Update!

A/N: Sorry about disappearing like that. I was being an idiot by thinking I could manage my college things, writing fanfiction and gaming all at the same time and the next thing I know I was sleeping on the hospital bed. So, that means less gaming for me if I need to manage everything better.

"Well, this is it. The Murakami's Noodle Shop." April declared in front of the tiger mutant.

Leo took a moment of silence to take all the details of the … noodle shop, apparently. It was quite a simple building with the noodle shop on the first floor of it. You could tell from the Japanese kanji sign of the chef's own name, Murakami, and the color of the building itself that this place is owned by a Japanese man. He remembered he had passed this place a few times back when he was still with his brothers but he never really paid attention to it. After a brief moment, she walked inside and Leo followed immediately.

Inside, there is a man wearing round, black glasses and Japanese chef outfit. "Good evening, Murakami-san." April greeted.

"Good evening, April-san." He greeted back. In spite of the fact that he's blind, he could tell that there is someone standing beside April.

April understood just by looking. "Oh, this is a friend of mine." She said.

"My name is Leonardo, and you must be Murakami, is that correct?" Leo asked a little firmly. This man is blind, he could tell.

"Yes, my name is Murakami. So, Leonardo-san is not a Hamato. It was rare for April-san to bring a costumer aside from the Hamato family." He said. Leo's eyes widened at Murakami's claim and it didn't go unnoticed by April. Questions about her knowing his family kept spinning around his head. "I must say, your voice is very familiar, Leonardo-san. Did we met somewhere before?" He asked, snapping Leo out from his thoughts.

Leo remembered what Tiger Claw had said to him a few days ago, about telling this Murakami guy that he was his son. Ever since that day, Leo had been searching for Tiger Claw to get answers, but he was nowhere around the Foot Clan HQ, even until now. "Uh … I'm afraid we haven't, Murakami-san. But, you may have met my father, Tiger Claw?" He said without hesitation. For a moment, he felt a strange happiness by saying that he was Tiger Claw's son, but he had no idea why.

"You are Tora's son?" He asked without hiding that he was surprised. Is it a pleasant surprise, or a bitter surprise? Neither Leo nor April knows.

'Tora? Who's Tora?' He asked mentally. He thinks quickly about what Murakami meant by it. 'Let's see, he must be referring to someone. Must be Tiger Claw, I mean, who else could it be? Tiger Claw is Tora no Tsume in Japanese.' Yes, he is referring to Tiger Claw. "Yes, I am." Leo replied as fast as possible.

"Ah, no wonder your voice was familiar. You sounded a very lot like your father. Please, take a seat, Leonardo-san, April-san." It was a pleasant surprise for Murakami. After all, standing in front of him is the son of the man that had saved him, a long time ago. Leo and April shared confused glance but then the two took a seat near the counter. "What can I do for you, Leonardo-san?"

"Well, I'm just here to buy something for me to eat and … my father told me that you make the best green tea in New York so I'm also here to try it." Leo explained simply. "But, I still don't know what I should order though."

"You should try Pizza Gyoza." April suggested from beside him. "It's really good." She added.

"Pizza Gyoza? I never heard of it before." Leo said. It was a strange name for a dumpling. Leo has a vast knowledge about Japanese culture but he never heard of this one before. He knows that gyoza have a lot of varieties and is only limited to the chef's imagination so it might be only available here.

"Well, it was because Murakami-san invented it just a few weeks ago." She said, confirming Leo's theory.

"I added it to the menu specially to thank the Hamato family." Murakami then added. "It is one of my best works."

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I'll try some then." There isn't much to be said. If both the shop owner and the costumer themselves recommended it, then it should be good.

"Then it would be pizza gyoza and special green tea for Leonardo-san. How about you, April-san?"

"I'll take six pizza gyoza, five of them to go." She said. Murakami nodded and then he went to the kitchen to prepare the orders. April stole a glance on Leo. His face make it looks like he was troubled about something. Maybe about the Hamato Clan? "Leo, can I ask you something?" Leo made a "go ahead" gesture so she continued. "When Murakami-san talked about the Hamato family, you seemed surprised." When she said it, Leo flinched which means her assumption was indeed correct. There was a small pause between that and her question. "Do you have some kind of connection with the Hamatos?" She finally asked.

Silence strike trough the noodle shop. April wondered if it was the right thing to do to ask Leo that question. After about half minute of pause, Leo sighed. "More or less, you're friends with the turtles?" He asked. She nodded so he continued. "Well, my "connection" with the Hamato Clan was different than you are."

"Different?"

"Yeah, I … uh … I'm here in New York for one purpose only. To hunt down and eliminate the Hamato Clan." Leo said seriously. April, eyes wide, stared at Leo. At first she thought it was just a joke but then she saw the seriousness in his eyes. Hatred, anger, fury all mixed inside, making his innocent blue eyes looked like a predator ready to strike its target. Leo noticed the fear on April's. He needs to correct this fast. "Whoa, don't worry. All I want is the turtles and their rat sensei for my revenge. I want to kill them in a fair fight. Also, I don't take hostages if that's what you were thinking right now."

Those words, even though April could feel honesty in them, it only provided a small amount of comfort. To know that there is someone with so much hate towards her mutant friends whose like a second family to her not only surprised her, it's also concerning. But, what could the Hamato Clan done that made Leo want to take a revenge on them? "But, why would you? They are good people." She asked in disbelief.

Leo huffed, amused for some reason. "Good people, huh? Well, I won't blame you for thinking like that as well. They are good people as long as you're useful for them. Once you outlive your usefulness for them, they will stab you in the back with the worst way you could imagine. That happened to their oldest brother and I'm here for some payback." He said then he punched his palm with his fist, a "ready to fight" gesture. "They let him die and I will not just stand around."

"I-it-it can't be true." It can't be, right? They were completely devastated from losing their oldest brother. She saw it herself how Raph was speechless and Mikey bursting into tears of just remembering him. "They told me about what happened to their brother. They said that Leo was the only one who could hold the team together." She needs answers, like, right now.

"So they realized that AFTER they killed him? Fitting." He said with a smug expression. "We have different opinions about the Hamato Clan. But, April…" He then reached for her hand and held them with a firm, yet caring grip. "… Please, you have to be careful around them." He said with a completely different tone. It was filled with concern, worries and sincerity. He's worried about her but he didn't know why.

They stayed in that position for a good few minutes, eyes staring at each other and hardly blinking. That was until the two of them simultaneously realized that they were holding hands. The two teenagers pulled up their hands (or paws on Leo's case) and broke the shared glance the two had earlier. They started to blush, although only lightly. Neither of them was now brave enough to make eye contact. Feeling like he had to apologize, Leo opened his mouth to talk, only to get cut off by April.

"I'm sorry. But, I still can't believe that they were people like that…" She said. Leo didn't take any offense. After all, they just met not even a half hour ago. There's no one normal enough to trust someone they just met. However, April still believed him in the same time. 'No one was able to fake an expression like that, expressions of hurt and betrayed.' Indeed, nobody could. "… but I'll keep that in mind." She continued. The mood was kind of awkward between April and Leo now, and it would only get worse if not for Murakami coming out from the kitchen to give them their orders. He put the plates down, along with a plastic bag with five boxes inside near April and a tea set near Leo. He immediately goes back to the kitchen, much to their confusion.

Leo picked up one of the pizza gyoza on the plate with the chopsticks. He inspected the food closely first. There wasn't a lot of difference with other Japanese dumplings he had eaten. After putting it on his mouth and chewing a few times … "Wow, this is the best dumpling I've ever had." He exclaimed. "You're right, April. This is good." He said before stuffing his mouth with another one.

April looked at Leo who is now eating his food with a smile on his face. "See? I told you it was good." She said cheerfully. They ate together with April listening and sometimes adding Leo's comments about the dumplings. One would've thought of Leo as a food critic the way he made his comments. April noticed Leo's vast knowledge about Japanese culture. "Are you from Japan, Leo?" She asked. It should be obvious that he's not since he uses fluent English with some Brooklyn accent slipping once in a while.

"Nah, I just really fascinated about the Japanese culture." He said. "Do I looked or maybe sounded like I'm Japanese?" He asked, raising one eyebrow without losing the smile he had.

April chuckled at his question. "No, of course you're not."

After finishing up their meal, Leo offered her some of his tea in which she happily accepted. "He was right, this is really calms my mind." Leo said after taking a sip of his tea, referring to Tiger Claw. He sighed heavily.

"What's wrong?" April asked after seeing Leo became moody again.

He sighed again. "It's good and all, but… it doesn't have the same … what do they say … impact. Yeah, it doesn't have the same impact as that one." He answered but it only manages to confuse her even more.

"What do you mean? It doesn't have the same impact as what?" She asked.

"Alcohols." Leo answered bluntly.

"Alcohols?" She repeated.

"Yep, I was trying to find something that could be used as a substitute. My life has been a mess lately and sometimes I can't go on without help. Alcoholic drinks are pretty much the only thing that helps me." He explained.

"I thought you said you were 15 years old?"

"Yup. It's not a lie. But, in my … uh, "line of work", it doesn't matter."

"Line of work?"

Leo unzipped his hoodie and took it off. He then showed the logo in his left upper arm part of his t-shirt. "I work for the Foot Clan and what I learn from them is that there's no such thing such as underage." He told her. If she's friends with his brothers then that means she should at least know about the Foot Clan, or at least have heard of it.

She gasped. "Y-y-you're working for the Foot Clan?" She asked with the recent topic was all forgotten.

"Come on, you said it like it was a bad thing. Not that it was good, but, not all Foot clan members are evil you know. We're just criminals who got shoved into our current situation." He said, faking a pout. "Some of them are actually friendly if you got on their good side." He defended. He put his hoodie back on and zipped it halfway.

April was speechless. The whole time, she was talking with a member of her friends' worst enemy's clan. She was saved by a member of the Foot Clan. None of them exchanged words after that until they were about to part ways. After April and Leo paid for their food, they walked together until they were outside.

"Um, April?" Leo called out. "Thanks. It was really nice to talk with you. I never had any human friend before." He paused for a while before continuing. "We are friends, right?" He asked, hoping from the top of his head that she would say yes.

April smiled warmly at him and replied. The guys will kill her if they find out about this. "Of course we are, Leo."

A few minutes later … The Lair …

"APRIL!" Donnie, unsurprisingly, shouted but in a relieved kind of way. When April showed up in the Lair, Donnie and Casey were the first ones to come to her side. They kept asking her whether she's hurt or something.

April tried to calm them down, but failed miserably. As oblivious as she can be, she knows very well that the two of them has a big crush on her. It was her feelings for them that she didn't know. Falling in love is something new to her. She doesn't know if her feelings for both Donnie and Casey were just a "Best-Friends" feeling or something else. She, sometimes, could get annoyed when the two fights to see who will "win" her. April doesn't like being treated like she was some kind of trophy.

As they still won't calm down, Mikey and Raph dragged the two away from her so the poor girl could get to breathe. Seriously, didn't they know what "personal space" is? "Where have you been, dudette?" Mikey asked with his usual cheery voice.

"Yeah, April. We searched high 'n low for ya." Raph added while still holding Donnie who was trying to break away. "Yer t-phone ain't active. It made these knuckleheads goes haywire."

"I was at Murakami's buying some food for you guys, like I said 14 times already this morning." April almost screamed at them.

"16 actually." Donnie corrected. "You said it exactly 16 times this morning." He continued, earning disturbed glance from everyone else in the room.

"Yer not helpin' yerself, knucklehead #1." Raph commented. "Knucklehead #2's gonna get better chance than ya if ya keep that up." His brother is good at everything but not in the love department. He always fought the urge to face palm every time Donnie did something stupid in front of April, because if he didn't, he would have a broken frontal bone by now. Love really makes people do stupid things and Donnie is the biggest example around. Not because he does things he normally wouldn't around April, but he really became dumber than Mikey when she's around.

"Why did it take almost one hour for you to get here, dudette?" Finally, there is a valid question to be asked. Surprisingly, it came from Mikey.

Of course, April couldn't tell them that she became friends with a member of the Foot Clan, an active member at that. The words Leo said to her about the Hamato Clan are still lingering around her head. The ones about she had to be careful around them. She's still not buying them. They protected her with everything they got and always rescues her whenever she needed it. "It's ok, guys. I was just … got ambushed by the kraang." She said.

Those words turned the nearly calm Donnie and Casey back to "freak out" mode. "WHAT?!" They yelled at the same time. The brainiac and the vigilante started squirming even harder, trying to get out of their captors' grip. Raph and Mikey looked at each other and then nodded at the same time.

*SMACK*

Two limping bodies came crashing down to the floor. "That should shut 'em up." Raph said.

"I hope I didn't hit D too hard." Mikey said as he crouched down to see Donnie.

April put down the plastic bag she was holding on the table. "Well, I got to go now. My aunt might be gets worried if I don't hurry." She said. She noticed the absence of someone inside of this room. "How's sensei?" She asked.

"Master Splinter still ain't tellin' us 'bout what really happened."

"He said that we're not ready for it yet, whatever that means."

Inside of his room, Splinter's enhanced hearing caught the conversation between his students. He's making them worried, but could he tell them that the one who's hunting down their family was closer to them than they thought? The one that was out for their blood was their own brother? He had meditated almost non-stop to find it, the best way to let them know, and yet, he couldn't.