Secrets 5:
Compassion

Raphael's tale over Tigress had ended and it in fact caused the loner of the brothers to become slightly emotional. All of the bunnies knew better than to say anything…all but the one in the black outfit. “Look at the big, strong turtle. I think he’s blushing.” The young rabbit called him out.

“I am not.” The turtle in question countered feeling like his old self.

“I think he’s actually turning red.” The one in black continued on; not knowing that he was dealing with the ticked mode of this hero. In an instant one of the warrior’s sais flew from his hand to right in between the little one’s feet. “Maybe not.” He continued out of fear before the owner reclaimed his weapon and walked away.

‘I better cheer these kids up.’ The child of the four thought and decided to speak of the last of the five. “I guess it’s easier to laugh at someone than to have someone laugh at you, right?” The slacker stated and questioned to them. “Let me tell you about Monkey.” He added and started the tale, “Three words: B-A-D, bad. I guess that’s one word, three letters. But not only bad as in ‘awesome’, no. Monkey was also bad as in, well, not very good.

‘This is going to be good.’ The simian thought as he placed several banana peels on the ground - right behind people, and when the deed was done he fled to a roof. “Hey, over here.” He called out causing everyone to turn and slip on the banana peels.

“Jerk!” Two of the victims called out to the obvious suspect: the one that was laughing at them.

“The villagers had had enough. They came up with a plan.” The young ninja explained before speaking of how several of them gathered around the mischief maker who was casually eating bananas.

“Leave.” Five of them called out while pointing to the exit.

“Okay, it wasn’t a great plan.” The orange acolyte admitted while explaining the answer was a peel being tossed to the pig man’s snout. “So instead of asking Monkey to leave, they decided they would make him leave.” Michelangelo said and told them of the ox-like man walking over to the building the future Furious Five member was napping.

‘This might be a challenge.’ The fool thought as he saw and evaded a mace, and with sufficient speed he made his move. Once he was on the ground and the ox was about to strike Monkey revealed that he swiped the hired thug’s belt causing him to run away in embarrassment…after getting belt slapped in the butt.

“No matter who the villagers sent…” Mikey explained to them as he spoke of the: three rhino warriors, “…they were no match for Monkey.” He added as he explained that the scoundrel pulled the same stunt again. “Monkey could, quite literally, beat the pants off anybody.” He informed while speaking of the three wolf archers, alligator, and rhino wrestler. “Well, ALMOST anyone.” The turtle stated before introducing Oogway.

“Monkey, you must leave.” The elder turtle said to the prankster on the roof of the building.

“Sure, if you beat me. I will go. If you don‘t, then it is you who must leave. Without your pants.” The simian said back after leaping from the building to the ground.

“But we turtles don’t wear pants.” Michelangelo explained to them and pointed for good measure before going back to the tale.

“Well, we shall see.” The Galapagos turtle said back with a mellow tone. The future fighter for peace did not like that tone and leapt up to grab a piece of bamboo and use it as a club. To no avail as Oogway disarmed him with ease.

“What are you going to do now?” Monkey questioned as he tossed several banana peels at his opponents feet, and seemed pretty confident over what he had done. The wise one purposefully stepped on one peel and lurched forward. Monkey saw this as his chance and attacked, but was blocked by his opponent. The prankster tried an air punch but his opponent recalled his neck causing the mammal to stumble on his own trap.

‘I can’t let that happen.’ Oogway thought as he saw the fighter about to be struck by a wooden pillar that he knocked loose. With unheard of speed…for his species was able to save the fool and stopped a safe distance away.

“You saved me. Why?” Monkey questioned to the opponent after seeing the fallen pillar and saw that he was not underneath it.

“Monkey, you have shown me great skills, but I also sense in you great pain.” The wise one said causing the fool to think back to his younger days when he was happily showing off a new outfit until he slipped on a peel and lost his pants.

“You win. I will leave.” The simian said as he remembered the tears of that event and decided to leave before anyone saw him cry. He stood and was heading for the door until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Stay. Use your skills for good, young warrior.” Oogway offered to him and added, “Find the one thing that you were denied so long ago.” This confused the creature, and he asked aloud.

“My pants?” The question amused the master, but went back on topic.
“Compassion.” Oogway answered back and Monkey liked the sound of that, and even bowed in respect of this powerful man.

“And so, Monkey learned how to treat others the way he wanted to be treated. And now he was indeed good, really good. But bad too, as in bad-tactically good!” Michelangelo said as he spoke of helping an elderly rabbit down the stairs and defending a goose who was being assaulted by a warthog.

‘Let’s hope they’ve learned something.’ Leonardo thought as he looked past the energetic children and focused on their latest master walking over toward them.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey, easy! Easy!” The final speaker said concentrating on the bunnies and not on the little one walking right at them. “Shifu!” He shouted in alarm when he finally saw his latest master.

“Not so easy, is it?” Their teacher questioned the four - believing that all four of them have failed.

“Yeah…I guess it is.” The brainiac commented before hearing what his master had to say.

“You see, teaching kung fu is an art that takes years to master.” He stated smugly before coming up with a follow comment, “Do not be disappointed if you failed.” He then decided to prove his theory with a little help from a nearby child. “Tell me, what do you know about kung fu?” He questioned to the young rabbit.

“It’s about fighting.” The one in black answered for the nervous female before striking a fighting pose. This aggravated Shifu causing him to glance at the one responsible - Raphael who merely shrugged as if saying, ‘what’s wrong with that.’ “But it’s also about having patience.” The black robbed one added after seeing that his story tellers were on the spot.

“And courage.” Another added while getting close to the master’s left side.

“And discipline.” Another commented after the second.

“And compassion.” One in blue stated to the master.

“It’s about…confidence.” The shy one said to him while not looking at him in the eye. Shifu heard this and was highly impressed that the turtles taught the five main disciplines of this art so well.

“You…carry on, Master Leonardo, Master Donatello, Master Michelangelo, and Master Raphael. I’m going to meditate.” The red panda congratulated/stated and walked off.
“All right, good job. Not bad for your first day of training.” Leonardo congratulated the young ones before him with a clap of the hands.

“Wait, Leonardo, what about you guys?” The shy one questioned a question that all of them were wondering about ever since the beginning of this whole thing.

“Us?” The smart one questioned in awe at what he was hearing.

“Yeah. Tell us how your first day was.” The one in blue/gold questioned and the others followed with a parade of, ‘Please, tell us’, and against their better judgment the four of them did what they asked…sort of.

“Intense.” Leonardo commented as he recalled his slicing sessions with Mantis.

“Enlightening.” Donatello said to them while thinking of his kanji lessons with Crane.

“Fun.” Raphael told them as he was thinking of all the various battles the two of them had on a one on one basis.

“It was totally awesome.” Michelangelo informed the young ones as he was recalling all the times he got pounded by equipment or the Five, weather accident or purpose, but decided to fudge his experience.

“Cool.” They said in awe before they all sat down for a meal.

Copy Rights:
TMNT, and the others, are owned by Eastman/Laird and Fox Box.
Kung Fu Panda, and the others, are owned by Dreamworks.