Karai's head ached. It had ached ever since that damned mutant turtle with the katanas had headbutted her hard enough to knock her unconscious — a humiliating defeat as well as a painful one. He hadn't even had to use his blades to defeat her, a fact that still irked her even now.

The clinic had informed her that her skull was not cracked, but that she would have to remain alert and sleepless for a time in order to rule out a concussion. So she had been roaming through the building for a while, running the defeat through over and over in her mind.

It was unbelievable. They were the Foot — invincible and unstoppable warriors, the greatest of all ninja clans. And they had been soundly defeated by a trio of mutant turtles, a mutant rat, and some random human wearing a mask and swinging around a hockey stick. Not one of these inferior enemies had been defeated — not even one of them had truly been hurt, except for the rat collapsing from exhaustion.

Karai had never been so disgusted and embarrassed in her entire life.

She stalked into a dojo and stripped off her outer gear — her scarf, her shoulder guards, her tunic-like garments, her footwear. She swiftly set up several wooden dummies across the tatami floor, and began sweeping through sword forms with a ferocity she rarely showed in her practice. Long smooth pieces of wood were sliced neatly as she spun and leaped between them, her bare feet landing lightly between strokes.

When she had finished, she sheathed her katana without even looking back at what she had done. She knew her form had been flawless. Perfect. Without a single error. None in the Foot could have done better.

So how had she been so easily defeated by a mere turtle?

She gritted her teeth. She was beginning to truly hate turtles — first that insolent freak Raphael, and now the one with the swords who had humiliated her.

The thought haunted her for the next few hours as she continued walking through the halls, her dark eyes skimming over everything she saw. Her headache had not abated — both the literal and figurative ones, that was — but she wasn't allowed to sleep for a few more hours.

Finally her steps brought her to her grandfather's expansive chambers, near the very top of the building. The Elite at the door watched her without a word, but allowed her to pass without question. She was the chunin of the entire Foot Clan — even the powerful Elite were not in a position to question her unless Master Shredder ordered it.

Her grandfather was seated before a low table, with a meal and a small bottle of sake placed in front of him. His piercing eyes rose to where she was standing. Waited for her to speak.

She bowed quickly. "Grandfather, I wish to speak about the events of last night," she said.

He seemed to consider this, before gesturing at the seat beside himself.

Karai slid down beside her grandfather, wincing as a few sore muscles twinged in her side. The turtle — Leonardo, she thought she had heard someone call him — had been unstoppable in combat, his sword strokes a perfect offensive and defensive measure. Even more infuriating, he hadn't even been brutal about it — he hadn't even been trying to kill her, or even wound her that much.

He would regret that when they next met, she vowed.

"Grandfather," she said finally. "I have been thinking about the attack by those mutant turtles — how they breached our security so easily. If our enemies have enlisted them—"

He cut her off with a gesture.

"They are not fighting for our other enemies," he said darkly. "This is something different. More personal."

"Hamato Yoshi," Karai said.

"Indeed. He was of the Foot Clan in another lifetime, but he betrayed us by turning against me. He escaped our grasp for many years, but eventually I found him and relieved him of his treacherous head." His eyes narrowed. "Now he has returned in the form of a filthy rodent. Appropriate."

"And the mutant turtles?"

He took a sip of the sake. "Hamato Yoshi had four sons," he stated flatly.

Karai's eyes widened as she thought back to what she had seen the night before — three mutant turtles on one side, one on the other. "Four sons. Four turtles," she said slowly. "Then Raphael…"

"Is one of Hamato Yoshi's sons, long ago executed by the Foot, reborn as a mutant," Oroku Saki said, his face falling into grim lines. "I did not know this when I made him part of our clan, but perhaps it is an appropriate fate for him, that he serve the clan that his father betrayed."

"We cannot trust him," Karai blurted out, planting her hands on the tabletop. "I will have him imprisoned in one of the cells until he—"

"I gave no such order."

"Grandfather, he is dangerous."

"As I had him trained to be."

"He is the son of your enemy, an enemy who has learned of us now," Karai said fiercely.

She felt her frustration growing as her grandfather eyed her, then went back to his meal and drink. For a time, the only sound in the room was the faint tap of chopsticks against one another. It grated on her nerves as she waited for a response.

For the past year, Raphael had been an infuriating favorite of her grandfather's, and her efforts to make him see that this green interloper was not to be trusted had come to little. Even when she had seen him disobey her grandfather, the jonin's rage had only gone so far as beating the little mutant. He had been given a second chance, and had been irritatingly obedient ever since. Karai's efforts to trip him up had been for nothing.

"In this life, he is the son of the Foot Clan," Saki said at last. "He knows nothing of his past life, and nothing of Hamato Yoshi or his other sons. He will never know of these things, unless I wish him to. His loyalty is to me, now and always."

"Can you be sure he will remain that way?" Karai said, a hint of slyness creeping into her voice.

"Do you have any reason to doubt his loyalty, Karai?" her grandfather asked dryly.

He knew that she hated Raphael, Karai knew, and she also knew that he did not share her viewpoint on the turtle. So she would have to be extra persuasive to convince her grandfather of his unfitness.

She remained straight-backed and clear-eyed as she declared, "I simply am concerned that if he were to come into contact with his family — especially the other turtles — they might sway him away from the Foot Clan."

"They offer him nothing that we cannot," Saki said, his eyes fixing on some distant spot that Karai could not see. "He has been a part of the Foot Clan since the very beginning of his awareness, and such bonds are unbreakable. He is of the Foot Clan, body and soul. No matter how they might try, they will never be able to remove him from it — or it from him."

He took a sip of his sake, and a contemplative expression crossed his face. "Instead, we will see if Raphael can be an effective lure for his brothers. Four trained mutants fighting as one would be a prize indeed."