AN: This is the shortest chapter yet (by a long shot!), so I'll be putting up a long one right after to make it up to you guys!
Kelev: You're welcome. Actually, Tao and her family left the Jade Palace before Tai Lung was found by Shifu, so she's never met him. She will undoubtably learn of him soon, though! Shifu's my fave, too. Yes, Morimotsuhitsu travelled from Japan as a young dog to seek his fortune. I'm hoping to give a little more background on him later. (Isn't his name horrible? XD)
D.JStriker: Thanks! Yeah, a sweetheart like Po is definitely in tune with what's going on emotionally with everyone around him.
Chapter Seven: What the Search Revealed
"Should we wake him up?"
A large pale ear twitched at the voice. Who was that talking?
"I don't know.. You sure he's not just meditating?" That sounded like Mantis.
"I don't think Master Shifu has ever snored in his meditation before, have you?" That might be Monkey.
"I snore in my meditation all the time!"
A sharp sound, like someone scaly smacking a large panda with their tail followed. That could only be Viper.
"I don't think I've ever heard Master Shifu snore, period." The new voice lowered to a sympathetic whisper. "Look at him though, he must be exhausted!" And.. could that be Tigress..?
Okay, this had gone far enough, were all his students watching him sleep? Shifu gave a groan and stirred. "And what, may I ask, are all of you doing in my room?" No one replied, which he had more or less anticipated.
What he had not prepared himself for was the sight, as he rubbed the hard-won sleep from his eyes, of the Hall of Heroes peeking accusingly from behind his concerned students. The mid-morning light informed him that he was several hours late waking up his class.Now Shifu was wide-awake.
His search had obviously taken longer than anticipated, but he had no memory of dozing off the previous night.
Po and the Five gave each other 'should we tell him?' looks and exchanged shrugs. He couldn't blame them. He had a feeling that if he could see himself just now, collapsed in an awkward heap over a pile of scrolls, he'd wonder where he'd gone wrong in life.
Tigress stepped forward, offering a bow. "Forgive me Master... but.. have you been here all night?"
Shifu raised himself unsteadily to his feet, noting new twinges and jabs of pain in his frame that he owed to sleeping on top of a pile of manuscripts. "So it would seem, Tigress." The old kung fu master sighed, rubbing the temples of his face with a groan.
"I have been searching for a documentation of the will of our late Lord Morimotsuhitu. I found nothing in Master Oogway's posessions, save a large amount of poetry."
Tigress blinked, and glanced back over her shoulder at the rest of the five. "Poetry, Master?"
Shifu pushed his hands back over his scalp, as if to banish the memory from his mind. "Poetry. Very, very much poetry. And none of it significant to anything, so far as I could tell, about what we should do about the children."
The red panda muttered something to himself about his late master's expansive collection of color-themed rhymes, which had apparently only been brought to an end with the failure to come up with counterparts for 'orange' or 'purple'.
Monkey leaned on his staff and gave a defeated sigh. "So, that's it then. We're going to be carted off to be the private army of that oversized goon." The six warriors all slumped in defeat.
Shifu gave a sharp bark of laughter, snatching up the document that he'd been sprawled on top of. "Not quite, my students!" It was impossible not to note the slightly bitter tone to the red panda's victorious declaration. "It seems that Lord Morimotsuhitu wrote Master Oogway a letter outlining some thoughts about his wishes for his children. It is unfinished, perhaps even just a rough draft, but it will serve our purposes."
Po looked back and forth between his master and comrades. They appeared as puzzled as he felt. "So.. what's wrong? It sounds like you're not too happy about it."
Shifu gave a sigh and a nod, rolling the scroll in his hands back up. "I am uncertain if the cure will prove to be worse than the ailment."
The Furious Five glanced at each other once more in confusion. Shifu straightened, and waved his students away before they all wore their necks out from all the staring back and forth. "Go and gather our three esteemed guests. We will read what amounts to Lord Morimotsuhito's will here in an hour."
The aged red panda reached for the flute that he sometimes used as a cane and made his way towards the Dragon's Pearl reflecting pool. He stood there, gazing thoughtfully at the thousand scrolls of kung fu that Oogway had left behind. He could only hope that he'd be able to preserve his late master's teachings properly now.