The boy was carrying an aquarium with four turtles while the blind man was crossing the street, and a truck was coming towards him. Another boy pushes the boy with the falling turtles to save the blind man. He managed to save the blind man, but a bottle with an unknown substance, later called a mutagen, fell out of the truck. The turtles fell into the sewers, followed by a bottle, and after that a rat named Splinter. A bottle fell on the turtles and broke, and Splinter picked them up in a coffee box. There was also a mutagen on them that touched Splinter as well. Not long after that, they grew up and began learning ninjutsu techniques of stealth and invisibility from Splinter, whom they began to call their teacher and father. He named them after painters from Italy: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo. All of them together are Ninja Turtles.