:laughs sheepishly: Sorry about the long wait…I was kinda very busy…

Disclaimer: DO. NOT. OWN.

Remember, they are all human.


Disgusting, hairless, two-legged monkeys… Why did you have to bring one home, Leo?

Leo sighed as he listened to his mother protest. He's hurt. Those fools down there wanted to kill him.

Then let them! It is none of our concern.

Leo barred his teeth at that. Mother! We have sworn to protect these lands and its inhabitants. He is on our lands and therefore we must protect him.

Yoko snorted in laughter as she heard that. Tossing her head, she shook her fur and trotted over to Leo, who was sitting on the edge of a clear lake, dangling his feet into the water.

He is from another dimension. He is not one of us. Besides, no human is EVER one of us.

Leo shook his sky-blue hair as he lay back onto the grass. This clearing they were in was very small. But it was very well hidden in the heart of the forest. No human had ever set foot in this sacred place. He wasn't human, he knew. He was a Wolf.

Still. He has done no real harm…

No harm! No HARM! His sires wounded you! Yoko protested, her teeth barred as she lay down beside him.

Accident… Leo gently replied, as Yoko heaved a half-sigh, half-snarl.

Fine. Have it your way.

Leo chuckled before barring his teeth in warning at Kira, one of the young pups. She quickly darted away from the edge of the lake, where she had stood to close and was in danger of falling into the deep water. Kira ducked her head sheepishly.

They usually talked in human tongue, but when they wanted their conversations to be private, they talked in wolf.

Aki and Kuro lay lazily in front of the hidden den, watching both over the pups and over the unconscious human. Now, Aki snorted. Human's awake, mother.

"I'll check him." Leo volunteered, as he stood up, grabbing his mask.

Yoko raised an eyebrow as she watched him. Your fur?

No need. Only the mask. Leo answered, putting on the mask as he stood and strode towards the den.

As you wish…
Don woke up to first feel dull pain throbbing in his leg. Carefully opening his eyes, he realized to his surprise that he was lying on top of a blanket of white wolf fur, inside a humongous den of some sort. He blinked a couple of times before remembering that the Blue Spirit had helped him…

Glancing around, he noticed that his leg had been tightly wrapped with torn pieces of blue cloth. By the mere glance of it, Don could immediately tell that it was silk. Dimly he wondered where the wolves had gotten such good and highly-priced cloth, before realizing that most likely, he didn't want to know.

Just then, he heard something shifting to his left. Snapping his head towards the noise, he saw two wolves sitting outside the entrance of the den. They were only half the size of Yoko, he noted silently to himself.

Don recoiled a bit as one of the wolves turned its head to glance at him. Brown eyes met faint violet eyes. Then, the wolf looked away before emitting a set of faint whimpers and barks.

There was a soft silence before he heard a voice saying something. Immediately, Don recognized it to be the Blue Spirit's. There was a soft silence after that, before the two wolves stood and trotted off, clearing the way for the Spirit.

But the Blue Spirit did not look like the Spirit he was accustomed to seeing. The only thing that showed the Spirit was indeed the Spirit, was that it wore the blue demon mask.

But other than that, it wore brown leather pants and matching shirt. Around its waist was a belt tied loosely.

It walked in on twos, but then sat down in a weird, wolf-like, crouching position next to him. Cocking its head, it seemed to stare at him. There was a moment of silence, then,

"How are you, human?"

Don stiffened a bit at it calling him 'human', wanting so bad to reply that right now, the Spirit looked human too…but decided against it. "I'm okay, I think."

The Spirit tilted its head a little more. "You think? You either know or you do not know."

Don faltered a bit. "I meant to say that my leg hurts, but other than that, I am okay."

The Spirit nodded. "Then why did you not say so?" He pointed out roughly. "What is it with humans and this 'think'? It was a very simple question. If I were to ask a human if they were still alive or dead, he would answer with 'I think'. Why? If you hear the question, than you are alive. There is no 'think'."

Don listened, a little amused. "I don't know why we say that. I th—um, maybe because it is a bad habit?"

The Spirit seemed to stare at him. "Is that a question you are asking? Or are you telling?"

Don sighed, shifting his leg a little, but stopped when pain shot through it. "Ow…"

"Stupid."

Don looked at the Spirit with questioning eyes.

"If you are wounded, why do you insist on moving?"

"I don't know. Why do you insist on moving when you are wounded?" Don questioned.

The Spirit faltered a bit at the question before laughing. "You are very stupid, human pup. But then again, you are wise. You just don't know when to shut up." The Spirit paused. "What is your name?"

"What?" Don asked, a little surprised. First, the Spirit insults him, then compliments him, and then insults him again before asking him his name.

The Spirit sighed an exasperated sigh. "Your name?" He asked impatiently. "You know, the words you humans use to identify each other?" The Spirit sighed, taking Don's silence for Don not understanding him. "Never mind—"

Don interrupted. "I know what you mean, it's just—"

"Than why did you not say anything?" The Spirit asked in irritation.

"Because we are taught not to give out personal information to strangers."

"Ah. But we have spoken, therefore we are not strangers."

Don paused at that, before laughing a little. "It doesn't work that way. I don't know you, and you don't know me, therefore we are strangers."

The Spirit cocked its head again as if thinking. There was a silence, then, "I am named Leo, by Mother."

Don stared at the Spirit in shock. No way… He thought. It isn't possible… "Why?" He asked in a strained voice.

"Leo was the name of the Lion God whom held off hundreds of humans for a hundred days without rest. He killed most of them before he died." The Spirit seemed to swell with pride at that. "It is a great honor to be named after such a God."

Coincidence… Don realized, relaxing a bit. "But why do you like being named after such a murderer?" Immediately, Don winced, realizing that he shouldn't have said that.

The Spirit snarled as it whipped out a dagger and held it at his throat. "How dare you! You humans are all the same, I see!--"

Don held up his hands showing that he meant no harm. "I didn't mean it! I swear! It's just that at school, they taught us that the Lion God was a mu…er…bad creature."

The Spirit seemed to calm down a little as it began to lower the knife. Snorting a little, he finally put it away. "Yes, he killed many. But do you know why?"

Don slowly shook his head, realizing for the first time that the teachers and textbooks all had conveniently left that part out.

"Because the humans had killed his cubs and mate for their fur."

"But that's horrible!"

The Spirit ignored him. "And they were trying to hunt in his woods after they had promised not to." He looked down at the purple haired child. "Now who is the murderer?"

Don winced. "I'm sorry. I guess I never took the time to look at both sides of the argument…"

The Spirit snorted in satisfaction. Silence settled again.

"I'm Donatello, by the way. Don for short."

The Spirit tilted his head. "Don-re-ro?" He tried to sound out.

Don laughed a bit. "Close enough. You can call me Don, though."

"Why such a ridiculous name?"

Don glared at the Spirit. "It is not! Donatello was a very good Renaissance painter--"

"Painter? What is that? And what is this Ren-word?" The Spirit interrupted.

Don went quiet as he realized that the Spirit knew nothing about those things. "Never mind. He was a famous person, though."

The Spirit nodded, seemingly understanding that. "And your brothers, what are their names?"

Don grinned. "Well, I'm the eldest, and the second youngest is called Raphael, or Raph for short, and the youngest is Michaelangelo, or Mikey."

The Spirit shifted a little, seemingly lost. "Were they all named after famous humans?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they were."

"And your sires?"

Don blinked a bit before realizing that 'sires' meant fathers, which meant Splinter and Yoshi. "Oh! They aren't our real parents. They adopted us, but they're called Splinter and Yoshi."

"What is this 'adopted'?"

"It means that they found us." Don explained shortly, not really keen on getting into their past.

The Spirit nodded, understanding. "And?"

"And what?" Don asked.

The Spirit cocked his head. "The little human pup, the one with orange fur on his head, he mentioned 'older brother' whom he said to be 'dead'."

Don pursed his lips. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Why not?"

"I said I'd rather not talk about it!" Don snapped, before regretting it. "Sorry…It's just a hard topic to talk about…"

The Spirit didn't seem to understand, but he did not press further. Instead, he stood swiftly, but for the first time, Don noticed that the Spirit stood strangely, in a sort of hunched posture, as if not comfortable with standing like a human.

"You stay here. Mother will not harm you. I will bring your not-real sires here. And then, please tell your Daimyo to leave and never come back. Is that all right, Don-a-te-ro?"

Don decided to ignore the obvious mispronunciation of his name, and nodded. But before he even finished nodding, the Spirit had already disappeared.


Yoshi studied the clearing sadly. It seemed that Katashi had lied. This place was obviously a mine. A gold mine at that. No wonder the Gods were enraged.

Soft footsteps sounded behind him, but Yoshi did not budge, knowing who it was.

"Brother? We have found something that perhaps you might wish to see."

Yoshi, this time, turned to look at Splinter, nodding to show that he was listening.

Splinter hinted for him to follow and led him to a spot near the cliff and the woods. There, on the ground, were footsteps that Yoshi immediately recognized as Donatello's. But next to them were fainter footsteps, ones that Yoshi did not recognize.

There was also blood on the ground. Blood near Don's footsteps. "This is not good…" Yoshi remarked quietly, studying it. Then, his eyes caught on two more pairs of footprints; these ones however, were humongous. And they resembled wolf tracks.

"This is not good at all…"


Leo quickly slipped on his fur before grabbing some cloth and tying it around his belt. I'm going to bring the pup's sires here, Mother! He called as he fixed his fur to hide his skin completely.

Is that wise? Yoko questioned, watching him.

Leo paused a bit, thinking. I don't know. But I will take some cloth. They will not see where they are going.

They still will remember what this place looks like. And how long it takes to get here. Time cannot be stopped by cloth.

Leo grinned. Wolves travel much faster than humans. Perhaps that will throw them off track.

Yoko barred her teeth in disapproval. Perhaps. She stood. I refuse to be here when they are here. Bring them if you must, but then quickly take them away. I shall give you… She paused a bit before looking at the sun.

The sun was about three-fourths of the way across the sky.

I will give you until sunset. If they are not gone by the time I return, I shall tear them apart.

Leo nodded before whistling for Kuro and Aki. Both immediately stood and bound over to him.

Leo quickly jumped onto Kuro. You know the human pup's scent. Find his sires. He ordered them.

Kuro immediately bound off, with Aki close behind.

Yoko sighed as she watched them before looking down at the three pups wrestling in the grass. She sighed. Stay here. She ordered the pups. If any of you dare wander, I will bite you!

The pups whimpered as they stared innocently up at her. Yoko smirked before snapping at them to prove her point. They shied away from her muzzle, before whimpering as they promised to stay.

Snorting in satisfaction, Yoko bound away in the opposite direction, knowing Leo would be back in a little while. The pups could be left alone until then.


Sorry about the long wait! Updates coming soon, and I mean it this time!