Po, exhausted by the events over the last few days, slept in the following morning. Lam had woken up as per usual to make breakfast with everyone following suit, but since Po was not there, they wound up just making small talk with each other. Tigress kept quiet with only some minor side conversation with Shifu, and vice versa, while Monkey struck up a conversation with all of Po's potential girlfriends to find out how training went.

"Lovely!" Tai Lin remarked. "It was a great workout session."

"Interesting," Jai-Rong commented. "Is he usually very dramatic?"

"Yes," the Furious Five said immediately.

"Ah. That explains a few things."

"I thought Po was perfectly lovely!" Ordai protested.

"I said he was dramatic," Jai-Rong repeated with an irritated eye roll. "I didn't say he was aggravating!"

"Yeah, he loves it," Monkey told her with a little laugh. "It takes a second to get used to, but it makes for some funny moments!"

They chatted on for a bit about Po's antics and how he absolutely loved dramatic kung fu moves until Xiao Niao eventually piped up and said, "Should we wake him up? His food's going to get cold."

"I'll do it!" Destiny and Ordai said excitedly.

"Let him sleep," Tigress told them firmly. "He'll get up when he's good and ready."

On cue, the kitchen doors opened and Po slowly walked in with a yawn, sittting down at his place at the table.

"Morning, guys," he said, immediately going to drink some tea.

A couple rounds of "Good morning!" went around the table before Po was able to speak again. He asked how everyone had slept, (he slept ok), what everyone was planning to do, and how the girls had felt after a round of warm-up training from the night before. There were a couple of sore arms from the unusual exercise, but nothing much else aside from that.

"Sounds like you ladies had a lot of fun," Madame Zhou commented, smiling pleasantly as she ate more of her breakfast

"What did you guys do while we were training?" Po asked curiously.

"I got some sleep," Madame Zhou said immediately. "At my age, one needs all the beauty sleep they can get."

Leopard glanced up with a questioning look on her face, catching Tigress' gaze which moreorless had the same expression. The two shared a silent exchange which went completely unnoticed by Po and the rest of those at the table while the other girls admitted to pretty much going right to sleep.

"Well, except for Kay," Lam said. "I'm pretty sure she spent a whole hour brushing her fur out in the bathroom."

Kay turned a dark shade of red. "My fur tangles easily," she explained quietly. "I need a specific fir care routine."

"Oh...sorry. I didn't know that."

As they turned back to eating, Jai-Rong glanced over at Po and asked him how his paw was.

"It's feeling a little better," Po admitted, putting a smile on his face to show that he was fine.

"What happened to your paw?" Lu-Shi asked with a look of surprise.

"Oh, Jai-Rong and I were sparring, and she bit me," Po explained. "It was part of our session."

"You did what-?!" Ordai exclaimed.

"He's seems okay," Kay was saying, but she was talking too quiet to be really heard, so Jai-Rong wound up accidentally interjecting over her and explaining that she thought it was the only thing she could think of at the moment. She then turned to Viper to ask about her fangs, a thought that had been in her head for the whole night. Viper obliged by showing Jai-Rong her mouth, which only had nubs for fangs, and explained that she was just born without them and they never grew in.

"My dad's fangs shattered in battle when I was 7, so I helped him defend the village with my own style of kung fu," she explained. "And then my two sisters took over that job when they got older."

"Your dad's a kung fu master?" Jai-Rong asked, though she was obviously more fascinated with seeing a fangless snake.

"Yeah," Viper said, closing her mouth and telling Jai-Rong she could return to her seat. (She had gotten up to see Viper's mouth up close).

"Did she really bite you?" Tigress asked, glancing over at Po.

The master held up his paw as proof, which was slightly swollen, and still had the puncture wounds from Jai-Rong's fangs.

"She must not have very strong venom then-could you stop doing that, please?!" Viper commented, giving Jai-Rong a nasty look when she noticed she hadn't gone back to her seat and was still trying to look closer at the master's mouth.

"That's so mean!" Ordai said angrily. "Why would you bite him?!"

"Uh, because it was a sparring session," Jai-Rong reminded her sternly. "And that's what you do."

"Po can handle injuries, trust us," Mantis promised the panther. "He got stuck in a booby trapped maze and ran into every single trap, and yet somehow only had to spend a day in the hospital. For a second degree burn."

"Yep. All part of the territory," Po said trying to laugh the idea off. In reality, he did NOT like to get hurt, which is why he trained so hard when he became a student. It took time to get used to, but Po did NOT like getting hit, punched, kicked, bitten, burned, or smacked. He knew he could be a bit dramatic and his friends liked to joke about it, but he actually had very sensitive skin, which meant that his pain tolerance wasn't as great as other people's. His paw, for example, was stinging and throbbing in pain. But he didn't want Jai-Rong to feel bad, nor any of his friends to get the wrong idea about what happened, (biting was not a usual kung fu tactic as everyone knew, except obviously for Jai-Rong), so he smiled through the pain and kept his mouth shut.

Jai-Rong at some point finally made her way back to the table to finish breakfast and the conversation changed topics. After a few minutes, Tigress finished and stood up from the table to wash her bowl and most likely head over to the training hall. However, Shifu couldn't help but notice her movements being a bit unusual. "Tigress are you okay?" he asked as the master began to walk over to the sink.

Tigress turned to look at him. "Why?" she asked.

"You only used one arm to get up from the table, which is not your habit. Is something the matter?"

Tigress didn't say anything for a moment, but then sighed and pulled up the right side of her shirt ever-so-slightly. Everyone craned their necks forward and gasped at the nasty wound across the Dragon Warrior's stomach. Tigress quickly elaborated that she had three of them: one on her stomach, one on her right shoulder, and one across her rib cage, though it didn't feel broken thank goodness.

"I figured Po wasn't going to use the training hall for long, so I went in later last night to practice with the hearts of Yin and Yang," the master explained. "Except when I started using the Swinging Clubs of Oblivion, the machine didn't work properly and I got flung into the spiral beams and injured myself."

Song immediately covered her mouth. "Ohhh!" she cried. "I am so sorry! If I had known you were going in there, we would have mentioned that!"

Tigress cast her a look, only for Po to pipe up, "We don't know what happened. The machine just started going crazy. Song got thrown off, but fortunately she was on the last beam so she didn't hit anything. I figured I'd tell Shifu in the morning since he knows how to better fix the machine. Sorry, Tigress."

The Dragon Warrior still carried an irritated expression on her face, but she soon took a breath to calm herself and said, "That's fine. I should have been more careful."

"You couldn't have possibly known that, Master Tigress," Shifu assured her. "Don't worry about it. Why don't you sit out or at the very least try to take it easy today? I'll go to the training hall and see what I can do."

With that, the grandmaster got up from his seat and headed out of the kitchen. Tigress was quick to follow suit, though this was only because she wanted to warm up by herself and gauge her pain tolerance. The rest of the masters sat at the table and quickly finished their food while Po and the girls ate at a more leisurely pace. Po hadn't really planned much to do for the day as he ought maybe it would be nice for everyone to have a little breathing space from all the activities.

"That's okay," Jai-Rong told him. "That just means we get to explore a little more. Or just have casual conversations. Whichever you prefer."

"I'd say come and spar with us, but you have a bad paw right now, so maybe that's a bad idea," Monkey noted.

"Well, I could always come watch and see more of you guys practicing," Po offered. "That's still as much fun."

"Why don't you just take the day to relax?" Viper suggested. "At least take some time to clear your head before the next round of activities." She turned to smack Jai-Rong who had once again snuck over and tried to look at her mouth. She missed, but the action still took the colubrid by surprise.

"Do you mind?!" Viper snapped.

"Sorry, I was just curious," Jai-Rong admitted. "It's so weird to see a snake without fangs."

"Viper's not a display case or a circus attraction!" Crane scolded before anyone else could even open their mouth. "It's fine if she's okay with showing her mouth to you, but you don't get to push the boundaries and stare at her like she's some kind of entertainment."

"That's not what I was doing," Jai-Rong defended, but Crane interrupted her.

"She asked you to stop. Twice! So stop!"

Jai-Rong gave him a look and immediately left the table grumbling to herself, though no one could really quite hear what she said.

"Thanks Crane," Viper told him with a grateful and relieved look on her face.

"It's nothing, really," Crane assured her with a warm smile and a little blush.

"I wouldn't say it's nothing. She's so rude!" Ordai pointed out, drinking some of her tea.

Lam frowned from the side of the table and simply said, "I'm not going to say that she wasn't being a little insensitive, but that doesn't make her rude. It makes her like everybody else. A litttle flawed, but not a bad person."

"She bit Po-"

"We were sparring," Po interrupted quickly.

"She's being utterly disrespectful to master Viper, and she's blaming everybody but herself! I call that rude!"

"I call that impulsive and oblivious," Lam countered.

Ordai started to argue the point, digging at Jai-Rong's character and personality and habits, while Lam decided  to bring up Ordai's judgmental and rude behavior and how she was putting her opinions above the rest of the groups as if they were all inferior.  The rest of the table just awkwardly sat there listening to the heated debate. (If one could even call it that).

"I think I'm going to head to the training hall," Mantis finally said after a minute or so. "Shifu's probably finished by now."

"Yeah, let's just head out and let them finish their debate," Crane agreed.

He and the remaining Furious Five got up from the table and headed out the door with Po and the other girls following after them. (Xiao Niao offered to sit back in the kitchen to mediate between Lam and Ordai in case things escalated). As they walked over in the direction of the training hall, they noticed Jai-Rong hanging upside down from the kitchen doors. Everybody stopped to stare for a moment while Jai-Rong simply hung there with her eyes close. After a while, she suddenly said, "I can feel you staring at me."

"Well now you know how I feel!" Viper reminded her irritably.

Jai-Rong sighed. "I meant that when I said sorry," she promised. "I get easily fascinated by new things, but I knew I was being rude, and I should have just sat down when you asked me the first time.... I didn't mean to violate your personal space, Master Viper."

Viper assured her that it was fine, but there was a difference between showing someone her disability and having someone be overbearing or invasive about it. Crane just stared daggers at Jai-Rong, clearly not trusting her to keep her word. The rest of the masters and the girls were a little more interested as to how on earth Jai-Rong managed to get onto the roof.

"I'm a snake," Jai-Rong reminded them, slithering down a nearby pole and stopping half-way to demonstrate her point. "Not a hard task."

"Yeah, but you were hanging upside down by the tip of your tail!" Destiny exclaimed.

"Again, not a hard task. I do that all the time."

Once she was on the ground, the group told her that they were heading over to the training hall while they waited for everyone else to finish up in the kitchen. Jai-Rong seemed perfectly fine with this idea and tagged along towards the training hall.

"Oh, Leopard!" Po exclaimed suddenly. "I forgot to ask yesterday: what were you laughing at yesterday during breakfast?"

Leopard smirked. "Nothing too major," she admitted. "When Ordai went on about how you and her were clearly fated to be together and how you saved her life and all that, Shifu and Tigress both rolled their eyes at the same time and in so identical a manner I thought it was hilarious!"

"What's so annoying about her rescue story?" Song asked. "I kind of thought it was cute."

"It wasn't annoying," Mantis explained. "But that seems to be the only thing she's said about Po since we've gotten here."

"Well....we talked about other stuff on our snack date...." Po offered in the hope of diffusing the situation.

"Well, I say the more she gets to know you, the more fun our conversations will be," Lu-Shi said excitedly. "And there's so much we can do! We'll have to sit down and go over some plans."

"Actually, while I'm still thinking about plans," Po interrupted before the girls could start suggesting things to him. "Song mentioned the other day that it might be a good idea to see how you guys are around kids. Not that I don't think any of you aren't good with kids, but since the Tsung Village had a lot of children and I have to teach them regularly, a children's activity might be a good idea."

"Oh! What about the mini-classes Tigress teaches?!" Monkey suggested, pausing at the front of the main gates as the thought entered his head. "She does one tomorrow afternoon with some of the local kids, so maybe you guys could help out with that!"

"Ohhhhh, right! I almost forgot about those!" Po exclaimed. "I guess she would have to go over those too while I was gone."

"Wait, Tigress likes kids?" Xiao Niao asked in surprise, startling the masters. "I didn't know that! I got the impression she was a little antisocial."

"Don't let the stoic stone face fool you," Po told her as the young Buffalo reached the group. "She has a real soft spot for kids."

"I take it the debate's over?" Mantis asked, eyeing Ordai and Lam who had followed right behind Xiao-Niao.

"What debate?" Jai-Rong asked.

"Nothing of importance," Lam assured her before Ordai could speak. "We just got into a tiff over who at the table had the best and worst personality."

"Yeah, something like that," Ordai said with a frown on her face. (Po took it to mean that Lam had won the argument).

"Not to interrupt the conversation," Mantis said suddenly. "But we should probably head over to the training hall and see what Shifu's up to. He might have fixed the beams by now."

"Afraid not," came Master Shifu's voice from behind.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise and were even more surprised to see Tigress following suit.

"Hey, Shifu! What's going on?' Po asked.

"I'm postponing today's training exercise until the afternoon," Shifu explained, holding a small chunk of metal in his paw with an unamused expression. "When I examined the Seven Swinging Clubs of Oblivion, I found nunchuck pieces inside the gears. The whole machine is completely backed up, which means I'll have to take it apart and replace everything so that it can run smoothly."

"Nunchuck pieces?!" everyone asked in surprise.

"Did I stutter?"

"How did a nunchuck get stuck inside the clubs of oblivion?!" Mantis exclaimed. "Is that even possible?"

"Shifu's holding the answer to the second question," Tigress remarked from behind her master.

Shifu looked over at Po suspiciously. "By any chance did either you or the girls use nunchucks last night?" he questioned.

Po thought hard, trying to remember. "I...oh, I used one right before Leopard and I called it quits for the night. I was trying out a new battle tactic."

"The nunchuck seemed to be in perfect working order when he put it back," Leopard spoke up in Po's defense.

"Did you two leave at the same time or did you leave first?"

"Master Shifu, I'm a little insulted that you think I had something to do with this," Po admitted with a frown. "When have I ever broken a weapon or something of extreme kung fu value?'

Shifu just looked at him. "Do I need to answer that question, Master Po?" he asked.

"Okay, let me rephrase that: how many times within the last year before I left did I break a weapon or something of extreme kung fu value?"

"18," Tigress immediately answered before Shifu could open his mouth.

"Tigress! You're not helping my case!"

"You don't have a case," Tigress told him simply. "If you only used the nunchuck right before you left the training hall, you couldn't have been the one who damaged the nunchuck and the machine."

"And none of us used it," Song added, just in case the master got any other ideas.

Shifu frowned irritably. He didn't like having a clear answer to something that disrupted his schedule. "Well, I'll be closely investigating this incident to find out what happened," he stated. "In the meantime, Furious Five, you're free to do as you please until after lunch. Obviously I need to rethink your training and work on the machine."

He turned and walked towards the Sacred Hall of Warriors while Tigress announced she'd be training with the iron wood trees. As they both began to leave, the remaining Furious Five debated on what to do with themselves for the rest of the morning.

"Oh, wait!" Po exclaimed. "Let me talk to Tigress about the children's kung fu thing before she gets too into her training!" he quickly bounded out of the Jade Palace gates, catching Tigress on the stairs.

"So what should we do for the morning?" Viper asked, glancing at their giant group.

"How about Weiqi?" Crane suggested hopefully.

"No way, you're vicious at that game," Mantis answered immediately.

"It's a strategy game! You have to be!"

Viper rolled her eyes with a knowing expression on her face.

"I'll play," Leopard said, catching the look.

The Furious Five gave her a nervous look. "Are you sure?" Monkey asked. "The only person who can handle Crane at that game is Viper. Actually, I don't like playing with her either."

Viper laughed. "I can't help it," she replied. "I can just see exactly where I need to go. It's like dancing."

"It's like drawing," Crane added.

"What's like what?" Po asked coming back into the arena.

"We're talking about Weiqi," Leopard told him. 

Po glanced over at the group with a nervous expression. "We're not playing it, are we?" he asked. 

"Aw, come on Po! We haven't played a round the two of us in years!" Crane pleaded. 

"Yeah, because the last time I played Weiqi with you, I almost lost a finger! And Viper actually threw me through a wall." 

"That was actually an accident," Viper promised. 

"I think a few rounds won't kill anybody," Leopard told them. "And it's something to do for now." 

Mantis sighed. "Fine," he groaned. "But don't say I didn't warn you." 

"I'll get Tigress!" Lu-Shi volunteered, running towards the gates. 

"Don't bother. She hates Weiqi," Po called after her, but Lu-Shi was already gone. 

The masters decided to play the game out in the open arena where there was more elbow room and Crane flew off in excitement to grab the game. The girls sat in  a circle with Po and the remaining Furious Five while waiting for Crane to come back. Lam admitted that she wasn't very familiar with the game and Kay (with Destiny speaking up for her) admitted to never playing it at all. 

"The main goal is to just surround more territories than your opponent," Master Leopard told her. "We'll explain the rules as we go along." 

The second she had finished her sentence, Crane flew back with the board game. He quickly set it up, separating the black and white pieces, and asked excitedly, "Who wants to go first?"

"Um...why don't we let Kay and maybe some of the other girls go first?" Po suggested. "Since they're new to the game. Then we can move on to you."

Crane was disappointed by this idea, but he complied knowing that Po was right. He handed the board over to Po who immediately started demonstrating the game to anybody who didn't know how to play. He started playing with Monkey, both of them explaining the rules and demonstrating different moves. As they finished up, Lu-Shi arrived back at the Jade Palace looking a little disappointed. She clearly had wanted Tigress to play, but as Po had forewarned, Tigress had zero interest in playing the game. In fact, not once while all the masters were at the Jade Palace did she ever participate in a round of the game. The Dragon Warrior's excuse was simply that she didn't feel like it, and this was interpreted to mean that she had no interest in being in the same room as aggressive players. (Even though Crane protested that he had never even played a round with her in his life). Po and Monkey went through a round or two before they began to switch off with others in the group. Master Leopard got a round in with Mantis, Kay and Po had a turn playing together (and turned out to be very good at the game much to Po's surprise), and Viper took a turn with both Jai-Rong and Lam, though she clearly looked like she was restraining herself during the whole round of gameplay. After about two hours had passed by, Crane, who had been sitting on pins and needles off to the side, finally cried, "Okay, do I get a turn now? I've been waiting forever!" 

The masters looked at each other nervously, which in turn made the girls nervous. However, Leopard shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'll go a round with you."

"I want to play with Viper before I even attempt him," Madame Zhou added with a little laugh that hinted of a slight jump in nerves. "I figure she's easier to play with considering how the conversation's been going." 

Viper smirked in response. 

Crane eagerly sat down in front of the board game and grabbed the black pieces and readied his wing to play. Leopard sat at the opposite end with the white pieces. 

"Go!" Monkey started. 

Crane went first, as per the rules, and immediately slammed a black piece down in the center of the board. Leopard went second, but was startled when Crane immediately slammed down another piece close to hers. The former master took a second to blink away her surprise, consider Crane's two moves, and then quickly put down another white piece on a completely different section of the board. Crane didn't even wait before her paw had left the board to drop another black piece, nearly slapping Leopard's paw in the process. Leopard quickly scanned the board, looking for another spot and put down another white-then Crane slapped down a black, nearly tipping the board over. Leopard put down a white.

Then black.

White-black. White-black! Whi-black! Steal! Whi-black!! Wh-black!!!!

Whi-black! Steal! Whi-black!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Steal! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Steal! Wh-black!!!!Steal! Wh-black!!!! Steal! Steal. Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! Wh-black!!!! 

And so it went on until finally Crane sat back with a triumphant, "I win!" 

Leopard sat there for a second with a shocked look on her face, but quickly cleared it away with a smile and said, "Good game. You're quick at this." 

"And dangerous," Mantis noted, looking at the red marks on Leopard's arm from Crane's lightning reflexes during the game. 

Leopard sat back and let Viper and Madame Zhou take their turn at the board. Madame Zhou decided to take the black pieces and Viper took the white, though this advantage of going first would not help Zhou at all. Viper seemed calm at first when Zhou started putting her pieces on the board, but after a minute or so Viper finally surrounded some of the black pieces and with a lightning fast swipe, threw them off of the board and into Destiny's face. 

"OWW!" Destiny yelled, moving away from the board game to avoid getting hit again. 

The game continued, but Zhou spent more of her time ducking the pieces to the game than actually putting pieces down on the board. After a few minutes, Viper ended the game with a triumphant, "TADA!" and an calmer observation about how Zhou played the game very smooth and calculated. After these two rounds though, nobody was brave enough to step forward and offer to be Viper and Crane's competitor, so they once again wound up playing the game with each other. 

"We haven't done this in a while," Crane remarked with a little excited flush coming to his face. "This is going to be just like old times." 

"Not quite," Viper remarked, readying her pieces. "But I'm definitely going to have fun." 

"Oh, me too." 

"Go-!" Monkey started, but he didn't even finish his sentence before Crane and Viper started a flurry of putting down pieces on the game. The board rocked back and forth and cracked and pieces went flying sky high and everyone ran for their lives, preferring to see the carnage after the game was finished. They couldn't really see what exactly was happening; all they could tell was that neither master seemed phased by the other's violent way of playing the game; all they could hear was: 

Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!Slam!

"I WIN!!!!!!" Viper finally shrieked after about 6 minutes had passed by. 

"AW COME ON!" Crane yelled. 

Viper started giddily dancing around the scattered playing  pieces on the ground. Some of them had landed pretty close to the masters sitting several yards away, which were quickly picked up and brought back over to the game board. 

"You two are scary," Jai-Rong admitted. 

Viper laughed. "My boyfriend says the same thing to me every time we play," she admitted. "I'm shocked he puts up with it!" 

Crane's face changed from laughing and excited to dark and jealous. He looked so angry he could have exploded at the master, but he instead held his tongue and stormed back to the barracks in a huff. Viper was too busy laughing at her victory to notice, but the masters, Leopard, and Destiny noticed the sudden change in mood. Destiny asked the masters what the big deal was, and was given the simple explanation that Crane and Viper dated four years ago, but things hadn't worked out and Viper broke up with him. Crane, obviously, hadn't taken it well.  

"Crane found out somehow that Viper had a secret boyfriend; we still don't know how because he refuses to tell us," Mantis added in a complaining tone. "And now he's just gotten worse."

"What he needs is a therapist," Leopard observed simply. 

"Or a new girlfriend?" Destiny offered. 

Monkey laughed. "Yeah, like that would ever happen," he said. 

Eventually it was time for lunch, and Po decided to make some soup as a wind-down food from the game. Crane hadn't returned from the barracks, so Monkey offered to go and fetch him. The other girls, who hadn't realized he had left, immediately shared quizzical looks across the table with Viper asking why Crane wasn't at the table. When Mantis told her, she rolled her eyes. "Okay, I have talked to him multiple times about this. And I've been trying to be civil. Why does he keep doing this?" she asked with an exasperated expression. 

"Some people just don't know when to take a hint, I guess," Jai-Rong told her with a sympathetic look and pat. "I don't know what drives them, but it isn't love; that I can tell." 

Tai Lin let out a small, barely audible scoff of scorn while Destiny quickly took a drink of her tea. At that moment, Tigress entered the kitchen, her arms and paws scraped and bruised from her training exercise. Most of the table winced at the sight. 

"I know that probably hurts, but you look kind of cool covered in scars," Tai Lin told her. 

Tigress looked at her in surprise as she took out a first aid kit from one of the smaller pantries, but smiled and said, "Thank you. I earned all of them fair and square." 

"What did you work on?" Po asked, getting the bowls out for everyone. 

"I just worked on endurance," Tigress replied, sitting down at the table and tending to her injuries . "I wanted to make sure I'm well enough to train for this afternoon with the injuries I got last night." 

"You seem like it," Madame Zhou noted. "I always have my whips if you'd like some extra training." 

"No thanks."

"You missed Weiqi!" Lu-Shi cried, thinking back on the extremity of the game. "It was pretty fun for the most part." 

"Crane and I may have gotten a little carried away," Viper admitted.

"As per usual," Tigress commented. "Personally, I'm not into those kind of games and I'll stay out of them as often as I possibly can, thank you very much." 

"Why? It's just like checkers," Po said as he served everyone their food. "And you love checkers." 

"Or chess," Madame Zhou piped out. "That's what Weiqi always reminds me of. Just with less rules." 

"I'll pass," Tigress told them flatly. "The only person I trust to play that game with is Shifu, and he isn't a board game person either." 

"I consider playtime as something to be done with children," Shifu explained, startling everyone as he walked into the room for lunch. He had obviously overheard the whole conversation, though this wasn't a surprise considering his reputation. "And even then, I believe in a firm hand of strict teaching and discipline." 

"We need to get you a bell," Madame Zhou joked as the grandmaster got his food. "You startled us!"

"No way!" Po protested. "The last time we gave him a bell, he kept me up all night!" 

Shifu chuckled and headed over to his seat at the table, but stopped when he saw the empty chairs. "Where are Crane and Monkey?" he questioned. 

"Monkey went to go get him for lunch," Mantis explained. "He went to his room after we finished Weiqi." 

"Ah. I see. Very well." 

The grandmaster sat down and began to eat lunch along with the rest of the table. 

"When was the last time you played Weiqi, Shifu?" Madame Zhou asked curiously. 

"It's been a long while," Shifu admitted. 

Leopard smirked. "It's probably because he's just as nasty as Crane and Viper with the game. He used to be quite the sore winner." 

"I beg your pardon, Leopard, I was perfectly behaved!" Shifu snapped in protest. 

"You?! Please! Every time you won, you'd hit the board game so hard it'd fly in someone's face. Every single time. And you never even apologized for it." 

Shifu cleared his throat with slight embarrassment at the story being told. "Well, I apologize if I was a little overexcited. But I was not a sore winner. It was something I felt invincible at." 

Leopard smiled gently at him. "You were always a little hard on yourself," she admitted. "I suppose I can forgive you for that. I'm glad you've gotten more confident." 

"You're telling me that Shifu wasn't confident?!" Po exclaimed in surprise. "I find that hard to believe." 

Shifu didn't seem very happy with all the free information being given about him, but he swallowed his pride and let Leopard keep talking about the earlier days. (As much as he hated having to own up to being too slow for some of the machines, sleeping in late some days, and even playing a few pranks with Fenghuang). Of course, Oogway was not nearly as harsh a teacher as Shifu had been, though he had been firm in trying to encourage good habits. Definitely a big contrast.

"Well, with all the betrayal at the Jade Palace in your lifetime," Leopard admitted, somewhat cautiously since she knew about the bad blood Shifu had with some of his former allies and son. "I can understand the sharpness during training. Definitely keeps people in line, I have to say." 

"I prefer the sharp tongue," Shifu countered flatly. 

"So, when you retire, as far off as that is, the Dragon Warrior takes over, correct?"

"Not necessarily, but in theory, yes, the strongest warrior is usually considered as the next candidate in the succession of Kung Fu Grandmaster. And as Tigress is both sharp and skilled in mind and body, we've had some discussions on this." 

"Wait, really?!" Po exclaimed in surprise. 

"Not too much," Shifu assured him as Mantis and Viper looked at Tigress in equal surprise. This was news to them too. "But I do need to consider the future. I trust she'll be up to the task, though, in any event." 

Tigress had a little smile crossing her face, but she didn't say anything. She simply continued eating and let the conversation roll on as normal, mentally preparing for the training exercise that Shifu would possibly have for them later, especially with some of the training hall out of commission. At some point, Tai Lin got up from the table, saying that she needed to use the bathroom really quick, and Shifu glanced around and noticed Crane and Monkey hadn't returned. 

"Where are those two?!" he snapped. "It doesn't take an hour to fetch someone from the barracks." 

"Crane's also in a bad mood," Po offered. "So maybe it's taking him a while to rally?"

Shifu didn't look very pleased with this explanation. "Dragon Warrior, remind me to have another discussion with him later," he grumbled. 

"I will," Tigress promised. 

Ordai grimaced at this, looking clearly annoyed, but she was too busy having a discussion with Destiny about ribbons and makeup coordination to really make any comment. A few minutes later, Crane and Monkey finally showed up. 

"It's about time!" Shifu scolded immediately before they could even properly enter the room and sit down. "What took so long?!" 

Monkey glanced over at Crane and said, "Nothing. We just had a talk. He was a little irritated about the board game." 

"Really?"

Crane just apologized for being late and sat down at the table with an untouched soup bowl. He didn't look at anybody, though he did cast a few glances at Viper every so often. Finally, lunch was finished and Shifu dismissed his students for training in the Wu Dan mountains. When they had left, Kay breathed out a little sigh of relief. 

"I hate crowds," she mumbled. 

"Maybe after lunch we should all take a little break to just have some alone time," Po suggested, figuring Kay was being pushed to her social limits at this point. "Plus then we'd have more time to think about things to do for everybody."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Xiao-Niao agreed. 

"Oh, what did Tigress say about the children's kung fu idea?" Song asked. 

"Oh, yeah! She said that was a great idea! She teaches tomorrow afternoon after lunch while Shifu teaches the rest of the Five, so she said all of us could help assist her. In an organized group, of course. Plus, these classes are more like self-confidence classes, so they shouldn't be too hard." 

"Oh, I'll have to see what kind of candy I have," Madame Zhou stated thoughtfully. "My grandchildren love sweets, so I always have something on me. I just need to remember which candies I brought so the kids could nibble on them." 

Destiny looked over at Tai Lin's food and wondered aloud what was taking her so long to come back from the bathroom. "Her food's getting cold," she noted. 

"I'm sure she she's fine," Leopard said. "The barracks are a bit of a ways off. So she's probably still getting used to the walk." 

"Well, I'll put her bowl on the stove until she comes back," Destiny said, getting up from the table for a second. 

Po finished his soup and got up to clean his bowl. A few of the other girls came up after him to follow suit. "I don't know what you guys are doing," he said. "But I'm taking a quick nap. I had enough excitement from Weiqi." 

"I'll go through my luggage," Madame Zhou said. 

"I have letters to write, but we'll see you later?" Song told him, waving him bye from the table. 

Po waved goodbye and rubbed his paw a little as he walked out of the building and over towards the barracks. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. They were feeling a little heavy, but considering the past few days of excitement, it wasn't really much of a surprise he was tired. The master soon reached the barracks and headed inside and laid down on his bed to take a quick nap. He didn't run into Tai Lin on the way back which took him a little by surprise, but he figured she was probably still in the bathroom and simply rolled over on his bed and fell asleep almost immediately.