They left Kyoya's pile of criminals to the Discipline Committee to deal with (it was in their job description to clean up after their violent founder) and made their way back to the Hibari mansion. Tsuna made it a point to avoid his friends' eyes the whole time, not yet ready to tell them that he had harmonized with not one, but two more people, one of them a civilian.
Not that Skull could honestly be called Mafia either. Speaking with the Arcobaleno made for a great distraction, and was a little less headache inducing than conversation with the newly dubbed 'Ryohei-nii'. Thankfully, when the teen didn't have anything to add, he seemed to know how to stay silent and listen.
(The others had unanimously refused to call him that nickname, even shy little Chrome, probably due to Mukuro's open animosity towards the hyperactive Sun. Tsuna had taken one look at the teen, saw that he wouldn't back down, and decided to take the middle ground by being the only one to give in. He had more important battles to chose, and it was only a nickname.)
It turned out that Skull had been a hundred percent civilian before being turned into an Arcobaleno (he refused to talk about the process, but Tsuna had the feeling that his opinion had never been taken in account. Fon and Verde had given off the same vibe). As such, he had never learned how to fight and had been dumped in the world of criminals headfirst with little to no instruction.
Tsuna felt for the stuntman – or rather former stuntman, given that he couldn't perform with his current size – seeing as the Sky refused to be dragged in that world, no matter what, yet couldn't escape being connected to it. Iemitsu's job in CEDEF, his Flames, the origin of many of his friends, even some of his own contracts (like the long-standing job with Varia or the one favor he could call from the Vindice after the debacle around Mukuro)... all of that made it impossible for him to completely avoid the Mafia.
With Skull being virtually harmless (he might have the most powerful Cloud Flame, but at the time, he had had no idea how to summon it, let alone use it in combat) and being more or less abandoned by his fellow Arcobaleno (Tsuna would have words with Verde and Fon), he had been easy pickings for unscrupulous Famiglie. Even as a former civilian, he had the 'prestige' of being among the strongest seven, and the potential to be a terrifying asset once he learned to fight at full power.
But that was the thing : Skull didn't want to fight. It wasn't in his nature.
It led to the Cloud being 'traded' from Famiglia to Famiglia, finally landing with the Carcassa, who basically abused him and didn't care at all for his well-being. To force him to obediently do their bidding, their had gone so far as to capture Skull's beloved pet, an octopus called Oodako (Tsuna didn't bother thinking about how strange a choice it was).
It just added one more point one Tsuna's long list of things to do while in Namimori : free the kidnapped octopus of his new Cloud.
They reached the mansion as Skull was ranting of how great his pet was (it could apparently grow and shrink depending on the amount of Flames he fed it. Like that made sense) and was interrupted by the so far blissfully silent – and probably a bit in shock – Ryohei-nii screaming. "KYOKO!"
"Onii-san!" Came back from the front door, where Sasagawa-chan, Kurokawa-san and Haru were apparently waiting for them. "You're safe!"
The siblings rushed to embrace each other in a tearful (and loud) reunion. Tsuna and Kurokawa-san had to gently push them both inside to avoid attracting too much attention; it was the middle of the night, but Namimori was still under hostile occupation.
