A/N: looks like I missed this chapter out somehow! Sorry guys, my bad.
Around the same time, the Five had finished their meal and were currently playing a modified version of hide and seek around the Palace. It was something Po had devised as a way to test everyone's stealth skills, although there was a twist. If someone not 'it' manages to take the one who is 'it' by surprise by tapping them without being seen, then they win a point and the seeker loses a point, and the first one who manages to do it to each new seeker gets to choose who is 'it' next. Anyone who is not found but doesn't ambush the seeker gets half a point and anyone who gets found gets no points. It was fun, but also encouraged hiders to choose strategic spots to hide, and for the seeker to be on constant alert.
Mantis was the current champion at 22 points overall, with Tigress in close second with 20, Viper and Crane were tied at 17 and Monkey was fourth at 15. Po was last at 13, but he was definitely improving due to the game, which was the objective anyway. Also, whoever lost the most points in each game had to do the dishes that night. Shifu had yet to join in with them, unfortunately. Or perhaps fortunately...
Viper was currently it, and was slithering around the Palace grounds quietly, making sure no one heard her approach so they could get the jump on her... She waited by a corner and listened, tasting the air to see if she could taste any pheromones or hear breathing or a heartbeat. Nothing. She cautiously moved forwards, not letting her guard down for a moment...
However, when she rounded the corner she ran into someone. Jumping back in shock, she was relieved when it was Master Shifu... It made her glad that he didn't in fact play the game with them... Shifu looked at Viper with a raised brow. "Ah, Viper. Practising your stealth skills I see?" He mentioned with a nod to the female serpent, who nodded to him in return.
"We are, Master." She bowed her head to him then.
He smiled to her. "Excellent. Keep up the good work." Shifu said and walked away from Viper towards the Hall of Heroes as she continued onwards with the game... However, on his way he saw a Pig running up the steps to The Jade Palace as if his life depended on it. He was stopped by two Servants, although upon frantic explanation, they quickly let him through. Seeing the panic in the Pig's eyes, Shifu quickly went over to see just what the problem was...
Meanwhile, Viper had spotted Monkey's tail poking out from behind a tree for a second... She quietly approached the tree and slithered around it, finding Monkey hiding and peeking out at the Palace grounds from his position... "Found you." Viper smirked as Monkey jumped slightly and turned.
He shook his head. "Damn. Thought I picked a good spot this time." Monkey said to Viper and began to walk over to the courtyard to sit in the open. If anyone was sat there during the game, it meant they'd been caught. However, before the game could continue on, the emergency gong sounded out. "It doesn't count if the game's interrupted!" Monkey exclaimed and quickly ran towards the courtyard now before Viper could retort.
Viper rolled her eyes at that, but conceded that it wasn't really fair if they didn't get a full game in, and he wouldn't have lost or gained any points anyway. She also quickly moved to join with the others. She found everyone arriving at roughly the same time, apart from Po who was a bit late. "Damn! And I had such a good hiding place!" he exclaimed in frustration as everyone looked to Shifu and his guest. "We're here Master, whose butt needs kicking?" Po pulled a stereotypical Kung Fu pose.
Shifu gestured to his guest then. "This is Ming. He's from the rice farm village 6 miles down the road from the Palace." He informed the Five and Po.
Tigress was intrigued by where he had come from. "The rice farm that supplies our village with grains of rice and other such foodstuff?" she asked her Master, who nodded to her.
"The very same one. Ming, tell the other Masters what you told me." Shifu suggested to the Pig in question.
Ming then bowed to the Five and Po respectfully. "Of course. There's a group of strangely dressed men at our village, well not at, they're actually camped nearby, but anyway..." He shook his head at getting off topic. "They arrived not a few days ago and started demanding our food for free. We gave them what we could, thinking they were in need, but they said it wasn't enough! They started wrecking the place, and then... Well, they asked where they could find The Hunter." Ming informed the group with a worried look on his face. "They burned some of our fields and threatened to burn even more if we didn't give them our entire harvest." He spoke in a slightly shaky voice, clearly remembering the incident at that moment.
Everyone was rather confused by what they seemed to be after. "They're after... The Hunter?" Po asked Ming, who nodded in response to the question.
He explained a bit further. "Y-yes. They had some kind of strange armour and masks on and they carried blades on their back. They asked where to find him, but no one knew where-" Ming cut off as they heard the flapping of wings coming towards them. Looking up towards the source, everyone saw a Crane flying haphazardly towards the Palace grounds...
Said Crane crashed roughly into the ground, clearly wounded judging by the deep cut across his chest and was he was previously flying. He tried to stand but failed. Shifu recognised him immediately. "Master Qínlèi?!" Shifu exclaimed and ran over, the Five all shocked by this rather odd turn of events.
Said Master sat up painfully and looked at Shifu and the Five. "Strange warriors... They crossed The Thread of Hope into the Valley." he panted, grimacing from the clear pain he was currently in. "They flagged us down as if wanting help. They had others hiding in the woods nearby and asked us where The Hunter was. We didn't tell them, and tried to fight them off..." Master Qínlèi coughed a little as Shifu ordered some Servants to quickly fetch medical supplies. "We underestimated their skills. They almost killed us but luckily I managed to get the jump on them. Using the last of our strength, we managed to push them back, but unfortunately the direction we pushed them was over the Thread of Hope... We knew we didn't have a chance to catch them with our injuries." He explained what had happened to Shifu and the others. "I left the others who were more seriously wounded with a healer in the village, but I knew I had to fly here and warn you..."
Shifu seemed thoughtful as Ming looked between him and Master Qínlèi with worry on his face, wondering if they would prioritise one or the other, but Shifu could see a connection. "These might be the same bandits you encountered, Ming." he pointed out to the Pig.
Ming turned to Master Qínlèi then. "Did they have scary masks on, and carry weird swords on their back?" he asked the Crane Clan Master.
Master Qínlèi nodded in response to Ming. "That's them." he confirmed Shifu's theory on the matter,
Tigress looked to Shifu then. Part of her considered just giving them The Hunter and being done with it, but not even she was that heartless... Anymore. "What should we do, Master?" she asked him.
Po scoffed at the question. "Whadda ya think?! We kick bandit butt, that's what!" he stated like it was obvious, throwing out some moves to accentuate his point.
Viper nodded at that. "While I wouldn't have put it quite like that, I'm of a mind with Po. We need to stop them before they cause any more damage." she agreed with the Dragon Warrior.
Crane nodded at that. "I'm in." he voiced his approval of the plan.
Monkey smirked at that. "Me too."
"Me three!" Mantis nodded, hopping on Monkey's head and nodding in approval like Crane had, to Monkey's slight chagrin.
Tigress gave a small smile at that, glad they were all in agreement with the plan of action. "I agree." she decided, with them looking to Master Shifu for further instruction and approval.
He shook his head slightly. "The Five may indeed go. Dragon Warrior, you will stay." Shifu stated, leading Po to deflate slightly. "We need someone to remain here to protect the Valley in case of any threats. The rest of you go and find The Hunter, bring him with you to help. If these... Strange warriors are looking for him, he may know who they are and what they want." Shifu decided, turning to Master Qínlèi and gesturing for Ming to help him take the injured Master. The two helped him walk into the Palace to be tended to by the servants until they could get a healer up to help.
Tigress watched after her Master as he walked away and had a look of disapproval on her face of the plan he'd suggested they follow. "Well... I guess I'll see you guys later." Po spoke in disappointment of not being allowed to go with them, sitting on the ground with a sigh.
"No." Tigress suddenly stated, to the shock of everyone present. "You will come with us." She said and began to walk out of the Palace grounds.
Viper quickly caught up with her, heading her off. "But, The Hunter... Master Shifu said-"
Tigress turned her head to Viper then and interrupted her. "That someone needs to stay and protect the village from threats. He can fulfil that role while we deal with these... 'Strange warriors'." she pointed out to Viper, who saw she'd already made up her mind on the matter... "He may be a competent warrior, but that doesn't mean he can be trusted as of yet." Tigress stated coldly to the group, who had a mixed reaction of acceptance, slight confusion and even shock.
Monkey was unsure about what she had said. "But he helped us get the Sword..." he pointed out hesitantly.
Tigress was quick to answer. "He said it himself, he did that for Master Shifu. Not for us, or the Jade Palace or even Kung Fu, but just for him. He has no such motivation here, and I don't trust that about him." she justified her point to the Five, who all seemed to accept it at this point, knowing there is no dissuading her from this course.
The Five and Po than started running down the steps to the Palace and made their way to the village in question to hopefully get a clue as to where these warriors had made camp...
...
Not long after the Five and Po decided to leave without him, Hunter was still at the bar he'd went to after training, having had three drinks so far. It had been a good while, but he was nursing them at this point. He was really trying to focus himself, to control his thoughts and especially his emotions, the alcohol acting more as a backdrop than anything else. 'Maybe I should stay... Maybe... It'd be good for me...? To just accept my place...' Hunter asked himself before scoffing. 'Yeah, right. Only a couple of days at the Palace and all the progress I've made has gone right down the drain.' He scoffed as he thought about staying only to realise that he probably shouldn't even entertain the idea...
But who was he really trying to convince? It was his own mind after all. If he knew he shouldn't stay, then that should be that right? End of discussion, no more convincing needed, ring the gong, round over...
Truthfully though he wasn't sure at all. Not about anything really. Not anymore. And it bothered him like nothing else ever had, well not exactly, but it was certainly close at least. Hunter held his head in his hand at not knowing what to do. He knew what Oogway would want. The old turtle would want him stay. He'd wanted Hunter to stay at the Palace for a long time after all, but he couldn't. Not while... No, he just couldn't.
The thing was... some part of him did in fact want to. But it shouldn't. He shouldn't want to! Hunter ended up slamming his hand into the table from the war going on in his head, making everyone at the bar jump and stare at him for his sudden and seemingly unprovoked rather violent action. Hunter downed what was left of his drink and stood up, deciding he'd had enough for now. He left the bar in question and walked down the street to the steps that led to The Jade Palace. He trudged up them slowly, not really wanting to be near the place right now... But he had no choice. He could of course find a hotel or something for the day, but...
Hunter sighed as he made his way up. He'd already set up camp, and there was no point in paying to stay anywhere else at this point. It was just a waste of money if he did. Just another few days and he could be on his way and hopefully go back to normal. Honestly, he'd expected to possibly be thrown in prison for his theft, but instead he was again offered a place at the Palace, this time by Shifu and he was apparently supposed to be some kind of part of a Prophecy on top of it all?
Everything had been turned on its head for Hunter, all this on top of... Of everything? Why couldn't he just have been thrown in jail instead? He felt like that would've been easier and even the more merciful option in this case. Hunter finally reached Peach Tree Hill and sat down on the edge of the cliff again. A thought crossed his mind to jump, but he wasn't there quite yet. Hunter chuckled at that thought. If he died, it wasn't going to from jumping from a cliff.
...
Shifu had watched the Five quickly go from the Palace and assumed they had quickly left to find Hunter since he was likely down in the Village when he asked them to take him along. However, looking around Shifu couldn't find Po anywhere. Maybe he'd gone down with them to find something to do while waiting for their return? He was probably helping out his father in the kitchen at his restaurant. As long as he responded to any threats, Shifu didn't mind what he did.
Once he was sure Master Qínlèi was being seen to and would be okay until the healer got there, Shifu decided to go to the Peach Tree to meditate while the Five and Hunter were gone. Maybe he'd find the answer to one of his many questions while there. He left the infirmary and walked down the path towards the Hill, wondering if perhaps this mission would help Hunter bond with the Five? There was also something different about Tigress since his arrival, but he couldn't place what that it was exactly. Again, maybe meditation would help to give him an answer.
He walked up the Peach Tree Hill and saw Hunter sitting on the edge of the hill looking out at the Valley as usual. He sat next to him and greeted him. "Hunter. Good to see you." Shifu said and closed his eyes... Wait, The Hunter?! Shifu quickly stood up and blinked a few times, shaking his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things. "Wha- What are you still doing here?!" Shifu asked him, leading Hunter to look at him strangely.
Hunter stared for a few seconds before rolling his eyes and huffing at his words. "Fine, but make up your mind. One minute you want me for the week, and the next-"
Shifu shook his head quickly at the misunderstanding. "No, I mean... Shouldn't you be with the Five? I sent them to fetch you for a mission." he said to Hunter, who cocked his brow and slowly shook his head.
He looked confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I wasn't exactly hard to find." He said to Shifu, before looking a little bit disappointed although he quickly rectified it with his usual unreadably blank mask. "Guess they didn't want me along." Hunter shrugged as if it didn't bother him, but Shifu saw that it did, even if only slightly.
Shifu was not happy with the Five's actions, not at all. "I told them to go and find you! Why would they disobey their Master like this?!" he asked, an annoyed expression on his face reminiscent of the old Shifu, before Po had come to the Palace. "They must have taken the Dragon Warrior instead." he let out a breath at the realisation and sat down in acceptance. "Well, hopefully they'll deal with those strange warriors and be back shortly. They'll be taught a swift lesson, I assure you."
Hunter once again seemed confused. "Strange warriors?" he asked Shifu, who realised Hunter had no idea about Ming and Master Qínlèi's arrival at the Palace and what they had told himself and the others.
He began to explain what he meant. "Oh, a group of strange masked warriors attacked a rice farm in the Valley. They were apparently looking for you." Shifu informed Hunter, who seemed rather thoughtful as he looked to the side. "Do you know who they are?" he asked Hunter, who nodded at that.
He took a second to commit to an answer though. "Yes. At least I think I do..." Hunter didn't seem 100% sure in his words, but the Master had a solution to confirm whether or not he did know them.
Shifu stood up and gestured for Hunter to follow him. "Come. We have two people here who saw them. You can speak to them if you like." Shifu suggested, and he nodded quickly, getting up and following Shifu back to the Infirmary where Master Qínlèi and Ming were currently. "Master Qínlèi, Ming. This is The Hunter." Shifu gestured to Hunter, who bowed to the two men.
Master Qínlèi sat up and tried to bow but ended up falling back with a groan while Ming was a bit more successful in his bow. Hunter got straight to the point. "These men... Did they have masks like this?" Hunter then turned his back to the two and lifted his top, revealing his Oni Mask tattoo to the two of them.
Ming nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Yeah, those were the masks they wore. They also wore armour, and swords on their back, like you." he gestured to Hunter's own sword. "Although theirs were curved swords. Curved. Swords." He drove the point home.
Master Qínlèi managed to peer up at Hunter's tattoo and nodded in agreement with Ming. "Yeah, that's the mask they wore, like Ming said. They fought like Demons with those strange blades of theirs." he supported what Ming had said about the warriors in question. "Got me good."
Turning back around, Hunter took in a deep breath. He seemed to be thinking a little. "But then that means... Oh no." Hunter spoke and quickly began to leave. "I need to stop the others, or at least help them." he said to Shifu as he prepared to go after them.
Shifu however stopped him. "We cannot leave the Valley undefended. After all, I can only do so much by myself." he pointed out to Hunter, who looked at Shifu with a strange expression.
Master Qínlèi then sat up again. "The rest of my men are at the local healers. Go to them, tell them to be ready. They can still fight, and the healer will have hopefully helped them enough by now to let them if they need to help." he suggested to Shifu, who seemed thoughtful.
After a minute or so, he looked to Hunter. "Very well. Since it will be for a short time. Go. Make haste to help, if you truly feel they need it." Shifu bowed to Hunter, who bowed in return and practically vanished with the speed he moved as he ran out after the Five...