Raphael The Leader In Red

by TheUnknowWritter

What if Leo never became the leader? What if Raph became the leader? How would their missions go? Read more to find out! (I know that Leo is the leader so don't start that with me I just thought it would be intresting to write how, in my point of view, it would be like if Raphael became the leader and not Leonardo.)

1. Raphael as the leader? Oh boy

Raphael, the Leader in Red Chapter 1 Raphael as the leader? Oh boy….

Darkness was slowly falling upon the city of New York which was soon followed by the lights of the buildings lighting up like a Christmas tree, blocking the view of the stars. Even though the lights from the buildings made it look like no one was asleep, in truth it wasn't that many people awake. It was a cold August night and most people have either gone to bed or hurried home. Those who were still awake in their houses would most likely be watching a movie, a TV show or other things but the streets were almost completely empty.

But deep below the grounds in the dark sewers there was still one place that was lit up and in this old subway station that was abandoned years ago a very odd family lived. None knew this family of five even existed but that was the point, you see this family was indeed very odd and if one were to see any of them they would soon have to run and hide since most people would see them as aliens. That was also false, they are not aliens but the result of an experiment gone wrong.

Inside this "Lair" four mutated turtles were on their knees facing each other. On one side a dark green turtle with emerald green eyes, a red bandana and two sais seethed in a belt that goes around his waist were facing an olive green turtle with brown eyes that was a bit taller than himself that wore a purple bandana and a bo-staff strapped to the back of his shell. Next to them stood a sea green turtle with blue eyes, an orange bandana and two nun-chucks strapped against his plastron in a belt that goes around his waist. The sea green turtle were facing a sap green turtle with blue eyes, a blue bandana and two katana blades seethed on the back of his shell in holsters. At first they were just looking at each other but they were soon enough up on their feet with their weapons in their hands, everyone but the one in red. At first they just looked at each other but soon enough the turtle with the blue bandana moved forward and let out a battle scream as he was ready to strike the one in front of him.

"Oh yeah Michelangelo is on the move!" The turtle who wore the orange bandana yelled as he ran for the one with the katana blade while spinning his two nun-chucks with ease.

As they got closer and closer the turtle with the blue bandana raised one of his katana blades up and struck down on the one in front of him but the shorter turtle easily dodged it by jumping over the katana wielding turtle, he quickly spun around so he faced the one in front of him.

"You don't know what to do!" He teased while spinning his nun-chucks around himself and gave the katana wielding turtle a smirk.

The turtle with the blue bandana narrowed his blue eyes and ran towards the nun-chuck wielding turtle and tried to strike him again.

"Now I'm here" The turtle with the orange bandana said to the other to try and distract him after he had dodged the other attack and stood on one knee in front of the katana wielding turtle.

"Now I'm there" He said as he watched the other narrow his eyes again in slight frustration.

"I could be anywhere!" He added shortly after that and he barely missed the next swing which caused his baby blue eyes to widen. At first the katana wielding turtle had no idea how to defeat the other but then he got an idea as he spun around to face the other a smile appeared on his face.

"How do you stop what you can't even see?!" The turtle with the orange bandana said and gave a smirk as he ran for the turtle in blue, ready to strike him.

But the other just stood his ground and when the nun-chuck wielding turtle was close enough he grabbed a hold of the steel of his blade and swung the handle right on the stomach of the other which caused the one in orange to fall forward, roll a few feet away from the one in blue, stop on his knee with both his hands on his stomach before looking like he was about to throw up then he collapsed to his side.

"Like that?" The one in blue asked his younger brother that had collapsed after the hit from the handle.

"Good one Leo..!" The one in orange managed to say but the words sounded like he was out of breath.

In the meantime the one in purple spun his bo-staff around before he pointed one end to the one in red but the dark green turtle just cracked his neck once by moving his head to the left then he cracked it again by moving it to the right before he shook his head and looked at the one in purple.

"Alright Donnie put down the staff and no one gets hurt" He warned the other while he looked at the one in purple with an emotionless expression.

"Ah you said that last time Raph and then you hurt me" He stated and lowered his staff slightly.

"Well yeah but last time I would have" He replayed and held both his hands up in the air, showing he was ready for any attack the other might throw at him.

"Yeah right" The one in purple said in disbelieve before raised his staff again and ran towards the one in red.

The dark green turtle easily dodged the attack by rolling to the side and once he was up on his feet again he swiftly jumped backwards to avoid another attack. Seeing this the one in purple let out a faint battle cry as he spun his staff with ease before he pushed one end forward in hope he would hit the other but again that failed as he just leaned backwards but the staff was just a few inches away from hitting him right on his face.

Now the one in purple started to get really annoyed he raised the end of the staff up over his head before he spun it again and tried to hit the other over his head but again he avoided it by moving to the sides, his eyes never moving from the one in front of him. As fast as he avoided one attack he had to avoid another swing and he did so by jumping forward, rolled a few feet away from the other and got up and turned around to face the turtle with the staff. As he avoided the attack the turtle with the staff spun his staff around before holding it behind his shell and when he saw the one in red faced him again he spun around the staff a little longer this time before he swung the staff towards the one in red. The attack missed of course as the other ducked while moving slightly to the side and when the one in purple spun the staff over his head he did one mistake when he swung the staff forward, he closed his eyes and didn't see when the one in front of him took the staff out of his hands.

When something felt like it was missing from him the one in purple opened his eyes only to see that the one in red had his staff and it was then he knew that he had lost. The one in red looked at the turtle in front of him before he spun the staff and then broke it in half by slamming it against his kneepad. With two pieces of the staff he looked back at the one in purple and smirked.

"Should have dropped the staff?" The taller turtle asked even though he already knew the answer to that one.

"Should have dropped the staff" Was the only replay he got before he turned around, crunched down and covered his head as the one in red ran towards him and started to use his shell like a drum with the two pieces of the now broken staff.

"Okay! Okay! OW! I'm down! I'm down!" The one in purple said out loud but he earned a few more hits to his shell before he was allowed to get up and walk over to the one in orange who was sitting on his knees on a safer distance from the rest. When the taller turtle had kneeled down beside the other, the one in orange stuck his tongue out for a quick second before he smiled.

The two younger turtles were now watching their older brothers as they kneeled down in front of one another, the one in blue mumbled something to the one red in Japanese in a low tone so the other two couldn't hear him.

"Whatever you say" Was the answer he got before both of them stood up and got in a fighting stance.

This time the one in red did take out both his sais and before the first blow came he spun the sais with ease before he blocked the first blow by bring both his sais up in the air, a few inches from his face. They stood like that for a few seconds before the one with the sais backed away and moved so he was behind the other but the one with the katana saw that coming and quickly spun around and tried to strike the other but he missed since the one in red took a step back. For a few seconds they just looked at each other before the one in red spun his sais and ran towards the one in blue but again the attack the one with the katana tried to swing at the one with the sais was easily avoided by crunching down and quickly move to the side.

After that the one in red pushed the one in blue after that attack he tried to strike the one with the katana but that only made the one in front of him kick him on his chest which caused him to stumble backwards and land on his shell but he quickly jumped back up on his feet. And after the one in blue had charged the younger turtle he managed to unarm the one in red of at least one sai. That made the dark green turtle get slightly angry and he grip around the handle of the sai got tighter.

They both ran towards each other but the one in blue didn't see the fast attack the dark green turtle did which made him drop his katana and that's when the one in red saw his chance, before the older turtle got a chance to take out his other katana the one in red trapped one hand of the older turtle with his sai, spun the sai around and managed to flip the older turtle over his shell and onto the floor. That made the one in blue groan in pain as he held his wrist in his hand were the sai had been.

"Nice try" The one in red said and a smile appeared on his face as he saw his older sibling lying on the floor, defeated.

"Yame!" A sharp voice suddenly said which made all of the turtles turn to look at the once person they knew the voiced belonged too before all of them kneeled down in the middle of the floor.

After that a giant rat walked into the room which they called the "Dojo" and he slowly walked over to the turtles which he had come to raise as his own sons and when he passed the oldest of them he earned a quick bow in respect.

"You all did very well" He spoke and the voice had a hint of Japanese accent in it.

"But I did better" The one in red spoke which caused the oldest turtle to look at him disbelieve.

"This is about self-improvement Raphael. It's not about winning and losing" The rat scolded his second oldest son.

"I know sensei but I won and they lost" He replayed to his "Sensei" and put both his hands behind his head and a cocky grin appeared on his face. Hearing that the rat got rather angry and put one finger against a pressure point that he knew all his sons had on the side of their neck which made the dark green turtle flinch in pain and his eyes to widen slightly.

"B-But the important thing is that we all did our best! Good job everyone!" He cried out just so his sensei would let go of him and after hearing that he let go and when he did the one in red hunched forward and let his arms rest on the floor and the rat let out a slight amused chuckle.

After that they all walked out of the dojo and headed for the kitchen. If you hadn't guessed it by now these four turtles were all brothers and their rat sensei was also their father. They have been living down in the sewers for 15 years now and it was also time for them to celebrate their "Mutation Day". You can see it kind of like their birthday but the only thing they got would be Michelangelo's cake, if he makes one.

If you're wondering who is who it's really simple. The one with the blue bandana, twin katana blades, sap green "skin" color and blue eyes is the oldest out of them and the second tallest. His name is Leonardo Yoshi Hamato but his brothers just calls him Leo and his father/sensei is the only one that addresses him as Leonardo. The only time Leo hears someone say his full name is when he have done something to make his father really angry which rarely happens. Leo is also the calmest and most mature out of the four turtles and the one who does everything to master the skills of being a ninja.

Then you have the one with the red bandana, two sais, dark green "skin" color and emerald green eyes, he is the second oldest out of them and the third tallest. His name is Raphael Firenzi Hamato but his brothers just calls him Raph, they can sometimes call him Raphie but that's only Donnie or Mikey that calls him that if they either want something from him or if they have gotten really scared. Raph hated that nickname but the only time he really said he did was one of them said it to make him angry The only one to address him as Raphael is his father Master Splinter and just like Leo Splinter only address Raphael by his full name if he have done something he shouldn't which happens pretty often. Raph is also the strongest out of his brothers but he is also the one with the shortest temper which have gotten him into a lot of fights with Leo who constantly tries to over shine Raph. But he is also the one who is the most loyal to family and most protective, he would do anything for his family though he would never admit it.

Then you have the one with the purple bandana, a bo-staff, olive green "skin" color and brown eyes, he is the third oldest out of them but he is also the tallest. His name is Donatello Hamato but his brothers just call him either Don or Donnie, the only one to address him by Donatello is his father Master Splinter and just like his other brothers Splinter will only say Donnie's full name if he have done something he is not allowed to do. Donnie is the smartest out of his brothers, he loves to build new things and often rants about things in such scientific ways that his brothers mostly have no idea what he is talking about but Donnie is also the weakest one out of the four but he doesn't let that stop him from training but being so into machines and other stuff like that he often never finds the time to get at least a little bit stronger. He believes that someday he will build something that can do the fighting part for him.

And then you have the one with an orange bandana, two nun-chucks, sea green "skin" color and baby blue eyes, he is the youngest out of them and also the shortest. His name is Michelangelo Hamato but his brothers just call him either Mike or Mikey and like his brothers the only one to address him as Michelangelo is Splinter but Splinter will only say Mike's full name if he has done something he shouldn't which happens from time to time. Mikey is the most childish out of the four of them but he is also the one who could become the most skilled if he just put more time with his training. But being how he is he never does instead he keeps to reading his comics and playing videogames.

And lastly you have Master Splinter. He is a tall brown rat who wears a red kimono and he walks around with a stick. There isn't much more to say about him only that he tries to be as calm as he can around his four adoptive sons while training them to be ninjas. He might have train them for 15 years but he knows that they are far from being masters of it which is why he keeps training them.

After Mikey had finished their "dinner" which were algae and worms everyone sat down around the table and started to eat. Their food weren't really any good but at least they had something to eat. For the most part everyone forced themselves to eat it just because they knew they needed to eat something and since they didn't have any other choice they went with it.

"There are still some algae and worms left if anyone wants it! Anybody? Anybody?" Mikey suddenly called out while looking at his brothers with a slight amused grin, he knew they didn't want to but he just had to ask anyway.

"No thanks" Leo responded and looked down at the food he still had left on his plate.

"I'm good" Raph responded and looked down on the plate in front of him.

"All yours" Donnie replayed and had a slight bored look on his face.

"Ah I guess there is no more room left for cake!" Mikey said and placed a cake on the table which caused his brothers to get up from their seats in hope it would be a real cake.

"It is a cake!" Donnie burst out while Raph tasted some of the cake and he got disappointed when he realized what it was made of.

"Made of algae… And worms" Raph said out loud and he got a disappointed look on his face.

"What's the frosting made out of…?" Leo asked and looked at his youngest brother.

"You don't want to know….." Mikey replayed and pulled the cake slightly away from his brothers.

"Happy Mutation Day!" Mikey then burst out and gave a big smile to his brothers in hope to lighten things up while also lifting the cake up a few inches from the table.

"Happy Mutation Day!" Leo, Raph and Donnie said at the same time and smiled back at Mikey.

"Ah yes. Fifteen years from today our lives changed forever and we became the unlikeliest of families" Splinter said to his sons while smiling at them.

"Tells us the story Master Splinter" Mikey said and a light look of hope shined from his eyes as he really wanted to hear it again.

"Michelangelo I've already told you that story many times" Splinter responded and looked at Mikey.

"Please! Pleeeaaassse!" Mikey said and before he could say please one more time Raph had gone up from his seat, walked over to Mikey and placed one hand over Mikey's mouth to shut him up.

"Please, it's the only way to shut Mikey up" Raph said and he looked very annoyed and when Mikey heard that he got a little angry but he was able to push the angry feeling away pretty fast.

"Ah very well. Many years ago" Splinter started as he told his sons the story of how they came to be the unlikeliest of families.

Before they became who they are now Splinter was a normal human, he had just left the pet store with four baby turtles and on his way back home he passed a strange man and something seemed off about him so Splinter decided to follow the man. He followed the man to an alley but when he tried to hear what the man was talking about with another man he didn't hear anything and as he moved his foot from one place to another he didn't see the rat and when he had stepped on the rat's tail it let out a scream in pain which alerted the two men. When the two men saw Splinter, or Hamato Yoshi as he was named then, they called for two more before they attacked him. Master Splinter were able to fight them off but what he didn't see was the canister that one of them held which resulted in the strange man dropping it and Splinter dropped the small tank where he held his baby turtles in, inside the canister was some kind of liquid and when the canister broke some of it landed on Splinter which slowly turned him into a mutant rat since the last thing he had touched was a rat and the small tank the turtles were in landed right in the liquid and when the turtles got it on themselves they slowly turned into mutant humanoid turtles.

"That was the beginning of our lives together. It was the mysterious substance in this canister that, in a way, gave birth to us all" Splinter finished and held up the same canister that the men left behind after their mutation.

"Mom!" Mikey said as he grabbed the canister and hugged it and his brothers just stared at him for a few seconds.

"So sensei now that we are fifteen I think we're finally ready to go up to the surface, don't you?" Leo said out loud and the look of hope after he had said that was shown in Leo, Donnie and Raph's faces.

"Yes…" Splinter started which made all of his sons cheer I happiness.

"And no" He finished when his sons got quiet which made all of them whine.

"You have grown powerful but you're all still young. You lack the maturity to use your skills wisely" Splinter said as he stood up from his chair and started to walk away.

"So sensei isn't that just "No"?" Donnie asked while he looked a bit confused.

"Yes and no. Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from making mistakes" Splinter said in hope that his smartest son would figure out what he meant.

"Ah ha so in order for us to gain the wisdom we have to make the mistakes so we can go?" Donnie asked and the look on his face showed that he hoped that he was right.

"No" Splinter responded.

"And yes?" Donnie asked and the look of hope slowly faded.

"No!" Was the respond Donnie got from his father.

"Awwww" Donnie said out loud in disbelieve and dropped his head so he looked down.

"Sensei we know that you're trying to protect us but we can't spend our whole lives hiding down here" Leo said out loud in hope that his father would understand.

At first Splinter wasn't sure of what to answer but when he saw his sons look up at him with their puppy dog eyes he let out a sigh in defeat.

"You may go tonight" Splinter said to his sons as he decided to give up which made his sons cheer once again in happiness.

"High three!" Mikey said happily and held up his hands which all of his brothers high three-D.

As they all waited for time to pass by Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey decided to do other stuff they like to do but since Leo started to watch his favorite TV-show "Space Heroes" Mikey couldn't play his videogames so he followed Donnie into his lab to disturb him. Raph had gone into his bedroom and gotten one of his comics before he walked back to the living room area and started to read his comic book and for the most part he ignored the TV. Leo watched the TV screen and ignored what happened around him, even though he had watched "Space Heroes" a lot of times he still loved the show and he hoped that he could one day be just like the main character, Captain Ryan.

"Gentlemen I have bold and daring plan! There is no time for hesitation! My orders must be carried out without question!" Leo said at the same time the main character said it.

"You know this show is stupid right?" Raph said but he didn't take his eyes off his comic.

"Space Heroes is a great show and Captain Ryan is a great hero, someday I'm going to be just like him!" Leo stated proudly as he put his left hand over his chest.

"Well you do enjoying hearing yourself talk so you're on your way" Raph responded but he still didn't take his eyes off his comic.

"It's go time!" Mikey said when he had run into the living room area with Donnie right by his side and you could hear how excited he was.

So the four turtle brothers grabbed all their weapons just in case but before they were allowed to leave Splinter held them back to say a few things to them.

"You're going into a strange and hostile world. You must bare awareness at all times" Splinter told them.

"Hai sensei!" All four of them said at the same time.

"Stay in the shadows!" Splinter said as he saw that his sons were about to leave even though he wasn't done talking.

"Hai sensei!" All four of them said at the same time again.

"Don't talk to strangers" Splinter said when he saw that once again his sons were about to leave even though he wasn't done talking.

"Hai sensei" All four said again but they didn't sound very happy this time.

"Everyone is a stranger!" Splinter filled in.

"Hai sensei.." All four of them said and sounded more unhappy than the last time.

Knowing that their sensei would say more they hurried out of the sewers and when they got close to a man hole cover all four of them started to get nervous and just to be careful Leo removed the man hole cover slightly and looked around, when he didn't see anyone around he removed it completely and got out of the sewer with his brothers right behind him. When all four were above ground they looked around and their eyes widen in amazement and once they had turned around and saw more of the city they just stared at it and just as Mikey was about to walk out on the street Raph stopped him.

"Don't you remember what sensei said? Stay out of the shadows so I don't think walking out in the middle of the street would be such a good idea" Raph told his youngest brother.

"Then where should we go?" Mikey asked confused.

"The rooftops, up there we will have a bigger chance of not being spotted" Raph said and started to walk up a fire escape and his three brothers just looked at him before they followed him.

"This idea is pretty good, how did you think of it?" Leo asked confused as he looked at Raph.

"You're not the only one who is being trained to be a ninja Leo. All of you should have known about the rooftops" Raph responded and looked around once he were on the rooftop.

Donnie, Mikey and Leo all stopped beside Raph once they were on the rooftop as well and looked around, they had a pretty good view of the city from up there and to them the view was amazing. Leo of course was mad at himself for not thinking about going up on the rooftops in the first place since it was mostly him who came up with safe ideas and not Raph but at the same time he was happy that at least someone had thought about it.

For a few hours Donnie, Mikey, Leo and Raph just jumped from rooftop to rooftop both too looked around the city but also to train themselves since they all had they feeling this wouldn't be the last time they would go above ground. During their run on the rooftops they didn't see anything until they heard a woman let out a scream from further down the street, knowing the woman might be in trouble the four brothers hurried after the scream and like they thought the woman was being chased by 6 men that looked like they belonged in some type of gang. Not wanting the woman to get hurt all four of them jumped down from the roof while still avoiding to be seen by anyone before the got closer to the 6 gang members. When one of them were close Donnie pulled out his staff from his back and used it to trip the first person which resulted in the rest of them to turn and look in the alley Donnie and his brothers were in.

"What are those things?" One of them asked when they saw how the four brothers looked like.

"Some freaks in turtle costumes" Another one replayed.

"I don't care what they are they are going to pay for tripping me!" Another one said and walked forward to make the first move.

And since Donnie, Leo, Mikey and Raph are just used to fight one on one and not as a team the fight went pretty bad but they still managed to make 4 of the gang members run away in fear. The other two still tried to beat them but after a while they gave up and ran away. The four brothers looked at each other knowing that they might have looked like fools while trying to fight as poorly as they just had , feeling like they had all just lost a battle they all jumped down the nearest man hole cover and headed home. On the way none of them said a word they didn't want to say anything to each other either.

When they finally got home they saw a worried Splinter waiting for them but as Leo told their sensei what had just happened that worry turned into anger since he knew that his sons weren't ready and now he just got the proof of it.

"And so your inability of working together as a team allowed them all to escape" Splinter told his sons.

"Even so sensei we still saved the one who needed help the bad guys ran in a different direction" Raph said to his sensei to see if it would calm him down a bit.

"But you still hurt each other when you tried to use your weapons in combat!" Splinter said before he let out a sigh to calm himself down.

"Maybe you aren't ready and need more training to learn how to work together as a team" Splinter said once he had calmed himself down.

"But sensei what if there are more people like that woman we saved? I don't think that next time she will be so lucky that someone just happens to be around to stop it all" Leo said and hoped that Splinter would understand what he meant.

For a while Splinter didn't say anything he just looked at his sons as he tried to come up with a solution so that his sons could still go above ground but still train to fight as a team. After a few minutes he finally thought of something, he just hoped that it would be the right choice in the end.

"If you are to fight more affectively as a team, a unit. You're going to need a leader" Splinter said and looked at his sons.

"Can I be the leader?" Raph said out loud which caused Leo to look at him.

"Why should you be the leader? I'm more mature than you, I should be the leader" Leo said and had a look of annoyance written all over his face.

"Hey I'm smarter than all of you guys put together it should be me!" Donnie said before he crossed his arms over his chest.

"No way it should be me!" Mikey said out loud which caused the rest of his family to look at him in surprise.

"I don't really have a reason I just think it should be me" Mikey said and a smile appeared on his face.

"This is a difficult decision I will meditate on it" Splinter said before he walked into his room.

At first he didn't really meditate he just looked forward before he let out a sigh, he had hoped that Leo would be the first one to ask to be leader but since Raph had asked first he knew that he had to tell his sons that Raphael would become their new leader. Not because he thought Raph was suited for it, at least not yet, but because he had asked for it but of course he wouldn't let his sons know the reason why Raphael was chosen as the leader. So he took a deep breath before he opened the door again.

"It's Raphael" Splinter said before he closed to the door again to get some privacy.

Donnie, Mikey and Leo all looked at Raph in disbelieve and Raph looked more surprised than ever before and he started to wonder if it was such a good idea to say that he wanted to be the leader. He knew how much Leo wanted to be the leader but he wasn't all too happy about having to follow Leo's order so much which could be why he had said it in the first place. None of the brothers said anything to each other they just walked into their own rooms while still being in shock after what their sensei had told them.

"I hope this hasn't been the biggest mistake I've ever made. I hope from the bottom of my heart that Raphael will be a good leader. Only time will tell" Splinter thought to himself as he locked the door to his room before he started to meditate.

::Note::

Okay this story was mainly written because I always wanted Raphael to be the leader in TMNT but I still knew he wouldn't become the leader so one day I though "Why not write a fanfiction on how I think it will go if Raph is the leader and not Leo?" and this is the result.

I hope you like this story and for those who wonder this story is going to be a mix between the 2k3 cartoon version and the newer cartoon from 2012 because I love a lot of moments in both cartoons but I'll also include my own moments.

This story may also have longer chapters than my other stories and I have a feeling this will be my longest written fanfiction yet. I'll also try and upload as many chapters as I can but since the chapters are so long I might write them when I don't have anything better to do or when I just feel like it. Which means the chapters won't be uploaded as often as my other stories but I will continue this until I think it's enough.