SILENT GUARDIAN ◦ SHINIGAMI; TMNT¹

PROLOGUE

The young cries of an infant are heard through the silent streets of New York, as a young, troubled mother, is found carrying the baby who is found screeching through the loud noises of the storm.

The young newly turned mother didn't know what to do. She wasn't ready for a baby, she wasn't ready for motherhood, she wasn't ready to take care of another human being, she wasn't ready for all of the hardships that came with raising a child.

She wasn't ready

No one around her was excited for a new life that entered this world. Her parents were dead because of him. Her husband threatened to leave her since he obviously wasn't the father of the child she was carrying. The guy she cheated on her husband with could care less about her or the child, so she really had no other option.

Once this baby was gone it would solve all her problems, she could go back to the man she loved, sweep her past behind her and ride off into the sunset without the child. Sure it would be hard for a couple of months but as the years pass she'll forget all about him.

Overwhelmed by the challenges of motherhood, she makes the gut-wrenching decision to leave her newborn baby in a quiet alleyway, believing it will offer the child a better life. Filled with a mix of guilt, grief, and a glimmer of hope, she departs, leaving her baby behind, hopefully for a better life.

"Goodbye, my little one." The woman says crying staring into the hazel eyes of her only child. She gives the infant one last kiss on the head before she makes her departure disappearing on the streets of New York. As the mother walks off leaving her only child in a random alleyway, she failed to realize was the large-size mutant rat watching her retreat from the shadows.

The mutant rat glanced over at the still-wailing child, looking over it in pity. He too has children of his own and understands the difficulty of taking care of the young creatures. Though it was hard and he faced his many challenges, the young father still couldn't wrap his head around abandoning his own flesh and blood.

Taking a quick look around the quiet streets, the mutant slowly approaches the baby who can be seen kicking its little feet while crying for the one who abandoned him.

The rat known as Master Splinter kneeled down and carefully peeked through the box and gasped at what he saw. Although he knew he would find a child in the crib, he didn't expect the child to be so young.

He instantly felt a spark of new anger arise at the thought of the woman dropping off her son who couldn't have been more than a month old in an alleyway, left to die alone without any love from a parent. He thought about hunting the woman down and giving her a piece of his mind but couldn't leave the poor child alone by himself.

No, not again.

Coming to a decision the ninja pokes his face into the box that holds the most stunning handsomest baby boy crying, wailing for his absent mother. The child has black hair, wrapped in a white blanket with little blue elephants patched all around the cream-colored blanket. The baby slowly stopped crying and looked up at the giant rat with his hazel eyes. Master Splinter smiled at the baby and picks him up gently, the baby giggled making adorable faces at the rat father, and stuck his little fingers in Splinter's nose.

Splinter let out a low chuckle at the antics of the baby, thinking of four turtles who would get along great with the new member of the Hamato Clan."My, aren't you just adorable." The master said tapping the young human's nose lightly earning himself a small giggle of delight.

In that moment the rat father makes a life-altering decision, vowing to provide a loving home for this precious child, failing to do what his mother could not. Cradling the now giggling child to his chest, the new father of five slowly removes the manhole walking back to the lair which stores his four sons.