A Turtle on the Outside, a Wolf on the Inside

by Sairey13

Before Yoshi got the turtles from the Pet Store, Leo was found playing with the manager's dog, who was told to be a wolf-hybrid. Right before Yoshi took the turtles away, Leo ate some of the canine's fur and when he got mutated, the mutagen somehow enhanced the inside of his body to match a wolf's behavior and abilities. NO T-CEST, LEORAI or APRITELLO!

5. Mercy From the Lone Wolf, Warrior

April 23rd, 2012
Seven weeks came and gone with the Hand of Time and ever since we came up to the surface on that very day of our Mutation Day... Let's just said it was full of surprises, a bunch of bumps in the road and the feeling of the dark presence is coming upon us, closer and closer with each passing day:

The week after we've rescued April from the Kraang, we were out on patrol and got sighted by a human, thanks to Raph or Mikey for knocking over his satellite, Raph's temper and wanting to make Mikey squeal for mercy after pestering him. When the police had reported him missing on the news about some complaining of another disturbance, we learned that his real name was Vic. When we first met him, he was overweight, wore a white-tank top like Snake but only bigger, blue-pants and his head is partly coverd in gray-hair. If anything else to add about the human, not the friendly-type, seems to be old, about somewhere in his forties, and for some odd reason keeps on referring to us as "Frogs" or "Kung Fu Frogs". We were also sort of at his mercy when he caught us on his phone, while we were fighting some Kraang that Donnie gotten intel from April was going to break into a lab across Vic's apartment. The human was very greedy, wanting a million dollars in exchange for the video he recorded of us fighting.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Kraang took him away and held him hostage, which we had gone to rescue him, even if he wasn't grateful and blown our cover for wanting his phone back. I sent Raph back to the Lair after his anger issue gotten the best of him over the importance of the mission, again, knowing that Master Splinter must give him a lesson about controlling his anger and what happens when you let anger consume you. If only he'd came sooner, because by the time he came to help us out, Vic had already been mutated into a giant spider, who Mikey renamed him "Spider Bytez". Now as a mutant spider, he's round and black, red-markings with orange-outlines, six eyes on his face and some between his legs, sharp fangs, four spider legs on his head and, at a perfect view to go along with his new appearance, his claws and appendages are filled with mutagen. He also has strong webbing filament and gained the ability to spit highly corrosive acid from his mouth. Raph was able to defeat Vic, but he was able to escape and we knew it wouldn't be the last time we would see of him. Raph also learned how to control his anger and to not let the foul words of our enemies get to him, but that didn't mean he'll stop pummeling Mikey when being mocked or pranked...

I'm just glad that I didn't have to take the heat for Raph when Sensei was lecturing us on how we first got caught on Vic's recording on his phone, which was a huge relief for me and no more added stress to my mind or heart. In fact, Splinter yelled and scolded Raph when my brother told him on why he jeopardized our mission and, to make Raph even more insulted, he had me, Don and Mikey shoot dart-arrows at him while coming up with insults to distract him from blocking the arrows. Of course, I simply stayed quiet and whenever Don or Mikey came up with an insult, I swiftly fired away and placed my marks on his shell, mostly to the spots and places where an enemy could strike and injure him by going for the location of the organs, if the enemy has a weapon that allows them to cut through the shell, that is.

Four and a half weeks later, we had another human mutation problem on our hands, only his mutation was purposely done by a fellow colleague who wanted to get a neurologic mutagen from him in order to give himself psychic abilities. Dr. Tyler Rockwell, who was reported missing by his colleague, Dr. Victor Falco, had been mutated into a humanoid-monkey, with the psychic ability to read emotions and sense a person's intentions that gives him a distinct advantage in evasion and combat. Despite him being dangerous and a threat when fighting him, he would make a great ally when calmed and as long we don't pose a threat to him and have no negative thoughts for him to read, he won't snap or go berserk.

April believes that his capture could be linked to the Kraang and her father being captured, but it turned out there wasn't any connection at all, except for a new canister of Mutagen Dr. Falco kept within his lab. It took us awhile to track Rockwell down but we were finally able to stop him. While my brothers chose to attack him without much of a thought but to attack and hurt him, April and I thought calmly and showed no sign of a threat to harm him, which we were spared from being hurt and to figure out what really happened to Dr. Rockwell after a quick look in his eyes and a few sniff at his scent that held both human and monkey in the mixture... Mostly, that I understood what he was saying, thanks to me being part-wolf on communicating and understanding other animals.

He kept on saying: "Pain... Anger... Hurt... Traitor... Falco... Held captive... Forced into... Want power... Power hungry..."

Anyway, Donnie learnt that If he think too much about what is coming, he'll lose sight of what is and that he must be fully in the moment so he can fight without thinking. He also learnt that he must find the spaces between his thoughts and learn to live there. He sure learned the hard way to never always rely on what he believes his opponent will do, like when Sensei told him to defend himself against Seoi Nage and attacked him with a different kata. It was thanks to his lesson, that he was able to defeat Dr. Falco and we were able to free Dr. Rockwell from his clutches, though Dr. Falco escaped before April could ask him if he knew anything about the Kraang and about her father. Sadly, Don's attempts to get April to like him and trying to act cool isn't going unnoticed and doesn't appear to gain any interest from the girl at all. He must learn that even his Master-plan/chart won't be able to help him get her to like him or win her heart, which I can tell she was a little annoyed by it and simply sees Don as a brother, nothing more or less. As for one more experience he learn on that day, was being humiliated and insulted by Raph and Mikey when they made fun of him for being beaten up by a monkey and in front of his 'girlfriend', while April and I tend to his wounds.

I'm happy to not hear Mikey coming up with a different name for Tyler Rockwell as he's now a humanoid-monkey or Victor Falco for being a psychic enemy, but that didn't mean he hasn't come up with a new name for somebody; now, whenever he does a flip or keeps on doing a flip, he calls himself "Dr. Flippinstein" to simply annoy us and cause another headache to build up into a migraine.

If facing two mutants shouldn't consider to be difficult or challenging, then how about two human incident, that one has been trained by Sensei's greatest enemy and the other merged with alien-technology of the Kraang, and a Kraang situation that used one of Don's weapons against us?

The human that was trained by the Shredder turned out to be Chris Bradford, a martial arts master and a world-famous celebrity that Mikey has always adored. On the magazines Mikey would collect within the sewers, he was tall and muscular and with a dark brown beard, which to me resembles to an actor, Chuck Norris. Thinking that he could make friends with a human on his own and after friending him online and having Bradford friending him back, he went up to the surface and revealed himself to the human. While they 'bonded', Bradford tried to get Mikey to talk about us and could also be hinting on wondering our whereabouts. As a show of trust, which I believe he was trying to pull in order to get Mikey to trust him, he showed and taught Mikey, who then showed us how to perform it, how to do one of his secret Kata: The Death Dragon, a move that Oroku Saki used against Splinter back in Japan. I never showed any liking when Mikey showed it and after informing Sensei about and even showing him what Mikey did in the Kata, Sensei immediately knew Chris Bradford is our enemy.

We were lucky to get Mikey out of there and lure them into a trap within a different parts of the sewers, far from the Lair, and sweep them away by a very powerful stream of sewer water. Our baby brother was hurt and felt betrayed when Bradford used him to get to Master Splinter and us, but he eventually got over it and gotten his own way of revenge by no longer being friends with Chris Bradford online. I was frustrated that the Foot Clan ninjas don't fight fair, but knew that fighting fair isn't how ninjas win their battles; when I was thinking of ninjas to fight fair, I was actually thinking about samurais fighting fairly, which is what Bushidō is: The Samurais way of life... Yes, I'm not just a ninja, but I'm also a Samurai and the only samurai in the Hamato Clan. While samurai sticks to a code of honor, ninjas are spies and assassin, with their code being getting the job done, even if it means playing dirty and unfairly to your opponents. Fortunately for me, I already knew that lesson and surprised my brothers when I told them of the only we would be able to defeat them.

The second human we faced goes by the name Baxter Stockman, which for some strange reason my brothers keep on getting his name wrong, and I had to once again take the wrath for my brothers. My three idiot brothers decided to get themselves grounded by skateboarding in the Lair, when they know that we weren't allow to do so and didn't need Sensei to tell us that. While I went into cleaning up the garbage my brothers left lying around all over the floor, Mikey decided to vault himself over Don and Raph on his skateboard from the poorly made ramp he created on his own. Splinter's voice startled Raph and Don to stand from their spots and cause Mikey to crash into them, while I stayed quiet and continued on sweeping the floor to get some empty soda-cans and pizza-crusts into a pile with the rest of the garbage I swept up. I was able to avoid getting punished, since I wasn't involved in their activity and was cleaning up the Lair, while the rest of the guys were grounded from patrol for an entire week...

For the first time being on my own was one of the greatest things to ever experience, but it immediately grew short when my brothers decided to disobey Sensei's orders and follow me around while on their skateboards. That was when we found Baxter Stockman trying to break in to a building that was the T.C.R.I. building and, without thinking or waiting for a command, my three brothers took him down under a minute and slammed him into a dumpster when the building's alarm alerted the police. By the next day, he was caught on the news and attacking people at T.C.R.I, wearing a much tougher and stronger sort of suit that was many times different than his last one. Turns out during the fight, Mikey dropped the T-Pod that Donnie made while he was scrounging in a military junk yard and Stockman was able to equip it to his armor to make himself unstoppable. I told them that it would best to tell Sensei what has happened, while the rest of the guys suggested that we can easily get the T-Pod from Stockman and Master Splinter wouldn't know about it. Know which idea would've been better to do? Mine.

His suit was too powerful for us to take down and we ended up being tossed into the dumpster, like my brothers did to him. His suit then merged with him once more, to become a single enormously powerful entity. Lucky for us, Mikey tossed three boxes of pizzas into his face and give us enough time to silently go through a manhole-cover and back to the Lair. However, Sensei was up by the time we got back and knowing that we can no longer hide the truth, I told what has happen and that's when I took the wrath for my brothers by stating I failed to do my part as leader and should've tried to send them home instead of letting them to go off into battle and beat up Stockman when they left the Lair that they weren't supposed to. We then learned that the only way to take down Stockman was to not fight the armor, but to fight the man inside.

With help from some chains and a beehive, we destroyed the T-Pod and brought Stockman down, which Raph then decided to make the fight a tie by throwing him into a dumpster, again. And, as always whenever he felt like our opponents needed a name, Mikey had given him the name "Stockman-Pod". Sensei had decided to unground my brothers after hearing out success, right before he decided to have them do Randori. I, myself, was spared from any other sort of punishment, but the punishment that I believe to have been given would be my alone time above the surface has been cut short too soon.

Now, for the Kraang incident: The situation started out when Don felt like he's more useless on the team and that his weapon was worthless after our fifth encounter with the Kraang and it brakes, for the fifth time, so he decided to build a robot-turtle, which he reversed engineered it from the Kraandroid he brought home with us, that'll take his place on the battlefield while he remains behind in the Lair, which Mikey has named it "Metalhead". During that time, April decides to show her moxie and investigate at a Kraang hideout, where she learned they were going to poison the city's water supply with the unstable Mutagen in a way on hoping to perfect the Mutagen and mutating the humans. She almost got caught but thanks to her quick thinking, she was able to take down a Kraang and make it back to the Lair, without getting caught or sustaining any sort of injury.

Don's creation may be strong and have a very powerful defense, but it lacks stealth, speed and makes too much noise. What's worse? Because it's still part of a Kraandroid, a Kraang was able to take control of Don's creation and use it against us. We were lucky that Don finally came to join the party and was able to both hold off and destroy his creation. Not only that and it may be hard to believe, but if he hadn't created Metalhead, then he wouldn't had been able to destroy the Mutagen and save millions of lives of New York City. And he even did it with a six foot stick, which Raph still likes to call Don's Naginata Bō staff by.

Mikey and Raph learned that whatever Don makes something that'll help him or us in battle, never try to destroy it, because they've just learned how powerful his inventions really are when they tried to first break his creation. I, on the other hand, had chose to stay away from it and simply glare at it, knowing that it would cause some problems and for the fact it's part of a creation made by the very creatures that turned me into what I'd become...

Boy, with all that we've been doing for the past seven weeks, who knows what else we'll soon be facing? And having to be in many fights and training sessions, with extra-training to add up on my 'Things to do' List in my life and my brothers continuing on making noise inside the Lair or wanting to go up to the surface every night, I'm losing a lot of sleep and would get no more than two or three hours of sleep. My eating habit, it's about the same or a bit more of skipping more meals than I normally do and my purging has been increasing with everyone pressuring me or forcing me to eat more now that we have human-food and not Worms and Algae. Most of our meals will be pizza, courtesy of my pizza-loving brothers and their human-friend, April O'Neil. The rest of our meals, no longer Algae and Worms, which was a major relief to me, our homemade cooking from Mikey, with some help and assistants from April... And myself, when she dragged the both of us to learn how to prepare homemade meals, instead of always ordering pizza twenty-four/seven.

Now for the biggest part of my progress and situation: For the passed seven weeks on being leader of the team and going to go through with it for many more time to come, it's been draining me a lot lately. My body feels like I'm carrying heavy weights on my shell, and my limbs felt like they're dragging balls and chains. My headaches haven't been going away and seems to be building up much more than usual, no matter how much Tylenol or sleep pills I would take. It's taking every strength of my Will to not snap or severely punish my brothers when they go against my orders or complaining over something, whether we're on a mission, out patrolling or even in the Lair, and I'm just about reaching my breaking point to snapping at any moment. Heck, even my senses are nearing their limits and our being overwhelmed by the surface above the Lair.

I know that if I go to Sensei about this and ask him on what I should do, he'll merely tell me that given time, I'll gain the patience and knowledge on how to deal with the pressure and how to keep my emotions intact. I knew that I can't go to Sensei about it, so on the nights we don't go up to the surface but everyone is still up or going to bed, I'd head for the furthest parts of the sewers, without alerting anybody or having them stalk me as if I were some wanted criminal, and let out my negative emotions by throwing objects to break them, pounding into the walls or letting out screams in the air until my voice gives out. It may not be the best way to get my anger out, but it's way better than how the humans would take it out on themselves by doing drugs that harms their body and health or even going as far as to self-inflicted and contemplating suicide.

In other news, I haven't seen "Space Heroes" for a good while and, honestly, I'm no longer having any interest on watching it anymore. I'm now bored with the show and now prefer to watch shows that talks about animals or how to prepare certain meals that 'families' will love to eat, just in case Mikey won't be able to make food if he's hurt or ill and to prevent Raph and Don on destroying the kitchen if they try to cook. However, just in case my brothers were to get a bit worried that something's wrong with me, I'll force myself to watch an episode or two, at least one day a week, of "Space Heroes" before going off to bed. I thought that Raph would be relieved to know I no longer have any interest of the show, but he was giving me a worried glance one night when we returned home from another evening night of patrolling and then asked me if I was getting sick, because I haven't watched a single "Space Heroes" show in over two weeks. So, to avoid giving my brothers any more worry than they already are, I got stuck into watching the show and Raph went back into teasing me on acting like Captain Ryan.

---

"Leo, are you done with whatever you're doing in there?!" Michelangelo's voice cried out from behind the locked door, forcing the turtle to cease his writing into his journal and to focus his attention on his brother to what he has to say. "We're all ready to go and April won't take us out unless you're coming with us!" Leo let out a low growl, pinching the bridge of his nose from the sensing of his headache giving him a killer migraine.

'With each passing day, he's becoming more impatient and louder than he normally is. If I'd known going up to the surface would cause this to happen, I should've had Don bring sedatives to calm him down on the very first night we explored the city.' "And I suppose you and the guys want me to come out, don't you?" He asked in a tired voice, while he reach for the bottle of Tylenol and took out two white-pills from the container, quickly swallowing them dry and whole without any difficulties in the least.

"Uh, yeah, we do, and right now would be great!"

Do you think one of them informed Father of you five going up to the surface, but not for patrol? He sounds very excited and very impatient, that letting Father know of you four and April are going up to the city to just hang out may had slipped his mind.

'Hang on, I'll ask, though I have a hunch they didn't.' "Before I answer your question, Mikey, have any of you guys informed Master Splinter we'll be leaving for the surface?"

"...Uh, nope. Not yet, Leo." The blue-masked turtle smirked to the answer, not feeling any kind of anger for his youngest-brother to not inform their sensei of their evening plans.

'First his inability to be patient and now starts to forget to let Sensei know of our leaving for a friendly outing of the city. The surface world is making more of a change to us than we thought it would.' "Tell the guys that I'll be out in a minute or two, and be sure that one of you three inform Sensei that we'll be exploring the city with April. If he asks if we'll be out on patrol, tell him that we'll keep our eyes out for any signs of danger or trouble."

"You got it, bro!" The stomping sound of feet running towards the living room allowed the eldest turtle to know his brother has left to complete his orders, giving him a few more minutes to finish up his latest entry into his journal before one of his brothers try to break down the door and drag him out of the Lair with them.

---

Tonight, rather than going out for patrol and, for Raph's amusement and favorite hobbies, bash some heads, April wants to take us to eat at a favorite restaurant of hers. Don, still having his head stuck in the clouds and living in his fantasy world that he'll have a shot with her, believes this will count to be their very first date together, while bringing along the rest of us. When April suggested that we go out to eat, rather than staying in the sewers or out busting heads, I can tell that she planned this as some sort of occasion and part of my thoughts and gut feeling tells me it has something to do with me.

Unfortunately, for her, in those seven weeks that passed, I still haven't given her my trust and had kept my distance from her, being the one and only turtle and Clan member to interact with her the least. She isn't doing anything wrong to keep me from giving her my trust or to believe she's becoming a threat to the Clan, she just hasn't proved to me that I can trust her. Yes, she's keeping our existence a secret from her Aunt, friends and the rest of the humans. And yes, she's been kind enough to get us some human-food and other materials to make our home in a much better condition. Heck, she hangs out in the Lair, even spends a few nights every week with us down below or on missions and bonds with my brothers and Sensei. However, in my eyes and the way my animal-behavior sees it, she just seems to be bribing her way into having us accept her into the Hamato Clan much quicker and sooner than we should've decided on later in the future. Being part wolf and the only one in the family to be wolf, she must prove herself to be loyal to the family and to never betray us, unless she has a very good reason to betray our trust and is willing to make up for what she did.

Sensei's also going to train her into becoming a Kunoichi, a female ninja. When Master Splinter asked her on how she knew that Dr. Rockwell was the monkey, she stated that she somehow knew and had this 'feeling' that told her it was him... My suspicious and instinct are correct about her being different; that 'feeling' she has, is actually a sign that she possesses an innate spiritual sensitivity and attunement with the universe that Master Splinter had trained much of his life to attain. I should know, because of me being part wolf and being trained much sooner in my childhood/toddler years, I already gained that sort of ability, I just rely on my senses and instincts much more than my achieved ability, but that doesn't mean they'll stay hidden or won't come out.

Anyway, April seemed thrilled on going to be trained into a Kunoichi and my brothers, mostly Donnie, are also excited on having another ninja in the family. As for myself... To be honest, I'm not really sure how to feel about that. I know that I'm happy to hear she'll be a ninja and will be able to defend herself during the day. However, another part of me isn't very much pleased of Sensei's decision on having her be trained with us, especially when my instincts wants me to keep my distance from her for still not earning my trust... Although, I'll be able to observe her skills, what her strength and weaknesses are and see which parts that needs to be fixed, so she'll be able to protect herself more perfectly than she think she'll be able to do... This doesn't mean she earned my trust; since she's a new member of the team and, unfortunately, because I'm the leader, it's my job and duty to be sure every member of the team are at the top of their games when in a fight and are able to hold out on their own.

I better stop my entry for the night; I can hear Mikey struggling to stay with the guys but is about ready to comeback to my bedroom door and bring it down if that's what it takes to drag me out of my room and get going. I'll be sure to update as soon as I can, which I hope won't be for very long. Until then, rest in peace like the sleeping sun that sets with the day to rise once more, like the Phoenix reborn from the ashes of its past to begin a new day of life.

---

Above the Surface, New York City; Chinatown...
"You guys want to speed it up a little?" April asked the guys, thinking they're hiding behind the corner of movie theater.

"Are you saying turtles are slow?" Don asked the redhead, surprising the teenager that her friends are actually hiding behind the booth of the movie theater that a worker would work at to hand out the tickets to the costumers, and that she didn't hear them at all on moving to a different spot.

"That's a hurtful stereotype." Mikey told the sixteen year-old, who he and Raph hid on the other side of the booth, feeling a bit offended that even she were to believe that despite being mutated ninjas, she would think of them being slow because they're turtles. Leo, who hid on the same side with Raph and Mikey but leaned up against the wall where the manager would post up poster of what movie will be playing, kept his eyes and hearing out for any humans that could be coming their way and when to give the signal to his brothers to hide. Sensing and hearing nobody coming their way, the blue-masked turtle turned to the redhead.

"We're better off keeping a low profile," he plainly told April. "We find humans treat us better when they don't know we exist." After explaining himself to why he and his brothers don't follow her out in the open and have to stay on ninja-stealth mode, though hiding a more reason to why he, himself, prefer to stay behind the rest of the teenagers, his gaze went back out to the street.

"Sorry. I'm just so excited to get you out of the sewer for a change." She told the turtles, though she kept her gaze on the eldest turtle instead of to the rest of the turtles, almost sounding as if she was mostly referring to him, considering to the fact she hardly sees him go up to the surface unless one of his brothers are in danger or when on a mission.

"What are you talking about? We go out all the time." Even if he knows the five of them were going out to a friendly night of just hanging out, Raph seemed to not get that his way of having a good time won't be what he expects it to be.

"Yeah, but tonight you're going to do something besides hitting people." April told the red-masked turtle, breaking the news quick and simple to him.

"Aww..." Raph whined, feeling disappointed to hear he won't be blowing off some steams to any Kraang or mutants for tonight.

"Don't worry. You're going to love this noodle place I found."

"And you're sure we'll be welcome?" Don asked, looking a bit nervous and uneasy of the thought on how the outcome would turn out if humans at the noodle shop see four mutant turtles coming into the restaurant with ninja weapons.

"Oh, yeah. Mr. Murakami doesn't care what you look like." April answered, her voice sounding very confident and reassuring that her plans with the guys will go smoothly. "In fact, he won't even know what you look like. He's blind."

"Awesome!" Mikey cried, until he gotten a good whack in the head by Raph and to realize what he just said. "I mean, for us obviously." He then put on a big smile, trying to show to the three teenagers that his last comment meant for the advantage of not freaking out the human, not to hearing of the misfortune the human, Mr. Murakami, has to live with. Quickly noticing that he realize he saw only three older teenagers with him and an empty spot that the second-eldest teenager of the group used to be, the smile went away. "Uh, guys, did Leo went on ahead?" The older teens turned their gaze to where they last seen Leo and, also stunned to find him gone, they left their spots to see outside of the building better. Just as soon as they started to panic, it quickly went away when Raph's emerald-green eyes stared up at the theater's rooftop.

"Relax, you guys, he's still here." He sighed out, pointing a finger where the eldest turtle stood over the ledge of the building, arms crossed over his chest and eyes glaring out over parts of the city he can see.

The teens below him all let out sigh of relief to know one of their own hasn't left the group, with three turtles having be worried that he tried to go off on his own and the human-girl thinking he was waiting for the moment to bail out to avoid hanging out with her. In fact, the main reason why they're even out on a friendly stroll towards Chinatown, is so that she can learn more about Leonardo and try to see if she can figure out ways to hang out with him. Though she had a great time spending with the three younger-turtles and Splinter, the redhead didn't feel complete or truly welcomed into the Hamato Clan when one family member refuses to join in with the group whenever she comes around to spend time with them.

The blue-masked turtle glanced down at his three brothers and April for only a few seconds, before he lifted his gaze back to the buildings, once again ignoring the group of teens below him and the theater building.

"Is he always like this?" April asked the three turtles beside her, keeping her sky-blue eyes on the forest-green turtle in case he tries to pull off his 'ninja vanishing' trick.

"Yeah, but most of the times or at this very moment, he'll be exploring the sewers and tunnels on his own to either scavenge for some stuff for the Lair or to do whatever he does when he's out on his own in the tunnels." Donnie explained to the redhead, who seemed a bit stunned and confused to what the purple-masked turtle stated on what the eldest-brother would be doing.

"Really? And none of you guys are worried that he could get seriously hurt or lost, while he's out on his own?" April questioned, taking her eyes off of the blue-masked turtle for a mere minute to stare at her remaining friends standing with her.

"Believe it or not, April, Leo can take care of himself when he goes off." Raph replied, not sounding a bit concerned or in the least worried of the possibility for their brother to be in danger and needing help. "Trust us, when we tell you on how you're seeing Leo as right now, is perfectly normal."

When they looked back up, the eldest turtle was still in his spot and, as if like some sort of statue, hadn't budged an inch or move out of the pose he chose to stand in. Although, even from a far distance, April can tell something was on Leonardo's mind and his eyes seemed to be focusing somewhere in the direction that she knows for certain is to where her favorite noodle shop is. The blue-masked turtle then jerked his head up a bit, almost like a deer would when it hear something that doesn't sound good or out of the ordinary, and without any thought or hesitation, he put on a burst of speed and sprint over to the next building across the street, vanishing out of the four teens sight from down below. Taking immediate action, they all made a quick dash after the eldest turtle, running over the street and sidewalk and keeping a constant eye on top at the Katana wielder to be sure he doesn't vanish out of their sight.

"Is this another normal thing of his?" April asked the guys, surprisingly keeping up with the turtles but slowly starting to slow down a bit from not having that much stamina like the turtles do.

"Sort of, but he usually does this whenever he senses danger and somebody needs help." Raph stated, glaring up at his big brother and saw him reaching out for Musashi and Kamiizumi. He then let out smirk, slowly reaching out for his sais. "And when he pulls out his Katanas, that means we got some serious ass kicking to take care of."

By the time they turned a corner, after going down four blocks and three sharp turns into different alleys, Leo jumped down from a building he was just on and landed in front of the four teens, glaring at a building that holds some sort of restaurant with a sign above the door that looks to represent the flag of Japan, with an image of a bowl of noodles at the bottom and Japanese Kanji in the center: "村上", which translates to 'Murakami', which also means "upper village" in Japanese. Through the red-screens of the window, Leo can make out three shadow-figures of humans throwing objects inside of the shop and destroying it, with a small fourth-shadow ducking away from the objects and trying to get away from the taller shadows. Leo let out a low growl, disgusted on having to see on what humans can do to innocent people and how disturbing it was that the humans causing destruction actually enjoy bringing pain to others.

'And this is why I have every rights and reason to not fully trust April like my brothers do,' he thought to himself.

"Oh, no." Leo turned his head to April, who seemed to know what was going on inside of the noodle shop, as they all made a quick dash to the front of the shop.

"Who are those creeps?" Donatello asked, wondering if the redhead knew who the humans inside of the shop are, who continues on breaking the values of the shop and beating down an innocent person who may possibly be Mr. Murakami she was talking about.

"The Purple Dragons. They think they own the streets around here." It was pretty clear to the turtles, from the irritated tone and anger of April's voice and seeing the three shadow-figures of the humans destroying whatever they can get their hands on from inside, that the Purple Dragons are a gang of thieves and possibly murderers, from the way they seemed to show no mercy to the owner of the shop.

"So much for not hitting people tonight..." Leo grumbled out, popping his knuckles and getting his younger brother, Raphael, excited when he saw his eldest-brother preparing his knuckles for a fight.

"Oh well," he stated. Without any more hesitation, Michelangelo kicked down the door.

"Booyakasha!" He announced their presence to the humans, all of the turtles getting into their defense fighting-stance without bringing out their weapons.

In front of the turtles, stood three Chinese, or at least Chinese-Americans, people, with one of them standing on top of the bar counter and the other two on the other side of the counter. They look young, somewhere in their twenties, wearing black-vests and what looks to be hakama sweatpants. Judging from the same black-outfits the three are wearing and the tattoo of a dragon motif on their left-arms, it was safe to say that they were the 'Purple Dragons' that April was talking about.

"Huh?" One of them, who stood in the center of the group and probably appears to be the leader, gasped out in shock from the sight of four human-sized turtles. While the three humans were stunned to see the five newcomers stopping them from trashing up the restaurant, with April staying behind the turtles and searching for Mr. Murakami, Leonardo seemed a bit confused and sort of unsatisfied at who he and his brothers are facing against.

'Them?... We have to face them?...' He wondered in thoughts, analyzing the Purple Dragons' appearance and not looking a bit worried or feeling threaten at all from the sight of the three. 'I know that I mustn't get too overconfident or judge them by their appearance and how they can hurt innocent people, but it's completely obvious to say that they'll be of no threat to my brothers and I and won't be any difficulties to take care of them.'

The first guy Leo looked at was the one standing outside of the bar counter. He wore a purple-bandana over his forehead, which he must be using to keep his hair from getting into his face, three silver-bangles on both of his wrists. He appears to be the most heavily muscled and plays the part like some enforcer, but he doesn't seem to be very smart and seems more of a follower, waiting to be told what to do before he does something and follows the other two around.

The second guy, standing on the bar counter, seems to be the hustler of the group, who may had even been able to swindle people out of money. On his face, he has a goatee, and his hair seemed smoothed down. He held a sledgehammer in his hands and doesn't seem to be afraid to use such a weapon on other people, but his weapon may slow him down long enough for the turtles to dodge from the blows. It may not be easy to tell, but the eldest turtle has some sort of feeling that he may be the oldest of the gang, about a year at best older than the other two.

And lastly, the third guy came to the turtle's attention, who Leo is completely certain to be the leader of the group. He looks to be the youngest, almost to be mistaken for a teenager, but it was obvious to the turtle that he's in his twenties from how he doesn't look as young as April. He looks to be thin, almost like Snake was before he got mutated into a giant weed, and has a thin beard on his face, with some miniature hairs growing on the top of his upper-lip. His left-arm is covered in a long-cabled fingerless glove, which the turtle can small a small scent of blood. On his chest, he has a deep scar that goes from the left-top of his left-collarbone down to the midsection of his stomach.

It was now clear to why the humans would come and fear these three men, but to the turtles, they don't seem to be much of a challenge in their status.

'I swear, even Mikey can handle these guys on his own, without the use of his Nunchaku, and won't even break a sweat in under five minutes.'

Indeed, that's fact. However, just as Pup know and had been trained, never underestimate opponents and know there are innocent humans Pup must protect on battlefield.

"Alright, let him go. You don't want any trouble." Leonardo warned the Purple Dragons, his Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes glaring out at the humans of a warning to not take his warning so lightly.

"We, on the other hand, do." Raphael told the humans, getting pumped up for a fight he knows will be too easy to take care of.

"Whoa, those guys were serious. There really are giant turtles." The human in the middle of the group said to his partners in crime, surprising the four brothers about the information they just heard.

"You've heard of us?" Michelangelo asked, making Leo turn his attention to his youngest-brother when he heard the stunned and small excitement building up within his voice.

'Mikey. No. Not now...!'

"Dudes, we're famous!" Leo had to grind his teeth together, stopping himself from giving Mikey a good scolding on believing them being 'famous' while on a battlefield isn't a good sign at all.

"That's bad." Donatello told the youngest, giving the orange-masked turtle a serious glare that tells him to not be happy about what he think is cool or considered to be good.

"Oh. Right." Mikey quickly agreed, his excitement going away and going back into being serious and ready for a fight.

"Whatever you are, this neighborhood is ours." The human in the center told the turtles, who Leo had immediately decided who he'll be fighting against and saving for the last. "So why don't you slither back to the ocean you came from?"

"Actually, we're freshwater turtles." Donnie told the human, now no longer in his fighting stance and going into his smart-talking explaining mode, which the other turtles know immediately he's no longer focusing or thinking of the fight at the moment.

'Don, not you, too!' Leo yelled in his head, feeling his patients already slipping the longer his brothers postponed the fight.

"I suspect that we're derived from the diamondback terrapin, but it's possible we're a common box-"

"Get 'em!" The human cried out, interrupting the purple-masked turtle's common sense. Leonardo smirked, happy to know that at least somebody decided to use their brain and shutting Don up about figuring out what kind of turtles the four of them are.

'Thank you, my soon-to-be trapped prey.' He said in his thoughts, waiting for the human with the sledgehammer to come at him and to duck out of the way for Mikey to double spin kick his opponent away. 'And to show you my thanks, I'll be facing you on my own and fight you with one hand behind my back.'

What of the guys?

'They'll be fine. They can take care of the other two on their own. Besides, I've been hoping to practice my Taijutsu on someone and now seems as good as any other.' After getting himself up to his full height, after having to duck down and allowing his brother to use him almost like a springboard, he made eye-contact with the human who stayed inside of the bar counter, searching for something to use for his weapon of choice. With eyes set on his opponent, Leo made a quick dash to the counter and leap over the table, standing face-to-face with his opponent.

Seeing that his opponent still hasn't got a weapon and having to follow a code that prevents him from fighting an unarmed opponent, even if they aren't a threat to the fighter, the turtle crossed his arms and took a step back, allowing the human access to the counter to help give him a fighting chance against the turtle. Though confused and unsure on why the turtle isn't attacking him when he's open for an attack, the human wasted no time on grabbing for the nearing weapon to be his weapon, which is a large butcher knife. Leo prepared himself to fight, when he heard a small groan from behind and below him, which after getting a quick glance to the floor behind him, to be Mr. Murakami April has mentioned to be blind and okay to be around. He then noticed, after a quick sniff in the air, that the human has blood on him, not a lot to be a sign that he needs immediate medical attention, but enough to make Leo's blood boil.

Blind-Elder hurt. Opponent stain of Blind-Elder's blood on glove. Defend and protect Blind-Elder from enemy.

Just as it did to April, Leo was a bit taken back at what his instincts just dubbed the old-man by.

'First April with the "She-Pup" name, and now Murakami-san with "Blind-Elder"?' He stated, not sure if his instincts doing this on purpose to fuel the fire to protect the innocent man, or it knows that the blind one needs his help and is already under his protection to defend him from the Purple Dragon.

She-Pup April speaks truth of Blind-Elder Murakami being blind and Blind-Elder Murakami badly wounded from dishonorable Purple Dragons. Blind-Elder obviously tried to face enemy on own to protect territory, even with disability of sight, and if She-Pup April say that Pup and Kin can trust human, Blind-Elder earned right to have trust... Besides, Blind-Elder Murakami's Japanese, like Alpha, and appears older than Alpha.

Leonardo's eyes widen from the information and that, alone, along with getting another glance at the old-man who the turtle believe to be somewhere in his sixties, gave him more than a good reason to stand in front of Mr. Murakami's fallen form and to unfold his arms to hold up his right-hand he decided to use to attack, ready to defend the fallen blind Japanese-human that the leader of the Purple Dragon thought it would be fun to beat down.

'Looks like your right, and have a very good point of me having to now see him as a new member of the Pack.' Leo thought to himself, glaring at the now armed human, who held the knife up in the air but the hand holding the knife seemed to be trembling a bit. Immediately, the turtle knew that the human before him isn't bad and tough as he's supposed to be known by the innocent victims he and his guys attacked. 'Should've known. On the outside he seems to be tough and ruthless, but really, he's nothing but a coward who spreads fear into the hearts of the innocents by making and causing threats, even going as far as to pick on those who don't stand a chance against him and his gang.'

Small-shuffling sounds caught his hearing, which Leo knew must be April, who must be looking for the owner of the shop and stunned to find him laying behind the eldest turtle, who's waiting for his opponent to make the first move. Taking a quick glance at the redhead, making an immediate eye-contact with her, jerked his head slightly to the left, giving the girl a head body language that tells her to take the fallen blind man out of the shop and away from the fight. With a firm nod back from the girl and after gently shaking the man out of unconsciousness, also to toss a pot-lid at the goatee man that tried to attack Mikey from behind with the sledgehammer while the youngest turtle was about to try out some ramen, April placed his right-arm over her shoulders and helped Mr. Murakami to his feet, heading for the walls to stay out of the turtles way and for the elderly man to use for support. Glaring at the sight of the girl and blind man heading out of the shop, the human before Leo made a quick grab for a large-bowl and flung it towards the two.

"April! Murakami-san! Ahiru (Duck)!" By the cry of the leader's voice, Mr. Murakami brought both himself and April to duck down, just in time for the bowl to crash into the wall over their heads and to finally make it outside, where it will be safe for the two of them to be at until the fight finally stops. Satisfied to see neither of the humans had gotten seriously hurt and now focusing on the now scared human, Leonardo placed his hand down and calmly walked forward towards the leader of the Purple Dragon. In fear of the turtle approaching him, the human made unaimed strikes with the butcher knife, as if trying to scare the turtle away and hoping to get a good scratch at the turtle, but showed to be completely pathetic and no effect on scaring the blue-masked turtle.

Then, getting back to his fighting pose by folding his left-arm behind his back and holding out his right-hand to use to strike, he once again waited for his opponent to make the move on him. Simply by looking into the dark-brown eyes of his opponent, Leo can tell where the human was looking at and what he was planning on doing. The gazes were short and would shift slightly to a different spot that he's staring at the turtle, but the moment they widen, the turtle knew he has decided to randomly bring down the butcher knife down and hope he gets a lucky shot, which he believes he'll be able to injure the turtle's right-shoulder and get a better chance to attack the blue-masked turtle once he's withering in pain.

An unpredictable choice; many foes go for chest or shoulders, while some go for either neck or stomach and very few even think about going after eyes or left-temple, strongest point of human's weakness.

Either the humans has forgotten all about striking the left-temple while in the middle of a fight, their adrenaline blinding them in an attempt to defend themselves from their opponents, or they actually want the fighting to last longer.

This human's still young and too inexperienced to pick a bone with Pup, simple problem Pup can easily take care... Pup knows what to do.

With a calm face and a straight posture, Leo didn't have to wait long for his opponent to strike, who pulled back as quickly as he could and brought the knife down. The turtle, already knowing what his opponent was planning to do and with little effort, merely slapped the knife out of the human's hand and the moment the human was left with no weapon, gave two jab punches as his choice of attack, one to the chest and the other to the stomach. Forcefully being pulled back to lean on the bar counter and to only able to lean back up, gave Leo plenty of time to position himself to give a good roundhouse kick to the human's face and sending him tumbling down to the end of the bar counter and slamming his back against the wall.

Quickly, pin him to the wall!

A quick flip up on the counter and a short sprint to end with a slide on the bar, the human found the turtle standing in front of him and his back pinned up against the wall by the turtle's right-hand gripping onto his left-shoulder and his left-hand held out in a form of a fist. The turtle's Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes held rage, no hesitation to strike. But most of all, he showed no mercy in his gaze and that, alone, was all the human knew that he's now in the mercy of the turtle before him. In a reaction of fear and preparing himself for the pain that he knew will come, the human closed his eye and lifted his head up a bit, letting out small whimpers that tells the turtle he's scared and wanted his end to be quick.

Coward, nothing but Curl-Tail, now that enemy is victim. Curl-Tail and Pack members attacked a blind elder, no inexcusable reason, and showed no mercy. Now, Curl-Tail's going to experience what Blind-Elder went through and will soon feel pain he put Blind-Elder in, once Pup puts Curl-Tail in place.

'Which it'll be my pleasure to do, as I take care of him and then give the same treatment to his friends.' Leonardo thought to himself, pulling his fist back a bit to prepare himself to beat the leader that he now holds his fate in his hand. Just as he was about to deliver a good punch, something caught his attention that prevented him from finishing what he started with the leader of the Purple Dragon. It wasn't the whimpers the human was letting out or of him cowering in fear on being terribly beaten. Heck, it wasn't even the small feeling of mercy the turtle sense within his heart on wanting to show he's stronger than the human and not wanting to stoop to his level. No, it was something he's doing before Leo's eyes, that he and his wolf-instincts know he must follow a certain rule of their own.

His fist trembled from the mixed feeling he has within him, fighting over on being used to deliver a painful blow to the Purple Dragon's face or to unclench itself back into a hand and push aside the feeling for vengeance.

Vengeance? Is this is what the feeling of anger towards the Purple Dragon is about?... Despite wanting to get even with them for beating an innocent human, including one that's blind, you can't go around taking the rules or law into your own hands... You can't become like them... Release him.

Besides, coward of a Curl-Tail got lucky by showing submission to Pup, without even realizing what Curl-Tail's doing or that exposing neck tells Pup of surrender and admitting defeat to Pup... Omega-Brothers and Beta-Brother won't like decision, but-... Release the Curl-Tail human.

Leonardo didn't like what both his instincts and conscience just told him to do, but in the end, the turtle already knew he has to do the right thing, no matter how much he's never going to hear the end of it from Raphael or how much he's going to be kicking himself for making such a choice that'll make him look as if he's gone soft , even if that isn't what the turtle is worried about.

'...Ugh... Damn me and my decision making!' With eyes narrowed with regret, anger on wanting to beat the human for harming an innocent human but knows that he can't give the certain punishment he wanted to give to the human and has to let him go, Leonardo released his hold on the human's shoulder and just glared into the shocked and confused gaze of the human's dark-brown eyes. Leo jerked his head slightly towards the door, ignoring the stunned gaze of his brothers watching the sight of their big brother letting his opponent go. "Get out of here," he growled out.

With no need to be told twice and pushing the turtle aside, the human calmly and slowly made his way towards the front of the bar counter and jumped down, making his way to his two fallen gang member.

"Come on. Let's go!" He told the two, shaking them a bit to help them gather their thoughts on what's going on and without a second thought, the two Purple Dragons got to their feet and made their ways out of the shop. Before joining his retreating gang, the leader of the gang turned to the turtles, mostly at Leonardo. "This ain't over, Greeny!" He stated, and just like that, he made a quick dash to his gang, not bothering to pick another fight or sneak a glance to April and Mr. Murakami.

"'Greeny'? Really?!" Donatello exclaimed, not sure if he should feel offended by the name or be annoyed that the human couldn't think up a better combat on the name calling. "I wonder how many brain cells he put to work on that." As always, Leonardo glared at his brother for making up a comment to describe how idiotic the human is.

'We finish taking care of the Purple Dragon by letting them go, and all he can think about his the name the human just called us? I swear, it seems like to Don, knowledge and logic of the event that played before us is the most important thing to have on his mind.' He thought to himself, as he jumped down to the floor and quietly made his way to the front of the bar counter. To his left, the brother he knew that was going to chew him out came towards him.

"You just let him go? What the heck was that?!" Raphael yelled, completely pissed that not only the fight has ended too early, but that his big-brother just let the leader and his gang go. With a blank face, Leo calmly stared into his brother's rage-filled eyes.

"They weren't exactly a threat," he answered. "They were already at our mercy the very moment the fight started. And besides, they knew to finally stop fighting when they realized they didn't stand a chance against our skills." He then took a quick glance back outside, no longer seeing the three Purple Dragons within his sight of range. "They had enough."

"Dude! They were beating up a blind guy! There's no 'enough'!" Raph loudly reminded, his face raising to a new level of loud from the answer he gained from his brother. "Now they'll think we're wimps and we don't have the guts to finish the job!" Snapping his gaze back to his brother, Leo's Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes glared into the depths of Raph's emerald-green eyes.

"Is that what you're worried about? Your status of being a badass being reduced to a spineless, gutless, weakling?" Despite Raph being nearly five inches taller, Leo's gaze made the inside of the red-masked turtle go cold and nearly shrinking in fear of the terrible feeling the blue-eyes held. "A true warrior doesn't fight for the sake of keeping his rank high and unbreakable, nor does he goes around slaughtering his opponents to avoid being called 'weak-willed' or 'coward'. Instead, he fights to protect the innocents, for the sake to help him protect his friends and loved ones." His gaze then went back to the door, where he saw April and Mr. Murakami returning into the shop. "Be glad that we've won the fight and was able to protect an innocent man." Deciding to not bring up the topic any longer, for the time being, Raph kept his mouth shut.

"Wow. That was great, you guys!" April exclaimed, helping the owner of the noodle shop towards the bar counter and to sit him down in one of the chairs.

"Thanks, April." Donatello replied back, feeling mighty proud of himself that he did something to gain the redhead's attention. Then, with his head swelled up on the thought of April commenting his fighting skills, he decided to gloat with the girl on the parts he's taken cared of one of the Purple Dragon on his own. "Did you see when I caught the one guy and flipped him onto the counter? Did it look cool? I bet it looked cool."

Disproving of what his brother's trying to do, Leo folded his arms in front of his chest and shook his head.

Omega-Brother Donatello still tries to court She-Pup April into being soon-to-be mate. Typical pup, when Omega-Brother should obviously know neither self nor She-Pup are in actual age on being eligible to have mates of own. Omega-Brother should simply realize that feelings Omega-Brother has for She-Pup are simple child-like crush, fantasy illusion that makes Omega-Brother think in love.

Not only that, even if he were to have her to be his 'girlfriend', no doubt their relationship wouldn't last for very long. Besides, it's completely obvious that she views Don as a brother, not a love-interest or lover on top of that.

'No doubt she already knows that, but is possibly waiting for the right moment or time to tell him how she actually feels about him. I'll stay quiet about this and let her handle this situation.'

"The coolest." A small pause of silence went by.

'...She didn't see it; her heart pounded an extra few beats and her voice sounded a bit uncertain, indicating she's lying and isn't sure how to tell Don that she didn't see him take down one of the Purple Dragons.'

"...You didn't see it, did you?" Don said, feeling the pride getting ripped away and a bit embarrassed on making a fool of himself.

"No, I did not." April answered, her voice sounding how sorry she was for giving him such false hope on having them talk to each other.

"My friends, I'm indebted to you." Mr. Murakami told the four turtles, his voice sounding very tired from having to be tossed around and being punched by the Purple Dragons but held so much appreciation and gratitude on what the turtles did for him, that Leonardo's negative feelings on letting the Purple Dragons go instantly vanished from his mind and heart. "Please, allow me to make you a meal. Free of charge."

The blue-masked turtle, knowing that the human is blind, gave him a soft smile, happy to see that the attack hadn't damaged the elderly-human to lose his trust into knowing there are people who care and are willing to help him in his time of need.

For somebody who's been beaten and pushed around, he sure has a strong spirit.

Blind-Elder also knows how to show gratitude to Pup and Omega-Brothers and Beta-Brother, though shouldn't have to go through trouble on doing such a task.

'I know. I'm more than happy to simply be there for Murakami-san whenever he's in danger, with nothing to gain back in return for my services... Even if he is blind and we've only just met him, he clearly trust us enough call us "his friends" and for that, I shall accept him as a friend and see him as a member of our Pack.'

"I think we can allow that." Raphael said, smiling from actually getting and seeing some good in what their rescuing got them into. Leo, on the other hand, gave him a quick glare at having to sound like he was expecting an award in exchange for their help.

'Of course, unlike myself, my brother seems to want to be the kind of hero that wants an award for his services and not for free.'

Either that, or maybe he's taking the offer for an excuse to distract him from having to keep fighting with you on why you let the Purple Dragons go.

'Even so, that still isn't a good enough excuse to make an injured man to cook a meal to show his appreciation.' Leo then turned his gaze to the shop, catching sight of some of the chairs and furniture of the restaurant sprawled out on the floor and some items that are made of glass completely broken into pieces all over the floor. 'It'll probably take Murakami-san a while to get this place cleaned up before his next customers come over for food, considering he must be in some sort of pain from the beating of the Purple Dragons he's taken... I'll help him out by cleaning up the Purple Dragons' mess they made in his shop.'

"What is your favorite dish?" Mr. Murakami asked the turtles, happy to hear that his saviors will take up his offer for having a free meal to express his gratitude. Leo was barely able to hold back a groan from the question the human just asked him and his brothers.

'Murakami-san just asked the forbidden question,' he thought to himself. 'There's only one food on their mind and that food is...'

"Pizza!" The three brothers cheered out, big smiles plastered on their faces and excitement coursing their veins of the thought on having pizza as their reward for helping Mr. Murakami as an acceptable payment.

'Pizza...' Leo's stomach let out a growl, but it wasn't just the kind of growl that tells its master he's hungry. It also let out an upset-stomach growl from thinking about the very food his brothers grew obsessed with and preferred to eat almost all day and every day. 'I swear, it's almost like to them, pizza is the only food source they can live off of. Can't they ask for something else that doesn't involve grease-covered cheese or sauce that nearly resembles itself to blood but is actually juice from tomatoes that almost taste like they've gone rotten?'

Pushing the thought of pizza aside from his mind the best he could and while his brothers and April took a seat in the chairs around the bar counter to wait for their meal to come, the blue-masked turtle went for the fallen furnitures that still laid in their spots from being forcefully yanked out of their places by the Purple Dragons and went into putting them back in their places. The scraping of the chairs caught the blind man's attention, who was swiftly going over from one pan for another on his big stove that sat in the center of the bar-counter. He would've told the eldest turtle that he would take care of the cleaning of the shop himself, but he can sense that the turtle wanted to help out and seems to not want to take no for an answer. So, instead, he kept his attention on the meal and let one of his heroes clean the mess that he didn't have to do.

It took Leo under two minutes to get all the chairs back in their spots and another minute to dispose of the destroyed chairs, as well as replacing them with newer chairs that the owner keeps behind the Noren. The moment he finished, he used his nose to help him find the broom, which was hiding behind the Noren that covers the staircase that he had a hunch leads to Mr. Murakami's apartment, to sweep away the shattered glass, destroyed parts of the plants and splintered wood chips to form them in a pile and using the dustpan for some assistance, rid away any sort of evidence that the Purple Dragons came to the noodle shop.

"Murakami-san, that was awesome!" Donnie told the owner of the shop, astounded by the way the human moves over the stove with ease and has impressed the three turtles with his moves on how he makes his dish.

"You're like a ninja, but for food." Mikey complimented, wondering if the human had actually been a ninja in his younger years before he was a food maker for a noodle shop.

It was pretty clear that none of the three turtles took notice of their big brother taking care of the mess that the Purple Dragons had left behind and didn't think about wanting to help clean up the mess, which is what Leo prefers to have; to only be silence and unnoticeable, never to be heard unless told or asked. The only one who noticed his kind generosity to Mr. Murakami was April, who seemed a bit surprised that none of the other turtles had given a thought about helping Leo with the cleaning and didn't seem amused that they were keeping their focus on Mr. Murakami making their meal. She was actually thinking about helping the blue-masked turtle with the task and give the younger brothers a bit of a scolding for not offering to help out, but she can tell from the look on Leo's face that he wanted to have a few moments to be on his own and that he seemed to want to take care of the mess by himself. So, she stayed quiet in her seat and kept an eye on the turtle until he finally finished cleaning the shop and went to take a seat on the other side of the bar counter, a chair away from Raphael's left-side of the table.

Minutes later, Mr. Murakami finally finished his dish he prepared for the four turtles.

"Pizza Gyoza!" He announced, placing out four wooden sushi plates in front of the turtles, all having ten potstickers laid out and a miniature dipping bowl on the left-end of their plates that held some sort of sauce for the brothers to dip their pizza dumplings/potstickers into.

"'Pizza Gyoza'?" April questioned, obviously never hearing such a certain kind of potsticker to be made with pizza filling and completely positive that it wouldn't taste good if its in a mixture of Japanese food and italian food. As for the turtles, they all eyed their food with curious looks on their faces, with the three younger brothers already picking up one potsticker and trying it out. The moment the food went into their mouths and took their first bite into their meal, the taste was so delicious that they could've sworn their eyes just popped out of their sockets from the marvelous flavor they've ever tasted. And so, the three brothers immediately dig into their meal, savoring each and every dumpling they scarfed down.

"Wow." Raph was at a loss for word to describe how he really felt about the food.

"Delish!" Mikey cried.

"It's like I got a one-way ticket to Flavorville!" Donnie commented,

"This is really good too, you know." April told the boys, holding up her Miso soup to see if any of the guys were interested on trying it out, which ended up with the three turtles going back into eating their Pizza Gyoza.

While the four teens ate, Leo simply stared down nonchalantly at his potstickers, already knowing from the smell of the food it was a very appetizing meal. However, because the scent also carries the scent of what pizza would have, his stomach didn't seem to want to have any of the pizza potstickers unless the turtle would wanna risk having to purge the food out of his stomach, again. Not only that, he couldn't really lower his guard, not after going head-to-head with the Purple Dragons and knowing that the area Mr. Murakami lives isn't a safe place to be comfortable in. Because of that, the turtle has been turning his gaze from his meal to the door, watching out for any shadows of suspicious characters that may look as if they're trying to break in and keeping a close hearing for any sound of trouble trying to come into the shop.

You know, if you don't start eating, the guys are going to be questioning your eating habits again, and no doubt Raph's going to pin you down and force feed you.

'I know that,' he thought to himself. 'It's just that I can't; it's basically a pizza dish and just the thought of pizza makes me want to starve myself until the creation of pizza finally comes to an end.'

Don't let the guys hear you say that, or else they'll come to believe you're a Kraandroid in disguise or some sort of evil-clone of their big brother. Besides, you also like pizza as much as they do.

'...Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean I love it so much to wanna eat it all the time, twenty-four/seven. And the homemade pizza Mikey would make, he sure knows how to make a person go bulimic from the sight and smell of his food.' A shiver ran down his spine from the last pizza Mikey decided to make. 'Never thought he would actually try to make an actual Fish Pizza, by adding Tuna Fish and Sardine into the making with the cheese and sauce. And to top it all off, two Japanese fish sauces: Shottsuru and Ishiru... Ugh, I should be glad he didn't think about adding worms into the meal.'

...Well, that's Mikey for you: Strange appetite can lead one to wanna make different kinds of creation they believe to become a great masterpiece.

'Yeah, I noticed... Anyway, my mind just isn't in the mood for food right now; it's still lost in thought about the Purple Dragons coming to Mr. Murakami's shop.'

Best to ask Blind-Elder question. May know something about Purple Dragons that can give Pup some sort of clue on where Purple Dragon den is.

'...Good idea... I should probably ask in his native tongue, just in case somebody could be listening on our conversation.'

Wise idea, Pup.

With his mind made up and finding it as a good excuse to not eat, Leonardo lifted his head to stare at the human before him. "Murakami-san wa, murasakiiro no doragonzu wa ōku o atsumatte kuru nodesu ka (Murakami-san, do the Purple Dragons come around a lot)?" Him speaking in Japanese brought a confused look on April's face, questioning glances from his brothers and a stunned Mr. Murakami that one of his saviors had asked him a question in his native tongue.

"Uh... What did Leo say?" April asked Don, who was the closest turtle sitting next to her.

Ever since she agreed to become a Kunoichi, she had also decided to take up some Japanese lesson so that she would be able to understand what Splinter would say to her or when one of the turtles were to slip their tongues into their Sensei's language. She was indeed a fast learner into the language, but just like all beginners, she doesn't fully understand the whole language of Japanese.

"He asked Murakami-san if the Purple Dragons come here a lot," the purple-masked turtle whispered back to the girl. Letting out a tiring sigh, Leo knew what the answer was to his question.

"Hai," he answered. "They demand protection money, but I refuse to pay. They will surely return." At that last sentence, Leo knew who was going to speak up next and what it was going to be about.

'Oh, God, please don't it up, Raph.' He silently prayed, though he knew he won't be getting his wish. 'I'm not in the mood to argue and all I want to do is head back to the Lair and get some sleep, before I go off and track down the Purple Dragon's hideout.'

"Well, they wouldn't if somebody hadn't wimped out." Raph remarked, giving his brother one of his disproving glares to try and make him second guess his judgement for letting the leader and his gang go. However, the blue-masked turtle knew that in his heart, he made the right choice by showing compassion and mercy for the human. And so, despite the throbbing pain building up, Leo decide to play his brother's game.

"Oh really, Raph?" He asked, returning the glare back to his brother, but not giving him the cold-feeling like his last glare gave him. "You believe that they would leave Murakami-san alone, just like that, if we beaten them even more than they'd already had to take from us?"

"Uh, yeah, I do." Raph's answer was too quick of a response, which means he answered with what he believes his statement to be right and not seeing the negative side on what if they didn't let the Purple Dragons go.

"Well, then, you're a fool to believe that would actually happen." Don and Mikey nearly choked on their last few remaining Pizza Gyoza when they heard what their big brother just said to the hothead turtle, who also looked stunned by the blue-masked turtle's word. April, who also ceased her eating, could feel a dark tension going around the air and she knows that there's probably going to be some sort of fight between the two eldest brothers.

"What was that, Fearless?" Raph growled out, scraping his chair back to get up to his feet and stomping his way to the eldest-turtle, who's face stayed completely calm and showed no sign of being scared or intimidated by the red-masked turtle's anger.

"You heard what I said," he answered. "You're a fool to believe that being and acting like the Purple Dragons would make us better and stronger than them, let alone have them leave Murakami-san alone."

"Really...?" Raph stated, not sure if he'll be able to hold back the urge to strike down his brother and start another fight to prove himself to be the better ninja than the blue-masked turtle. "And what makes you say that, Leo?" Resisting the urge to shake his head, facepalm himself or letting out a sigh, the eldest turtle calmly answered the red-masked turtle's question.

"They're a gang, Raph, and if there's one thing about gangs, is that many of them have alliance and part of a higher class connection to dangerous people. What else? they've been told about us, meaning whoever told them about our existence, most likely means that the Purple Dragons are allies or most likely workers to the Foot Clan." The four teenagers' eyes widen in horror from Leonardo's words, with Mr. Murakami also sensing a sign of danger in the air from the mentioning of the Foot Clan that Leo brought up. The turtle then got out of his seat and stood face-to-face with Raph, who still had a stunned look on his face. "And if you want to risk Mr. Murakami's safety by beating them to a pulp and have them get back at us by getting the Foot to clean up their failure, then you're already on your way on being like the Purple Dragons... Maybe even a Foot Ninja." Ignoring the stunned glances of the other teens, Leo turned to the noodle owner, who was putting away the pans into the sink that had helped him make Pizza Gyoza for the turtles. "Can I get my meal to go, Murakami-san? I wish to take the rest to our sensei." With the last pan in the sink, the blind man turned his head towards the direction where he heard Leo's voice from and smiled gently at the turtle.

"Mochiron (Of course)," he replied. Feeling out for the boxes that he would have for his customers to take their meals home with underneath the board that he keeps on the right-side of the bar counter, Mr. Murakami slowly and calmly made his way to where Leonardo and Raphael stood next to the counter and the moment he felt the styrofoam feeling of the boxes, he pulled one of the medium-size boxes off of the small stack and quietly handed the box to the eldest turtle.

"Arigato," he thanked the owner. Turning his back to his brother and ignoring the sad expression on Don, Mikey and April's faces when they saw he hadn't eaten one of his own potstickers, Leo silently pushed all of his meal into the styrofoam box and then sealed the box up to prevent the food from falling out. With the styrofoam held within his left-hand, Leo gave Mr. Murakami a respective bow, despite knowing that he can't see him bowing but may be able to sense the turtle showing his respects to him. "Thank you for the meal, Murakami-san. Heiwana yoru o sugosu (Have a peaceful night)." Smiling from hearing the appreciation and wishing him for a good night, Mr. Murakami returned the bow back to the turtle, though he did flinched a bit from the bruises he received from trying to defend himself and his shop.

"Sugu ni kaeru (Come back soon)," he told the turtle. Making a silent promise to himself to make a quick stop to Mr. Murakami's shop whenever he and his brothers go out on patrol and without another word, Leonardo smiled gently at the kind human before him and quietly made his way out the door.

You won't be alone for long; the guys and April are going to cut their time they probably planned to stay for longer at the restaurant and catch up to you to be sure you get to the Lair.

Leo's smile immediately went away and to replace the smile was a scowl from the information he gained from his conscience, even when he knew that it was bound to happen.

'Like I'm actually going to do a runner, with one of my hands holding on to leftovers that I plan to take home to Master Splinter.' He scoffed, making his way for the nearest manhole-cover that he seen half a block away at the right-side of the noodle shop and next to an alley. 'They should continue on with their friendly night without me; I didn't wanted to come along in the first place. Besides, they'll have loads of fun without me there.'

Even if that were true, April looked a bit upset and disappointed when you walked right out the door. It would appear that she planned the whole thing so that you could spend time with her and your brothers.

She-Pup April's heart in right place, but decision on wanting to earn Pup's trust isn't correct.

The turtle's eyes narrowed from the mentioning of the redhead, feeling his heart growing a bit heavy of the guilt for ruining the girl's plan to hang out with the guys.

'I'll admit, I do feel bad for spoiling her plans.' He thought to himself, as he leaned down and opened the manhole-cover, after he set aside his box to have both hands to pull the cover off of its place. 'However, that doesn't change the fact that I never intended to remain present for the whole evening plan she arranged or that I don't regret on cutting our time short.'

"Hey, Leo, wait up!" Mikey's voiced called out to the eldest turtle, who didn't bother to turn to see his brothers and April heading for his way, when he can hear the sound of footsteps making their way towards him. Rather then listen to his youngest-brother, Leo reached for the styrofoam-box that still held his untouched food and, with no hesitation jumped down the hole of the street.

'But that doesn't matter right now. What does matter, is about the Purple Dragons. Whether I had finished the leader off or not, they'll surely return to get back at Murakami-san. And right now, I'm having a hunch that they're going to be informing someone from the Foot Clan about us, which I'm guessing it's going to be Bradford and that Brazilian-human that helped him tie up Mikey from our last encounter.'

Brazilian? How did you figure out that the human working with Bradford is Brazilian?

'Simple: His accent while he was speaking in English, for the short reason, but it's more from the way he fought us; it's Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music.'

"Dance", and "Music"? Is it some sort of game?

'Sort of, a while back. It's actually known for quick and complex moves, using mainly power, speed, and leverage for a wide variety of kicks, spins, and highly mobile techniques.'

Really... Sounds like a combination of Mikey and Raph performing such fighting stance.

Leo smirked at the connection between the Brazilian martial art and how Mikey and Raph sort of relates to it.

'Yeah, it does. Though, it sounds more to Mikey's level than Raph, but I can't actually see him trying to attempt on doing such attacks like the human did.'

"Leo, slow down!" Mikey's voice echoed throughout the tunnels of the sewers, which was then replaced by the sounds of his screams and certain items being knocked around by something. The sounds then ended with a crash, followed by a groan from Mikey and a "You're an idiot" from Raph. In response from the sound, Leo face palmed himself.

'I swear, I feel like I'm going to have to repeat myself, like some broken record, to remind them to be quiet and for Mikey to pay attention where he's going.'

The Lair eventually came into view, where the turtle then quietly made his way to the kitchen and placed the Pizza Gyoza inside the fridge to keep them fresh and cool, before heading for his bedroom and locking the door. At the same time, Leo heard his brothers and April's footsteps entering the Lair as well, with a new pair of steps making its way to the living room and towards the group of steps, which the turtle knew to be Splinter.

"My sons, and April, how was your evening? Did it went as well as it was planned to be?" The only replies the humanoid-rat gained and from what Leo could hear, was a scoff from Raph, an "Uh... Sort of?" from Mikey, a disappointing sigh from April, and "Not exactly, Sensei." from Don. Leonardo knew instantly that Splinter isn't going to be thrilled to hear that his eldest-son just cut their activity short, once the guys and April tells him what just happened at Mr. Murakami's noodle shop.

'If I get in trouble, which I'm probably am, then oh well.' He thought to himself, as he made his way towards the center of his room and sat down in a Lotus position. 'I'm already used to taking the blame and accepting the punishment, that it's not really a big deal to me, anymore. Right now, what I need to focus on is figuring out what we're going to do once the Purple Dragons inform Bradford and his partner of our last known location... We must protect Murakami-san, without becoming like our enemies and the way they fight in order to win.'

With his back turned to the door and placing his hands resting on his knees, the turtle closed his eyes and did his cleansing breath, going into deep mediation. His mind went totally blank, unresponsive to what's happening within the outside world of his room, as his thoughts fade into nothing but the darkness, one of his few attempts to escape his reality.

TBC

---

Yes, people, Leo is also Samurai [at least, this Leo is; not sure of the other Leo incarnations. Maybe a little bit of samurai from 2003 Leonardo, but I think that's it.] (his fighting stance and some of his moves are samurai. Heck, even his Katanas appear more samurai-like weapons), not just a ninja. And yes, Bushidō is a code of honor for samurai (I looked it up), which does make Leo half-ninja and half-samurai, with a possibility of him being the only samurai in the family and the only one following the Bushidō code (unless Splinter has his share of being samurai in the past back in Japan).

And yes, in my story, Raph is the second tallest of the turtles and is taller than Leo. The Fish Pizza, I made that stuff up and I advise you to not try and make it (I may not know what it would taste like, but I doubt it would be appetizing. So, it would be best not to try it). And yes, google translate left me with that and I'm not sure if that's the actual right translation or not.

And before you ask me or those who're wondering... NO! This won't have any Leoril [Leo x April] (I don't know what their couple name is), only sibling moments!

R&R