A/N: Long time no see anyone who read the previous chapters...um, yeah. Here. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own Kung Fu Panda or any of the characters. Just my story and the OC's.

That Which is Hidden

Chapter 5: Racing

As Shifu stood at the top of the thousand steps looking over the valley of peace, he marveled at how much he could enjoy the peace and beauty of the sight before him. The warm light of a summer sun that was just starting to set was casting its golden glow over the village and all the green forestry on the mountains surrounding them.

It wouldn't be long until the sun would touch the far horizon and light the sky full of wonderful colors that he wished Crane would paint one day. But for the first time since before he had attained inner peace, Shifu wasn't particularly looking forward to the event. Because as soon as the sun set, that meant the Dragon Warrior, the savior of China, one of his beloved students, was missing.

The giant panda had left in the lingering slivers of morning to return an interesting crystal he had somehow obtained while on their most recent mission. Shifu had expected Po to be gone a significant chunk of the day but requested that he return in time for some training as it wouldn't be fair if the others were training all day and he was simply out and about.

A seed of the slightest amount of concern had been planted when the others had returned from midday rest and meditation and there was still no sign of Po. Shifu had requested that Crane fly down to Mr. Ping's and see if he was there and to ask if Po did show up, to send him to the palace immediately. Unfortunately, Mr. Ping had reported no sight of his adopted son since a couple days ago.

It was expected he would no doubt travel to several of the surrounding villages, would likely get distracted by a food cart or start socializing with the citizens or perhaps helping someone in need as his heart of gold often lead him to. Maybe he even had to take care of some pocket of bandits that cropped up. But even if these had all hindered the dragon warriors' perception of time, he was still quite late.

But Shifu put it out of his mind as Po was more than capable of handling himself and, despite his common persona, he was occasionally capable of acting like an adult. Regardless, Shifu resolutely decided Po would get quite the tongue lashing for skipping an entire day of training for whatever it was that was keeping him busy, if it wasn't an army of bandits that is or some new villain.

Only when he had finally dismissed his other students for the evening and they simultaneously looked around for the missing Master, did Shifu allow some concern to truly sink in. For several moments, Shifu had debated if it was acceptable of a master who had attained inner peace to worry. Then he remembered that that was part of the original problem; his lack of emotional connection to his students... Particularly his daughter. Which he was still working on mending.

Thus, he allowed himself to be concerned about the panda's safety. He had after all, just like Oogway predicted, brought him peace. And so, after training had ended, being as optimistic as possible he had told the five to head to the kitchen as he was sure their cook and friend would show up soon.

That was more than an hour ago now. What was that blasted panda doing?

Similar thoughts were running through Tigress' mind as she paced around the kitchen with the wary eyes of the remaining four following her every movement. They were all equally concerned about the whereabouts of their favorite panda but this was something else. Monkey and Mantis had snickered at first at the obvious reason of why only she was so worked up over Po's extended absence. Though, those smirks vanished as more and more time passed and the small talk that they could all conjure up had long since dried up. However, while they were concerned, Tigress looked furious. Any moment she was surely gonna snap and make a few new holes in the walls.

The fact that she was likely quite hungry surely was not helping, as they all were with the lack of their cook. They would eat something else if their minds weren't too occupied to focus on their stomachs.

Tigress stopped pacing. The four collectively held their breath, waiting for the inevitable outburst that the feline was surely about to let loose.

Instead she turned to them and calmly spoke, "I am going to speak with Master Shifu about looking for him." Then, unlike the past hour or so, instead of stomping off, she calmly walked out as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. The others soon followed her and they all found Shifu standing exactly where he was since they walked into the barracks.

Before Tigress had even come to a full stop Shifu spoke. "If it is desired, you can search for him once the sun has completely set. It will come as no surprise if once we search for him, he is nowhere unusual."

They all nodded but collectively thought the same grim thought. And if he's not somewhere obvious?

In the decades that Deshi had been a soldier and a Captain, he had seen many things that most sane people would not wish to see. Done many questionable things in his life that made him doubt the praise and honor he was usually given. Said praise for his less than honorable acts as a soldier made him almost despise the stereotype that Lions were 'in their nature' honorable.

But none of the things he's seen compared to what he had witnessed just a few hours ago. Right before his very eyes he saw something that belonged in the legendary scrolls of the Jade Palace detailing magical items and the events surrounding them.

The dragon warrior that he knew, the giant fluffy panda, was no longer a panda. After he had screamed and fallen unconscious after holding that accursed crystal, he slowly transformed into a slighter taller and decently fit white tiger. And now, hours later, as he rested on a bed still draped in his clothes that were now far too large for him, Deshi anxiously waited for him to awake in a chair.

Deshi was lost in thought when he heard a groan come from the pan-er, white tiger. He quickly stood up and walked over to Po as he groggily sat up and put a paw to his forehead.

"Ugh, Deshi? Aw man, what happened? I feel horrible." Po groaned as he sat up and kept his eyes closed while rubbing his head. When he heard no response, he opened his eyes (they were still Jade green) and asked, "Deshi?"

Deshi was at a loss of words that even after Po opened his eyes he didn't notice the difference in his own paw size or anything of the sort.

"Um, Po. Look at your paws."

"Huh. What about 'em?" He asked before he looked down. "Oh..."

Finally giving himself a look over Po rotated himself and examined his paws and felt his new torso. "Woooaahhh, aweeessoooome! Wow, this is so cool! I'm a tiger! Oh man I gotta see how I-" Po stood up off the bed and as his hips and belly were no longer half as wide, his pants immediately fell to the floor.

Deshi averted his gaze out of courtesy and to stifle a laugh with a paw.

"Agh! Well, I guess... the first thing I should really do is find some clothes to wear." Po mumbled abashed as he picked up his pants and held them in place.

Turning back to him, Deshi's smile vanished as he turned serious. "Po. Are we ignoring the fact that that crystal or gem or whatever you want to call it, just turned you into a white tiger?!" Deshi rarely lost his calm demeanor but that was largely because of experience in all situations, this was very new territory.

"Uh, well I mean, it... Sort of granted my wish. I don't really see a problem here Commander. It just seems to be another kind of shift stone."

"A what?"

"Oh, they're these red stone things up in the palace that allow you to look like another animal, but when you look at yourself, you don't look to be any different." Po supplied, remembering when he had to use one of them to go into Gor-ghom prison to talk to a criminal.

"And do they too change color in your hand and cause you immense pain whenever you change?" Deshi knew the answer but asked anyways as he we slightly irritated at the tiger's blatant disregard of possible danger.

"Well... no, but, really, what's the worst that could happen? If anything that bad happens I'll just change back. Where is it anyways?" He inquired as he looked around for it.

Deshi grabbed it off a nearby table and held it up for him to take. Po widened his eyes when he saw that it had changed colors. "Wooaahhh." He said as he took it in his paw. "It's blue now. Awesome! So, it must change color with each different person!" Sure enough, a moment later, it started to change from navy blue to emerald green. But now when Po looked into it, he saw the reflection of his new tiger face instead of his regular panda one.

As looked closely at his reflection, of course nearly everything looked different but his eyes were still emerald green. And his face... Dare he say he looked handsome? Was that weird to think? His cheeks were no longer flabby but fluffy with fur and his jaw was as defined if not more than Tigress'. The stripes on his head and jaw didn't look as cool as the ones on Tigress but he still found himself staring at them far longer than a natural tiger surely would. For the first time in a long while, Po really liked how he looked.

"Oooohh, I should go talk to Tigress! I can go up there and pretend I'm some other tiger and ask her how she feels about me!"

Deshi crossed his arms and frowned at him. "What?" Po nervously asked, as he physically recoiled. He clearly still held all his old mannerisms.

"Pretending to be someone you're not is never a good idea Po." Deshi sternly stated.

"I knoooow." Po drawled. "But come on, you gotta trust me on this. I really really want to do this. And I can just say I'm somewhere else while I'm up there and- ooooh man, what time is it?" Po suddenly asked as he looked outside.

"It's..." Deshi shook his head at the child like attention span of him. "It's nearing sunset. Why?"

"Augh, what?! I gotta go! The five and Shifu are probably wondering where I am! I gotta figure out how to... Oh hey, or I could run like this. I bet I'm really fast as a tiger."

Deshi sighed with his arms still crossed and a deep frown over his features. He didn't like this, but it was true that he'd get back faster as a tiger. But first things first, he needed some clothes. "Alright, Po. Before you go however you're going to need some clothes and a name." Po turned to him and gave a small smile but didn't say anything.

He clearly needed his help. Looking to the side once more, with a frown, Deshi made up his mind and turned to the door. "I'll be right back."

A few minutes later he came back with some clothes in hand and told Po to try them on. As he did Deshi turned and spoke. "Those clothes were my son's many years ago. You guys are about the same size now. They should fit well."

After a few moments passed he heard Po say, "They do." with an uncharacteristically strong voice.

Deshi turned around and was impressed at the sight he saw. Before him stood a white tiger dressed in charcoal black pants and a long sleeve dark blue vest with silver vines and petals adorning his torso and the trim outlined with silver. Matched with his white fur and black stripes, he looked quite appealing. Deshi couldn't deny in his own mind that if Po were to talk to Tigress, she most likely would be attracted to him in this form... 'Especially with the personality of Po if I'm not mistaken.' He mentally added with a small smirk.

Fine. Maybe he could get on board with this. It could certainly add some fun on the side and take his mind off of all the dreaded hunting missions for The Animals. It's always fun to watch romance blossom.

As Po continued to observe himself in awe Deshi stood and a proud grin gradually grew on his face. That is until he was reminded why he was smiling and just who's clothes those were. The smile vanished and his thoughts turned sour, which Po took notice to. "Thank you, Commander." Po softly said, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"You... said these were you son's?" Po tentatively inquired, to which Deshi nodded. "Um, what happened to him? He's not... is he...?"

"No, he's alive. He's just... Not around here anymore." Deshi supplied uneasily.

"Oh ok, phew. Glad to hear that."

Deshi just smirked a little at Po's obliviousness to the ominous statement of his son's whereabouts. Po was going to have to become more empathetic if he was going to even try to divulge Master Tigress' feelings. He'd also need to gain the skill of lying, which without even bothering to test, Deshi knew he was not capable of. Po is too pure of a spirit to have gained that skill.

Which reminded him. "Kang. That'll be your name." Po, or rather Kang now, smiled and nodded, silently accepting it. "But now you need to go. We can discuss your plan later. And... Bring your crystal thing too." He said as he picked it up like it was a vial containing a deadly virus. Po, or rather Kang, grabbed it and pocketed it without a second thought.

"We should give it a name don't you think?" Po/Kang giddily suggested just as he was about to go out the door. "All the artifacts up in the palace have cool names like the Sacred War Hammer of Lei Lang or-"

"Po, we don't know what it is, hardly how it works, or its origin. Not the best time for naming it." Deshi interjected. And then after a moment, "Why don't we just call it a morph crystal. You said it's similar to the shift stone but that didn't physically change your appearance but rather casted an illusion."

Po was slightly taken aback by the intelligent sounding description of what the shift stones do but shrugged it off.

"And before you go, you need a good story to explain where you've been all day."

"Oh well that's easy, I've been looking for villagers to return this to." Po said as he opened the door and held the crystal out as he referred to it.

"You really think that would have taken you ALL day?" Deshi skeptically challenged with an eyebrow raise as he followed Po out the door.

Po faltered. "Er...well ok I guess not." Deshi nodded with an appeased smile.

"So, in that case, let's say you... fell asleep because while you were talking to all the different villagers they offered you food. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Yeah it...does. How'd you do that? That totally sounds like something I'd do."

Deshi slyly smiled at the praise. "It's the skill of being a liar Po. Not one I'd expect you to have, nor one I'd feel good about teaching you."

"Well it's no secret I'm not good at it, and if I'm going to do anything as a Tiger, I'm going to need to explain where I supposedly went. And-"

"Yes yes, we'll figure that all out later. Don't you have somewhere to be?" Deshi interjected.

"Oh, right, yeah." Po was about to take off on all four when Deshi reminded him to take his old clothes and he ran back in the door. Then after quickly saying their goodbyes, he started running back to the palace on all fours.

While he ran, he marveled at how fast he was moving on all fours and after a couple miles he still wasn't in the slightest fatigued. But he saw that the sun was getting concerningly low; it was almost sunset. If the sun completely set and he wasn't back, he'd surely be in big trouble.

Roughly thirty minutes later, he zoomed through the streets of the valley of peace, easily weaving and dodging his way around civilians as to not trample any of them. Skidding to a halt in an alley nearby his father's noodle shop, Po/Kang stood up and breathed with his mouth open smiling widely.

"Awesome," he said breathlessly. He'd never really enjoyed running but at that speed, he had to admit it was quite enjoyable. Taking out his folded pants and the newly named morph crystal, he set them on the ground and was about to take his clothes off when he cautiously looked out into the street to make sure no one was watching. But come to think of it, he didn't even know what HE looked like naked. He'd woken up with his pants on and didn't exactly examine himself when his pants fell down earlier.

Shaking his head of such thoughts, he checked the street once more then took of his vest and with a shaky breath and for no good reason closed his eyes as he took off his pants. Opening an eye just the slightest amount so he could see the crystal, he grabbed it and then squeezed it in his palm and shut his eyes while wishing to be a panda again.

Immediately it responded and Po felt the same pain spread throughout his whole body as if lava or molten metal was flowing through his veins. He struggled to keep his mouth shut but let out a few whimpers of pain as he changed. To his displeasure, he could immediately tell when he was back in his true form as he felt significantly heavier and could feel his belly return. But to his relief, he did not pass out and merely had a headache when it was over.

After slipping on his pants and pocketing the emerald green crystal, he picked up his other set of clothes then walked out into the street and turned the corner into his dad's restaurant. As it was summer and long after dinner time, thankfully there weren't a whole lot of fans to greet him but it still took a few minutes to work his way through and after saying hi to his dad and hiding his clothes behind his back, managed to work his way into his old room.

He still came in here occasionally when he returned to help his dad on his time off, but it didn't feel like his room so much anymore. Looking at the window he reminded himself of his time constraint and quickly dropped off his clothes and the crystal.

Waving and yelling out numerous farewells as he made his way out of the dining area and made a beeline for the thousand steps he noticed the sun had officially set now.

Po started running up the steps frantically but as he just started to do so, he was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue and slowed down to a painful trudge up the steps. "Ugh." He let out. Apparently, the fatigue from running as a tiger carried over as these days he was regularly able make it up these stairs just fine.

Not even a minute more of walking up the stairs did he hear a SWOSH of wind over his head and looked up to see Crane flying overhead and down into the valley. He turned around, cupped his hands to his mouth and was about to call out to him when suddenly, "PANDA!"Yelled a very angry female voice behind him. Po flinched and slowly turned around.

"Where've you been?! Explain yourself!" Tigress demanded with her paws on her hips and fire in her amber eyes. The other three were beside her and looked equally upset. As he was trying to think of a response Crane landed next to Viper so there were two on each side of Tigress.

"Uh..." He lamely said. Before anything else could be said on either said however, Monkey chuckled and said, "Aw who cares. He's OKAY!" and attacked him with a hug. Mantis, Crane and Viper soon joined in and started pelting him with questions on where's been in a much friendlier manner and as a group, they started walking up the stairs, leaving a still very irate feline in their tracks.

"Guys, guys, I just fell asleep down by the weapons village where Captain Deshi is. I'm alright." He said while laughing. "I guess I just ate too much. A number of the villagers I was talking to about the crystal offered me food." Po reported effortlessly as Deshi had told him to.

"Pfft, yeah that's you big guy. Shoulda known you just fell into a food coma." Mantis joked. "And speaking of food, I'M HUNGRY!" They all (except Tigress) voiced their agreement with that and Po was more than happy to oblige and lead them to the kitchen to start cooking.

A while into the cooking process Tigress finally joined them and sat down in her usual seat at the end of the table. When a pause in the conversation appeared, she stated in a monotone, "I was reporting to Master Shifu on where the Dragon Warrior has been."

There was a long and awkward silence after she said that but Tigress didn't even seem to take notice of everyone looking at her as she was clearly too focused on glaring holes into the table.

The rest of the night almost went as they usually do except for the oddity that was Tigress. Apart from the earlier monotone statement, she also put down the offer of Po's noodle soup to everyone's shock and ate her old usual of steamed tofu.

But as if Po had been gone for days, they all happily regaled him with stories of their training that his missed today and jokes and jabs were thrown around the table and all around were having a good time. "And heh, buddy, you shoulda seen em, Viper and Crane here were sparring over in the field of fire and just when Crane had stuck out a leg to do his-"

The abrupt sound of one of the wooden chairs scooting back cut him off. They all silently watched as Tigress stood up and without looking at any of them said, "Good night everybody." and walked down the hall without a second glance.

Po was quite enjoying hearing the stories of training up until then but now that she had left so abruptly, even as Mantis continued his story, Po couldn't help thinking that she reminded him an awful lot of how she behaved when he first arrived here.

Had he done something wrong? What was with her? Whatever it was, he'd surely find out when he changed into a tiger and talked to her. It would make a lot of sense for two tigers to have a conversation more easily than others... right?

Surely that made sense, Po reassured himself when he went to bed that night. He had to put all his faith in the crystal and its ability to reconnect with Tigress. Whatever he had done wrong, it will be able to fix.

What could possibly go wrong?