Chapter
Six
After Worlds Collide
"Curiouser and curiouser." - Alice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Chapter 2
"The company offered my dad a promotion, and taking it meant that he would have to relocate to a new office here in New York. We moved into the new apartment the other day." Sara sat on the left hand side of the dinner table, several slices of pizza sat before her on a plate decorated with pepperoni and olives. She seemed to be at a relative ease now with the new found companions she had been introduced to, as was present in the fact that she now shared dinner with them in their home beneath the streets of Manhattan.
Michelangelo, who had seated himself on Sara's right, had yet to fully devour his own parts of the pizza as he was engrossed with watching and listening to the teen girl sitting with him and his family. Thus far, they had come to learn a bit more about Sara as she slowly opened up after hearing their own tale. She was a third Japanese from her mom's side of the family, came from a rather proud shinobi clan called the Haruno, had lived in Kyoto until she was thirteen, moved state side to Colorado, was currently sixteen-years-old (much to the apparent delight of Michelangelo and Donatello), a Sophomore in high school, and was rather proficient in the use of many shinobi arts including the ability to mold chakra to utilize ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques that her grandfather had taught her. And it seemed more than obvious that youngest of the four brothers was more than just captured by her, as he continued to stare with complete and utter interest. That and he had yet to actually inhale his dinner for once.
"Did you leave behind any friends?" Donatello asked, curious to know if there was some sort of sentimental value left behind on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. However, his question seemed to have caught Sara off-guard, leaving the teen to stare across at him with her mouth looking as though it had something to say, but the voice box decided to leave it hanging. Oh crap! Maybe I shouldn't have asked that question so soon! "Uh, I mean, um, you don't have to..." Donatello stammered out and lost whatever else he had to say to recant what he had said.
Closing her mouth, and forcing herself to smile, Sara tried to visibly assure Donatello that he didn't need to apologize. "No, it's fine. I had some friends back home, but I found out that most of them weren't exactly solid in their friendship as I had thought they were." The forced smile clung to the corners of her mouth, but there was no hiding the actual sense of defeat that pulled at the rest of her expression.
Master Splinter picked up on a rather dreary sense of near self-loathing that seemed rather strange coming from someone of Sara's age. However, the boys (meaning Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo, since Raphael had decided to be otherwise put off by Sara's presence and chose to rather stand off against the kitchen wall) seemed to be more concerned with the fact that Sara apparently didn't have very many friends if any at all now. Even April showed a bit of sympathy towards Sara's statement, and offered her the best comforting, and friendly, smile that she could at the moment from her place at the end of the table.
"I'm sure your friends who stayed true to you, miss you. Right?" April pointed out, hoping at the same time that she hadn't just put her foot in her mouth with that. Especially since Sara didn't exactly identify to the fact that she had any friends left back in Colorado.
"I doubt it." Sara mumbled back in reply as she lifted a slice of pizza off the plate, missing the rather bummed out look on April's face. I don't have any friends left back home. They all freaked out, and two of them even called me a 'monster' before running away. None of them even tried to understand. Sara bit down into the pizza, her gaze and whole demeanor having plummeted into a state of near depression now.
Michelangelo shot his brother a rather unholy look as he placed some sort of blame on him specifically for starting the rather slowly greying state that Sara was slipping forward into. After receiving an equally stern look from Donatello in response, Michelangelo quickly devised a conversation curb in his head, or at least a good question to take Sara's attention away from something depressing. "So that thing you did in the subway, with the whole making more yourself trick, what was that?" There was both a panicked sense of misdirection in his tone, while at the same time he was rather curious to know the answer.
Looking up at the turtle to at her side, Sara lifted a brow while the piece of pizza dangled from her mouth. "Trick?" She asked through a mouth full of food. Yanking the bigger piece that was left outside her mouth, Sara swallowed quickly before she could begin explaining. "Oh, you mean the dopplegangers I used to fight the Foot. It's known as bunshin, and is one of the more basic ninjutsu techniques that all blood related members of the Haruno Clan are taught, since we're the only ones who posses the ability to mold our chakra. The technique I used is a much more advanced level of that basic technique; kage bunshin, flesh and blood dopplegangers versus just an illusion." Almost immediately her whole demeanor had changed for the better, a real smile pulling at the right corner of her mouth.
Very good Michelangelo. Splinter nodded as he listened to Sara explain her shinobi methods, while at the same time commending his youngest son quietly. "A very advanced skill indeed. Your grandfather is a very good teacher." He mused.
"The Foot were probably not expecting a teenager to fight back." April grinned as she could only image what that fight may have looked like.
"Maybe not, considering the fact that there were so many of them in the first place. They obviously had some type of forewarning." Leonardo pointed out, his gaze eying Sara a bit even as he faced April.
Sara's brow furrowed as she raised a brow, her gaze lifting upward as thought back to the confrontation in the subway. "Yeah, you're right."
"But what would the Foot have against someone from the Haruno Clan?" Donatello wondered aloud, knowing that either Sara or Splinter would answer that question. "And how would they know Sara was apart of that clan as well? It doesn't make sense." To this, the others nodded, excluding Raphael who more less grunted his agreement as he had been suggesting this from the beginning.
Splinter nodded to this, his gaze flickering over to Sara as even he was somewhat in the dark on either of these questions. The teen rubbed the back of her neck with a somewhat of an unsure look on her own face at the moment. But she did seem to know something, "From what I know, the Foot Clan and the Haruno Clan are enemies since way back before the Meiji Era. As to why, I'm not quite sure on, although I do believe it's because the Foot practice black magic." Sara explained to the extent of her knowledge concerning the two ninja clans. "But like I said earlier, I have no idea how they would know I'm apart of the Haruno Clan. I don't wear the symbol, or anything like that." She further added before anyone could push the other question any further.
"Hmm, you said that your family moved over from Japan almost three years ago..." Splinter trailed off in mid thought as he pondered a moment longer before voicing his theory. "It could be very much a possibility that the Foot were aware of your family's move." He mused quietly. "Did they say anything else to you in the subway?"
Sara shrugged. "I think they said something about someone wanting to meet me." Any bits of conversation that may have occurred between her and the Foot seemed a bit fuzzy at best, a result perhaps from being struck in the back of the head. However, Sara had consciously left out the small bit where the lead ninja had specifically called her 'the container'. And while the rest of the table seemed more concerned with what the Foot wanted specifically with her, Sara grabbed the final piece of pizza on her plate and chomped down about halfway up.
Twenty minutes later, and Sara was winding her way through the maze of that was the underground sewers of Manhattan with four turtles and one woman leading the way. There was something rather...disturbing, about wandering the underground, especially within sewer systems that Sara couldn't quite put her finger on. Michelangelo and Donatello were the only two chatter boxes out of the four brothers as they continued to ask Sara questions and answering some of the ones that she asked them, while Leonardo and April took the main lead. This left Raphael at the end, the far end, of the group with a rather unhappy scowl etched heavily across his face and arms jammed over his chest.
"Okay, so, your family comes straight out of Japan on your mom's side. And on your dad's side, it's all from over here state side." Donatello recited what Sara had outlined concerning her ethnic heritage, and looked now for her approval. A nod from Sara was all he needed to crack a rather broad smile. "So what part of Kyoto is your family from?" The curious nature of Donatello continued to further prod for more information concerning the girl's background.
"The clan family compound is in the Fushimi-ku Ward, and sits about two miles from the Fushimi Inari Taisha." Sara replied while picking her way over the small threaded cluster of pipes feeding down the brick wall and into the waterway that the catwalk stood above level by a good two feet. Glancing over, Sara caught sight of the rather confused looks on both Michelangelo and Donatello, and chuckled. "The Fushimi Inari Taisha is a shinto jinja, a shrine dedicated to a kamideity, in which case is the deity Inari. The Haruno Clan was said to have been entrusted with the task of guarding many great secrets of Inari, as the deity had handed them down personally to us. Many of the secrets were stored in the shrine itself, but there were two closely guarded ones kept hidden in our family compound."
April looked back over her shoulder after hearing Sara's small story. "Amazing. I had heard about a ninja clan dedicated to the Inari Taisha when I took a trip through Japan a few years back. Never heard the name of the clan though, even after visiting the shrine."
"I suppose you wouldn't. A lot of those who are attendants at the shrine, were taught to recognize the Haruno Clan as just history and that there are a few descendants somewhere. Other than that, no one gives recognition to the clan compound or that we're not just a few." Sara replied. "I actually used to live in the family compound before we moved over state side."
Michelangelo stared at her with a rather wide-eyed look of awe. She sounded so ninja that he couldn't help but stare. Born in Japan and raised in a clan compound that survived for centuries near a deity shrine while all the while being trained by her grandfather in the shinobi arts...it was just, Too awesome! She's just like us, aside from the whole mutating thing of course, but still! "Hey, Sara! Do you have any other ninjutsu arts? Can you breathe fire or walk on water?"
Raphael scoffed rather loudly from behind the group. "She's not a dragon or an insect Mikey." Besides, what's the point in getting to know her anyways?! She's apparently that not that great at keeping friends anyways! Raphael's jaw clenched beneath his lips as he bit back anything else that would possibly slip out and have Leonardo riding his case about being polite to their 'guest'. The last thing he wanted right now, was to deal with one of his brother's lectures. However, as he mulled over whatever else he wanted to say, his concentration was broken as the sound of his younger brothers startled cries broke out. Glancing between them, he noted that there was someone missing and that Michelangelo and Donatello were looking off over at the sewer waterway itself.
Somehow, Raphael managed to keep his choked expression from being heard and seen as shock coursed through him. As if it were nothing at all, Sara was standing atop the surface of the running sewer waters as if she were standing on solid ground. Yeah well, whatever! It's not thatimpressive. It's not like she can breathe fire though! Raphael grumbled something under his breath while looking off elsewhere to show that he was unimpressed if anyone happened to look his way.
"Haha! I knew it!" Michelangelo stated excitedly while pointing at Sara and looking at his brother Donatello in a rapid fire manner to see his own reaction. "So does this mean you can breathe fire too then?!"
April let out a rather good hearted laugh as Michelangelo's reaction was rather priceless, especially since Sara seem to further cater to his excitement by hopping around on the water's surface to show that it wasn't all an illusion or trick of the eye. I guess she is the real thing after all. It just further raises questions as to why the Foot ambushed her. Sara's no older than the boys, but she gave those Foot ninja a pretty rough beating on her own. Watching Sara, April was suddenly reminded of the rather defeated look on her face when they had made mention of any friends back in Colorado. She had never seen anything like that on even an adult who had been out in the "real world" for a good some odd years and seen the worst downs it had to offer. However, April's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she heard Leonardo chuckle beneath his breath.
"I think Mikey has a new friend." Leonardo thought aloud, his gaze trained on his younger brother and the teen girl goofing around out on the surface of the sewer water. The older of the four brothers smirked slightly as even he was impressed by the fact that Sara could even stand out on top of moving water and not become drenched in the filth of the city. "Alright, come on guys." Leo called out to them. "Splinter asked us to take Sara home."
"Yeah, but he didn't say how quickly." Michelangelo pointed out, while at the same time he contemplated whether or not he could try walking on water as well.
Somehow, Raphael had had enough, annoyed that his brothers seemed to take to Sara so quickly without looking further into way the Foot was after her. "Let's just go already! I don't be wandering around here so that way you can be entertained!" He growled out at his young brother, catching everyone a bit off-guard with his statement. Noticing the looks he was receiving from his brothers and April, Raphael didn't even dare look over at Sara.
Even though it wasn't exactly the kind of motivation that Leonardo had been looking for, he exhaled a somewhat disgruntled or rather annoyed sigh while eying Raphael from where he stood. "Sara, where did you say your apartment was?"
Stepping back on to the cement catwalk, Sara glanced over at Leonardo. "It's about a block from the DeFranco Brothers Pizzeria." A sheepish look crossed her face as Sara realized that she was unable to recall the exact name of the street her parents apartment sat on. "I can't really remember the name of the street we live on. I just know how to retrace my steps rather well." She chuckled in an embarrassed manner as she knew that this had to only label her as a possible airhead right now.
"Well at least we know which direction to head in now." Donatello pointed out. "Around that area, the only streets that I can recall are Ninth, Willow, and M. Do any of them sound familiar?" He asked while looking over at the girl that had come to stand somewhat between himself and Michelangelo.
"Yeah, we're on Willow." Sara replied with the same sheepish look on her face as the sound of the street name had finally clicked.
The group continued through the sewer tunnels, and within only a span of twenty minutes or so, they were soon staring up at the manhole cover that led out to Willow Street and place Sara right near her home. April went up the ladder first, followed by Sara with Leonardo and Michelangelo following up behind them. With experience in lifting a manhole cover up off its set rim, April peered out from the small gap that was before her now while holding the heavy piece of circular metal up with the flattened palm of her hand. Surveying the street that had now darkened and was illuminated by flickering street lamps, she made sure that there was no one in sight to witness two girls hoping up out of a sewer drain.
With no one out on the street, April called down the okay and then proceeded to push the manhole cover aside to climb up out on to the street. Sara appeared next, standing up beside April while wiping her hands off on her jeans to rid them of the flacked off rusted bits of the metal ladder. Even though it was near evening, the turtles remained hidden within the sewer drain, not wanting to chance being spotted by anyone happening to pass by. However, Leonardo hovered just near the mouth of the drain, Michelangelo pushing his way up beside him even though the ladder's size wasn't exactly accommodating for two bodies side by side.
April had already assured the turtles that she would walk Sara all the way to her apartment door, but Michelangelo seemed a bit concerned with something else. "You'll come back and hang out with us, right?" Michelangelo had a rather apparent look of worry on his face as he stared up at Sara specifically.
Sara offered him the first actual genuine smile since their first interaction. "Yeah. I mean you guys helped me out back there in the subway, which I seem to have yet to thank you for...now that I thank about it." Sara scratched the back of her head as she realized this little bit she seemed to have overlooked. Crouching down before the tunnel entrance, Sara folded her arms over the top of her knees, her head tilting to the right a bit as she met Michelangelo's gaze. "My parents will be out again all day tomorrow, I come back then." She offered.
Michelangelo looked over to Leonardo with a massive smile on his face. The older brother gave a small laugh behind his lips in response to the fact that Michelangelo seemed to be asking permission from him or some sort of approval. Looking back up to Sara, Leonardo nodded. "Does this street get pretty busy during the day?"
"Uh, well, it wasn't today. But it's the first time I've actually been out and about." Sara replied. "Should I just come here to meet with you guys? Or is there somewhere else?"
Here, April interjected an idea. "There's that manhole near my place that you guys use all the time without being seen. How about I come by and pick you up tomorrow? I have to work, but at least I could show you where its at so that way you can get there on your own later on." April suggested, while winking down at Mikey and Leo to assure them that she would help out.
"Yeah, yeah! Let's do that!" Michelangelo shouted, only to be quickly hushed by Leonardo who smacked him in the back of the head. Grinning sheepishly, Michelangelo again confirmed his agreement to the idea in a more quieter manner. "We can meet you there."
