A/N: This story has originally been posted in Deviant Art under my DA account. I already have 13 chapters posted there, and I'll be uploading them here regularly.

It was a bright, sunny morn, with a few thin wisps of cloud scattered here and there in the beautiful bright-blue canvas of the sky. The radiance of the golden sun preside over the towering Jade Mountain from which Jade Palace sat atop and filtered through the canopies of the ironwood tree copse near the Training Hall, from which a repetitive din of resounding boom noises echoed at even intervals. Many of the trees there had deep dents in their trunks, others were practically broken and toppled over, and many were little more than piles of sawdust – for this was where Master Tigress had trained for twenty years, building a tolerability to physical pain that reached a point where she was practically numb to it from the shoulders down. She now not only had the strength to pulverize an iron hammer with one punch, but she could do so without feeling a thing. She had shared this information with Po during a sparring match on their trip to Gongmen City.

Po was utterly astounded by Tigress' inability to feel physical pain, even wishing he had it himself, but he was rather reluctant at first to follow Tigress' method of training when he learned that this ability was gained through twenty years of punching ironwood trees. It was upon his return to the Valley of Peace that Po finally found the courage to do this sort of training, and Tigress was more than inclined to oblige herself in coaching him.

The other four members of the Furious Five were usually there to witness the remarkable feat of Po's hard-style training – they would never have thought that a warrior with such a soft body would go through with hard style. On this day they watched in apprehensive astonishment as Po tried to set a new record for how many punches he could throw without wincing.

"Stop him!" Mantis shouted, but it was lost on his comrades as they counted the number of punches Po threw. "It's too dangerous!"

Heedless the little insects warnings, everyone else continued to count.

Thud!

"Forty-four…"

Wamp!

"Forty-five…"

Bam!

"Forty-six…"

Thump!

"Stay focused," said Tigress.

Now, reader, it is clear from what you're reading that you're envisioning Po directing his punches into the trunks of the ironwood trees, but you'll be surprised to find that this is not exactly the case. What he had been directing his punches at was the next best thing—right into the callous-armored palms of Tigress.

"Forty-seven… Forty-eight!"

Po finally stopped, letting out a cheerful whoop as he threw up his paws, only to have them flop limply by his sides. "Wooh! Forty-eight punches and no wincing!"

There was a brief burst of jubilant cheers from the onlookers, especially from Mantis.

"Yes, yes! New record, you monster!"

"Keep going!" said Monkey. "Hit fifty!"

"He'll never hit fifty," said Crane.

"No problem," Po said confidently as he began swinging his paws in a windmill-like motion. "Get those hands ready, Tigress. I'm about to throw in a Double Whammy."

Tigress shot out both of her thick striped arms, paws wide open and ready to receive the blow. "Do it!" she goaded.

Po summoned all the strength he could muster into his arms as he gave them a few more spins before finally slamming his fists straight into Tigress' palms, resulting in a resounding thunderous thud.

An agonizingly tense hush fell upon the onlookers as they anxiously awaited Po's reaction. Had he thrown in those last two punches too hard? Was he about to let out a yell of pain?

There was a lengthy wait. Then, Po took a deep breath, took two steps back and sighed cooly, "Fifty."

The onlookers remained stunned with shock for a moment longer, before finally exploding with jubilance, shouting cheers and praises. Tigress stood cooly, arms folded and elaborately marked head nodding in approval. "Your training has paid off, Dragon Warrior."

Po bowed in salute. "Yeah, and my Inner Peace is helpin' me bear through the pain."

The subtle grin on Tigress' features grew more prominent. "Well, bearing through the pain is just part of the process, but your Inner Peace should also be helping you out when you actually get to hitting these trees; we should be moving on to that soon." She then gave the panda a light, friendly punch in his black, flabby arm, causing him to turn rigid.

"Excellent," Po replied through painfully gritted teeth. "But I still think you make a good substitute." He returned the arm punching gesture to Tigress, causing him to turn rigid once more.

Tigress did not bother to stop her smile from growing larger with amusement. "Maybe, but you won't know training like mine until you get some ironwood splinters in your hands." Thin, black lips parted just a slit to subtly reveal her sharp, pearly teeth—clearly she'd love to see how Po handles punching actual ironwood trees.

"Uh, yeah, ironwood splinters in my hands," Po said sheepishly as he rubbed his still-smarting paws and strained to hold a smile. "Can't wait to feel that."

"Don't worry," Tigress said in a reassuring tone as she patted Po's shoulder. "The process of desensitization may take twenty years, but you won't even know those splinters are there after about five."

Po nodded, and then cocked his head to the sky. "Oh, look at the sun. Hey, Mantis, didn't Master Shifu want to see us for something at this time?"

Mantis knew that Shifu wasn't really expecting to see them—he knew that whenever Po tried to dismiss himself and Mantis after a training session with Tigress, it was for an acupuncture treatment, but Po always to guise it as another reason. Nevertheless, Mantis humored him. "Yeah, Po, we'd better get going." He then made a long leap from his usual perch on Monkey's shoulder to Po's. "Come on, Po, we'd better not keep Shifu waiting."

"We'd better get to our other duties, too," said Crane as he strode after Po, with Monkey and Viper tagging behind. He paused to look back at Tigress, who idled by one of the trees as she intently studied it. "You coming, Tigress?"

The momentarily distracted Tigress glanced to the skinny bird. "Huh? Oh, uh, you guys go ahead—I'll catch up with you."

Crane shrugged his wings, before turning around to resume with his path. "Suit yourself."

And with that, Po and the rest of the Five left Tigress to ruminate beneath the shade of the ironwood trees.

A/N: If you've watched The Lion King, you'll find that "Oh, look at the sun" quote quite familiar.

Feel free to tell me what you think of it.