A/N: Chapter title word limit means I have to shorten 'Chapter' to 'Ch' for this one, which is why it's different. Sorry for the weirdness.

Hunter was stalking. His prey were easy pickings, especially without knowing he was coming for them. He leaned against a stall, spotting two more guards ripe for the kill. He moved off and was about to go after them, but he heard something beside him, and saw a snake fall from the roof above him... She seemed to be dazed, so he quickly moved over to her in concern. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, holding out a hand for her to take.

The end of her tail grabbed it and she lifted her upper body up before letting go. "I'm fine, thank you." she smiled widely, too widely, as if...

Hunter then heard the two guards moving towards them then and thought quickly what to do to avoid being spotted. However, he saw only one option. "Sorry about this." He said, taking his mask down. Suddenly she felt his lips on hers. They felt so strange... Very unlike how she imagined kissing any other person would feel like. She gasped in shock, muffled by the kiss with her eyes wide from the surprise of it. He pressed her against the wall out of the way, and the two guards turned to them. She quickly shut her eyes and tilted her head, pretending she was enjoying the kiss... Pretending. One of the guards wolf-whistled in appreciation of the public act of affection, which was apropos due to both guards being Wolves. When they'd moved on, Hunter stopped kissing Viper and looked apologetically at her, pulling his mask back up quickly. "I'm so so so sorry." he apologised to her profusely at the unwarranted act.

She saw he looked genuinely apologetic, but Viper was far too shocked to say anything back to him right away. "No, no... It's fine." she finally managed to say with a smile as he nodded to her. He looked on after the guards before turning back and smiling sheepishly to her. "I'll be around. Find me later and I'll try to make it up to you... Somehow." Hunter said and quickly jogged after the guards.

Once she'd gotten out of sight, Viper climbed the building back to where the others were waiting, all with shocked expressions on their faces, having witnessed what had happened. "Viper, are you okay?" Monkey asked her, but was just as much shocked as everyone else.

Viper nodded in response. "Uh huh." she replied, still in shock herself at the sudden action on his part. She must admit it was a good plan...

Meanwhile Hunter had moved behind the two guards that had walked away and suddenly threw his arms around the two of them, making himself purposefully more sluggish. "MAN! I'm in loooooove..." he exclaimed happily with a slur to his voice, looking dreamily at the sky, laughing at nothing.

One of the guards scoffed at that. "Yeah we saw." he nodded to Hunter in amusement, rolling his eyes.

The other guard shook his head the antics of this drunken idiot. "Where's your scaly lady friend?" he asked Hunter.

Hunter then forced them to turn to a dark alley in between some buildings, gesturing broadly to it. "She's... *hic* in that alley. Maaaan she's freakkkky. Said she wanted a fourrrrsume, and I thought I spotted two handsome wolves walking past..." He winked to the two of them, and they both grinned at that.

One of the guards nodded at that with his grin still plastered on his face. "Sounds good to me."

"Me too." said the other one in earnest agreement and both let Hunter lead them into the alleyway.

Pfft, easy prey. He grabbed both of them by their muzzles and quickly snapped their necks simultaneously, letting their bodies drop to the floor unceremoniously. He took two more teeth and exited the alleyway as if nothing had happened. As he walked, he swore he saw something on the roof above... Maybe that snake? Was she following him? Hunter had never thought about kissing anyone... Let alone a lovely snake lady like the one he had not five minutes ago. She was really very pretty. And it was... It was actually rather nice, especially when she had played along with it. He was overthinking this. 'Head in the game, Hunter.' He thought to himself. Now wasn't the time to think about that kind of thing. It was never the time to think about that kind of thing.

No matter. It was no concern of his right now unless it was an immediate threat. He saw an Ox bandit at a stall, demanding to be given items for free by the looks of it. Hunter had his next target. He masterfully moved through the crowd of people at the market, moving carefully and watching for any possible complications over the small crowd of marketgoers. Only one he could see. The stall owner. Not an issue with some persuasion on his part. He ended up behind the Ox and grabbed his horns before twisting his head, snapping his neck like had had the Wolves prior.

He then heard something. Twig snapping. Shocked gasp. Footfall too heavy to be a villager... With lightning fast speed, Hunter spun around and pointed his arm at the source and suddenly the Alligator who had apparently witnessed the kill had his blood and even some of his brain splattered over the wall behind him as he collapsed against it in a sitting position. Before the Ox's body even had a chance to fall to the floor, Hunter turned once more and scooped it up in bridal style and moved to the side swiftly, dumping it in some thick hedges where it would not been seen easily. He turned to the pig shopkeep and placed his finger on his mask where his lips would be, signifying silence. The pig nodded dumbly in agreement, not believing what he was seeing as Hunter went over to the other one and threw the body of the Alligator over the wall he'd collapsed against, hiding that too. The bloodstain was a worry, but he wasn't going to waste time scrubbing it. He retrieved the bolt he'd fired from what was revealed to be a wrist-mounted crossbow and replaced it, the auto-loading mechanism having already done it's duty and loaded the crossbow with another bolt as he reloaded the bolt he'd fired into the end of the mechanism.

The Furious Five, Master Shifu and Po all watched what unfolded in stunned silence as this stranger snapped an Ox's neck and silently shot an Alligator from distance, and then disposed of the Ox's body, all in one single smooth motion before proceeding to do the same with the Alligator's body. "Dude, this guy's like a total badass!" Po silently exclaimed in excitement to the others, looking to them and back to the stranger with wide eyes and an open mouth.

Viper ran her tongue over her mouth thoughtfully and smacked her 'lips' together. "He tasted like... Blood and death. As well as Noodle Soup with... A hint of genuine excitement and pleasure..." she spoke, finally having had time to taste his pheromones as well as his lips. "But whether that was because of the kiss or from doing this, I can't tell..." Viper said to them. "With an undertone of... Something I can't place..."

Everyone looked at her for a second before remembering how Snakes can taste pheromones and such. "Interesting... I think." Shifu looked unconvinced about the usefulness of that information, although it could give them an insight into his mindset... Although currently it was not important.

Tigress turned to her friend. "Did you recognise him, Viper?" she asked the snake.

Viper seemed to still be considering the undertones. "Hmm? Oh, no. Sorry. He had stunning blue eyes though like none I've ever seen." she stated with a shrugging motion with her tail.

Shifu tilted his head and looked into the distance then. "Stunning blue eyes...?" he asked, feeling that was a familiar trait...

"He's moving." That would have to wait as Crane had just informed them that the stranger was moving further away than they could reliably see.

There were three guards walking the street in a staggered formation from the looks of it. Pulling out a Kunai dagger and holding it between his middle and ring finger, Hunter quickly moved behind one and slit his throat, and within a second was behind the next one slitting his throat, and finally the last guard got the knife stabbed into the side of his neck before the dagger was pulled out and Hunter swiftly turned in a 180, watching as they each fell like dominos, the other two's bodies having not had a chance to even hit the floor yet as they collapsed one after the other.

Once again, the Five along with Po and Shifu were left stunned by what they saw. "Master Shifu, are we sure we don't know who this is?" Tigress asked her Master, who was wracking his brain trying to figure out if this was a Kung Fu Master he knew... No, no one he could think of used these kind of tactics.

Shifu shook his head. "No. Whoever this is, is using a different style to Kung Fu..." he pointed out to everyone.

Monkey cocked his brow. "So, what? It's a new guy?" he asked Shifu.

Po then looked at them. "We could just ask him." he suggested, and they all looked at him like he was crazy.

Shifu sighed and shook his head after taking a second to consider the option. "No. Not until we better know his agenda." he told the Dragon Warrior, who rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement. He understood Shifu's caution, but he wanted to talk this guy! They could use an ally like him.

He was close to the Old Warehouses now... The river was to their left down this street. They watched as he stopped in front of a warehouse door. They quickly moved a little bit closer to be able hear him... He then knocked on the door. "Sǐrén." the stranger spoke. They heard the unlocking of bolts as he quickly disappeared around the corner.

When he did and guard opened the door, he stepped outside to investigate who had spoken the passcode when the group flinched upon hearing a sickening 'schlick' sound as a knife was thrown. It landed in the guard's eye, whose scream was silenced as the stranger darted over and clamped his hand around the Wolf's muzzle before grabbing the knife and pulling it through his skull in an overhead arc, splitting open the wolf's skull directly in a line and killing him. The handle was now on the opposite side of the skull from where it started as he pulled it out, the knife dripping with blood, brain and skull pieces as he put the knife away and unsheathed his sword, walking inside the warehouse, once again the eerie tune being whistled.

The group all dropped to the ground outside the doorway as another more pronounced 'shlick' sound came from inside, and a decapitated head suddenly rolled out of the building's entrance, the body of its owner hitting the ground with a 'thud' from inside the building itself.

"Okay... Now we can talk to him." Shifu nodded to everyone, knowing he definitely wanted the bandits dead. They all burst into the room, each taking their position in the group in preparation, but they were shocked to find no one. Just the bodies he'd left strewn about the place each with a deep cut from his sword, the stench of death permeating the room as blood started seeping into the wood from the bodies. Viper looked away and held in her vomit that threatened to let loose, pressing the tip of her tail to her mouth as she forced it back down. She could taste it as well as smell it... "Be cautious." Shifu said as they quickly followed the trail of bodies through the building stacked with boxes. Each bandit had been mercilessly cut down with a single stroke or stab from his blade...

One body hung over the banister of a staircase, blood tricking down the steps from his body, yet another had been impaled into the wall, a mark in the wood above the head of the body that sat against the wall, and an entry wound in her chest, her lifeless eyes staring straight ahead in a thousand yard stare. They even found one or two sliced clean in half, one vertically, one horizontally. "Whoever he is, he moves quick." Mantis said, a compliment coming from him. Eventually, the trail led to another door, with a bloodied paw print staining the handle, and a body of a lion, strung up by it's legs from the rafters of the warehouse by a rope, dripping blood onto the ground below the dangling corpse. No discernible wound could be seen...

Po looked at the Five and Shifu as they moved past the corpse to the door, each wondering what they would find on the other side. "Ready?" he asked them, and he got nods all around. Once again, he kicked the door through and they all leapt through in their signature pose, with Shifu beside Po all ready for action.

Inside, they found a large Crocodile waiting, a snarl on his face as he sat on a crate of stolen food. "The Furious Five!? And the Dragon Warrior. I shoulda known." he scoffed with a shake of his head, moving off said crate and standing before them. He looked past them into the building, seeing the blood and the bodies inside. "I didn't know wholesale slaughter was your thing. You changing tactics now? Decided Kung Fu ain't enough?" he asked with venom in his voice. "Most of my guys are dead causea you!" the Crocodile growled in hatred, tensing up in preparation to fight.

Before they could object, the Five, Po and Shifu all widened their eyes as they saw the stranger step out of the shadows from behind the Crocodile, having pretty much been invisible only moments prior. He silently placed his blade at the Crocodile's neck, which he didn't notice right away as he waited for the Five to make a move. The stranger then leaned in close to the Crocodile's ear. "Master Qǐzhòngjī Hēisè and The Chih Kuan Crane Clan send their regards." he whispered, and the Croc's eyes widened in shock and fear before the sword was moved back along his neck, slitting his throat in one fluid motion as Hunter continued the motion and flipped the sword to hold it backwards within the same motion, the blade extending out behind his back from how he held it as he stood behind the Crocodile. With his free hand he also took the necklace off of the leader as proof of death before the body fell. The Crocodile then fell to his knees gargling his last before spitting out some blood and falling on his front, dead. Hunter scoffed in disdain at the situation. "So that's the famous Hēi Láng?" he took a coin out from his bag and took his knife, or one of them anyway, pricking his thumb with it. He then wiped his bloody thumb on the coin and dropped said coin over the dead body, looking down in slight disdain at the body still. It landed on the ground and mixed with the blood of Hēi Láng.

He stepped over the body rather gracefully and stood before the Furious Five, Po and Shifu. He looked to Viper first, and behind his mask slightly licked his lips. She'd tasted like cherry somehow... "Master Viper I presume?" He asked, grimacing in shame when she gave a nod in response. "And from that, this must be the rest of the Furious Five. Master Shifu, of course... And the Dragon Warrior." Hunter aptly guessed, pointing to Po and Shifu respectfully who nodded, still rather surprised by what they'd seen. He then looked to Viper again. "I umm... Sorry about..."

Viper shook her head at that. "It's fine. It was a good plan." she smiled to him, although was still feeling sickly from all the blood...

He then flipped his sword expertly in his hand and sheathed it on his back effortlessly in the smooth motion. Shifu placed his hands behind his back, feeling more at ease that he'd put his blade away, but still remained cautious. "Your skills are to be commended, warrior. You move like a shadow." he nodded to the stranger.

Said stranger laughed at what he said. "I am a shadow." he stated to Shifu cryptically, with it sounding more like a detriment than a boast. Although his eyes drifted to Tigress when he spoke. She took notice and took on a slightly more sour expression. "You look like you have a question to ask." the stranger stated to her.

Tigress did indeed have a question to ask the stranger. "Where did you learn to fight?" she asked him.

He responded with another chuckle. "From all over the world. I travelled overseas for a few years. Learned many types and forms of combat." the stranger answered Tigress a little bit vaguely. "Although a chance to learn from the Red Master himself would certainly not go amiss." he turned to Shifu with a slight smirk behind his mask.

For his part, Shifu's eyes widened as he realising who this was. "The Hunter!?" he exclaimed, and the Five and Po all looked at Shifu and then Hunter in surprise at the revelation.

He received a nod of confirmation. "The very same." came the positive response.

Shifu blinked and shook his head to shake off the confusion. "You're not at the time or place I expected you to be." he pointed out to Hunter, who chuckled and nodded in agreement.

He gestured with his head to the body laying behind him. "Well, I received a contract for this lot. Assassination. Speaking of which, I should go and turn this in. I'll meet you at the Jade Palace later." he decided, preparing to leave and get his money for the contract he'd completed. The group all spoke up to voice their objections, but Hunter simply cocked his head and gave a small knowing smirk behind his mask. "Ninja vanish." He stated, although it was phrased more like a question. He then vanished in a large puff of smoke, much to the shock of everyone else.

Po ran over to where Hunter had been standing not two seconds prior, jumping up and down on his feet. "Woahhhh! That was sooo awesome!" he exclaimed in fanboyish excitement, looking in awe at the ground and then around at the open courtyard as if looking for The Hunter.

Crane turned to Shifu then, confused by one of Hunter's last words. "Master, what's a... 'Ninja'?" he asked.

Shifu looked just as confused as everyone else did at what had just happened. "I have no idea."