A/N: First attempt at writing a long story, as well as my first time writing for Kung Fu Panda. But I'm excited for it, and I'm motivated so perhaps things will go well. Originally I was going to start with the heroes, but I think doing a villain scene first to set an overtone would be more fun. I suggest listening to "Six Shards of Eden" by The Luna Sequence, at least that's the mode I was in while writing this.
Note: Kung Fu Panda characters are in the next chapter if you wish to skip this one.
Also Note: Some timelines may not be 100% accurate as far as Ancient China/ Feudal Japan goes, but I'm trying to make this work so bear with me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda or any of its characters, they belong to DreamWorks. Any OC's, however are mine. Nor do I own the song, "Six Shards of Eden" it belongs to The Luna Sequence.
War of Shadows
Chapter one: Requirement
"Time to move, Kyofu," a voice called out to a figure dressed entirely in black, sitting cross-legged on the forest floor, "We have a job to do."
"Yes, sir," Kyofu said, standing up quickly, and sheathing his katana, while he flexed momentarily to remove some stiffness from his legs.
It was nighttime in Japan, though the full moon gave enough light to see the other members of their group of twenty readying their weapons, and equipment, in the small forest clearing they had situated themselves in while waiting for the right time. Each was dressed in black tunic, pants, and wore a black mask to cover every part of their head except their eyes, indistinguishable except for their leader, who had a red headband, so they could tell who he was. All of them were some form of feline, a few golden cats, of which Kyofu was one, leopards, and others. The only difference between them was height, but that didn't matter, because tonight was a time they'd all have to work together to survive, each of them knew it, and none planned to fail; failure meant certain death, whether at the hands of the targeted victims, or at the hands of the headmaster, the latter was far worse than anything they could suffer here.
Their leader, Kasai, silently motioned for them to move out, and took off running through the forest floor. Kyofu followed quickly along with the others, they had a long run ahead of them; they had camped about two miles away from their target building: the shogun's castle. In order to safely observe it from a distance without being discovered, they had done espionage for about a week to note the usual rise and sleep times of the occupants of the fortress. Kyofu was ready for this; he had been given the task of taking the shogun's daughter, although somewhat to his disappointment, he preferred easier jobs like dealing with samurai warriors who guarded the place. Dealing with a hostage wasn't his idea of how he wanted to spend the night, but he knew it was important, and there was no way he would fail. Mentally he kept track of the distance until they reached their destination, being as agile as they were, it would not be long before they came upon the castle, the ones in their group had covered much longer distances than that, so it wasn't tiring for him as long as he made sure to keep a steady pace breathing, to make sure he didn't lose stamina. The moonlight made it easy to see things, but only where it shined through the tiny clearings in the forest.
Around ten minutes later, they came upon a small hill overlooking a valley where the castle stood with the east wall facing them. Thirty foot walls surrounded it, with a courtyard in the middle, and towers on each corner. Small fields of rice covered the valley, and the barracks appeared to be on the left side of the courtyard. Most of the guards were either asleep or inside the castle, with the exception of a few patrolling the walls with bows and arrows. Kasai held his hand up, and they all stopped, awaiting his command for them to go. "You all know what to do, so I will not explain the plan to you, but keep it quiet- no keep it silent, if we raise an alarm before Kyofu gets the girl, it will be difficult to explain to me why it happened with my sword down your throat, so focus, and let's go." He jumped and slid down the hill, before entering the rice field in the direction of the wall, while four others followed him. Five more went around the west side to deal with the guards in that area and four more were left with him to await an entrance to the castle. The other five remaining stood watch in case an alarm was raised. Kyofu waited patiently as he watched Kasai slink up to the wall hugging it tightly as the rest of his group readied their shuko spikes, and began to scale the wall once they were sure it was clear. Grappling hooks were too noisy, though they carried them occasionally, they were mainly used for when an alarm was raised and they needed to scale something fast, which hadn't happened yet.
Kasai and the others finally reached the top of the wall at the same time as the other group on the west side did, and began silently finishing the guards who were patrolling on the wall. He motioned for the other four to take care of the towers, while the west group did the same, and they did swiftly as he heard muffled sounds coming from either side of him. Once both groups had finished, he motioned to the west group to enter the barracks and silently raised his fist to signal Kyofu to go. Not hesitating, Kyofu's group hurried to the now opening gate at the front of the castle. The two rhinos who were watching a few minutes before were already downed, and Kasai only had the gate opened enough to where they could squeeze in and out. After entering the courtyard and opening the second door, that was actually the entrance inside the castle, Kyofu's group split up, they were to take care of the rest of the family which consisted of the shogun himself, his wife, and any samurai guards they encountered. Kyofu turned right to look down a long corridor and sighed, sometimes I wish they'd just put a sign up so I'd know where to go, he thought, butluckily for him, thanks to all the espionage they'd done he knew the daughters room was in one tiny section on the northeast area, right behind a small garden which one had to walk through to get to her room.
The castle itself was actually quite dark, save for the small torches that were on the walls about every 10 feet or so, but he was thankful for that, since he was trying to blend in after all. He silently, but quickly ran down it, hoping not to run into anyone along the way. No such luck there, he almost blew his cover as he turned a corner facing a guard's back, but was able to jump and grab on to the ceiling, concealing himself in the darkness just in time. Knowing he needed to distract the dumb oxen so he could continue on his way, he dug a small rock out of a section of the side wall and threw it in the opposite direction making sure he clanged it against the metal part of a dimly lit torch, in order to make enough noise. It worked, as the guard quickly turned and ran in that direction to investigate the noise. Once he was sure that the guard had gotten far enough away, judging by the receding heavy footsteps, he dropped down and continued on his way to the garden.
A couple of twists and turns later, he finally found the entrance, which looked more like the doorway to a dojo of some sort. Peering around the corner, he noticed that the garden was almost fully lit by the moon as it was an open roof; he did see various trees and plants growing, but also a sliding paper door, which he guessed to be the entrance to the daughter's room, but the site that bothered him was the huge rhino standing right in front with a menacing look on his face, and in full samurai armor. There was no way into that garden or the room without the guard being able to see him, and the huge axe he carried would also pose a problem. Silently he looked at his options: he could try taking him head on as fast as he could, but that would alert attention, since the guard would probably yell at the top of his lungs once he knew there was a threat to the girl. He could try a poison dart, but he doubted that the dose contained would be enough to significantly end the guy. It caused the throat to swell, and in smaller creatures they would be unable to breathe and would die from asphyxiation. But his neck was almost three times the size of his, and probably more than five times the size of a small goose or bunny. Of course he could always just run, and try to abandon the mission, but that thought was quickly regarded as suicidal and dismissed from his mind. That's when an idea came to him. He quickly loaded the dart into a small blow gun and leaned around the doorway to fire it at the rhino's throat. Once it connected the rhino instinctively grasped his throat with one hand, unable to make sound, and looked straight at the doorway, grasping his axe in one hand while desperately trying to relax the swelling in his throat with the other. Kyofu walked through and stood ten feet away from him. Realization then came to the rhino's eyes, as he glanced back toward the girl's room then at the figure dressed in black standing before him. Kyofu slowly removed his mask, so that the guard could get a clear look at his face in the moonlight, his dark green eyes stared resolutely, silently telling the guard that they would be the last thing he'd see in this life. He then pulled his mask back down over his face, unsheathed his katana, and stood in a defensive position waiting for the guard to charge.
Seconds later, the rhino complied and charged swinging his axe at Kyofu's head as he ducked underneath instinctively, and tried to come up behind him to end it early, but the rhino knowing this was the fight of his life, had anticipated his first move, so instead of swinging with full power he let the momentum turn him 180 degrees and he hit Kyofu in the side with the flat of the blade. The blow knocked him a few feet away, and he landed on some dirt, a small tree breaking his fall. He nearly lost his katana in the process, but immediately raised it up to block the downward strike that the rhino threw at him. The clang that it made was evident, and he risked a quick glance toward the door, inwardly he cringed, hoping that the rest of the people in the castle were sound sleepers. The momentary distraction was enough for the guard to able to land a brutal kick to the side, again sending him rolling on the floor, this time he did lose his sword. He stood up immediately, located it, and flipped over to where it landed a few feet away while the guard charged him again. He grabbed it in his hand and dodged another axe swing from the guard. He's going to make minced meat of me if I don't do something soon; he thought, then quickly formed an idea and blocked yet another heavy blow, with the sword. He feigned being thrown to the ground at counted the seconds it would take before rolling over where the axe hit the ground where his head had been moments ago. That was what he had been hoping for as the weapon became embedded in the ground, and the rhino tried to quickly pull it out, he used the opening to send a kick to the rhino's head, and then tossed black egg dust in his eyes, making him temporarily unaware of his surroundings, and having his vision blurred. Kyofu quickly regained his focus, on the fight and charged the rhino, who was now on the defensive. When he got close enough he easily ducked the wildly thrown punches, and took a shot at one leg with the sword; it connected and caused the rhino's eyes to go wide with pain, he then fell on one knee, and Kyofu delivered a powerful kick to it, rendering that one useless. The guard's vision now cleared as he saw him advancing slowly towards him, with sword in hand. Kyofu grimaced for a moment, and ended the fight with the final blow, to the guards head. Sheathing his now red sword as he walked through the garden, now almost completely destroyed because of the previous fight, he sighed, and continued towards the door, hoping that nothing else would get in his way for the rest of the night.
Cautiously he slid the door open, observing the room, and checking for any extra occupants, the girl appeared to still be sleeping as he noticed the shape on the bed. But as he pulled the covers away and saw only clothing and sheets, an immediate alarm went off in his head, as he turned and swung the sword in an upper rising block which cut a vase that was about to connect with his head cleanly in half. A short scuffle and a few muffled screams later, he had the girl pinned against her will, in a hold, with a dagger close to her throat, and his other paw covering her mouth. She whimpered slightly, as he forced her back out of the garden and into the corridor to the assigned meeting place. She appeared to be about sixteen years old, and she was a leopard cat. No wonder I almost got knocked out back there, she must have been listening to the fight while it happened, still annoyed that he failed to finish it quickly, he prodded her further along with his knee, until he reached the doorway, which led out to the courtyard.
Upon opening the door, the girl let out a gasp at the site which stood before her. Several of the castle guards were on the ground either unconscious or lifeless, and her parents stood in the middle with several figures dressed in black holding swords to their throats. When one wearing a red headband noticed them coming out, he turned and called out, "Kyofu, what took you so long?"
"I got held up," Kyofu replied as he shoved her toward him.
"We'll deal with that later," Kasai said, "In the meantime-"
"Keep your hands off my daughter!" the shogun yelled angrily.
"Quiet you! See if you like it when I do this!" Kasai punched the girl in the thigh, causing her knees to buckle, and she fell to the ground letting out a scream in the process.
"You sick-" the leopard tried to struggle, but the ninjas only held him and his wife tighter.
"Please, what do you want with us?" his wife asked.
"It's not what I want, it's what my master wants, and he already told you in a letter exactly what he required from you. You refused, and when people refuse an offer, he sends us to make another one," Kasai said coldly.
"I already told you, we're not in any shape to comply with that, especially now that half my men are either dead or incapacitated," the leopard replied.
"Well, if we can't convince you, then maybe we can give you some incentive," Kasai motioned, and two of his men immediately aimed arrows at his daughter. His wife gasped. "Agree to serve Lord Hakai, or the last thing you'll see is your daughter being killed before we kill you, and your wife."
The shogun growled, then hung his head, knowing there was nothing he could do to help the situation, "I… serve Lord Hakai, and no other. Now please, let Kanari go," he pleaded.
"Not so fast, we're taking your daughter and your wife, to a location far away from here, to make sure you don't get any bright ideas, if you do well, you may even be able to visit," Kasai gave a short laugh.
The leopard's mouth dropped open, and he reached over and grabbed his wife's hand who was being pulled away from him, and another one took his daughter and began to walk toward the castle gate as he watched, helpless. "I'll find a way to get you back, I promise," he said clenching his fists, tightly; "I love you," he called out to both, of them.
"I love you too, father," the leopardess finally was able to yell out before a paw covered her mouth again.
"Hey, we're going, we'll be back to give you instructions on what to do and what we want, expect us again soon." Kasai said, and turned and ran out of the gate, while the rest of the group followed with the shogun's daughter and wife, still struggling against the grip on their shoulders.
Kyofu turned silently, and looked at the leopard, who was on his knees with a look of shock on his face, and tears streaming down his face. "You're going pay for this, someday someone will stand up to him, and the payment will be his death, and all of yours!" the leopard punched the ground.
For some reason, Kyofu felt slightly worried about his comment, but he shrugged it off figuring it was only because he had to deal with taking the girl away from her parents, she was their only child after all. Unconcerned, he turned and ran back in the direction Kasai and the rest of the group went.
A/N: Gah, well that felt rather… dark for me at least. By the way, Kyofu means "fear" in Japanese, Kasai means "fire" Kanari means "pretty", and Hakai means "destruction."
Thoughts, opinions? Review please, next chapters going to be posted soon, and it will have Po and the rest of the gang in it. And it will be more light-hearted.