T! M! N! T! Does not belong to me!

Karai had never been fond of birthdays.

The earliest one she could remember was her third one. It wasn't anything particularly brilliant. She didn't have any friends so it had just been the three of them, gathered around a small table in their living room. With a gentle nod from her parents, Karai had ripped off the newspaper encased bundle and uncovered the tiny teddy bear that had been hiding underneath the inky paper. Its eye was a bit loose and there was a slight tear in its right arm, but she looked beyond its rather grotesque appearance and saw the true beauty that it contained… the love of her parents. That was all that mattered to her.

On her fourth birthday, her parents had given her a knife. Karai hadn't understood at the time. It had glistened in her hands, particles of light dancing with each other as they shimmered under the candle's flickering aurora. She remembered looking up from where she was sitting cross-legged on the gritty floor. In her green eyes burned confusion, twinkling like the flame on the candle. Her parents had told her it was to protect herself with, and her eyes had gone out. She nodded as if she understood, hugging her parents tightly.

Karai didn't like to remember her fifth birthday. She had been in her family's rundown house, pretending to be the mother of thousands of creepy-crawlies. Her teddy bear had been ripped apart by a stray dog long ago, and the only possessions she owned were the clothes on her back.

She didn't understand. Her parents had been there one day and then gone the next. It felt like they had used the knife they had given her to stab her heart. No explanation was given to her... they had just vanished. Strangers often came into the house and she would always hide, watching them treat her place as they pleased and take nearly everything. Stones were thrown through the windows but she was too afraid to get help. She didn't trust grownups anymore. The only person she could understand was herself and so Karai kept it that way, finding her own food in bins and sometimes stealing from shops.

The child in her was gone. Karai was now a warrior. It was her against the world. She found a red jacket on a washing line and snatched it away, using her knife to cut out a strip. Karai tied it around her head and admired her reflection in a dirty puddle. She looked tough. The bandana was red like blood and anger. The fact that her arms and legs were wrapped up with discarded bandages made her appear even more menacing… like she had been in a fight. She hadn't really, for Karai had simply cut herself while burrowing in a collection of trash, but who would know?

"Doko ni ikimasu ka?" she asked a beetle, glaring at it as it scuttled away from her. Widening her eyes, Karai chased after it and tried to stamp on it. She cried out as her foot met broken glass, sitting down abruptly. Someone had left the remainder of a bottle on the ground and she kicked it, crossing her arms with a huge scowl on her face.

That was when the sheet that the house used as a door drew to one side, and Karai found herself in the presence of a strange man. He was tall and a grownup. Karai stared back at him, refusing to show any fear. She was a warrior and warriors could beat up grownups in a heartbeat.

But… this man turned out to be different. He whisked her away, and after some paperwork and a spell in an orphanage, she was his child. Karai remembered taking hold of his rough hand after he had arranged everything just so they could be together.

Her sixth birthday was the best. Karai remembered sitting at the end of a big table next to her new father, surrounded by important looking men in suits. They all gave her a present, a childish toy more often than not, but it was more than Karai had ever owned and she felt overwhelmed. She remembered looking at her father, concealing her child-like joy, and seeing him smile at her.

Her father didn't make too much of a deal of birthdays, getting her a small gift each time. She had mentioned that she didn't like them too much as they reminded her of her old parents. Karai once asked when his was and he said he didn't have one. This confused her greatly as everyone had a birthday. She didn't press it though... her father had done so much for her and she didn't want to ask too many questions. He didn't like that.

Karai's sixteenth birthday was... a surprise. She was summoned to her father's throne room and told to follow him. They went into a small room that was full of strange technology. Karai studied her new surroundings with large eyes, her mind overwhelmed. He ignored Karai's surprise and stood in front of her.

"Crouch," he demanded.

Karai obeyed instantly, her heart thudding.

"Slightly higher, Karai."

She straightened her knees until he told her to stop. Her eyes were level with his chest.

"I am sharing with you something I have not disclosed to any other. You must swear that you will keep this a secret."

"I swear," she promised.

Her father nodded, eyeing her as he took off his shirt. Muscles... Karai didn't see what was so secret about this. She knew he had a good figure.

Then it opened up and she met the gaze of the real Oroku Saki... a red jelly-fish like creature no bigger than her forearm.

Her breathing quickened.

"I am not like you," he announced. "I come from a different planet and you will aid me in my mission. My mission is to get revenge on the utroms- that is what I am- that ruined my life. I had so much potential... and they took it away. Your parents didn't see your potential, did they? They left you for the rats to feast upon."

Karai's eyes stung and her throat hurt, but she didn't cry or moan. He had used the 'abandoned by parents' card on her. She remained silent, sickly entranced by the sight of him. He looked... unusual, but he had given her so much. Surely, then, he wasn't a monster. His appearance didn't change who he was.

"None of my other ninjas know about my true origin... the only human aware of it is you. I wanted to wait until you were mature enough to understand. Do you?"

"I understand," she said.

Saki smiled. "Excellent."

The following birthdays didn't have any revelations that were as great as that one. They resumed being monotonous, never presenting anything that made her bat her eyelids. They were like any other day, Karai fighting against her enemies and risking her life multiple times.

Then she met him.

She was patrolling New York City when something glittering caught her attention. It was hanging from the side of a block of apartments, dangling from a nail. Karai, seeing that she was alone, approached it. She got out a grappling hook and threw it diagonally, wrapping one end around a drainpipe. Her feet pattered against the rooftop silently and she leaped through the air. The soles of her feet slammed against the wall and she turned to the object that had drawn her attention.

Karai raised her eyebrows as she extracted the chain from the nail, holding the necklace to her face. It wasn't expensive, for she owned enough necklaces to be sure of this, yet she couldn't help but smile. Karai glanced over her shoulder, her gaze falling on the blue mask tails that disappeared behind the edge of a nearby building.

It didn't last though.

The four turtles departed from the room, leaving Karai by herself. She stared down at the blood covered ground, standing amongst broken glass. She unclenched her fist and the metal chain dropped out of her hand, dangling off her fingers.

A single tear splattered across the ground, missing the many lifeless bodies that decorated the floor.

"Happy birthday... to me."

Karai says something like 'where are you going?' to the beetle.