Splinter stood quietly in the dojo watching as his sons filed in. To his surprise, Donatello was first to arrive and if Splinter wasn't mistaken, his son had quite the pleased expression on his face.

The sensei had been up since before dawn, anticipating any sort of calamity that may start the day. He was not expecting a smooth twenty four hours. If anything he was expecting utter chaos. The difference being that this chaos was, in part, his creation. He could sit back and enjoy it as long as they weren't trying to kill each other. However, the fact that they had all risen without any sort of trouble, was giving him a new hope for the rest of the exercise.

Donatello, seeing that he was the first to arrive, decided that perhaps this would be a good time to bring up something that he considered to be a very unfair part of this whole thing. He approached Splinter, and bowed.

"Good morning, Master," he greeted. No doubt, he was both more cheerful and more respectful than Raphael would have been under the circumstances. Donatello saw no reason to get Splinter upset first thing in the morning and Splinter was always more reasonable to one who was reasonable in return. The extra chores were surely an oversight on his sensei's part. This would be easy to fix.

Splinter returned the bow. "Good morning, My Son. Did you sleep well?"

"Aside from a particularly disturbing dream, yes I did." Don chose not to dwell on the nightmare that had plagued him so much. "I wanted to talk to you, about…Raphael's list."

Splinter nodded sitting down on the floor and motioning for Don to do likewise. He wondered if his son would protest the punishment chores or just deal with it as is, but the ninja master feigned ignorance. "Yes, something bothers you about it?"

Don nodded taking a seat across from his sensei. "I noticed that Raphael had…quite a bit of chores to do today. More so than usual."

"Yes. Chores to keep him occupied. As well as to keep him around the lair for awhile. His sneaking out had gotten quite out of hand as of late." Splinter folded his hands in his lap and waited. He could tell his son was confused.

"But, Sensei," Donatello began hesitantly. "I didn't do it." He tried to keep the whine from his voice which wouldn't be a Raph OR a Don thing to do.

"I know this, Donatello. As I said, it was Raphael." Splinter was enjoying this a bit too much. He was going to force his son to speak up and not to hint around it. Donatello, too often, let things lie. He controlled his temper to the point that his brothers could often take advantage of him, as Raphael was trying to do with the chores. Having sensed a lesson to be taught, Splinter allowed Raphael to include them on his list. It would be up to Donatello to not only see the unfairness, but to do something about it.

Don blinked in surprise. "So, you knew Raphael had them on his list of things for me to do?"

Splinter considered the question, carefully. He wanted to give his son an honest answer to his question, but without giving him the solution. This was Donatello's lesson to be learned, not his. "Yes, I knew that Raphael had included them. They were something that Raphael had to accomplish for the day, so they fit into the exercise."

Don was taken aback. He wanted to emphasize the "I didn't DO it" sentence again, but he had said that once already and had come dangerously close to whining. If he said it again, he knew there would be even more of it in his voice. Not sure what else to say, Don nodded. "Ok, uh…just checking. I guess." He started to get to his feet.

Sighing inwardly, Splinter decided to throw his son a hint. Call him an old softy. "Although I am not sure that Raphael would have done them all today. He can be quite stubborn about such things. Sometimes it takes many days of chores for him to learn his lesson."

Don studied Splinter for a moment and than filed that particular statement away for future contemplation. He heard the sounds of his brothers coming to the dojo.

He bowed again, a shorter more abbreviated bow; a Raphael-type bow. "Thank you, Sensei."

Michelangelo was the next to enter the dojo and he at once approached his sensei with a respectful bow. "Good morning, Oh wise and wonderful Sensei. Your perfect student is ready to be…uh…perfect today."

Don rolled his eyes and muttered just loud enough for Mike to hear. "Come on Mike, even Leo isn't that obvious." He walked away before the blatant brown nosing made him nauseous.

Splinter pretended to not hear Don's muttering and returned Mike's bow. "Good morning, Michelangelo. It is good to see you so enthusiastic today."

Mike grinned. "I gotta feeling, it's gonna be a great day."

He had gotten over his near heart attack courtesy of Leo and had already put into motion a small payback for the prank. It wasn't a return prank, of course. The temporaryleader of the turtles would never dare pull a prank on his siblings. He was much too serious for that. He hadjust waited until Leonardo had gone into the bathroom to get ready and then locked the door from the outside.

Mike reasoned to himself that it was not a prank. Many times, Leonardolocked them in places just to see if their skills were sharp enough for them to escape. It was just up to Leo to pick the lock soon enough before he was late for practice.

Mike turned to go warm up and didn't hear the surprised intake of breath from his sensei as he read the sign posted to his son's shell. He also didn't notice that at that very moment, Don was trying very hard to hide his smile.

Splinter sighed inwardly wondering who was responsible. He glanced up and caught sight of Donatello's small smirk and didn't have to wonder for long. Perhaps his son was already beginning to understand the lessons he was supposed to be learning. Splinter wasn't too thrilled with the crudeness of the subtle rebellion and he would make certain Don helped his brother to remove the graffiti. However, he had to secretly admire the creativity.

Putting the bold red statement to the back of his mind, Splinter watched as Raphael walked into the room. Like his brothers, he approached his master and bowed.

"Morning, Master," he said suppressing a yawn.

Splinter smiled, returning the gesture. "Good morning, Raphael. You did not sleep well?"

What was your first clue, Raphael thought bitterly, but he just shook his head. "M'fine. Just not used to sleepin' in a bed, I guess." In Frankenstein's lab.

His sensei nodded. "I see. Perhaps you can rest later."

Raph shrugged and walked over to where his brothers were stretching. Mike smiled at him. "Hey Raph, I keep getting static on my radio again. How bout fixin it after breakfast?"

Raphael just glared at Mike who didn't for one second lose his smile. "I mean, last time, it was just a loose wire. You can do that, right? Fix a little loose wire?"

"Why don't you just do it then?" Raphael was hard pressed to keep his tone of voice civil, but he was managing. He didn't even look to see how much enjoyment Donnie was getting out of all this.

"Well I would of course," Mike said nodding. "But, I'm pretty busy doing important leader stuff today and since you're Mr. Fix-It, I just thought…but if you're afraid or something I can get…"

Even though there was nothing mocking or patronizing about Mike's tone, Raph stiffened. "I am not afraid. I'll fix the damn wire after breakfast."

Mike grinned. "Thanks, Bro." He fell silent as the master clapped his hands twice. They all lined up in front of Splinter, but had arranged themselves so they were in each other's spots.

Splinter glanced up at his sons and frowned. "It is time to get started. Where is Leonardo?"

Mike looked surprised. "He's awake, Master." He smiled looking pleased with himself. "I made sure he got up and I saw him go into the bathroom."

Meanwhile...Leonardo was silently cursing as he tried to use a pair of nail clippers to pop the lock. He was going to be late for practice for the first time since he could remember. Even if he knew for certain that Mike was behind this, he couldn't point the finger at him. He couldn't admit that it had taken so long to get free from a locked door. He wondered how much trouble he would get into if just kicked the damn door down.

Back in the dojo, Splinter sighed and shook his head. He regarded his sons. "We will begin without..."

CRASH!

All four ninja jumped at the sound and they ran as fast as they could to find the source. Leonardo was standing just inside the bathroom, the door on the ground at his feet. He looked quite surprised to see it there.

"Great," Raph said. "Something ELSE for me to fix."