Chapter 7

Tsuna noticed that Hibari-senpai was quite agitated today, well more agitated than usual as he saw the older teen get a little snappy with Yasuo-Sensei down in the hallway when the Language Teacher tried to reprimand him on something.

He would've felt sorry for the teacher, if it weren't for the fact that the man one time tried to lecture him on having a "good reputation" and "surround yourself with respectable people". He had a feeling that the guy ran afoul with Zoro for some reason and now had an issue with most of his friends.

He seemed pretty bothered that the half-vampire and Chrome were so close, but hadn't commented on it yet. For a man who cares so much about his damn reputation he seemed pretty obsessive when it came to the reputation of others and who they chose to be around with.

Either way, it didn't matter now. Tsuna was curious as to why Hibari-Senpai was being so grouchy and so he decided to follow him into the Reception Room and ask him about it.

Hibari looked like he was about to smack him with his tonfas, but decided against it and told him what was going on. "Wao… fellow carnivore. My… grandfather decided to visit today." He said with a grimace almost as if saying the word was poison to him.

Tsuna raised an eyebrow at that. Sure, he and his grandfather weren't super close, but they didn't have a bad relationship either and it was more like a master-student one so he wasn't sure why Hibari acted like he had a problem with his own grandfather in general.

Apparently, Hibari's grandfather happened to be some martial arts champion who knows over 107 martial arts styles along with being an assassin for the Chinese Triads. Basically someone that the raven-haired teen could never "bite back" no matter how hard he tried much to his grandfather's amusement.

So that was the issue, it sounded kinda funny but at the same time Tsuna knew how Hibari worked somewhat. Reborn did mention that Clouds were territorial and would get temperamental if they were forced to do something that they didn't want to do or if another Cloud moved in on their territory which would lead to a fight.

So that meant that Hibari's grandfather was either a stronger Cloud or had a Flame Type that countered Hibari's even though he was Inactive.

"Okay I'll tell you what Hibari-senpai. Me and my friends could come over to your house and act as a buffer between you and your grandfather. While I don't exactly know the whole story, I'm sure he isn't a bad person and this issue is simply a one-sided rivalry." Tsuna said to Hibari who grumbled a bit but agreed to it while giving him an odd look as if he didn't believe that the other teen would help him.

Tsuna chalked it up that Hibari was slowly warming up to him even if he denied it.

Meeting Hibari's grandfather was… interesting.

When Tsuna and his group (including Rukia who tagged along and clung to Tsuna because their bond still hadn't settled yet) showed up at Hibari's mansion. They realized that the small, red clad man with a monkey on his head bore a striking resemblance to Hibari with the main difference being that he was rather nice and well mannered.

Oh, and he had a Red Pacifier attached to him which meant they were meeting with the Storm Arcobaleno Fon.

"Ni-Hao!" The small man greeted in Chinese with a smile. "So, I assume that you're all Kyo-chan's friends?" He said rather teasingly which made Hibari glare at him. "Quit calling me that you damn annoying carnivore!"

Ignoring Hibari's outburst, Tsuna and his friends introduce themselves to Fon and ask him various questions which he answered rather patiently with a laugh.

"My my, you kids sure are quite curious about me aren't you all." He said with a wave of his hand. "Yes, it's quite true that I know many martial arts styles including some rather obscure ones such as Ryu-Ken (Dragon Fist) and Firebending."

"Huh, sounds like Reborn was right about you being a highly skilled martial artist to begin with." Tsuna said much to Fon's surprise.

"Oh, you know Reborn?" The small martial artist asked and Tsuna nodded. "So you're the student that he talks about during one of our chats. He speaks rather highly of you, though I'm quite curious about some of the Guardians that you have." He said as he looked at Zoro and the others with a curious glance.

That made them rather suspicious and wary of Fon until he eased their worries. "Oh I know that some of you are Demons and don't worry I'm not bothered. Rather difficult when you're half-demon as well hehehe." He laughed as a shadowy visage of a Dragon appeared above him suddenly before dissipating.

"So that explains why your scent is stronger than Hibari's." Mused Tanjiro as he thought about it. The others also noticed from the beginning that Fon's draconic scent was stronger than the raven-haired teen's own scent plus there was quite a lot of power felt despite Fon having such a small body to begin with.

It was quite clear that the martial artist was literally one of the Dragonfolk, or the Half-Dragons as they were usually called by others.

After that, Fon went out into the backyard and showed them a demonstration of his martial arts form.

The group was amazed and quite impressed with the demonstration. Although Tsuna noticed that the Chinese Martial Artist was giving him odd looks almost like he was contemplating something.

He wondered what that was about.

A few days later, Tsuna was walking home with groceries on hand when he saw something rather odd.

It was a little Chinese girl, who looked no less than five years old wandering around confused and squinting at things as if she had trouble seeing. He wondered what she was doing out alone and without her parents around.

"Ni-Hao little one." He said in passable Chinese as he walked up to the little girl who yelped a bit at seeing him, but didn't seem to freak out. "Why are you out here alone?"

"Ni-Hao!" The little girl replied back. "I am I-Pin! Student of Master Fon and I am looking for my target to take out." She said rather excitedly which raised alarm bells in Tsuna's head as he wondered who the hell would train a child so young to assassinate someone.

Wait… she said she was Fon's student. Was he the one who sent her here?

"Oh really I-Pin? Well I met Fon a few days ago when he came to visit a classmate of mine. Why don't we go to my house and make a phone call? I'm sure this might be a misunderstanding of sorts." He said as he held out his hand to her.

She took it without hesitation as they walked to his home all the while smiling and babbling in Chinese rather happily. He really hope this was all a misunderstanding because while he doubt he could take on a Half-Dragon, even one under a curse of sorts, he knew that Ingrid would go fucking ballistic if she found out what was going on.

Making his way inside, he went into the kitchen and pulled out his laptop and clicked on video chat and called Fon's number. Within a few minutes, the small martial artist was on and looking quite confused.

"Oh, hello Tsuna. Is there something wrong?"

"Yeah, there is Fon." The Half-Vampire said as he plopped I-Pin onto his lap who waved at Fon as he stared at the Storm Arcobaleno with a hard look, eyes glowing red. "Is this yours by any chance?"

Fon's face widened in surprise and suddenly turned serious at what was going on. "So that's where she went to. I should've known the Triads would do something like this!" He nearly shouted in anger and for a split moment, Tsuna saw his eyes flickered to yellow.

"Oh okay, so you weren't the one who sent her to assassinate someone then?" He asked and briefly he saw Fon look rather hurt at such an accusation.

"Tsuna I may be many things, but I would never let a child be an assassin. Much less make them kill at a young age." He said before looking at I-Pin who stared at him curiously. "I-Pin, I am canceling your mission. To hell what the Triads say otherwise. To even think about making a child lose their innocence through killing is unbelievable. Sit tight and listen to Tsuna while I make arrangements. I'll try to arrive in a few days to seal away your ability so you won't harm someone accidentally." And with that the call ended leaving Tsuna and I-Pin to stare at the blank screen for a while.

"Well then I-Pin, do you like doing Arts and Crafts Projects?" He asked and the little girl nodded rather happily at hearing that despite not looking she had ears to begin with.

By the time his friends and mom got home and he explained what was going on, Tsuna and I-Pin had made a bunch of drawings and finger-painted pictures. Safe to say there was a mess that took a while to clean up, but the Dhampir could tell that the little soon to be former assassin was having fun.

Seeing that Lambo was about to tease I-Pin (as was the case of little boys everywhere), he hissed at the little Bovino and told him to knock it off.

Lambo looked like he was about to cry, he didn't like being scolded by his older brother figure.

Tsuna sighed, and told him firmly that if he didn't like being teased by others then he shouldn't try to tease I-Pin.

He really hoped that Fon would come soon after whatever business he had with the Triads was done.

By either a random string of luck or Kami above now favored him for some odd reason, Fon came back to Namimori in about three days after dealing with the bullshit caused by the Triads.

While he didn't go into it, Fon had a devious little grin on his face that made Tsuna think he really put the fear of God (or in this case, an angry Half-Dragon) into them and made them swear not to go behind his back again.

A little while later, after sealing away I-Pin's ability which was a very destructive explosion ability she inherited from her grandparents, Tsuna asked him more about the little girl and why the Chinese Triads were so dead set on making her into an assassin at such a young age.

"Heh, well I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. It was either training an apprentice to take my place or letting them take my grandson to mold instead. Knowing Kyou-chan, he would've given them a hard time before they decided to put him down just to spite me." He said rather bitterly. "I had thought she would have a somewhat decent childhood and be left alone until she was older, but it seems like I was wrong. Either way, thank you Tsuna for finding her. I would rather not imagine what would've happened if she had managed to find her supposed target or if someone with ill intent had found her first." He said as he bowed much to Tsuna's embarrassment.

"Hey hey, I was just doing the right thing! Anyone else would've done the same thing as well."

"True, but they wouldn't understand the situation I-Pin was in and would probably abandon her the moment they realized she was affiliated with criminals." Fon said, rather amused at Tsuna's humility. "That's why, to prevent the Triads from doing this again I ask you to take I-Pin in so she'll have a normal childhood until she's older and see if she'll want to continue martial arts or not. Would you do it?"

Tsuna was surprised at Fon's request, but agreed to it. "Sure, my mom likes having Lambo and Futa around. I bet she'll enjoy having a little girl to spoil."

Left unsaid was the fact that his mother Nana wanted a large family to begin with and was still young enough to have kids considering Dhampirs had the same age growth as Vampires did.

He chalked it up to Iemitsu being a complete fool and not giving his mother the attention that she deserved.

Fon smiled, knowing he had left his student in capable hands. From what he heard from Reborn. Tsuna was mostly a good kid at heart despite having a few rough edges here and there. The Sun Arcobaleno even bragged that the brown-haired teen was his most favorite student compared to his previous one and was quite the hard worker which showed that he favored him quite a bit.

And from seeing some of his Guardians he was quite strong as well. Skies in general, while strong and charismatic in their own ways, usually only had one full Guardian Set to begin with while Tsuna had many Elements in his. Some of them were strong demons in their right like that Hell Knight Rukia for example and he wondered just how the young man was able to get her attention.

Hell Knights usually stuck to the Dark World and were more concerned with their respective orders and protecting the rule of the 9 Noble Demon Families. While rare, it was unheard of for a Hell Knight to defect unless they were following someone who was charismatic and radiated enough power.

That or if they liked them enough.

He would need to talk to Reborn about Tsuna.

"Ciaossu Fon."

"Hello Reborn." Fon replied back as he looked at Reborn who was drinking some coffee and reading the newspaper. "So, what can you tell me about Tsuna?"

The Sun Arcobaleno looked at the Martial Artist with a wary glance before allowing him to explain. "Don't worry, I am only curious about the young man and how he's able to have so many powerful elements around him. You have my word that I won't bring any harm to him."

"Good, cause I would've shot you with Leon if you tried anything." Reborn's warning surprised Fon a bit. Out of all of the Arcobaleno, Reborn rarely showed much emotion unless it was smug satisfaction or when he was in a mischievous mood. Not to mention that he didn't care much about the heirs of mafia families he was told to tutor and train unless they gained his interest in some way.

So for him to be rather protective of Tsuna meant that the teen gained his interest somehow.

"Tsuna by far, has been a breath of fresh air for me. While I admit there was a rough start, we were able to work things out and so far he's been a good student more so than Dino when I was tutoring him." The hitman said as he continued. "He takes the training seriously and doesn't complain much aside from making jabs at me at times and is pretty smart when using his flames."

"I see, and how does that tie into the elements around him?"

"Oi! I'm getting there, just be patient you damn ninja!" Reborn snarked, ignoring Fon's "I'm not a ninja!" outrage. "From what I've been told, it seems that he found some of them throughout the years, either by random chance or through an event of sorts. Gokudera and Yamamoto are the most recent along with Rukia, though I have a feeling there's a bond between Tsuna and Hibari no matter how small it might be at the moment. All it would take is one good push and I bet he would be a part of Tsuna's group soon enough."

"Fascinating, sounds like Tsuna is one powerful Sky even at such a young age." Fon said, amazed that such a Sky could walk around with so many Elements. Many of the mafia families would literally kill to have a Sky like that in their Famiglia. "How come the Vindice haven't come sniffing around about him?"

"It's because he's a part of the Vongola, and a candidate for being the Decimo." Reborn said, wincing a bit at hearing the name of the Undead Enforcers of the Human Underworld. "That and his real grandfather came by when he was young and took him in to train. That is why Tsuna is so strong to begin with."

That caused the Martial Artist to raise an eyebrow at that along with being rather surprised. "He's part of the Vongola?! Is that why you're here in the first place?"

"Amongst other things, yes. Nono really screwed up big time when he let Iemitsu convince him to seal away Tsuna's flames at such a young age, saying he didn't need them and that he didn't want his son involved with the mafia." Reborn said in an annoyed tone. "Damn idiot forgot that seals don't work on Sky Flames, never mind not taking into account with Sky Charisma and Harmonization. But as usual, the fool refuses to listen and wants others to humor his delusions."

That made Fon rather pissed. To do something like that to a child was unforgivable and a grave sin in his eyes. Children were meant to be cherished and protected, not have their potential sealed up and then thrown away just because someone felt threatened by them. To him, it was quite clear that Iemitsu didn't care about his son and possibly felt threatened by his flames being stronger than his.

Either way, he was satisfied at learning more about Tsuna in general. Perhaps in time, he would think about joining his Guardian Set if the young man proved himself more.

Just as he was about to leave, Reborn stopped him. "Oh and by the way, while Tsuna can be nice when he wants to be, he can be quite harsh as well especially if someone threatens his friends and I bet it's something he learned from his grandfather. While I've only heard and never seen the man, he's someone strong enough that not even the Vindice could go against. Whatever you do with this information is up to you, but please do not seek him out. It will not go well."

That warning threw Fon for a loop, but coming from Reborn of all people meant that it was rather serious. Against his better judgment, he asked Reborn about the name of Tsuna's Grandfather.

What he heard filled him with dread.

"His name is Edwin Black."

It was the end of gym class and Tsuna was busily putting away gym equipment alongside Ryohei. However, they soon heard some crying and looked over to see Shizuka with a shovel in her hands looking around frantically while Kyoko was trying her best to calm her down.

"Hey girls, is something the matter?" The Dhampir asked as he and Ryohei walked over to them. Judging by the scowl on Kyoko's face it was obvious that something had happened that made her friend upset.

"That bastard Nezu-Sensei is what happened." Kyoko nearly growled out, causing both boys to narrow their eyes and wonder what that asshole science teacher did. "Fucking prick went off on Shizuka-chan for no damn reason and told her to find a time capsule buried 15 years ago if she didn't want to be expelled. He also had the gall to call her sister a 'whore who's in the middle of a failed marriage because her husband is too embarrassed to be married to her'. She said with quotes as an angry snarl appeared over her face at the audacity of the science teacher for saying that.

"*sniff*... *sniff*. I-It's… n-n-not t-true… a-a-at all…" Shizuka sniffled before she broke down crying and dropped the shovel in her hands. "Nee-chan and Yasuo-sensei are just going through a rough patch… that's all… UWAH!"

"I know Shizuka-chan, I know." Kyoko said as she hugged her friend in order to console her. "But you did tell me that it was odd that your sister was still using her maiden name even after so long. Not to mention that everyone knows how unusually protective Yasuo-sensei seems to be of his reputation to the point it's rather strange."

"I-I… k-know…" Shizuka stuttered out. "I j-just… wished they would work things out, but it's like… Yasuo-sensei keeps this invisible barrier between him and nee-chan for whatever reason t-to t-the p-point it's caused no amount of frustrations for nee-chan and has made her unhappy for a while." She cried out again.

"Hey it's alright Shizuka." Tsuna said as he got down to her level and hugged the brown-haired girl much to her and Kyoko's surprise. "Don't worry, you're not gonna be expelled. We'll talk to Hibari-senpai about that ass's behavior. Pretty sure he has a file on him."

"Thanks Tsu-kun!" Shizuka hugged back, feeling a little happier. "You're such a good friend to me. If you weren't already in a relationship with Chrome-Chan I totally would've gone out with you, but I doubt I could keep up in the bedroom hehehe!" She laughed with a blush as Tsuna blushed a bit as well but laughed as Kyoko rolled her eyes at her friend's pervertedness.

"Well what are we waiting for guys, TO THE EXTREME!" Ryohei shouted in excitement while ignoring Shizukua's joke, but he was blushing a bit at hearing it.

50 minutes later…

"AIE! MERCY" Nezu-Sensei screamed in fear as Hibari came at him with a glare, but also a bloodthirsty grin on his face.

"Annoying herbivore, for threatening to expel a student for petty reasons and disturbing the peace of the school I'm biting you to death." Sneered Hibari as he brandished his tonfas at the man.

"Hibari-san, what the hell is going on?!" Screamed the principal as she heard the noise and wondered what was going on.

"Dealing out punishment to a damn fool Principal Kanako-san. Unless you want to defend idiots who mistreat students, set them up to impossible tasks and insult them I suggest you back off." Grunted Hibari as he kept his eyes on the shaking form of Nezu.

"What?' Principal Kanako asked in a confused tone until Hibari gave her a folder that was rather thick. "In that folder are the filed complaints from students who reported about Nezu's behavior, with the current one being from Sunohara Shizuka who complained about his mistreatment towards her and saying insults about her sister Sunohara Ikumi-sensei."

"Oh really?" The principal said with narrow eyes as she read through the files before glaring at Nezu who was sweating furiously. "Dohachiro you fucking disgrace! This is not how we treat the students, nevermind what goes on in the private lives of our fellow colleagues! How dare you!"

"How dare I?! This is ridiculous! Everyone knows how Yasuo keeps Ikumi at arms length despite their marriage. It's not even a secret. Pretty sure that woman is whoring herself out and Yasuo is too much of a coward to say anything about it!"

"And that's where you're wrong you damn fool." Said Tsuna as he came up to Nezu with his friends along with Kyoko and Shizuka who were glaring at the man.

"You stay out of this you little shit!" Screamed Nezu as he glared at Tsuna who glared right back. "You and your friends have caused nothing but trouble ever since you enrolled here! Unlike that damn fool Shiro I don't give a damn who your grandfather is and I hope you're expelled along with that damn brat who… ACKK!" He was cut off by Tsuna slamming his foot right into his balls causing him to fall down onto the floor.

"If you value your life I'd suggest you keep your damn mouth shut." Tsuna replied rather cooly, eyes glowing red as he glared at the pathetic excuse of a man currently whimpering like a dog. "Don't you ever talk badly about my friends."

Hibari chuckled a bit at the scene before him while Principal Kanako winced a bit. "Tsuna-kun behave yourself sweetie, I already have to deal with Hibari's antics. I don't need to deal with anyone else's as well." She lectured in a deadpan tone before glaring at Nezu. "I would say I'm sorry to say this Dohachiro, but I'm not. You're fired, you bastard. If you don't get your shit and leave immediately I'll have you arrested… right after Hibari-san is done with you."

Hibari smirked rather evilly at that thought along with the rest of Tsuna's friends, and Nezu pretty much pissed himself.

"Good work Tsuna, rather clever of you to use the Cloud kid to deal with the problem." Reborn said as he ate some sushi.

"Eh, it wasn't anything. Everybody knew that Nezu was an ass to begin with and Hibari-senpai simply needed a reason to deal with him." Shrugged Tsuna as he had some sushi as well.

Following Nezu's firing, Tsuna and his friends went to a sushi restaurant after school to cheer up Shizuka. The sushi restaurant was owned by Takeshi's dad Tsuyoshi and it was called TakeSushi.

Surprisingly, Ikumi-sensei went with them as well. Mostly to thank Tsuna for defending her sister and to check on Shizuka as well. While Shizuka was annoyed at her older sister coming along, she was still happy nonetheless for her to be around.

"Hahaha! Can you believe the look on that bastard's face when Tsuna kicked him right in the balls!" The brown-haired girl laughed rather loudly. "Totally priceless! It was even better when he pissed himself when the principal threatened to sic Hibari-Senpai on him if he didn't leave quickly enough."

"Settle down Shizuka." Ikumi-sensei reprimanded her, but she was sporting a slight smile on her face. Truth be told, she never really liked Dohachiro that much to begin with as the now former Science Teacher was a complete ass in general and always seemed like he was hiding something.

Apparently he really was hiding something as they found out from Namimori Middle School about a time capsule that was dug up and found to be full of Nezu's tests and all of them were failed grades!

So yeah, the beautiful gym teacher wasn't all that sad at him being removed.

"Um, excuse me Ikumi-sensei…" Chrome squeaked out as Ikumi looked at her curiously. "Not to be nosey or anything and I hope this isn't a sore subject, but is it true that Yasuo-sensei makes you use your maiden name despite being married for so long?" She asked rather hesitantly and hoped she didn't offend the older woman.

Ikumi-sensei sighed and drank some of her sake before replying. "Yes Chrome-chan it's quite true. Despite us being much in love I was asked to still keep using my maiden name because for some odd reason he thinks people knowing we're married will garner some sort of attention or whatever. "She huffed in frustration.

"Tch, then your husband's a fucking dumbass if he cares that much about what people think of him." Zoro said rather bluntly, eating his sushi and taking a large gulp from his drink. "What kind of a man is worried about people asking him if he's married or not?"

"Now now, Zoro-san. I'm sure Yasuo-sensei has a good reason for doing so." Tanjiro said in a placating manner before looking at Ikumi-sensei. "Although, I do agree that it is quite odd that he's making you use your maiden name."

"To tell the truth, yeah it is quite odd. I really don't understand why he convinced me to keep using my maiden name to begin with. We don't fight and we don't have that many arguments so I really don't know what's the problem to begin with." The older woman sighed rather sadly. "On top of that, we've been trying to have a child but lately he's pushed that aside as well because he thinks it would damage our reputation even though I doubt it would."

"Well that's his loss not yours!" Shizuka exclaimed as she hugged her sister. "If he wants to be a complete stick in the mud and care more about his oh so precious reputation then it's his problem and not yours. You deserve to be happy, Nee-chan!" She said with a wide smile as others agreed with that notion with a nod.

The female gym teacher could only nod numbly at that as tears formed in her eyes, but she was smiling. Her little sister was right, and while she still loved her husband, she did agree that Yasuo needed to learn to not be such a stiff.

She wasn't sure how Shizuka became so vocal in these things, but as she looked at Tsuna who was talking to his friends she had a feeling he was the cause of it and yet it didn't really bother her that much. The young man was well liked by the people around him and he was even able to get certain students like Hibari and Gokudera to behave to an extent. Sure, she heard rumors that he and Chrome were engaged, especially since the young violet haired girl was so close and affectionate to him but she chalked it up to the teens being childhood sweethearts or something like that so she wasn't bothered.

Never mind the rumors surrounding the brown-haired teen's grandfather. Unlike some people (her husband for example), she wasn't gonna believe random stories until she met him himself but she doubted she would ever meet him since Tsuna had mentioned that the man was a very busy businessman.

However, she did bump into Tsuna's mom a few times, mostly at the store. Nana Sawada was quite a sweet woman and friendly too so long as you didn't mention about her absent husband. Ikumi could've sworn that the older woman's eyes glowed red sometimes wherever some random bitchy housewife made a snide comment about the man but she figured she was a trick of the light and was imagining things.

Whatever it was, she felt sorry for whoever would be on the receiving end of it.