Wilderness

The talk Part 3

"My sons...." Master Splinter greeted them as they entered the lair, with a degree of tension in his voice, causing his sons to wonder what was going on or if something was wrong.

"Is something the matter Sensei?" Leonardo asked, 

"I need to speak with you all perhaps in the Dojo would be best" Splinter replied, 

"Okay come on guys" Leonardo said ushering his brothers into following their father's wishes Leonardo was always faithful to his Sensei. Mikey slung the pizza on the counter top in the kitchen o the way past, pizza time will apparently have to wait!

"I'll let you lead this conversation, you know them best" Master Kato told his former student formerly known as Yoshi, as they followed the boys into the Dojo.

Splinter nodded, and took in a breath, and the two Sensei's entered the Dojo nervously.

The turtles had sat in their usual meditation positions while Splinter stood in front of them with Master Kato next to him but he to sat crossed legged on the floor, both Sensei's were tense & the turtles all looked on nervously picking up on the tension. 

"Ok my sons, this is going to be difficult for you to hear & for me to say" Splinter began, 

"Things here, have taken a turn and we have entered a cycle which I feel we must break" Splinter started, 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raphael asked, bluntly as ever, agitated.

"I'm getting to that Raphael, Master Kato and I are in agreement that there is one of you that has fallen behind the rest and a remedy is needed to bring him up to speed" Splinter stated, 

The three turtles all looked at Mikey and Mikey dropped his head, they all recognized who that was without being told.

"I see you are in agreement, interesting!" Master Kato added softly, stroking his long white beard, waiting for Yoshi to continue. As Raphael scowled further.

"So what's the remedy you have in mind?" Donatello asked feeling protective of Mikey, 

"I believe Michelangelo needs some one-to-one training & I'd like Master Kato to teach him, to bring him on" Splinter said, 

"I'm I in trouble Sensei" Michelangelo asked, not comfortable with being singled out like this.

"No my son, this is not a punishment, but merely to help you grow & develop, I fear you are falling behind & the dynamic between you all is becoming unhealthy" Splinter replied,

Michelangelo looked at the old man trying to gage the situation, that didn't seem so bad, but he was unsure of the man, he hadn't been interacting much with the turtles despite being here for several weeks by now & was an unknown quantity. 

"How do you mean unhealthy, we're fine, ya don't gotta pick on Mikey" Raph said annoyed he didn't like where this was going & had a bad feeling,  

"What like you do... practically all the time Raph!" Leo added, viewing Raph's comment hypocritical to say the least. 

Raph huffed in annoyance "shut it fearless" he snapped, though in truth he knew it had a grain off truth to it.

"Look, Michelangelo" Splinter knelt in front of him, 

"You seem to have accepted you place as the family fall guy in practice, you view your input as unimportant & as merely the family chef & walking boombox, you allow yourself to be defeated in training sparring, you don't try & improve yourself, you are capable of so much more..." Splinter told him,