As the door opened, Karai glanced up from where she was cleaning her tanto. As Zero and Bradford walked in, the Shredder stood up clearly angry.

"Well, it seems you have learned your lesson on attacking my ninjas." He boomed, surprised that Bradford didn't have to drag the wild ninja into this room. As Bradford kneeled, Zero remained standing choosing to glare up at the Shredder. Karai glared at Zero, angry for humiliating her in front of the turtles. "Although, maybe a little longer would have been just fine. Agree?" Instead of answering, Zero just changed from glaring at the Shredder to glaring at the windows behind him. Karai smirked, knowing that her Father had just played on Zero's worst fear. Once Zero had been locked in its room for close to two weeks because someone had forgotten to unlock the door in the morning. Two weeks had gone by with no food, water or light of any kind. Alone left to die in the dark, that's what Zero thought had happened to it. By the time Zero was let out, it had turned from a mild tempered ninja, too a dark angry opponent. Karai suspected that something had happen in there, but what it was she hoped to never know.

"What do you want me to do?" Zero growled, clearly remembering that time to.

"Well, you have already meet them. But those terrapins you fought earlier, are the ones you must destroy this time." Was the calm reply, used to handing out these orders. Bradford could hardly hide his surprise. How calmly the Shredder had said that, he had clearly had this ninja kill before. This is no ordinary ninja, it also must be a trained assassin.

"Very well." Was the reply before Zero had vanished, blending into the night like it was trained to.

The purple dragon crashed into the dumpster, not attempting to get up again. Raphael sighed as he realized he was out of dragons to hit. As he scurried up the fire escape, Raphael got the distinct impression he was not alone.

"Okay, I know your there. Come out and fight." He almost shouted, eager to feel adrenaline throughout his veins. When he got no response, Raphael carefully put away his Sais. As he began to jump from rooftop to rooftop, Raphael failed to notice the dark blue eyes that tracked his movement. As the silent shadow followed him, Raphael could feel his anger growing. He was positive someone was following him. Raphael whipped around, drawing his Sais as the shadow made itself known.

"Always going off on your own, one of this times your going to get hurt." Came the sneering growl of the ninja. As the ninja stepped into the light, Raphael recognized the ninja from the other night.

"Well it's not every day you get a chance to fight the foot on your own." Was Raphael's reply. The ninja unsheathed the long katana that rested across its back. Raphael felt the first flickers of fear began to stir as he saw the jagged pattern cut into the blade. As the ninja slid into a defensive position, Raphael saw the glint of metal of several weapons that the ninja used.

"What the Shredder finally trust you with weapons now?" Raphael asked hoping to anger the ninja into being rash, he had seen the anger in its eyes after he had managed to punch its jaw. Sad enough to say, that anger frightened him. True he had anger problems, but not to the point he tried to kill someone. But when the ninja didn't react, Raphael decided to fight. Charging forward, he brought both Sais up to block the katana that was flashing towards his head. As the ninja pushed its katana forward Raphael stumbled back, barley missing the swipe aimed for his head. Growling, he dashed forward to meet the ninja. As the ninja and Raphael locked weapons, he briefly wondered how he was going to get out of this one. He had no chance of winning, even with his brothers along with Fishface, Karai, and Razar pitted against it the ninja had barely lost. Raphael was brought back into reality by swift kick to his gut, sending him flying backwards. He rolled of to one side barely missing the katana aimed for shoulder. He quickly got to his feet, slipping on the wet pavement. When it had begun to rain, Raphael was unsure but that didn't matter any right now. He could worry about the weather later, right now he had to worry about staying alive. As he bolted forward, Raphael lashed out with his Sais managing to hit the ninja's sword arm. Inflicting a long gnash, that quickly began to bleed. As the ninja dropped the katana, Raphael smirk disappeared as blue blood dripped from in between the ninja's hands. He remembered how that same color had stained the ninja's cloak near its throat after Fishface bit it. Startled by this new discovery, Raphael failed to block the katana this time as he tried to dodge. His slow reaction allowed the ninja's sword to hit him. Ripping through the thin skin covering his collarbone. As he gripped his Sais tighter, Raphael glared at the ninja in front of him, not allowing himself to flinch as his wound bleed freely. Rushing forward, he caught the ninja off guard who had not expected him to recover so quickly. As the ninja stumbled backwards, Raphael barely caught the look of panic as the ninja plummeted off the rooftop. He didn't know why he did it, but Raphael found himself on his stomach grasping the ninja's hand to stop it's decent. As he looked down at the ninja at his mercy, he saw the fear and confusion in its eyes. As he pulled the ninja back up towards the rooftop, the ninja began to help by bracing its feet against the brick. By the time Raphael had managed to pull the ninja back up, they both where panting with exhaustion (you try pulling someone onto a roof after you had been fighting for your life). As they lay on the roof trying to catch their breath, Raphael once again wondered why he had just saved that ninja. As he sat up, he stared at the ninja, wondering what to do next. Should they resume their fight? They both climbed to their feet, neither daring to break eye contact.

"Um…. Thanks I guess." The ninja opposite Raphael mumbled, breaking the dead silence they had been standing in.

"Your welcome. So well know what?" Was the only reply Raphael could think of. As they both stood their in silence, the ninja decided it had had enough of standing in awkward silence.

"Um…. Kinda a stupid question…"

"I don't care, ask it already."

"Uh…. What's your name." The ninja flinched, expecting the turtle to laugh at such a stupid question.

"My name's Raphael. Yours?"

"I. Ah… Really don't have a name any more." Raphael stared at the ninja in shock. Didn't have a name!? He couldn't imagine not having a name.

"But Karai called you Zero." Raphael felt confused as the ninja before him visibly flinched as he said the name.

"That's because it stands for zero zero one zero. All ninjas are given a code, mine just happened to become my name."

"That has to be horrible."

"Ya, it is Raphael."

"Raph, only my father calls me that."

"Okay, Raph."

"Well. Um… Can I give you a name? It's weird talking to someone who knows my name, yet I don't know a name to call you."

"Sure, you can give me a name."

"Um… How about Shadow? That good with you?"

"Hmm…. Shadow. I like it."

"Okay, Shadow it is." Only then did Raphael remember his cut collarbone. Hissing, he placed his hand over the wound, only for it to come back slick with blood.

"Raph, you should go back to your family. You're bleeding a lot." Shadow stated, placing it's other hand on Raphael's uninjured shoulder.

"Okay, bye Shadow. See you around?" Raphael couldn't keep the hope out of his voice. It wasn't like he trusted this ninja, he just felt like he could relate. Relate to what? Probably Shadow's anger for Karai…

"Maybe, bye Raph." As Shadow disappeared into the shadows, Raphael realized he couldn't tell his family about Shadow. They wouldn't like him talking to a foot ninja, then he wouldn't be able to see Shadow again. As Raphael started home he resolved to keep Shadow a secret, even if he had to sneak out to see Shadow.

He didn't like the fact Raphael went

Out so often,

Something was up

And he was going to figure out what.

TBC….