Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I liked Who's the best. Are you a cheerleader? Thanks! You're an awesome reader!

Anyways, I'll let everyone know how the speech comes out when the time comes around. I hope I get a good grade. Oh well…I'm happy to be taking a college course even though I'm still in high school. ^_^

Well, back to the story. Yes, our blue clad ninja turtle has his stereotypical doubts and self-blaming thoughts.

Ok and a quick note. EVERYONE READ!

One-shot gift for the one who can guess what the blue light was Leo saw before he came into Stockman's lab.

Now…

*Runs around with property labels, but can't find the turtles.* T_T

Raph sat up from the mattress he was laying on with a gasp. He glanced down at his hand. It was still the same size. A child's hand. He continued breathing heavily as he glanced to his right where Mikey and Donny were sleeping quite peacefully beside him. Mikey had rolled up like a burrito in the grey blanket and Donny had his legs on the floor next to the mattress. The red masked turtle tot turned to his left and moved back until he felt his shell meet the rolled up blanket. His eyes were pinned to the window in fear. He wanted to get up and find his older brother but then…

He saw the shadows reaching for him. He could just see it. He would get up, take one step and then something would creep out of the shadows and snatch him up in it's very tangible, sharp claws. It would pull the tot along with it into the rest of the shadows and then he would be gone. It wasn't that he suddenly feared the dark, it was more that he feared what was in the dark.

A shuffling behind him and stout movement of his youngest brother startled him before he froze, as if he could physically feel some kind of long finger-nailed hands slowly snaking their way up his shell, right along the center.

"Hm…Nii-san," the youngest mumbled before everything fell silent again.

Raph let a breath of relief escape him as he looked back to see Mikey actually attempting to eat the blanket, as if it were cotton candy! Knowing Mikey, it was more than likely what he was dreaming about.

The, Nii-san, had been the thing to startle Raphael. They all referred to their older brother as, Aniki. So it was clear that Leo wasn't the one Mikey had called out for in his dream. The turtle tots had been amazed that there was actually more than one word to describe a family relation.

Nii-san, simply meant a standard way of saying older brother, while the term Aniki meant older brother with an edge of hero-like affection. And well- Leo was a hero. This was set and welded into the tots' minds. He always told them stories of fighting bad guys and he had saved them from that Foot ninja. The young ones had been sure that the Foot ninja that had stuffed them into the closet would've come back to finish them off if their older brother hadn't of shown up.

"Aniki," Raph mumbled and tried to gather the courage to get up and walk across the bare, wooden, floor, open the creaky door, walk down the squeaky stairs and then locate his big brother among the shadows downstairs.

When he had accomplished these things and stood at the bottom step of the staircase, he couldn't actually recall doing anything. It was if he had wished he was already at the end of the perilous journey and then he was. He found then that he didn't have to search the shadows for his older brother, Leo was in the middle of the room, moving with his swords like he had back before all of the chaos had started.

"Aniki," he whispered in a small voice.

Leo turned and for a moment, the glance his brother held made Raphael imagine that he was once again staring at the foot ninja, but then the splash of blue color and eyes of worry and guilt brought him back to reality, unaware that there were tears running down his face, leftovers from his nightmare-memory?

He was aware of Leo walking closer and scooping up before he was surrounded by arms with familiar green skin. The normally basic green skin had darkened in the shadows of the house and now it appeared to be a forest green shade. Still, it didn't matter, those arms protected him while his nightmare-er memory played over and over in his head. When Raph raised his head from where he had had it buried in Leo's shoulder, he found that a small lamp beside the couch had been turned on, giving off a dim light. There was a glint and Raph caught the gleam of the silver blades that his older brother carried, sitting on the table with the lamp.

"I was practicing katas, practicing my ninjitsu," Leo explained, "We-um I use it for self defense."

Then, Raphael recalled the image in his dream, the red masked ninja, the red sais spinning in his hands. The tot pulled back and glanced up at his older brother. He could see it. His mind mixed and matched all of it, blending the images together. The blue mask…the red mask… The swords…the sais.. Then, another shade of red came into his mind. Instead of the familiar fire red mask that clothed his own face, he saw the distant memory but this time, the red wasn't fire red, he saw crimson, bright crimson and then the image darkened, the hue losing distance from black. The crimson faded to a brownish, red rust color. The color of dried blood.

The images and memories had him burying his face in Leo's shoulder again. The blue clad turtle found that this was simply his little brother coming to him because of a nightmare. The young turtles had had many since their, reverse aging. So when Raphael pulled back, scrubbed at his eyes, jumped to the floor and turned his narrowed eyes on him, the eldest's jaw dropped in shock and surprise. The young, four-year-old turtle tot was staring at him so intently, he had to forcibly keep his eyes on his brothers.

And then a simply sentence nearly blew the blue masked leader away from the physical plane.

"I want to learn ninjitsu." Raph said so determinedly, that a fire lit in his eyes.

It was a fire that despite a fire's natural burning heat, somehow quenched a thirst in the eldest. Suddenly, he didn't feel that he was staring at the toddler before him. The eyes, though a different color now, probably a reaction to that gas or a chemical Stockman had used on them, the blue orbs held that same fire of determination Raphael had always seemed to posses.

All of the thoughts running around in his head and Leo could only blink once as his mind tried to grasp what his red masked brother had said to him.

"Please," Raph said, "You can teach me and then I can help you protect Donny and Mikey when they're in trouble and I could help you too. Like my dream, I could protect you when you're hurt."

Leo blinked in surprise at the prolific words that had constructed those two simple statements and opened his mouth to reply that, no, it wasn't necessary or fair that such a young child had to learn such a thing, when Raph spoke again.

"Please Aniki?"

"Raphael um-I-"

"Please," Raph said quietly before he drew what in this situation was the trump card, "Sensei."

The young tot's eyes began sparkling as Leo continued to stare down at him. The blue and onyx shades clashed and remained stock still. Leo couldn't turn away when he saw the amount of hope and affection pouring from the blue hues. And he couldn't…say no.

Finally, the elder turtle sighed and said, "Ok, I'll teach you."

No sooner did Leo say those words when April rushed down the stairs, a notebook, in bad shape, tucked under her arm. The excitement on her face made the blue clad turtle shoot to his feet in concern.

"Leo! I figured it out!" April said as she took deep breaths of oxygen, bending over slightly at the bottom of the staircase, "I know how to turn your brothers back!"

To Be Continued….

Well that's it for now.

See everyone later!

Review please? I'm not demanding it but may I have five reviews for this chapter? Pretty please?

~Moonsetta