Pubescent, Mutated, Martial Artist Reptiles

For part three of my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed series, I'll be flexing my literary muscles and giving my pitch for a reboot of TMNT. This could used for a comic, or a cartoon, or a film, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you loyal readers take a look at how I would introduce the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to a new generation.

In 1954, there were two men who lived in a Japanese village. One was named Oruko Saki, who came from a rich family. The other was Hamato Yoshi, a poor peasant. Saki and Yoshi came from two different lives, but as young men became best friends through their common interest in the tales of ninja. The two friends often displayed public sparing matches and were given names by the people of the village: for his savage and unrelenting strikes, Saki was called "The Shredder", and for his precise movements that struck between his enemies movements, Yoshi was called "The Splinter". It was thanks to Saki's family-who were an off-branch of the Japanese Yakuza-that Yoshi was able to rise from his poor lifestyle, leaving his biological family in the process. When the friends were both in their early thirties, they met a woman named Tang Shen. Saki and Shen were arranged to marry, but Shen had grown a liking to Yoshi. After Shen and Saki were wed, she had a child who shared Yoshi's likeness. Saki felt betrayed by his friend and fought him with murderous intent. Their fight would spark a fire in the family home and debris would crush Shen. While Saki escaped with the illegitimate daughter of Yoshi and Shen, Yoshi sat by Shen's side until the rest of the house crashed down.
New York City circa 1974, a now older Hamato Yoshi owns a Japanese antique shop and is seen as a hermit by the community. One day, Yoshi witnesses a truck about to run over a boy with a tank of pet turtles. Yoshi stands before the boy, ready to give his life, when the truck driver flips the truck over and spills mysterious chemicals. Yoshi and the boy stand clear, but the chemicals wash the pet turtles into the sewers. At the boy's request, Yoshi travels into the sewers below and watches as the chemicals give the turtle's humanoid bodies. Terrified by these turtles, who mimic his words and walk upright, Yoshi tells them to stay put as he tells the boy they disappeared.
Yoshi takes the four turtles to his antique shop and watches as they behave like children. When they ask their "new father" what their names are, Yoshi takes inspiration from the italian portraits he's collected. He names the sea turtle Leonardo, the snapping turtle Raphael, the tortoise Donatello, and the box turtle Michelangelo. Noticing their energy, Yoshi decides to introduce himself as "Master Splinter" and discipline them in ninjutsu in secrecy for the next ten years. He also trains each in a weapon he keeps in his shop. While training, they all wear dark red masks to signify their equality as students. In 1984, Yoshi's shop is one day burned down by a group called The Purple Dragons and as he and the turtles escape into the sewers, Yoshi grabs a historical scroll that links "The Tale of The Purple Dragon" back to a ninja clan called "The Foot", the same ninja clan he and Saki shared an interest with. Yoshi comes to the realization that Saki has returned, and he's in New York.
Yoshi graduates the turtles and gives them differently colored masks to signify their individuality. Since Saki will be looking for Yoshi, the turtles are tasked with tracking down Saki's operations and returning the intel to Splinter. Along the way the turtles develop their personalities further, pick up a liking to pizza, and ally themselves with a field reporter named April O'Neil who's investigating the interactions between The Purple Dragon gang and Mirage Industries. The five of them discover Mirage Industries is the corporate cover of Oroku Saki's crime empire, which uses the Purple Dragons as pawns. They also meet Karai, leader of the Purple Dragons and the daughter of Saki. She rivals the turtles in her fighting skills and is not aware of her true relation to Yoshi.
After the turtles are kidnapped by Karai and her men, they are brought to Mirage Industries where Saki claims that Yoshi only raised the turtles to make up for the family he abandoned. Saki plans on using every torture method in the book to turn the turtles into his minions, but his plans are stopped by Splinter, who was informed by April of the turtles capture. While Splinter goes after Saki, April releases the turtles just in time to fight off Saki's four traditional ninjas. Defeating the ninjas, the turtles head to the roof of the building where Saki-now clad in armor-has beaten Yoshi to near death and claimed "The Shredder will always defeat The Splinter". The four turtles fight The Shredder, but each fail to defeat him in combat. With only Mikey left, he uses Saki's insecurities to battle him. Mikey regards how Saki wasn't enough for Shen, how his obsession with ninjas is childish and how-unlike most victims of adultery-Saki got left raising a kid that wasn't even his. This enrages Shredder and gives the other turtles to a chance to fight him. Shredder is stabbed in the stomach by Leo and tossed off the building.
After these events, Yoshi recovers and begins using a cain. Mirage Industries is shut down and Karai and the rest of Shredder's people vanish. April gains popularity as she reported on the whole thing, but leaves the existence of the turtles a mystery to the public. In return for protecting her from any suspicious followers, April shows the turtles a closed subway station she and her friends used to hang out in and the turtles make it their new home. Meanwhile, Karai tells an unseen figure that the rest of their ninjas are ready to assume The Foot Clan mantle. We learn that while Karai knows Yoshi is her father, she still sides with Saki. It is then revealed that Saki survived the battle with the turtles and is living off Mutagen, the same chemical that created the turtles and is provided to Saki by a company called TCRI. The final scene is of Raphael sitting outside April's apartment on bodyguard shift. He hears fighting in the alley below and is face to face with a man in a hockey mask.
From this, stories featuring TCRI, the alien Krang, and the realm of Dimension X can be explored with The Foot Clan and Shredder making a stronger effort. I tried to expand more on the TMNT lore without becoming to outlandish, I believe this take could be a refreshing and simple take on these cultural icons.
Thanks for reading!

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