Author's note:

Hey! So I'm finishing my homework really fast so that I can write...which as a side effect, is causing my fingers to hurt, but that's fine...I think. Anyway, hope you like this story, and I have this completely awesome idea, so I will publish that story soon as well. Well, enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 4

-Casualties

Tigress has been going to the forest for the past week now, surprisingly, none of her friends or her master had found out. She had indeed became more powerful, but she didn't showed it in training, it would raise suspicions.

Tigress was now walking back from her daily training. She tiptoed past the kitchen, when she heard someone call her name. She widen her eyes and looked inside the kitchen. She smiled, Po was eating some of Monkey's cookies.

"Tigress? What are you doing awake?" He asked her, crumbling the cookies as quiet as possible.

"I could ask you the same Dragon warrior" She stated, crossing her arms, making it seem as if Po were the one being caught. Po stepped back,

"I-I'm hungry. SO I came by for a midnight snack, you know, besides- Wait! I asked you!" Tigress showed a small grin. Po narrowed his eyes at her teasingly.

"I went outside for a moment" She answered; she felt bad about lying...well, or at least not completely telling him the truth.

"Couldn't sleep,huh?" Po asked, taking another cookie and eating it whole. Tigress didn't know what to answer, so she just nodded.

"Yeah, me neither" He added, taking a seat. Tigress felt as if she was an outsider on Po's thoughts...so she sat down beside him.

"Why not?" She asked him. It was moments like this that made her feel as if she were doing the wrong decision, moments like this that reminded her that she loved that panda more than she should, moments like this, where she could let her soft side reveal.

Po looked at her. A concerned look.

"Tigress, it's just...you've been acting off..and don't take it as an offense, but..." he twiddled his fingers and stared at his hands,

"I don't know, are you sure you are alright? Do you want to talk about it or...?" He looked at her. Tigress saw the concern on his eyes, she gave him a small smile, and before she knew it, her instincts took over. She hug him.

Po widen his eyes, just like in the jail back at Gongmen City, he didn't expected that.

"Po, I'm fine. Really" She separated herself from him and stared into his eyes, every single part if her was telling her to kiss him, but she didn't. She would have liked, but she didn't. She stood up and started to leave the kitchen, when Po called her name again, she stopped.

"Wait, Tigress...why do you have a dagger with you?" Tigress widen her eyes and looked at her waist, where she supposedly 'hidden' the dagger. She still carried it just in case.

"Good night Po" And like that, she was gone. Po sighed, Tigress was hiding something, he knew it. If it weren't for that, she wouldn't have hugged him. He would find out what.

The next day, they all woke up as usual. Master Shifu ordered them to go eat breakfast and them meet up with him at the Hall of Warriors. The all bowed and followed Po to the kitchen. They all took their seats, Tigress was looking a little bit tired today, but only Po noticed this...it had been a while since she had gotten enough sleep.

"So, how are you Po?" Viper asked, trying to get a conversation going between her friends.

"Oh, I'm pretty good, you know, I don't hide any stuff from any of you guys...because that's what friends do" He said, Tigress widen her eyes and clasped her hands together, she knew Po was referring to do.

"Oh, well I'm doing fine as well, knowing that people are minding their own business" Tigress answered, glaring at Po. The rest were watching what was going on between them, trying to see what did they missed, or if they needed more context about the argument they were having.

"Ahem" The tiger and the panda turned to see Viper.

"WHAT?!" They both shouted. Po quickly realized he yelled,

"Sorry Viper" He apologized, Tigress just looked away,

"Is there something going on that we don't know about?" She asked, the rest of the guys were waiting for the gossip to come out, but before Po could answer, Tigress set on of her paws on the table and looked at Po,

"Not at all, right Po?" She said with emphasis,

"Right" Po served the noddles, which were about to burn and took his seat, frequently stealing glances at the feline.

'What is she hiding?! And how come she doesn't want to tell us? We are her friends...right?"

Once they were all done, they started heading to the Hall of warriors. Po was studying Tigress, trying to see if he could find anything different that would prove him right.

"Students, today we are going to be sparring. But today treat each others as if you were in a real battle, of course don't kill each other" He instructed. The five lined up, ready to fight each other. Shifu snapped his fingers and the five commenced.

Mantis and Monkey were fighting each other. Crane was now defending himself from the brutal attacks the tiger was delivering, and Po was running around from the snake that was trying to tackle him. Crane was almost knocked out, saved by Shifu, who told him he was out. Crane sighed and started rubbing his wings, those punches that Tigress delivered were strong enough to break a tree.

Monkey got the upper hand this time, beating Mantis. Viper gave up on the panda, so she was now targeting the monkey. Tigress joined her, and together they were able to defeat him.

"No fair, they worked together!" Monkey protested as he was walking out of the arena.

The snake was just getting on her fighting stance when Tigress delivered a kick to her abdomen, sending her flying across the room. Po, who saw the snake fly towards him, send a punch. Leaving the poor snake on the floor, trying to catch her breath. Shifu made a head motion, marking that she was out. Po and Tigress were left.

"Bring it on!" Po shouted as he ran towards her. Tigress easily dodged his punch and managed to deliver a kick on his ribs. Po quickly stood up and started to send some punches. Tigress smiled. She quickly swept him off his feet. But PO quickly regained his balance and kicked Tigress on the jaw. Tigress narrowed her eyes.

The fight continued for another 5 minutes or so. Shifu was getting impatient,

"Either one of you, do a powerful move and get the other one out!" He yelled. Po smiled, he started to move his feet and hands on a certain pattern, causing a ring around him. Tigress remembered this, Fenghuang taught it to her.

Po send the ring, but what he didn't expected was that Tigress, instead of deflecting it or getting hit by it, was able to make it bounce off her and towards him.

Po looked at the ring coming to his direction disbelievingly. He couldn't deflect it, so in a matter of seconds, he was on the floor. Tigress ran towards him and first made sure he was ok, then put her foot on him, to mark she was the winner.

Shifu and the rest came, and Shifu nodded towards Tigress, letting her have the victory. Tigress helped Po off, and smiled at him. Then they both bowed down.

"Tigress, that was...AWESOME!" Po shouted, making the rest laugh. They too, have been impressed.

"The Flying ring of energy, powerful move" Tigress was waiting, wishing, that Shifu would finally say that he was proud of her.

"Po, you did very well, try to keep your defense up for unexpected moves like those" Po nodded.

"Tigress, I'm" her ears were perked up, already making out the words, "I'm wondering where did you learn that from? I haven't taught it to any of you...only Po knows it...and that's because, well, it doesn't matter where he learned it from"

Tigress tighten her jaw until it hurt, her claws digging into her palm. Po noticed this and he frowned. He at least understood part of why Tigress was acting like she was...she was a little kid waiting to her those words, those words every single parent had said at least once.

"Scrolls" And before she was interrogated any further, she stepped into the hall and walked away.

"There aren't any scrolls about that" Shifu muttered. He was starting to worry about her, he had heard noises at night, and one time he had even seen her sneak out. The rest started to go their own ways, except for Po."

"Master Shifu, I was... thinking, have you seen Tigress act... differently. Actually, is not that she acts different, but is like there is a new part of her" Po explained.

"Yes, I think perhaps we need to keep an eye on her" They both nodded, but didn't talked about it any deeper. Po started to go where Tigress was, he wasn't letting her out of her sight.

'Great, just great. I have them where I want them" Fenghuang smiled and flew off to the bamboo forest, where soon enough, she was going to capture her prey.

Oooh, is Shifu and Po going to find out!? Well, you'll see next chapter. Leave your reviews! I will update soon, and yeah, not much to say for this chapter. BYE!

-Peace out:)