It was time. Time for him to face the strongest of the legendary Furious Five. Time for him to see if all the training he went through for twelve long years with his master and friends have made him stronger. Time to see what he was capable of. Koji gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Come on, Tok'! Show them all why you're the strongest Kung Fu dude of Kanto!" The young beetle said with his eternal positive attitude.

Toka would have wanted to reply that he will win with the same tone, but his inner-self knew that beating a master like Tigress was going to be as hard as beating Po in a eating contest. However, that didn't mean he wasn't going to try. So, with a determined nod to his best friend, he walked into the fighting zone and immediately took his fighting pose, no questions asked.

Tigress couldn't help but notice that his stance was very similar to hers... and her brother's too. She quickly shook her head to get her though of him out of her head and stay focused on the present moment. She also took her fighting stance, looking as ready as Toka was.

The silence was hard on both felines as they waited nothing more than Shifu's signal to begin fighting. After what seemed like an eternity for them, the SNAP! from his fingers were finally heard.

However, instead of starting the fight full ahead, like the others did, they started walking around in circles, trying to find an opening in the other's defense.

"I warn you: beating me will not be easy thing." Tigress spoke to him.

"I know, but I'm still planning on winning this encounter!" Toka replied with determination.

Tigress gave a smirk at his remark. "You seem rather sure of yourself!"

"If I wasn't, do you think I'd still be here facing you?" He replied with a smirk of his own.

Tigress couldn't help but chuckle slightly at his confidence. But enough with the talking, she decided to make the first move but charging at him for a palm strike. Toka used his fist to move it out of the way and counter-attacked with a punch which Tigress dodged in time. What followed afterward was a solid close combat where Toka surprisingly managed to hold on his own against Tigress despite her having more experience than him.

"Am I dreaming or this little guy is giving Tigress an hard time?" Po whispered to the others as Toka justly blocked a side kick from his tiger friend.

"I'm pretty sure he is." Monkey confirmed with a nod. "To think it took me way much longer to be on her level..."

Viper giggled a bit. "I've gotta say I'm impressed. Toka is very talented - almost as much as..." She stopped for a moment as she looked at Shifu. "...most of us were at the start, he, he." She nervously chuckled, but the others already understood she was going to refer to Tai Lung.

While Koji and Neyo - well, mostly Koji - were cheering for Toka, Suya couldn't help but notice that Alena wasn't paying attention to the fight at all. She was rubbing her arms and looking at the ground, probably still shocked about what happened earlier. The snowy owl walked beside her and putted a wing on her back.

"Hey, Alena, you doing fine?" She asked with concern for her friend.

To her surprise, she pushed her wing away and turned her head. "I'm fine! Leave me alone!"

Suya knew it wasn't true, but Alena was clearly not in the mood to talk about it. So, she let it go and turned her attention back to the fight.

Not much have changed: the two feline warriors were still giving everything they had in close combat. However, Toka being less experienced, he was the first one to leave an opening for Tigress to punch him in the stomach which caused him to spit some saliva. She followed with a palm strike to the face that caused him to be sent flying back a few feet, but he managed to land on his feet to avoid getting more damage.

The snow leopard held his stomach in pain with one paw as he looked at Tigress. "Okay, she's really strong. I cannot rivalise with her level."

Tigress was going to ask him to give up the fight, but wanted to see more of what he could do. So she got on her four paws and used her feline instincts to jump and run on the hall's wall at full speed.

"This is getting fun!" Toka said before also getting on his paws and followed his opponent on the wall. He was able to catch up to her because, unlike Tigress, he was wearing gloves that were protecting his paws from any potential damage.

Realizing that he caught up to her, Tigress tried to knock him off with a spin kick to the head. Toka dodged it and replied with a strong punch that sent her flying into the air. Using a lot of strength from his legs, he jumped off the wall and into the air where he engaged another close combat with Tigress while they were falling toward the ground.

As the ground was getting closer, both fighter decided to go for their strongest attack in a desperate attempt to win. Tigressed pressed both of her arms together as Toka putted as much strength as he could in his right fist.

"Double Palm Strike!"

"Iron Fist!"

Their attack collided which caused both of them to be sent flying back many feet away. Thank to their feline instincts, they managed to land on their paws. They then glared at each other while panting in exhaustion from their hard encounter, covered in sweat - Toka more than Tigress.

Tigress could hear Po and the Five cheering for her as Koji, Neyo, and Suya did the same for Toka. All the fights have been interesting, but this one was definitely taking the cake. Shifu was now absolutely sure that his daughter have been thinking right: Toka truly was like Tai lung, when he taught him Kung Fu.

Suddenly, the snow leopard formed a smile and laughed out loud which drew curious looks.

"What's funny?" Tigress asked, not releasing her fighting stance.

Toka turned his head to Master Shifu instead of answering Tigress. Nobody could have guessed his next words:

"Master Shifu, I forfait."

Everybody got shocked by what he said.

"Excuse-me?" Master Shifu asked, confused.

"I said that I forfait."

"Why's that?"

Toka scratched the back of his neck. "I had a lot of fun in this fight, believe-me. But, true to be told, I wanted to fight her (point Tigress) to see everything I was capable of doing with my twelve year long training. I now reached my limit and know that I cannot win against her, so I prefer to forfait."

Shifu was extremely surprised by his decision. Tai Lung never accepted defeat before, not even he knew that he couldn't win the fight. But Toka pratically recognized that he couldn't win against Tigress and he accepted it. The red panda smiled.

"This kid could be even more than Tai Lung ever was..."

Toka walked over to his friends who all congratulated him for his performance against the Kung Fu master. Speaking of which, the latest walked at the side of her master with who she exchanged an accomplice smile as he looked at the five students.

"My friends." He said to have their attention. "First of all, I must congratulate you all for the remarkable fights you did against the Valley's strongest masters."

Toka and Koji exchanged a fists bump, Neyo threw a fist in the air out of joy, Suya blushed a bit, and Alena simply looked down.

"Now, I have an important announcement for you all. Master Tigress came to talk to me about something, last night."

"About what?" Koji asked with an eye brow.

The red panda chuckled and rubbed his beard. "I know we have already told you many times, but the Five, the Dragon Warrior and myself think that you're very talented. We believe that you could become great masters with the appropriate training. I talked about it with Master Yoshi with messages and he agrees to entrust your training to us. Now, as you may know, I retired from my fonction as full time teacher and gave it to Po. So, you're welcome to stay here and be trained by the Dragon Warrior along the Furious Five, if you wish."

The five students' eyes were round like eggs. The day before, they went of their first mission assigned by Master Yoshi, got to meet the legendary Dragon Warrior, the Furious Five and Master Shifu himself. Today, they got to fight all of the Five in single competition and now, they were getting offered to be trained by all of them. That was a lot to swallow in such little time.

Toka was the most shocked of the group. Never, even after starting to learn Kung Fu, he tough he'd be good enough for the Jade Palace. He turned to his friends and the look on their eyes was already giving their answer. He smiled at them before turning back toward the little red panda and bowed after smashing his fist into his palm.

"It would be an honor to be trained here, master!" He said as his friends all bowed too.

Master Shifu smiled as well as Po, Tigress, Viper, and Monkey (Crane and Mantis are still at the infirmary). "Excellent. Po, I let you taking care of your new students." He said with walking away to go rest in his chamber.

Po nodded and looked at his students. "What will our first training be, master?" Koji asked with getting up.

"It won't be easy." The panda said with a serious tone. "You're gonna have to..." He said as the little group was waiting impatiently to know what it was gonna be. Suddenly, Po opened his arms. "...hug me!"

They all gave confused looks.

"What?!"

Okay, I wanted to end on a funny note.

Toka and his friends will now be training under po and the Five's watch! This is awesome, isn't it? Don't worry, that doesn't mean Master Yoshi won't appear anymore.

Leave reviews and, once again, I'm sorry for leaving this story on hiatus for so long.