Kung Fu Panda: The Hunt For The Heir (OC x Tigress fanfic)

Chapter 13: Su & Song

They travelled for about 4 hours in relative silence before coming to a halt in front of a bamboo forest. It would likely have been around 2 hours if they hadn't had to slow down for Po. For his part, Hunter somewhat regretted how he'd reacted back at the Palace to Tigress grabbing his arm. Although truthfully, he'd acted worse to less... After what had happened in the Hall of Warriors yesterday though, he'd been very... On edge, and being grabbed like that, especially in his line of work was cause enough to react violently and swiftly. In fact, it had gotten to the point that any kind of physical interaction made him uneasy, intimate or otherwise.

He also wasn't used to working with others so... Closely . The Five and Po were a cohesive unit, while he usually worked alone, or if it was a multi-contractor thing, like the Gorilla War, it was more of an army than a small, tight-knit unit like this group were. As for Hunter himself, he worked faster alone. Either way, he was out of his comfort zone right now, and it was putting him even more on edge... He wished Shifu hadn't asked him to bring the group with him. He didn't doubt the group's abilities in Kung Fu, that wasn't the problem, but his plan had involved not having to fight at all. It still did, he hoped. In his mind, bringing the others was unnecessary, or at least bringing all of them. One or two would've been enough to keep an eye on him if they didn't trust him, while also minimally impacting both travel time and the speed of the mission itself.

"This is their new place?" Po asked, panting heavily as he looked to be about two seconds from keeling over or throwing up.

Upon hearing Po speak, Hunter turned his head towards the Dragon Warrior, who was behind him, laying on the ground. "Yes. I hope you can climb, Panda." he stated and leapt upwards, bouncing off two trees to reach the top, holding his legs between two bamboo trees to keep himself suspended above. Po's mouth dropped at seeing him climb like that as the Five all quickly joined him above the ground. Po, remembering that bamboo is food, also managed to surprisingly, for Hunter anyway, effortlessly scramble up. "Well, colour me impressed Panda." Hunter nodded at that and began expertly pushing off one tree with his foot to land on another with his other foot and repeat the same, using this method to travel the Bamboo treetops. The Five all followed closely, with Po lagging a little but managing a decent speed for his size.

Eventually they came to a halt as the bamboo trees stopped, and at the edge of the forest on a cliff edge were the Leopards that made up the Ladies of The Shade, in a camp just as Hunter had said. Po breathed heavily as he caught up. "Sweet! Finally! I'll just go down and ask them-"

Hunter quickly interrupted him. "You'll do no such thing" he stated, and Po froze in place as the Five looked between the Dragon Warrior and The Hunter as Po looked to be about to plead otherwise, but was quickly shot down. "No. I know Kung Fu doesn't really teach you advanced stealth, but I'm trained in such methods. I'll sneak in and simply find the Sword and take it back. You guys are just here for backup in case I get caught." He told them, and they all looked very unhappy at taking his orders, although reluctantly conceded it was likely a decent plan.

Despite this, Monkey shook his head at the situation. "I'd expect nothing less from an honourless thief." he said to Hunter, who glanced at him warningly, and Monkey suddenly found the tree he was holding to be incredibly interesting as he stared at it.

Tigress then slid down from where she was above in the trees and got in Hunter's face. "If you try anything funny, freak, I'll run you down and 'Hunt' you." she warned dangerously, and Hunter rolled his eyes at her attitude.

He gave a long suffering sigh at that, sliding down the bamboo trunk. "Yeah yeah, I get it, Kitten." Hunter grumbled to himself and she growled at the repeated nickname he'd given her.

Upon hitting the ground, he quickly ran out from the treeline and took cover behind a cart as a feline guard walked over to patrol. After seeing it was clear, the guard turned and Hunter darted behind a tent and quickly peered inside to take a look, shaking his head in the negative. A different guard walking between the tents turned her back at that moment, with Hunter using this opportunity to quickly get behind the tent next to the guard and check that one too, also seemingly a no...