Rooftop
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"Ninjutsu is the art of trickery." Usagi said slowly, gaze on the heavens. "It is the art of deceit and lies. I must admit, I am surprised you are such an honorable man, in such circumstances as yours."
Leonardo watched him with a faint frown, the rabbit's fur silvered in the starlight. They sat in a rooftop garden overlooking the docks, high enough that the lights of the city left them be, dark enough that they didn't need to worry about the tenants of the building behind them looking out on them. The roof had been planted with boxes of herbs, sage silver and fragrant in the dark.
"Ninjutsu isn't just deceit." Leonardo said, drawing his legs up under him. "It's…it's everything. Everything you need to survive."
Usagi finally looked at him. "But it is surviving at a cost. Look at the disciplines of the ninja. There is Hensōjutsu, the art of impersonation and disguise. Chōhō, the art of espionage. Shinobi-iri, the skills for breaking into another man's home undetected. These are not honorable skills!"
Leonardo raised an eyeridge. "Are you saying my family and I aren't honorable?"
"Not at all!" Usagi corrected quickly. "You are one of the most honorable men I know! I am saying it is a mystery you are, considering…"
Leonardo was silent for a moment, frowning and looking thoughtful.
"Usagi," he said, focusing intently on the weather shielding underneath them. "You're right, in that Ninjutsu involves deception. Stealth, espionage, escape, impersonation, all of it. But it isn't the ART of deception. It's the art of enduring."
Usagi frowned back at him, and shifted. "By name, yes. But not by purpose."
Leo's eyes flashed up to him. "By name AND purpose. Ninjutsu is designed so a person knowing it can endure. So they can survive. Sometimes survival takes deceit. If my brothers and I didn't hide and disguise ourselves, we'd be dead. A lot of people would be dead, all the people we weren't able to save." He sighed, and looked out towards the black ocean, a void of darkness out past the warehouses and docks. "This world isn't like yours, Usagi. You can live by these…noble, idealistic codes, because you don't have to hide. You have to fight, sure. You have to do things you don't want to do and you have to struggle every day, but you're doing it in the open. You can walk down a crowded street and nobody even bats an eyelash. With us…these people…all these people…" Leonardo gestured broadly, encompassing the city and all of its lights. "All of them would be terrified of us, if they saw us. Most of them would want us locked up, taken away, maybe killed. It doesn't matter what we've done for them, they'd be terrified anyway. We can't earn their respect. We can't earn their acceptance. We must either hide…or die."
Usagi twitched an ear thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought of that." he said quietly. "I've rarely had to hide like you do. Of course, the few times I did, I wished I was a lot stealthier than I am." He smiled faintly.
"We were lucky." Leo said. "Lucky we had Master Splinter, someone to teach us all this. I can't bear the thought of Mikey, or Donnie, or even Raph a prisoner or a science experiment because we didn't know how to defend ourselves. Or hide. It's the only thing that's saved us."
"It would be a pity," Usagi said, looking back to the bay. "If you had died a death like that because you couldn't save yourselves. Without you, the world would be a decidedly less interesting place."
Leo suppressed a smile. "It would be, wouldn't it."
Usagi grinned at the unusual smug tone, and reached over to gently touch Leo's fingers.
"Much less interesting." He said quietly, and Leo caught the look. He looked back to the bay instead, quickly.
Usagi left his hand there, and they simply sat together, watching the lights of the city twinkle in the dark.