Leo never did end up getting his ninjutsu demonstration when interruption after interruption kept popping up.

It started back when he went to greet his sensei and the other knights the day it was promised.

The journey back to the palace from the stables was a quick journey filled with lively chatter and made for quite a showy party of people.

The fire knight's attempts to 'wander off' were in vain as attention was constantly brought back to him coincidentally while he was scheming. ("Wha-? Me? I just saw an interesting bird over there… Don't you have any faith in me commander?")

Splinter smiled kindly at Leo once they reached their destination. "Why don't we go and retrieve their Majesties? The others can wait in the courtyard."

The knights marched off obediently as the duo split off but they didn't get very far because a servant rushed up to them, out of breath and red-faced.

"Her majesty is... giving birth...!"

Now that Leo was paying attention to it as he was being guided to his Mother's location, he could see how the palace was in disarray and on high alert with frazzled people running about left and right carrying various things from bowls of hot water to blankets and rags galore.

When he reached the epicenter of all the chaos, he was firmly told to stay outside by his sensei and not to enter. He felt an itch inside, pulling him towards the room but he fought it, convincing himself that he would just mess something up anyway.

A tired, clearly stressed maid approached him, perhaps instructed by Father to distract him from the sudden mess. She tried to lead him away many times to various places but he always ended up returning to the outside of the room like he was magnetized.

She gave up soon enough after the 14th try, simply bringing him things like a glass of warm milk to calm him down and stayed there with him to keep him company. In the times she was asked to run a quick errand like to retrieve this or that, he could feel the urge to crash into the room again, getting overwhelmed with images of the color of red or sharp metal and foreign emotions of familiarity, longing and anticipation.

He ended up staying out there for nearly a day and a half, sleeping in a nest of blankets and pillows he built for himself with some help from the maid.

The feelings of anticipation were metaphorically killing him, he tried to suppress the growing need to go, go, GO! but in the final hours he could take it anyway and shoved his way into the room.

The first thing he was greeted with was a high pitched crying. Inside was an exhausted Shen who lay on a bed covered in sweat and looking like she was half asleep. Yoshi was clutching what seemed to be a broken hand while sensei was fiddling with a roll of bandages. He wisely decided to ignore all of the blood and made a mental note to dump a bucket of brain bleach onto his head the first chance he got.

His wailing brother, future Emperor and ruler of 4 kingdoms he sang gleefully in his head as he was being filled with pride, was in the hands of the palace doctor who turned around in surprise of an unexpected guest while his brother was being cleaned.

"Leonardo," Father frowned, "I thought I told you not to come in here." He ashamedly scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. Full names never meant anything good.

A weak, hoarse voice called from the bed. "Leo baby, is that you?" He flinched at the exhaustion in the words, ignoring the strange pet name and quickly made his way to the bed, holding one of her hands.

"Will you be alright, Mother?" he asked worriedly. There was no way a human could lose so much blood and still live, right?

She tried to chuckle, key word: tried. "I'll be okay, Leo. I'll be okay."

The doctor made his way over, holding a hand on his translucent shoulder. "She's right, little Prince. Make sure to be nice later and let her sleep, okay?"

"Here, my lady," he said, gently placing a crying, sniffling but definitely calmed down baby wrapped in a red cloth into her arms. Leo wanted to reach out and poke the weird thing but quickly retracted his arm. Bad idea, very bad idea Leo.

He couldn't even interact with living things anyway, it would be pointless to try touch the baby. Food or plates? Sure! Could he feel the carpet under his feet? Yep. He could even hug people because of armour and clothes. High five someone though? Absolutely not. The best people could do was hover a hand over where his was. Father wore gloves just to be able to touch him.

"Yoshi, come look at what we made. Isn't Raphael beautiful?" she smiled, dark rings clear under her eyes. It was passed to him and then to sensei. They must noticed his dejected look because sensei held the baby out with 2 more pairs of expectant eyes matching his.

Normally, Leo didn't panic a lot but when he did, it was always very entertaining for the viewer because he had a tendency to babble. "Wha-what if I drop him? There's only a thin cloth around him! Or what if I squish him? Or I have some sort of yokai powers that awaken and I kill hi-"

Raphael was promptly shoved into his arms. It did not help.

"Ahhhhh! Sensei, what do I do, what do I do? This is how you held him right? Mother, you take him!" he eventually spit out, clutching tightly onto him and trying to do nearly all but throwing it back to his mother with a burning red face. Stupid me emulating humans, he thought.

It was then that he realized that both the mother and her baby had managed to fall asleep during the commotion.

"O-oh...Sorry mother.." he whispered quietly.

It took a little coaxing from Father to realize he was still holding onto the baby Raphael and a little more to surrender it to the doctor gently pushing the out the door.

"Her majesty needs all of the rest she can get. Try not to come in until she wakes up again."

Nothing strange there, but it was the next line he overheard Father casually say that froze his (nonexistent) blood.

"Thank you, Doctor Bishop. Be sure to inform me on any new updates once I return."

Something about the name Bishop made him want to leap back in there, wrench his brother away and escape.

Taking the more logical route, he thanked the Doctor too and exited the room.

Now came the second problem. The "once I return" thing sounded far too final and like Father was intending to march off to war. The fact that the knight captain of Water was waiting for them outside wasn't helping at all.

"Father?" he asked, turning a questioning gaze to him.

"I'm sorry, Leo. I've been called out to the Winter Kingdom. Make sure to look after your mother and brother while I'm out," was all he said before he headed out the hallway.

What?!

"Prince," another voice called, bringing his attention to the knight left behind.

"They are having a few problems at the moment," They are on the brink of a civil war, "And they need His Majesty to guide them," They need Father to try calm things down, "But don't you worry your cute little head about it because I'll make sure nothing happens," And he is going to double as a part ambassador and a bodyguard, "I'll bring you back a gift," so don't panic.

That's what Leo got, trying to translate his diplomatic speech to regular people talk.

It was hard work and it won't stop his panicking but he appreciated the effort so he put on a smile and a quick "Be careful" before the knight teleported away in a flash of water.

Showoff.

No, he wasn't smiling stupidly at the show. What are you talking about?

Fortunately, the Emperor was able to stop the snowballing disaster from destabilizing the whole Winter Kingdom, but it escalated far enough that almost an entire clan of nomadic people were killed off and the rest dispersed and went into hiding.

It took a whole year to solve, and by the end of it, many had died and Queen Miwa had an emergency marriage to a minor noble Lord Oroku Saki and had Princess Karai to ensure an heiress to the kingdom.

It was rushed, tiring and stressful, leading to a rapidly working illness that took course over 3 years.

During that time, Prince Donatello was born, joining the growing family.

Eventually, Empress Shen came to expect a third child Michelangelo, but Queen Miwa's sudden death interrupted near the end.

With the heiress too young to rule and no other candidate to rule in her place, Shen has to take over temporarily for the next 14 years even as she is expecting birth at any day.

Which leads us to now, the day she was supposed to leave for the Winter Kingdom.

Omake: Raphie's First Word

"Come on, Raph. Say Leo. Le-o. Leeeee-ooooohhh."

Leo was in the Royal nursery, sitting cross-legged from a very grumpy brother.

"Lee-oh. Come on Raaphie, Le-o."

He seemed to get into an even more ill-mood every time he said Raphie. Strange. Eh.

"How about bro? Bro works. Come on, broooo. It's really easy!"

Leo was frowning and very frustrated. He was going to have to do this to his other future sibling too?

"Lee-o"

Raph was feeling glee by siphoning off of his bad emotions, he swore.

"Lee-oh. Broo. Erhm, what about…. ninjutsu? Knights? Ninja?"

He could feel a disapproving glare drilling holes into his head, it was practically thick and strong enough to use as a whip.

"How about Raphie the cutie!"

He gave up to dive in and pull on the kid's cheeks. He ignored the deepening glare aiming to kill him.

A knock came at the door.

"Prince! It's time for dinner."

"Okay!"

He scooped up his baby brother to head to the dining hall.

"Pri-n-chee!"

Leo was about to respond with "What?" until he realized it was a high-pitched voice that said it and not a low adult voice.

"..."

Raph just stared at Leo expectantly, waiting and wondering if he broke his brother.

"Pri?"

Leo was completely still and slack-jawed.

"..."

He suddenly whooped with glee and started swinging his brother around, getting strange stares from servants passing by.

Leo did eventually let his brother down, much to the green-faced regretful Raph's joy, but he never stopped smiling and and giggling like he was soaring high on a kite.

Raph didn't forget this incident and didn't want to be held by his older brother for weeks.

AN: My apologies for not writing more but I really wanted the beginning chapters to be separate from when the plot really starts to kick in.

When I wrote the omake, I intended it to be in the chapter somewhere but I couldn't incorporate it anywhere without breaking the flow so I thought I tack it on to the end and hope for the best. It may or may not also serve as part of the apology for the drastically shorter chapter than I expected ^_^'.

What did you think of it? Did I make any mistakes? Should I do more? If you have any ideas for more omakes, I'd love to hear them!

Thank you for reading!