Bite To Death

Kyouya dragged Tsuna around with him as he and the other Namimori Patrollers forced the Italians to learn how to survive. They were taught combat, of course, but a majority of the focus was on how to efficiently build or fix the necessities that a safe zone needed.

It rained on a rest day and people grinned at each other, most staring out of windows at the rain tank they finally got up. Kyouya abruptly swooped in with tonfas bared like fangs and chased most of them outside. They gaped at him and some pointed out that the rain was going make them sick.

Kyouya didn't let them in, actually locking down the mansion after he had chased out all of the Mafioso a.d.u.l.ts. Nana poked her head out of a second storey window and waved cheerfully at Iemitsu, who didn't seem to care about the rain at all, and was actually staring up at her with love struck eyes like in a clichéd romance movie.

Tsuna observed the group outside look wet and miserable (apart from Iemitsu) and then flicked a glance to Kyouya who rolled his eyes and nodded at Tsuna. The brunet quickly rushed over to his mother and whispered in her ear.

Nana perked up and smiled at Tsuna before turning to the window once more. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had more tanks?" she called out to Iemitsu happily.

The a.d.u.l.ts all stalled for a second then snapped into gear. They made for the storage room, which they found unlocked in a pointed fashion, and it took only an hour to set up seven new tanks, the speed from experience in building (because Kyouya kept destroying them via thrown a.d.u.l.ts).

Only when they ran out of material to build with did Kyouya ordered the doors open.

The rain spluttered out long after every tank was overflowing and they trooped out to pour the water into containers, working quickly in case Kyouya hurled someone at a tank again.

The next day the outside half returned with a swagger to their steps and arms laden with food. Previous supply runs stayed close to the mansion, which meant that the stores they take from had less and less each time. Other groups sent out before were also very small in number to keep the potential death count low.

This run, they moved much further out, confident with literally having an army of people. The supplies brought back could feed the entire compound for over a month even if they held feasts every day.

Kyouya rolled his eyes, pointed at Tsuna, declared him official Namimori trainer, and was on the next plane out with his Patrollers.

Tsuna spluttered and flailed but Kyouya had grabbed him that first day and Tsuna was forced to shadow the Chairman. He had thought it rather strange why Kyouya was explaining his actions, especially to Tsuna of all people, but now it made sense.

That was how it started. Tsuna continued to talk with the DC and helped implement the new tactics. Tsuna's dad patted him on the head and suddenly he was assigned a small group for a supply run, then next time it was a bigger group that would take care of a large hoard not too far off before it got closer, and it escalated until he was standing right beside his father.

His word became something to follow and trust in, and Tsuna would have been freaking out, but the whole zombie situation was far more terrifying and even that became natural after a while.

Timoteo picked up on Tsuna's work, and while the Vongola and CEDEF weren't exactly separate, there was a clear change when Nono passed over some Vongola for Tsuna to command on another supply run.

Then people started calling him Decimo, and it honestly took Tsuna a while to understand that they weren't just joking around. He tried to correct them but neither Timoteo nor Iemitsu were helping and the title stuck.

He was good at it though, which was the most shocking to Tsuna. He picked the right choices and made split second decisions that saved lives. He grew confident and could stand tall in front of the people he commanded.

The combined mafia group spread over Italy, picking up any survivors they found. A unit of Patrollers still occasionally dropped in, sifting through the plans implemented without any objections or resistance from the Mafia (no one wanted another Kyouya visit), and fixed some parts while tweaking others until the Italian safe zone was running smoothly.

There was trouble of course, because almost all of the survivors were Mafia, and while most were allies of Vongola, some weren't. There had been a few cases of sabotage where the power sources broke down, and once a hoard of zombies was lead inside the gates. Tsuna had planted his feet and barked out orders, the situation eventually controlled via liberal use of head trauma.

It got worse and worse but Timoteo, Iemitsu and Tsuna were all reluctant to sift through so many people to find the traitor in their midst because that would call for a heavy hand and was more likely to cause rebellion.

Then the Varia commanders strolled in one day.

No one had any time to react before the group was wreaking havoc and ripping through the ranks until they found the small cell of traitors, who Xanxus then lined up in a row, proclaiming that he bet he could shoot through all of their skulls with one bullet.

Tsuna stepped into the way, ignoring his father's flailing in the background, and said outright that death was far too extreme.

"Where are you from?" Xanxus demanded, his hand unwavering from where it was pointing straight at Tsuna's head since the teen stepped in front of the line-up.

"I lived in Namimori before this," Tsuna answered, rather confused at the perfectly reasonable tone the scarred man had. He expected insanity from the way the man bulldozed his way through, snarling insults.

"Figures," Xanxus scoffed. "That little feral trash probably got his claws into you."

Tsuna blinked in shock as Xanxus lowered his gun and the Varia group sauntered back out of the Italian safe zone. He had no idea that the Varia boss was in contact with Kyouya but somehow that made sense.

Tsuna quickly shakes all the past memories away and scans the plane to check for any problems, something he's gotten used to since Kyouya would hit him with tonfas every time he missed an issue (most of them caused by the Chairman himself). It doesn't matter that Tsuna spent less than a week in the older teen's presence; you don't forget Hibari lessons.

Tsuna likes to think that he's doing well, and it's true that Italy (with the help of the Varia boss mostly) is becoming an entirely infected free zone. It's not like Tsuna could compare himself to Kyouya though, considering how different their situations are.

Tsuna has proper leaders to fall back on when he can't make a decision or he doesn't understand something, and he also commands fully trained a.d.u.l.ts who know how to fight and know how to survive.

On the other hand, Kyouya is the leader. He's the person people turn to when they don't know what to do. Not to mention the teenager built Namimori using other high schoolers as a backbone, and then he had to train others into competency so he could make a proper army to defend the safe zone.

As it is, Italy is hovering between states of being 'just a large group of survivors doing their own thing', and 'an actual system'. While Namimori has already flourished into a full grown country with different industries and an economy, the Italian safe zone is barely surpassing Middle Ages.

So yeah, of course Tsuna sees Kyouya as the ideal. He was devastated when Kusakabe Tetsuya announced the Chairman was missing. Well, not missing because everyone knows where he is, but 'in danger' – for a given value of danger.

Tsuna was immediately on board, and while both Timoteo and Iemitsu didn't want to waste resources and man power on helping Namimori, Tsuna convinced them that if Namimori fell they were f.u.c.k.e.d too.

"We're landing, Decimo," Basil says. "Better grab a seat or hold onto something."

Tsuna lets out a deep breath, looking around again to where people are sleeping or stretching out sore muscles from sitting so long. The flight from Italy to Japan is twelve hours, and Tsuna knows it can't go any faster but he's still worried.

It's now been three days since the Chairman went missing, and a lot can happen in a city like Tokyo with that many infected.

Tsuna promises to himself that he'll repay everything Kyouya has done for him.