Ties that Bind

by Pheonix500

This started out small and rapidly became a fan novel founded in the 2012 series but including characters from across the franchise. I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this one, but it was fun ride. The Turtles and their new allies must save the world from an ancient evil. Warning, it will be a few chapters before the Turtles are introduced (Ch. 12 & 14, aww baby turtles).

36. Chapter 34: Huntress II

Huntress II:

Alopex left Kitsune's chambers. This was not going to be a quick infiltration assignment like most of her others. She would be gone a long time. She could do it of course. Her natural predatory instincts were unparalleled and augmented by her training in ninjutsu. She was an artist with her kamas. And as a fully trained kunoichi, she learned the art of deception from the best.

Still, she didn't like being away so long. This place was her home and Karai, the Shredder and Headhunter her pack, along with Kitsune. But when the pack needed something, she got it for them, like a good member. Just as she'd once hunted in solitary freedom for her birth pack. It was no different.

All the same, she would go tell Karai before she left. Her only true friend would feel the absence most. She deserved to hear it from her.

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Umeko Mokoshan stood on the beach in training armor, holding her shinai at the ready. It was breaking dawn and she felt completely centered. The beach was the perfect place to test her footwork with its uneven and unstable surface, but she would get to Okuri-ashi and Fumikomi-ashi later.

Right now she would wake up her muscles, practice the motions of her strikes. Each one, she punctuated with her kiai. So engrossed was she in her training, she barely noticed the soggy lump of white fur wash ashore nearby. It was the groan that alerted her.

Tucking her shinai into her obi, she hurried over to examine the stranger and gasped. She was like them, sort of. Definitely a fox woman, in ragged clothing to be sure, but her fur was pure white with a splash of bluish purple over her eyes and along her snout, like a mask. She also didn't have any hair. She obviously had fur, but no hair.

Umeko had both. Her fur was reddish brown, but she also had long black hair, tied into a tight pony tail to keep it out of her face while she trained. The stranger opened her eyes and Umeko was stunned to see that they were the same golden color as her own.

"Who are you?" The stranger's voice was rusty from disuse and a strange dialect of Japanese, as was the case with most of the rare strangers who washed up on the island.

"Mokoshan Umeko."

"I'm Alopex. It's not safe. The humans, they will…" Umeko gently shushed Alopex panic.

"It's ok. There are no humans here at present. You are safe sister."