Foot Clan (IDW)

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In the IDW Comics, the Foot Clan (kanji: 足一族 Ashi Ichizoku) is a ninja clan of Japanese origin.

History[]

The Foot Clan was formed during Japan's Muromachi period as shown in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret History of the Foot Clan where it was founded by a rōnin by the name of Takeshi Tatsuo. Takeshi was renowned for his fighting prowess to the point even his master and the leader of the Yuu Clan, Ashikaga Yuu, feared him. Because of said fear, Ashikaga tried to have Takeshi assassinated and Takeshi prevailed at the cost of his right leg, severed in the battle. The sorceress Kitsune helped Takeshi to recover from the severe wounds he had suffered in the assassination attempt; the clan's name was inspired by the bloody footprint of Takeshi's regenerated right leg, healed by Kitsune. After Takeshi murdered Ashikaga for his betrayal, he took control of the Yuu Clan and remade it into the Foot Clan. Kitsune involved Takeshi in her alliance with General Krang and he operated the Foot Clan under Krang's cruel influence.

Takeshi was the Foot Clan's jōnin for over 100 years and Foot Clan ninja Masato and Oroku Maji were suspicious of Takeshi's seemingly eternal youth. While on a needlessly destructive Foot Clan mission to steal territory to give to Krang, Maji and Masato witnessed Kitsune accompany Takeshi as he murdered Lord Daisuke, confirming that he was in league with a demon as was rumored. Maji spied on Takeshi to uncover an answer for his lack of aging and he learned that every full moon, Takeshi ingested the ooze given to him by Kitsune from Krang to reverse his elderly age. Maji informed the rest of the clan of Takeshi's pact with Kitsune and the Foot attacked him on the next full moon, preventing Takeshi from drinking the ooze. Maji murdered Takeshi, however, an enraged Kitsune cursed Maji so that Takeshi's soul was reborn in his own son Oroku Saki.

Maji and Masato became co-leaders of the Foot and they nurtured it to be about as peaceful as a practicing ninja clan could be, killing only when hired to. In The Secret History of the Foot Clan issue 2, Kitsune showed Saki the Ashi no Himitsu and magically revealed to him that he was the reincarnation of Takeshi. As a Foot Clan chūnin, Saki murdered Masato then Maji, feeling betrayed by them because they didn't disclose his relation to Takeshi, and rose to be the Foot Clan's jōnin. The reawakening of his old memories caused Saki to become a bloodthirsty tyrant and he corrupted the honorable culture that Masato and Maji established and the clan regressed to its original villainy. Foot Clan chūnin Hamato Yoshi detested Saki's leadership and Saki sentenced him and family to execution for treason, killing Yoshi and his sons three years after his wife Tang Shen.

Kitsune guided Saki through a ritual to grant him immortality, providing him a potion that ensured he wouldn't be reborn upon committing harakiri, but rather, his spirit would be forever bound to his current body. His corpse was then submerged in ooze and generations later, Oroku Karai mixed her blood with the ooze as was required and revived Saki in the 21st century.

In more recent times, the Foot Clan was under the leadership of a now-immortal Saki—now known as the Shredder—and tried to expand its supremacy in New York City. Its ninja were therefore often sent to amass any scientific advances that could help the Foot, and also to find new test subjects for the mutagen; this led to the creation of the mutant Alopex.

In this endeavor, the Foot Clan also came back into contact with Krang, who also wanted to create a mutant army to meet his objectives. An attack by the Foot in the laboratory of Krang's ally Baxter Stockman led by a combination of circumstances to the creation of the Turtles and their father Yoshi AKA Splinter, who in a previous human life had himself belonged to the Foot Clan.

In Vengeance, part 6, Splinter won the Gauntlet once he finally defeated the Shredder and Karai allowed Splinter to become Foot Clan jōnin. After gaining control of the Foot Clan, Splinter intended to reform the Foot Clan by having them follow a more honorable path. His efforts at first were met resistance by one of the Foot Assassins, Jennika, who attempted to overthrow Splinter with the help of the Street Phantoms. After overpowering her with the help of Leonardo and Alopex, Splinter was able to handle the coup, and Jennika pledged her allegiance to her new leader. Three of Splinter's sons, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello, were appointed as joint chūnin of the Foot Clan, while Michelangelo refused to have anything to do with the Foot. The clan would later suffer the defection of Kitsune—who had always had her own agenda—and the loss of Alopex to Kitsune's mind control.

After the Foot Clan's defeat of Darius Dun, Splinter ordered the already-surrendered Dun be executed at Jennika's hand when Dun refused to submit all his assets to Foot control. This surprisingly cold act alienated Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello from Foot Clan life and they quit the clan. However, they parted ways with Splinter under relatively good terms, with Jennika becoming the new chūnin. Splinter would later acknowledge this as the founding of a new ninja clan—Clan Hamato with Leonardo as jōnin—which would function separately and independently from the Foot Clan. Under Splinter's control, the Foot would continue to be his sons' allies, lending their resources as needed, such as the rescue of Alopex from Kitsune's control.