The masters regrouped in the training hall where they patiently waited for Monkey and Po to return. Shifu paced back and forth across the wooden platform as his students stood at attention, waiting for instructions. After a while, the doors finally opened and the two warriors finally arrived.

"Whoa," Po said, looking around and proceeding to touch things. "It's been forever since I've been in here! And it looks almost exactly the same!"       He stopped by The Adversary which had a bunch of stitches sewn through out it. "Well, except for The Adversary looking like it's just been through a war."

"Apologies," Tigress called over. "That was my fault."

"Tigress has taken to brutally damaging it during your absence," Shifu explained as Po came back over to the group. "I assumed it to be because she was displeased at your departure."

The master resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I only put a picture of his face on that thing once," she defended. "I don't see how that should carry over for the full three years."

Po winced. "I'll be sure to stay over here in case you try anything," he said, standing all the way over by Crane who was watching Viper slither away from him and over to Mantis.

"As you wish...Po," Tigress said. She frowned. "Even after three years, I keep wanting to call you Dragon Warrior," she added, slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, and I'm sure I'm going to have trouble remembering you have the title now."

Shifu cleared his throat. "I understand we have a lot of catching up to do," he announced. "But we have training to get to, so if you two don't mind...."

"Sorry, Master Shifu," the two warriors answered in unison.

Shifu faced everyone and said, "For today's training exercise, you're going to show me how much you've practiced the new weapons I've shown you."
The grandmaster gestured to the opposite end of the wall where a white circle was drawn. "In a minute, you're going to fire a colored arrow in the center of that ring. Whoever has their arrows the closest to each other will be sparring partners. Initially, one of you would have to spar with me, but since Po is here, you can spar with him instead. Which of course means Po gets my arrow."

Shifu reached for a small bucket full of arrows and walked over to the end of the line where Po stood. "Each one of you are assigned an arrow that is you favorite color, so don't pick one that isn't yours," he warned.

Po looked at the bucket, but Shifu reached in and handed him a pink colored arrow. The panda looked at him with a smirk.

"Not one word, Po."

Po did as was told, vivid memories of Shifu whacking him with a staff still clear in his mind. The grandmaster then went down the line where each master got their own colored arrow: purple for Crane, red for Monkey, yellow for Tigress, brown for Mantis, and blue for Viper. Shifu then handed Viper the bow and told her to wait until he gave her the okay to fire. He then walked to the far end of the training hall and stood by the white circle.

"Fire your arrow and then pass the bow down," Shifu instructed.

Viper aimed at the far end of the wall and fired, just barely hitting the white circle.

"Not bad, Viper," Shifu said. "You need to keep improving though."

The master promised to do so and passed the bow to Mantis who struggled to lift it above his head to pull the arrow back. When he finally got it to fire, it launched high into the air, striking the top of the circle just a bit farther in. Shifu blinked for a second, not saying a word.

"I still think I need a smaller bow and arrow," Mantis argued, knowing what he was going to say.

"I'll think about it."

Tigress was then handed the bow where she expertly fired it into the center without so much as a moment's hesitation.

"Right on target, Tigress. Keep it up."

Tigress handed the bow to Monkey who tried to shoot with his feet. The master quickly talked him out of it however and Monkey fired the arrow normally, landing it towards the left side of the circle between Viper and Tigress. Monkey then handed the bow to Crane who took it and began to carefully aim it at the circle.

Po watched him aim for about ten seconds before asking, "What are you doing? Just shoot."

"I'm trying to get the perfect spot," Crane told him, still concentrating.

The former Dragon Warrior watched the path the arrow was making as carefully as he could, noticing Crane wasn't aiming for the center of the circle. As Crane began to fire, Po subtly nudged him in the side, forcing the arrow to fly off track and land slightly above Mantis' arrow.

"Po!" Crane yelled. "What was that for?!"

"You were aiming for Viper's arrow! Not the center!" Po protested.

"Crane!" Viper yelled.

"What?!" Crane exclaimed. "You're the easiest person to spar with! I don't want to spar with Tigress and get another broken wing!"

"Keep it up and I'll do it on purpose," Tigress snapped.

"HEY!" Shifu bellowed from the other side of the training hall. "THAT'S ENOUGH!!!!"

Everyone quieted down as the grandmaster added, "Crane, we all know why you want to work with Viper, and it isn't because Tigress is a difficult sparring partner to beat. Now, Po, if you could please fire your arrow so that we can move on....?"

Po nodded and took the bow from Crane upon which he placed Shifu's pink arrow and carefully aimed at the center of the circle.

"And take care to actually aim the arrow at the circle and not at me."

The masters snickered as Po turned a dark shade of red. "I almost hit you once," he protested.

"And the emperor," Mantis piped up. "And Tigress. And Crane. And that weird girl that smelled like cheese...."

"Okay, okay! I get it! I won't hit anyone; I've improved since the last time."

"You said that three years ago," Monkey told him. "And then you pinned the arrow right above my head."

Po fired the arrow at the white circle where it expertly hit the exact same point as Tigress, nearly dislodging it from the wall. The masters' mouths dropped open in amazement.

"Po," Shifu said in shock. "That is a remarkable improvement!"

"Thanks," Po said with a relieved smile. "I've been practicing a lot."

"It's definitely paid off," Tigress noted.

Master Shifu recovered from his initial shock and walked over to collect the arrows. "Today's sparring partners," he announced. "Will be...Mantis and Crane..."

Crane frowned.

"Viper and Monkey...and Tigress and Po."

Po glanced over at Tigress. "Ah, yes," he said nervously. "My favorite type of sparring: sore-arms-in-the-morning."

"And since you seem so eager to complain, Po," Shifu called over as he walked back to the other side of the room. "You and the Dragon Warrior can go first."

Monkey held back a laugh as the two warriors walked into the middle of the room and got into fighting positions.

"Um, I was going to ask if you could take it easy on the sparring since it's been a while," Po said, eyeing Tigress' poker face. "But knowing you, I'm assuming that's a no?"

"Correct."

"Okay, then I won't bother asking."

Shifu handed the two a different weapon: a fiery staff for Tigress and a metal fan for Po before rejoining the rest of the masters on the sidelines.

"Um...how do I use this?" Po asked, eyeing the fan he held.

"Looks like you'll have to figure that one out pretty fast," Tigress told him.

"Um..."

"Begin," Shifu told them.

Tigress whipped the flaming  staff around, nearly hitting Po on the head. Po ducked at the last second however and quickly ran as far as his stubby legs could take him. "Waaaaaaaaaaiiiiit!!!!!!" he screamed, trying to figure out how to open the fan.

Mantis and Monkey started cracking up, remembering the various times that Po had gotten bested at in sparring.

"Come on, Po!" Viper yelled over. "You've got this!"

"Yeah," Monkey added. "It's just like old times! Except now Tigress is stronger than you!!!"

"Thanks! That really helps!!!" Po yelled, ducking a fiery swing.

Tigress kicked him in the stomach and went to strike him again, but Po blocked the attack with his foot, though this caused it to light on fire.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" the master cried, running around and blowing on his shoe to make the flame go away.

"Po, heads up!" Crane called out.

The warning came too late however as Tigress whacked Po in the stomach, sending him flying across the training hall and into the side of the arena. The master groaned and stood up, managing to keep a grip on the metal fan Shifu gave him.

"Focus, Po!" Shifu ordered.

"I am!" Po protested. "I just can't-AH!"

The master rolled out of the way, causing Tigress to skid to a halt just in front of the Seven Swinging Clubs of Oblivion.

"Okay, have you gotten faster, or am I just really out of shape?" the panda huffed.

"I don't know, Master Po," Tigress answered, twirling the staff above her head with a grin. "Come on over here and lets find out."

Po eyed the fan, but decided to just give up on opening it and charged at his friend. Tigress aimed her staff at him, but Po managed to block it with the small hunk of colored metal that he had in his paw. He could feel the fan begin to heat up as it continued to come into contact with the fiery staff that Tigress wielded, but he held his ground and kept on blocking her incoming attacks. Tigress attempted to kick the fan away, but Po blocked her and even managed to belly-bump her across the arena and into the Jade Tortoise, though she retaliated by kicking him into the side wall and getting his hand and the fan stuck.

"Uh oh," he whimpered.

Tigress started to charge at him, causing the panda to frantically attempt to get his hand free. Tigress kept drawing closer and closer and just as her staff was swung into the air, Po ripped his hand free, opening the fan in the process and creating a loud, grating noise. Tigress lost her focus and covered her ears to try and block the sound out, as did Po and everyone else in the room.

"Owww!!!" Po yelled. "Totally not awesome!!"   He glanced at his hand and happily exclaimed, "Hey, I got the fan to  open! Now how did I do that?"

"Was that the fan that made that horrible noise?" Shifu asked, still shuddering and cringing from being the most sensitive to sound.

"Yes," Tigress replied.

"Hmm...I'll have to have that looked at. That is such an unearthly noise!"

Tigress quickly kicked Po onto the ground behind her, making him lose the fan in the process. She bent down to pick it up, but Po grabbed her arm and kicked her into the air as he grabbed the fan with his free paw. The Dragon Warrior reached her staff down to singe his leg, but Po quickly dropped her, not wanting a repeat of getting burnt. Tigress landed perfectly on her feet and went charging at Po as he tried to reopen the fan. The panda managed to duck and block a few kicks and punches before finally whipping the fan open, creating the scraping noise again.

"My ears!" Monkey cried. "Po, don't do that again!"

Po winced, trying to not lose focus again. Seeing that Tigress was slowing down from the noise though, he quickly closed the fan and kicked her across the room. The master landed against one of the alligator limbs, but quickly picked herself up and ran back across the room, landing a hard thwack on Po's head. Po dodged another kick and re-swung the fan open, this time bracing himself for the noise. Again, Tigress clutched her ears, dropping the staff in the process to avoid burning herself. Po quickly grabbed her and belly bumped her across the room, picking up the fiery staff carefully to avoid burning his paw off.

"Sparring is over," Shifu said, seeing that Tigress wasn't making much of an effort to get up. "This round goes to Po. Po, carefully put those weapons back on the iron rack over here, please."

The master did as he was told, getting claps on the back from Monkey and Crane.

"Way to go, buddy!" Monkey exclaimed. "I see you haven't lost your touch."

"Are you kidding me?" Po said. "I almost got third degree burns!"
He put the weapons on the special rack just as Tigress managed to get up and walk back over to the side.

"Not bad, Po," she told him. "Though maybe next time you can learn how to properly use the fan in combat."

"I think I used it pretty well," Po said. "Even though that noise was pretty annoying."

"I'll say," Shifu grumbled, rubbing his ears with a painful wince. "Monkey and Viper, you two are next."

The two warriors headed into the center of the training room as Tigress and Po took their places in line. Monkey clapped a hand on Po's shoulder.

"Welcome, home, Po," he told him with a smile.