After a few days of traveling, with some breaks interspersed in between, Po and the Furious Five found themselves inside the harbor that Master Shifu had told them to go to.

As they walked through the surprisingly bustling harbor, Po couldn't help but look around at all of the villagers going about their business.

For the most part, the villagers were leaving the six of them alone, but there were some that Po noticed whispering to each other, causing the panda to begin to feel a little awkward.

Admittedly, at first he was thinking that they were just noticing the fact that the Furious Five of all people were gracing their presence, but then he began to notice that most of the looks the villagers were giving were towards him.

Now, he would be the first to admit that he wasn't the prettiest face in the crowd, especially now that he looks as intimidating as he does, but it still made him feel a little self-conscious, so he tried his best to ignore them.

"Hey Tigress, can you see our boat yet?" he asked quietly, wanting to get out of there as fast as he could.

Tigress chose to ignore that question, not wanting to dignify it with an answer, but thankfully she didn't have to, as they soon reached the river at the other end of the harbor, and the six of them soon laid eyes on a modest looking fishing vessel.

"Well…I was certainly expecting something a little more substantial than this."

"Mantis!" hissed Viper.

"What? That looks barely capable of holding all of us!"

"Actually, it can hold way more than just six people."

The Five and Po whipped around to face the source of the new speaker to find that it was actually Zeng, who had somehow managed to sneak up on them while they were busy taking in their transportation. Both Po and Tigress seemed to notice the fact that he looked a lot calmer than he usually was, but they mostly attributed it to the low danger level this job had.

"Really? It doesn't seem that big to me." commented Crane.

"Well, according to the captain, he's had some pretty large crews on expeditions on that ship before, so he knows pretty well how much capacity it can hold."

"That's good news." said Monkey.

"Anyway, thank you for getting the ship set up for us. This should save us some time getting out to Gongmen City." said Tigress.

"You're welcome, Master Tigress. I should be getting back to the palace, anyway. I can't imagine what Master Shifu must be thinking without me around."

"Neither can I." said Tigress quietly as she watched Zeng lift off and fly into the distance.

After Zeng finally disappeared over the horizon, Tigress turned around and began heading towards the ship.

"Come on, let's get a move on."

As the six kung-fu masters made their way towards the ship, they soon ran into who they presumed was the ship's captain, and Tigress immediately bowed, the others following suit as they showed their appreciation.

"Thank you for allowing us to use your boat to get to Gongmen City. Hopefully there's something we can do to repay you for your generosity."

"Oh no, it's fine. I was planning on taking a vacation from sailing anyway. The missus hates being alone all the time." said the captain, a burly-looking croc that came as a surprise to Po considering he only ever saw crocodiles as bandits.

"Really? That's wonderful that you're spending time with your family." said Viper, earning her a smile from the initially surly-looking captain.

"Yeah, that's great and all, but who's going to take us to Gongmen then? Not to be rude or anything." said Po, his tone earning him a look from Viper.

Thankfully, the captain didn't notice, judging from the smile that he had on.

"Oh, that'll be my first mate taking you. Whenever your messenger bird came through, I think he said his name was Zeng or something, I spoke to him and he agreed to take you there."

"Is he around?" asked Tigress.

"Unfortunately no. He's making final preparations right now for departing, but I believe that you should be able to meet him once you all board."

Tigress admittedly wanted to get all of the pleasantries out of the way as soon as possible so that they could focus on the impending battle ahead of them, but she figured that since the first mate was already on the ship, it wouldn't be too much of a big deal to wait.

"We should be going. Thanks again for the help!" she said as she began making her way to the ship.

As the others followed behind her, having bowed to the captain in thanks as well, Po noticed the look of apprehension on Tigress's face, which made him wonder exactly what was making the Tiger-style master so antsy to get going.

Unfortunately, by the time they all boarded the ship, they were all being immediately herded towards the interior of the ship as the small crew had just finished preparations and were about to lift off. Po didn't really get much of a chance to think about the reasoning behind Tigress's actions, but he figured that there would be more than enough time to ask her while they were on the boat.

A few days passed as the group continued to travel along the river. The boredom soon began to set in, which was made worse because of the fact that the first mate refused to let them spar while on the boat. As much as this was disappointing to everyone, they did realize that they weren't exactly on a stable surface.

During one evening, everyone was sleeping inside the canopy, as they all chose to turn in for the night, having nothing to do while the boat continued to sail along.

Not everyone was fast asleep, however, as Po was rolling around in his sleep, sweat caking his entire body as he was having another nightmare.

"Agh!"

Po eventually woke up, breathing hard as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart.

After finally calming himself down, he soon realized that he was having the same nightmare he was having for years, a fact that he was starting to really hate.

"Ugh, not again." he whispered quietly, looking towards the sky in a gesture of annoyance as he rubbed at his face with his hands.

After a few seconds, Po decided that he needed some air, so he picked himself up off of his bedroll, careful not to wake up the others as he made his way out from under the small boathouse towards the stern.

Once he reached the back of the boat, he spent some time staring at the setting sun, wondering what it was going to take to get him to stop having the same nightmare over and over again.

Short of apologizing to each of the villagers he hurt one by one, though, he couldn't think of any other way to calm his conflicted conscience. However, as he prepared to go back to sleep, though, he suddenly remembered something very important that completely slipped his mind while they were traveling.

"Oh, that's right. I should be trying to figure out this whole Inner Peace thing Master Shifu taught me." he said to himself, mentally kicking himself for forgetting to use the valuable practice time he had.

Unfortunately, he still had absolutely no clue how he was going to achieve such a state, especially now that he was aware of the fact that not only was Mr. Ping not his real dad, but his real parents might just be both dead.

Still, this didn't stop him. After spending some time to clear his jumbled mind, Po closed his eyes, letting his right foot flow as he performed the exact movements that he remembered seeing Master Shifu performed back at the Dragon Grotto.

Before he could completely finish the movements, Po's thoughts were interrupted by a light plink on the top of his head. Opening his eyes, Po looked upwards, confused for a moment. When nothing happened, Po shrugged, closing his eyes once more and going through the movements.

Unfortunately, like last time, Po was interrupted once more by a drop on his head. Po tried multiple times to ignore what he figured was probably water from the recent rains, but the drops soon increased in timing, and Po became increasingly annoyed.

Finally, the panda couldn't take it anymore, and he began rapidly punching at the mast.

"Why! Won't! You! Just! Leave! Me! Alone!"

He didn't even care enough to keep his voice down, the constant dripping getting very much under his skin, even far enough that he gave the mast a few light headbutts just so that he could vent.

However, this only earned him a drenching, as the shaking the mast was going through ended up shaking a lot more water off of it and on to Po.

"Oh, that is it!" said Po, pointing up at the mast.

Before he could do something he regretted, he was suddenly interrupted by a noise of someone clearing their throat.

Looking upwards, Po ended up finding none other than Tigress, standing on top of the boathouse, a stern look on her face.

"Um…hi." said Po. "I was just…training."

"Really? It looks to me like you were about to tear the mast down and strand us." said Tigress, looking unimpressed.

"No, I wasn't." said Po, adopting an innocent look. This, however, was easier said than done considering having only one eye being able to open made him look suspicious by default.

Tigress, still quite unimpressed with Po, gave a noncommittal grunt before flipping off of the roof, landing gracefully behind Po.

"Either way, the mast isn't a worthy opponent, even for you, Po."

Tigress then held out her right paw.

"I'm ready."

Po, caught off guard by Tigress's change in demeanor, stared at her outstretched paw for a few moments, before shrugging.

Adopting a fighting stance, Po threw his fist out towards Tigress's paw as hard as he could, a loud thunk reverberating once they made contact.

The two of them froze, the two appendages remaining in contact for a few more seconds before Po removed his paw, hissing in pain as he shook it out.

"God, that stung! What's the deal with your hand? It feels like I punched a stone wall!" complained Po.

"Well, that can happen when you've spent as much time as I have punching the ironwood trees outside of the palace." said Tigress, her palm remaining outstretched.

Po couldn't help but be curious after hearing Tigress mention that fact, as he remembered doing something similar to that during his journey outside of the valley.

"Really? And how long did that take you?"

"Twenty years. I've lost count at how many times I came home, fists torn to shreds. The first few years weren't fun, but I persevered."

Po let out a low whistle as he began punching at Tigress's palm, practicing some of his forms as they continued to speak.

"Man, I don't think I'd be able to manage doing something like that for twenty years. I only managed to do two punching some rock walls before I had to give up."

Po paused for a moment in his movements, allowing Tigress to put two and two together as she realized that must have been the reason why Po's paws looked so weathered when he first returned.

As for Po himself, he was busy thinking for a moment as well, but his expression soon brightened when he got an idea.

"Hey! Maybe you can show me a bit of your techniques! I'd love to learn how you can manage to do that kind of thing for twenty years and feel no pain. That sounds really cool!"

Tigress was slightly taken aback by some of the old Po slipping through, but before she could ask about it, Po managed to calm himself down and he immediately returned to sparring with Tigress's palm, forcing her to concentrate on catching the panda's attacks.

"No offense, Po, but I don't think hard style is your thing. You seem to be…kind of in the middle."

"How so?"

Tigress was admittedly unsure of how to explain her thought process, considering the other side of the spectrum from her style of kung-fu was initially created by the panda standing across from her, so she didn't know exactly what to think of it. Still, though, she tried her best to form at least a coherent explanation.

"You remember panda style, right? That…unconventional…style of kung-fu you used to beat Tai Lung ten years ago." she said, using the first word she could think of to describe it.

"Yeah, I do." said Po, nodding.

"Well, the way I'd describe how you're fighting now is panda style with a lot more power behind it."

"But…I haven't been using my belly. Isn't that kind of the basis of panda-style?" asked Po, confused.

"Look, you're the one who created it! You tell me!" said Tigress, exasperated.

Po fell silent, considering Tigress's words, which forced the Tiger-style master to sigh in defeat.

"What I'm trying to say is that you seem to be using panda-style like you normally do, but you're not incorporating the more…offbeat…moves." said Tigress, struggling to come up with ways to explain herself. "I'm assuming that must be why you lost all that weight."

"Yeah, pretty much."

Po paused for a few seconds to think about what Tigress said before it finally clicked.

"Oh, okay! I get you."

Tigress was once again surprised, as she was fully expecting him not to get it thanks to her clumsy explanation, but thankfully she didn't have to go any further.

Po sat down on the floor as Tigress thought, staring off into the distance as he reflected on what she had said. However, when Tigress managed to pull herself out of her thoughts, she noticed the look of apprehension on the Dragon Warrior's face and felt the need to ask him about it, wanting to avoid any future problems when it really mattered.

"Something on your mind, Po?" she asked as she sat down next to him.

Admittedly there has been a lot on Po's mind, but there wasn't a lot that he would have been willing to share, so he decided just to go with something he wouldn't have minded sharing.

"I just found out my dad isn't my real dad."

This wasn't something that she would have expected to hear from Po, causing her to pause, perplexed.

"Your dad…the goose?"

Po nodded.

"That must have been quite a shock." she said flatly.

"You don't know the half of it." Po thought as his expression remained neutral.

"So…did you find out who your real parents were?"

Po shook his head.

"No, my dad didn't know when I asked him. I did find out that I used to live in a village full of pandas, though."

"Really? Did something happen to them?" asked Tigress, admittedly curious.

Unfortunately, Tigress's question ended up breaching a subject that Po didn't really want to talk about. His face fell as his expression darkened.

Thankfully, Tigress seemed to get the point, but she did manage to get somewhat of an idea from Po's expression. Still, though, she felt that it wasn't the appropriate time to ask about it, so she remained silent.

She didn't get to remain silent, however, as she suddenly noticed something going off in the distance. Picking herself up off of the ground, she soon found a large and ornate city in the direction of where she was looking.

"That must be it." she said quietly.

"What is?" asked Po.

"We're almost to Gongmen. Go wake up the others."

Po made a move to do as Tigress asked. Before he could do so, though, he suddenly realized that now was probably a good time to ask about what he noticed back when they first boarded the boat.

"Say Tigress, I was wondering. You've been looking kind of antsy to get this whole mission over with. Is there some reason why?"

Tigress admittedly wasn't expecting to be asked that kind of question. While she was in a hurry to get things moving with their mission, she never really thought about why that would be the case, at least until now.

Sighing, Tigress walked up to the bow of the boat, staring off towards Gongmen City as she finally admitted why she felt so worried.

"I just really have a bad feeling about what's going to happen inside that city."