Tsuna was working the bellows, trying to get the melting point just right for his project. While he had a natural handle of how to forge weapons, jewelry...especially flame reactive jewelry...was a different kettle of fish.

On the plus side, he made a new 'best friend' in one of the lambs he had helped Talbot to deliver. The baby ram followed him like a duckling of sorts whenever he was out tending to the sheep. Talbot had laughed himself into hiccups when he found out what happened.

(Tsuna suspected that he would find said ram traveling back to Japan with him once his apprenticeship was over. He would be right.)

He put his feet to the bellows, and started to push in and out, fanning the flames within the forge to start work for the morning. It was something he was so used to that he didn't give it any thought.

The only difference was that it took a slightly different approach to make jewelry compared to swords, which was where he kept having issues. But it was good work experience, so he didn't complain.

Tsuna was about to start work for the day when he heard a car pull up.

That was unusual. Master Talbot always gave him a head's up about potential customers...not that he was allowed to have any save for his pre-existing contracts... and there wasn't anyone scheduled for today.

Hearing voices, Tsuna's intuition rang with alarm.

Well, he wasn't going to ignore the same sixth sense that had kept him alive all these years and allowed him to becoming a recognized...if very young...swordsmith.

Tsuna backed away from the forge, which was still heating up for the day. It would take an hour before he could properly start work for the day, so he could leave it alone.

He walked up to the wall...and through a very unusual application of Harmony, melted into his surroundings. Thanks to the special bracelet Talbot had given him at the start of the apprenticeship, he had more than enough control to pull this trick off.

Talbot had called him a 'human chameleon' and seemed to find it rather hilarious for some reason.

Tsuna observed the 'guests' with a critical eye...and immediately slipped 'through' the house to a small alcove that wasn't immediately seen from the outside.

He called Talbot.

"Master Talbot, is there any reason the Vongola would be visiting you today?" he asked in Italian.

"Vongola? I haven't received a call from them. Who's there?"

"A Storm, a Sun and a Cloud, all wearing Guardian rings."

"I'll be there in ten minutes. Stall if you can," said Talbot. He wasn't about to leave the kid who provided him so much entertainment alone with the Vongola. They might try to take him away!

Tsuna grabbed the bandanna he used to keep the hair out of his face and tied it over his rather distinctive hair. He was in his usual outfit for the forge, which was made of his Mist flame. In order to learn the finer arts of controlling it, Talbot had him training that every time he worked on the forge until it became almost instinctive.

He had already learned the art of using his Cloud flame to amplify the amount of force in the blows he put into his forging. It was the only reason he was able to put enough force into his hammer to match his uncle and grandfather solo. He wasn't skinny, but he never would have developed the muscles necessary without it either. Not without constant practice.

Tsuna strolled in, ignoring the three Vongola Guardians and checked the forge. It was hot enough for the first round of metal. Without giving them even a second thought...(ignoring their existence was surprisingly easy)...he put the metal to the fire to heat up.

He checked his tools and continued to ignore the increasingly annoyed Italians.

The Storm in particular looked rather pissed off that he was being blatantly ignored.

So when Talbot came in, he took one look at the unhappy expressions of the visitors and the dismissive attitude of his apprentice and grinned.

"Gentlemen! What can I do for my unexpected visitors this fine day?"

Emphasis on the unexpected.

"We came to personally inquire why you recently took a rather large amount of money from Iemitsu."

"Iemitsu? I haven't talked to that spoiled brat once," said Talbot.

"Well the money came from his account to yours, and he never placed an order."

"Then maybe the dumbass shouldn't have left his account book unattended," muttered Tsuna.

"Now you talk! You should show more respect, you brat!" snapped the Storm.

"Why should I show respect to people who show up without calling first and barge in when the occupants are out as if they own the place? Besides, you're no client of mine," said Tsuna staring down the Storm.

The Storm back down first, unnerved by the gaze of the teen.

"Pardon my hot headed friend. However it's not often we're dismissed as pieces of furniture," said the Cloud pointedly.

"And why should I care about three Guardians barging into my Master's workshop when I know for a fact you aren't clients of mine? You didn't knock, you didn't call out for Master, and you just waltzed in as if you owned the place. Besides, the only people I'm allowed to contract out to are those I have established orders from," said Tsuna flatly. "I don't care if you three are Vongola... you need to display proper manners and not allow your overinflated ego take over."

Talbot cackled. Tsuna was right of course...though it had been a very long time indeed since any of these three were confronted by someone not afraid of them or impressed with their positions.

Tsuna went back to work, as he had no interest in the Vongola. Besides, the Varia recently sent in a request for more of Belphegor's special knives, along with the rough amount of metal needed to make them.

Coyote shot Tsuna another glare before he finally left, annoyed by the amount of disrespect the brat had shown him.

Talbot patted Tsuna on the back for keeping his mouth shut and focusing on the important things. Namely the order he had to finish.

In Rome, a few days later...

Reborn was many things, but an idiot wasn't one of them. When Fon cheerfully told him that his prospective student had left for an year-long apprenticeship, and a month later Timoteo asked him to investigate who Talbot's new apprentice was since the Vongola was scrambling to find young Tsunayoshi...well, it didn't take much for his genius IQ to put the obvious together.

There were very few people Reborn would be wary of pissing off with his general antics, and Talbot happened to be on the top five of that list.

Which was why he was sending a text to Fon to confirm what he already knew.

My student is training under Talbot, isn't he? -Chaos Sun

Took you long enough to figure it out. -StormDragon

How the hell did he convince that old fossil into agreeing to take him as apprentice?! -Chaos Sun

One, he was mostly interested in extra experience when it came to using flame reactive metals and jewels, with the addition of learning how to engrave things. Two, he used Iemitsu's account to pay for the right. And three, because Talbot wanted to enjoy the fun of seeing the Vongola scramble to find their missing heir when he was within their territory the whole time learning something 'useful'. -StormDragon

…How exactly did they miss the fact that Talbot's new apprentice was their missing heir? -Chaos Sun

From what I was told, Tsuna kept his attention on the order the Varia had placed and ignored the Guardians entirely, and had a bandanna hiding his hair. They probably didn't get a good enough look at him. -StormDragon

Well that explained why Coyote was bitching about how disrespectful the kid had been. Reborn actually applauded that particular attitude. It wasn't like they were his clients after all.

It also meant that Reborn could ignore all demands from the Vongola for the next few months...there wasn't much point training the kid until his apprenticeship was up. Not unless the Vongola wanted to explain why they sent an independent to make a mess of Talbot's workshop.

He was pretty sure even that price tag would make the Vongola balk about trying to force the kid into being their next don.

He was also positive Viper was laughing their ass off at the Vongola right now... he had heard they had joined the Varia as their Mist officer which meant they knew more about the situation than he did.

Tsuna was doing something rather...unusual...with the left over bits and pieces of scrap metal Talbot allowed him to keep. All of it was flame reactive, though very little of it was actually precious metal.

Talbot was very good at only using the minimum amount to make rings, so there was almost no waste. However there were certain metals like titanium that could conduct just as well, even if it didn't look as pretty.

(Very few people were aware that Talbot tended to short change the metals used generally by plating the cheaper metal with the ones ordered...especially if he was annoyed with his customer. The rings still worked, so no one really needed to know anyway.)

Tsuna was going to make a hammer. One that was made of almost entirely flame reactive metals. He had to pay particular attention to the hilt, as that would be the most difficult to make. He wasn't used to making something so circular.

Though he found it rather amusing that he would be using Aries' wool (the ram that had taken such a liking to him) to make the wrapping on the hilt. He thought it rather apt to use the name of the constellation to name his new 'pet'. Even if it took him a good month to get the hang of carding the wool, dying it, and then learning how to weave it properly.

(On an unrelated note, he now had the rather amusing hobby of knitting thanks to his apprenticeship. So far he could make scarves, but he was working up to 'knitting' a set of proper chainmail.)

Tsuna carefully poured the tougher metals into the kiln, making sure to heat it up so that they would meld together. It was a tricky process made harder because each metal had a different 'reaction' to flames. He had to keep the entire thing in perfect harmony so that the hammer wouldn't blow up in his face when he channeled his flames into them.

Fortunately, that's what Sky flames were good at...that and he shamelessly abused his Hyper Intuition the entire time.

It was an arduous process, made even more taxing by the heat of the forge.

This was going to take several weeks to complete, never mind the fact he had to hammer out the impurities and then beat it into the shape he wanted.

And don't get him started on the long, drawn out task of putting the few precious metals that his master allowed him to keep, solely for the purpose of adding not only a bit of decoration, but increasing it's ability to channel flames.

Oh well, at least he had a long term project to play around with.

For the most part, his apprenticeship (and side project) went smashingly. Tsuna was very happy with it, because he had learned a lot more than he expected.

That being said, he was not expecting the rather unusual accident that occurred...or the ramifications that it would have.

All because Talbot handed him an odd rock that had high flame conductive properties that almost looked like a pacifier. He didn't want to see any of the gems wasted, so he had gone out and found something else that would work just as well.

Tsuna was pouring the metal around the odd rock, mostly so he didn't have to keep buffing it or worry about it breaking from the force he tended to put in his blows.

While he was doing that, he kept a small amount of Sky flame pouring into it, so that he could tell if something went wrong... hopefully with enough time to correct his mistake.

The rock began to glow from a bright orange light that was almost the same hue as the sunset. What Tsuna didn't notice was that the gold was glowing too.

Right as he was about to pour the final bit of metal over it, the rock let loose enough flames that Tsuna had to back away quickly unless he wanted it to melt right onto his hand.

He wasn't about to go near that rock when it was floating like that.

To add to his growing shock, the Vindice arrived. The lead Vindice took one look at the accidental creation, then at a shell-shocked Tsuna.

"...Is this self-sustaining?" asked the 'leader' seriously.

"I honestly have no idea," said Tsuna. "I was still pouring the metal on it when the thing just lit up on it's own and the rock almost melted onto my hand."

Tsuna was still quite bewildered upon meeting Bermuda...and learning that his accidental creation was indeed, self-sustaining so long as the Vindice were willing to keep it in a loop using their special flames.

On the plus side, he was now permanently on the their good side for accidentally discovering an alternative to the Arcobaleno curse.

A week later, an very happy Fon showed up to give him a tight hug...for someone who was slowly starting to regain his actual age, he sure had strong arms. Fon was also completely delighted to find out that Tsuna was actually his Sky.

Fon, Viper, and Skull were likely the only ones who were aware of who broke the curse they were under, even if it was entirely by accident while he was trying to recreate something else.

Though when he found out what exactly Tsuna was trying to make, he put the boy in contact with Verde. The scientist was both intrigued by the concept and thankful for the fact Tsuna was the one responsible for the removal of the curse. As such he humored the boy and agreed to help make the 'computer' part of the hammer, which Tsuna called "Graf Eisen".

Fon was infinitely amused by the fact Tsuna was working so hard to recreate his favorite weapons (and his favorite spell). After all, what weapon suited a smith better than an actual hammer?