animegamefanatic: Leo sure did, my friend! And sure it is curious why Splinter didn't scold everybody else for participating of making fun of Leo's misfortune, especially if we take a note to the fact that the rats have much better and sensitive hearing than what the humans have.
- And yes. The idea for the turtles' family name came originally from Leo's narrative line "The Ninja Tribunal calls me Leonardo Splinterson." in the Season 5's Lost Episode 'More Worlds Than One'. And whether I decide to mutate Jennika just like in the comics or not, that remains to be seen.
= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE SHREDDER STRIKES PART 3 =
Leo headed back to the same spot where he had received Saki's note last night, because there would be a shorter cut back to the Lair. And once the turtle in blue had reached there, he decided to stop to examine the Katana he had received from Saki.
The turtle in blue admired the sword's finely made craft.
"Man. Master Toshi Kurahawa knew indeed how to perpetuate his skills. This sword is really beautiful." Leo said to himself, as he eyed the sword's craft.
Suddenly, much to Leo's surprise...
"Oh Leonardo... You have some splainin' to do!" Mikey, having appeared out of nowhere in front of Leo, said teasingly with Cuban accent while folding his arms and tapping his foot.
The rest of the turtles, having got there a long before Leo did, emerged out from the shadows to surround and confront their brother. Each one of them was having the questioning and even a disapproval look on their faces.
""Nothing's bothering you," eh?" Mary started, reminding Leo about his own words earlier today with the lecturing tone. "And yet you had a secret meeting with that strange man and you didn't tell us anything about it."
"It ain't nice to keep secrets from your own family, you know?" Arcee remarked.
"So you better start talking, bro. What was this all about?" Dom demanded.
Leo, as the turtles expected, instantly denied all of this. "I do not know what you guys are talking about."
However, the turtles didn't buy Leo's excuse and denial.
"Don't lie to us, Leo! You're not gonna get away from this one with a lame excuses." Mary snapped sharply.
"Yeah, bro! We already saw everything and heard everything between of you and that white-dressed man! Or... at least Mary was the one here who actually heard everything." Louie said, pointing at Mary with his thump.
"Everything from your little show off with those fourteen ninjas back there..." Dom added.
"Including you behading one in the end. Yuck!" Arcee added, sticking out her tongue in disgust when she thought about it.
"...till the end of your meeting with that white-dressed guy." Dom finished.
"So, the excuses are futile, Mr. Leonardo." Mikey added with the dramatic tone, only to have a slap on top of his head from Raph, who walked past him.
"OW! Hey!" Mikey complained.
Leo's eyes snapped wide upon of realization. "Wait a sec! You guys were following me?! You guys we're spying on us?!"
"And there it came." Arcee said with the smirk.
"Of course we did, Leo. From that building's skylight and from the air duct above of that Dōjō." Dom replied to the turtle in blue, folding his arms.
"Your... as Mikey would call it... strange un-Leonardo-like behavior throughout the day and storming out of the Lair after your outburst in Raph's style triggered our curiosity. So, we decided to follow you secretly and find out what was going on with you." Donnie revealed, with his arms placed on his hips.
"And even now you're holding the evidence of your secret in your hands." Mary remarked, pointing at the sword in Leo's hands.
"Yeah! Nice letter-opener you got. Is that the prize of backstabbing and selling out these days?" Raph questioned accusingly, believing that Leo had received that finely crafted Katana as the reward for selling out his own family to those ninjas.
Hastily, Leo denied this.
"It's not what you think, Raph. I was invited to..." Leo tried to explain, until Raph interrupted him.
"...TO JOIN UP WITH THEM?!" Raph questioned with furious tone.
"NO! NO! NO!" Leo swore, shaking his hand in denial, until he finally admitted it. "I mean... well... yes. But it's different than what we've thought these past few months. They're not the enemy. At least I don't think they are. Everything what Master Saki told me..."
At the mention of "Master Saki", Leo's explanation was quickly cut short when Raph took a quite fast and threatening step towards Leo.
""MASTER SAKI?!" WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?!" Raph angrily demanded, causing Leo to take a step away from his hot-headed brother and lift up his free arm to shield himself from Raph's wrath.
"Did you just call this white-dressed man a "master" now, as if you don't even have one?!" Dom questioned.
"I thought we already had a master. Master Splinter." Donnie reminded the turtle in blue.
"Do you still remember him, Leo? He is our Sensei, our beloved father..." Arcee started, until Mikey continued for his sister.
"A really hairy mutant rat. About 5ft." the turtle in orange said as he held his hand out in the level of his chest to show Master Splinter's height.
"Your actions are starting to make us believe that you're going to trade one master for another, aren't you?" Louie demanded to know.
"Yeah! Are you doing this as a small payback for what Master Splinter said about your Katanas yesterday?" Mary questioned.
"You can't do that, bro! You can't just ditch him because someone else tells you to do that." Arcee exclaimed in disbelief of Leo's supposed motives.
Leo instantly denied all of this.
"I'm not talking about ditching anybody, and I definitely didn't said anything about trading one master for another nor about the payback." Leo said defensively, turning around to look at the city, while holding the Katana in front of him with his both hands.
"What are you talking about then?! What is this all about?!" Mary demanded, as she moved next to Leo to face him, though Leo refused to make an eye contact with his sister.
"This is all for the greater good. For the great purpose. I'm only talking about working with another group of ninjas, to fight alongside them against evil that is lurking out there." Leo explained to his brothers and sisters with the firm belief of what Saki had told him back in his Dōjō.
""Evil that is lurking there?"" Donnie said in disbelief.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I did hear back there, Leo." Mary remarked.
"And did this "Master Saki" told you that what, who and where is this so-called evil?" Dom questioned, not buying anything they heard from Saki through of Leo.
"Uh... Well... no. He didn't." Leo replied. "But that's not the point. The point is that the evil is lurking out there, waiting for the moment to consume all the world. And someone needs to stop that from happening."
Leo then turned back to his siblings, especially to Arcee.
"Arcee? You've always wanted to help everyone. To save lives. You've always despised the evil, corruption and injustice hidden in the world and all of those people who always want to bring evil and suffering upon the innocent people who don't deserve it. You have always wanted to do something for the innocent and those in need of help. As you have said yourself that "all the life is precious" and that "evil always gets what it deserves. And you, Mikey. Just like Arcee, you're always talking about how we should be doing something good. To fight for what's right. To serve a greater purpose. Well, here's the chance to serve the greater purpose." Leo explained, trying to tell his little brother and little sister, who have always wanted us to do something good for justice and for the world, that why joining with Saki would be a good idea.
"So what do you two say? Wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to finally do what you've always wanted to do?" the turtle in blue added.
However, Both Mikey and Arcee were instantly skeptical about this.
"Uh... Yeah. We know that, but... I don't know, Leo." Mikey replied while scratching his head, not convinced by this whole thing at all.
"I don't know either, Leo. Because the mere thought of joining those ninjas feels like a disgrace to the way how I'd like to do good for the world." Arcee replied, indirectly telling that she was very reluctant to have anything to do with the ninjas and their "honorable" ways to bring good to the world.
"And let's not forget how they've been trying to kill us during these last few months. Therefore, I think it would be better if we had nothing to do with them." Dom added strictly.
It was then when Raph had had enough of this and stepped towards Leo.
"What's this thing got, Some sort of mind-control device in it?! Because you've definitely lost your mind, Leo!" the turtle in red said angrily, before he rudely snatched the sword out of Leo's hand. "Give me that! I'll confiscate it until you're back to your senses."
That move caused Leo to lose his cool, as the turtle in blue felt instantly very offended that Raph had dared to touch Toshi Kurahawa's masterpiece and took the challenging step towards his brother.
"Hey! Gi-give it back, Raph!" Leo demanded, grabbing from Raph's shell.
However, Raph turned around and strongly pushed Leo away from him.
"And why should I, because you can always go back to beg your new pals to give you another one?!" Raph angrily said back.
"Uh, oh." Arcee gulped, sensing that the fight was at this point inevitable.
And she was proved right.
That was the last drop for Leo. Growling angrily, the turtle in blue blindly lunged on his brother, knocking him off his feet and pinning him on his shell-back to the ground. The turtles in red and blue started violently wrestle with each other over the possession of the sword.
"GIVE IT BACK!" Leo demanded, trying to get the sword back.
"NO FREAKING WAY!" Raph shot back, trying to keep Leo away from the sword... for his own sake, what he of course wouldn't admit.
The rest of the turtles stayed out and watched as their brothers fought fiercely over the sword, sending punched on one another.
"Oh, great!" Mary facepalmed in annoyance towards both of his brothers.
"Here we go again." Arcee sighed, shaking her head in annoyance.
"Geez, a fight between Leo and Raph?!" Mikey questioned.
"Oh, I didn't see that coming." Donnie said sarcastically, slapping himself in the face.
"Well, I did, because the arguments between of those two knuckleheads always ends up like this." Louie remarked.
Leo managed to grab the sword and tried to pull it out of Raf's hands, but Raph managed to hold from it firmly with even one hand before grabbing it with the other hand, turning the fight into a fierce tug-of-war. Both turtles tried to rip the sword out of each other's hands, kicking and kneeing each other relentlessly to force one of them to let go from the sword. Despite countless hard and painful kicks, however, Raph and Leo stubbornly withstood the pain and continued their struggle, neither of whom wanted to give up.
Raph then kicked Leo in the chest, forcing the turtle in blue on his feet, pulling Raph up with him as they kept pulling the sword back and forth. However, in the scent of the fight, neither of the brothers noticed that they were going dangerously close to the edge of the roof.
Knowing that one wrong move could send either one of them or in worse case both of them over the edge, Dom decided that enough was enough, and the turtle in white rushed between of Leo and Raph in an attempt to force both of his brothers off and away from each other.
"STOP THAT! STOP THAT AT ONCE! GUYS! STOP FIGHTING LIKE CRANKY LITTLE BRATS! KNOCK IT OFF, BOTH OF YOU! I SAID: KNOCK IT OFF!" Dom shouted, though his shouts fell to the defa ears and his attempts to pull his brothers away from each other were futile.
Raph then kicked Leo in the chest again, causing him to step back till he accidentally got tripped to his own feet, fell over and got pinned down to the roof by Raph. Suddenly, out of instincts, Leo sent a strong kick with both of his feet upwards into Raph's chest, that it got Raph to let go off the sword. However, with his kick, Leo ended up inadvertently sending Raph flying towards the edge of the roof. Unfortunately, Dom had happened to move between of his brothers and the edge of the roof. So when Leo kicked Raph off him, the turtle in red flew into Dom and knocked him over the edge of the rooftop too, sending them both falling down to the street below.
"WHOA!" Raph yelled as he started falling down.
"OH, SHEEEEEEEELL!" Dom yelled as he fell down as well.
When Leo jumped back to his feet, the turtle in blue's eyes widened when he realized what he had just done, much to his horror.
"Raph! Dom! NO! RAPH! DOM!" Leo cried in horror and fear for his brothers, as he threw the sword aside and rushed to the edge of the rooftop, along with equally shocked Donnie, Mary, Louie, Mikey and Arcee.
As the turtles looked down, they almost expected seeing their brothers' bloodied and broken bodies lying on the streets, lifeless.
However, once they looked down, the turtles saw their hot-headed brother hanging on by one of his Sai, which the turtle in red had struck deep into the wall beneath of the edge of the rooftop, thus cutting his falling short. With his free hand, Raph had managed to grab from Dom's wrist, preventing his brother from falling all the way down to his death.
Though the turtles above of them let out the relieved sigh, Raph burst into a mocking laughter.
"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAA! And you thought your Katana were the best ninja weapons." Raph said tauntingly.
"Louie? Now your Manriki-gusari would come in handy!" Dom cried to the turtle in black.
"Aaaah! So now you're gonna apologize from my babies for what you said about them yesterday?" Louie teased with the smirk as he took one of his Manriki-gusari from his belt, making Dom to shoot daggers at his brother in annoyance.
"Just throw him your chain, will ya?" Donnie said impatiently to Louie.
"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! Geez! No one has any sense of humor at all!" Louie snorted and rolled his eyes, frustrated.
The turtle in black then threw one end of his Manriki-gusari down for Dom. After the chain fell next to Dom, Louie gave another end of his chain to Donnie, Mikey and Mary, who grabbed all together from the chain to secure it, so that both Raph and Dom could climb back to rooftop without difficulties.
Louie then looked over the edge and down at his brothers. "Alright, bros! Climb up!"
No needing to be asked twice, Dom reached out his free hand towards Louie's chain and grabbed on it. With the firm grip on it, Dom placed his feet against the wall before he let go from Raph's wrist and grabbed on the chain with both hands. And as the turtle in white started to climb along it back to the rooftop, taking the support from the wall with his feet, Raph reached out his hand and grabbed on the chain with his now free hand. Then he took the support from the wall with his feet and started to climb up after his brother, but not before he had pulled his Sai out of the wall and put it back in its holder.
Once reaching to the edge of the roof, Arcee and regretful Leo helped their brothers to get back to the rooftop.
Once Dom got back to the rooftop, the turtle in white instantly turned to Leo.
"Leo?! What you were thinking?! Do you have any idea what you almost did?!" Dom shouted to his older brother in disbelief.
"I-I don't know what just got into me, Dom. I-I didn't meant to send you and Raph off the rooftop like that!" Leo said regretfully.
"Well, I'm glad you're finally back to your old self, bro." Raph joked, as he was helped to the rooftop by Mikey and Arcee.
Leo lowered his head down in both disbelief of himself and shame for what he had done.
"I'm such an idiot." the turtle in blue admitted. "You two could have been really hurt, or even worse, got killed."
Raph couldn't agree more with his brother, though his attitude towards Leo turned into calmer and comforting
"Shell yeah, you're right. You really are an idiot, and I don't hurt that easily, sword-boy." Raph said jokingly, slapping playfully his brother to the shoulder.
Mary then turned to Leo, speaking with a calmer and less accusing tone than a moment ago.
"Leo... there's definitely something wrong in this Saki-guy. I'll admit that his offer was indeed a tempting one, even I had a similar temptation a moment ago, but I dare to doubt his so-called benevolent motives." Mary told Leo.
"Besides, we do not know almost anything of these ninjas, let alone whether they are what they claim to be or not." Donnie remarked.
"I agree with Mary and Donnie about the latter. These guys might turn out to be a bunch of bad people who would give you nothing but a bad influence, that would go against everything we have been taught." Louie added.
"Like Master Splinter once said: "Ignorance of strangers can be an even more deceptive enemy"." Arcee remarked.
"And I assume you saw it yourself a moment ago. Your apparent temptation for that man's offer and your unprecedented obsession for that sword did almost split us apart and make both you and us to view each others as an enemies rather than family." Dom added.
While listening his brothers and sisters, Leo couldn't help but smile to his family appreciatively for advising him not to make a decision he might possibly regret later. However, Leo couldn't help but feel inside his shell his a strong desire to know what he had got himself into before the final decision.
"So, what are we going to do, Leo?" Donnie questioned, as he picked up the sword and returned it back to Leo.
Leo's answer was simple yet determined.
"What I should've done in the first place after receiving that note... talk to Master Splinter."
The turtles, however, were unaware that they have been watched from afar during of this whole scene. Jennika, this time wearing her ninja mask on her face, was monitoring them from the shadows behind of the opposite building's chimney. She was at least pleased that the other turtles were not so easily swayed by Saki's offer and that they tried to make their brother to back down from it, but she knew that this would not yet satisfy the Council members. All she needed was Leon's answer to Saki's offer, either positive or negative.
However, the name she overheard Leonardo mentioning stirred something in her mind.
"Splinter?" she repeated the name, interested, while rubbing her chin with her finger. "Where have I heard that name before?"
###
Back in the lair, Master Splinter was meditating in the Lair's Dōjō, until he was interrupted when the turtles approached him.
"Master Splinter? We need to talk." Leo started, standing in front of his brothers and sisters.
Opening his eyes, Splinter got up to his feet and turned with the warm smile to his sons and daughters.
"Yes, my son? What it is you want to discuss about?" Splinter asked calmly.
Once standing before their master, The turtles lined up in two lines of four turtles before they sat down into Agura positions. Mary, Mikey and Dom were sitting in the first line, while Raph, Louie, Arcee and Donnie were sitting in the second line behind the first line. Leo was the only one who remained on his feet for a moment.
"It's something very important, Sensei. And this is related to it as well." Leo said, before he pulled out the sword Saki gave to him and showed it to his father.
Splinter let out the shocked gasp and the old rat master's eyes went wide when he saw the finely crafted sword - including its awfully familiar looking guard - in its black scabbard, as if he had seen the sword once before and had recognized it immediately. Master Splinter then lifted his head up and turned to look at Leonardo with a stern look in his eyes.
"Leonardo... Where did you get this sword?!" the old rat master demanded to know.
"It was given to me, Sensei. Given to me by the man called Oroku Saki. He invited me to a meeting yesterday by note, and I did pay a visit at his Dōjō a moment ago. And I... uh... I didn't tell you or my brothers and sisters anything about the whole thing." Leo humbly confessed.
Master Splinter was even further shocked... and now even angry... of such of revelation. Especially when Leo mentioned the name "Oroku Saki."
"Leonardo, what have you done, my son?!" Master Splinter demanded, fearing that his own son may have spilled out their Lair's location thus endangering their family's safety.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, Sensei! It's not what you think." Leo defended as if he somehow sensed what Master Splinter was thinking of, before the turtle in blue continued to explain himself further. "I told him nothing about our family, you or the location of our home and he didn't question me about them. He just wanted to explain that the previous hostile encounters with his ninjas have been all but a misunderstandings. He told me that he was at war with the organization of evil and corruption, which is devoted to obtaining power through crime, political manipulation and corruption on a global level. He told me that he is doing what he, his predecessors and ancestors are destined to do: To fight against this great evil force. He also told me that he wishes me, or us, to join our forces with him to fight against this evil, so that we can serve the great purpose together."
Then, Leo knelt before his master, and with the deep respectful bow, the turtle in blue held out the sword towards Splinter.
Splinter, who had listened Leo's explanation from the beginning, eyed the sword that Leo was offering to him uneasily, and he was extremely reluctant to even touch it.
"Leonardo..." Splinter attempted to say, but Leo spoke over his words.
"And now, Sensei, I'm lost. I'm confused. I don't know what to do now. I want to serve the great purpose and do a lot of good, but my brothers and sisters said that I should not accept Saki's offer and not to trust him, because they do not trust him and pointed out that we do not know anything about him or the ninjas under his service. They are afraid that I might make a wrong decision and thus end up to be part of the people with a bad influence. Now I need your guidance more than ever, Master Splinter, so that I can make a right decision." Leo said, lifting up his head to look at his Sensei right into the eyes.
Seeing (and sensing) that Leo was indeed in conflict between of the decisions, Master Splinter's anger and disappointment in his son started to slowly fade away from his face and be replaced by the look of sorrow and compassion.
"So, Sensei, I know you know more about these people and this Oroku Saki than what we do, so I request you to fill our own knowledge." Leo pleaded. "Please, father. No more secrets. We need to know. I need to know. I need to know what I have got myself into, so that I can make the right decision."
Master Splinter felt still reluctant to take the sword, but Leo's pleads and his remark about the importance of his request were sincere and somewhat sufficient to convince the old rat master to finally accept his son's offer.
Though still hesitating, Splinter held out his hands and gently took Katana from Leo's hands and put the sword to rest on his lap. And after Splinter had taken the sword from him, Leo stood up and withdrew between of Mary and Mikey before he sat down into Agura position as well.
The turtles then remained silent while waiting for their master's response patiently, giving Splinter all the time he needed.
Master Splinter eyed the Katana in his hands for some time in silence, while thinking hard what he should say to his children and whether this was the right time to reveal some of the things he has kept from them in the dark for the last fifteen years or not.
In fact, Splinter had hoped that this moment could have waited a few more years, or maybe even longer or forever, before it was time to reveal certain things. However, everything had happened too quickly under his nose.
Splinter eventually let out a saddened sigh, knowing that his sons and daughters knew too much now and that it was pointless to keep things secret from them anymore.
The saddened rat master then turned his attention away from the sword and into his sons and daughters.
"My sons, my daughters... From deep down of my heart, I had hoped this day would never come. I know who these people are. I have always known." Splinter explained with the heavy heart, before the old rat master took out the torn piece of black cloth with the blood-red three-toed symbol, which Mikey had took from one of the ninjas back in their encounter in the museum some weeks ago.
"Do you remember this symbol?" Splinter asked as he showed the three-toed symbol in the piece of cloth to his sons and daughters. "This three-toed footprint of the dragon represents one of the oldest and most feared ninja clans of the world: the Foot Clan. Their leader is Oroku Saki."
Splinter's faces then hardened into a grim look and his tone of voice turned into a venomous and disdainful.
"But he is also known by another name. He is... The Shredder!"
After hearing the name "Shredder" for the first time in their lives, the youngest turtles of the family began to feel shivers running down their spines, as if they had been struck with an invisible knife. Even though they've never met this Shredder-guy face to face before, save for Leo, the turtles immediately realized that this guy with such an ominous name was a guy that no one wanted to run into alone in the dark alley.
And the dark look in their master's eyes, as well as his hardened expression and the venom in his voice at the mention of that very name made the turtles to put two and two together, as it started to dawn on them that maybe Oroku Saki may have something to do with them in the past... or at least with Splinter.
Splinter then softened his voice, but he kept his grim expression on his faces.
"I have often told you of my beloved late master, Hamato Yoshi. But now it is time that I tell you the whole truth." Splinter said, before he started to tell to the turtles another story of his late master, Hamato Yoshi.
Beginning of the Flashback
Splinter: "As you already know, my master was a ninja of great power. One of the greatest practitioners of Ninjutsu in many centuries. I was at that time his pet rat, and I learned Ninjutsu first by observing and later by mimicking his moves from my cage."
Fifteen years ago: In a small Japanese-styled apartment, a brown-haired, tall, slender and handsome man named Hamato Yoshi was practicing his Ninjutsu-skills in his apartment-sized Dōjō, executing straight punches with both of his hands alternately, and between of the rounds of punches, he performed several roundhouse-kicks. Next to his Dōjō was standing a cage, where Yoshi's pet rat Splinter (pre-mutation) was mimicking his master's moves, thus learning Ninjutsu.
Splinter: "For years, I was happy. We were a family."
However, after performing a spinning roundhouse-kick, Master Yoshi's practice was interrupted when his apartment's door was suddenly and forcefully breached and a large number of armed Foot Ninja, led by Tatsu (pre-scarred), rushed into his apartment to confront Master Yoshi. More ninjas crashed through of his appartment's windows.
Splinter: "But that life ended tragically one night when Shredder sent his Foot ninjas, including his second-in-command Tatsu to attack my master at his home."
"FOOT NINJA! ATTACK! SEIZE HAMATO YOSHI!" Tatsu ordered the ninjas with him, stretching out his hand towards Hamato Yoshi, signaling the ninjas to attack.
Two ninjas charged at Yoshi first, but the ninja master leaped up and flipped over the charging ninjas heads while snatching the sword from one of the ninja's scabbards tied in his back. After landing on his feet behind the ninjas, Yoshi turned back to them as their backs were still turned on him and swung his borrowed Katana at them, slashing them fatally in the backs.
"AGH!" the ninjas cried in agony as they fell onto the floor.
Yoshi then turned back to the main group of the Foot Ninjas as two next ninjas replaced the first two. Third ninja then leaped at Yoshi and attempted to send a kick on him, but the ninja master dodged the ninja's kick before he pushed him hard away.
Another ninja with Katana and Tanto attempted to attack Yoshi from behind, but Yoshi spun around and blocked with his left wrist the ninja's attempt to stab his Tanto in his back. Ninja then raised his sword and tried to bring it down on Yoshi, but Yoshi swung his own hard upwards, knocking his enemy's blade away, before Yoshi grabbed to his own with both hands and slashed the ninja's throat, killing him.
Yoshi was then attacked by four ninjas all at the same time. The ninja master, glaring angrily at the ninjas, prepared himself by raising his Katana up, holding it over his head while pointing with it forward and held out his right arm forward with his palm open. The ninjas then attacked Yoshi, spreading out and tried to surround him to so that they could attack from all directions and overpower him with the sheer numbers.
First ninja attempted to attack Yoshi from behind and bring his Katana down on him for the killing blow. However, Yoshi countered this attack by tossing his sword from his left hand to his right before turning swiftly around and swinging his Katana in horizontal arc towards the attacking ninja's incoming sword. Yoshi's blade's impact against the Foot ninja's own Katana's blade and the force together knocked the sword out of the ninja's hands and sent it flying and spinning sideways into his apartment's wall. Such of counter-attack had left the ninja surprised, but he instantly backed off when Yoshi drew his Katana forward and straight at his faces with the speed that left the ninja with no time to counter nor dodge it, but the ninja master managed to skillfully halt his attack a mere seconds before the blade could hit its mark, leaving its tip a mere inces away from the ninja's faces. Such of move caused the ninja to stumble hastily backwards till he tripped to Yoshi's Japanese table and fell over to its other side.
Yoshi was then attacked by the three ninjas at the same time and they all slashed their swords alternately at the ninja master. However, Yoshi proved to be very skillful in the sword fight even with the one Katana... even when it was three on one. Yoshi waved his Katana quickly and alternately in every three directions to block the ninjas' own blows from at different level of heights, without even breaking the sweat.
Eventually, Yoshi broke their swords by slicing them in half with one hard slash, leaving the ninjas unarmed. Yoshi quickly counter-attacked by lunging at one ninja and kneeing him hard enough to force the air out of his lungs. The ninja gasped as Yoshi's knee hit him in the chest, and was about to bent over and fall over to the floor, moaning in pain, but Yoshi grabbed the ninja by his suit before spinning around and bodily threw the ninja out of his appartment's smashed window, sending the screaming ninja to fall down to the street level.
Next ninja quickly recovered from Yoshi's counterattack and attacked the ninja master again, armed with two Tantos which he intended to stab into Yoshi's turned back. However, Yoshi spun around and swung his Katana at the ninja's unprotected chest. The tip of Yoshi's Katana left a superficial wound, that ran up from the ninja's right flank and across his chest to his left shoulder - cutting the symbol of the Foot in the ninja's chest in half as an act of defiance and to demonstrate of his own contempt towards the clan - before the ninja master kicked the ninja in his right side, sending him flying against the wall next to the breached door.(1)
Third ninja then attempted to Attack Yoshi from behind, raising his sword up and attempted to bring it down on him. However, Yoshi crossed his arms into X and raised them up in the way of the ninja's sword wielding arm to block his attack. Yoshi then suddenly brought his arms back to their sides, slashing with his Katana the ninja's arm, causing the ninja to let out a cry in pain before he dropped his sword and grabbed to his wounded arm with his hand. However, taking advantage of this, Yoshi snap-kicked the ninja in the chest, sending him flying across the apartment.
Splinter witnessed the whole battle from his cage, growling at the Foot ninjas as fresh three of them attacked Yoshi at the same time.
Yoshi blocked with his arms the three ninjas' several punches and the third sword-wielding ninja's attacks and dodged few of them as he withdrew slowly deeper into his Dōjō, to avoid being overpowered by the overwhelming numbers at the door. The trio managed to corner Master Yoshi and while two of them kept the ninja master occupied and distracted, the third ninja sneaked past him to behind of his back.
After Master Yoshi has blocked the sword-wielding ninja's attempted attack with his raised left arm, Yoshi ran his own Katana through of the ninja's torso, making him gasp in pain before the ninja fell limp and fell over to the floor of his Dōjō, staining it further with his blood.
However, it was them when the third ninja moved in and seized Yoshi by wrapping his arms from under of his armpits in order to prevent Yoshi from defending himself against his remaining comrade, leaving him at the Foot's mercy. However, Yoshi was even more than what the Foot Ninjas had first thought. Even though he was restrained by one ninja, Yoshi was still capable to avoid a couple at him thrown punches by the other ninja, though just narrowly. Yoshi then leaned backwards and on the ninja behind him and kicked the ninja in front of him aside with his left foot, sending him flying into Splinter's cage, knocking it over and smashing the cage under of the ninja's weight.
Yoshi then head-butted the ninja restraining him with the back of his head, forcing the ninja to release him and making him to step away from him hastily, while holding with both hands from his bruised and sore forehead. However, Yoshi didn't allow the Foot ninja have time to recover from the head-butt and thus proceed to kick him in the chest, sending him flying into the corner of the apartment. As the ninja landed onto the floor, he knocked over the small table and caused a small porcelain vase to fall off from the table to the floor, where it shattered into pieces from the impact.
Yoshi then turned to the same ninja, whom he had kicked into Splinter's cage. The ninja had quickly recovered from the impact of the kick, got back up and attacked Yoshi again. However, Yoshi easily blocked the ninja's couple attacks with his arms, before he sent a half dozen straight and hard punches to the ninja's chest, forcing him back for a several steps. Yoshi then executed the spinning roundhouse kick on the ninja's chest, sending him crashing through of the middle window of the outer wall.
Splinter: "My master battled valiantly and with honor. But the Foot eventually overpowered him through of their dishonorable ways."
Tatsu eventually decided that enough was enough, so he and a three remaining Foot Ninjas took out the brass knuckles-like hand-held weapons and fired out of them two dart-like thick white cables at Yoshi. One by one, the cables wrapped around of Yoshi's wrists and ankles, after which Tatsu and the ninjas pulled the cables back and tight to restrain Hamato Yoshi, who still valiantly kept resisting against his enemies attempts to restrain him.
However, it didn't last long when the ninjas and Tatsu, who smirked at Yoshi sadistically, fired the electric bursts out of the cables into Yoshi.
"AHHH!" the ninja master let out pained groans as the electric bursts ran through of his body, shocking him.
Witnessing everything while hiding under the debris of his cage, a horrified Splinter turned his eyes away, as he couldn't bare the sight of such of torture and his master's suffering.
Tatsu, who grinned at Yoshi's suffering throughout of the torture, then ordered the ninjas to cease the torture. And when it stopped, Yoshi moaned in pain, weakened from the electric shocks, before he collapse over to the floor, surrounded by the Foot Ninja that were still alive from the brief battle or on their feet.
Splinter: "And then, Shredder entered."
And then, after Yoshi had been defeated and left at Foot's mercy, the Shredder himself entered into the apartment, wearing on a silver-colored Japanese-styled Samurai armor and a metal Kabuto helmet with the mask on his head. His armor had a curved or hooked spikes in the shoulder guards, shin guards and gauntlets, and he had a two long, slightly curved and razor sharp Tekkō-kagi claws in both his gauntlets. In addition of that, the Shredder was wearing on his shoulders a pitch-black cape, which had the red underside and it had the Foot clan's blood-red symbol printed to its outer side.(2)
Splinter was shocked and frightened the sight of the feared Foot master in person and immediately rushed behind of Byōbu in Yoshi's Dōjō for safety. From there, the frightened rat peeked out to see what was happening in the room.
Splinter: "He accused my master of working for their enemies. They wanted information, and didn't hesitate to use the raw force to have them."
As two Foot Ninja seized weakened Yoshi by his arms and forcefully pulled him up from the floor and forcibly held him down on his knees before their master, Shredder started to ask the questions from Yoshi with impatient, demanding and accusing tone of voice, and at the same time warning him of what will happen if Yoshi won't tell him what they wanted to know fast enough or if he tried to delay answering to his question or keep them from him on purpose.
Shredder then raised his hand, giving Tatsu an order to make himself clear to Yoshi. Sadistically smirking, the evil ninja and other Foot soldiers obediently sent another electric shock out of the cables into Yoshi, and this time with the doubled dose.
"AGH! AH! AHHHH!" the ninja master groaned even louder in agony as the Foot kept torturing him. And this round of electrical torture was even two times longer than the first one.
Splinter: "They were cruel and relentless."
After the second round of torture was ceased, the ninja master was thrown roughly onto the floor.
However, much to the Foot's surprise, physically and severely weakened but spiritually unbroken Master Yoshi got slowly and arduously up from the floor and managed eventually to get onto his knees. Yoshi then turned to glare up at Shredder with disdain and defiance.
Splinter: "But my master defiantly refused to say anything expect one thing."
"He who lives without honor, shall die without honor." Yoshi quoted defiantly, until the efforts were too much for his weakened state and Yoshi collapsed back to the floor.
Shredder was growing more impatient and furious of Yoshi's defiance.
"This is a waste of time! Tatsu! Kill him!" Shredder coldly ordered.
Splinter: "And when Tatsu took out his sword, this very same sword that lays on my lap at the moment, to kill my master by Shredder's orders, I gathered enough of courage to rush out of my hiding spot in attempt to save my master."
Splinter witnessed in shock and horror when Tatsu unsheathed the Katana from the scabbard tied on his back and raised it with both hands above of his head in order to kill Master Yoshi. Splinter couldn't take this anymore, so the rat valiantly rushed out of his hiding spot and savagely attacked unsuspecting Tatsu's faces with claws and teeth. Splinter's sudden attack got Tatsu off guard and the evil ninja master, crying aloud in pain and thus surprising both the Shredder and the ninjas around him, dropped his sword and fell on his knees to the floor. After a moment, Tatsu managed to grab on Splinter and forcefully tore him off his faces before tossing the rat out of the window.(3)
Splinter: "By my efforts were in vain. I was thrown out of the window, but not before I had left my mark on left side of Tatsu's face."
However, Splinter's savage attack had left Tatsu with a hideous claw marks to the left side of his faces, a split lips in the left corner of his mouth and a permanently damaged left eye. Shutting his eyes tight and gritting his teeth in pain, Tatsu pressed his had over of his severely wounded and bleeding faces as he was escorted out from the building by two of Foot ninjas.(3)
"BAH!" Shredder scoffed loudly, unfazed of this sudden accident. "Then I'll kill you myself!"
Splinter: "I couldn't do anything for my Master Yoshi, only to watch helplessly when the Shredder executed his horrible blow that took Master Yoshi from me... from the world."
Splinter climbed back to the window, only to witness much to his horror as the Shredder moved next to Yoshi and raised his gauntlet's Tekkō-kagi claws over him. Splinter's eyes widened in horror when Shredder brought his claws down on Yoshi's back without hesitation. That was followed by a sickening sound as the Shredder's claws forcefully cutting through of the flesh and bones till the tips of the claws reached to Yoshi's heart and sliced it partially in three pieces.
Fatally wounded Master Yoshi jumped upright and let out the throaty gasp in pain! Barely still living ninja master then turned his head slightly towards the window and paid one last look at his beloved pet rat Splinter, who stared back at his master with a devastated and horror struck look, before Yoshi's eyes rolled inside of his head and his lifeless body fell onto the floor with the thud.
Heartbroken, Splinter let one of his hands go off the window's edge, ending up to hang in there helplessly with his another one. His grip then slipped off and the rat fell off from the window and landed onto the pile of trash bags and then into the puddle and remained to lie there for a some time in the pain of the loss and sorrow.
Splinter: "Though I survived, I was left alone to fend for myself in the streets, with nothing. No family, no home, nor purpose or meaning in life, nothing. Just myself, my memories, and my grief."
End of the Flashback
"Not long after that, I found you, my sons and daughters, thus giving my life a purpose and meaning again. And you all know the rest of the story." Splinter finished his story.
After Splinter had finished his story, the Turtles were all utterly shocked and deeply saddened by the story, and also disgusted by what Shredder had done to their father's master all those years ago.
Mary and Dom lowered their heads down, deep frowns on their faces while taking in everything they have just heard.
"Ugh! I cannot believe this. I-I-I didn't like that story at all." Mikey said miserably.
"Me neither, Mikey. That was horrible beyond of imagination!" Donnie stated.
Arcee was moved into bitter tears, as the turtle in pink was deeply saddened by Splinter's story of Master Yoshi's tragic death.
"Oh, father." Arcee moaned tearfully, feeling sorry for her father's tragic loss, prompting Donnie to lift his hand over his sister's left shoulder to comfort her.
Raph and Louie, feeling their blood boiling in their veins, angrily squeezed their hands into tight fists and gritted their teeth together.
"That monster!" Raph snarled through of his teeth.
However, none of the turtles wasn't as shocked by Splinter's story as Leonardo was. The turtle in blue couldn't believe that he had ignorantly talked face to face with the very same man who had in cold-blood and heartlessly murdered their Sensei's Sensei all those years ago.
Mary then turned to their father wit hthe pleading look on her face. "Father? Why have you never told us about this before?" Mary gently questioned.
"Yeah. What gives, Master Splinter?" Louie asked, wanting to know that as well.
"Was there a good reason why you didn't want us to hear that story?" Dom asked, suspecting that Splinter had more than one reason why he has never before told them such of tragic story.
"Yes, my son. I never told you any of this, because I didn't want your fifteen years of training to be tainted by the poison of hatred, bitterness, and thirst for vengeance. And I did not want you to feel the sorrow that is still in my heart." Splinter explained with the sorrow in his tone, until it turned into dead serious.
"But, now, you need to know who Oroku Saki, The Shredder, really is." Splinter continued, turning towards his oldest son. "He is a liar, Leonardo. He serves no great purpose. He fights no great evil, because HE IS this great evil. Any endeavor he undertakes, he does for his own selfish gain, without slightest regard of how many innocent will either suffer or even die, as long as he achieves his goals."
Leo gaped at his father in shock and shame. As if the actual plot of Master Yoshi's cruel death wasn't bad enough, a knowledge what kind of man Oroku Saki, a.k.a. the Shredder, really was made Leo even angrier and disgusted with himself for buying into Saki's lies from the very beginning. And worst of all, he had even considered joining with him and the Foot! Leo felt himself like the stain of shame in Master Yoshi's legacy.
"Man, I must be the biggest idiot of the world!" Leo snarled, hitting his knee in frustration.
"I could have told you that." Mikey replied with the playful nudge to Leo's arm in order to cheer him up.
"And you were just as they say: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off"." Louie remarked.
Arcee then pulled herself together and wiped the tears off her eyes with her hand, before she turned to her siblings.
"What an ironic revelation, because I've always wondered that from where the shell Tatsu had received such of hideous scars on his ugly face." Arcee said, recalling their earlier encounters with that scar-faced ninja master back in the the museum and at South Street Seaport. "I could've never believed that they actually came from our Sensei himself."
"Yeah! Our father was fierce back then, even before our mutation." Louie agreed. "And best of all, Tatsu's got proof of that."
"And he totally deserved that." Dom agreed.
Mary then opened his mouth to speak to Leo. "I knew that there was something wrong in that Saki guy, But I never expected it to be something so big and tragic like this."
"Indeed." Donnie spoke, before the brainy turtle turned to Leo. "You've been deceived, bro. He saw you coming a mile away, and he'd probably planned this for a long time to make his manipulation to work properly."
"And you almost fell for it. Lucky that you weren't completely consumed by his wormtongue's venomous words." Dom said as if in relief.(4)
"So, now when we know the truth, what are we gonna do about it?" Raph asked from Leo.
"Any suggestions, bro?" Arcee questioned as well.
Leo had a simple answer ready.
"Just one. Shredder said he's waiting for the answer for tommorrow night. I think we should go give him what he wants... IN TURTLE-STYLE!" Leo declared as he cracked his knuckles, speaking as if he had just declared the war on Foot. "Let this be the day when Shredder learns through of Achilles heel that no one fools the turtles that easily and get away with it!"
The other turtles silently agreed to do what Leo had just suggested. And so, all eight turtles turned to look back at their master and father and gave him the respectful bow simultaneously, and Master Splinter bowed equally back to his children.
The decision was made. Tomorrow the turtles would be in all out war with the Foot.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1) = "Cutting the symbol of the Foot in the ninja's chest in half as an act of defiance and to demonstrate of his own contempt towards the clan"... I kinda created in this story-line a significant meaning to the act of "cutting the Foot-symbol in half" as an act of defiance, contempt and disgrace towards the Foot-clan.
2) = I made some differences to the Shredder in my story-line, as such, he has two Tekkō-kagi claws in both his gauntlets and he wears a pitch-black capewith the Foot clan's symbol on it.
3) = So here it was. I replaced Hun with Tatsu in Splinter's story about Yoshi's death in the hands of the Shredder, thus explaining my more gore details about Tatsu's scars.
4) = Dom's mention of Wormtongue is a reference to Lord of the Rings: Two Towers' character, Grima Wormtongue, who poisoned King Theoden's mind with the venomous words in orders of Saruman the White.