Tsuna's unusual relationship with Hibari Kyouya began the day he was inadvertantly busted for carrying armor that he had personally made. While making little weapons that even someone as small as him could use was fun, with all the bullying he put up with he decided to branch out into armor.

His grandfather was fine with it, and even gave him an allotment of metal to play around with. After all, you couldn't exactly get into trouble for bringing metal armor to school, even if it was something as basic as chainmail.

Which was where the trouble started.

Hibari came like an avenging crow when he heard the fighting, only to discover Tsuna looking more or less undamaged and the bullies cursing out the fact he had something under his shirt.

Closer inspection revealed an odd pattern to their bruises.

Hibari's eyes gleamed, and the bullies scattered. Tsuna picked up his things, and paled when he realized Hibari hadn't chased after the others.

"Small animal, what do you have under your shirt?"

Tsuna stared, before he reluctantly pulled up his shirt just enough to expose an unfinished set of chainmail underneath. It was still a little short of being complete, but enough that it covered the main areas.

He had learned from experience that children were less inclined to beat someone up if they got hurt in the process. And metal was hard for untrained children to hit directly with their fists.

"Weapons are not allowed on school grounds," said Hibari.

"Chainmail isn't a weapon unless you take it off and throw it at someone, Hibari-sempai," deadpanned Tsuna. "Besides, once word gets around I'm wearing period-accurate armor from Europe, the idiots who like to harass me will be less inclined to beat me up."

Hibari looked speculative at that.

"Where did you get the armor?"

"I made it. Grandpa doesn't mind if I mess around with the forge to make things, so long as I pay proper respect to my craft and don't horse around."

"Is armor the only thing you can make?" he asked with interest.

"I've been making small blades and hidden weapons, but the inner workings are really finicky and take time to make. Chainmail is easier."

Hibari looked at his tonfas, then at Tsuna.

"If you can get me a blueprint for what you want, I can make you a new set of tonfas," said Tsuna, already guessing what he wanted. "However I'm still trying to work my way up to a full sword."

Seeing the gleam in his eyes, Tsuna knew that if he succeeded then he would never be truly rid of Hibari. However his pride as an apprentice sword maker was at stake, so he would never do a sub-par job at it.

A month later, Tsuna walked up to Hibari who was waiting to catch the latecomers with a reminder of following the rules. In his arms was a thin box.

He handed it to Hibari without a word, and headed off to class. The next morning he saw Hibari weilding his new extendable tonfas with a vicious gleam in his eyes and a pleased expression on his face.

Tsuna felt a measure of pride at the fact one of his creations was actually being used the way they were intended.

"Ahahahaha... you made Hibari-sempai some new toys, didn't you?" said Takeshi.

Ever since that day Shigure Kintoki cleansed the misfortune that was causing Takeshi's mom to become sick, Takeshi had been by Tsuna's side. He wasn't as oblivious as he made himself out to be... it hadn't taken much to figure out Tsuna was the reason his mom got better.

Tsuna was just glad to have one friend, even if he had to keep Takeshi from overdoing things because the team kept putting all the burden of winning on him instead of actually practicing their own skills.

Takeshi's mom was not happy about that when Tsuna pointed it out to her.

After making the tonfas, Tsuna found himself with a discreet 'friend' of sorts. Hibari didn't like crowding with 'herbivores', but he seemed to make an exception for Tsuna.

Probably because he wasn't stupid enough to offend the small animal capable of making him new toys to bite people with.

"So what are you going to make for that collector's convention next month?" asked Takeshi.

"I'm going to try and make a ninjato. If Grandpa says it's good I'll try to sell it for some more cash to make new weapons with," said Tsuna. "Akira's already agreed to make it properly sharp once it's finished."

"...Isn't that the weapon of choice for ninjas?" asked Takeshi amused.

"That was never conclusively proven!" said Tsuna, eyes gleaming.

He hoped to get good enough that he could one day recreate his all time favorite weapons. They were a pair of falchions that his absolute favorite character used as his primary weapon, despite being an archer.

EMIYA was one of his all-time favorite characters because of one simple fact.

He was a sword user that could recreate any blade he saw and use them, even if they were only copies. Even his magic was based off of 'creating' fake blades to use against his enemies, including legendary weapons long since lost to time.

As an apprentice swordsmith, he often drooled over the thought of having Unlimited Blade Works to play around with.

And no, he would not admit to repeating the aria every time he went to make a new weapon.

Tsuna had the utmost concentration on what he was doing. Akira was by the forge, helping to keep the fire hot and the bellows going. His father was very pleased by the fact his son was willing to learn the basics of working the forge, even if his specialty was cleansing and sharpening the blades of impurity. Together the two made a formidable team.

Slowly but surely, a shape began to emerge under Tsuna's hammer. He had picked a ninjato because while small, it was still a sword. It was no less deadly than a katana or a tachi because of it's size.

Unnoticed by either of the boys, Tsuna's eyes glowed as if caught by the light of the sunset. He felt as though some part of him was entering the blade as it was being made, making it more than just a normal blade.

After long days of hard work, and using up countless hours of his afterschool freedom in the forge, the ninjato was done.

Akira looked ready to pass out, as working the forge was exhausting. Especially for someone not even in his teens yet.

Once the blade was tempered and cooled, Tsuna presented it to his grandfather and uncle for inspection.

"Hmm...a fine piece, especially for your first attempt at swordcraft."

"Acceptable, for someone so young," conceded his uncle.

Tsuna beamed with pride.

"I suppose I can increase your allotment of metal if you're capable of making something like this. The only question is what are you going to name it?" he asked.

Tsuna had thought about a name for a long time, and had discarded quite a few of them. However seeing the blade shine in the moon's light he knew the perfect name for a blade that was primarily used by assassins and shinobi in the past. After all, ninjato were supposedly popular among the shinobi sect because they were small and easy to use compared to longer katana.

"Tsukiyo, because it's short and easy to remember. Besides, if I keep it then I can just call her Tsu-chan the same way Mama does to me all the time!" chirped Tsuna.

His grandfather hummed.

"I would say keep her. After all, she is your first proper sword and a milestone in your attempts to become a proper swordsmith. Though I suppose I could permit you to sell some of the kunai and shuriken you keep making. I'm sure someone will enjoy a historically accurate weapon in their collection, even if it was forged recently," said his grandfather.

Tsuna perked up at that. He kept making kunai and shuriken because they were small and easy to make with scrap metal. If he was allowed to sell some of his better works that would definitely pay for more metal to forge with, as well as better tools. He could even get Akira a better quality sharpening stone, which he knew his cousin would appreciate.

A pity he wasn't up to engraving things just yet. He was sure that Tsukiyo would look even better with a cute crescent moon poking from behind some clouds on the blade. He even had a design for it in his room too. It was one of many he wanted to play around with once he was up to that point.

Tsuna walked away from that convention with several orders for kunai, shuriken and an interest once he was up to making new blades like his grandfather and uncle. He was proud to bear the Narikawa name, as his mother had zero issue with him dropping the Sawada name after his father stopped bothering to visit home altogether shortly after he turned seven.

Tsuna barely remembered the man's name, much less what he even looked like. His mother would look at the obviously photoshopped postcards with disappointed hope and unhappiness that he couldn't be bothered to come up with a lie that people could actually believe.

Honestly, did he expect the 'construction worker at the North Pole' would actually work? There wasn't any actual construction projects up there, and he was dressed entirely wrong for the climate. Not to mention the fact that no real construction worker would have a gold pickaxe to work with.

As someone who spent plenty of time around swordsmiths, Tsuna knew perfectly well that gold was terrible for hard use. It's only real purpose was to make things shiny and decorative. Anyone who tried to use a weapon made of it was just wasting their money and time, because the second it went up against a real weapon it would break.

Which was why Tsuna did the smart thing whenever questioned about his father, or lack thereof.

He claimed the man was dead and that his mother was living off the inheritance the man had left. By the time Tsuna turned nine, Nana had given in and started using his story as well. Since they had no idea where Iemitsu was or even if he was even alive, they couldn't exactly send divorce papers.

Unfortunately they couldn't declare Iemitsu legally dead either, as the paperwork fell through for reasons that were never fully explained. They settled for pretending Iemitsu died when Tsuna was really young and never talked about him to anyone.

Tsuna nearly had a heart attack when, seven months after creating his first proper sword, it developed a soul all it's own.

The sprite that nearly gave him a heart attack looked like a tiny moon spirit with silver hair and silver colored eyes. She wore an orange kimono with indigo accents, which had a very delicate looking pattern of a cloud poking out from beyond the clouds made of white thread.

It had taken bringing Akira with him to confirm he wasn't imagining things, but he was still stunned one of his creations had developed a 'soul'.

It was a sign of things to come...not that the boys knew it yet.

What had started out as a joke request to Hibari after he accidentally learned the slightly older teen spoke fluent Mandarin would end up earning Tsuna some rather...dubious...clients.

Tsuna wanted to be able to watch "Doulou Dalu" in the original language without subtitles, and Hibari liked the weapons and armor Tsuna could create. So by mutual agreement, Hibari agreed to teach the 'small fox' how to speak Chinese in exchange for a discount on some proper weapons for his minions. More specifically he wanted Kusakabe to have a proper knife, rather than the shoddy mass-produced blade he used now. The difference in quality was beyond obvious at a glance, and Hibari wanted his right hand to be armed with something that wouldn't break.

Tsuna had it made within two weeks, though Hibari had him fluent enough in a month...and discovered Tsuna was a semi-decent "playmate" once motivated. The only issue was that he wasn't that great at using his weapons as he was creating them.

Instead he had to make due with some special gauntlets he created to take the brunt of the tonfas, and learn how to fight hand to hand without formal training involved.

So you could imagine his surprise when he ran into a tiny Hibari with a monkey one afternoon. It was after school hours and he had a day free of the forge since his grandfather and uncle had a special order to make, thus had taken it over.

"Um... hello?"

"Hello little one. Are you the same child who made those tonfas for Kyouya?" asked the small Hibari.

Tsuna blinked.

"You mean Hibari-sempai? I was the one who made them, though I wasn't sure if they would turn out as well as they did. Who are you?" asked Tsuna.

"I should have introduced myself first. My name is Fon, and I'm Kyouya's grandfather," said the smaller Hibari...or rather Fon. "This is my companion Lichi."

Tsuna had to giggle a little when the monkey chittered and scampered up his arm to sit on his shoulder.

He wasn't going to question why someone who looked physically two was claiming to be Hibari's grandfather. After all, he had the ability to see the souls of swords.

"Are you here to see Hibari-sempai?"

"Actually I was wondering if you were allowed to take orders for weapons," admitted Fon, slightly sheepish. "It's rather difficult to find a proper weaponsmith who still uses the proper forging technique without machinery involved. That and I heard that a grandson of the Narikawa family was the one responsible for the recent influx of proper kunai and shuriken on the market."

Tsuna brightened hearing that.

"Oh is that all? Grandpa lets me use the forge, but I haven't been able to work up to a full sword just yet. I have been playing around with making hidden weapons and I've recently managed to make a proper ninjato solo," said Tsuna. "If you're looking for something more your size, then I might be allowed to take on that commission. I would have to ask grandfather first."

Fon looked decidedly happy hearing that, especially considering the fact Tsuna was being properly respectful and deferring to a master smith before agreeing to anything. It was so hard finding weapons that were 'sized' to his cursed body without paying ridiculous fees.

Tsuna was greatly entertained watching Fon spar with Hibari and seeing the Demon Prefect lose for once.