Author: Vampirerex1
Category: Cartoons – Ninja Turtles
Disclaimer: I don't own Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Splinter, April, Casey or any other character in TMNT. I just own Sapphire and her sister Sophia as well as the parents and grandparents.
Genre(s): Romance/
Pairing(s): Raphael/OC/Leonardo
Rating for chapter: T
Summary: "I used to think that maybe I'd found my place in the world, my little niche, a place that I could call home, where I belonged…" Sapphire's life has been turned upside down and inside out, will she be able to make it up to the two boys who love her?
Title: Some things best forgotten
Warning(s): None.
Notes: Italics - story , Normal font - Narration, Bold - Flashback.

Chapter Two: Meeting one of my saviours.

For over a year I trained as hard as I could to make myself better so that if I was attacked again, I wouldn't freeze up like I did last time. I had found and asked a wise old man who had known my grandmother and who knew the art of ninjutsu to teach me, he was from Japan and had been taught it himself when he was younger.

"Why do you wish to learn the way of the ninja young one?" The elderly man asked.

Sapphire looked up at him her brown hair tied back in a ponytail and her green eyes were sparkling.

"Because I want to get stronger and learn to defend myself properly" she replied.

The elderly man nodded and told her to kneel in front of him; Sapphire did as she was told and knelt in front of the old man.

"This will not be easy; you will experience pain like you have never felt before, you will bleed a lot, sweat a lot and there will be tears on your behalf. This will not come to you straight away, even the best ninjutsu artists take years to perfect their stances, their moves and their stamina level" he said.

Sapphire nodded and bowed her head.

"I understand" she stated.

The elderly man nodded and then stood.

"From now on you will refer to me as Master Daichi or Daichi-Sensei is that understood?" He asked.

Sapphire nodded again.

"Yes Daichi-Sensei" she replied.

I continued to train as hard as I could, pushing myself to and past my limit; sometimes even making myself ill from exertion and fatigue of both training and going to school. But even though I was so tired and sore; I still trained and did everything I could.

"You are doing well young one. But though your diligence is admirable; you have your limits" Daichi said.

Sapphire looked up at him from the dummy she was practicing her moves on, sweat covering her face, neck and soaking through her shirt.

"I can't know them" she said.

Daichi looked at her and sighed; this young woman was pushing herself too far, but he understood why she was doing it.

Getting stronger and learning how to defend myself was easy by the standards of building up my courage. Daichi-Sensei taught me to stay strong when I was faced with the situation of a group of men with ill intent; but for the first few tries, I froze up, unable to move, unable to speak and unable to do anything except stand there and shake with fear.

"You must learn to control your fear and use it to motivate yourself" Daichi said.

Sapphire stood there, shaking still before she looked up at her sensei.

"I-I-I can't" she stated.

Daichi's eyes narrowed.

"Nonsense! You must learn Sapphire!" He chastised.

For months I worked on using my fear to my advantage, letting the adrenaline build up and using it for great bursts of speed and to block out the pain of being struck several times in different places. After a while though, it was beginning to get easier and easier to block out the fear and find the courage.

"You are doing well young one; your confidence is growing" Daichi stated.

Sapphire stood straight and bent at the waist as she bowed to her sensei.

"Thank you Daichi-Sensei" she said.

Daichi smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.

He was proud of how far I had come since I first started my training; I was more confident in myself and what I could do. But the real test would be when I went back to school and had to stay late to do some work.

"Well, well...look what we have here boys" a man said.

Sapphire continued to walk; ignoring the men and speeding up a little.

"Hey, ain't that the girl from last time boss?" Another asked.

There was some laughing and Sapphire sped up her pace a little more.

"Yeah that's her alright...lets get her!" The man shouted.

Sapphire looked behind her to see the men running after her and broke into a run herself.

I had to call upon what I'd learned with Daichi-Sensei to get myself to keep running; I was scared still and I hated the feeling of fear that welled up in my stomach as I ran from the guys.

The men were loud behind her and she was running as fast as she could until one of the men caught up with her and tackled her to the ground.

"It's been a long time kid" he said.

Sapphire began to struggle again and managed to deliver a kick to the guy's groin before she got up and began to run again. This time though, she bumped into a hard, bone-like chest. She fell to the ground with an audiable 'oof' and looked up.

"You alright kid?" The guy asked.

Sapphire nodded, either not remembering the voice from the year before, or just too interested in trying to get away from the group of men behind her to notice.

"You got a nack fer gettin' into trouble with these guys don'cha kid?" He asked.

I felt so stupid for just sitting there, on my backside while the guys behind me caught up. It was like last year playing all over again; my grandparents had warned me about the nights on the streets, but I had thought that because I had been trained, I'd be alright.

The figure pulled Sapphire up and pulled her behind him, while pulling two kind of three-pronged-knife things out of his belt. The group of guys that had been running after her, caught up and the figure changed his stance into a fighting stance.

"Hey, where'd the girl go?" One of the men in the group asked.

The figure twirled his knives and then they stopped, one pointing upwards and one pointing downwards.

"You want her? Come get her" he growled.

The group of men came straight towards him and started attacking him.

Once again I was just frozen on the spot while this...this man fought this group of men who had been trying to attack me yet again.

Sapphire let out a small squeal and backed into the wall as one of the guys from the group came flying towards her. Looking over to where her yet-again-saviour was beating the living daylights out of the guys, she saw the others come flying towards her and land on the other guy.

"Uhh...l-lets get outta here!" One of the guys shouted.

The other guys got up out of the pile they had been thrown in and ran with the other guy, leaving Sapphire and her saviour.

I'll never forget the day that I found out his name, it was a rather suiting name as well.

"W-who are you?" Sapphire asked.

The figure stayed in the shadows, only his eyes visable.

"Someone just passin' through" he replied.

Sapphire went to step forwards...but he stopped her.

"Don't come any closer" he said.

She stopped and looked into the shadows.

"What's your name?" She asked.

The figure seemed to contemplate telling her, before he spoke.

"Raphael" he replied.

Sapphire smiled; it was a strong name to go with his Brooklyn accent and his obviously strong fighting skills.

"Thank you Raphael...for saving me...again" she said.

Raphael nodded and then looked up to the roof.

"I'll escort ya home; but don't go stayin' out this late again, I ain't always gonna be around to save ya" he stated.

Then he disappeared and Sapphire began to walk home.

I remember that after that day, I couldn't stop thinking about Raphael and why he preferred to stay in the shadows rather than let me see him. So I made another vow, a vow to find out who he was and why he was so worried about me seeing him.

~TMNT~

A/N: Alright; here's the second chapter. I'll try and get one up every couple of days, but I can't promise anything. For those of you who are reading and not reviewing; I'd really like to recieve some feedback about this. I don't want any flamers, if you don't like the story you don't have to review it, but if you do like it, or you think I could improve on some things within the story, could you please leave a review? Thanks to my two reviewers...

~ Flamedragon242
~ RaphLeo Rule

For your reviews. You two get virtual chocolate cake and ice cream. Thanks once again to all of my readers and more reviews would be nice. Thanks :)

Vampyrex1