was an interesting flyer in the mail today," Nana continues, content with even the slightest things, "Will raise your child to be the new leader of the next generation." Sakura spots the flyer on the dining table and picks it up to inspect it.
"Social skill doesn't matter. All it says in return is food and a place to sleep! Doesn't that sound amazing? I've never seen a promotion like this before. He must be from one of those professional business schools for young men!" Sakura is silent as she scrutinises the hard-paper flyer.
She got to give credit to this Reborn though, it's professionally done, which is at odds with the blatant suspiciousness of the whole affair.
"Kaa-san, this sounds like a scam," Sakura says, tracing the elegant writing font and the shiny print of everything.
She appreciates that at least this Reborn did not just write down his details on any random piece of paper.
It's a wonder that her mother does not get scammed more often really.
"..Wait, I have social skills!" She retorts belatedly.
Her mother gives her a knowing look and Sakura huffs not looking at her. They have had this argument many times and Sakura does not want to rehash it now.
Just then, she hears the ringing of the doorbell. Nana lights up even more. "That must be him! I called him earlier."
Sakura sighs exasperated at her carefree mother. "Okay, let me handle this." She makes her way to the front door and opens it but sees no one.
"Ciaossu!" A high-pitched voice calls out and her eyes fall to the immaculately dressed child, holding a briefcase. "I'm Reborn."
Sakura blinks twice in astonishment.
Well, if it was a child's prank then that made things easier. Unless he ran away from home or something.
She would probably have to call the police or Kyoya, probably the police. She could not imagine Kyoya interacting with children. He gives even adults nightmares after all.
"Oh, where's my manners? Please, come in." She moves aside to allow the black-haired, black-eyed, fedora-wearing child space to enter, removing his shoes and proceeds to lead him to the kitchen.
He seems like a harmless child.
"Oh, whose this, Sa-chan? He's so cute!" Nana squeals, hands clasped together but Sakura's attention was taken by the child who for some reason hops onto her dining table.
It would have been rude if he was any bigger but mostly it allows them to face him without craning their heads down.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of her neck raise.
Her fingers twitch to non-existent shuriken which was once a staple of every day.
The child hasn't done anything dangerous, not a twitch nor a threat—But he smirks, and all at once, Sakura knows she's been duped.
It was as if a switch was flipped and that non-threat on her porch became the most dangerous thing in the room—Heck, the entire neighbourhood.
Fucking hell.
Sakura's been too careless.
This civilian life has made her soft, leading to her grave error in judgement.
It only takes one mistake to die after all.
She knew that intimately well.
Her mind flashes to the nearest knives, which would be the kitchen ones, no more than 5 metres away from her but was 5 metres too many.
"Ciaossu! I am Reborn, Sawada Sakura's home tutor. I have arrived to evaluate her." Reborn's black eyes show no trace of a joke and she dares not take her eyes off him to glance at the no doubt surprised features of her mother's—Her mother!
Sakura's heart thumps loudly in her chest, the heavy beats pulsing in her head.
Suddenly, she feared for the safety of her sweet airhead mother.
"Kaa-san." She forced her eyes to drift to her mom's, even as she always kept Reborn in her line of sight, "Weren't we out of milk? Maybe you should go grocery shopping.. I'll stay here and vet Reborn's qualifications." She grabs her wallet from her bag and hands it over, not wanting her mother to stay even a second longer to search for her own.
"Would you, Sa-chan? I don't know what I would do without you. I'll be right back, okays?" Nana looked worried but Sakura just reassured her to take her time.
That this might take a while.
The tension only grew thicker as they waited until they hear the front door click shut and then the sounds of her fading further away from the house.
After that, the threat in her house wasted no time.
"My true line of work is assassination. I am the World's Greatest Hitman, here to train you into becoming an astounding mafia boss." His eyes betray nothing. His body tells no lies.
Sakura clenches her fist when he mentioned hitman, of course he wasn't a civilian, not after that stunt to let him into her house.
Against any trained adversary she is wholly unprepared.
She was raised a civilian after all.
"You will lead the Vongola. It is the mafia's biggest and strongest family, with a long history dating back 400 years ago." Sakura's brows furrow, trying to desperately recall any information about mafia only to come up sorely lacking and then frustrated at her lack of knowledge.
"Mafia... in Italy?" Her tone is wary and she carefully watches as he clicks open that suitcase of his.
She can only watch as he first takes out a multitude of weaponry in the form of guns that she had no name to and then papers, papers and papers of official documents.
"Yes, the base of operations for Vongola and mafia, in general, is in Italy." He takes one of the fancier, heavier guns to dismantle it in a second and then reassembles it the next. She knows he's doing it as a show for her—Of power and skill.
It's a threat and promise all in one.
They both know he could do it much faster.
He watches her and she him.
Finally, she asks the question they were both waiting for.
"Why me?"
Her voice is level and it does not betray her fear or her disbelief nor any other emotion. He reaches specifically for a stack of papers and hands it to her.
She recognizes a genealogy when she sees one.
"You are a descendant of the first leader of Vongola: Primo, otherwise known as Giotto or Ieyasu when he migrated to Japan."
Sakura can't help herself, really she couldn't, she scoffs. "Me?"
It's ridiculous.
The disbelief flows out before she could turn it into something more neutral.
It's the craziest thing she has heard in years.
The outrageous nature of this entire confrontation sinks into her.
"After abdicating from Vongola, Primo decided to settle down in Japan and you are his only heir," Reborn continues, not even deigning to acknowledge her break in her neutrality, which she did not care to put back in place.
Sakura barks a laugh, short and bitter.
"I'm nobody special." Her smile is rueful but she concedes, playing along, if only to see where this goes. "Whose side is it from?" she asks, even as she traces down the names leading to one Sawada Iemitsu.
Reborn stays silent and she can feel his gaze on her.
She feels relatively confident he's not going to kill her and her mom straight but maybe its the bitterness that she tried to long bury deep inside that makes her bold. She hums, thinking that it's pretty convenient that her father was dead and she couldn't question him.
"If I'm the heir.. why wasn't I trained earlier then?" There was a lot of things wrong with this conversation, a lot, but that was Sakura's biggest question.
Because it did not make sense.
Nobody just wastes the younger, more impressionable years, not by choice, where it would have been the ideal time to condition your heir however you wish.
Reborn hands her other documents and she peers at it as he speaks, "Primo's cousin took over Vongola and his line continued until the Vongola Nono, who previously had 3 sons."
Sakura could only raise an eyebrow as Reborn continued telling exactly how Nono's sons met their end.
She looked through the papers, including the letter from Nono himself (with a flame on it? What? Is that a sign of legitimacy? Is it suppose to mean something to her?). She reads through descriptions of how, when and where (if known) the heirs met their ends. She scrutinises it and could find no flaw in their authenticity.
Sakura has been introduced into politics at the ripe age of 13 (the first time) under the Godaime Hokage.
She knew more than she cared to about leading people on, charming and the cutthroat world of politicians. She can tell when papers are forged by their quality and can recognise the handwriting and signature of every single important player in the field.
—But that was another life.
This new life could not differentiate the supposes handwriting of Vongola Nono from another boss or either of them from a masterful forger.
All she has this time is her wits and she'll have to make do with them.
This could be an elaborate ruse—and if so, what was the true goal—or it could be the truth.
If Sakura was honest to herself, she knows which one she wants it to be.
She's been living a peaceful life. She's smart, talented and she has a bright future.
Everyone thinks so.
But she would be lying if she said it was enough. This life she's been faking splendidly as a civilian for 13 years.
—But she cannot do it anymore.
She refuses to.
If that means jumping onto whatever ship this prodigy child is sailing so be it.
She'll take those odds.
"Okay... I'm not saying I am completely convinced but.. I don't need to be at right this moment. If you are training me, then I won't complain." Brown eyes stare down black as she continues, "What would you be training me in, however?"
Reborn-sensei—her new home tutor—gets a glint in his eye.
It promises pain, chaos and plentiful troublesome situations.
Instead of sending shivers down Sakura's spine, instead of doing the smart thing and running for the hills, anticipation rises from the base of her spine to flood her whole body.
He smirks, evil intentions clear. "I will train you until I find you to be the perfect Vongola Decimo."
The tips of her fingers tingle. She would love the challenge.
Sakura can't resist smiling back, all teeth, knowing that there is no going back now.
How she relishes in it.
The end of this boring life of hers.
...
...
Author notes:
1. Reborn's suitcase is Leon and that's why he can pull the abyss out of it. It's not green because Leon is in camouflage mode, as in pretending to be a normal briefcase not blending into the environment.
2. Reborn is such a master of disguise that when he disguises as an innocent child who can tell the difference?
3. In case you've forgotten before the Varia act, Tsuna honestly thought his dead-beat dad was dead and 'became a star'. I only call him dead-beat because Tsuna thought so since he only ever came home 3 times or smt and when he was he drinks and is embarrassing? It's honestly not a good impression I don't blame Tsuna.
4. I think you guys give Nana too much flake. She's a great mom. I know she thanked Kyoko for having a Dame-son as a boyfriend. But I saw it as one of those meet the parents kind of things. 'Oh, you're so pretty! What are you doing dating my son?' You know those joking things. It just doesn't come off as really joking as I'm sure Nana was genuinely relieved that her son had friends and a social life. This is the son who she knows is lazy and had no motivation. Excuse her for being so relieved that he wouldn't die alone and saying he has never been alive. I think she saw this as a positive experience. He's finally passionate for something! And not just skating by in life! I would be relieved too.
5. Looking for betas. PM if you interested. I would still love constructive criticism if you not interested just review.
6. If you guys have a different summary, I would love to hear it.
7. Crossposted on AO3 and Fanfiction under Ayz283. Short summary of chap: Sakura. Reborn. & then together. Next update in 10 days sooooo 28 April? We'll see how that goes.
