So glad that you have made it this far in the fanfic! Thank you so much for investing so much time into this fanfic. I hope you are enjoying it!

*I do not own kfp*

—

As Oogway and Shifu neared the Jade Palace, it thought of Oogway best if he would show him around for just a quick tour of the premises before he would care for him. As Oogway led Shifu throughout the palace and the Hall of Warriors for a short while, he was quite amused at how brightened Shifu's gaze was, and he turned to him for the first time on his own accord, without following up a question.

"Y-you live here?"

"Yes, I do, child." Oogway nodded, brushing against him and staying by his side for the time being. The grandmaster was quite amused at how wondrous the curious the young child was, despite his despotic and cruel background. He was quite worried, for he knew that his students could be quite rough and didn't know how Shifu would fare right now, at least, when he's not trained.

Shifu glanced around the Hall of Warriors and flicked his ear again, his gaze taking in all of the awe and beauty of the Jade Palace that was now his new home. Shifu, honestly, couldn't believe it all. Just this morning he was in a trashy place, then to be transported into the magnificent palace was quite a scent-change for the young student.

"Come, child," Oogway motioned with his arm outstretched towards the door, eventually going to lead him to the student's chambers. For the time, he was worried about him being alone as he was in the orphanage, but he decided that Shifu should learn now rather than later. "Let me show you something else."

Oogway led Shifu down into the student's chambers, where he showed him an empty room that was shared with four other students in the palace. Oogway gently stood at the footway of the door as Shifu stood inside, brushing his hand against the newfound bed.

"This is your room now," Oogway dipped his head, "stay here, I will be back soon."

Shifu put his head on a tilt and watched as Oogway slowly backed away. He wasn't really going to leave, but he wanted to see how Shifu would react to his leaving. How would he react to the new palace room?

As Oogway gently closed the doors to the chamber, Shifu's gaze suddenly faded as he rushed forward and used whatever strength he had to push against the doorway, in which Oogway let him and didn't press his strength against his new student, for he could powerfully send him slamming backwards if he did so.

"Wait!" Shifu's voice rang out, lunging with all his strength at his master and rushing into him, but just stopping a bit short. "Don't leave me here…."

Oogway glanced at Shifu once and rested a hand on his head. "It's just a room, child, I won't keep you there forever."

Shifu shook his head and flinched. "But…..I-I can't.."

Oogway gently pulled Shifu closer to him and knelt down, wrapping his arms around him and gently resting Shifu's head against his shoulder.

"It's okay," Oogway softened, "Nothing's going to happen to you, I'm right here."

Shifu shuddered, and pressed against his own master as Oogway continued.

"I'm your master, and therefore, I will protect you." Oogway said, as Shifu leaned back and stared straight into his gaze. "I promise."

—

As the day progressed, Shifu's external appearance changed completely.

Rather being the messed up and ruffled appearance he was before, Shifu was now wearing a new and cleaner brown role, neatly tied around himself with a belt made of fine silk from the province. His fur was neater and straighter, and his wounds had been cleaned up with. Since Shifu had hardly been fed well in months, Oogway forced him to eat with the palace chefs had prepared for the students, but Oogway himself kept Shifu away from the others for the time being.

Shifu gently rested beside the bed and glanced around the room, his gaze traveling over the many decorations and even the small lantern beside him. He then glanced downwards at himself and sighed, seemingly thinking, "how did it get to this in just one day?"

Shifu held out his arm and glanced at the elongated scar slice wound on his left arm, scraped down the side a few moments before both of his parents were killed…

—

A ox's roar yelled out throughout the jumble of bandits and helpless villagers, who were forced to watch the chaotic scene in front of them as their children were being helplessly beaten upon by the burly bandits and their own leader himself.

Shifu watched from the cold and steel cage he was in as his parents struggled helplessly against the thick chains placed upon them, and from that moment he knew that they wouldn't get out of here without a wound of some sort upon them.

Shifu watched as his father muttered something to his mother, and as they both shared long glances at each other, they glanced at him and sighed. There was no light in their gazes, no fierce fire or relentless flame burning.

They knew that this could be the end…

For their life, and for their son's life as well.

Shifu inside felt the smoke from the burning houses closing in around him, and he choked as it seemed to grasp in towards his throat and seemingly burn his heart which was already being pained from his congenital defect. He saw one bandit come forward and outstretch his hand to him, but although this seemed fairly nice, there was nothing nice about the way he was violently pulled out of the cage and thrown onto the ground, helpless in front of everyone's gaze. He caught his father's gaze and blinked, but he averted it quickly as he was held down by two bandits (which, apparently, they needed two to hold one child?) in front of the crowd.

The bandit leader came forward and rested a tight hand on Shifu's shoulder, outstretching his left arm and brushing the top of it.

"This village is on the property of the Xiling Bandits!" The bandit leader roared near Shifu, and the child's ear flicked. "May this chosen child be the one to carry our mark."

With those words, the bandit pulled out a sword, placing the tip of it on the top of Shifu's arm and slowly and painfully dragging it vertically along the top of it, leaving a very damaged wound that would most likely cause a scar.

Shifu's voice was muffled out, but inwardly it seared with pain, like a flame had just rushed onto Shifu's arm and burnt his entire arm off.

Not only that, but it seemed to send an entire shockwave through him, having his heart work overtime and eventually cause more pain than it had ever had before.

As the bandit leader cleaned his sword off on his robe stained with blood, the bandit leader pushed Shifu onto the ground and leaned in closely, growling in his face.

"Listen closely, red panda," The ox growled in the young child's face, pinning him to the ground. "You shouldn't be able to walk these streets, but since you are, I might as well carry out my warning." The bandit leader gruffly pointed out to Shifu's wound on his arm that he had delivered. "May that be a lesson to you that you should NEVER forget me."

The bandit leader grasped hold of Shifu tighter and yelled violently into his ear, staring into his gaze.

"Understand?"

Shifu weakly nodded, although his mind was fogged up with pain. The bandit leader grinned and hoisted Shifu upwards, shoving him into the cage once more. He leaned his face close against the gate as Shifu moved backwards as best he could and growled again.

"Everyone will notice you, therefore they'll notice me," The ox sniffed, complacent with himself. "And I promise you that you will NEVER forget me."

The ox raised up an arm as he stood back from the cage, glancing at Shifu one more time before he delivered the order for Shifu's parents to both fall to two violent and fatal arrow shots to the heart. Shifu shuddered as he watched his two parents gasp out with pain and collapse, breathing their last breaths they would ever breathe.

Shifu faintly could make out the bandit leader's words in the midst of the pain and the yelling going around and through him, and he tensed when he heard them.

"They've always been helpless and futile," The bandit leader gruffed when he watched Shifu's parents fall. "But I figured I'd let you live as an example to everyone in this country," The leader straightened his back.

"The strong always prevail."

—

Shifu blinked back into reality and took a sharp gasp, backing himself against the bed's edge and breathing in and out violently from the memory and flashback. Shifu collapsed to the ground and started shaking, for the whole memory and experience was too much for him to bear. Shifu glanced down at his covered arm bandaged up safely by the doctor of the Jade Palace, and tried to calm his young self with a slight sigh, as his father had usually told him any time his heart would start doing hypo-normal things. Shifu shuddered and pressed his hand against his heart as he tried breathing slowly, eventually getting himself calmer but still shaking from the events and the memory.

Shifu's ear flicked as he picked up sounds coming from the hall, and gently stood up and leaned over the footstep of the room's opening. Shifu blinked as he saw around ten different animals of a young but different variety bound into the hallway of the student's chambers, chattering excitedly and jumping around the hall.

Shifu pressed himself back further against the room, not wanting to be seen by any of the students since he was still scared and his peer experience wasn't the greatest.

He pressed himself closer against the wall and listened as the students talked amongst themselves.

Thankfully, the students were making their way to the eating room for the afternoon meal, so they weren't bounding into the rooms just yet, to Shifu's relief.

"Training was so dumb today," A student named Rooster told his friends, who gathered around the table passing around bowls of bean buns and fruit. Shifu blinked from the room where he watched them with a curious gaze. "I mean, what was half that stuff even for?"

A female snow leopard named Mei snorted from the other side of the table. "Who knows what our master thinks?"

"Who in the whole country knows?"

Shifu flicked his ear, catching the vibration of the student's talk, and suddenly felt very interested, forgetting about the past for the moment. Shifu put his head to one side and blinked curiously as they talked about Oogway and his training for a little while before they then moved off that subject and talked about different- weapons-for-different-situations instead. Shifu slowly inched off of the room and stayed with his back to the wall, and eventually when he caught sight of the door he ran as fast as he could out of it. Along the way, his weak balance and fragility made him trip over a rock and land on the ground below, the dust brushing over him and making Shifu slightly cough. As he slowly started getting up, Shifu brushed away the slight wound on his hand and continued walking towards the massive palace of the Hall of Warriors. Shifu had felt real pain before, so a slight cut or himself tripping over a rock didn't necessarily make him cry in pain rather than losing his parents or the great slash on his arm did.

Shifu rushed to the Hall of Warriors, eventually, and ran up the stairs to the grandmaster's chamber, where Oogway said he would be if he needed him. Sure enough, Oogway was there, and the old master was quite impressed that his young student had remembered everything so fast.

He's quite a smart child, Oogway admitted, with a smile. He also recognized that Shifu had learned to trust in him in just a short amount of time, and Oogway was glad for that.

Of course, he also knows that trust takes time.

"Shifu," Oogway lifted his head and got off his massive chair behind the desk (yes, the same desk that Grandmaster Shifu now uses as a master) and walked towards his student.

Shifu flicked his ear, and with that, Oogway realized that he still had to teach him the proper ways of the Shaolin, including the humble master-student bow. "What is it?"

Shifu bent down his head, obviously an expression for submission to authority (which Oogway was quite impressed with), and spoke to his new-found master. "T-the others in the chamber.." Shifu's voice was weak and fragile as he shuddered, "Who are they..?" Shifu's voice was a soft whisper as he choked the words out, but Oogway understood and gave a slight nod as he cleared his throat.

"Child, they are my students," Oogway replied, assuming that it WAS his students who were there. "They are students, like you."

"Like me?" Shifu put his head to one side and shook it. "No one's like me."

Oogway gently rested his hand on top of Shifu's head and smiled. "Not everyone is the same, not even I nor you look alike, yet we are both in the same palace, yes?"

Shifu flicked his ear, confused. "Yes?"

"Therefore," Oogway grasped a scroll from the wall of scrolls on the side, shifting through them to find the right one. "Those ones you met are the very same children like you. Students, like you."

Shifu took a step forward, curious. "So…..I'm a student?"

Oogway let out a slight chuckle. "You are my student, yes."

Shifu flicked his ear again and took yet another step closer to Oogway, who was still looking at the number of scrolls.
"A student of what?"

Oogway gently smiled at that and turned around to face his new student after a moment of pause. He was glad that in this short amount of time, the young child had eventually gotten more used to him and was seemingly more relaxed, although Oogway could sense that he was treading a path very carefully. Oogway sighed, vowing to himself that he would make this student at least reach the position of a master.

"You're a student of the Shaolin, Shifu," Oogway outstretched the one scroll on Shaolin basic rules and techniques to him and gave him a slight nod. Shifu put his head to one side as he looked at it, and Oogway figured that he needed help with reading the entire thing. Oogway inwardly laughed as he saw Shifu's gaze brighten, and in that case he looked curious. "I'll help you with it," Oogway mentioned, "but in that scroll there are many important things for you to learn before you formally become my student."

Shifu glanced up at him. "What does that mean?"

Oogway shook his head in annoyance of himself for talking too lavishly to him, and sighed. He's still very young.

Oogway rested his hand on Shifu's shoulder and glanced at him, their gazes meeting. Oogway knew what he had to do if Shifu was ever going to begin to find his place here, even if he was vastly different. Oogway knelt down and stared into Shifu's blue gaze even further, and spoke to him as if he was speaking to a young child, rather than another older student of his.

"I will tell you later," Oogway said, his voice calming and rather soft, "but first, I should introduce you to my other students."

—

Sorry if you got a little freaked out with the whole bandit thingy. Now we see a little glimpse into Shifu's parents' death, which may be revealed in a future fanfic (who knows)

Stay tuned for the next chapter! Please leave a review!