Tigress woke up before the gong sounded off the next morning, trying her best to catch her breath. She hadn't slept well last night...again...and it was driving her nuts. She sat up on her bed and rubbed her eyes so as to wake herself up completely. The master then stood up and began to walk towards the door, pausing besides a chest that was against the wall. She didn't know what made her want to examine the contents, but she soon found herself knelt on the floor and opening the lid. Tigress didn't have too much in the chest besides her regular clothes, her bag, and the old blanket she was wrapped in as a baby. She glanced over at her door, checking to make sure that no one was looking, and dug deeper into the chest were the folds of a yellow garb showed clearly through the stuff on top. Tigress slowly reached inside to feel the silken sleeves, letting out a soft sigh before hiding it back under her belongings. Sometime before the incident with Lu-Shi, Po had gotten her a yellow long sleeved shirt with beautiful red vines along the front. He told her that he had been out window shopping with Viper and saw it in one of the clothing stores, thinking that it would look nice on her. Tigress wasn't a particular fan of long sleeves or the color yellow due to sentimental reasons of her own, but didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings and therefore lied and said that it didn't fit. Po offered to get her another shirt, but Tigress had declined and said she could shop for herself. She felt really bad, but she swore to herself ages ago to never wear yellow or any shirt with long sleeves, mostly on the basis that no one would take her seriously if she wore either of the two.

The master closed the lid on her chest and quietly walked out of her bedroom so as to head over to the training hall. As she exited the barracks, she ran into Master Shifu who was coming in to greet his students.

"You're up early," the old master noted.

"No thanks to my brain," Tigress muttered.

Shifu sighed. "Another restless night, I assume?" he asked.

Tigress nodded. Shifu glanced at the other doors where the other masters laid sleeping and said, "Well why don't you head into the kitchen and wait for us? We won't be too long."

"Is it alright if I get a head start on my warm ups instead?" Tigress asked politely.

"Normally I would say yes," Shifu admitted. "But today I would appreciate it if you waited. I don't want you going into the training hall and spoiling today's lesson."

"Very well," Tigress replied with a bow, heading outside and towards the kitchen.

Shifu let out a small sigh of relief and walked over towards the barracks where he waited for the gong to go off. The distant sound of the gong chimes rang throughout the valley, stirring the masters in their rooms. And then Shifu heard, "MONKEY!!!!!!" which was followed almost a split second later by, "MANTIIIIIIIIS!"

Viper, who had begun to leave her room, slithered back inside as Monkey and Mantis darted out of Po and Crane's rooms, running out of the barracks howling away like hyenas. Po wasn't far behind, running faster than Shifu had been expecting.

"I'll get you for that one, Monkey!" Po threatened angrily, slamming the barrack doors open where they slammed into the wooden walls and stuck.

"You owe me 15 yuan if we survive this!" Mantis yelled to his friend as they tried to avoid the wrath of the angry Dragon Warrior.

Viper, seeing the danger had passed, slithered out of her room and over to Crane's seeing as he hadn't bothered chasing the bug. Shifu followed suit, hearing him muttering, "All over my painting! I spent three hours on this thing!"

"What happened?" Viper asked as her and Shifu entered the room.

"Mantis decided to draw all over my painting of the peach tree!" Crane complained, looking at his hard work. "And hang it on my face!"

Shifu turned his head to one side and read aloud, "Crane loves Viper."

"GAH!" Crane exclaimed, flipping the paper over rapidly. "They wrote on the back too?!"

"How long has this been going on?" Shifu asked him.

"The bet thing or them bugging him?" Viper asked.

"Both, if you don't mind," Shifu replied. "Although I'm surprised I haven't noticed either."

"The betting thing we just heard about a month ago," Crane answered. "The whole bugging me and Po thing started around the same time if not a little later."

"How have you not noticed?" Viper asked in surprise.

"I haven't the slightest idea," Shifu admitted. He looked over at Crane. "Any particular reason why they're doing this?"

"It amuses them apparently," Crane groaned. "Although that doesn't mean that it amuses me!"

Shifu sighed. "Well lets head into the kitchen and I'll see if I can address this."

"You'll see if you can address it?" Viper repeated in slight irritation.

"Yes, see," Shifu repeated. "See in the context of 'Provided Po doesn't kill either of them before we all settle in the kitchen."

The old master walked out, Viper lingering behind for a second to tend to Crane. "I'm sorry about your picture," she said gently, lifting up her head so as to see the paining. A beautiful drawing of a peach tree was seen, right along with the enormous words, "Viper loves Crane."

Crane let out an exasperated sigh. "Now I have to start all over thanks to Mantis," he groaned.

"Maybe I can help," Viper offered.

Crane looked at her funny. "How?" he asked.

"Well, since they seem to enjoy sneaking into your room a lot, maybe I can hide your paintings in my room so that they can't get to them."

"Are you sure that's going to work?"

"No, but it's worth a shot."

Crane looked back at his ruined painting and then back at Viper. "I guess we could try it," he finally said.

Viper smiled at him. "Great!" she exclaimed. "We can work it on it later when Monkey and Mantis are pre-occupied."

"Sounds good to me," Crane told her, the two walking out of the room and towards the kitchen so as to grab something to eat.

Monkey, with Mantis on his shoulders, dashed into the kitchen so as to avoid an angry Po. Tigress, who was drinking some tea, noticed the commotion and got up in order to investigate. When Po entered the kitchen, she demanded, "What is going on here?"

"Ask Monkey!" Po yelled, then quickly added, "Actually, don't ask Monkey! I don't want to talk about that stupid prank!"

From the top of one of the shelves, Monkey and Mantis howled with laughter. "Aw, come on, Po!" Monkey exclaimed. "We both know you had to have enjoyed that!"

"I'm gonna' get you for that!" Po yelled angrily.

"What did he do?" Tigress asked.

Po ignored her and went hurdling towards the shelf where Monkey leaped over him with Mantis on his shoulder. As they bolted towards the door with Po turning around to attack them, Monkey quickly swung around onto the table and pushed Tigress into Po as she tried to stop him from trying to pummel his two friends. The warriors went flying back against the wall, Tigress landing awkwardly on top of Po as Monkey and Mantis made their quick escape. As the pranking duo ran out the door, Tigress slipped off of Po as he got up to try and follow them. The master quickly grabbed him by the arm, exclaiming, "Po, let them be!"

"Not after that prank!" Po snapped, still stubbornly trying to move.

Tigress gripped him tighter and said, "Well chasing them around the Jade Palace isn't going to help anything!"

Po winced as she held on tighter. "I guess," he stammered. A shot of pain, like a bone crushing, went up his arm and he tried to get Tigress off of him.

"Po," Tigress warned, holding his arm tighter. "You're not going-"

"You're kind of hurting me!" Po interrupted, trying to pry her off.

Tigress let out a small, involuntary gasp and immediately let go of her friend. "I'm sorry, Po!" she exclaimed. "I didn't realize I was hurting you!"

Po cradled his arm and managed to smile at her. "It's okay," he assured her. "I guess it was also partially my fault."

"No, it was my fault. I don't always focus sometimes when I'm using my strength."

"It's okay. Just be more careful next time."

Po sat down at the table so as to nurture his arm while Tigress made him a cup of tea. She put it down in front of him and proceeded to sit down in the chair right next to his so as to see the damage.

"Is your arm alright?" she asked worriedly.

"Yep," Po assured her, massaging it gently. "No broken bones or torn ligaments or...whatever else you can injure if your hurt someone's arm."

Tigress gently took the panda's arm and looked over it carefully. "No, but I bruised it," she muttered irritably looking at the dark spot under his fur where she had grabbed him. "I can't believe I did that!"

"Hey, that's not bad," Po said with a smile. "That'll heal up pretty fast."

"Po, I am so sorry!"

"It's okay, Tigress," Po assured her. "I'm alright, see?" He waved his arm around in the air and took a sipi of his tea. "No harm done."

At that moment, Shifu entered the kitchen with Crane and Viper right behind him. "I'm surprised you're no chasing Monkey and Mantis around," the grandmaster remarked to Po.

"Ah, they'll get what's coming to them," Po said with a nonchalant wave of his hand. "I can still kick their butts in training today."

"Provided you don't get partnered up with one of them," Shifu told him quickly. He glanced around. "Where are those two anyway?" he asked aloud.

"Probably off somewhere laughing at their nice little jokes," Crane grumbled.

"What did they do?" Tigress asked curiously as Viper went over to the stove and told Po on the way over that she was cooking for the day.

"Mantis decided that it would be funny to scribble all over my nice picture!" Crane exclaimed angrily. "And I worked really hard on that drawing too!"

"What did they write?"

"'Crane loves Viper'," Master Shifu answered irritably. "Completely immature!" He glanced away in thought and added to himself, "Although Jungie did pull worse jokes on me."

"What they do to you, Po?" Tigress asked the Dragon Warrior.

"For the sake of my non-injured body, I'd better not mention it," Po told her. "It's...embarrassing."

"Po," Shifu said sternly. "If you can't tell us what happened, there isn't much I can reprimand Monkey for on the score of pranking."

"I'd rather not."

"Aw come on, Po," Viper called over from the stove. "It can't be as bad as the prank they pulled on Crane."

"It can be when it involves tricking you into kissing one of your act-" Po began, but then quickly shut his mouth when he realized what he was saying.

"Again?!" Crane exclaimed.

"Yeah, except this time Monkey got some laughs out of it," Po grumbled.

"Monkey made you kiss one of your action figures?" Viper asked.

"Please don't ask," Po begged.

Tigress eyed him. "How'd he manage that?" she asked.

"I was sleeping!" Po protested, his cheeks turning a dark shade of red. " I didn't know what I was doing! I'm glad I woke up before one of you guys came in to get me!"

"First of all," Shifu said. "You should be getting up on your own. Which you do most of the time, but enough on that. Second, I don't know what these two find so amusing about these little jokes, but they need to stop. Crane said that they've been doing it for a while, am I correct?"

"Yes," Po admitted.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"We figured you probably already knew," Viper piped up from the stove. "I mean, we all could tell they were being annoying to Po and Crane."

"Point taken," Shifu admitted.

At that moment, Monkey and Mantis came snickering into the kitchen just as Viper finished putting together some spring rolls and dumplings. Shifu turned around to look at them, giving them a look that meant that they were in for it.

"I heard you two decided to pull some nasty pranks this morning," he said sternly.

"They weren't nasty," Monkey said. "Just entertaining."

"You drew on my picture!" Crane snapped.

Mantis laughed. "Aw, calm down, man!" he exclaimed. "That wasn't your picture!"

"It wasn't?" the avion asked.

"No! I may play some pretty crazy pranks, but I'm not a vandalizer."

"Your picture's in my room," Monkey assured him. "We just made a pretty good copy."

"It was kind of hard though," Mantis said. "You have some pretty mean drawing skills when it comes to that tree."

"Are you sure?" Crane questioned suspiciously.

"You can come check our room when we're done with training," Monkey offered.

"Listen, you two," Master Shifu interrupted angrily. "These pranks may be harmless, but no one in this room finds this amusing. Especially Crane and Po."

"Wait, Po told you about the prank I pulled?" Monkey asked in surprise.

"That isn't the point!" Shifu snapped. "And he...sort of told us." He glanced over towards Po where Tigress sat next him, eating her breakfast. He turned back to the pranksters and added, "Although I have a pretty good idea about which action figure you made him kiss."

Monkey started cracking up, barely able to hold himself upright. Shifu let out an annoyed sigh.

"Please don't tell me I have to partner up with him," Po called over from the table. "I don't think I can handle the jokes today."

"That depends on how well you do in our training exercise today," Shifu told him. "Now everyone eat up quickly and please no more jokes!"

The masters set to the task of eating, Monkey and Mantis conversing with their eyes so as to avoid anymore reprimands by Shifu. (Which everyone could tell since they would snicker every once in a while). They finally finished eating and Master Shifu led them out of the kitchen and over towards the training hall. As they headed over, Monkey snuck over to Po and said quietly, "Was she a good kisser in your dream-scape?"

Po turned bright red as Monkey started snickering. "That's none of your business!" he yelled in a half-whisper.

Monkey went over to Mantis and said, "Twenty-five yuan!"

The masters finally reached the training hall where they couldn't help but notice that it seemed to be slightly bigger. Master Shifu led everyone inside where they saw several geese armed with crossbows at the top of the beams above the training area. The entire training area had been completely moved about, allowing everyone to see various gaps in the floor as well as an area at the far end in front of the Field of Fiery Death that had a large cloth on top of it. The masters, surprised by this, didn't say anything for a a full minute. Finally, Tigress, who now understood why Shifu didn't want her in the training hall, asked, "What's going on in here?"

"As you all know," Master Shifu addressed the students. "This training hall has been modified over the course of a thousand years. I modified this training hall myself nearly three decades ago although there were several pieces of requirement I didn't install because it would take kung fu mastery of the highest level to do it. Now that you have all greatly improved in your skills, I decided it was time for some more modifications." He gestured towards the now widened training hall and added, "As you can see, this training hall has been made slightly bigger in order to accommodate the new weapons. Now the new equipment won't be here for at least another two weeks, but I was able to add two new modifications to the training hall in the meantime. As you can see, I've had some expert archers come in to aid you in your growth, as well as a new piece of equipment over here."

The master walked over towards the cloth that was laying across the far end of the training hall where he proceeded to yank it off with a flick of his wrist. The students were immediately greeted by rows upon rows of pointy spikes.

"The Blushing Spikes of Impending Demise!" Shifu announced.

Po winced at the sharpness of the spikes. "Why are they called blushing?" he asked the red panda.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out soon," Shifu promised. "Now, to begin the exercise: I want you all to race across the training hall. You must pass directly through the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion, leap across the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom, fight through The Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors, swing across the seven-talon rings, pass through the Field of Fiery Death, and then you shall pass across The Blushing Spikes of Impending Demise. The first two warriors across will be partnered up to spar outside with some new weapons I believe to be paramount in your advance training. Am I clear?"

"Yes, master," the students answered, notably nervous about training with a dangerous new piece of equipment.

"Everyone into positions," Shifu ordered, standing directly at the end so as to monitor everyone's move. "When I see you're all ready, I'll order you to begin."

The students stood together, ready to sprint the second that Shifu gave the orders.

"Begin."

The students then proceeded to dash towards their master, doing their best to get to the end first without killing themselves on the spikes. Tigress, who had a special mastery over the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion, flew threw it first, effortlessly knocking the clubs out of the way and moving towards the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom. Crane was able to get through the clubs easily as well by gracefully swooping around the clubs and over towards Tigress where the two began to tie. Mantis, who was too short to get hit by the swinging clubs, simply hopped over the spinning bars in the middle of the training equipment and over to safety. Monkey, Viper, and Po took the longest to cross as Monkey was trying to throw everyone off of the beams, (Viper retaliating by whipping him in the face and nearly into a club), they had to dodge clubs, and Po accidentally got hit by a nearby club. Monkey and Viper quickly hopped off with Po clinging onto the club for dear life, but he quickly manipulated the club so that it swung him towards the Jade Tortoise. The Dragon Warrior landed expertly on the front edge of the Tortoise so that he could launch anyone on it backwards, allowing him to get ahead. Crane, having already passed through the bowl, was now working his way through the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors, moving slightly faster than Tigress who managed to leap off of the bowl just as Po landed on it. Monkey, Viper, and Mantis, (who was now second to last), were tossed backwards, giving Po a lead in the race. He blocked a few arrows from the side and dived into the swinging limbs where he managed to slip through and quickly move ahead. Tigress, seeing that Crane was about to leave and fly towards the seven-talon rings, gave the limbs a hard kick, causing them to  swing violently around towards the front,  knocking into Crane's legs and causing him to trip amongst the equipment. Crane went sailing back towards the beginning of the course, Po managing to dodge the incoming trouble by leaping on top of the Wooden Gauntlets and running out of the field on top of the unstable heads. He managed to catch up to Tigress who then began to swing across the area, dodging arrows from the archers on the way over. Po leaped through the rings, falling out of ring three and catching onto the next one so as to swing across. The rest of the masters followed close behind, Mantis in the lead with Viper and Monkey right behind him and Crane trying his best to make up for lost ground.

Po and Tigress got off of the seven-talon rings and raced across the Fiery Field of Death, noticing that the danger level had been modified so as to make the fire a lot harder to avoid. Po got a minor burn on his arm while trying to dodge the faster fire spurts, giving Tigress the opportunity to jump ahead and over towards the new equipment set up for them. Back at the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors, Viper slithered ahead of Mantis and launched herself through the talons, leaving the other three boys in the dust. Monkey, not willing to be beaten at the talon swinging when he was already pretty close to it, forced his way through the gauntlets and onto the rings in the hopes of bypassing the master who was somewhat slower than him at the task. Crane and Mantis soon followed suit, Crane speeding through the talons and passing both Viper and Monkey, nearly knocking the two off in his effort to get done before them.

Po and Tigress reached the end of the Fiery Field of Death in one piece, approaching the Blushing Spikes of Impending Doom. "Um," Po called over to Shifu as they approached, Tigress pulling ahead as he slowed down in slight reluctance to run across. "Do we have to actually run across this thing?!"

"Yes!" Shifu answered immediately.

Tigress wasted no time hopping onto the spikes and began to run across, only for a spike to get snagged on her leg and a part of her pants, sending her falling into the spikes with a pained cry. Po took a deep breath and tried to hop onto one of the spikes as well, but he fell off immediately and landed in between the spikes, piercing his arm on the way down.

"AHHHHH!" the panda screamed in agony. "Totally not awesome!"

He and Tigress managed to get to their feet as the masters began to approach from behind. "Can't we go in between?" he begged his master.

"No. You must cross going on top. That's how you'll learn to conquer this challenge. Again!"

The two warriors stumbled back towards the beginning of the training hall, Tigress glancing at the blood and saying to him, "Know you know why they're called the blushing spikes of impending doom."

Po groaned. "Yeah," he grumbled. "The hard way."

In the meantime, the remaining masters had crossed the Fiery Field of Death and were now heading over towards the spikes where the injured warriors were. "Well we can't let them cross first," Tigress told Po, grabbing his paw and running back on top of the spikes. Po let out a small cry of alarm as he tried to keep his balance, wobbling back and forth as he made an effort to not fall. Crane, being able to fly, had the advantage of zooming across the spikes rather than walking, reaching the end of the training hall first as Po lost his balance and toppled back over. Tigress tripped right before she could reach the end, nearly slicing her arm open as the rest of the Five approached the dangerous spikes.
Shifu watched as the rest of the warriors went to cross the field of spikes, Mantis taking care to hold onto the spikes as hard as he could so that he didn't fall off. As Tigress and Po went back to the beginning to try running across the spikes again, Monkey carefully made his way around the various arrowed heads in order to avoid more wounds. Viper was able to slink her body carefully around the spikes, easily making her way over to the end in order to join Crane and Shifu. When she reached the platform safely, Shifu announced, "Partner Pair One: Crane and Viper."

Monkey and Mantis stopped their treacherous journey across the spikes in order to hold in their amused snickering.

"Not now, you two!" Shifu demanded as Crane turned a faint shade of red.

Tigress and Po, seeing that the two were stopping, took advantage of the opportunity and sprinted ahead, hoping to get ahead so that they didn't get partnered up with either of them. (Mostly Po who didn't need any more reminders from Monkey about him passionately making out with his Tigress action figure while he was sleeping). Tigress managed to keep her balance and finally reached the end where she took a breath from the work. Po wasn't far behind, but stopped short of the platform when his pants got snagged on one of the spike heads. As he started to slip down, Tigress caught him and tried to pull him back up.

"Hey, isn't that cheating?!" Mantis called over from the middle-end of the spike field.

"As long as you cross the line one at a time," Shifu told him. "There's nothing wrong with helping each other out."

"Really?" Monkey said. "Well in that case..."

The primate bounded over, accidentally poking himself in the leg with a spike head, and picked Mantis up and began to run over towards the finish line carefully. Seeing them approaching, Tigress pulled on Po with all of her might so as to free him from the spike. Po pressed his legs against the thin pole so as to get his pants unstuck, Tigress finally yanking him loose. The force of the pull accidentally sent the two warriors sailing backwards where they landed hard against the wall and knocked a weapon rack onto them.

"Are you two alright?!" Shifu called over in concern.

"Yeah!" Po assured him. "Just a little bump. I think. Yeah, just a bump. This scrape's from that stupid spike I tripped over."

Monkey and Mantis finally reached the end as well, glancing over at the several spikes with the blood stains on it. "Now I see why they're called Blushing Spikes," Monkey commented.

"Why not blushing arrows?" Mantis asked Shifu. "They look like arrows."

"I didn't name them," Shifu informed them. "So you're asking the wrong master."

Po shakily stood up, trying to catch his breath from the run. "Need a hand?" he panted, offering a paw to Tigress who was trying to get the weapons off of her head. She grabbed Po's paw and stood up, a wave of heat rising to her cheeks and a soft but still audible ring going off in her ears. She felt time seemed to slow down for a brief moment, although it was quickly interrupted by Monkey calling over, "Like the blushing arrows by the weapons rack?"

"Monkey!" Shifu yelled as Tigress felt the heat on her cheeks go up by a few degrees. "That's enough!"

The friends snickered as Po cleared his throat in embarrassment and went to picking up the weapons on the floor before Tigress could even blink.

"Now that we have our partners," Shifu said. "Lets head outside to spar with the new weapons. You'll be working together with your partners to beat the other two teams. Whoever wins the sparring match today will show me they're a master of unknown weaponry mastering, and therefore, I will give them the week off."

"Yes!" Mantis exclaimed with an air pump.

"Lets head outside and begin shall we?"

As the masters followed Shifu outside, Tigress walked slowly after them, trying to take subtle deep breaths so that she could cool down the heat in her cheeks. She could tell that she must have had a dark blush, otherwise Mantis and Monkey wouldn't have mentioned their little joke.

"Hey, are you okay?" came Po's voice.

Tigress jumped in startledness, but calmed down and said, "I'm fine, Po."

As they headed out towards the door, she asked the panda, "Po...did Monkey make you kiss my action figure?"

Po's cheeks turned bright red and he stammered, "Uh, h-how'd you know that?"

"Well, they're trying to tease Crane with Viper and I'm the only girl besides her here, so I just took a stab in the dark on that."

"Right," the Dragon Warrior said. "Yeah, he did. I don't know why. I mean, unless they thought it would be fun to place bets and whatever."

"Maybe they ran out of things to bet on."

"Probably."

"Hey lovebirds!" Mantis called over from the arena outside the training hall. "Lets go!"

"Mantis!" Viper hissed.

Tigress and Po hurried outside in order to get into positions and prevent either Monkey or Mantis from saying any more inappropriate comments.