Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Kung Fu Panda, these franchises belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 5
"Speaking"
'Thoughts'
"Beast speaking"
'beast thoughts'
The days after Po's rise and rank of the dragon warrior were quite packed, true to form Natsumi began to put the young panda through his paces. She vowed to turn him into a warrior and that was what she planned to do. Every waking second was filled with training exercise, to help the large panda build up his muscle as well as begin working on the openings to his two forms of Taijutsu.
On a morning a week after Po had joined the temple, had any civilian wandered into the main training area for the group, they would have found the scene laid about before them as nothing short but sheer, utter, weirdness.
Natsumi was humming a small tune as she enjoyed and early morning smoke, a habit she had picked up from the old man back in Konoha the few times she joined him. Around her the morning air began to hum with life, the sound of bird chirps, crickets, and of course the pants and moans of the panda under her.
"Explain to me, exactly how this helps me besides, teaching forms of suicide under the disguise of training?" Po asked in between pants at the sheer level of exercise he was doing, he was currently doing a form of hand stand push-ups. Normally these would do well on their own to help improve his balance, strength, and flexibility, but Natsumi had added a twist of her own to the already difficult exercise. She, along with Kurama, were sitting on the panda's legs. This added more weight and more imbalance against him making him work harder.
"Don't whine Po, this is good for you. Keep it up otherwise ill be forced to add on more reps." She warned smiling serenely, which followed no one.
"Wow is it me or is Master Natsumi going extra hard sadist mode on Po today?" Mantis asked, not far off the five were sparing against each other and Tai Lung for morning practice. Hearing this comment Natsumi looked at Mantis." Mantis, I've told you before, I'm not a sadist." She said sweetly.
'Yeah and Kurama is a big cuddly fuzzball vegetarian who loves to protect rabbits.' The others thought, sweatdrop in full effect. As if reading their thoughts, said fox guardian cracked an eye open and glared at them.
"You know I have to admit, for all the whining this panda does he reminds more a lot of you when you were just a young kit." Kurama commented, causing Po and Natsumi to smile. At least until he finished.
"And not just in training, your both stupidly stubborn, have the worst eating habits, can't spend more then five minutes reading a book before you fall asleep, and cause trouble wherever you go." He said, with each criticism one could visibly see the rain clouds forming over Natsumi and Po's heads." So, mean." They said together sulking making the others snicker.
"Well in any case, having my work ethic and enthusiasm can be quite the boon. You're making good progress Po however, we need to begin pushing you harder if you are to be prepared." Natsumi said hopping off Po's legs along with Kurama letting Po slump over and rest for a moment.
"Speaking of being prepared, have you considered me training with an element gear?" Po asked, looking up at her with a little bit of hope bleeding into his eyes. The Elemental Gears were Natsumi's Fuinjutsu masterpieces. Since Chi could not be molded the way chakra was, yet worked with seals far more effectively, Natsumi had worked tirelessly on a way to use her elemental ninjutsu again.
The gears were pieces of equipment, weapons or armor with specialized seals carved into them, this allowed them to turn Chi into high powered elemental attacks depending on the user's type. For Natsumi, it was her ever present fans and pipe for wind and fire attacks, for Shifu his flute for wind and interestingly sound based genjutsu as well. Tigress had a pair of brass knuckles for earth attacks, Monkey a staff for earth, viper special fabric for water, mantis greaves for lightning, and crane fabric for lightning as well.
"At the moment Po, it isn't in the cards." She said causing the panda to become downtrodden. It isn't because I don't think you can handle it Po, crafting a gear is a time and labor-intensive process, we simply don't have the kind of time where it would be possible to construct one for you." She said making him sigh, knowing she was right.
"You're also a long way off from being able to handle one kid, channeling Chi and being able to maintain attacks with one. It's more intensive then you think it is, especially since your body isn't used to channeling that kind of energy through it yet." Kurama pointed out, taking his spot back under the shaded tree.
"Yeah I kind of figured." Po admitted as he pushed himself up." Still I had to ask, I'm kind of hoping to have every advantage I can get for when I face down this darkness we are talking about." Po said, the others could understand why, they all had stood in the same position at one point or another.
"Don't worry Po, we'll make sure that you are prepared to face down whatever threat comes our way." Natsumi said." And don't forget, you aren't doing this alone Po. It may be your destiny, but we still have your back." Crane said motioning to the rest of the five, they would back Po up in this, whatever came.
"Thanks guys." Po said nodding, it felt nice to have a team that would watch his back in this.
"Alright enough standing around, you all go back to training, Po come with me." Natsumi said breaking up the tender moment, Po was quick to his feet and followed as Natsumi led him around to the back of the palace. They soon arrived at her garden, where a spot had been set up with a pot of tea, two cups, and a shogi board." Tell me Po, what is the greatest strength a warrior possesses?" Natsumi asked sitting down.
"Ahhh, his skill?" Po said unsure at this, it made sense on paper but, he had a feeling that wasn't the answer.
"His mind Po, power and skill are nothing without a mind to guide them, to plan strategies and adapt as a battle unfolds. The greatest warriors in history are not remembered for their strength, but for their tactics." Natsumi explained, then Po got it.
"Hence the Shogi board, you're going to teach me how to think strategy and tactics, so that when we eventually face this darkness, it wont just be me throwing a martial art style at it." Po guess, earning a smile from Natsumi.
"Never let anyone say you're a fool Po, there is a sharp mind inside you." She complimented as he sat down on the other side of the board." Now, lets begin shall we, I believe you have the first move." She said, and thus they began to play.
While Natsumi and Po began their battle of wits, below another event was taking place. Trouble had arrived too the valley of peace, though not the sort that would bring harm to the village proper.
"You're sure this is where that old pig said she was?" Tenten asked, looking around at the tranquil village as animals of all kinds went about their business. It reminded her a lot of Konoha, well before Natsumi had left at least.
"Not here, up there." Shikamaru said motioning them all to look up, spotting the palace that sat atop the mountains and watched over the city." That's the jade palace, that's where Natsumi is." Shikamaru said.
"Then enough wasting time, let's get going so I can take my revenge on that bitch for taking what's mine." Sasuke growled, though at a much lower volume then before. Even he didn't want another close shave, not when he was this close.
Shikamaru sighed, his mind drifting to the last week. After arriving in this world, they group had immediately started searching for information on their target, this proved to be both very difficult and very easy at the same time. The reason being mainly Sasuke, it seemed that wolves were not a well-liked species, often being considered bandits and outcasts, it didn't help that Sasukes pride and ego almost saw them get arrested multiple times. Especially when they discovered, to their horror, none had the ability to mold chakra in any form anymore.
However, once they were actually able to ask around they quickly found information, and came to realize that this was going to be much harder then they thought. Natsumi was considered a living legend in this world, on par or even above the three Sannin or some of the Hokage, her skills in Taijutsu, Fuinjutsu, and even somehow ninjutsu had grown in leaps and bounds to the point she had almost no equal. Of course, sasuke wouldn't believe this, claiming he would defeat her with ease.
The quartet walked through the village, careful to not draw attention to themselves from the guards. Soon they arrived at the base of a staircase that led them up to the palace proper. Of course, easier said then done. By the time the group arrived at the top, all of them were panting and sweating messes. Even sasuke the emo training nut was hunched over and panting at the sheer level of challenge those stairs provided.
"How the hell is a civilian suppose to climb those, even Lee would struggle getting to the top of them without being winded." Tenten said, she had the worst off given her new form, she may have retained a lot of her old physique from her human body but, and panda was going to struggle with stuff like this.
"It doesn't help that gravity was reinforced, I think these are used as a training exercise." Shikamaru theorized, he had noticed the intricate carvings and recognized a gravity seal when he saw one.
"Well If Natsumi made that, I consider her a sadist to all pandas." Tenten declared.
(Inside the palace Po suddenly felt a swell of joy, finally a kindred spirit.)
"Both of you shut up." Sasuke said having recovered enough to stand, he walked over to the impressive gate and drew his fist back, lunging forward to punch it. However, before he could, Shikamaru caught his fist and stopped him.
"Shikamaru let go of Sasukes fist, he was about to be cool and break down the door." Sakura nearly yelled clearly angry she hadn't gotten to see Sasuke be all "Cool".
"Yeah I know, that's why I stopped him in the first place." Shikamaru said surprised a bit how easy it was, without chakra Sasuke wasn't all that strong." But, how about instead of alerting her and anyone else in the palace, as well as probably breaking your paw, we do this smartly." He said, Sasuke snarled and looked ready to fight Shikamaru, but before he could Tenten went up and knocked on the door.
Even from outside they could hear as it reverberated through the grounds." Wow, one hell of a door knocker." Tenten muttered, a few moments later the door groaned open and a goose of all things stepped out, seeing them he huffed." I'm sorry, this temple is private property, I must ask you all to leave." He said and turned to close the gate.
"Wait please, we seek and audience with master Natsumi, it's of the utmost importance that we see her." Shikamaru said causing the goose to pause, for a second, he thought his bluff would work and they would be let in, then the goose said something that chilled his bones.
"Ahh, I see, you must be the four travelers that master Natsumi has been expecting, please follow me." He said letting them in, Sasuke and Sakura were quick to follow the goose but, Tenten and Shikamaru shared and uneasy look before they too followed.
'This is bad, this is really bad. There Is no way that Natsumi should know that we would be coming, so how in the hell was she able to. This means we are more then likely heading right into a trap, but we have no choice but to spring it with Sasuke and Sakura acting as gung ho as they are.' Shikamaru said starting to sweat a bit.
The group was led past the palace and out to the gardens, had they not all be preoccupied with their thoughts they would have found the scene breathtaking. Soon they arrived at a pond, and ahead of them was another panda bent over a shogi board as he studied his next move, and their quarry.
"Master Natsumi, your guests have arrived." The goose announced, Natsumi looked up from the bored and cast her gaze to the Konoha ninja." Thank you Chan, that will be all." She said, the good bowed and left them." I must admit, I always figured Konoha would send someone after me. I didn't expect it to be a wannabe emo, a pathetic fangirl, a lazy genius, and an iron panda. So disappointing." Natsumi said before turning back to her companion." We'll have to put our game on hold for a moment." She said, the panda nodded and sat back as she stood.
By this point, Sasuke was boiling over with rage. With a yell he dashed at Natsumi and drew his sword, fulling intending to run her through. Now to any normal civilian, sasuke would have been moving at an impressive speed. But, to Natsumi he might as well have been walking in slow motion. Just as sasuke swung his sword to strike her, Natsumi reached for her belt, and blocked the strike with her pipe.
"Ha, and here I thought you would have improved somewhat since I vanished. But, it seems you're still the same pathetic little boy, can't even get good enough to beat the village idiot." She taunted, something that made him seethe.
"Your gonna pay for what you did to me you fox bitch, ill beat you until your begging to release my eyes just for the pain to stop, then I'm gonna drag you back to the village, take your power for my own, and kill you in front of everyone!" Sasuke yelled, for a moment there was silence, then Natsumi burst into a gut-wrenching laugh, nearly hunched over.
"Ohh, thank you for that. I needed a good laugh today and that was the funniest thing I've heard all week." She said wiping a stray tear from her eye. Sasuke howled and fury and attacked, slashing at her with his sword with the skill and grace of a master. However, he wasn't even near her league, each strike was expertly and almost lazily blocked with nothing more than Natsumi's pipe.
The others of the ground watched the scene completely dumbfounded, it was hard to equate this master of a warrior to the class clown they still had in their memories. Sure, they had heard stories about her and all the exploits she had over the years, but even then, seeing was believing.
Finally, after attacking nonstop at full strength for a good ten minutes, Sasuke pulled back, panting hard and glared at the fox that didn't even seem winded." Oh, tired already, I guess that's to be expected from someone so used to relying on chakra. Still, if you can't even last this long against me when I'm not trying, its no wonder you can't ever beat Itachi." Natsumi said, setting her pipe back at her belt.
Natsumi knew exactly what button to push, just as predicted Sasukes eyes bulged with rage. Throwing his sword aside he came at her like a wild beast, his new wolf instincts at the front of his emotions. Calmly and easily, Natsumi side stepped him as he raged passed and struck, one of her tails lashing out and striking him in the chin. The strike sent him flying away and slamming into a nearby tree, completely out cold.
"SASUKE, YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU DEMON BITCH!" Sakura screamed, charging Natsumi almost in the same manner that Sasuke had just done. However, before she could even make it a dozen paces, a strong metal clad fist slammed into her temple and sent her flying a few feet before she joined her crush in dreamland.
"Sorry to interrupt, just kind of figured you didn't feel like dealing with the howler monkey big sis." Tigress said, the five had heard the commotion and came to investigate, arriving just as Natsumi launched Sasuke. Tigress had just, taken the initiative in this case.
"Oh, it's no trouble, I appreciated it actually." Natsumi said smiling at her students.
"I feel like I should be apologizing for my species right now, because we were not responsible for that one." Monkey muttered, sending a glare at Sakura, seriously what a disgrace to their entire species.
"Oh, don't worry about it monkey, Haruno is a special case." Natsumi said chuckling, her gaze then fell upon her other former allies." And what about you two, going to try your luck in taking me down." She asked coolly, the other moving around Natsumi in defense.
"Wait please Natsumi, we promise we aren't here to fight or take you back. We just want to talk is all." Tenten said holding up her hands in surrender.
"And why would I go and believe that?" Natsumi asked, though she did somewhat, Tenten and Shikamaru had been tentative friends back in the day. Shikamaru reached into his vest causing everyone to tense. However, they relaxed when he pulled out a scroll.
"Lady Tsunade sent this with us, she figured you wouldn't be able to find it when you left in a hurry. She wanted to make sure you and only you got it and sent us along to give it when she found out we had no intention of bringing you back." Shikamaru said tossing her the scroll, Natsumi caught it and unrolled it, the contents made her gasp and freeze.
It was her fathers notes on the Hiraishin, the one scroll she had been unable to locate. Everything was intact, and nothing falsified. Taking a breath, she rolled the scroll up and put it in her kimono.
"Come sit, let's hear what you have to say." Natsumi said, the two let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding and walked over to sit with her.
Once everyone was comfortable, the two began to tell the tale of why they had come. It turned out Natsumi had a more lasting effect on the village then even she thought, after her grand escape the entire village nearly went to war with itself. The civilians were glad she was gone, the shinobi not so much. However, soon after a new problem emerged.
The former council, who had not only been gunning not only for Natsumi but for the hokage for years now, had made a hard move and managed to openly oust the Hokage for supporting a now known missing nin. The council leader Danzo was sworn in, and things began to change in the village and not for the better. It wasn't long before a gap began to form, ninja began to be tools of the village and civilians began hoarding power.
Then came the scrolls, it turned out a lot of the political allies that Konoha had were held firm by Natsumi, with her gone places like Snow, Suna, Demon and other countries and villages began to send back alliances and ban Konoha nin from their countries. This brought the Diyamo into the mix, to say he wasn't happy was an understatement. He had basically declared to Konoha that if they didn't get their shit together and soon the village was history.
"That was about a month ago, since they the new Hokage ordered Master Jirayia to create a seal to locate you, send a team in and bring you back. You were to basically become a figurehead and a weapon of the village to get our alliances back." Shikamaru said finishing.
"Hmm, I must admit I never knew how much hell I could bring down on the village just by leaving. So why are you two here exactly, delivering a scroll and telling me a story can't be the only reason." Natsumi said curious.
"Well, ever since Danzo got sworn in there's been a sort of underground rebellion going on. A lot of people, mostly Shinobi who are not happy with his actions, have been working in secret to undermine him. Most of them are people who support you actually." Tenten explained surprising her a bit, she didn't realize she had that many allies.
"We were given a mission of sorts, to warn you about what's been going and to ask for some help. We know we have no right but, please Natsumi." Tenten continued.
Natsumi thought it over for a moment, before she sighed." What kind of help are we talking about?" She asked.
"One of two things, either possibly granting asylum to those of us who don't want to live under Danzo and the council's rule. Or the option we are most hoping for, help us kill him and his allies and put Lady Tsunade back in the seat." Shikamaru explained, this made Natsumi laugh.
"You want me to help you assassinate a Kage, wow, Irony is a bitch at times." Natsumi said smirking a bit, still thought she wasn't fully against the idea.
"Please Natsumi, none of us want to leave but were desperate. We aren't asking you to return home, we know Konoha has to many bad memories. All we're asking is to help us deal with a cancer that helped make your life hell, if after you never want to hear from us again, then you won't we swear." Tenten begged.
Natsumi hummed as she thought about it, on one hand she still hated Konoha for all the shit it did to her and was tempted to let it rot and crumble. But, she had grown from the child she once was, and she wanted to be better then those that hurt her. So, with a sigh she looked at her two old friends.
"I better get as much Ichiraku ramen as I can eat after this, and a medal, a big shiny metal." She said smirking making her friends relax and chuckle." However, if we are doing it, we are doing it my way." She said standing up again and walking over to Sasuke and Sakura." Was there a place if something went wrong?" She asked.
"Yeah, if we didn't report back in three weeks they would send teams after us." Shikamaru explained.
" And knowing what I know about that seal formula it takes a good while to prep and create each time, so were going to use that. We open a small door and send these two back with a challenge to come and get me, let Konoha open a doorway, stabilize it on this end, let them come through, defeat whoever they decide to send, go back through and deal with Danzo." Natsumi said, placing seals on the two annoyances to keep them unconscious for a time.
"That is crazy and ingenious. But, what do we do in the meantime?" Tenten asked.
Natsumi smirked and turned back to them, having a brilliant idea of what to do.
"Tell me, have either of you ever wanted to learn Kung Fu?" She asked.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, tenzo is back.
So welcome to my latest chapter, and man this chapter was fun to right. For those of you who read this books predecessor you know that in the last one didn't play things this way. Danzo being Hokage, Assassination plans, her returning to Konoha, doing all this is fresh and new. Let me know what you all think of the idea. We're still going to have an epic clash at the palace between everyone before hand but, this way we can have even more fighting. Speaking of fighting, feel free to comment on names for Tenten and Shikamaru's unique Martial Art style, I might pick one and add it just for shits and giggles.
As always like, comment and all that, I'll see you all in the next one. Peace out