Total Turtle Transformation (TMNT Book 4)

"What About?"

“A what?!” everyone practically screeched at Splinter. Only Leo continued, “But then… she’ll be the most powerful enemy of ours…”

When he finished, everyone was already on their toes, looking at the entrance like FootClan soldiers would come up any second.

“Would you all calm down?” Splinter asked calmly. We all looked at him. Even I was beginning to grow nervous. “We know Naomi enough--”

“Yeah, when she wasn’t Foot!” Sophie snapped.

Splinter took his cane and whacked Sophie upside the head. “Let me finish, Sophia. We know Naomi enough for her not to give away our position. And she even told Raphael to trust her. I believe we should.”

“Uh, sorry to intervene,” Olivia cut in. “But we’ll be leaving.”

“Be careful,” I warned. “There’s a few more enemies than normal.”

She nodded and her and Rosalie left. We turned back to Splinter.

“Repeat what Naomi said to you, Sensei,” Donnie asked.

Nodding, Splinter said, “‘When the shadow leaves, it will become a much darker shadow with a more darkening path. It will not act like the dark shadow, but look like it. Soon, the shadow will return to it’s lair with a lavender side.’”

“Alright…” Donnie nodded. “Thank you, Sensei. We get the first part… The shadow is Naomi, obviously. She went dark, but she won’t act like it. So we should somewhat trust her… But what about the lavender?”

“That I don’t know…” Splinter said.

“When I was with her, Naomi did say something about bringing someone back…” Raph answered. “You think their name will be Lavender?”

“We will find out when Naomi returns, Raphael,” Splinter said.

“What if she doesn’t make it back because she dies?” Sophie asked. Apparently, it the question everyone was asking in the back of their head because they started looking scared. Nobody wanted Naomi gone…

“She’s pretty much undefeatable,” I said. “She reads minds.”

“But not Shredder’s.” Leo reminded me. “Remember when we fought him? She even said she couldn’t.”

“Oh, yeah…” I muttered.

“But if she turned evil, then that means she’ll have to fight at least a few times,” Leo said. “Against us…”

“We should train,” Raph nodded.

“Fine,” Leo said. “Sophie against Mikito. Then Raph against Natasha and me against Mikey and whoever wins against Sophie and Mikito will be against Donnie.”

We all nodded and got into our positions. Sophie and I took a side and got our swords out. Without waiting for any order to attack, we lunged at one another and our swords met.

I kept one of mine locked with hers then used my other to swipe at her stomach. She jumped away, twisting away from the sword that was keeping her Wakizashi in check. When Sophie stopped, she looked at me and then ran at me. I parried her attack then gave my own by jabbing a sword in the floor then using it to propel myself and kick Sophie. She flew threw the air and hit the tree finally that was in dojo.

“I win,” I breathed.

Sophie nodded and got up, getting her Wakizashi from the ground when she dropped it. We traded places with Raph and Natasha. Again, they didn’t wait for any order and just went at one another.

Natasha snapped her whips around, trying to hit Raph. She did a few times, but most of the time, Raph kept using his Sais to slash the whips to shreds. Finally, Natasha’s whips looked like Raph’s bandana ends, only much worse and he spun kicked her away.

“You got me, Raph,” Natasha chuckled. “Nicely done.”

“Thanks.” Raph nodded. “Learned a bit from Naomi…”

Everyone sighed and then Raph and Natasha switched out with Leo and Mikey. This time, Sophie called out, “Hajame!”

The brothers lunged at one another, Mikey already getting a nun chuck tossed away. Mikey used his last nun chuck to keep Leo’s Katana away from his face by using the chain. Leo tripped Mikey though, which made Mike loose his last nun chuck. Before he could get his weapon Leo used one sword to stab at the floor near the nun chuck, making Mikey flinch back. The other sword was pointed at Mikey.

“Uncle!” Mikey cried, putting his hands up.

Sighing, Leo helped him up and they switched places with me and Donnie. I got out my swords and Donnie his staff as we took our sides. Somehow, with Donnie with his staff, it reminded me of Naomi, which made me pause as Sophie call out, “Hajame!”

Donnie had jumped forward, twirling his staff and I still stood there, thinking of Naomi before I rolled out of the way, kicking my leg out at his own. He jumped up to avoid me, but as he swung him staff down, I swung out with my sword, getting a cut in the wood. My sword got stuck and I back-flipped, taking my sword with Donnie’s staff.

“Stuck fast…” I muttered, looking up at Donnie.

“Give me that back,” Donnie demanded.

“You think Naomi would do that?” I asked, looking at the staff.

“Fine. But we’re still not done.”

“I know…” I sighed. “I just… Gosh…”

“Yamae.” Splinter said from behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “You are troubled, Mikito, because you’ve been around Naomi so long and now that she’s elsewhere, you can’t stop thinking about her.”

“Hai, Master Splinter…” I nodded.

Donnie came up and I got his staff unstuck and I gave it to him. He nodded and walked back to the others.

“You must learn to see past your past and see through this future,” Splinter said.

“I’m trying… I truly am… I’m just worried. What if she doesn’t come back? I mean… What will I do then? She’s saved me more than I can remember and helped me out whenever I needed help…” I sighed, looking at the ground.

“She’s helped all of us,” Raph came up and said. “Even if we can’t think of a time, she’s been there helping us through everything… When she doesn’t tell us things, she was actually protecting us until the right moment.”

“Like me,” Sophie said, looking at each of us. “Naomi told me you would all think I would be some kind of spy or something unless it was the right moment.”

“Now this…” I muttered. “She only gave us fortune cookie signs that would lead us up to this… She did prepare us… Just not the way we would’ve wanted her to.”

“See?” Splinter said. “You know you trust Naomi, so why would her alliance with us end? She has a reason for this. You must see this. Also, it’s a good way for when she does get back to see what the Shredder has been planning.”