Melted flesh. Gouged eyes. Torn right ear. Yellow teeth distorted to a snarl.
A face, such a horrible thing, ruptured by the endless beasts of hate and chaos that with one look you would feel already dead.
Yet the howling pandenodium of the burned man's eyes were hidden as a blessing- the oblivious green leaves of a bush drinking up all sides of his face while leaving out his backside, static in the solemn, hesitant sun. As Leo turned his back on the sight that inflamed his spine with pity and faced his abashed group of ninjas, April's left foot coward back.
The ginger shot open her mouth but before any words could get knocked out, an undeniable charge of realisation and adrenaline, so instant, so raging, Leonardo even feared it himself when he burst a demand. "So, Tiny's whole group is coming at us? Right this second?"
The white-haired asian who denied he was an albino answered at an unexpected speed- as quick as Mikey cramming down pizza. "I beat them to a bad point," he affirmed, "so it's a small possibility that they will have the courage to come after us again-"
"-you beat them?" The exasperating retort from Raph once again shook the whole forest and ushered birds straight out into the sky, furrowing Leo's brows with a swelling irritation. "We did more than half of all the work for you! You just showed up at the last possible second for a dramatic entrance, trying to show off, like 'look. At. Me!-"
"-Raph!" Leo snapped. Hothead. At least the new guy Hanzo didn't have a bad temper, so the blue-eyed boy cast his gaze upon him with gathered professionalism. The best way to get answers was to be quick and polite; two rules his impatient brother would never find in his dictionary. "Hanzo, how can you know that?"
In what way could this ancient guy know an answer to everything in less than two seconds? "Don't worry, I'm sure," the ancient boy stated under his black mouthpiece. "The no-clans are weak and scrawny-"
-flashing pictures of the tattered, half-starved 'warriors' flipped past like pages through Leo's mind-
"-but their leader, Daiki, is fierce."
"Huh? How do the no-clans have no clans if all of them are already a clan?" Mikey blinked his pond-reflecting blue globes.
An explosion blasted out the centre of Raphael's dark ginger head as he ignored the stupid question. "Daiki? I called him Tiny, everyone here calls him Tiny."
"His given name is Daiki," Hanzo replied nonchalantly. "And the name Daiki means big."
Among Raphael's erratic spluttering, Leonardo built his new, curved lips into a plastered-on grin as best as he could. "So, Hanzo, you're sure that Daiki won't follow us, or Raph, any longer?"
Beneath his cave of pale bangs, the ninja confirmed the asking with a nod of his head. His voice was straight, brisk, and certain as always.
Donnie shuffled his boots- the hue of tan brown- while his brown eyes pounced on the hunched over, disgusting, body of Daiki. It was a confusion on why Leo's brother would lay his gaze on that scrawled clatter of blood, flesh and burns again; almost corpse-like. Something about it was beyond just a poor wounded soul, or even a near-corpse. Beyond, it was paranormal. Evil. Mundane. Dull.
"I don't think Daiki's going to get up soon. Health back in Ancient times were terrible- they barely had any medicine except for healing hand gestures and religious practices."
That random, droning voice dribbled away in the background of the lifeless, monotone yet starving shrouds of shadow- invading and licking the edges of Leo's vision, and in the centre was Daiki. Something about him... Something...
"Why are you calling him Daiki now,
DONNIE?"
Something... Donnie?
Everything was clear now once there was barely, maybe a snap of a blink and the teeth of grey were deleted from the confines of Leo's lagging vision. Sudden. Just like that. The moment everything was put back into place, Raph was again jeering at everything in the world.
"What, so you're Japanese now, Donnie?" The redhead jutted a long finger into the air that lined up directly to Donatello's baffled human features.
All right. Time for another telling off. Opening his mouth, Leo-
"I think that's enough, friends." Hanzo's voice sparked out of nowhere. "Let's wake Renet up, then continue to find the Hamato Clan."
One by one, casting the thing that happened to Leo every day back in the city which muddled him every time, the group- his family- turned and trailed Hanzo back to camp like baby ducklings following their mother. As they gradually disappeared into the draggy green canopy before him, Raph was storming his heavy black boots across the ground while Mikey was fluttering in the air- probably thrilled to see his time-master crush again. The little blondie angled his fluffy head backward a bit, caught Leo's bemused gaze, and instead smiled. "Let's go, Leo!" He cawed, Donnie who was in front agreeing with a surprised 'Why's he just standing there?' right before a towering bush sucked them into the trail to camp.
So Leo stood there. Not moving. Because he couldn't believe it. He was the leader. A random guy in the middle of a forest in an unknown place who even Raph loathed wasn't. Yet the team followed the random guy instead. Exactly, what was the thing Hanzo had that Leo himself didn't-
"Are you okay?"
There was a voice searing out of nowhere and before he could think Leo flashed all the way around and knew it was the burned man but then it was-
"April," he sighed, the stakes of fear dying down in a relieved haste. She was kind of scary for a teenage girl. Angling his head toward the same exit the others had taken, the ninja converged with the ginger's unhinged gaze. "Let's bounce."
Instead, his sister-like friend hesitated a little in the choir of blossoms and stalks before she step-by-step brushed her boots through the relishing strands to grass toward him. She had something on her mind- but what? Too many things had happened. Too many to count. Two days and Leonardo wished that they would just find his father already.
The yellow-shirted teenager's clouded sense of tone verified his inner assumption. "I saw Raph back there." She paused. "Do you... think he would've really killed him? Hanzo?"
"No way." Leonardo's solution bulleted out of the tunnel of his throat so rapid he didn't even hear. "No, Raph's not that type of guy. He's all bark and no bite, you know what I mean?" Something so warm and honey-like brother and bubbled beneath him as another book of memories leafed past his mind, releasing a true laugh within him. "Don't tell him I said this, but Raph's a big softie."
Oh, and the blue-masked boy knew how his sensitive brother got with Spike. Cute and cuddly, staring at the pet turtle while he clamped down on a leaf, playing Mazes & Mutants together, and basically being each other's one and only soulmate. Two turtles, with the same pumping heart, with the same red blood, and the only minor difference was their size. And the mutagen. And the leaf-eating. And the ninjitsu. And-
It took Leonardo a while to realise April held silent until another weary statement slithered out from under her pursed mouth. "I..." she mumbled, with the exception of volume despite her screaming white-clenched fists. "My psychic senses are telling me that something's not right about Daiki. He's giving off... this insanely-"
"Creepy vibe?" Leo finished the sentence for her. "I feel it too."
The girl's voice was inflamed with a badly hidden surprise. "You do? I mean, I'm the one with Kraang-bred psychic powers, so how would you know-"
"You are the most spiritual out of your brothers." The deep, gentle, wise beyond his years, fatherly, serious, clever, as old as an old oak tree, and experienced voice of Splinter rippled through the vast caves of Leo's mind on a flashing instinct. Trusting the nostalgic memories, Leo recalled how wise sensei was. Sensei was wiser than him. Wiser than his brothers. But Sensei was wiser than everyone. Sensei was wiser than the universe.
Leonardo's heart bulged with sorrow through the two days and a million years they had been far, far apart- but thinking of Splinter made him think of Karai and all that obsessing again and so he stopped thinking in general and didn't memorise the rest of what Splinter had said.
Through the prickling of plants poking past his unusually long white boots the ninja still couldn't get used to, he murmured, "Splinter said I'm the most spiritual of the group." Saying it out loud flicked a heavy stone of scepticism down on his stomach, yet he continued. "Maybe... that's the reason why I could feel it too?"
Through the distended borders of his sight, the camp greeted Leo with a smile of the sun which tenderly massaged every inch of his body. Through the optimistic luminance, he pondered ruefully if he was ever going to get used to this place- ever: a hug of browns, a shelter of elderly limbs were protecting young sprouts wandering out of the deep brown earth with its ever-giving soul.
"And I'm sorry." The sudden apology from April was so unexpected, Leo ripped his head from the striking sight to face her as they passed Hanzo and Donnie cleaning up the mats.
"What about?"
The dimness and regret that incessantly swam in April's explanation was so radiating that Leo sympathetically placed his bandaged hand on her far shoulder. "I'm sorry... for turning you human. All of you guys human."A swivelling, dense tide of guilt enveloped her freckled face. "God, I can't believe it took me so long to say that."
Slowly, as they passed Mikey, Renet, and Raph collecting fruit on the nearby crowds of bushes, April wavered her plaintive gaze up to his. "I guess it's a big change for you... Isn't it?"
A big change? Every time Leo held the katanas gifted by Splinter, they trembled in his gaunt, pale, tiny hands with an automatic lack of control. And instead of revelling in a bird nest-free bald green head, black hair nearly towed down to his eyes. Leo couldn't find the incredible ability of sinking his whole body into the home of his shell, either. But aside from that...
"Well, that means we don't have to hide any longer." The both of them suspended their leg motion, blending a calm, obliging still air cloaking them in a slow drift. "I know why you turned us into people... And it wasn't exactly your fault, you know? Sometimes, the popularity of your peers isn't what's all cracked up to be."
And he pondered for a second who he was actually trying to convince.
***
"Everyone, go eat some breakfast, clean up some wounds, empty the clearing, cover our footsteps and stay quiet. We can't let any other warriors know we're here!"
No answer.
Yet the team only shared conversation in the centre of their own little bubble, crowding around Renet and Hanzo, chirping away as if they didn't have a single care in the world. Instead, Leo was trying to help them, trying to keep them safe, trying to do what's best for the team.
Perhaps, he could try to grasp their attention again. Before Leo bunched up another ball of air out of his mouth to order the team another time, the world hesitated. Five more days. There was still time... After all, health and energy came in first, right?
"Well, I'm just gonna look for more food, more resources... and also check for more dangers and... Sengoku period wars," Leo called to seemingly no one, only receiving quick waves. It's not like the rest of the team saw him anymore with Renet and Hanzo being the new 'leaders'. Not really.
So the blue-masked ninja whipped around and begun what he had announced.
The sturdy trees that stretched their myriad of hands into space stared at him as he jogged past, questioning why he was here, running around while craning his neck left and right like a madman alone. Alone like a gleaming goldfish in a sea of sharks- knowing there's danger in every corner but not knowing where. Here, clan borders could be just two steps to the left, a few inches to his right, or just in front of nose.
So he halted in his tracks.
But for the wrong reason.
Above the autumn leaves improvising a synchronised pattern on the ground, above the golden crowd of daffodils celebrating the return of the sun, above the winking twinkles bouncing off the free ribbon of a stream, above an enchantingly curved stone, sat her. Caressing her sudden elongated hair with an ancient wooden comb.
It was her, wasn't it? Without warning, an uncontrollable swerve of the deep, rich gift of love exploded within him, subduing his duty and promise to the team. Yet the spiralling sentiment still burned sweetly within him with such undying, almost unnatural, lust and grief that he just stood right there, right in front of her, dumbstruck.
It hit him like a missile that she was even more beautiful than before, more elegant, more tranquil, more radiant, more heavenly, and more than anything he ever wished for.
"Karai?" He breathed.
And it was like, finally.175Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0DnaLE5U8
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