Disclaimer: I just want to state for the record, I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If I did, Karai would not be a mutant or under the Shredders control.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by Same Difference by Sunny Lighter. Feel free to check that story out to compare both our stories and see if I did as well as Sunny Lighter. I hope to do as good a job. In this story, Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey will be humans. Karai will be Miwa and Tang Shen will be alive. Just to be clear, I'm not ripping off Sunny Lighter, I just think this story works this way.

Please, tell me your honest opinions in the reviews, I won't accept anything other than honesty; your honesty will help me improve where I need work.

Okay, Let's get started. Here goes nothing.

Prologue

For centuries in Japan, two ninja clans had been at war with each other; the Hamato Clan and the Foot Clan. One was good and honorable and the other was corrupt and ruthless. The war finally ended when the leader of the Hamato Clan, Hamato Yuta, led an attack on the Foot Clan village. After the battle was over, Yuta found an infant boy, no doubt the son of the Foot Clan leader, Oroku Kaiji. However, Yuta had no grudge against the boy, for he was only a child. It was then that Yuta decided that the best thing for the child was for him to take him and raise him as his own.

The boy was named Saki and Yuta raised him as his own alongside his own son, Yoshi. The boys grew up together as brothers, with Saki blissfully unaware of his true heritage. As they grew, Yoshi and Saki were the best of friends and greatest of rivals. Both of them became great masters of Ninjutsu, though Yoshi was more of a master than Saki.

Their rivalry escalated when they both fell in love with the same woman, Tang Shen. The two competed for her affections for a long time, and over time the rivalry drove a wedge in their friendship. However, Shen only had eyes for Yoshi. Saki could not accept their love and left home and did not return for a year.

In time, Yoshi and Shen were married and had twin children, a girl named Miwa and a boy named Leonardo. While both children had the same dark hair as their parents, Miwa, the elder of the two, had Shen's green eyes and Leonardo had deep blue eyes. Yoshi found this to be odd at first, then Yuta explained to him that this eye color is really not that uncommon on Yoshi's mother's side of the family, leading Yoshi to believe that Leonardo might have gotten his eyes from there.

When Saki returned, he had an infant boy with him. As it turned out, Saki had at one point impregnated a woman during his time away from home and she gave birth to a son, whom Saki named Sousuke. Sousuke had inherited his father's dark brown hair but he also had green eyes. Most people assumed the eye color came from the mother, who passed away after giving birth. He also had a birth mark on his chest, in the spot where his heart was, that resembled a lightning bolt. When Yoshi and Shen had heard of Saki's return as well as the news that he had a son around the same age as their twins, they went to see him in hopes that the children would all be friends. To their delight, all three of the children got along very well.

Shen often wished Yoshi would leave the ninja life behind and the two could live in America. Unfortunately, Yoshi was very dedicated to Ninjutsu and felt it was his responsibility to take over the family dojo when his father passed away someday. Shen felt that the life of a ninja was not the kind of life Miwa and Leonardo should be living; she felt ninjas had no more place in the modern world.

Saki saw how Shen felt and tried to take advantage. He tried to convince her to leave Yoshi for him by telling her that he would go to America with her and they could raise Miwa, Leonardo, and Sousuke together. What Saki did not expect was that Yoshi began to reconsider his decision for the sake of his children.

One night, while Yoshi and Shen were on their way to pick the twins up from Yuta after having a night to themselves, Saki unexpectedly showed up. To the shock of both Yoshi and Shen, Saki had the crest of the Foot Clan on his clothes and was armed with razor gauntlets. He urged Shen once again to choose him and leave Yoshi, but she refused. This angered Saki and he prepared to attack Yoshi. Shen pleaded for them not to fight, reminding them that they are brothers; however, Saki denied that they were ever brothers because they were not related by blood at all.

While he was away, Saki had done research upon his true heritage; Yuta had revealed to him some time ago that he was adopted, but did not say much else about his parents. In his research, Saki learned that his true father was Oroku Kaiji, the last head of the Foot Clan. Saki had learned a long time ago of the fall of the Foot Clan, so this could only mean that Yuta had taken him after he had killed Kaiji, Saki's father. Outraged by the new knowledge, Saki swore revenge. Saki got the members of the Hamato Clan together and convinced them that the clan was weak and to follow him instead. Hearing his words, the Hamato ninjas abandoned their clan and sided with Saki.

Yoshi told Shen to go to Yuta and protect their children while he faced Saki. Shen protested at first, but Yoshi told her that she needed to keep the children safe. Once Shen was at a safe distance, Yoshi and Saki fought, Saki using his gauntlets and Yoshi using Shuko that he had concealed. The two former brothers fought with all their strength until Yuta appeared with a sword in hand and assisted Yoshi. Yuta tried his hardest to urge Saki to abandon his dark ambitions and see that they were a family, but Saki refused to listen to anything Yuta had to say.

Seeing that Saki was not going to listen to reason, Yuta and Yoshi saw no choice but to fight the man that they once saw as a son and brother. As they were fighting, however, a fire was blazing from the woods where Saki had come from and had made its way to the area where Yuta, Yoshi, and Saki were having their battle. When Saki had convinced the Hamato Clan ninjas to join him, he had burned a Hamato Clan shrine to signify the clan's end; unknown to Saki, the some trees and plants in the woods, causing a forest fire. Yoshi tried to urge Saki to stop fighting so that they could all escape before the fire killed them all, but Saki would not listen; not even at the mention of his son. Saki prepared to finish Yoshi off once and for all, but Yuta intervened and took the blow instead. After taking the blow that was meant for Yoshi, Yuta fell hard to the ground, bleeding. Yoshi rushed to his father's side and held him close. As Yoshi sat with his father, Saki charged again to finish them both once and for all, but a burning branch got in the way and separated them. Yoshi and Yuta could hear Saki cry out in pain as the fire burned his face and his body.

Yoshi tried everything he knew to try to save his father, but Yuta knew it was too late and that he would die. As Yuta lay dying, he told Yoshi that he and the children had to survive because they were now they last of the Hamato Clan. Yoshi promised his father that he would protect the children, and Yuta took one last breath before he fell lifeless in his son's arms. Yoshi wept over the death of his father, then buried his father's corpse and went to look for his wife and children.

As he made his way to his father's home, Yoshi heard crying that could only belong to an infant. When he looked past some bushes, Yoshi found Saki's son, Sousuke. Yoshi wondered what the child was doing out here alone, but pushed that thought aside for the moment. As he looked at the boy, Yoshi remembered Saki was still out there and could see this boy's future being raised by Saki. Wanting to prevent that from happening, Yoshi picked him up and took him to his father's house.

When Yoshi got there, he told Shen what happened between him, Yuta, and Saki and how he had found the child alone in the woods. Fearing that Saki would eventually come after them again, Shen told Yoshi that it was no longer safe for them in Japan and that they had to leave. Yoshi agreed with Shen, but also wondered what to do about Sousuke; if Saki were allowed to raise him, he could become just like him, maybe even worse. After talking it over, Shen and Yoshi agreed that the right thing to do would be to take the boy into hiding with them and their children.

That very night, Yoshi and Shen packed what they could and fled with the three children into the shadows. They got on a boat the next day that took them to America. Upon arrival in New York City, Shen and Yoshi used some money that they had saved up together back in Japan to make a down payment on an antique shop with living space. Shen gave it the name, "Second Time Around", Yoshi had no idea where she came up with it, but did not argue with her choice. Yoshi and Shen figured it might be safer to change their surname in case Saki tried to find them, so they chose the name Kurama. With the money they earned from the shop, the Hamato family lived happily and comfortably together. They even adopted Sousuke legally and gave him a new name, one that they felt was more fitting, Raphael.

A year after moving to America, Shen had become pregnant a second time and gave birth to another set of twins. This time it was two boys whom they named Donatello and Michelangelo. Donatello had black hair and reddish brown eyes while Michelangelo had black hair and baby blue eyes. The five grew up happily together for fifteen years as brothers and sister.

Meanwhile, Saki, or Shredder as he preferred, had tried to hunt down the Hamato family with no success. He vowed to find Shen and the twins and make them his, as well as destroy Hamato Yoshi for the sins of Yuta and for the death of his own son, Sousuke. In truth, Saki's son was alive in New York being raised as Yoshi and Shen's son; and he could not be happier not to be a member of the Foot.

Author's Note: In case anyone's wondering, I picked the name "Second Time Around" from the TMNT universe. I thought it worked. Please let me know your honest opinions.