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"So why are we doing this again?" Michelangelo murmured quietly the confusion evident in his voice. Currently all four brothers were slinking through the hallways that surrounded the ceremony room, the faint sounds of merry making could still be heard echoing eerily though the cold and nearly silent hallways.

Donatello stopped short and looked at Michelangelo with a glare,"If you couldn't tell Mikey, we're trying to be kind of covert here, and you walking behind us talking kind defeats the purpose." he turned around and began walking again. Searching for the room with the tell-tale steam of light that would indicate just which one of these spare rooms Iyastumo and Rai had gone into.

Rai, now there was a name that inspired a feeling of bubbling hate inside his plastron. Donatello knew that while he didn't particularly care for, or get along with Momo, the tone of their conversation the previous night, and injury Rai had inflicted on Iyatsumo should not be something that he just ignored. 'Shouldn't and couldn't' he thought darkly, as he focused on making the echo of his footsteps sounding in the hallway nearly non-existent. He didn't want anyone to be aware of his presence until he chose them to be. He glanced back at his brothers, who though confused were still following, trusting him with their very lives if the needed. He sighed as he turned the corner, siblings should be able to trust each other with their lives, they should love each other so much that they would die for their brother, or sister, just to save them from the same fate. That was part of the reason he was going to check up on Momo, he had seen first hand how much value Rai placed on Iyatsumo before. Knowing that made him uneasy, he didn't know why, but it did. He supposed that was probably some kind of damsel in distress programming that he had, damn chivalry.

As Donatello hobbled down the nearly light-less hallway, lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the small, horizontal, glow of life streaming form the seam of a doorway. 'I found you...'

He turned to look at his bothers, bringing one thick green digit to his mouth he made the universal signal for complete silence. The last thing he need was for Iyatsumo to catch them eavesdropping on her, and her brother. He could just imagine how much and how loudly she'd chew him out.

Slowly and as quietly he turned the knob to the door and started to ease it open. Creek! Donatello winced at the sudden noise that seemed to echo across the empty hallway. Carefully he looked through the the opening trying to determine if Momo and Her brother had heard them. He peered cautiously into the dim room. His eyes alighted on a door frame that was on the the parallel wall, there was the source of all the light, he'd seen. Donatello could faintly hear the low mumble of conversation between two people. 'That must be them.'

Silently they slipped into the dim room and skillfully meddled into the long shadows that the light from the adjoining room cast around the sitting room. The quiet conversation in the next room grew louder and harsher and soon all the Brothers could easily hear what was being said.

From his place behind a fake tree next to the door, Leonardo looked into the mirror which lay on the opposite wall. It reflected into the other room and gave actions to the words he was hearing.

"I hate you." The man who had been punished publicly said harshly. He was sitting in a chair backwards, Leonardo could clearly see where the lashes had torn strips of flesh and left raw weeping wounds. Leonardo was perplexed, why didn't Iyatsumo respond to the man's barb? She had acted as if she hadn't even heard the young man's comment. Leonardo watched curiously as Iyatsumo began to apply ointment to the back of the young ma. The young man hissed in great pain and twisted his head up to scowl deeply at Iyatsumo. But before he could open his mouth to say anything she opened hers.

"I know," She began, her voice much softer than if had been when they had previously just walked in,"I know you hate me. There is no need to remind me of your feelings, as you have made them quite clear over the years. But regardless of whether you love me or not, I love you because you are my brother." as she said those words Leonardo felt his opinion of Iyatsumo increase greatly, he knew what a difficult task it was to return love for hate.

At the same time Rai stood up and sent his chair crashing roughly against the wall. He stood there breathing hard from painful wounds and anger that flashed sinisterly in his eyes. Slowly he turned around to face Iyatsumo who stood there with a stony glare on her face, still holding the ends of the crisp white bandage that was halfway around his back. In the next room the tension also flared, all the brothers, even Donatello were preparing themselves to jump into action at an given moment.

In three surprisingly quick steps Rai closed the small distance between himself and Iyatsumo. He was a good foot and a half taller than her and when he stood up against her, his face pulled back into a snarl, she looked incredibly small. But only in stature. Amazingly his fearsome gaze did nothing, and Iyatsumo never pulled her eyes away from his. His eye radiated unspoken, but incredibly felt hate as he snaked out his hand to roughly grasp her face in a mock brotherly gesture.

Squeezing her face, until Iyatsumo wanted to cry out, he looked down on her, his lip curling before finally saying,"You are not any flesh of mine. If you remember Dear Freak, my sister is dead. You are certainly not her. You disgust me, your body disgusts me, the fact that you have been allowed to live this long, disgusts me, and the knowledge that there are more like you out there, makes me want regurgitate my innards."

Leonardo looked oer at the darkened form of Donatello, would they go in now an break this up? Donatello made a hand signal with one hand. 'Not yet? She must be one shell of a fighter, though I still think that we should break it up now.' Leonardo thought resigning himself to watch the mirror once more.

Iyatsumo's eyes bore icily into Rai, smiling evilly at him though her face was being squeezed, she suddenly gave the end of the bandage that she still held a savage yank. Rai let out a roar of pain and wrath, as he threw Iyatsumo from himself, and stumbled a few steps. Iyatsumo slowly got up from where she had been thrown and with a smile that brought a chill to Leonardo's shell, she said," I said I love you because you are my family, but that doesn't mean that I like you. Remember that Dear Brother." Leonardo felt the tendrils of unprecedented fear curl up around him when she was finished speaking, now he understood how she could be the terrifying warrior in battle he had been warned about.

Rai said nothing, he didn't have to, of the look of pure malevolence that glowered from his eyes said everything in a language that needed no words. Slowly he got up, holding his sides, as if he could hold all the agony and hatred inside of him by doing so. He got to the doorway before turning back to look at Iyatsumo with a stared devoid of any emotion at all and said," You're time will come, believe me." With that he turned back round and hurried off to lick his wounds in private.