Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Kung Fu Panda, these franchises belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 4

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

"Beast speaking"

'beast thoughts'

'Ok Natsumi deep breaths, deep breaths. Do not think about murdering the panda your little sister has a crush on, it was not his fault that he got picked by Oogway. He has training, he is not weak or anything, you can work with this.' Natsumi thought as she tried to cool her raging temper at the sheer idiocy of the situation.

After being declared the Dragon Warrior by Oogway, Po had been hauled off by a palanquin up to the jade palace to retrieve the scroll. Or at least he was on paper, there was absolutely no way Shifu or Tai Lung-or herself for that matter-were going to allow him to have the scroll until he had proven without a shred of doubt he was ready.

Hearing footsteps close by she opened her eyes and saw her master." I take it you are troubled by my decision of choosing the young panda." Oogway said, causing her to sigh.

"It's not that master, your choice, the universe choice, whatever you want to call it, its all up to you. I'm just trying to process everything and come up with a plan." Natsumi admitted, they had to work with Po, so they needed a plan.

"I have faith in you my student, you have shown time and again that any challenge is simple if one can find the right angle to come at it from." Oogway told her.

"Thank you master." Natsumi said bowing to him before turning." I better go and chat with him, knowing Shifu he's already read the boy the riot act." She said before running back up the stairs to the temple proper.

When she reached the top, she saw the doors were slightly open, and she could hear speaking from inside." You are not ready to fight, you are not ready to be the Dragon Warrior, and you most certainly are not ready to have that scroll. So, get this through your head, until otherwise you are not the Dragon Warrior." Shifu's voice drifted through the open door, followed by a thump and a door closing.

Taking a breath, Natsumi walked inside to find Po picking himself off the ground looking depressed. Sighing she walked over and helped him up." Don't take what he said personally Po, Shifu gets grumpy when things don't go his way." Natsumi assured.

"But, I mean is he right?" Po asked standing up, beginning to wander the hall again." I mean, look at all these guys and everything they have done, look at you and Shifu, the Five, Tai Lung. All of you are these amazing warriors who have saved china more times then anyone can count." Po said before sitting down with a sigh." I'm just a panda and the son of a noodle chef, how can I be the dragon warrior?" He asked.

In a way Natsumi could see where he was coming from, once upon a time she had the same thoughts herself. Back when she was in the leaf village, away from the eyes of the public, she used to grapple and deal with the same thoughts.

An idea suddenly sparked in her head, one she could use to motivate and cheer up po." Did you know Po, that a long time ago I was in the same place you were?" She asked making him look at her.

"Before I came to the palace, back in my home village, I was considered the dead last and the dobe. The idiot who would never amount to anything, everyone called me that, saying I would never achieve my dreams." Natsumi said, walking over she sat down with him." And you know something, for a while I thought the same thing as well, that I would never be able to crawl my way out of my lot in life." She admitted, shocking him.

"But, now you're one of the strongest Kung Fu masters in the country, what changed?" Po asked.

"I stopped." She said simply, confusing him." I stopped listening that voice, stopped listening to what other people thought. I threw myself into training, started believing in myself, and realized that it didn't mean shit about where I started, because if I worked my soul to the bone for it I could go anywhere and do anything." She said standing up again.

"Po, no one is expecting you to be amazing straight out of the gate, that's what we're here for. To teach you all that you will need to know, to make you into a dragon warrior. You can be just as good as us, if not better, all you have to do is pick yourself, take it one step at a time, and give it everything you have." Natsumi said.

Po looked out across the valley, his mind coming to terms with everything she said. And the more he thought on it, the more a fire bloomed in his chest. Pushing himself off the ground, he stood before her, determination in his eyes." Then master, please teach me." He said bowing to her.

She smirked and chuckled." Be warned, this won't be easy, and somewhere along the way you'll probably throw up… a lot. But, keep working at it, and you'll get there." She said snickering evilly at his pale expression before turning towards the training hall." Come on then, we have a lot to cover, and not a lot of time to cover it." She said walking towards it, Po hot on her heels.


Arriving at the training hall, Natsumi found the room to be in full swing. The five were running through each of the areas of the gauntlet, working in time with each other, as well as battling it out. Of to the side Tai Lung was doing a light spar with Shifu, while keeping an eye on her students.

"Now then, let's get started." Natsumi said, making Po freeze." Wow, wow, wait, Right now?" He asked, watching an impressive plumb of fire shoot out from one of the pipes.

"Yes, as I said we don't have a lot of time. With this unknown threat on the way, we need to get you ready and trained as soon as possible." Natsumi said leading him off to the side and down towards the back of the hall.

"Well, yes I get that but, outside of my exercises and half mimicking the basic punches and kicks you and tigress have shown me over the years, I don't exactly know anything about Kung Fu. And, to be perfectly honest, that over there looks like expert level. So where do I start, level zero?" Po said, joking about the last part. He noticed a punching dummy that looked like he could work with.

Natsumi paused and turned to face Po." Po, do you really think I'm cruel enough to throw you into the deep end on the first day. I'm trying to train you, not kill you. And in any case, you won't be studying Kung Fu for the moment." Natsumi said resuming her walk.

"I won't?" Po said clearly confused, wasn't the whole point to teach him Kung Fu and how to be the dragon warrior?

"No, Kung Fu requires a certain body type which you at the moment do not possess." Natsumi said bluntly, Po wasn't offended though. He knew he was fat, he was trying to change that after all." No, what we're are going to do is work in reverse, using these." She said opening a sliding door, the room behind was revealed to be packed full of scrolls big and small.

"These scrolls continue every known form of hand to hand combat myself, Shifu, Kurama, Tai Lung, and the five have ever encountered. What we are going to do is first find and teach you a unique style that fits you personally, once you get to a certain level of training, then we will begin showing you the more generalized style of Kung Fu." Natsumi explained.

"So first I learn how to actually fight, then I learn how to be the Dragon Warrior." Po said understanding where she was going with this, it made sense. By this time the five, Shifu, and Tai had migrated into the room and agreed with the Panda's assessment.

"Exactly, now start looking for something or a few things that you think suit you. Don't bother with the right side of the wall, those are training scrolls for various sword styles and elemental gears." Natsumi said.

The two began searching amongst the vast collection of scrolls for something that suited him. It was times like these Natsumi was grateful she was a fox, her sharp eye helped her see styles that might work.

"Hey, what about these. Just from what I read in the summary, they seem like they could fit me to a tee." Po admitted handing two scrolls to Natsumi.

"Hmm, Armored Bear Style and Iron Shogun style. Both styles fundamentally revolve around using superior bulk and physique to power through on coming attacks, absorb the kinetic energy, and redirect it back at their opponent. Bear seems to also have an emphasis on grapples and holds, while shogun mixes in various redirection moves including some for rebounding projectiles." Natsumi said intrigued.

Natsumi, along with her students, Shifu, and Tai continued to read the scrolls, every once and a while glancing up at Po to almost make an assessment.

"You know I have to admit, just looking at some of the stances and moves. It fits Po's body type almost perfectly." Mantis admitted.

"Trim a bit more down on his stomach and add some strength to his arms and legs, and this could be a devastating style for him to learn." Monkey said agreeing with mantis.

"It also is a very open style, leaving room to add in tweaks and changes, or even incorporate other additional styles to the mix." Shifu said sealing the decision.

"Agreed, Po I think what we will be doing is focusing on the Armored Bear style as your primary, while adding most of the basic and intermediate rebound moves from Iron Shogun. The advanced are more regarding pinpoint accuracy so we will skip those, and down the road we will see about adding in a gear." Natsumi said.

"Ok, so then where exactly do we get started?" Po asked, the sadistic smirk that grew on her face, as well as the looks of pity from the five did nothing for his confidence.


Behind the jade palace there was a mountain range, along that range was a trail. This trail did not get a lot of traffic as it tended to wind, dip, and climb steeply in places. Most people did not know what the actual name of this trail was, however anyone who had trained under one Natsumi Uzumaki had a special name for it. The Road to Hell.

"THIS…IS…UTTERLY…ASININE!" A voice yelled in between deep heaving pants and coughing fits that sounded like someone was hacking up a lung. Po continued to struggle as he ran uphill on another particularly steep slope, sitting calmly on his shoulders was Natsumi while behind him the five ran at a more sedated pace. For the past two hours Natsumi had made Po run the trail to start his training, wanting to get a good idea of where his physical standard was. So far, she was mildly impressed.

"Oh, quit whining Po or ill add another hour. We only have a few more rises, then we'll be back at the temple and you can stop for the evening." She said, making him cry out in despair." Why…do I…get the feeling…your enjoying this?" He asked making her smirk." Why Po, whatever are you talking about?" She asked innocently, fooling no one.

Behind them watching the show, the five talked with each other while they kept up to make sure Natsumi didn't really kill the panda.

"So, I have to admit I'm surprised you're not more upset tigress. We all know you had your heart set on being the warrior." Crane said, tigress shrugged." Hmm maybe at one point, but quite honestly it actually feels like more of a load off knowing I'm not the one who has the burden." Tigress admitted.

"Plus, you just like it that your secret crush will be spending all his time here." Monkey teased causing Tigress to stumble and blush." SHUT UP MONKEY." She yelled, she wasn't aware that her big sister already knew of her crush on the panda, she didn't want her finding out about it.

"Should we be a bit worried though, Po isn't exactly the best Dragon Warrior material when you look at him." Viper said, she didn't want to be harsh but, given that the panda looked ready to pass out from just the run. It didn't exactly inspire confidence in her mind.

"Don't be so quick to judge him by what you said Viper, remember what Sensei taught us when we were just starting out. Look underneath the underneath, Po may not look the part of the Dragon warrior at this very moment. But, the guy is more stubborn then any ox I've ever met, has the drive and persistence to keep going, and the will to never quit no matter how hard things get for him. Few people have those, not even most Martial Arts students have them starting out. We watch, he is probably going to go pretty far." Tigress said, unnoticed by her the others smirked as she defended her crush.


Twenty minutes later the group arrived back at the palace, where upon entering the garden Po promptly collapsed and wheezed, trying to get his ability to breath back." You are a sadist of the highest order, I hereby dub you sadist-sensei." Po said half glaring at the smirking fox, the name made her chuckle and wonder if this was some kind of payback for all the time she called Jirayia Pervy Sage.

"And I humble accept the name, now the good news is your actually in better shape then I could have hoped. Those exercises have been doing a lot more for you then you've realized, and before you say it, the jog we just took was at the same difficulty level as the gauntlet. All we need to work on is building up muscle, your stamina, and train you in the kata of the form. But, that is for tomorrow, for now let's go eat." Natsumi said heading in.

After regaining his breathing Po followed the others into the dining hall, ready for a good meal after the hard and frankly long day. Entering the dining room Natsumi migrated over to the stove to start cooking, Po oddly followed her and what happened next shocked the rest of the audience watching.

Natsumi and Po began to cook for the others, falling into an odd resonance brought on by years of cooking together. Natsumi helped at the shop from time to time when they were extra busy and needed a hand, so her and Po had worked together before. Before long they sat down plates and bowls for everyone.

"Ok, so that happened." Monkey said breaking the silence, none of them could keep up with Natsumi when she was in full chef mode.

"How is it that you two work together so well Po?" Viper asked tasting the food, it was really good, even better then when Natsumi cooked by herself." I used to be uncoordinated and clumsy around the kitchen, one day when Natsumi came around for lunch she saw me and taught me a few things to help. Over the years, whenever dad gets busy and she's in the shop, she helps cook. We've just worked together for so long its easy to fall into a rhythm and work with each other." Po admitted as they ate.

This actually made Shifu pause in eating his meal." Wait, does this happen with other things as well. Not just cooking?" Shifu asked, Natsumi and Tai glanced at each other, having an idea of where this was going." Actually yes, when I work with something that has kind of a rhythm to it. It isn't long before I pick up on how to do It, even if I have no experience beforehand. How come?" He asked confused.

"Something we will look into regarding your training Po, don't worry about it right now." Natsumi said patting him on the shoulder. The rest of the meal passed as the various groups chatted.


Later that evening, after dinner was finished and it was time to settle in for the night. Natsumi laid back with a sigh on her bed." This has definitely been one of the most stressful days I've had since we left Konoha." She said looking over at her brother who was asleep in a large den of pillows.

"Still, it could have gone a lot worse. Despite everything the kid has more talent and physique then you originally thought, so he isn't completely hopeless." Kurama said, cracking open an eye to look at his surrogate little sister.

"I know that, I just wish we didn't need to start completely from scratch with the kid. We don't know how long we have before this darkness arrives. I like Po, and I firmly believe his has all the right stuff to learn, its just going to be a challenge and a half to get him ready." She admitted.

"Then just do what you always do, meet the challenge head on and smash your way through it. we'll be fine anyway, he has you and some of the best masters in china to teach him. Timeframe or not he'll make it." Kurama said.

"Yeah, I know, still my annoyance sense has been going off practically all day. I got a feeling this is only part one of the craziness to come." She admitted, something was nagging at her in the back of her mind, warning her that things were going getting started.

"Don't go getting over paranoid on me, the kid will turn out great just like all your students, whatever evil comes our way we'll kick its ass just like always, and then you and Shifu can finally retire and enjoy the good life you more then earned." Kurama said going back to sleep.

"Hope you're right big brother, hope you're right." She said blowing out the candles. Yet, even as she settled in for the night, she couldn't help but wait for the other shoe to drop.

Little did she know just how right she was.


Miles away and hours after Natsumi had turned in the for night, in the middle of an abandoned field. There was a bright flash of light, as seals and lines burned themselves into the ground. When the light faded all that was left was a burning circle and four figures.

"You sure we're in the right place Shikamaru, cause I sure as hell don't see Natsumi anywhere?" One questioned, the figure was that of a slightly smaller female panda bear, dressed in loose fitting clothes and a large scroll strapped to her back.

"Master Jirayia said the seal would take us to the same plane as Natsumi Tenten. He didn't say we would end up right on top of her." The second said, this one was a sloth, its hair done up in a loose braid that looked like a pineapple stem, it wore a black body suit with a green vest over top.

"WHAT THE HELL, WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BODIES. WERE FREAKING ANIMALS NOW!" A loud third voice yelled, this one was ironically a howler monkey, its fur was an unusual shade of pink, it wore a red shirt and black shorts, black gloves, and loose shoes.

"Sakura shut up, Shikamaru find me the dobe now." A final voice growled, this one cold and angry. The fourth figure was a pitch-black wolf that wore a purple shirt and black shorts, a sword hung at its belt.

"This isn't you mission Sasuke, remember I'm so I'm the one who gives the orders." Shikamaru said, giving a small glare to sasuke, he really didn't want the arrogant Uchiha on this mission but, the council had all but forced them to take him.

"I don't give a damn if you're in charge or not, just find me that fox bitch, so I can force him to give me my eyes back, take her power and drag her broken body back to face judgement for what she did to me." Sasuke growled, his eyes glowed in a maniac way.

Shikamaru and Tenten looked at each other while Sakura fawned over Sasuke, they didn't exactly like how power hungry the Uchiha was. One thing was for sure they were not going to let him get anywhere close to Natsumi.

Despite the two being part of the team sent to retrieve her, Tenten and Shikamaru had their own mission to fulfill and it did not involve retrieving Natsumi to stand trial for all the so-called crimes she had committed back in Konoha.

"Well, we're not going to get any kind of answers just standing here in the dark. Let's see if we can find a village or town or something close by and ask around, maybe there are some rumors floating around about her." Shikamaru said.

Sasuke grunted as he started walking towards the road, Sakura followed behind him like the fan girl she was. Behind them Shikamaru and Tenten walked and talked quietly to themselves, discussing what the next step was for them.

One thing was now certain, Konoha had entered the game. The hunt was on for the missing fox.


Hello ladies and gentlemen, its tenzo once again.

Now first things first, I'm sorry this chapter is coming out a bit late. I work a very weird schedule being employed at a movie theater, and last night I got saddled with work. Ill warn you the same might happen next week with Father's Day but don't worry, you will still get your chapters.

So, hope you all enjoyed this new chapter, as you might have noticed I changed a small bit of Po's personality but like to think I kept most of what makes him, him there. And not only that we have the arrival of Konoha, bringing with them new surprises and fun, and trust me one of those surprises is going to make some jaws drop.

As always I look forward to your likes and reviews, see you all in the next one. Peace out.