Author's Note: eep! I'm Sorry! I know I promised to post this days ago, but real life got in the way. Thanks for your patience, and sorry again!

Chapter 10: Leo goes too far

"Hah," Raphael sneered, pressing the swords aside and leaning in as close as he dared. "Called your bluff."

Leo kicked him in the chest. Raph turned the backward momentum into a backflip and landed in a crouch, ready for the next attack. Leo was already sprinting towards him, blades whirling—Raph blocked reflexively, and felt the force of the double strike travel like electricity up his arms. Leo wasn't giving him a chance to think.

Gotta be faster! Raph realized desperately. But there was nothing he could do. He was defending himself by instinct alone, barely able to keep up. I'm gonna lose.

He always lost, in a real fight. If the day ever came when he won, he really didn't know what he'd do with himself. In practice, sure, they took turns winning. It wasn't exactly deliberate, but that was just what happened, in practice. And when an everyday argument turned into a scuffle, Raphael won his fair share of those too.

But when it came to an actual fight, with weapons, the outcome was inevitable. Raph would be on his back, disarmed, a sword at his neck. Or worse, he'd be backed up to a wall, disarmed, and then released with a smug nod. Raph wasn't scared of Leo hurting him. He knew that as soon as he was defenseless, he'd be spared. That was what he dreaded, what he hated most of all: the final blow turned aside, the mercy shown at the last second. The ridiculous control that always stopped that blade in the last inch. On purpose.

Raph knew he couldn't win. But more than anything he wanted to deny his brother that perfect victory. Dammit Leo, one of these days, you've gotta slip up and go too far, Raph thought desperately. And then a wild idea came to him. I could make him do it, I could make him mess up!

Those swords were a blur, striking furiously from all directions. Suddenly both came from the same direction, and Raph caught both of them with one sai, giving him a split-second opportunity to use his other sai offensively. Raphael jabbed the sai's heavy knuckle directly between the two cross-shaped intersections of the seams of his brother's plastron, correlating to a direct hit to the solar plexus.

Leo crumpled around the blow, and Raph ducked into him, managing to get his shoulder solidly planted against his brother's stomach—and in one quick motion, Raph turned and threw Leo over his shoulder and across the room. But instead of crashing into the wall, Leo bent his knees and pushed off the wall at the moment of impact, jumping back into the fight with both swords already arcing towards their target--

Raph heard the steel screaming on either side of his head as those two flawless blades slipped into the simple traps designed to stop them. Even as Leo was crashing head-first into him, knocking him off his feet, Raph was turning his wrists, trying to keep those swords where he wanted them. Even as his shell bounced off the ground, Leo rolling with him chest-to-chest in a messy backwards somersault, the situation became clear: if Raph landed on his back, Leo'd have his swords instantly free. If Leo landed on his back, however, there was no way he'd be able to get his blades free of Raph's sai. For half a second, Raph thought he might have a chance--

--and then the back of his head cracked against the concrete floor hard enough to make him see stars. Leo's knee was already driving into his chest, pinning him down. And then the pressure against his sai vanished. He'd lost all his leverage. Leo had simply lifted his swords clear.

Leo stood, and stomped his foot down beside Raph's head. He was gasping for breath, trying to get back the wind that had been knocked out of him by that one precise hit. Immediately Raph tried to jump up, but winced in unexpected pain as his mask tightened like a wire under his eyes, effectively canceling any plans he had for getting to his feet.

Raph's skull smacked the floor once again. So that was what the 'stomp' had been for: Leo was holding down a couple of red bandanna tails with his foot. Raph's vision blurred, whether from outrage or something else, he wasn't really sure.

Leo neatly stepped out of the way of a blow that would have broken his shin had it connected. Raph was on his feet in a flash, finally projecting the anger that Leo had been almost desperate to ignite. Now the fight would go as planned. Now Leo would outthink and outmaneuver his hotheaded brother. Raph would waste energy on anger and start to make mistakes. And then Leo would teach him a lesson.

Raph threw a sai. Instinctively, Leo slashed at it, spinning to one side and knocking the sai out of the air. But Leo's blade continued on its path, even as Leo realized that something was severely out of place: namely, Raphael.

Instead of simply throwing the sai and stepping back, Raph had made his throw while charging forward. They were already close together, and Leo had turned in a full circle, his blade leading him around. By the time Leo had redirected the sai, Raph was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But of course with Raph, whenever he was 'in the wrong place at the wrong time', he was usually there on purpose. He actually grinned as he felt his shell absorb the impact of the slice.

For a split second, they both froze. And then Leo grunted in distress and dropped his weapons. One of his swords clattered to the ground. The other stayed where it was, with its edge stuck in Raph's shell like an axe blade embedded in a tree.

A human with a sword lodged in his back like that would be dead. Dead.

Raph looked over his shoulder at his horrified brother. He glanced down at the abandoned sword hilt, then back up at Leo. "You gonna leave that there?" he asked.

With hands that suddenly felt numb, Leo tugged his sword free. The numerous crisscrossing slash marks scarring Raph's shell had all been carved by blades. But never one of Leo's blades. Not until now.

"Why did you do that?" Leo asked darkly, retrieving his other weapon and taking great care to control his breathing.

"I wanted to end the fight. Guess it worked," Raph replied.

"It was dangerous, Raph. It was dangerous and it was stupid."

"Stupid?" Raph sounded partially offended and partially amused. "What do you think this shell is for, anyway? It's a shield, Leo. And shields have been tools of combat since the beginnin' of time, bro. Read a history book or somethin'."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "You may think your shell's a shield, but I could have cut through it!" his voice trembled.

Raph shook his head. "Not like that you couldn't. Why do you think I threw a sai? Your swing spent most of its energy on the sai way before it got to me."

Leo calmed down significantly as he realized that Raph was right.

Raph smirked at him. "Not so 'stupid' after all, huh?"

Leo turned away. "You still shouldn't have done it," he said with an adamant scowl. "Why'd you even start a fight in the first place, if you were only going to end it by letting yourself get hurt?"

Raph rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry, all right? I provoked you to attack in order to prove that you still care about Karai. And as for getting hurt, I'm not exactly gushing blood here."

"That's not the point." Leo looked down remorsefully at the swords in his hands. He held them up and angled the blades so he could see his reflection in the steel. "You made me make a serious mistake, Raph. That cut- that'll be a scar. I haven't even nicked any of you in years, not with these."

"It's not that big a deal," Raph said, suddenly wary of something in Leo's voice.

"I'm losing it," Leo said quietly, looking away. "I'm really losing it. I… I thought you were angry, I wanted you to be angry. And I got confident… and I really messed up."

"Leooo…" Raph said warningly. "It was my fault, okay? You know that, right?"

"No Raph, it was me. I didn't see it coming. I wasn't paying attention. I let… rage… or… overconfidence or something-- it just blinded me. I let that happen. It was me."

"Hey, uh, you know, it might not even scar up that bad," Raph said, scrambling to be optimistic and really not liking the direction Leo was heading.

Leo ignored him. "I've failed again," he whispered. "I… I have to get out of here."

Later that night, after hearing what had happened, Splinter agreed with him.

"What?" Leo looked up sharply, not believing what he'd just heard. Splinter's eyes were closed. "Sensei, do you really mean that?"

"Hm." Splinter nodded. "You must leave us for a time. Consider it a training period."

"I can't leave, Master Splinter," Leo argued, distress creeping into his voice. "Everything I care about is here. Everything I am is here!"

Splinter opened his eyes. "Everything you are, Leonardo? And what is the sum of that 'everything', I wonder? You are lost, my son."

"I'm not 'lost' sensei, I'm right here!" Leo nearly jumped to his feet as his distress flared into anger.

The old rat's whiskers twitched as he smiled. "Ah. It must be terribly frustrating to be lost in a familiar place. It is much better to be lost in an unfamiliar place. It is much easier to find new paths to inner peace when you are in a place where all paths are new. That is why you must go."

Leo was unsure of what to think.

"This is not a punishment," Splinter said, his voice soft but his tone indisputably firm. He held Leo's gaze. "This will be good for you, Leonardo. I believe you made the right choice by not returning to the Shredder's daughter. However, if you stay here, you will only continue to be pressured, to doubt and question, and you may come to resent making the choice that you did. And your frustration and confusion, and whatever other darkness burdens you, will continue to threaten our family."

Threaten? Leo's chest tightened. So that was it, that was the bigger issue, the horrible, hidden truth- he was threatening the family, and was being kicked out, just like that. Splinter sensed his shame, and was quick to correct it.

"There is nothing for you to be ashamed of, my son. You are growing up, and it is time for you to find out a few things about yourself. You must learn to survive, grow stronger, make a difference—on your own. For a while, you must stop being responsible for everyone else, and you must focus on yourself."

Splinter watched carefully as his son's innate obedience finally came to the surface. Leo would accept the mission that his master had given him. The corners of Leo's mouth curved downwards in determination, and Splinter nearly sighed in relief as he saw the courage that flickered to life in his son's eyes. Leonardo would need that courage for the journey ahead. "Yes Father," Leo said in a low voice. "But how long is 'a while'?"

The old ninja master smiled again. "As long as it needs to be," he replied.

"Please sensei. I'm going to do this. Can't you at least give me an estimate of how long you expect it to take?"

Splinter evaluated his son's expression, and realized that Leo needed an answer, needed something to plan around, to look forward to- a limit, most likely to be exceeded, but established here at the outset, almost like a goal.

"Six months," Splinter answered. "At least."

The three ninjas eavesdropping outside the door exchanged startled glances. None of them could imagine their brother being gone for so long.

…to be continued…

Another Author's Note: so… I've spliced the New Toon with the new movie by having Angry/moody post-Exodus Leo get sent off to Central America instead of getting sent off to summer camp with the Ancient One. In the NT, Leo "goes too far" when he injures Master Splinter. I changed Leo's 'victim' to Raph, and made Raph partially to blame for everything, because I got the impression from the new movie that they didn't part on good terms when Leo left.

I really hate it when Raph and Leo fight. To my immense relief, this resumes being a story about Leo and Karai (mostly) in the next chapter.

Ok, one last note, concerning Raph's shell: in the live-action movies, Raph (and only Raph) has sword scars on his shell. I remember noticing them when I was little, and worrying tremendously about whether or not Leo had been responsible for any of them. (In the first movie, they're kinda hard to see, but they're there. In the second movie, they're really obvious. I can e-mail you a screenshot if you want.) There are sword scars on Raph's shell in the new CGI movie too.