Author's Note: I'd like to say thank you really quick to those who reviewed the last chapter, as your reviews were partcularly eloquent and made me glad that I write. I'd also like to thank Gadoken King, my think-tank buddy, whose discussions entirely shaped Leonardo's development in this story and inspired the eighth chapter. READ HIS STORY, "The Real Turtles." It's well-written, and I highly recommend it. So everyone is aware, at this point this story is second in what is shaping up to be a trilogy. I got writing the ninth part of this and realized I will need another story arc to wrap things up. So, I hope you all stick with me. This story is almost complete (on my computer), and I will upload at intervals of a few days, as usual. In the meantime, I'll start work on the third. Hope you're enjoying! (Cultural note: -dono is an honorific of great respect, like saying Lady such-and-such; -san is an honorific of humble respect, like saying sir; -kun is an honorific used for and between young men or for a young boy--if used for someone you do not know well or who is not in your social unit is a mark of diminuation.)

A Foot ninja with a medical box followed them into the next chamber: a receiving room in the Japanese style, very calm and understated, yet nevertheless beautiful. Karai was wearing a black gi and dark blue hakama over this, a plain training outfit, with the dragon kanji on her sleeve. The floor was covered with tatami mats, and a table lay at the back, where the three of them knelt—Raphael doing this with some difficulty. The Foot medic leaned and began immediately swabbing the blood from Raphael's face to help him see; annoyed, Raph took the swab from him.

"Thanks, but I can do it myself. Gimme some pain killers if ya got 'em and vamoose." He then gingerly went to work getting the blood out of his eye; at Karai's nod, the medic left the box next to Leonardo, who took the swab from his struggling brother and started helping him, and receiving only one grudging look before he submitted to the assistance. His mask was soaked with blood and practically blackened from its previous bright red; there were trickles down his neck in long, thick streaks, and pooled where he was attached to the front of his shell. Raph picked up another swab and went to work on the back of Leo's shoulder, which was crusted over on top of the oozing double wound. Karai, on the other side of the table, appeared to be making tea, with herbs Leo could now identify by smell: chamomile, St, John's Wart, jasmine, and a touch of sake to take the edge off the pain. He clenched his jaw as Raphael swabbed too deep with the alcohol-laden rag, but knew the wound to be full of bacteria; Raphael's face wounds looked like they might infect, as the same blades had already touched a profuse amount of blood before making the cuts, so he could imagine what his own shoulder looked like. It wasn't often that they weathered injuries of this kind; the handcuffs had partly been the reason. Partly.

Raphael at last cracked his eye opened tentatively, though it was still framed with rust and ooze. Leo gave it a few more cursory swabs and moved to the rest of his face, pained just to look at the deep wounds—when they closed, his brother would also have trouble opening his mouth without cracking them—something, he supposed a bit coldly, that could prove to be a blessing in disguise. Karai watched them both with interest.

"Your younger brother is very brave, Leonardo-san. Though, if he were my subordinate, I would have beaten him down long ago. Such bravery is reckless."

Raphael glared at her between the cracked lines of darkening blood rather savagely. "You givin' my brother leadership advice?"

Karai calmly poured tea. "His submission today was wise. I have seen you both leading your family into combat; at each instance I was both impressed and horrified. That the elder brother cannot keep reign and the younger brother cannot learn control, while the others follow haphazardly, and you somehow all manage to survive—and even win the day—is amazing on its own."

Leo smiled wryly. "Well—we're good at getting out by the skin of our shells. We used to be better, back in the days of the Shredder. We'd never been apart in the fifteen years before he showed up; when you saw us, we'd just reunited after a long period apart." He sighed. "Raph, I'm sorry, bro, but Don's gonna have to stitch up the lower one. The higher one was more of a graze, even though it bled out so much—it should heal okay. I'm pretty sure that one won't scar."

"I don't care," Raph mumbled, though Leo felt sure he wouldn't want a reminder of that encounter right on his face for the rest of his life, especially with one already on his shell. Leo gestured for him to turn; Karai flinched slightly, pushing the tea towards them.

"It must have taken much bravery to accept a blow such as that," she said, with a note of respect in her voice. Raphael clenched his fists and Leo touched the blades still buried in his shell.

"I'm really not sure if I should pull them out—we'll have to wait until we're home. I'll just clean you up a bit"—he touched the swab to the bloody fissures, putting pressure on the immense crack, but Raphael spun back around abruptly.

"It's fine—just don't touch it. I'm fine!" He clenched the side of the table, grinding his jaws together and breathing shallowly again. Leo clapped his shoulder, trying to give him some comfort. "Leo—you're gonna need stitches on both slashes, bro," Raphael gasped, attempting to sound normal.

Karai sat silently as Raph calmed himself, then poured tea. "Please, drink—it will help with the pain."

Leo nodded, thanking her, then accepted a cup for both himself and his brother, whom he forced to drink it, suppressing his objections.

"As you know, I asked you here to speak with you; but I suppose you came because you also wished to speak with me. What did you wish to speak about, Leonardo-san?"

Leo looked at Raph, who was not returning the glance; he instead had his eyes steadily on the teapot, and Leonardo realized that his brother could not identify what Karai had given them by taste or by smell, unlike himself. He also realized that he'd forced the mixture down Raph's throat without telling him he knew what it was, and merely expected him to trust it—something he supposed he might have once taken for granted, but could not afford to do now. He was second-guessing himself, wondering about his power as the so-called "elder brother." There are things one can slip into tea that are odorless, tasteless—powders, powerful poisons—alkaloids, in their purest form. Not wild cherry and belladonna, but boiled down in labs. This was not the jungle. Raphael had never been to Costa Rica, to Iceland, to Mongolia; he had seen the industrial atrocities human populations enact upon each other in the dark of inorganic alleys. When Leonardo thought, he realized he drank the tea from respect—not because he considered what its contents might be; he respected Karai, and this series of images she presented to him. The simplicity of the tatami mats. The order and justice of the tests. The Edo period painting behind her on the wall. The reeds made with quick, harmonious strokes on her black teapot—the swishing sounds of her hakama. This series of images that reminded him of his father so.

"We found a dead body in the sewers," Raph said, when Leo fell suddenly silent. "We went along with this so we could ask if ya knew anythin' 'bout it. Your symbol was left with her—my brother here thinks maybe it was a rogue a' yours."

"I see," Karai said, coldly; she had addressed her statement to Leonardo, who realized she was refusing to look at Raph. "Might you describe to me this woman and the nature of her death?"

Raphael almost responded; Leo threw him a quick look for silence. "Our brother is analyzing that now. From what we could ascertain, she died by shuriken and a katana. She was homeless, and dressed in dirty rags; she looked like she'd been living in the sewers."

"Yeah—didn't seem too much like a dangerous customer, know what I'm sayin'?" Raph couldn't resist adding, gritting his teeth as Karai appeared to continue ignoring his presence.

She straightened her posture a bit more. "Leonardo-san—might I offer some advice? Your younger brother is impertinent. You should not allow him to speak unless he is addressed. Since he is injured, it would be unwise to allow him to get overexcited over this unfortunate accident."

Leo watched her as she spoke; her words were so clean and clear, so logical and so harmonious.

"Karai-dono"—he started, trying his utmost to be as respectful he could—"I apologize for my brother; I have no excuse"—

"You what?" Raph sputtered, staring at Leonardo, then at Karai. "He has no reason to apologize for me—I could apologize for myself if I had to—but you put us through hell to get here and you haven't answered a single question yet!"

Leo stood, dragging Raph up with him by his arm. "Can I have a word with you, Raphael?"

Raph took his arm away from his brother's grip, and whispered back. "About what—how you're sellin' me out at the last minute? Takin' her advice, Leo—wanna beat me down? I dare ya."

Leo pulled him forcefully towards the door, helped by the fact that Raph was slightly more light-headed than he at this point in the proceedings. "Why are you acting like this? You know I would never—do I even have to spell it out? If we want answers we must show respect! And she's right—the etiquette around here is that the eldest speaks and the youngest shuts up—so stop embarrassing me and shut the hell up. Got it?"

Raph looked like he was ready to punch him, but refrained. "I don't respect people like her, Leo. She's part of everythin' I hate about the world. Everythin' you hate too—she's just dressed up in a package of the things you trust. She's tricking you."

Leonardo almost repeated his orders, before he took a moment to ponder Raph's words, squinting at him. "What d'you mean by package?"

Raph groaned, exasperated. "Karai's a member a' the Foot clan, just like Master Yoshi was—and Master Splinter grew up in a place that looked exactly like this. Splinter raised us in a home modeled after that, and she knows it, Leo. It's like bein' on home turf, 'cept we're not—you're not in your element like ya think and you don't know what you're dealin' with! You think she's honorable 'cause that's what you want her t'be, not what she is!"

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're just mad because she's acting like you don't exist. Now I heard you out—come on." He tried to drag Raphael back, but felt his resistance pull at him like a weight.

"Yeah—and you should be mad too, big brother," Raph said under his breath, seething.

Karai spoke to them from her place before the table.

"I am sorry—this country is still strange to me. It seems I may have insulted you—but you must remember, Leonardo-san, that hierarchy and the ancient rules of etiquette, respect, and Bushido are needed when one wishes to practice ninjitsu in any way other than wonton assassination. Your brother is honest—but honesty can be dangerous to your family." She paused, watching their reactions calmly. "Perhaps our questions for each other are not so different. We have been looking for a young girl. She may have been witness to an accident during an experiment in one of our facilities, and we would like to question her."

Leonardo noticed that, as she spoke, Karai had been watching his brother's face; he felt Raph go still beside him, before that furious energy began bubbling beneath the surface of his skin, ready to send him unraveling into madness. He took Raphael's arm as a precaution. Karai, however, smiled.

"I see from your brother's face that I have—how is it said? I have hit a nerve?" She came around the table. "Raphael-kun—you have a soft spot for children, perhaps?"

Raphael didn't know the ins and outs of Japanese honorifics—but Leo did, and it was his turn to be insulted. "Karai—my brother may be my junior, but he's not a little boy. Don't speak to him like he is. As for a child, we haven't seen one. Don't torture my brother with the idea that some poor kid is running around out there from your clan."

Karai appeared intrigued. "Raphael-kun, your face is very transparent. Your o-nii-san cannot cover for you forever."

Leo heard a rather unintelligent but clearly-readable guttural sound of anger emerge from Raph's throat, and moved back into control of the situation. "Karai, please—my brother is just injured"—

"Your brother knows, Leonardo-san—and his entire body is itching to tell," Karai said, simply. "A woman, Daphne Roberts, was playing assistant in a top-secret lab kept even from me. She witnessed a project she should never have been privy to—the individual running that lab hence made of her an experiment. She escaped, and all other assistants in that lab have been killed. I must find her child, to discover if she too fell victim to the experiment."

Raphael started past him, and Leo held out an arm, holding him back; his brother struggled massively.

"You did it—I knew it, I knew it the whole time! Lemme go, Leo! I'm gonna rip her apart!"

"Calm down, little brother—you're gonna hurt yourself"—

"SHUT UP!"

Leo realized his brother was in angry tears, and did not allow himself to feel the betrayal that his brother felt. There was an explanation for this, far from Raphael's simple emotions and black-and-white logic. He was now holding him back by the shoulders, and, tightening his grip, pressed into Raph's shell.

Raph let out an ungodly yell himself and, as a reflex, elbowed Leonardo backwards into the wall behind them. He felt a cold breath around his face, and saw, out of his peripheral vision, flashes of silver. Six shuriken buried themselves in the wall, flanking Leonardo's arms without leaving a scratch; the last two on either side of his neck; they were tinged with purple. Leo sniffed, and recognized what he smelled. Karai walked forward.

"Raphael-kun—your o-nii-san can perhaps tell you, that if he should be pricked by those shuriken he will die within minutes. That means he cannot leave the wall, and if you start to remove them, you will be dead before you take a step. Is everything I have said understood?"

Raphael's voice was gruff; his eyes glared at her, a fan of crimson shading them from the outsides in. "Leo? She tellin' me the truth?"

Leo kept the panic from his voice. "Yeah, Raph. It's cyanide."

Karai held out her katana. "The Foot ninja do not normally use such tactics. We prefer an honorable blade—but the only way to slow down the experiment was through the poison. She had a peaceful death. Your brother is already injured, Raphael-kun. Tell me what you know of the girl, and I will release you both with my thanks."

Raphael almost made an ugly statement, feeling his anger beating and flapping at his ribcage like a pair of furious wings, on a caged demon. He then looked at his brother, thinking of how he might handle it had their positions been reversed and Karai had not put him so off guard, and started walking towards him. No shuriken came their way.

"Fool. You think I will simply let you walk out of here?" Karai asked, obviously hesitating.

Raph turned and sneered at her. "You invited us. We passed your tests; my brother's shown you the greatest respect. If your Foot clan has any so-called honor, you'll let me get my injured brother down and take him out of here. For his sake, if not for mine. Your honor an' his, I guess."

Karai's katana was an inch from his throat before he could trace her with his eyes; Raphael didn't flinch. "You dare to question my honor?"

Raph almost laughed. "Honor? Wanna talk about honor? Apparently it'd be rude of me as the little brother to tell you anythin' without my o-nii-san's direct command. Sorry. Lips are zipped. Scout's honor."

He grabbed each shuriken by its center, avoiding the purple tips, and pulled them carefully from the wall, letting them clink on the floor. He took Leo's arm.

"Thanks for the tea," he grumbled, but Leo hung back, staring at her.

"You can't tell me… any reason for this? I don't understand why she had to die. She looked so harmless."

"I have no excuse that I can tell you, Leonardo-san," Karai bowed to him. She nodded in Raphael's direction. "I would watch him if I were you."

Leo almost scowled, and answered curtly. "I do. Thanks."