References events seen in the first, second, and nineteenth episodes of the 2003 series takes place as a missing scene in the twenty-sixth episode of season two. I do not own anything.

Splinter sent Leonardo to the room they would share with his brothers in the Daimyo's palace very near the Daimyo's own. The brothers had all talked at great length after they'd moved into their new home in New York City (after the mouser incident) about how much they enjoyed having their own rooms. However, after Shredder's attacks on them or those from other deadly enemies, Splinter had noticed Leonardo especially stayed closer to his brothers even as they all fell asleep. That did not even take into account the time Leonardo had almost been taken from them all, and they had barely left his side. Daylit hours of trouble often brought nights needing reassurance, and today had been one of those days.

So, Splinter had told the Daimyo not to worry he had no extra rooms set up for the four competitors, including the winner, who'd accidentally gotten themselves entered into the competition. His sons would share his. If any of his sons complained about this to him, he'd simply remind them he'd told them to stay in the lair.

As things stood, however, he was going to enter that room late himself "later." He had a certain rabbit he needed to talk alone to first. He wondered if Leonardo would be awake awaiting an answer when he joined them, or if the days events would catch up to his eldest as soon as Leonardo lay down.

Splinter entered the room Usagi rested in. The Healer turned a mildly concerned expression upon him. Splinter smiled kindly in return. "How is your patient, Great Healer?"

"I believe the swelling inside his head has gone down and he has relaxed, but I cannot let him fall asleep for sometime."

Splinter smiled wider. "I think I can help with that. May we have some time alone while I speak with him, keeping him awake?"

The healer stood and bowed. "As my Daimyo thinks highly of you, and I have observed your respectful words and actions to my patient thus far, I will step out and down the hall, for now. But I will be in to check on him later and be merely a call away if my patient shows any sign of his condition worsening."

"Understood."

The healer rose and left. Usagi raised his head slightly to watch him go and then looked at Splinter. The rat glanced around. His nose twitched. Then he looked to the rabbit. "Where has your friend gone?"

"Gennesuke went to bed. It has been a wearying day, and he liked the idea of enjoying the Daimyo's famous hospitality." The Samurai gave a fond smile as he spoke of the bounty hunter.

The rat sat down on a stool near the cushion-covered bench the rabbit lay upon. The Samurai peered up at him curiously from it. The Nezumi spoke first. "I must apologize for my sons' behavior."

The Ronin continued a bit hesitatingly "I … admit I am most confused by that … Leonardo seems so … calm … usually."

Splinter bowed his head and chuckled. When he looked up, his eyes met those of the rabbit with a curious expression of their own. "Before I explain Leonardo's actions and words to you, may I ask 'you' a question, Samurai?"

The Yojimbo closed his eyes and sighed. "Yes …"

Splinter tilted his head to the side wondering at the resignment the Yojimbo exuded now. "Did you yourself ever have a brother or sister?"

The rabbit's ears straightened above his head. He looked to the Nezumi now. "Why is 'this' the question you ask me?"

"Because an older brother might understand Leonardo best while a younger brother might see his own elder brother, or perhaps even sister, in his actions and words toward you …"

The Samurai stared at the rat in silence for a moment before replying. "I was the only son of my father …"

The Nezumi nodded. "I had four sons before I knew what to do with them. And all of them were small, but also roughly the same size. I could not guess their ages at first."

The Samurai's ears straightened above his head again. His eyes widened. He'd surmised the kame had to have been adopted to call this Nezumi "father" but he hadn't thought to hear the tale of how that came to be. He found his curiosity jumping out of his mouth before his decorum stopped it. "How did they come to be with you?"

"They were lost." The Nezumi smiled gently. "I think the one who lost them truly wanted them, but he lost them in such a way he couldn't reach them, and I didn't know if he would take them back from me or even indeed if I could carry them back up to him, or if he would be there to find when I tried. While I pitied him, I thought the simplest …"

The Nezumi stopped and smiled wider to himself as Usagi stared with wide eyes at this odd explanation of his friend's family. The Nezumi's next words were somewhat sad to him but also made more sense. "No … the simplest thing to do would have been to simply leave them, I admit, but I myself had been a recipient of kindness even greater than my own then it seemed. I didn't know what I was getting myself into at the time."

Usagi laughed a little, softly. "Indeed, I don't know how any who adopt four children at once fully can."

Splinter smiled back at the rabbit. "You are right young one." Then he continued. "I found something nearby to carry them in and brought them back to my home. While difficult, it seemed easier and safer than trying to take them back to the one who'd lost them. Though, I did think of him from time to time."

Splinter paused, frowned to himself, and thought of the boy again. He'd be an adult now. Did "he" ever think of the pets he'd lost? Had he asked permission to bring four infant turtles' home? If the boy had not and his own parents had been angry, would his sons have ended up in the sewers anyway?

Splinter shuddered slightly. Usagi frowned upon seeing this, but did not interrupt again. Splinter continued after a moment. "I was … surprised, at how fast they grew. Thankfully, I kept up." He smiled to himself while Usagi cocked his head at this confusing statement, but the rabbit remained silent, so Splinter continued. "Leonardo walked upright first. Raphael and Michelangelo followed soon after seeing him try. Donatello watched them all for some time, and then more cautiously tried it himself. By the end of the day, after Leo went first, all his brothers were walking, though some went down on all fours again to go faster when excited or when they were tired I think. The more Leonardo walked, though, the more Raphael seemed loathe to crawl, and the more Michelangelo seemed apt to try running. Donatello continued on in his more cautious practicing. I still might not have come down on the side of believing my Leonardo the eldest among them, though, if he had not also spoken first."

The rat paused and looked closer to crying than Usagi thought he had ever seen him. The rabbit's eyes widened. Splinter met his gaze with the full weight of his many years. "Do you know, young Samurai, what my eldest son's first word was?"

The Ronin shook his head somewhat shy to break through the weighty tension with his voice. The rat continued putting a hand to his chest over his own heart. "My name."

Usagi's eyes widened. The rat, who had been leaning forward at this, sat back. "After that, Donatello began to speak. He seemed far less cautious about using his mouth than his feet. Raphael then began in an angrier, determined voice, and Michelangleo began jabbering a storm of sounds that were sometimes words. Leonardo spoke less, but he had spoken first. Since he had also walked first, I dubbed him 'the oldest.' Raphael had walked second, but spoken third, and Donatello had walked last, but spoken second. I, therefore, had a more difficult task putting those two in an order in my mind. Michelangelo had not walked or talked first, but did both with the most enthusiasm. I dubbed him 'the youngest.' I am more convinced now, Raphael is second-eldest. But Donatello's stunning intellect and soft heart causes him to take on more responsibility than even I have at times in caring for us."

Splinter paused a moment before continuing. "Caring for them has had more challenges than I could have dreamed of and also more rewards."

Usagi stared at him respectfully, having no idea why the rat spoke to him so, but determined to give him the full honor of listening. The Nezumi went on. "I imagine, as one who has held high positions, you know what is is to feel cut off at times from the hearts of those you command?"

Usagi paused a moment to think. Then he nodded. He had, at times, felt closer to his fellow officers than the men who looked up to them, but laughed among themselves. Splinter's face grew grim. "That is how a father sometimes feels when his sons' make plans to disobey him together, for fear he will ruin their fun, or simply not understand. But I am not alone in this in my family. I have also caused Leonardo to be in this position at times by making him the 'leader' of the four. Now he also shares that weight."

Usagi nodded solemnly. The Nezumi smiled gently and seemed to study Usagi, which made the rabbit leery for a moment and then confused as the rat spoke on. "That is why, I think your friendship means so much to Leonardo. He has no fear if you beat him you will then flaunt some authority I gave him over you, and thus cause him to fail the charge I gave to him."

Usagi's eyes widened a moment. Splinter continued. "And, as you have probably noticed his brothers do not follow him in everything. He wields swords almost constantly, they do not. Raphael often loses his temper with flying fists. Leonardo, most often, does not. He is more likely to seethe. Donatello loves to look for wonders in the stars, in machines, in everything that makes up our world. Such things are often beyond his brothers and me." Splinter smiled gently. Usagi wondered at the humility it took the great warrior to speak thus of his son. Splinter continued. "And Michelangelo …" He bowed his head and shook it. "As proud as I am of him, Leonardo trains harder than all his brothers, and they all train harder than Michelangelo does. I fear it will always be so."

The rat then grimly raised his head again and met the rabbit's gaze. "This is my family with all its flaws. Four brothers, none the same, all making each other happy, frustrated, and miserable by turns, and an eldest trying so hard to bring order and harmony to it all. When he fails, especially to keep them safe, he bursts like a dam as you saw him do earlier here."

"But … I am not a brother of his, Splinter san."

The rat raised his ears and eyebrows at this before replying. "He wants you to be."

Usagi's own ears straightened and mouth dropped open.

Splinter continued. "He asked 'me' to ask 'you' to come home with us and join our family. Upon listening to him, I came to the conclusion this idea hardened in his mind when he learned you had no surviving master or family. I think he got the idea you also have few friends." Splinter's face melted into a sad expression. "You must understand, now, from all I have told you, Usagi san, family means so much to him. It means so much to all of us. Friends are beginning to mean more to us recently, but just recently. To be alone, to have all family stripped away … has been perhaps the greatest fear any of us have. It burrows into our subconscious as the most terrorizing of possibilities, and not an entirely unlikely one."

Splinter looked away. Usagi's muscles bunched as he wondered what hunted this family or what dangers or diseases they faced to make them all fear thus. Splinter looked back to him. "So, you see, it is not at all unexpected to me Leonardo would be upset to learn you wonder alone or even with a single friend in your own world. To lose all, or even all but one, of us is his own greatest fear."

Usagi's eyes looked to a wall in front of him as he contemplated this. After long moments of silence he replied, "I do not know what to say. I had thought you all wished to distance yourselves from me."

Splinter's eyebrows and ear-tips flew up. "'Distance' ourselves from you?"

"Because I am a master-less Samurai."

Splinter's ears went down as fast as they'd gone up. He sounded almost wounded. "Oh … young one, that never even entered my thoughts."

Usagi bowed his head and closed his eyes in shame.

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes