A/N: Hello there! This is my first ever AU fic. Just something I wanted to do ever since I saw a post on Tumblr with tiger claw with a baby Leo, and I was sold!

So here we go with my first ever AU! I OWN NOTHING!

R&R and Enjoy!

TMNT 2012: No Love is Greater

Chapter 1

"No love is greater than that of a father for His son."

― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

There were things in this world, Hamato Yoshi mused, that made living in it, the task of even opening your eyes in the morning, almost unbearable. He was even surprised that he had gotten this far to begin with. The wound was still very fresh in his heart, the wound unable to heal or even close. But even so, he allowed himself to open his eyes and get out of bed, sighing as he looked out of the window, the sun shining brightly over the tall buildings and fields that covered the land of Japan.

It had already been a year. A whole year since his family, his beloved wife Tang Shen, and his beautiful baby daughter Miwa, were taken away from him. He had been a fool. A complete and utter fool. He should have known that the fires of hatred would still burn in the heart of his old friend, Oroku Saki. He should have known that those flames would be unleashed in a vengeful attack in the night, dismantling the walls of his life that would fall and crumble around him, burn everything he knew and loved, until only the ashes of what once was a happy life remained.

But despite the pain he felt every day, Hamato Yoshi didn't leave Japan. He couldn't simply leave the land that held so many memories for him. And he couldn't leave her grave to simply sit there, unvisited, unadorned with the flowers that she loved since they first met.

Letting out another sigh, he got out of bed, bathed and dressed himself, and then headed out of his apartment. Trying to rebuild his old home was useless; it had been burned to a crisp. Nothing out of the wreckage survived the flames…and neither did they.

He walked down the busy streets, filled with people moving on with their daily lives, and unaware of others. He didn't blame them. It was humanity. He carried on through the ever moving roads of Tokyo until he reached his destination; the local florists. They sold good quality flowers at a low price, which was good for him; he had very little money left until he could find himself another job.

After purchasing the flowers he wanted and having them neatly wrapped up so they wouldn't blow away in the wind, Yoshi slowly made his way downtown, not bothering to call for a taxi to take him as he preferred to walk; it allowed him to think about things more clearly…like what he was going to do when he got home…what he was going to do for the rest of his life…without them?

After about an hour, he finally reached the cemetery. He gazed at all of the graves that surrounded him. Those poor souls. Many of them had left this world far too early, and all would be dearly missed by the ones they had left behind. He sent them all a silent prayer.

He continued down the path, not stopping until he was standing in front of them; the grave stones of Tang Shen, and his little Miwa.

When the firemen had finally arrived along with the police and an ambulance, they had been unable to find the body of the baby, assuming that she had perished in the flames. However, Tang Shen had died in his very arms. She was the only one that had been buried beneath the earth, surrounded by friends and family, including himself.

Watching them lower her coffin into the earth, the knowledge that he would never see her beautiful face, hear her laughter, or kiss her sweet lips ever again, killed him inside. Even with all the training he possessed as a warrior, as a fearsome, skilled ninja of the Hamato Clan, he couldn't save the two most precious things in his life…

Clearing his throat to force back the growing lump, he knelt down before the graves, and placed the flowers down carefully. Then he closed his eyes and put his hands together, praying silently. He prayed that they had peace wherever they were…and he prayed that, if fate would permit it, they would all meet again someday.

A single tear rolled down his cheek as he opened his eyes once again, staring one last time at the twin graves.

He hoped the fates would be kind to all of them, whatever the future had in store.

Instead of going back through the city, Yoshi decided that he would clear his mind and walk through the forests instead. The forest was dense, yes, but it was also very peaceful, filled with flourishing flowers and flowing streams nearby, which was where he decided to stop and rest as he sat at the edge of a little stream, where a waterfall flowed by the edge of a cliff. He took a deep breath through his nose, and left it out in his first content sigh in a year.

Hardly anyone ever came through here, one reason being that the path was long overgrown and hard to move through without getting covered in mud, or bitten by bugs, but that bothered Yoshi not, for he had trained in these very forests with his own master. Another reason no one ventured down here was due to the rumour that had been floating around recently about there being strange activity going on there, with the sounds of machines and strange lights flashing through the trees at nights when no one was around. Most claimed that it was the work of secret agents, or even aliens, but Yoshi, of course, didn't believe a word of that nonsense.

However, there was one thing that had him ever so slightly on the edge. There were other rumours about some kind of wild creature that lived around the area, one that resembled the body of a cat, but stood tall and fearsome like a man. He had heard of spirits before, but never had he actually seen one in the flesh. Now he actually wondered…were those tales true?

Something splashed in the waters. He looked up sharply from where he sat on the rock near the water's edge, and he eyed it suspiciously. Was it the so-called creature that lived here? Had it spotted him?

To his surprise, he found not a large cat creature, but a tiny baby turtle paddling towards the shore, climbing up onto the dirt as it padded towards where he sat, stopping just before his feet as it stared up at him, tilting its little head in curiosity. Yoshi blinked once, and he couldn't fight the small smile that finally seemed to tug at his lips as the little turtle nibbled at his shoelaces. "Why, hello there little one," he cooed, leaning forward to scoop the terrapin into his palm carefully as he brought it close to his face (praying that it wasn't a snapping turtle!), and he found himself staring into a pair of beautiful, reddish brown eyes. Who knew that turtles' eyes could be such a colour? How very unusual.

He rubbed the top of the turtles' head, his small smile growing when the little one leaned into his touch. "Well, aren't you a unique little turtle?" he chuckled, "Most creatures would have run away long ago at the sight of a human…hm?"

He noticed with a start that there was a little tag attached to its left hind leg, one that read in small Japanese print; 'Fresh Water Turtle, Pet Store'.

He frowned. So this turtle had come from a pet store? Either it had escaped, or some cruel person had decided that it would be humours to flush the poor creature down the toilet. He hoped it was the former.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the sounds of grunts and hisses below him, and he looked back down to find that there was another turtle stood at his feet. It seemed to glower at him as he held the other turtle, and it stamped its foot. Yoshi nearly laughed; it was telling him to put the turtle he held back down. He also noticed that the angry turtle also had a tag on its foot. Ah, so they were siblings possibly?

"Alright then, I'll release your…brother," he guessed with a smile, carefully setting the brown-eyed one next to the angry one, who immediately began to bite the other one playfully. Yoshi smiled warmly at the sight, and reached down to gently tap the angry one on the head, nearly losing the tip of his finger in the process, but that only made him chuckle again.

He heard splashes again in the water, and he saw two more turtle emerge from the crystal depths, a larger one nudging the smaller one up the muddy ramp as they scuttled over to where the other two turtles played near the human. The one that had helped the small turtle looked up at Yoshi, and continued to stare, as if into his very soul.

Yoshi stared at him for a time as well, until he felt something touch his shoe, and he looked down to find the smallest of the turtles attempting to climb up his leg, and he put up a very valiant effort too, until he fell onto his shell, wriggling his little feet in the air as they did in cartoons. Yoshi shook his head with another chuckle. "Here you go," he said as he gently picked him up and placed him back on his feet again, much to his delight.

Yoshi cracked another bigger smile this time as the staring turtle licked his finger, almost as if he was saying 'thank you for helping him'. "You are most welcome," he said.

Yoshi sat back as he watched the four curious creatures play together, his soul feeling lighter than it had in a year. He looked up at the sky which was slowly turning dark now as the sun began to set, making room for the moon and the stars to appear in its place. It surprised him that even the smallest of things could somehow bring him out of the brink of darkness, and back into the light. And it so happened to be four, strange little turtles that had been able to do that for him, even if it was only for a little while…

Wait…maybe it didn't have to be a little while…maybe he could take these little ones back with him, give them a proper home with him instead of living out here in the forest alone. They were only infant turtles, and being born in a pet shop, they would surely not survive. Of course it might be a bit of a burden to contain them and feed them as they continued to grow…but it would be worth it.

He just knew it.

A twig snapped nearby. Yoshi jerked his head upwards sharply, and he scanned the forest surroundings. "Who is there?" he called, narrowing his eyes as he raised his hands out of pure instinct. A ninja was always on his guard, no matter what. He had learned now to never let his down again, lest what happened a year ago happen once again.

He looked deeper through the trees, and as he squinted his eyes in the gloom, he swore that he could just catch a glimpse of something glowing in the darkness of the dense trees…and it was green. Just what on earth…?

He heard more soft noises behind him, and he turned again, only to step on a large rat that scampered by, and it let out a loud squeak of pain before it continued on its way. Yoshi watched it go for a moment, before a voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Stay where you are. Go no further. This place is a place where you are not allowed to be in this place."

Yoshi turned sharply to find two men, both dressed in business suits and both of them with identical, cold, almost lifeless faces as they drew nearer to him, raising their hands into threatening, crooked claws.

One of them was holding a large green canister filled with a glowing green substance that Yoshi couldn't identify, but in all honesty, he didn't want to.

Startled, he took a step backwards, being careful of the baby turtles behind him as he glared at the offending men that had suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. Who were they? What did they want? What were they doing in the forest? And…why were they talking like that?

"We have been seen in this place by you, so this not a place that will be left by you."

He let out a gasp as he turned around again only to find that there were two more men that looked exactly alike in appearance, and in the way they spoke. They were drawing closer to him as well, with one of them reaching into his suit, supposedly for a weapon.

Yoshi felt his fists tremble. His eyes shot open wide, filled with determination and anger.

He didn't know who these strange men were, but he was not going to let them simply kill him. It was true, he longed to be with his family again…but not like this!

So without warning, he fought back.

His ear twitched.

He let out a low grumble from his throat as he turned onto his other side, curling in on himself slightly as he continued to snooze in the comforts of the burrow he had dug himself.

It twitched again.

Curse that damn thing sometimes. Both of them seemed to twitch at the slightest sound, be it the wind, the rain, the snapping of a twig under the foot of another animal, and so on. This form of his gave him great advantages, yes, but if there was anything more cumbersome, it was his heightened sense of smell, taste and hearing. They were the most advantageous aspects about his form, yet every time he tried to sleep, right now being an example, his ears would twitch, alerting him of every single sound he heard, no matter what it was. Taste and smell, very well, he could deal with that, but he could only take so much of the sounds. Even though he had lived like this for decades, he still wondered every now and again how normal animals – how normal tigers – ever lasted their entire lives like this.

But it was the sound of a glass shattering, the sound of agonized screaming, and the smell of something he remembered the instant the scent wafted through the air that made his eyes snap open. He turned his head towards the mouth of his little cave, and he peeked through it, his amber eyes adjusting to the darkness quickly as he began sniffing the air again, and his breath hitched as the scent hit his nose again, much stronger this time.

It was there. That horrible smell of the substance that turned him into what he was to this day. Which could only mean one thing.

They were here too. And it appeared that they had just found their next victim.

He crawled all the way out of the hole, standing to his full, towering height as he stared into the direction in which the screams had come from, but had now died away. Should he go to investigate? Or should he leave whatever the human had now turned into to his fate? In fact, why was he even debating with himself about this? It shouldn't be his problem on whether or not some human was captured, killed or transformed. He had his own path, the path of the lone warrior, a title he had earned after years of training himself to become stronger, faster, smarter and far more skilled than any warrior in all of Asia, even after living in the slums and shadows of the Criminal Underworld. It was as clear as the belts adorned around his person, the guns that he had stolen at his hips, and the long sabre attached to the straps on his back.

If he had survived, then so could that human.

He turned back to his cave. Even though he hated the creatures that did this to him, it made him twice the man he would have become. Whoever had just suffered that same fate should be proud to be bestowed with new power.

Though he still felt some sympathy for the human. After all, he had once been human too.

He paused just before he entered his cave. "It will take time…but you will get used to it," he said.

Then the tiger retreated into his lair.

The first thing Yoshi was aware of when he regained consciousness, was that his body ached. He hadn't felt pain like this since his training as a younger man, and even then, that was nothing compared to what he felt now.

What happened? He remembered a fight, and then something splashing all over him, then pain, before slipping into darkness…

Groaning as he sat himself up, he put a shaking hand to his head –

That didn't feel like hair at all.

Quirking a confused brow, he patted his head again, and found nothing but what felt like fur between his fingers. Fur?! His heart picking up speed, he looked at his hand…and he bit back a scream when he found not a human hand, but a paw. A four-digit clawed pair of hands had replaced his once human hands, and as he his wide eyes scanned his arms and chest and legs, he realized that they were covered in thick, dark brown fur. His shaking 'hands' then reached up to his face, and he found that he now had a snout of sorts…and were those whiskers?

Moving as quickly as he dared, he looked into the river to see what had become of his face…

Rat.

He was a giant mutant rat.

He scooted away from the waters' edge as he let out a shout, and he held his head in his hands. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be real. It was all some cruel dream, and he would wake up back in his apartment…

Don't be a fool. You know this is real…

Yoshi felt tears stinging his eyes. He was no longer a human. Whoever those men were had taken his humanity away from him with whatever that strange green substance was…in fact, traces of it were splattered around him on the grass, and not far off was the empty canister.

It was thanks to those men, and that ooze, that Hamato Yoshi was nothing now. He had lost everything; his wife, his daughter, his clan…and now his humanity. What could he possibly do now? He could not return to the city, nor could he stay in the forest where those men could be lurking…

How could he escape this cruel twisted fate of his?

His now giant rat ear twitched on top of his head. Another noise behind him. He twisted himself around to find the source, and his eyes widened.

What on earth…?

The four baby turtles that he had been playing with before his transformation…they had changed as well. They were no longer ordinary baby turtles, but now their bodies had grown twice over. They still retained their turtle bodies, with their hard shelled backs and their green scaly skin, but they now took on the appearance of human infants, probably no older than Miwa had been.

He stared at them in awe as they began to sit up on the grass and crawl on all fours, just as a human baby would. They gurgled and cooed at each other, seemingly amazed themselves at what they looked like now and what they were doing. He looked over at the brown eyed one, the turtle that had first approached him before, and saw that he was staring down at his three fingered palms, turning them over and wriggling his new fingers as he seemed to see how they functioned, before sticking his left hand into his mouth and sucking it. His reddish brown eyes then met Yoshi's, and he stared at him for the longest time, before taking his hand out of his mouth and crawling over to the giant rodent. Yoshi watched him with interest as the little one approached him, and he patted his lap, feeling the new fur on his body.

Despite still being unable to fully process what was happening, despite knowing that his entire life had been turned upside down within the space of a few minutes, Yoshi could not fight the smile that graced his lips as he watched the mutant infant. He seemed to not care about the fact that he was a giant rat, one that could easily tear him apart, though the thought would never cross his mind. He was a curious little one, wasn't he? Even before his transformation, he seemed unfazed by the fact that he was a human…

Taking care to not frighten the turtle, he carefully picked him up and sat him on his lap. "Why, hello there little one," he said, just as before when he had come to him the first time.

The brown eyed turtle's eyes seemed to sparkle, and a little toothy smile began to grow. Yoshi noticed that he was actually missing a front tooth; most likely due to something prior to his mutation. And dear lord did it make him look cute, even though he wasn't even human.

The turtle then reached out with his little hands, and touched Yoshi's new rat nose. Yoshi's nose twitched oddly, and he held back the urge to sneeze. The child then reached down and took hold of the rat's hand, bringing it up and turning it over in his own hands, bending each finger and inspecting the claws, which Yoshi watched him do with interest, before the child then stuck his finger into his mouth.

Yoshi actually smirked. "You cannot eat my finger, little one," he cooed, retracting his finger from the child's mouth. He looked up at Yoshi and giggled again.

Yoshi heard a little grunt in front of them, and both he and the turtle in his lap looked to find one of the other baby turtles looking at them. Yoshi noticed that this turtle's eyes had changed; they had once been dark as well, but now they were a piercing emerald green shade, and they seemed to glare right at him from where he sat a few metres away from them.

Still pouting, the green eyed turtle crawled over to Yoshi and Brown Eyed turtle (a nick-name for now) and he stopped just in front of his knees, staring up at the two of them intensely. He let out a little grunt again, and Brown Eyed turtle seemed to understand, slipping off of Yoshi's lap reluctantly. This seemed to please Green Eyed turtle as he then smiled a little, throwing his arms around his neck as he wrestled on the grass with him playfully. Yoshi watched with a small smile. These creatures really were like humans. He wondered why that was. Was it because animals had always possessed human qualities that they never knew about?

He lifted his head up at the sound of whining, and he found that the two blue eyed turtles, with one of them having actual freckles on his cheeks much to Yoshi's shock, were both farther away from where he sat near the water, and the freckled one was starting to cry. The larger dark blue eyed turtle seemed as though he was trying to comfort him, patting his little head with his hand. He then turned to look up at Yoshi, staring at him with a serene look on his face that, admittedly, startled Yoshi. It was as if he was telling him to come over and help, but he was being so calm about it.

Standing up on shaky legs, for he was not yet used to his new body (or the long pink tail that seemed intent on trying to make him trip) he made his way over to the other two turtles and sat down beside them. The freckled one seemed to stop crying at the sight of the giant rat, sticking him thumb into his mouth as he looked up with large baby blue eyes.

Yoshi offered him a smile as he scooped up the child into his arms. "Why the tears, little one? Are you afraid?" he asked.

The freckled one in his arms remained silent for a moment, as if he was being shy, but that was soon replaced by a giant toothy grin that nearly split his face as he began to giggle, burying his face into his furry chest.

That actually brought out a little laugh from Yoshi. "My, aren't you a silly one?" he cooed. He looked up from the laughing one in his arms to the serene turtle who watched them both with a little smile. He fiddled a little where he sat, as if he was itching to join them. Yoshi smiled, opening one arm out to him. "Come here, little one," he said, "I do not bite."

There was hesitation at first, as if the child seemed to think about what to do, before he made up his mind and crawled over to Yoshi, grunting as he climbed up onto his furry lap next to the freckled one. He reached out and patted his chest, where his heart was, and then looked back up at the rat.

He smiled at him.

Yoshi smiled back.

Not long later, Brown Eyed turtle and Green Eyed turtle ended their little wrestling match, and crawled over to Yoshi. Brown Eyes wanted to climb on as well, so the blue eyed one made some room for him to sit as well. Green Eyes was hesitant, but he too eventually decided to join the huddle.

Yoshi wrapped his arms around them all as they huddled close to his chest. Though the air in the forest was cold, the warmth he felt in his heart could not be matched as he gazed down at the four turtle infants, who slowly began to doze off in his arms.

It was clear to him now on what he had to do now. These four turtles – these four children – needed him. There was no way he could abandon them now; it would be cruel of him to banish them to such a fate…

It was in that moment that he decided; he would take them with him. No matter where he went, he would make sure that these four babies that had suddenly filled him with light after the darkness would be there with him. He knew it would be hard, raising for children on his own would be one of the hardest things he has ever done, but he could manage. They would mange, somehow. They needed shelter, somewhere they could hide away from the disapproving eyes of humans, somewhere safer than a forest filled with strange 'men' that would track them down eventually.

But until then, he would protect them. All of them.

He laid his clawed hand softly on one of their heads. "…you are safe now. I am here…my sons."

A/N: There you have it! The first chapter!

I hope you keep reading to find out what happends next!