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!

7. What Happened?

Back at the Lair...
Master Splinter, who had finished his meditation session just minutes ago, paced himself within the living room, sensing something very wrong has become of his sons. He wasn't sure what it was, but he could feel that something isn't right with the team and that a great anger has befallen on one of his children, which, surprisingly, isn't Raphael this time. And already, the wise rat has a hunch on who is the one sealing that great anger, but it isn't just from sensing the presence coming to the Lair.

The moment he awaken from his meditation, Splinter sense something wasn't right and that his home has gotten awfully quiet... Well, quieter, than it usually gets whenever his three youngest sons go off on their own. Even if his eldest son is the most experienced and most skilled amongst his brothers to accomplished the Art of Invisibility, the rat's strong sense of hearing were to allow him to pick up the sound of his son's shallow breathing or at least a slow-tone beating of a heart from outside of the Dojo. Fearing he'd meditated for far too long to allow the blue-masked turtle enough time to leave the Lair, Master Splinter made a beeline out of the Dojo and to the door of Leonardo's Bedroom, where he found the door left open by a mere crack.

When he allowed himself inside of his son's room, without bothering to knock or call out to his son if he were still in, he was horrified to find the room empty and his son's katanas nowhere in sight.

He wasn't sure how long he was in his meditation or when Leonardo exactly left the Lair, but from what he could guess from how he could feel a very faint heat spot on the bed, it was most likely over ten minutes ago when the turtle chose to leave the Lair, without informing his sensei about it, and is probably above the surface on his own or could be searching for his brothers. Splinter prayed it was the latter. He, himself, would go up to the surface world and search for his sons, but with the Foot Clan also in New York and the Shredder looking for him, the rat has to remain hidden in the sewers and guard the Lair, just in case the Foot would think about searching for their home underneath the city. Even with that sort of knowledge being the only excuse to prevent him from going out to find his sons, the overprotective-father inside of his heart wasn't satisfied by his choice and is demanding the fifty year-old to risk his own safety to go look for his children, his babies.

And he almost did and was about to listen to his fatherly-instinct, when his hearing caught the sound of feet heading for the entrance of the Lair and his reddish-brown eyes caught sight of all four of his sons returning to him. Unfortunately, his happiness immediately turned to fear and worry when he saw a barely conscious Donatello being lifted in a fireman's carry position by Leonardo, as Raphael had Michelangelo leaning on him and his arm draped across the hothead's shoulders. Without any hesitation, Master Splinter made his way to his sons at the couch, where Leo gently placed the genius turtle on the couch that gives its sitters better sighting at the opening of the Lair and Raph guided their youngest brother on the other couch that faces towards the direction of the small TV.

As the blue-masked turtle backed away from Donatello and made his way to the kitchen, Master Splinter kneeled in front of his purple-masked son, using his hands to help him on his search to figure out what sort of injuries the genius turtle has sustained, which he eventually found from his examination that the third child is suffering from a sprained right-arm and a mild concussion. Taking a glance to his other two sons, Michelangelo, who laid out on the other couch on his plastron, seems to only be suffering by the simple sores that his shell and plastron had to endure for taking the major blows for him and the bruises on his arms. Raphael, who made his way to the practice dummy, appears to also be bruised a bit and his timing on his kicks were a bit slower, indicating that he pushed his body a bit too far and is having some muscle strains in his legs.

With all the information he gained from the three turtles, their father let out a sigh of relief, happy to see his sons had returned home with unserious injuries and are going to be alright after some rest and a few Shiatsu* sessions, though he'll have to put Donatello on strict bed rest and prevent him from doing anything in his lab that'll cause him stress or strain his brain, which also means he's forbidden to attend training sessions until his concussion is gone.

"What has happened?" Splinter questioned his sons, setting himself on the couch and placing Don's head on his lap, as he begins the Shiatsu session on treating the turtle's head by using the tips of his fingers, minding his claws, and gently did circular-motion on both side of the turtle's scalp. Mikey simply avoided his father's gaze, not wanting to be the one to tell the rat what has happened, for knowing Raph would then cut in and change their story to what they did. Raph simply continued on beating the dummy, ignoring the aches his legs are making him feel. "My sons?" Their father asked again, continuing his Shiatsu method with the genius turtle with the circular-motion but removing his gaze to stare at his other two sons, confused and a little annoyed on them not answering his question.

Hearing the flap of the Noren being pushed aside slightly, He turned his eyes to Leonardo, who came back from the kitchen and held out a small-towel that holds a couple of ice cubes from inside, glaring at Raphael with disappointment and anger spelled out within his deep-blue eyes. Unlike his brothers, the eldest turtle appears to be unharmed and completely fine. However, Splinter knew he wasn't okay on the inside and can sense the raging anger escalating the more Leonardo glared at Raphael and to the rest of his brothers... And he wasn't sure what or why, but he could smell the scent of copper, blood to be exact, coming from the eldest turtle.

"Leonardo, what is the meaning of this?" The rat asked his eldest son, who pulled his gaze away from Raph and made his way to the youngest turtle, gently placing the towel with ice onto one of the biggest bruises Michelangelo has on him, which is on his left-shoulder and slightly concealed by his shell.

"Ask them." The turtle muttered out, keeping his gaze on the bruises his youngest brother has on him from being beaten by Bradford. Raphael ceased his punching on the dummy when he heard his brother talk, which made his own anger stir up when he heard the anger and disappointment the eldest turtle has for his brothers. Pushing the dummy aside, the red-mask turtle stomped his way towards his eldest and youngest brother.

"Passing the blame over to us, Fearless?" He questioned, giving him one of his own glares of anger and disappointment, only his gaze has an extra expression into his glare: Despise. Even if the blue-mask turtle isn't making eye-contact to see the despise in his brother's eyes, he can very well sense the anger and spite building up inside the hothead. Not bothering to talk to his brother, Leo continued on gently pressing the towel of ice on Michelangelo's bruised shoulder and refusing to have any eye-contact with either of his brothers or sensei. "What now? You're not going to talk to us?!"

"Raphael, lower your voice." Splinter ordered his son, giving him a firm-glare that tells the hothead to not test his patience, as he continued with his Shiatsu session on the genius turtle. "Donatello has a concussion and the volume of your voice is further wounding your brother. If you wish to discuss the matter with Leonardo but prefer to raise your voice into the conversation, then I would insist that the both of you should take your argument to the Dojo." He then used his left-hand to point a clawed-finger towards the closed Shoji-door of their Dojo, giving both red and blue turtles a stern look to see if they would do as he say or suffer the wrath of their overprotective father. As a response, Leonardo lifted himself off the couch and gave a quick bow of respect to his sensei.

"Watashi o yurushite (Forgive me), Sensei, but Raphael and I cannot deal with the matter of our conversation right now. I'm afraid that there's matter I must attend to, at this very moment." Leonardo told the rat, as he turned and made a quick sprint towards the turnstiles, only to stop in his tracks by said hothead, who gave the blue-masked turtle a warning glare and folded his arms in front of his chest.

"And just where do you think you're going, Fearless?" He growled out, though he has a hunch on what his brother's trying to do.

"Wherever that I'm going, is none of your business nor your concern, Raphael, considering you never once care how the outcome would turnout from the effects of your choices and decision making." The eldest turtle answered, which already gotten on the taller turtle's nerve and his anger spike from the challenging glare of his brother is giving to him, as if daring him to stay in his way from leaving their home and swore on giving him a challenge if he chooses to stand in his way.

"Like Shell it ain't my damn business or concern, when you're obviously trying to go off on your own!" Splinter's ears twitched and his tail smacked itself heavily against the couch, glaring at his second-eldest for speaking such language right in his presence and when Michelangelo is in the same room with them.

"Raphael, watch your language!" He ordered the red-masked turtle, not wanting his son to pass on his swearing to the youngest turtle, despite all four of them being quadruplets. "And Leonardo," he turned his head to stare at his eldest. "I gave you no permission or my leave to go, nor do I want an apology, when all I want from you is to tell me what has happened or have both you and Raphael to settle your argument to the Dojo if you don't tell me what has happened." The blue-masked turtle lowered his gaze to the floor, clenching and unclenching his hands to be his source of distraction in order to not let his anger take control on him to yell at his sensei.

Stay calm. Whatever you do, Leonardo, don't take your anger out on Father.

"Unless somebody will tell me why you four have returned home, injured and bruised, then I cannot allow you to leave, Leonardo."

"As if you and the guys ever let me go off on my own, when it isn't involved with scouting the tunnels or scavenging for supplies." The turtle muttered under his breath, already feeling his patience growing dimmer and dimmer the longer he's forced to stay put in the Lair.

Alpha's word is law, Pup.

'"And just like Kins, Pup must follow and obey Alpha's every command"! Stop repeating words and lessons that I already know!' He yelled in his thoughts. 'I swear, the next person who pisses me off, no matter who it is, I'm not going to hold back and will start yelling! And I won't care how much of a headache it'll be to Donnie, scares Mikey, or how much it'll disappoint Master Splinter!' And he didn't need to wait that long for the next person to speak up and get him angry.

"What was that, Fearless?" It wasn't what Raphael just ask of him that gotten the blue-masked turtle to get angry, but it was what the red-mask called the eldest-turtle by, which was something Leo has always despised for as long as he could remember ever since his brother started calling him 'Fearless'. And because of his hatred towards that name, his patience finally snapped.

'...Alright, that does it!' "First off, Raphael, stop referring to me by 'Fearless'!" Raph, Don and Mikey's eyes widen at their big brother's voice. "And second, if you have a problem on hearing what I just said, then it should tell you that I didn't want you or anybody else to hear what I just said, considering that you three completely ignored my orders to not go looking for the Purple Dragons and nearly gotten yourselves killed by Xever and Bradford!"

"Going to bring that up, again?! Is that the only excuse you have on why you're blaming us for what happened, when you told us to not do a thing about it while we try to do something that we believe would help Murakami-san be safe from the Purple Dragons?!"

Removing Donatello's head off of his lap and placing a pillow for the genius turtle to lay his head on, Splinter pressed the cushion against the turtle's ears to block the sound as much as he could to prevent the concussion from getting any worser, along with allowing him raise his voice and get in with the conversation.

"Michelangelo, cover your ears." He told his youngest son, who appeared to be getting very upset of his two big brothers fighting, again, and seemed to have gotten scared of the eldest-brother raising his voice, but did as his father told him to and grabbed for two pillows to cover his ears. Now with both orange and purple-masked turtles unable to hear, the rat was finally allow to get through his sons. "Leonardo, Raphael, that is enough!" And to get through to the two turtle whenever they fight, is by yelling and scolding.

In most cases to the outcome of their fights or whenever Splinter yells at them to stop, either both turtles would stay quiet as their father told them to, or Raphael would continue on with the yelling and shouting... Which is what he chose to do, even when his master ordered him and his brother to stop fighting.

"But it's the truth, Sensei!" Raph then pointed a finger at his brother. "Leo not only decided to become a coward, but he also made us look weak by having us retreat from a fight! A fight that he caused to happen, if he'd hadn't let the Purple Dragons go or suggested that we don't go looking for their hideout in the first place! If he'd only finished the job, not only would Murakami-san be safe from the Purple Dragons, but Mikey, Don and I wouldn't be coming back bruised up from our fight with the Foot! Heck, we wouldn't go against his orders to not find their hideout, if he wasn't such a terrible leader and the worst brother to have on the team, let alone in this family!"

Donatello, who couldn't hear at the moment but was Lipreading to what Raphael was saying, gasped in shock to what his brother just said. Michelangelo, who can neither hear as well or lip-lead like Don or Leo, simply stared in confusion to what was going on. Splinter was stunned to his son's expression to what he was saying in anger, and Leo... Well, despite widening his eyes a bit, the surprised and stunned look on his face immediately went away and was soon replaced with a blank face, keeping his gaze to the ground and refusing to glance back up at his brother.

'...I knew it,' he thought to himself. 'I knew he always felt that way, and I bet Mikey and Don would think the same thing as well... I knew Master Splinter made the wrong choice on picking me as leader.'

You know that Raph doesn't mean it! He always talks out of anger, with no thoughts to what he's saying or how his words hurt you until after he calms down!

'Yeah, right. And whenever he loses his temper, again, he does and say the same old thing: He blames me, claims that I never get in trouble and makes up excuses to avoid punishment, and finally he yells on how I'm a terrible brother and will then wish that I wasn't his brother, let alone had never been hatched or ever been made in the first place.' His heart felt as if something just stung it with venom and is slowly turning it to stone, making it feel as if it's having trouble beating from the numbing pain inside of it.

Fights and weapons may leave physical scarring that could implant permanent markings on skin, but words leave emotional and at times mental scarring, and in most to nearly all cases, their wounds are from mostly to almost always permanent... Alpha told Pup and Kins many times that words can be used as weapons, too, like Pup did to Brazilian-human, and Beta-Brother Raphael knew very well how much he wounds Pup when wishing they were never Kin in the beginning. Unfortunately, Alpha also gave the "Sticks and Stones" lessons many times, without neither items present, having to make Pup and Kins to shrug off the harsh words that leaves wounds much more serious than physical pain and not knowing how to heal properly from the harsh words.

Raph, feeling incredibly guilty for what he just said after taking major deep breaths and seeing the shocked look on Don and Splinter's faces, felt a pang in his heart when he saw how his words had once again wounded his brother by watching the stunned look in the Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes go blank, meaning that the eldest turtle is pushing back the pain and hiding it deep inside of himself.

'Oh, god... Not again... I did it, again! Me and my stupid, big mouth and my shell-for-brains head!'

"...On second thought, Sensei, since it seems that nobody here cares on what's going to happen to Murakami-san, I'll tell you what happened." Leonardo's tone of voice was low and cold, but still sounds normal enough for anybody to believe he was alright, if Raph hadn't seen his hurt look being replaced with a blank face to use as a mask to conceal his hurt that his words caused to inflict on the young leader.

"Leo... Bro, I didn't me-" The red-mask turtle tried to apologize, but was cut off by the older turtle.

"Save it, Raphael." He then glared at Michelangelo and Donatello, who kept their eyes on the fight the whole time but were unable to hear what was going on. "Just be quiet for one second and listen up, which means Donatello and Michelangelo need to hear this, as well." He then placed both hands to his head, pretending to hold something to cover his ears, and then pulled them away from his head, silently telling the two to uncover their ears and listen to what he has to say, which the both of them did. "I want you all to listen, and to listen well, because I'm only going to explain myself only once to why I didn't finish off the leader of the Purple Dragons, when I was given the chance to do so."

"Leonardo, perhaps we should discuss this some other ti-"

"Iie, Sensei! You wanted to know what happened this evening, so I'm going to tell you what exactly just happened!" Raph, Don and Mikey's eyes widen when they heard and watch their big brother, who always obey and follows their father and sensei's every word, to actually cut off Splinter in the middle of a sentence and to disobey his suggestion.

Leonardo, this is going a bit too far! Just drop the subject for now and listen to Father!

…Must agree with Conscience on this, Pup; talking back to Alpha and cutting Alpha off in middle of sentence, even going far as to disobey Alpha's order, will head for terrible punishment and hold back to future for Pup's freedom. Pup must stand down and calm down, before situation grows worse.

Leonardo nearly scoffed to what his instinct just said, as his anger rose when he heard his instinct's not only isn't going to back him up, but is also, in very rare occasion, agreeing to what his Conscience is telling him to do.

'Like Murakami-san is probably going to be held hostage by Bradford and Xever and his life's going to be in danger, doesn't count as a situation getting worse?! Well, it's too late for that!' "You wanna know how and why your sons got badly hurt and are injured?" He questioned Master Splinter, but wasn't going to give him enough time to answer back. "These three imbeciles, along with April, as you may already know, chose to ignore my orders to not look for the Purple Dragons and went off looking for their hideout! Then, out of stupidity and probably wanting to get it done or to start a fight too soon, without so much as to scope out the Fortune Cookie Factory or even bother to look inside for any sign of the Foot Clan, they barged through the window, which the gaping hole in the window became proof of their action, and ended up in a fight they weren't ready for or strong enough to go through!"

"At least we were able to-!" Donatello tried to get into the talk and try to explain to their leader of what they were able to accomplish from their mission, but immediately clamped his beak shut from the cold-glare Leo was giving him.

"You were able to accomplish what, Donatello?! Find their hideout without thinking for a moment if Foot Ninjas were waiting for you three to come to them? Beat up the Purple Dragons, while trying to hold yourself off against Bradford and the Foot Ninjas? Nearly getting yourselves killed by our enemies, so that you three can beat some sense into a three-member gang of Chinatown?!" Mikey flinched from his brother's tone, which seems to be more scary than Raph's own yelling whenever the orange-mask ninja finds a way to tick him off from pranking him. "Well guys, guess how that plan of yours ended up! Not only did you three nearly ended up costing your lives in that fight, nor did you nearly put April's safety and the safety of other victims to the Purple Dragons at risk on being caught for telling her where their hideout is, but you guys had also put Murakami-san's life at stake! Because of your poor judgement and inability to think for a moment on how to help Murakami-san out with the gang or even think for a second to go full stealth at the hideout, he's in grave danger and would no doubt be held hostage by Bradford and Xever to get us to come to them!"

Confused looks plastered on the three turtles' face, while Master Splinter finally understood what his eldest son was doing all this time and to why he didn't want his brothers to immediately go looking for the Purple Dragons.

"Hold Murakami-san as a hostage? Why would they do a thing like that, bro?" Raphael question, surprisingly asking in a calm voice and hoping that with him speaking calmly to his big brother, that his brother's anger would also go down and talk normally to them. Unfortunately, the red-mask ninja's plan didn't work.

"Because, Raphael, since we helped Murakami-san at the Noodle Shop when the Purple Dragons were beating him for protection money and because you three wanted to finish the job to make the message clear to stay away from him, the Foot would know of a way to get to us so easily and know that we won't retreat from a fight if they were using somebody they believe has become our new friend! No doubt about it, that they're beating the truth out of the Purple Dragons to tell them where they last saw us and why we picked a fight with them!"

"But, Leo, wouldn't they just told Bradford and that other guy where Murakami lives at, even if we hadn't barged in?" Michelangelo asked, who Leonardo, no matter how angry he is, could never yell at the orange-mask turtle. Yes, he can yell at Raphael and Donatello, and yes, he can yell while the youngest turtle is present, but the blue-mask turtle would never yell or shout at the baby brother of the group. So, Leo held down his anger for a moment and answer Mikey's question, though his voice still held the anger that he's feeling and taking control of his emotion.

"They would've, Michelangelo, but not without being given a motivation to tell them, like getting paid to give out information to what they know. And even if the Purple Dragons told Xever and Bradford about Murakami-san, they would come to believe that we would come and attack them if they ever cause any trouble." He then pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the headache coming up and his anger still forcing him to take it out on his brothers the longer he remains with them and not up to help their new friend from the Foot Clan. "That's why I didn't want us to go looking for their hideout immediately. If we made them believe that we'd only come if there's trouble or if they cause problems, and had used stealth, we would've known by a safer distance and objective that the Purple Dragons are working with the Foot and be able to fight smart the next time we go up against Bradford and Xever."

He then turned his head and glared at Raph, who had a look that tells the eldest turtle that he now feels completely stupid.

"Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, because some turtles and their human-friend decides to go rouge and give away on why they came to their hideout!"

...Despite that not being the entire anger you had stored up inside of you, at least you were able to get rid of some of the anger on how you're feeling... Although, there's a certain feeling that you're not done or haven't finish criticizing them yet.

'Oh, I'm far from being done! The longer they keep me down here and prevent me from going up to the surface, the more I'm going to yell at them until they finally get tired of hearing me talking to them and have me go to the tunnels to cool off!' "If my hunch is correct, which they most likely will be, then I won't be surprised if April comes running down here to tell us something happened to Murakami-san!"

Right on cue when he finished his sentence, the Hamato Clan heard the sound of footsteps coming their way, which were running towards them, and going through the turnstiles, April came into view.

"Guys, guys!" She cried, going down the steps and allowing herself to bend over her knees to catch her breath. "There's trouble, at Murakami's! The-!"

"The Foot Clan and Purple Dragons trashed the place, grabbed Murakami-san and left us some sort of ransom note or message and is demanding us to meet them at an area to fight, or else they'll kill Murakami-san if we refuse to show up."

Not only did the redhead stayed quiet when Leo caught her off in the middle of her sentence, but because she was completely stunned to what the blue-mask turtle just said and wasn't sure what to add in to his discovery.

"...How did you know all that?" She wasn't the only one completely startled or stunned that Leonardo already knew what she was going to tell them, for the Hamato Clan couldn't believe that the eldest-turtle was right to what their mistake just cause to happen. By her question, the blue-mask turtle glared at her and stalked his way towards her.

"Simple, it's because I knew something like that was going to happen the very moment you four had decided to take matter into your own hands!" Never knowing how scary the eldest turtle was when he lets his anger take control, the redhead felt very afraid of the sword-weilding turtle and took a step back in case he tries to grab her. Sensing her fear and being the closest to her, Raphael moved over and placed himself between his brother and human-friend, who he has already come to acknowledge her as his human-sister.

"Hold it right there, Leo! Don't go putting the blame on April!" The hothead told his brother, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder and pushing him slightly back to keep his distance away from April and to prevent him from yelling in front of her face and make her even more afraid of him than she already is.

"Raph's right, Leo! It wasn't April's fault! She was only helping us out and all she did was get us information on where to find out where the Purple Dragons hang out!" Don backed up, slightly sitting himself off of the pillow that still laid in Splinter's lap, only to feel the pain in his temple to force him back to laying his head back on the pillow.

Your brothers are right, Leo! You're really pushing it and taking it too far, putting the blame on April when she was only helping the team out!

'First off, like I said before, she's a trainee, not an actual member of the team! Second, she's also to blame to what happened for helping them figure out the hideout of the Purple Dragons!'

...Though Pup shouldn't place blame on She-Pup April, Pup is right that She-Pup's also part of fault for Kins reckless action for justice to Blind-Elder... However, being a newly member to Pack and still must prove self, Pup not punish She-pup like Pup does with Kin. Although, Pup may scold She-Pup for being involved with Omega-Brothers and Beta-Brother's plan.

"But she also knew that by helping you three find their hideout, she had placed you three and most likely our sensei in the line of fire! She knew that she didn't have to help out, that she could simply back down and let us handle the situation on our own, which would've given us enough time to come up with a plan to take the Foot down before they even think about getting their hands on Murakami-san. Instead, she made a fatal mistake that's going to spell 'Disaster' for us all... She's just placed the whole family at risk, and gave both the Shredder's Lieutenants and right-hand men a chance on how to get Master Splinter for their master!" His Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes glared anger at the human. "...And to think that I actually trusted you enough to keep this family safe from our enemies... My mistake." 'And like an idiot, I thought she would prove to me that there are humans out there who would actually welcome us with open arms and become worthy allies to keep our secrets!'

How could you say that to her?! Like Don and Raph just said, it wasn't even her fault! Even if she had told them where the hideout is, your brothers could've chose to head back to the Lair and hold off beating up the gang! So, basically, it's entirely your brothers' fault, not April's! Now, she's going to feel completely guilty and responsible for what's just happened to Murakami-san!

'Good! It should teach her a valuable lesson: Never engage yourself to a right or on a mission, without the leader's permission to do so or the leader being there to navigate the team through the plot of the mission.'

Hearing that she may have completely destroyed the eldest brother's trust in her, April felt even guiltier than she originally did for going behind the leader's back, after she had told the three younger turtles where the gang were known to hang out in Chinatown. Her steel-blue eyes held pain to what she did to her friend and they look as if they're begging for him to forgive her for betraying his trust in her.

"Leo... I didn't mean to-"

"Save it...! I don't have time for this," he told the human. "Because right now, Murakami-san's being held captive and his life's on the line as we speak the longer he's in the hands of Bradford and Xever." Letting out a sigh and having a feeling that his brother isn't going to come at April, Raph removed his right-hand off of Leo's left-shoulder.

"Leo's right," he said. "We need to go back up to the surface and rescue Muraka-"

"Wrong." Leonardo cut in, glaring up at his taller brother. "I need to go back to the surface and rescue Murakami-san. You three, are going to stay put and rest." Splinter, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo all had their eyes widened in horror when Leonardo just told them what the plan is and what the three brothers are to do, almost like he just told them that he was going to join forces with the Foot Clan.

"What?! But we're fine, Leo! Really!" Mikey spoke up, forcing himself to get off of the couch and move towards his big brother, only to have his arms give out and remain laying on his plastron on the couch.

"Right... Not going to fly," the blue-maks turtle stated. "You three just went through a near death battle with the Foot Ninjas, and barely made it out of their with your lives. And even if you were to come along, Donatello and Michelangelo, you would only get in the way and your injuries would just make you two a liability." The two youngest brothers knew that he was right and there was no use arguing with the turtle if he had a point to why they can't come along to save Murakami.

"Mikey and Don may be too wounded to come along, but I'm perfectly fine, Leo!" Raph butted in, pulling out his twin Sais and giving them a small twirl of performance to show off how ready he is to get back into the fight. Leonardo wasn't amused by his little show.

"Sorry, Raphael, but I'm not going to allow you to come along, as well." Emerald-green eyes widen to what his brother just said to him, which then glared into anger.

"What?! Why not?! I'm not going to hold you back when we get into a fight or anything, and the only worse wounds I have are some bruising that won't get in my way on fighting!" Waiting for what excuse his brother was going to make up to prevent the hothead turtle from coming along to the fight.

"Because, Raphael, you were the one who suggested to disobey my orders and are the reason why our brothers are badly hurt. Not only that, but because you went behind my back... I'm afraid that I can't trust you to fight along side with me, let alone follow my lead on how to save Murakami-san. After all, you claimed that I'm a terrible leader, meaning that you won't follow an order a 'terrible leader' would give you to follow." Guilt once again spread throughout Raph's entire being, regretting on ever calling his brother a terrible leader. Leo then stared at his brothers, who also held disappointment on being forced to stay behind. "You three brought this upon yourselves, and now you three are going to suffer the consequences of your actions. And Sensei," he stared into the reddish-brown eyes of his master. "You may deny it all you want or even forbid me to not go, but you know that it has to be done, for the sake of saving Murakami-san on time and to not let another innocent person be killed by the hands of the Shredder."

The fifty year-old humanoid-rat lowered his head and flattened his ears, for he knew that his son was right. Despite hating to face facts that there's no other way to talk the eldest turtle out of it, he stared back up at his son and nodded his head once, giving the turtle his permission to go and for Raphael to not hold him back from leaving the Lair. Leo was a bit stunned when he gained his sensei's permission to leave, but quickly pushed that thought behind and sprint towards the entrance of the Lair.

"Leo, wait!" Skidding himself to a complete stop, almost ramming himself into one of the turnstiles, Leo turned his gaze to the caller who ceased him from running, which was April. "I can help you to at least find out where they could be holding Murakami at." Holding in a growl, he simply gave her his angry glare, meaning that he's still angry with her.

"...I don't need any help," he told her. "I'd figured out where my brothers were when you helped them find the hideout on my own, and I can do it again with finding Murakami-san. Besides, I think you've helped quite enough for one day, so we can't afford to have any more screw ups to interfere with the mission." The redhead lowered her gaze by his words, sadden that he now won't let her help him or give her a chance to correct her mistakes she had caused.

...Now do you see why you have problem interacting with humans? You're too strict and serious all the time, and you hardly show any kind of emotions and rarely hang out with April that tells her she's your friend and vise versa! Fix this, and let her know that you care about her like your brothers do, now!

Seeing the hurt look on her face for refusing her help and knowing that his Conscience is right that he should try to get along with her, Leo let out a deep sigh.

"...Just stay in the Lair, April. In case the Purple Dragons had mentioned you into telling Bradford and Xever on who else was with us at the Noodle Shop during the fight on protecting Murakami-san, it would be best if you stay low and hidden until the situation is taken care of."

Her steel-blue eyes widen from how softly he spoke to her that time, making her feel a bit better and more reassured that he truly does care about her, despite them rarely hanging out with each other and him avoiding her whenever she comes over to see them unless she's to be involved with the mission.

There, now that wasn't so hard or bad. And hey, you didn't severed your bond with h-

'Shut it. Just because I made her feel a bit better and know she can stop causing problems by staying put, doesn't mean I've forgiven her that quickly for what she's done.' He turned his gaze away from her, avoiding to see each other eye to eye and stare back to the darkness outside of the Lair. 'We'll debate on what to do about April breaking my trust in her, after we take care of the Purple Dragons and save Murakami-san.'

Pup is right. Blind-Elder needs him, much more than Pack does at this very moment.

Just as he was about to go off, once again, somebody stopped him from leaving and, feeling the hand on his left-shoulder and how tight the clenching was, he knew that it was Raph.

"How will we know that you won't go running off after the fight and that you'll come straight home?"

'Raphael, I swear to merciful God, that if you guys keep on stopping me from leaving the Lair, then Bradford and Xever aren't going to be the only ones to have blood on their hands!'

You can't blame him for stopping you with such a question, especially when he and your family wants to be sure that you do return. Is that so wrong, for your brother to simply worry of the possibility for a repeat to happen all over again?

'...In other cases, it doesn't. However, in a life and death situation, or even in the position that I'm in of the Hamato Clan, it is.' He turned his head to the side, staring into the eyes of his younger brother that held worry and, in some rare occasion, fear, that's being hidden by his most common known emotions and feelings: Rage, anger and envy."...That's just it, Raphael. None of you guys can trust me to comeback when the fight is over, if I can't trust any of you to follow my orders, let alone give me a chance to go off on my own above the surface and to return on my own..." He let loose a low growl, though he made sure that his growl wouldn't make him sound like a killer animal. "I'm afraid until we can all start trusting each other and be able to work together, we are no longer an actual team." He then yanked his shoulder out of Raph's rough grip, and gave his brothers a final glare of anger and disappointment he holds and feels for them. "I hope you're all happy for what you've done... Oh, and one more thing, Raphael: Anata no negai ga kanau koto o negatte imasu (Hope that your wish finally comes true)."

Emerald-green eyes once again widen in horror to what Leo just said to him, but the blue-masked turtle ignored the stunned glance Raph was giving him and, not going to have anybody else hold him back, the turtle pushed his body to leap over the turnstiles and sprint into the darkness, leaving behind the horrified glances of his family and a confused human-girl to what he just said to his brother.

April may still be new to learning Japanese, but she can tell that whatever Leo just said to his brother isn't good at all. She turned to Master Splinter and Donatello, where the turtle seemed to be use to whatever it was his big brother just said to Raphael but his Mahogany-brown held fear to the words, and the rat looks just about ready to remove himself off of the couch and go after his now rebellion child. She then had her gaze on Michelangelo, who looked as if he just woken up from a nightmare and, like a little kid, wanting his parent to reassure him that everything was going to be alright and his nightmare isn't real.

"What did Leo just say?" She asked the orange-masked turtle, seeing that the youngest to being the only possible candidate to answer her question and, for a fact, being more openminded than the rest of the turtles, despite still being stunned for what his big brother just said to Raphael.

"H-He..." Mikey stuttered a bit, before clearing his throat to get rid of the lump that had formed its way inside his neck and better at being heard to for answering the girl's question. "He just told Raph-"

"Something I should've never said to him five years ago." Raph interrupted, keeping his emerald-green eyes glaring down at the floor underneath his feet and clenching his hands tightly into fists. "Even when I told him that I never meant what I said to him, he still thinks that I meant it whenever my big, fat mouth makes me say anything similar to what I told him when we were ten." April's curiosity got the best of her, that she didn't think for a second to what her next question she was going to ask the turtles and rat.

"...What happened five years ago?" The three brothers stared to one another, silently having their own conversation on what to tell the girl, while Splinter flattened his ears and lowered his reddish-brown eyes to the ground, refusing to meet the worried glance of the ginger's steel-blue eyes or speak a word to her question. Finally, it was Donnie that broke the glance and let out a deep sigh.

"It's not really our place to say, Apr-" Stomping her foot, the girl cut off Don's sentence.

"Oh, c'mon, you guys!" Before any one of the turtles or Master Splinter would tell her to drop the topic, she continued on with her ranting. "I may have only known you five for no more than a month and a half, but you're all family to me! Including Leo!" Four pairs of stunned eyes gazed up to the girl, but their glances didn't prevent her to continue on with her yelling. "He and I may not had spend as much time as I do with you three and Master Splinter-"

"Actually, April, you and Leo never spend time together, unless we're involved on a mission and whenever Donnie or you suggested on coming to help us out." Mikey cut in, earning an annoyed look by the purple-masked turtle.

"Besides the obvious point, Mikey. He's still family to me, just as much as you four are. And since you five are now my family, I have a right to know on what's going on and why you four are scared and were trying to prevent Leo from saving Mr. Murakami on his own!"

Silence followed soon after her outburst.

"...She is right, my sons." The three turtles turned their gaze to Splinter, with the look of defeat written all over his face.

"But, Sensei-"

"No, Raphael. April's part of our clan, our family, and has kept the secrets of our existence from the humans, which she still continues on guarding." He then gently lifted Donatello's head, along with the pillow, off of his lap and set it back down on the couch after removing himself off his spot on the couch, before making his way to the human-girl. "She not only earned the right to know, but she indeed has the right to know about our secret fear."

And so, guiding her towards the other side of the couch Mikey laid in and gesturing Raphael to take his old spot where Donatello sat his head up from, Splinter took a few steps back and kneeled himself in the center of the floor, keeping his focus and attention on the girl.

"April, what my sons and I are going to tell you is something that we, along with Leonardo, don't ever want to bring up or talk about. For you see, five years ago, a terrible argument and a would-be tragedy almost taken my eldest child away from us... And, had almost caused him to leave the clan for good."

April cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"I don't understand, Master Splinter. What sort of tragedy are you talking about, and what do you mean by 'leave the clan for good'?"

Rubbing his eyes to clear his vision and get rid of any feelings of sleep that Splinter caused him to feel from the Shiatsu session, Donnie answered her question.

"...April, there's something you should know about Leo." The girl made no attempts to interrupt, so the genius turtle decides to continue. "Believe it or not, which you may already figure out the answer, Leo's... He's different from us."

"'Different'? Different how?"

"He's not like the rest of us." Raph stated, who had his arms folded staring back to the entrance of their Lair.

"April, for as long as we can ever remember and had lived our lives as humanoid-animals, Leonardo didn't behave or interacted like Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo or even myself did from the very beginning of our lives being forever changed." Splinter informed the girl. "You see, when our life as a family began, it didn't started out as peaceful or happy as it should've been. While Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo interacted and behaved like human-infants would do, back then, Leonardo would only sleep. He would rarely make a sound, hardly move from where we used to sleep before I was able to find beds for all of us to have, and, sadly, would nurse the less than his brothers."

"Really?" April said, kinda surprised and looked a bit concerned to what the rat just told her about his eldest son. "You didn't think that he was hibernating back then... Or do you guys not hibernate?"

"No, we do hibernate, but were able to avoid hibernating when we were eight, after I was able to build us a heater to keep us warm during the cold season to avoid sleeping during the Winter." Donnie pointed out. "As for Leo, he couldn't have been hibernating. Back in nineteen ninety-seven, Spring came early and the temperature was a bit over average. Not only that, Raph, Mikey and I would've also hibernated as well during that time if the temperature was too cold for us to handle for being cold-blooded. And even if Winter lasted longer, he would've woken up somewhere near the ending of March."

"My only conclusion, during that time, was that the mutagen that caused our mutation could've somehow be the reason why Leonardo slept for eight months straight." Once again, Splinter lowered his head and his ears flattened a bit. "I almost lost him during the eight months raising them when they were infants, but by some sort of miracle and my unwillingness to give up on my son, he finally woke up and was perfectly fine."

"The only problem back then, he behaved more like an animal than a human, even though we four started out as animals. He would walk on all-fours and refused to walk on just his feet until Master Splinter got him to break the habit at the age of five, he didn't began to talk until we were three and a half and during the time when we would actually try to play with him, he would simply cock his head to the side and just sit in his spot until we either leave him alone when we gave up on getting him to play or Master Splinter instructed him on how to play and told him to play with us until we gotten tired of the game."

April showed not that much of a surprise to Don telling her on how the eldest turtle was in their childhood, though she was stunned to hear that the blue-masked turtle was pretty much a late bloomer and somehow still has his animal-like instincts and behavior than the younger turtles do.

"...Okay. But what does that have to do with whatever that happened five years ago?" Wanting to get it over with, Michelangelo began the story.

"I got this one, Dudes. I'm really good at story telling!" Raph and Donnie groaned and shook their heads, but neither butted in or stop him from starting the story. "Five years ago, back when we were ten, we were doing evening training session, as usual. Only, on that day, it was actually a special day for us because it's the very day we were finally given our weapons. And, as always, we had a winner and a sore loser... Only, this time, the sore loser decided to pull a stunt that nobody thought he would ever do..."

---

Flashback: Five Years Ago...
"Hajime (Start)!" By the command cry of their sensei, the four ten year-old turtles charged towards each other, with Raphael and Donatello coming for each other and Leonardo and Michelangelo doing the exact same.

"You better watch out, Leo, because I'm finally going to beat you!" Mikey declared to his big brother, as the young-turtle twirl his very own weapons, the nunchucks, and tries to get his opponent off guard by either whacking his weapons, the Katanas, out of his hands or get him in the head to stun him long enough for the youngest turtle to trip him off his feet and pin him down to be declare the winner of their fight.

However, just as the turtle brought his weapon down, all he hit was the air in front of him and in his confused state on figuring out where his opponent went, he unknowingly backed up into a shadowed corner and, still not being able to master on sensing all his surroundings, lost both his weapons from behind and pinned down to the floor, wrapped within his Kusarigama's chain and his legs bound together by the Nunchaku.

"You were saying, Mikey?" Turning his head to the side, the youngest turtle saw it was his big brother, Leonardo, who had beaten him by binding him within his own weapons and didn't have to use his Katanas, which he had sheathed up when he concealed himself within the shadows to get his brother from behind. Knowing he has been defeated and has lost the fight, Michelangelo let out a pouting sigh.

"Never mind," he answered.

As Leo got off his brother and unbound him from his weapons, Raphael and Donatello continued on with their fight, with Donnie seeming to be getting the upper hand by keeping his distance from his brother with the help of his newly obtained weapon, the Naginata Bō staff.

"This is your last chance, Donnie. Put down the staff, and nobody's going to get hurt."

"You told me that last time, Raph, and you ended up hurting me."

"Yeah, but I probably would've hurt ya even more than I would had, right now, if I wasn't in such a good mood today."

Twirling his Sais in his hands, Raph charged, barely dodging the jab of the Bo staff if he hadn't pulled himself back and slid pass his brother by sliding across the floor on his knees. In the middle of the slide, he positioned both his Sais to grab for the end of Don's Naginata Bō staff that the purple-mask turtle tried to use to bring down the hothead turtle and when the twin weapons grabbed for the wooden staff, the red-mask turtle used all his strength to force the end of the Bō down to the ground. The sudden force of a stronger user bringing it backwards, caused the Bō staff to shove its master to the floor on his back, along with one of its end that's been locked on by the sais to break. Now with his newly obtained weapon broken and laying on his back on the floor, Donatello knew that he has lost the fight with Raphael.

"You should've listened to me when I told you to put down the staff, Donnie... You should've listened," he told his younger ten year-old brother. As Don went to slowly picking himself off the ground and moving his way to sit in front of the tree next to Mikey and behind Master Splinter, Raph and Leo stood on opposite sides of the Dojo. Cerulean/Sapphire-eyes calmly gazing into the Emerald-green eyes, which held fire and anticipation on wanting to beat the eldest son and to become the winner of the fight, as both turtles kneeled and bowed to each other in respect to wish their opponent luck and for a good battle.

"Onegai shimasu (I humbly ask; please)." Leonardo said to his brother, respecting the Code of Bushido.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Leo. Let's do this, already!" Raph replied back, having a bit of trouble to stay still any longer on wanting to fight his big brother.

Both stood to their feet and brought out their weapons, with the eldest turtle only holding out one of his Katanas, Musashi, instead of both weapons like Raph held out. The two brothers then charged at each other, with Leo bringing down his sword and Raph blocking the attack with both of his Sais crossed together in front of his face. For being the strongest of the group, Raph had no trouble at pushing the Katana away from him and slowly backing his brother towards the wall, right underneath the small shrine that Splinter made for his deceased wife and daughter. Seeing that his older brother's at his mercy and pushing the blade towards its wielder, the red-masked turtle smirked in triumph.

"Give it up, Leo. I already won!" While holding back the blade as much as he could from his face, Leo saw that one of Raph's Sais had locked itself on to his blade, giving him an idea on how to get back at his hotheaded brother.

"Don't bet on it just yet, Raphael." Earning a confused look by his brother and before he saw it coming, the blue-masked turtle turned his blade to the right, forcing his brother to lean on his left, then, stunning all three of his brothers and Splinter, tossed his blade towards the right, with the Sai that was held in Raph's hand still gripping to the blade. Emerald-green eyes stared wide-eyed in shock to what just happened, giving the eldest turtle the chance to take down his brother.

He instantly forced his legs to part from each other, having him doing the splits, which caught Raph's attention when he felt a gust of wind in front of him to go down, then the eldest turtle placed both hands in front of him to help shift himself and used his right-leg to trip Raph off his feet. His brother flat on his shell, Leonardo launched himself on top of Raph and pinned him to the floor, having to pull out Kamiizumi before he launched himself to pin down his brother and holding the blade up against the younger-turtle's neck. Feeling the blade pressed up against his neck, Raph froze and his eyes held an instinct of fear that his brother was going to kill him with his own weapon.

"Yame (Stop)!" Leo lifted his glare from his brother and stared up at their sensei, who stood from his spot and gave the eldest turtle a firm nod to silently tell him the fight is over. Glancing back at his trapped brother and giving him a small low growl, he removed Kamiizumi from his neck and leap himself backwards to release his brother, putting the blade back in its sheath and calmly making his way to the other end of the room to retrieve Musashi.

Rage coursed through Raph's veins, angry that he had lost the fight against his brother and humiliated that he had shown and felt fear when he was supposed to be the strongest and bravest turtle in the family. Allowing rage to take control, he got to his feet, stomped his way towards his brother and grabbed him by the back of his shell, pinning him to the wall.

"Raphael!" Splinter scolded, rising to his feet but stayed in his spot when Leonardo gave him a quick glance over to tell him that he would handle it on his own.

"What the hell was that about, cheater!?"

"Raphael, language!" Splinter once again scolded and would've made his way towards his two eldest children to give the hotheaded turtle a good whack in the head with his Jade-cane for swearing, but Leo simply held up his hand to remind the rat he would handle the situation.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Raphael. How was it that I cheated, when I didn't do anything that's considered unfair for you to even call me a cheater?" Raph snorted at his brother's question.

"In case you've forgotten, Leo, which you already did, we were supposed to use our weapons while fighting against each other! All you did was block my attack and tossed your weapon aside, which doesn't seem to be very smart when you were pinned down to the floor. Shell, you didn't use your weapon when you were battling Mikey! You broke the rule, which makes me the actual winner of the fight!"

While Donatello and Michelangelo rolled their eyes in annoyance, Leonardo simply gave the redhead turtle a plain gaze, knowing that what he was going to say to him would burst his bubble and gloating.

"Actually, Raph, Master Splinter never said that we were supposed to use our weapons in order to win." The smirk on Raph's face went away, replaced with confusion and the start of an anger rising. "This match was a free-for-all and in many free-for-all matches, we're giving the choice and option on how we choose to fight our opponents." He then raised his right-hand and shoved the hand that kept its grip on his right-shoulder off, making the younger-turtle to release his hold. "Either way, Raphael, I would've still won the fight, even if we were told to use our weapons in battle, for the way of the ninja is to be unpredictable and do whatever it takes to win, which even means being unfair and to cheat if that's what it takes to be the victor."

"What?! That's not true!" Raph stomped, refusing to admit that Leo's right and he truly did win the fight. "It's a lie!"

"If we're to one day go up against an actual opponent, Raph, do you think they'll actually be fair with us when we fight?" Leo gained no response, answering his question that he's right and, after sheathing up his discarded sword back in its sheath that he strapped on his back to prevent the sheaths from getting in the way, made his way to the other side of the Dojo and placed his sheathed weapons on the rack. "I thought so." He then turned back to stare at Raph, who stood in the same spot to at the wall the eldest-turtle was once pinned to, and bowed to silently tell the red-masked turtle he fought well and was a worthy opponent. "Yoriyoi un jikai (Better luck next time), Raphael." He then turned to Splinter and also gave him a bow in showing his respect to his teacher, then quietly made his way to the Shoji, knowing that practice was over and wanting to head for his bedroom to let his body rest for tomorrow's training session.

"Iie..." Raph's word ceased Leo's retreat to his room, along with confused glances from Donatello, Michelangelo and Master Splinter. "No... I don't believe it." Raph turned his head to glare at his brother, anger and rage still held within his Emerald-green eyes, as his hands clenched tightly into fists. "You broke the rule, Leo! I won the fight!" He then stared at his father. "Tell 'em, Sensei! Tell 'em that I won!" Instead of getting the answer he wanted their father to say, Splinter simply let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

"I'm afraid Leonardo doesn't speak, nor has he done, any sort of error in what he said or what he has done in the fight, Raphael."

"...What?" Stunned eyes widen in confusion and a little of hurt. "But, Sensei, you always told us to fight fair and to never cheat our way to win!"

"Yes, it's true that I want you all to fight fairly when in combat, but when it comes to protective our home or defending each other, then you're to do whatever it takes that you become the victor, even if it means that you'll have to cheat in order to stay on top." His reddish-brown eyes turned to his eldest child, who stayed in his spot and showed not even the slightest sign of any satisfaction that his sensei's on his side. "Though I may not had permitted such action to be taken when training, I shall allow this to slide this one time, for we need to be reminded that we mustn't always come to believe our enemies will truly fight fair, along with that I never telling any of you to not cast your weapons aside for thinking none of you would pull a stunt when you've all just gained your weapons."

"Nani (What)?! But, Sensei, that's not fair!" Raph complained, making his way to stand in front of the rat.

"I'm afraid it is fair, Raphael, if I haven't instructed you four to do something that's opposite to what you know you're to do, until I finally made a decision or come up with a rule to what action you four had done to have finally make a rule against it."

Jealousy grew in the turtle, building up his rage towards his big brother.

"You're just saying that because you favor Leo over us, like you always do!" Don and Mikey gasped at their brother's words, while Splinter's eyes widen from being stunned by his son's choice of words and the eldest turtle simply looked surprised, but shook it off and let loose a low growl.

"That's not true, Raph!" Leo butt into the conversation, standing next to his brother and glaring into his gaze. "Sensei doesn't favor me over any of you guys. He cares for all four us, equally, he doesn't favors one of us over the others!"

"Liar! We know he cares about you more than the rest of us!" Raph yelled back, shoving his brother back with both hands and almost knocking the eldest off his feet. "Whenever Mikey, Don and I do something bad or mess a move up when training, Master Splinter scolds and/or yells at us until we get it right! Whenever you do something bad, he makes up some lame excuse for you to avoid getting yelled at and don't get punish at all!" He then poked his index-finger against Leo's chest, which could've left a painful bruise if not for the Plastron being in the way. "Whenever we try to show Master Splinter our special talent, you have to go off being a show-off and steal his attention away from us!" Another painful jab of a poke to the chest forced the blue-masked turtle to flinched a bit. "He always pays attention to you and gives you all the loves you want, because you're always being Mr. Perfect all the time and for being such an ass kisser!" Another poke in the chest and a light wince Raph got from his brother. "You still going to tell me he doesn't love you more than us, because that sounds like favoritism to me!"

"Raphie, stop! You're hurting him!" Mikey called out, seeing the look of pain on his big brother's face with every poke Raph gives to him until he once again has his back against the wall and the hotheaded turtle standing in front of Leo to prevent him from leaving, but too scared to go up against his older-brother in fearing he'll turn on him for interfering.

"Shut up, Mikey!" Raph yelled, too angry to feel any sort of guilt on hurting his baby brother's feelings.

"That's enough, Raphael! Stand down!" Splinter ordered, making his way towards his two eldest and grabbing Raphael by the right-arm, pulling him away from Leonardo.

"No, Sensei, it isn't enough! Not when it comes to him!" Raph pointed a finger at Leonardo, who remained standing in front of the wall he was just pushed up against. "You think you're so perfect, that you try to have us be just like you, don't you?! Well, guess what? We're not going to be like you and there's no way in Hell do we ever want to be like you at all! And whoever wants to? You're just a stick in the mud, who does nothing but train to be better than us, and tattletale on us whenever we do something bad and to get us in trouble!" He then yanked his arm out of Splinter's hold, but stayed in his spot in the center of the Dojo. "Why did we had to be stuck with you as our brother? You don't play with us, you don't talk to us unless you're giving us an answer that doesn't require a nod or a head shake for yes or no questions! Hell, you don't even think like we do! I still wonder why we even have you here at all!"

Splinter, Donatello and Michelangelo didn't like where Raphael was going in the conversation.

"Raph, please sto-!" Donnie didn't get the chance to finish his sentence to stop the hotheaded turtle, because the next thing he said to Leonardo was something none of them, not even Hamato Yoshi, thought they would ever have to hear coming from their own.

"I hate you! You're the worst brother to have ever live, that I wish Otousan had never picked you when we were still turtles! I wish you'd never hatched, so that you never existed to begin with!... WATASHI WA ANATA DAKE DE SHINU SHITAI (I WISH YOU WOULD JUST DIE), SO THAT WE WOULDN'T HAVE SUCH A USELESS MISTAKE FOR A BROTHER WHO WE NEVER LOVED AT ALL IN OUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE!"

Silence went around the room, with the only sound being the harsh panting the red-masked turtle made from having to scream as loud as he could at his brother from the center of the room. Once he felt a major load that's been pressed heavily on his chest had finally lifted and his anger disintegrating, did his mind began to become clear and notice the stunned and horrified looks on his younger brothers and father.

"L... Leo?" Mikey's voice, that quivered in fear and worry, drawing Raph to turn to the direction of his older-brother... With a stunning sight that he never thought he would see from his brother: Leonardo, the eldest quadruplet amongst the turtles, had his eyes widen and head bowed, having his horrified look staring down at his feet.

His body shook and his hands clenched into tight fists, little trail of blood seeping through his three fingers and dripping onto the tatami, along with the sweat that dripped off from his face that some were still made from earlier in the fight on trying to overpower his brother. He tried to control his breathing, which sounded as if he was having a panic attack or was hyperventilating, but the turtle has no control over his breathing, not when the hot searing pain in his chest kept on attacking his heart and burning up into his lungs and throat.

Raphael saw how much his words had damaged his brother and immediately, he regretted every word he just said to his brother, knowing by his cleared mind that none of the words he told the eldest turtle was true.

"...Leo?" He knew that he won't be able to fix the problem with just a simply apology, but he wasn't sure what else to do besides to tell his brother he didn't meant it. "Bro, I-"

"Yappari (I knew it, I thought so)." Leo whispered, who was finally able to get control of his breathing by taking deep breaths and remove the horrified look on his face, but his voice sounded a bit cracked for him to not be able to hide his hurt from his family. He lifted his gaze and, only keeping his eyes on Raph, gave him a glare that nobody could tell if he was angry or upset. "I always knew you hated me, but I had hoped you'd actually cared about me at all, even once in our life... Watashi no misu (My mistake)." Despite wanting to just run out of the Dojo to get away from the negative atmosphere hanging around them, Leonardo held back the urge to run and gave his brothers and sensei and low bow. He then slowly lifted himself upright, broke the gaze between him and his brother and calmly made his way towards the Shoji.

Having a terrible gut feeling in his stomach, Splinter held a concerned look on his face.

"Leonardo?"

"Nemasu (I'm going to sleep)." The turtle answered, not bothering to make eye-contact with the humanoid-rat and slowly sliding the Shoji open. He took two steps outside of the Dojo and before he closed the Shoji, he spoke on last time. "And Raphael, if what you said is how you truly feel and if that would make you happy... Anata no negai ga kanau koto o negatte imasu."
End of Flashback...

---

"He then closed the Shoji, locked himself in his bedroom and we didn't see him for the rest of the day." April's eyes remained wide in horror, not believing what she heard Mikey just told her about the argument, until her gaze went to Raphael, who sat on the edge of the couch Mikey and herself are on and kept his gaze down.

"...You actually told him that?" She gained a nod from the red-masked turtle and her shocked expression changed into anger and disbelief. "I can't believe you would say something so awful, so hurtful, that you didn't even try to apologize to him!"

"I know, I know!" Raph grunted. "I've gotten a major tongue-lashing by Mikey, Don and Sensei the moment he left the room and tried to get Leo out of his bedroom to properly tell him that I was sorry, but he wouldn't even talk to me." He then laid his face into his palm, taking deep breath to try and calm down. "I wasn't thinking when I told him those exact words. Hell, I never meant what I said to him."

"Well, if you were thinking up the words inside your brain and commanded your mouth to speak out those words, then you were actually thinking." Earning a deadly-glare by Raph, Don quickly changed the subject. "And not just him, Leo wouldn't talk to anybody for the rest of the day and wouldn't even come out of his bedroom for anything."

"Except he did got out of his room to use the bathroom." An annoyed look came on Don's face.

"Besides that, Mikey, he didn't come out of his room for anything else besides using the bathroom."

"Well, he could've gotten out for something else while we were still training in the Dojo, because we decided to leave him alone to give him his space." Seeing they were starting to get off of the subject, April broke the conversation between the two youngest turtles.

"...Okay, so what happened after that, you guys? Because something tells me this is going to explain why you four are unwilling to let Leo go off on his own." Splinter's eyes flattened and let out a deep sigh.

"I'm afraid you're correct, April, for when morning came the next day, we were unprepared for what we would have to face."

---

Flashback: Five Years Ago, the Next Day...
"Come on, Leo, it's time to come out of there!" Michelangelo called out, pounding his fists against the door to annoy his big brother to open the door. Beside him, Donatello stood at Mikey's left and also knocked on the door when the youngest finally ceased his knocking.

"Please, Leo." He asked, hoping that by asking nicely would gain his brother's attention. "You've been in there for over twelve hours and that can't be good for your health. You've hadn't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday, you only came out to use the bathroom when it was time for bed, and I doubt you've drank any water. Please, will you come on out of your room?" They gained no response, nor heard a sound indicating Leo was going to open the door. In front of the door handle, Raphael grabbed for the handle and tried to force it open with just his strength, but the door refused to budge.

"Leo, open the door!" He cried out, continuously trying to force the door to open by pulling. "Look, bro, I'm sorry for what I said to you yesterday! I didn't mean any of what I just said, honest! I was just angry and jealous that you beat me, fair and square, and was being a sore loser!" His hands off the handle and clenched his hands into fists to start pounding on the door. "This is getting ridiculous, Leo, please come on out of there and let us be friends, again!"

"My sons, what is the meaning for the yelling and banging harshly on Leonardo's door?" The three turtles turned and stared up at Splinter, who didn't seemed confused to what they were doing but appear to wonder why they were all screaming for their brother to come out.

"Master Splinter, Leo's still refusing to come out of his room and we can't get him to open the door." Donnie explained, gently pulling Mikey away from the door to allow Splinter to stand in front of the door. Calmly, the humanoid-rat gently knocked on the door.

"Leonardo, it's time to come out." No sound was made from the other side of the door, which one of Splinter's ears twitched and let out a low moan in thinking his son is pretending to still be sleeping to avoid coming out of bed. Once again, Splinter knocked on the door. "My son, you cannot stay in there forever. It's time to get out of bed and eat breakfast." Nothing. Starting to get irritated, Splinter grabbed the door handle and pulled, only to have the door stay in its place. "Leonardo, unlock this door, this instant!" A couple of tugs on the handle, the door still refuses to budge and remained locked. "Leonardo, open this door, now!" Losing his patience as quick as Raph, though from the cry of his name sounded a bit more of a plead than a command, he pulled out a lock pick from underneath his wrappings of his left-arm and went into unlocking the door. "Forgive me for my act on intruding, my son, but since you won't cooperate with me and refuse to come out, I'm afraid that I must insist on entering and putting an end to this childish game of yours." A couple of twist and turning of the lock pick, the door finally unlocked and opened for the rat when he pulled at the handle.

Just looking inside, the room's completely pitch-black that not even the rat's sharp-vision could detect or see any source of movement within the dark chamber. Reaching out to the side, he felt for the lightswitch and flipped the switch on.

"Leonardo-" The light flickered a couple of times before it stayed lit... Revealing to the humanoid-rat and his three younger-sons that the room is completely empty, with only a made bed and a dresser in their sight. Being the youngest and smallest, Mikey squeezed his way into the room when his father went still in front of the entrance.

"Leo?" He lightly called out, walking towards the bed and bending low to look under the bed. "Leo, are you under here?" Raph and Donnie pushed their way into the room, stunned to find it empty and confused on how and why the door was locked when their brother wasn't inside to begin with. Turning to stare at the dresser, Raph saw something that caught his eye.

"Hey, what's that?" He asked, tugging on Splinter's robe and pointing a finger at Leonardo's katanas, that laid against the wall and next to the dresser. The two blades sat perfectly still against the wall, but what really caught the turtle's attention and now his father is the note taped against the longer sword's sheath. Dread filled Splinter's stomach and his stayed wide eyed, as he calmly walked towards the swords and gently pulled the note off of the sheath. He unfolded the piece of paper that was folded in half and staring at what was inside of the fold, he let out a gasp of horror and his reddish-brown held uncontrollable fear, as his hand that held the note trembled within his grasp and then fell from his clawed-finger, which was then caught by Don.

"Master Splinter?" When he finally given up on looking under the bed, Michelangelo walked up to his father and grabbed a hold of his kimono, noticing the horrified look on the rat's face when he bowed his head and his eyes gazed horrified on the ground. "Sensei, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"He's gone." Raphael and Mikey turned to Donatello, who also had a look of horror, only his eyes had tears in his eyes that trailed down his face and fell to his knees.

"What do you mean 'he's gone', Don? Who's gone?" Raph asked, kneeling down beside his brother and staring at the note the clench in the turtle's hand. "What's on that note?" Annoyed and irritated on the note that somehow caused his sensei and brother to look scared and get upset, Raph unclenched Don's hand with little to no difficulty and soon held the wrinkled paper in his hands. Gently smoothing the paper out the best he could and with Mikey looking over his shoulder, both turtles gets to finally see and learn what was inside the small-paper... Which, upon looking at it, made them wish to have never read what was written inside:

"Sayōnara"

Raph's hands trembled, just like Splinter and Don had, but he was able to keep a firm grip on the paper. Being the youngest and still confused on what's going on, but with his heart clenching in pain and stomach making him feel sick to his stomach, Mikey's bright-blue eyes formed tears and stared up at his father.

"What happened to Leo, Sensei? What does he mean when he written 'goodbye' in the note?" Placing a trembling hand on his head and slowly kneeling down to stare into the turtle's tear-filled eyes, with tears forming in his own eyes, Splinter calmly told Mikey the meaning of the note's one-word message.

"Kare wa nigeta (He ran away)."
End of Flashback...

---

April's sky-blue eyes reflected shock and horrified to what she's been told.

"...He... He ran away?" Lowered heads and downcast eyes were her answer to her question. Her sadness went away and replaced with disbelief and a bit of anger. "And none of you tried to see him, actually made an effort to open his door to see him and try to cheer him up, and didn't think for a moment he was planning on leaving when you thought leaving him alone would make things better?!"

"We thought he needed some alone time and would tell us to leave him alone." Donatello explained, placing a hand on his temple that throbbed and afraid of the ginger being angry at him and his brother, though mostly himself. "That's what we always do, whenever one of us wanted cool off and not take out our anger on the other." April crossed her arms over her chest and gave the turtles a good glare that she didn't see that as a good enough excuse.

"Did any of you ever go through having your feelings hurt by your own brother, been told they wish you never existed and want you to die?" The three turtles stared at one another, then shook their heads. "Locking yourself when you're angry and isolating yourself when you get your feelings hurt or told you're not wanted by your loved ones, aren't the same thing and don't have the same solutions!" She then turned to Splinter. "And you! No offense or any means of disrespect, Sensei, but you of all people should know that and should've told them to be careful what they say to each other!"

His ear twitched from her yelling, but the humanoid-rat didn't dare to lose his patience when he knew he very much deserved to be scolded for his parenting in the past.

"I have told my sons many times to be aware on what they say to each other and to never take words that are spoken out of anger or by an enemy seriously, though I also told them their words are just merely words and don't hurt as much as physical wounds do."

April wasn't satisfied to what he told his sons when they were younger.

"So, you gave them the 'Sticks and Stones' lesson, didn't you?" Splinter gave her a nod. "And you actually believe that trash?" A confused look was all the answer she needed. "You may have given them the 'Sticks and Stones' lesson, but believe it or not, Sensei, that method and teaching is nothing but a big, fat, lie." Confused gazes went around the room, which April had to give herself a facepalm to the forehead. "I'll tell you all about it later. For now, can we get on with the story." Splinter chose to let it go and continue on with the story.

"Of course," he said. "Ever since we found Leonardo's room empty and the note he left for us, I immediately went out to search for him. I failed to find him on the first day, then the second, and on the third."

"Eventually, we gotten tired on having to wait for Sensei and to find him return with little success, that on the fourth day, we were able to convince him to let us help." Donnie cut in. "Unfortunately, even with the four of us out looking for Leo, we couldn't find any trace of him at all within the sewers, tunnels, or the abandon subway station."

"Our search for Leonardo went on for a full month and with not even a single clue to figure out where he is or where he went, I was worried that he went up to the surface and had gotten himself captured by the humans." He then placed both his pawed-hands to his chest and bowed his head, tightly closing his eyes to prevent tears from coming out of him to show his weakness to his children. "...Or that I was too late and my son had perished somewhere in the sewers." Don, despite the concussion, got himself off the couch and calmly placed a comforting hand on his father's shoulder.

"However, before we could even come to one of those conclusion, there were still some places we hadn't thought about to check until Mikey brought it up: The closed off sections of the sewers and the forbidden boundaries close to the ocean that we were told to never go."

"Sensei didn't want us to go any of those places, but agreed to have us checked those places, after we gone through the areas we've been through one last time in case we missed something." Mikey added in, before jerking a thumb at Raph. "However, as stubborn and stupid he was back then-"

"Are you asking for a concussion, Mikey?!"

"Sorry bro, but it's true. Anyway, Raph ignored Sensei's suggestion and once we split up, he went his own way and head for one of the closed off sections of the sewer. And out of all the closed off sections in the sewers, he had to choose the one that has a neighbor we never knew we were sharing the sewers with."

TBC

---

...I bet you all can take a good guess to what "neighbor" Mikey's referring to.

Shiatsu*: A form of therapy of Japanese origin based on the same principles as acupuncture, in which pressure is applied to certain points on the body using the hands.

Also... To me, the "Sticks and Stones" saying is a load of bull. I know; some of my friends and I had to endure some name-calling during elementary school, and we weren't sure if physical pain hurts more than being name-called and picked on all the time.

Sorry it took me awhile, again, to post; a friend on Fanfiction asked me to help out a bit on their story. Not only that, as usual, mother and her boyfriend won't stop pestering me or drop the car issue and school work giving me headaches. Not only that... WRITER'S BLOCK, I HATE THEM SO MUCH (and are probably the reason why my writing's seems to be off lately... Either that or it's something else)! Also had my 20th birthday (didn't like or wanted to celebrate [which I didn't, thank god])... I hope nobody in my family is reading this, or I'll most likely get my ear talked off by them on why I didn't wanted to celebrate it.

Anyway, hopefully, I'll be able to update sooner (if my mother doesn't pest me on learning how to drive or getting my license during the Summer [unfortunately, she got me a car... Great... And I passed my permit]... Yeah, she's going to pest me into driving to get my license...). The good news, I'm finally done with my college class, so I'll probably get some time to try and update some more. Just be patient with me, guys. Alright? I'll update my stories, ASAP. I promise.

R&R