Po and Tigress walked towards the training hall, Tigress keeping a close eye on their surroundings in case the morning gong had been part of a trick. Her worries were soon allayed however when her and Po entered the training grounds and were greeted by Master Shifu and the rest of the Five whose cuts were now almost completely healed from the previous day.

"Congratulations you two," Shifu said with a small smile. "You've passed the test."

Tigress eyed him. "Test?" she asked.

"Yes. Test. The point of this excercise was to help you learn to be adaptable to various situations. In a normal game of hide and go seek, there's an element of fun to it. However, if was an actual situation where you would be required to hide so as to avoid your own demise, you must jump on the opportunity. Not every moment in a battle will be a moment of actual fighting. There may be times when you need to take a rest in order to get your strength. In those moments of weakness, it may be necessary to take cover from your enemies and regroup to come up with a better plan."

"And chasing us around the Jade Palace with a dagger was necessary for this exercise?" Tigress asked.

"Yes. The point of me using the dagger was to heighten your sense of danger, thus giving you a deeper incentive to hide well."

"Oh!" Po said. "And were the guards outside supposed to be like unescapable barriers or something?"

"Exactly," Shifu agreed.

"Master," Tigress said, slowly, trying to place her words carefully so as to not offend him in anyway. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why did you come up with this exercise? It's not very congruous with our normal training."

Shifu eyed her. "Now you are the last person I would have expected to hear that from," he commented in surprise. Regaining his composure, he added, "I heard tales about Po's view of stealth mode from all of you during the ride home, if you recall. In line with the recent defeat of a particularly nasty threat, I took it upon myself to revisit that concept but on a more...realistic level."

Tigress nodded. "I see," she said, understanding.

Po let out a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry for not being stealthy enough," he apologized.

"Well, you seemed to have improved on that score," Shifu noted. "Although further testing should help the rest of you improve on that score even further."

"Are we going to play another round?" Viper asked worridly, afraid that there would be more knife slashing involved.

"Not at the moment, no," Shifu assured her. "We'll eat breakfast and then catch up on more training so that I can see how well Tigress is holding up. This exercise will continue some time during the week. For now though, we'll resume out regular training."

The students bowed so as to acknowledge what he said.

"Now, before we eat breakfast, I want to briefly discuss how you all did," Shifu said. He turned to Viper, whom he found first. "Viper, I was impressed with how you used your scales to try and camouflage yourself. However, you need to work on avoiding eyesight and keep good timing. The reason I found you was because I knew that you wouldn't have time to escape between the time you entered the Hall of Heroes and the time that I got there."

"Yes, master," Viper said.

Shifu then turned to Mantis and said, "Mantis, you took good advantage of your size while you attempted to hide which I commend you for. However, you made two mistakes while hiding. The first one was hiding in the same place as Viper, since I could figure out where you were based on the timing of your entry in the hall of heroes. Your second mistake was running the instant that I told Viper to get you. The second that you started to run, I had enough time to run in the opposite direction in order to cut you. When you are hiding from an enemy, you must take care to make quick plans in emergency situations. They can mean the difference between life and death."

"Yes, master," Mantis said.

The next person that Shifu spoke to was Monkey, who was the thrid person to be caught. "Monkey," he said. "You were willing to offer a hand to a friend in need and you chose, may I add, a very convenient place to hide. However, you need to pay more attention to detail. The fact that you did not see the cut on Mantis was the very thing that led to me catching you. Be more wary of this next time."

"Yes, Master Shifu."

"Crane, you told me you initially hid in a crate. I'll admit, that's not the best spot and you're fortunate you moved when you did. Small spaces are fine to hide in as long as you have the room to make any last minute escapes, a concept I'll revist with you in a minute, Tigress."

The master assumed Crane had told Shifu about her hiding in the pot and braced herself for reproof.

Shifu continued to counsel Crane by saying, "I also commend you for being able to sneak around without my noticing. Your only mistake was trying to fly out of the Jade Palace without bothering to check and see if you could make it out. Under the circumstances, I understand why you didn't, but keep it in mind for next time."

"Yes, Master Shifu."

"Tigress, I wanted to address the matter to you on the pot that you originally hid in," Shifu said, turning towards the tiger. "Not the best spot as I'm sure you're aware. You were very fortunate that I did not check in there the first time as you wouldn't have been able to escape."

"Understood, master," Tigress acknowledged. "That's why I was quick to change spots after you left."

"How long did you wait until you moved?"

"Five to ten minutes."

"Very well. At least you weren't too eager to move. I admire you being able to pick spots that we wouldn't think to check at first, but you must keep in mind the location of where you're hiding. Also, while I admire how you sacrificed yourself to keep Po from getting tackled, had Po not the means of being able to come back, you might have gotten cut. Sacrifice is very important, but you must also keep in mind your weaknesses during a fight like that."

"Yes, Master Shifu."

"And Po," Shifu said. "I commend you on your hiding spot as well as being able to dodge our attacks. Speed is important when running however. If you're going to hide, be prepared to sprint. Also, make an effort to not get cornered in impossible-to-hide-spots and be careful when moving spots. You were fortunate that we didn't find you and Tigress after you broke through the kitchen window."

Po started to smirk prompting Shifu to cast a glance at him and Tigress. "You two didn't go out the window, did you," he said knowingly.

"We broke some of the pots to disguise ourselves," Tigress admitted, a small smile spreading on her face as well.

Shifu stared at them, his face turning expressionless. "You broke my pots?" he asked, an unrecognizable tone creeping up.

"We'll replace them," Po promised. "We just needed to commandeer them for the moment."

"I'd better hope so," the master replied, trying to not let any anger rise up. He wasn't happy that his kitchenware was broken, but hoped that the two would promise to fix it, like they had said. "You have until tomorrow to do so."

"Yes, master," Tigress and Po answered in unison.

Shifu sighed. "Well, with that in mind, you're all dismissed. After breakfast, meet back here in the training hall."

The students bowed and departed, leaving Shifu to go and meditate so as to not be too angry over the incident of the pots. While I admire the way they used their resources, he thought to himself, I'm still upset about those broken pots.

After Shifu dismissed everyone to breakfast, Po almost immediately sprinted through the grounds, screaming, "DUMPLINGS!!!!!"

Tigress resisted the urge to laugh as one of her many efforts to go back to the hard core side of herself that seemed to have vanished in the past month and a half.

"How did he do?" Monkey asked her as the Five made their way to the kitchen to go eat something. "Any complaints?"

"Not from him," Tigress said. "His stomach, on the other hand, didn't mind making a fuss."

The masters chuckled at this remark.

"Well you're in a humorous mood this morning," Viper noted.

"I'm not in a humorous mood. I'm just stating what happened."

"Suuuure."

After a few minutes, the masters began to approach the kitchen, the pleasant aromas from the dumplings drifting into the morning air. Monkey's stomach growled.

"Lets go eat!" he exclaimed. "I'm starving!"

He then ran into the kitchen, everyone but Tigress right behind him. The master could feel her stomach walls begin to vibrate, getting ready to let out a loud, hungry growl, making them worse as the smells from the kitchen got stronger.

"Oh there you are!" Po exclaimed as he began to finish up making the dumplings. "I thought you were hungry."

"I'm as hungry as the rest of you," Tigress answered flatly. "I just happen to be more patient when it comes to receiving nourishment."

Po poured the dumplings into six bows and distributed them amongst himself and the Furious Five. He sat down next to Tigress with a smirk.

"Looks like somebody's back to her grumpy self," he said jokingly. "Where's the Tigress that liked hanging out in her room playing Mahjong and making paper cranes?"

"That was the Tigress who was bored of sitting in her room by herself with a broken ribcage," Tigress reminded him.

"Who wanted someone to keep her company?"

"Drop the subject and maybe I'll chocolate chip cookies to the batch as well."

Po's eyes lit up. "You'll add chocolate chip?" he asked.

"Tigress," Viper called over. "You can't bribe someone to drop a subject."

"I can if it happens to be a certain Dragon Warrior with a passionate love for food."

Po grinned and didn't say anything else to her. He merely sat there and hungrily ate the dumplings he made.

"I take it Po won," Monkey said.

"Yep," Tigress agreed. "No complaints. No sneaking around for food. No whining about food."

"We should make bets like that more often," Po suggested with a smile, his face stuffed with food.

"You need to learn to do things without incentives tied to them," Tigress told him, slowly eating her food although her stomach demanded that she stuffed her face and fed it immediately.

"Unless you make up ones in your head."

"That's not the point. The point is to do what you're told without there being something in it for you later."

Po sighed and went back to eating. Yesterday, she's all perky and lightened up and having fun...minus the parts where Shifu almost caught us with that dagger...and now she's back to being grumpy and emotionless. What's the deal? he thought to himself.

"Bets, huh?" Viper was saying during Po's mind rant. "That's new."

"Just making sure that he didn't complain the entire time," Tigress told her flatly. "It won't be a regular thing."

Viper eyed her, but didn't say anything as everyone decided to spend more of their energy on filling their stomachs. When breakfast ended, they all headed back to the training hall where Master Shifu was waiting for them. The master had decided to do some warm-ups and strength exercises after seeing how poor Tigress' balance was due to being bed-ridden for over a month. The students were then given the task to balance on a small board he had set up for two minutes. Then, once everyone managed to accomplish the task, the time balancing would be upped to five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, and so on. Tigress warmed up a little bit before going onto the board, but still had some problems maintaining her balance. After about twenty-two unsuccessful attempts to balance her-self, she finally was able to get back into the swing of things. After spending hours building up leg strength, Shifu dismissed everyone for lunch, informing them that they would be sparring when they got back later on. As the students began to head to the kitchen, Tigress said, "Why don't we eat at Ping's?"

Surprised by this sudden comment, the masters stared at her for a second. Then Monkey smiled. "Really?" he said. "You want to hang out in the village?"

"Just for today. Po and I have an errand to run, so we might as well eat down there."

Po eyed her. "Errand?" he asked.

"Yes, an errand. We have pots to replace, remember?"

"Oh! That's right! We can grab them on the way back up if that sounds good."

Tigress shrugged her shoulders. "Your call, Dragon Warrior," she said. "You were the one to suggest the idea of breaking the old pots so that we could hide."

"Awesome. We'll go after lunch."

"Can we come too?" Monkey asked. "Or is this a subtle way of saying that you two want quality time together?"

Po turned slightly red as Viper hissed, "Monkey...."

"I'm just making a joke! Calm down!"

Tigress, who was thankful that she was already turned around so that no one could see the blush creeping onto her face, said, "If you want to accompany us, that's perfectly fine. Shifu never said this was a private errand."

The masters then proceeded to head down to Mr. Ping's noodle shop, Po and Tigress grabbing extra money for the wok pans before departing. As they walked down to the noodle shop, Tigress briefly remembered Mr. Ping calling her Po's girlfriend in front of the wolf bandits and sincerely hoped that he hadn't told anyone else that. The idea made her uncomfortable as she was a hardcore warrior of the Jade Palace and had never even considered the idea before in her entire life. It was true that she did care for Po as a close friend, but she had never harbored any romantic feelings for him. So the idea that a rumor could be spreading around about her in a false relationship didn't settle well with her. Besides, she told herself. I am a warrior. Hardcore, dedicated to kung fu, fierce, strong, and loyal to my friends. To have such feelings would be weakness. I'd never last a minute in battle if I worried too much about my friends' safeties over the saftey of those in China.

Then why had she pushed Po out of the way of the cannon?

Why did she make him stay in the jail cell when he could have come with them?

Why did she think he wasn't able to handle Shen on his own?

He was the one foretold to bring Shen to justice, she reasoned with herself, pulling her hardcore side back up to the surface where it had been once. He wasn't focused on the mission; he would have been a danger to everyone. And...again, he wasn't focused. The wolves would have done who-knows-what if I hadn't been there to get them off of him.

The masters finally reached Mr. Ping's restaurant where they were greeted warmly by the happy goose. "I'm so happy to see all of you!" he exclaimed. "Especially you, Tigress! I'm glad that wolf didn't hurt you too much. I was starting to feel really bad about letting you come along that road."

"I'm perfectly fine, Mr. Ping, thank you," Tigress assured him. She hoped that he wouldn't bring up the 'girlfriend' incident that occured that day, but unfortunately, Mantis and Monkey were interested in details due to the fact that she didn't tell them much about what happened.

"So they just showed up and started randomly attacking?" Mantis asked as the six of them sat down and waited for Mr. Ping to bring them their food.

"Just showed up, yes," Mr. Ping acknowledged. "But they thought I had money because Tigress was there, so I tried to assure them that she was only there to help me with the cart."

"He told them I just got off of bed-rest," Tigress explained flatly.

"Dad!" Po exclaimed. "You're not supposed to tell bandits when a kung fu master is sick! Then they will attack you!"

"Well, it wasn't my fault they wouldn't believe me," Mr. Ping defended, coming over to the table with fresh bowls of soup. "They got what was coming to them. Served them right for mocking me!"

"Mocking you?" Po asked.

"They called him a delivery boy," Tigress interjected, making sure Mr. Ping didn't get the chance to mention what they said about her being Po's girlfriend.

"They did!" Mr. Ping exclaimed angrily. "I don't know who those wolves think they are! I am a noodle-maker! I'm clearly wearing my noodle-hat! How much more obvious can I make it?! I mean, being told that your son is lazy by leaving his girlfriend with a citizen is one thing, but mistaking him for a delivery boy?! Unacceptable!"

During the rant, Po had spat out his soup in surprise upon hearing his dad say girlfriend, something that made Tigress stand up and walk immediately out of the restaurant.

"Dad," Po said quickly, wiping the mess away. "Did you just say 'girlfriend'?"

"Of course I did," Mr. Ping answered, bringing over some bean buns. "That's what he told me. And besides, aren't you two dating?"

"No, we're not," Po corrected, trying to ignore the snickers coming from Monkey and Mantis. "What gave you that impression?"

"You two do hang out a lot," Mr. Ping commented. "And you told me about how she hugged you in Gongmen City; I assumed something came out of that at least."

"She was just trying to show me that she understood what I was going through at the moment," Po reminded him. "It wasn't romantic."

"Speaking of Tigress, where did she go?" Viper asked, "She just walked out of here."

"Maybe she went to go get the pots Shifu asked her and Po to replace," Mantis suggested.

Po slurped up the rest of his noodles. "I'll go find her," he offered, getting up and exiting the restaurant.

"Not romantically involved, are we?!" Mr. Ping called after him as he began to leave.

"Not now, dad!"

As Po ran out of the restaurant, Mr. Ping shook his head. "You'd think they'd be together at this point," he muttered to no one in particular.

"Tigress isn't really a romantic person," Viper told him. "Except for when she was with Yijiro, but that was about it."

"Or that Midnight Stranger dude that no one's seen since eons ago," Mantis added.

Mr. Ping sighed. "If only," he said to himself, thinking about his idol. He managed to replace a lot of the things Po accidentally broke while masquerading as the mysterious kung fu master about two years earlier, much to his delight. He then snapped back to the present and began to go back to making noodles. "Well, it's a shame they aren't together," he repeated as two customers came up to order. "Seeing as how much Po likes her."

"Wait, he does?" Monkey asked, him and Mantis now all ears.

"Well, I walked in on him kissing his Tigress action figure one time. Of course, he was also nineteen, but still...that's pretty obvious if you ask me."

The two warriors snickered. "Kissing her action figure?" Mantis asked in amusement. "He's not going to live that one down!"

"Oh, he's done other embarrassing stuff besides that," Mr. Ping assured him. "Have I ever told you about that one time he accidentally gave himself a wedgie with one of my cooking spoons?"

While Mr. Ping entertained the Five with embarrassing stories on Po, the Dragon Warrior himself was busy looking around the Valley for any signs of Tigress. However, the village was a bit crowded, so he had some trouble. Po finally headed over to the cookware stand that was set up, spotting the feline paying for two brand-new pots so as to replace the ones that the broke.

"There you are!" he exclaimed. "I hope dad didn't scare you away with the wolf story he was telling."

"No, I just decided to not stick around with useless rambling and run the errand we were both supposed to do," Tigress answered flatly, giving him a look.

"I thought we agreed we'd get it after lunch."

"Well, there was a change of plans."

Po eyed her. "I don't mean to be rude," he said. "But I'm detecting some hostility over here."

"Lets just gather the others and head back to the training hall," Tigress said, ignoring the comment. "Shifu's probably wondering where we are."

Po watched her walk away for a moment, puzzling over her bizarre change of behavior. What's with the sudden hostility? he wondered to himself. However, he didn't have any time to ponder this as he forced himself to go back to his dad's restaurant so as to get the Five. Tigress, who was heading up the Thousand Steps, was working on maintaining her hardcore composure when she heard, "DAD!!!!!!!!"

The master stifled a chuckle, knowing that Mr. Ping was probably telling embarrassing stories about him. She continued up the steps so that she could put the pots away and then promptly head into the training hall.

The rest of the masters returned to the training hall about five minutes after Tigress did. Like Po, they were slightly confused as to why the master was acting completely hardcore even though they knew she had softened up over the years, especially during the battle of Gongmen City. However, they thought it best to not ask questions and left the talking to Shifu who told them who their sparring partners were: Mantis and Crane, Tigress and Monkey, Viper and Po. Mantis and Crane sparred first, during which the masters on the sidelines talked about what the next part of the hide and seek game would be like.

"Maybe it'll be us versus you and Tigress," Viper suggested.

"Most likely it'll be another aspect of avoiding enemy fire," Tigress told her. "Like blocking."

"I was thinking maybe it'll be actual mind-control stuff," Po said. "You know, to avoid the knife slashing."

"Don't tell me you're pain intolerant, Dragon Warrior," Tigress said with a slight tease hidden in her voice.

"Intolerant?" Po said with a grin. "The Dragon Warrior can tolerate anything! Unless of course it's a blast from Shen's cannon, but that's a different story."

A flash from the cannon flew across Tigress' eyes, causing her to stiffen.

"Hey, you okay?" Po asked.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You're kind of shaking."

"I don't shake."

"Yeah, like how you didn't shake when we were trying to hide from Shifu in the kitchen."

Tigress growled at him, her face flashing him a ferocious warning look.

"Which you didn't," Po said quickly, hoping to avoid some "punching bag" moves later on. "Which you totally didn't."

"Shaking?" Monkey asked from next to Po.

"Viper, Po, you're next," Shifu called out suddenly.

The two warriors stepped down into the training zone to begin. In the meantime, Monkey was curious as to what Po had just told them.

"Wait, were you actually scared?" Monkey asked. "I've never seen you shake before."

"I wasn't scared," Tigress lied. "And I wasn't shaking; that was Po. We were fortunate his stomach didn't alert your attention."

The masters snickered. "Too bad," Crane noted. "We could have caught you guys sooner."

"Yeah, no kidding," Mantis said. "Maybe we should have done that."

While the warriors stood on the side talking, Viper was trying to talk to Po in an undertone so as to be able to get information without Tigress overhearing them.

"Tigress doesn't normally shake," she told Po. "I'm surprised."

"Um, I'm sure it was probably me," Po said, worriedly looking over at Tigress.

Viper took the opportunity to whip him in the face, upon which Po grabbed her by the tail and threw her into the Wooden Gauntlet of Warriors. Viper sped back towards him, forcing the warrior to put up a succession of blocks.

"Po," Viper said, dodging a punch. "You can tell me what happened. I promise I won't tell."

"Yeah, well I also don't want to become a punching bag for who-knows-when."

"Maybe you should talk to her. Not just about the shaking thing, but about how she's been acting lately."

Po did a double take as he flipped over the strike Viper delivered and grabbed a nearby bamboo stick. "Wha-?" he stuttered in surprise. "Where did that come from?!"

Viper glanced over at Tigress who was now watching them with intense focus. "Lets discuss this in a second," she said.

Po caught her glance and swallowed. "Right," he muttered. He turned back to strike Viper only to catch a glimpse of the lanterns that dangled below him, allowing Viper to strike him across the training hall.

"Focus, Dragon Warrior!" Shifu called after him.

"Sorry!" Po apologized. "I thought I was back in Shen's tower for a second."

"That's alright. But learn to focus more. If that had been a battle, you could have gotten killed."

Tigress blinked, several flashes of Po being in near-death situations flashing across her brain. He wasn't that focused, she began to think. Who knows if he'll be well-focused again..

"Tigress, Monkey, you're next," Shifu said.

Monkey began to head into the training zone, but Tigress lingered behind for a second, clearly lost in thought.

"Tigress!"

The warrior snapped to attention. "Apologies, master," she said. "I'm still trying to regain my focus as well."

"As we all are," Shifu told her as she followed Monkey so as to spar. "Begin," he said.

As Monkey and Tigress began to spar, Viper let out a sigh and said softly, "Something isn't right...."

"You mean besides the fact that she's being Miss. Grumpy-Cat again?" Po asked.

Viper nodded. "She seems like she's starting to slip back into her old self," she commented.

"You mean when she was still the overly hardcore Tigress?" Mantis asked. "Yeah, I think we all noticed."

Viper turned to look at Po. "I was thinking about that while we were sparring," she told Po. "And I thought that since you know her better than the rest of us do, maybe you could go and talk to her about it."

"Me? I don't know her that well," Po said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, you two talk more often. I mean, she doesn't talk to me that much."

"Don't you guys do girl talks and stuff?" Po asked as he watched Tigress barely manage to duck a few strikes from Monkey. She didn't seem to notice the conversation going on.

"Not really," Viper admitted. "I tried that once when we were younger, but she got bored and went to train in the training hall after a minute or so."

"Oh."

The groups watched the sparring for a second before Po sighed. "Alright, I'll ask," he relented. "But I doubt she'd tell me anything. If anything, I'd get turned into a punching bag."

"You'll be fine," Viper assured him.

"Unless you try to kiss her like you did with the action figure you had at nineteen," Mantis joked.

Po turned red as the masters snickered. "Did my dad tell you that?" he asked irritably.

"Yep. And also about the time you wet the bed at eleven, and the time you burped up noodles, and the time you were daydreaming and started making out with the kitchen mop, and-"

"Okay, okay! Would you cut it out?!" Po exclaimed, a little too loudly.

Shifu glanced over at them. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"No, Master Shifu," the students said in unison. Shifu eyed them, but then went back to watching Tigress and Monkey spar.

Po groaned and made a mental note to remind his dad to not tell customers, especially the Five, any embarrassing stories about him at any point in time.