Day 17 of Write Every Day in November: Did I just write a TMNT fic that's not about Mikey? I did! I actually really like how this came out. Donnie is my second favorite turtle (I'm sure you can all guess who my favorite is), but I sometimes think he get passed over. I like Donnie because he's smart and kind of a dork. I know some people think that Donnie and Mikey aren't good fighters, but I disagree. I think all the turtles are good fighters, but they have their own way of doing things. Donnie and Mikey can hold their own even if it's not as long as Leo and Raph can. I don't think Splinter would let his boys out if he didn't think they could protect themselves and each other.
Brawn, Brain, or Both
Summary: Donnie never use to take training too seriously, but once they started fighting he realized ninjutsu was necessary skill and he finds that training his body and training his brain isn't that different.
Donnie knew that when it came to fighting he wasn't the greatest. He knew this, but for a long time he hadn't cared. He enjoyed learning ninjutsu and he knew why Splinter taught it to them, but he never fully embraced it. At least he never did until they started going topside.
Donnie had always preferred to be working on something that used his brain. He wasn't naturally athletic and science came to him easier than sports. He never felt that being a master at ninjutsu was necessary for the life they lived. When would they need to use it when they were never allowed outside the sewers? Admittedly it wasn't as if knowing all the elements of the periodic table was needed either, but knowledge was power and anything that could keep his family comfortable was important. It was Donnie who fixed things up so they had a functioning kitchen and Donnie always fixed the old movies and toys they found.
When they started going topside Donnie realized that things needed to change. Donnie realized that he couldn't keep treating ninjutsu like an unimportant lesson. He needed to get better and be stronger, both to keep himself safe, but his family and friends as well. He had harder time learning since he just wasn't athletically gifted like his brothers, but he refused to give up.
As Donnie took training more serious he discovered something. He found that he got the same sense of accomplishment when he mastered a new kata as when he cracked a secret code. It was a feeling that Donnie craved and was one of the reasons he worked so hard and for so long. That feeling of figuring out exactly what he was missing was the best feeling in the world. To find that he got that same feeling with training was an epiphany.
Donnie would still prefer brain to brawn and he'd never be as skilled as Leo, or as strong as Raph, or as agile as Mikey, but that was okay. Donnie knew he had gotten better at Splinters lesson of thinking without thinking, but he still relied on how his complex brain worked. He could look at a building and know just the right trajectory for a hook shot to grab hold. He could tell what angle his bo staff needed to be at to hit his enemy just right. He knew how much velocity was needed to complete a flip. His brain did all of this without Donnie really thinking. It gave Donnie something more vital that just pure skill. It gave Donnie confidence and that was just as important as anything else when it came to fighting. If you hesitated you risked giving your enemy an opening and ending up dead. Donnie's mind gave him the confidence to never second guess and that made his moves all the more effective. Donnie would probably never go down in history as a great fighter, but he didn't mind. He was still a good fighter and he could keep his family and friends safe. Donnie relied on his brain and he was a competent fighter, but it was how he used them together that made Donnie who he was and he wouldn't want to be anyone else.