To Crack a Shell - ROTTMNT

8 - Lightning Rod

Leo can't see anything. The blindfold cinched over his face blocks out all light.

His toes glide across the bamboo mat floor as he turns slow circles, feeling the ground and air for disturbance.

Cold tingling sweeps over his skin. His ninpo shimmers and ozone trickles into the air. A part of him wants to summon his blades, but he quickly shakes the thought away and refocuses.

Just in time! He turns at the sound of air whistling, putting up his hand and deflecting a throwing knife into the ground beside him. A rustle of cloth guides Leo's strike to the left as his opponent tries to circle him.

His ninpo builds to a point and the cold tingling turns to electric currents. The current reaches through his veins toward their source around his heart. The circuit connects and Leo wraps his hand around the electric reins, pulling with all his might to control where the power goes.

The lightning erupts. Leo is flung back, feeling like a door has been slammed on his arm. He falls onto his back and smells singed cloth and wood.

A frustrated groan leaks through Leo's bared teeth. He pulls the blindfold off his face and sits up, rubbing his sore arm and tingling chest.

"Bah! You mess it up every time!"

Leo casts his gaze at the other side of the room. An irate ball of armor and yellow fabric flounders around before finding its feet. The stout little man squints angrily at the turtle. "How many times must we tell you to guide your chi?! Guide!!"

"Look I'm trying! But every time I try, it just blows up in my face!" Leo gripes.

The dojo's sliding door opens. "My brother likes to speak in riddles," says the newcomer. A lithe man with piercing eyes and donned in violet-tinged robes steps forward, extending a hand toward Leo.

Leo accepts the hand and its firm grip helps him to his feet.

"Is the young one okay?" asks a third man, this one built like a brick wall with a red sash around his waist.

"I'm fine," Leo says. He steps back toward the middle of the wall. The room feels smaller with all these people in it, and even that much smaller with the addition of another warrior, this one with sharp features and a blue headband.

Leo clasps his hands together and bows. "Masters," he acknowledges.

The Masters return the gesture.

Master Shiko, the one in purple who helped Leo up, returns the turtle's katanas to him. "Perhaps some more detailed explanation is in order, yes?"

Leo refrains from scoffing. "Please, yes. No offense to Master Konoko..." he glances at the round man getting chided by his bigger blue brother, "... but he doesn't make much sense."

Master Shiko hums with snide agreement. "To his credit, there is much about the world itself that doesn't make sense to him. He is the most enlightened of us, thus sees everything differently."

The brick wall of a man leans down and sniffs at Leo's head. "Hmmm. He smells unlearned. As green as his skin."

"That is why we teach him," says the blue brother, ignoring the fuming Konoko beside him. "Come, brothers, let us give the master and student their needed space."

Leo sighs to himself. He can't be physically tired anymore, but most of him is mentally checked out. It's been ages since he checked on his brothers, and with Mikey's spirit still catching fire, Leo wants to be nearby.

His thoughts are interrupted by huge hands grasping his shoulders and picking him off the floor. The red master stares him dead in the eye. "You will get this," he says. "You will master your ninpo. You are Hamato."