137And... here is the next chapter! The plot thickens. Hopefully. Thanks to Askre, Reinbeauchaser, Kyabetsu and Micaturtle for helping me out with their suggestions! They helped to get me moving! AND a belated thanks to Desert Rose- I'd already published, but she was kind enough to answer my lj question!
TMNT belong to Viacom and Nickelodeon, but I honestly don't see them living in a pineapple under the sea...
Stalking the Green-Eyed Monster
Plan Number Four- The Student Becomes the Sensei- sort of
For three terrifying days, Leonardo was Getting Away With It!
For three heart-pumping, nail-biting, breathless days, right after morning training and chores and just before afternoon lessons, Leonardo was slipping out of the front door "to play Just Outside", running as fast as he could to the old drainage junction, training himself on the first seven steps of the Kusanku, then beating it back to the Lair with just enough time to recover his breath, calm his racing heart, and then casually enter as if he'd been doing Nothing Special.
He had expected that one or more of his brothers would try to join him as they were still on "lock down", as Raphael referred to it, but he'd been so well-prepared for such occasions that he was almost disappointed when they didn't bother to even ask!
Donatello would be the least likely to offer to come along, unless he had something he particularly wanted to test outside. Don's latest project involved a lot of fine-tuning and was far from ready for a field test. Still, Leo had Planned- "Sure, Donatello! Let me get my copy of Sensei's 'Donatello's Safety Check List', and I'll check off everything first before we go."
Don, he knew from personal experience, would immediately decline.
"Never mind. It takes longer to do that check list than it did to build this project" he'd said the last time he'd wanted to field-test an invention in the sewers, but per Splinter's orders he'd been required to follow the (incredibly) long list of rules.
Raph would be the easiest to shake. All Leo would have to say was "I'm going out to practice katas, wanna practice with me?" for Raph to politely excuse himself ("Are you outta your mind? Ain't we practiced katas enough this mornin'? Jeeze, Leo, get a Life!").
Mike, on the other hand...
Leo had been concerned. Mike had a habit of knowing just when he wasn't wanted. It was almost as if he'd been born with a sixth sense for this particular irritation. Don had even toyed with the idea of investigating if such a thing were possible, but a lack of easily obtainable research material put an end to that.
Michelangelo had mastered the art of "tag along" to the point where Splinter had had to insist that his son limit such attempts to five a month in order to keep the peace. Indeed, a close count was kept by the young turtle himself, proudly keeping track on a calendar he'd made himself.
And he always- ALWAYS- seemed to dole it out so that Leo was the one who "benefitted" the most from such attention at the least opportune times!
Yes, Leonardo had spent part of his evening the night before he would make his first attempt to get to the old drainage junction in coming up with as many Anti-Mikey scenarios as his 10-year-old brain could come up with on his own without the help of Raph (who would have suggested locking him in the closet) or Don (who would have suggested duct-taping the door after locking him in the closet).
And he'd managed to come up with five ideas, ranging from a "Let's see who can meditate the longest!" contest to "I'm gonna dredge out the channel in front of our door, it's looking rather cluttered, wanna help?"
Yet, for three days straight Michelangelo hadn't even once offered to follow Leo outside!
He wasn't disappointed, but... well, he was disappointed. He hated planning when he couldn't use his plans. Still, as Sun Tzu said:
" Now the general who wins a battle makes many
calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few
calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations
lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat:
how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention
to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose."
At least Leo would not fail- he had made MANY calculations in his temple ere the battle!
While waiting his turn to be called upon during afternoon training, Leo found himself once again Worrying.
That first day he'd managed to sneak off and return without notice had weighed heavily on his conscience.
"I'm just going outside, Sensei," he said, appearing calm on the outside, but a nervous wreck on the inside. Sensei would know! Sensei was brilliant, he knew whenever someone was planning something! Sensei would-
"Very well, my son."
Leo, moving with deliberate casualness, stepped outside, wandered over to the very edge of the boundary while still being able to see the door, counted to one hundred- took a deep, deep... DEEP breath... and made a break for it!
He moved as quietly as he'd been trained, yet as fast as he could go, one eye on his destination, one ear on any possible shouts of "Leonardo!" echoing behind him.
Nothing but the normal noises reverberated in his ears, though those were muffled by the pulse-pounding beat that seemed to fill his head as he tried to outrun his fear of being caught breaking Splinter's rule!
Before he knew it, he was there! He skidded to a halt, surprised, somewhat dazed for a moment as to where he was- then he got himself under control, pulled the oft-folded paper from his belt, forced his hand to quit shaking so he could read the darn thing, then began.
"Look... left pinan block... right pinan block... pull... knife hand... right punch, outside block... left punch, outside block..."
He stopped, once again slightly dazed, looking around as if waking from a dream.
No noise other than the water sounds that filled this area. And the sound of his breathing.
Laying the paper down, he got into position again, and slowly tried it from memory.
"Look," he whispered, glancing to his left. "Left pinan block... right pinan block"
Up and out came first the left, then the right arms
"... pull... knife hand..." he muttered, suiting words to actions. "Right punch, outside block... left punch, outside block..."
This time he executed the moves a bit smoother, but not faster.
"Leonardo, this isn't so hard!" he lectured himself. "You already know some of these moves. Do better!"
Once again he went through the seven moves, one eye on the paper just in case he'd forgotten something, and soon he was moving with complete confidence and (to his expert eye) skill!
Man! There is no way this takes ten years to master! I'll probably be able to do it in five. I can't wait to see the look on Mikey's face when I do this for the first time for Sensei!
Sensei!
Grabbing his paper, he beat it back to the Lair Just in Time!
Calming himself, he entered their home just as Splinter was summoning everyone to lunch!
The knowledge that he had succeeded seemed to make his milk taste that much sweeter! Though, for some reason, he had found his sandwich a bit hard to swallow at first. He had thought Splinter, looking at him across the table, could sense Something...
"Leonardo," he had said, and it was all the guilty turtle could do to keep from jumping. "Your writing assignment is due today. I trust you are ready to submit it."
"Hai, Sensei," he had replied, bowing in his chair. "I finished it the other day."
"Big surprise," Raph had muttered into his glass.
The second day had gone even better than the first! Sensei was going scavenging, and was taking Raphael with him. They were only sticking to the lower levels, as it was daylight, and they would not be gone long. Don, once the breakfast dishes had been cleared away, had complete control of the kitchen for his monumental security system project, and Mike was busy with some "new" comic books that Sensei had found the night before on his evening food search. Leonardo felt secure in leaving his brothers alone- after all, if there was a danger of Men coming around, Splinter would not have decided to go out at this time to forage!
Leo still traveled as quickly as he could, and made sure he kept his training to a brief time period (this time he'd remembered to bring his little alarm clock with him). The fear of discovery that had chased him the day before still tried to follow him today, but he outran it as easily as Mike could outrun Raph when Raph was gonna pound him.
And today, there was little need to look at the scroll fragment... I mean, piece of paper!
Ninja-Master Leonardo was surrounded. As usual. The daimyo had sent his best guards to do his cowardly work, but Ninja-Master Leonardo would make short work of these twenty as he had of the twenty before. And the twenty before them... and the twenty before them...
"Look... left pinan block... right pinan block... pull... knife hand... right punch, outside block... left punch, outside block..." and the first few fell before his skill and power..."
Ninja-Master Leonardo repeated these seven steps over and over until all twenty of the Daimyo's soldiers were dead or dying. As he surveyed the fallen, he bowed with respect, and mused on how many more he would defeat once he had the rest of the scroll...
He got back to the lair well before Sensei and Raph that day. And, during afternoon training, he had felt little Worry that Splinter or his brothers were on to him. His conscience, though it nagged, was hard to hear over the sound of Ninja-Master Leonardo defeating scores of the Daimyo's "best" guards...
Today, however...
Today, while practicing in secret, he'd started to get Bored.
I mean, it's the same seven steps. It's not enough! I've already mastered these seven steps. I want to know MORE! I mean, I'm sure the others, not even Mikey, can do these seven steps. But they're useless without the other fifty-eight steps- or thirty-eight, depending upon which version this one was from, after all, Mike had said that there seemed to be several versions. Personally, the sixty-five step one would be more worth knowing, but trust Mike to probably have zeroed in on the easiest. After all, these terms didn't include any of the Japanese...
So today's training had pretty much been spent wishing for More and wondering how to obtain It.
Now, as he sat in the dojo, awaiting the moment when Splinter would put him through sword practice, he Worried.
He worried that Splinter may have noticed an improvement that only came from learning the Kusanku.
He worried that Raph knew what he was up to. After all, he'd made that remark today about "what's the matter, LeoNERDo, practice not go the way you planned?" when he'd come inside from "practicing katas Just Outside". Leo knew for a fact that Raph had been grounded to their room until he'd finished his writing assignment that had been due the day before, so there was no way he could have spied on him. Yet that comment...
But mostly he worried about a growing thought that was struggling to make itself clear to him: in order to get the rest of that kata, he was going to have to steal Mike's notebook.
Leo swallowed. Hard.
Steal? Steal the notebook?
No, just the kata! No need to steal the entire notebook.
But steal...
A strange feeling came over him; he felt cold and clammy, as if coming down with something. And yet he also felt very hot and flushed, like he did that time when he'd been caught in the bathroom singing and dancing to "Maniac".
Leonardo, absently rubbing his hands over and over his knee pads, glanced over at Mike.
There he was, looking through that stupid notebook, pencil making little movements, lips moving as he read something to himself, looking as if nothing was wrong, looking as if he had all the rights to break all the rules and learn all the stuff that he wasn't ready for...
Steal? Steal the kata?
"Steal? How could you STEAL?" whispered a little angel turtle sitting on his right shoulder.
"Why not? You've already been sneaking away from home. What's the difference?" whispered the little devil turtle lounging on his left. (Why was it that the little devil turtle always sounded like Raph?)
"Because it's STEALING!" Little Angel Turtle said, arms gesturing wildly. "Sensei says Stealing is Wrong!"
"Sensei says passing the boundaries without his permission is wrong," pointed out Little Devil Turtle, studying his fingernails. "Ya didn't squawk then."
"But that's different," huffed L.A.T. "After all, Sensei's just fallen into one of those five dangerous faults, that's all. And besides, he TRUSTS our judgment!"
"Well then, stealing the kata is okay," said L.D.T. "After all, Sun Tzu said in that one section:
31. Water shapes its course according to the nature
of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works
out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.
32. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape,
so in warfare there are no constant conditions.
33. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his
opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called
a heaven-born captain."
"So?"
"So, we modify our tactics and take what we need from the notebook. Simple," asserted Little Devil Turtle. "Besides, it's like spying, and Sun Tzu endorsed the use of spies. So it ain't exactly stealing, is it? Not when it's what will determine exactly who is gonna be Leader!"
"No, I'm sure you're wrong!"
"Michelangelo... Leader... calling all the shots... ordering everyone around..."
"It's STEALING! Stealing is not Honorable!"
" 'Leonardo, you need to practice more,'" L.D.T. said, suddenly sounding just like Mike. " 'Your katas look sloppy and poorly timed. Do it like this: Kick, down up, step behind, seisan-'"
"Michelangelo," Splinter called. "Put your notebook away and stand. It is your turn."
"Hai, Sensei!" Mike happily made a show of covering the notebook with a few mats, then cheerfully leapt over Leo's head and landed in front of Splinter, weapons ready.
"There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general," Leo repeated to himself, counting them off on his fingers in his mind.
"(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him
to worry and trouble."
As he watched Mike go through his lesson, Leonardo realized that, as Sensei might be guilty of fault number five, he himself was in danger of fault number four- 'a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame'.
After all, Sun Tzu had a huge section on spies. And spies could be said to be stealing information...
Leonardo swallowed, but this time with determination.
Plan Number Five- Ninja-Spy Leonardo.
(tbc)