Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Disney except Kai-Feng, Wang Zhao and Li Chen. Any part of the story line and dialogue taken from the Disney movie also belongs to Disney.

Summary: My very first fanfic. This is my own version of the first Disney movie story line with an early discovery theme. Characters have changed in this story.

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THE MISFIT by lightbird

Part 1: Beginnings

Chapter 1: Captain

Li Shang sat in the main tent across from his father. They had just received the Imperial orders two days before. The main troops were going to move to the mountains in the north, to protect the capital and head off the Huns that had crossed the northern border. That meant that his father and the other experienced soldiers would be leaving for the front. Reserves had been called up and there were new recruits to be trained. His father had called him into the main tent to discuss strategy with him. Chi Fu, the Emperor's council who had been sent there, was sitting in the tent with them. He made a remark flattering the general's strategy. General Li spoke to Shang, ignoring Chi Fu's comment.

"You will stay here and train the new recruits. When Chi Fu believes you are ready, you will join us...Captain." General Li handed a newly forged sword to Shang.

Shang took the sword, stunned. "Captain?"

Chi Fu began to protest that the job should go to someone with more experience, but General Li cut him off.

"Number one in his class, extensive knowledge of training techniques, an impressive military lineage. I believe Li Shang will do an excellent job."

Shang spoke up, beside himself with excitement. "Oh, I will. I won't let you down. This is…I-I mean..." he caught himself and bowed, continuing somberly. "Yes, sir."

General Li got up and started walking out of the tent. "Very good then. We'll toast China's victory at the Imperial City." He turned to Chi Fu. "I'll expect a report in six weeks."

Chi Fu turned to Shang and said, nastily, "And I won't leave anything out." He exited the tent behind the general.

Shang couldn't believe it. Captain! He was beside himself. He had been dreaming of the glory and honor of battle ever since he was a boy. He wanted to be at the front, fighting alongside his father. But a captain! There were very few men who achieved such a high rank at such a young age. It wasn't that long ago that he had finished completing his studies at the academy and he had just turned eighteen a few months before. It was a great honor to be given such a rank and the responsibility of training the troops; he hoped to prove himself to his father and show him that he could train the new recruits well. He would be leader of the finest troops in China. The finest troops ever.

Shang snapped out of his daydream as he stepped out of the tent and caught sight of the future finest troops that were his recruits. They were dirty and undisciplined and they were in the middle of a huge, camp-wide fight. They were literally punching each other out, and pretty much every recruit in the camp was involved. The kettle of rice had been knocked over and there was rice everywhere on the ground. Shang just stared at them, open-mouthed. At that moment, a badly beaten guy walked up to them, saluted them, then fell to the ground unconscious. Shang gaped at him, dumbfounded, then looked at his father, who was looking on, amused.

"Most impressive," Chi Fu sneered.

General Li stepped over the fallen man and mounted his horse. Shang gaped at his father at a loss, indicating the fallen man. But his father was leaving him on his own, he realized, somewhat angrily.

"Good luck, Captain!" his father called out.

His father rode off leading the Imperial Army's elite troops.

"Good luck…father," Shang murmured quietly to himself.

Shang looked at his recruits again and sighed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chi Fu looking at him and turned to him.

"Day one," Chi Fu remarked snidely.

Shang frowned at him, then turned back to the sight of the recruits. Then he took a deep breath, set his jaw and moved toward the brawling mob, calling out to them for order. They all snapped to attention and pointed at a very small, very young boy. The boy was dark-skinned and his face looked streaked. Except for the uniform, he looked like a dirty little street urchin.

"He started it!" they all said at once.

The boy was laying on the ground, curled in a fetal position. He saw Shang approaching and stood up, brushing himself off. He was at least a foot shorter than Shang and his figure was so slight, so tiny, Shang wondered if he was even thirteen years old yet.

"Listen," Shang said, sternly, getting in the boy's face, "I don't need anyone causing trouble in my camp!"

"Sorry," he answered, in a high-pitched, almost feminine, little voice. "Uhh, I mean, sorry you had to see that," the boy continued in a forced lower-pitched voice. Shang folded his arms. The boy punched Shang on the arm with his fist and began muttering some bizarre remarks about manly urges.

"What's your name?" Shang demanded.

The boy stammered, apparently unable to remember his own name. "I've got a name, and it's a boy's name, too," he muttered.

What kind of an idiotic answer was that? Shang tapped his foot, impatiently.

"His name is Ling," the boy muttered.

"I didn't ask for his name. I asked for yours," Shang retorted, annoyed.

"Ah Chu."

"Ah Chu?" Shang repeated.

"Mushu!" the boy muttered again.

"Mushu?"

"No."

"Then what is it!" Shang practically shouted, ready to grab the crazy kid by the neck and throttle him.

"It's Ping."

"Ping?" Shang raised his eyebrow, not sure whether to believe him.

The boy reached back and was now fiddling nervously with his kerchief. "Yes, my name is Ping."

"Let me see your conscription notice."

The boy took it from his waist band and handed it to him.

"Fa Zhou. The Fa Zhou?" Shang exclaimed after he'd read it.

"I didn't know Fa Zhou had a son," Chi Fu piped in.

Shang couldn't believe it. The boy was the son of one of the most famous and honored warriors in China.

"Uh, he doesn't talk about me much," the boy offered weakly. He went to spit on the ground, but the spit didn't hit the ground, it just ran from his mouth.

The other recruits laughed. Shang just stared at him, wincing inwardly, and raised his eyebrow again.

"I can see why," Chi Fu said to him softly. "The boy's an absolute lunatic."

Shang stared at the boy for another moment, then he handed Chi Fu the boy's conscription notice and began to walk around him to address the other soldiers.

"Okay gentlemen, thanks to your new friend Ping, you'll spend tonight picking up every single grain of rice. And tomorrow, the real work begins," Shang told them, sternly.

The next morning, Shang woke up very early, as he always did, and began his morning routine. He went to the lake to bathe, then returned to camp to get breakfast. He glanced around. The soldiers were lounging around, having breakfast, chatting. They looked even worse than they had the day before. There was one soldier that was conspicuously absent – it was that crazy little misfit soldier Fa Ping. Shang took his breakfast in his tent. He ate, then took some time to meditate, preparing himself for the first day of training.

He heard the troops outside, some joking and some bickering. He heard Chi Fu trying to call them to order, but they just retorted with jokes, mocking him. Shang sighed. His first chance to train a group of recruits, and this was what he had to work with.

A loud voice broke through the chatter of the men outside.

"Hey, look's like our new friend slept in this morning. Hellooo Ping, Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, 'cause I owe you a knuckle sandwich." The second voice was gruff, like a growl.

At that, Shang stood up and headed out of the tent, to head off another brawl before it started. The other men had gathered around Ping and were voicing their agreement, some of them slamming their fists into their palms, getting ready to fight. Ping was covering his face with his hands.

"Soldiers!" Shang called out, loudly. The men shuffled into line and stood at attention. Shang liked the fact that at the sound of his call, at his voice, they did his bidding. It was such a feeling of power and he enjoyed every minute of it. He walked confidently over to the weapons, removing his shirt and hanging it over them, then grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows in preparation for their first training exercise. "You will assemble swiftly and silently every morning." He strutted down the line of soldiers, authoritatively. "Anyone who acts otherwise will answer to me."

The gruff voiced recruit, who Shang now identified as Yao, made a snide remark, loud enough for Shang to hear. Shang knocked an arrow on the bow and pointed it towards Yao. "Yao." The other recruits took a step back leaving Yao one step forward. Shang pointed the arrow skyward and shot it into the top of a high pole in the middle of camp. "Thank you for volunteering. Retrieve the arrow."

Yao bowed to Shang and muttered another remark. All Shang heard was 'pretty boy'. Yao went and prepared to leap onto the pole.

"One moment, you seem to be missing something," Shang said, gesturing for Chi Fu to approach with the wooden box of bronze weights. Shang took one of the disks from the box and held it high, speaking to all of the men now. "This represents discipline." Shang put the weight on one of Yao's arms and the weight fell to the ground taking Yao's arm with it. "And this represents strength." Shang put the other weight on Yao's other arm, making him fall to the ground. The troops laughed. "You need both to reach the arrow," Shang continued, sternly, ignoring their laughter.

Yao climbed up the pole a little bit, then slipped down under the weight. The other soldiers took their turn, all of them falling down without getting very far off the ground. Shang sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, frustrated.

"We've got a long way to go."

Things were even worse than Shang ever expected. He was cursed with a group of undisciplined recruits who were unkempt, disorganized, out of shape and disobedient. And the worst curse put upon him was that pathetic little Fa Ping. Shang could not believe that a great warrior like Fa Zhou could have a son that was so worthless in the army. Shang was exceptionally hard on Ping and actually bullied him. On the one hand he knew it wasn't right to do that, but on the other hand he felt justified.

Ping drove Shang into fits at every turn. He was truly a weak and useless recruit, almost feminine, and Shang was painfully annoyed at his very presence in the camp. Even if he did manage to whip the others into shape eventually, he would never join his father in battle with Ping there. The boy couldn't do anything right. He was never even on time; every morning he was the last one to assemble. When Shang tried to teach the recruits bare handed fishing, Ping always grabbed someone's foot instead of a fish. It was the same with everything else Ping attempted. In addition, Shang caught him cheating! Shang took the recruits for their first archery training. He stepped on a lever throwing up three targets that he hit with three arrows from one bow, to show them what they were supposed to do eventually. The recruits tried with just one arrow and failed. Then he saw Fa Ping with a knocked arrow on his bow, with a target already placed on the arrow! Shang stalked over and leaned into his face with a disdainful, angry look. Ping cracked a huge grin at him. Shang just gave him a look of disgust and muttered, "Dishonorable" under his breath.

Ping was a little better in martial arts practice. He actually had good form. Maybe his father had taught him some moves, just as Shang's own father had done with him when he was very young. But Ping wasn't much better at that, and Shang would defeat him fairly quickly anyway, leaving him with a black eye on one particular day.

The other recruits weren't much better. They failed at everything, and it didn't look like they'd ever improve. There were the three other misfits, Yao, Ling and Chien-Po, who were worse than the others. The three of them were friends and Shang saw that they played mean tricks on Ping. One night in cannon practice he watched Ping light his cannon. He saw Ling kick the support out from under Ping's cannon. Ping managed to grab the cannon, but it was tilted back the wrong way now and the cannon shot backward, blowing up Chi Fu's tent. Shang got an earful from Chi Fu later that night, providing him with yet another reason to resent Ping. He knew it wasn't really Ping's fault; it was Ling's. But if Ping hadn't been there causing trouble in the first place, Ling wouldn't have anyone to pick on, Shang reasoned, and it wouldn't have happened.

Ping really did try. Shang noticed how smart he was. He seemed eager to learn and eager to please, and he didn't make snide remarks when Shang instructed him. Many of the others did. And Shang noticed how Ping was disappointed at his failure and took it very hard. But there was something wrong with him. Or maybe he was just too young. He did not fit in well with the other soldiers at all. Whereas many of them had become friends as well as comrades in the first week or so, Ping was friends with nobody. The men picked on him and tormented him cruelly. Ping just tolerated it and never retaliated, though. Shang felt a little bit sorry for him, but there was no place for that in the army, and Shang had enough grief caused by Ping to last a lifetime. He had to be exceptionally tough on Ping, and let the others be tough on him as well. He would either beat the weakness and femininity out of him, make a man out of the boy; or he would force him to quit and go home.

One evening after sunset, Shang was sitting on top of the hill overlooking camp, brooding, looking down toward the camp, completely displeased and frustrated. They had already been training for two weeks, and the recruits weren't looking any better. He kept thinking about that day when his father had handed him the sword and made him a captain. He'd been so excited, naïve actually, and he'd forgotten that his father had said it wouldn't be easy the first time. And it wasn't. As much as he'd liked the power that had come with the rank, he was realizing now that it came with a lot of responsibility. He had all of these quirky men to deal with; and one really smart but bizarre young boy who couldn't cut it. Shang felt very discouraged and wondered if he was really up to the task after all. He'd always been confident in his abilities as a soldier; but he was beginning to wonder if maybe he was too young and inexperienced for an officer's title, just like Chi Fu had said. Chi Fu. That man was no help whatsoever. He was a sniveling, petty bureaucrat and he was just looking to give Shang a hard time and put him down.

Not that Shang wasn't used to responsibility. He'd been thrust with responsibilities for several years now. His mother had died when he was thirteen and his father had always been busy with his responsibilities as general, so Shang had been taking care of his eight-year-old brother Chen ever since his mother's death, as well as taking care of many things that his father couldn't get to due to his responsibilities as general. Now that Shang had joined his father in the army, Chen was at home, being taken care of by their grandfather who lived with them.

Shang wanted very much to please his father. He had always looked up to him and his father had always had great expectations for him. He was the eldest son and a lot was expected of him. Sometimes he was extremely hard on Shang. Too much so, Shang felt. But deep in his heart Shang knew his father loved him and only wanted the best for him. Shang had always had a passionate interest in the martial arts, in the military and everything related to the military. His father had nurtured that passion and interest and had pushed him to be the best he could be. He was tough on Shang, but he had always encouraged him as well. He had taught him to value honor and duty. His father was the Emperor's most trusted advisor. He was honorable and brave and Shang wanted to be like him. If he could. Maybe he needed to be more encouraging of his men, as well as being hard on them. He realized that right now he was just being hard on them and putting them down, treating them like they were hopeless. Maybe if he followed his own father's example with his son, it would yield better results, help them find the strength in themselves to improve.

Shang was drawn out of his contemplation by the sound of someone talking in the forest behind him. He stood up and walked toward the sound. He found Ping sitting alone, talking to himself. There was a hopeless case. Shang shook his head and rolled his eyes skyward, convinced now that the boy truly was a lunatic.