A/N: Chapter 3 is up! I'm honestly surprised at how fast I managed to finish this, nonetheless it's definitely the longest chapter yet. All that said, Enjoy the read!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda

Chapter 3

Girl talk and Master's chat

After Po had returned to his room in the barracks, he quickly changed into his green tunic and his golden cloak and waited for the morning gong to sound. While waiting he looked at his completed action figure collection, since his last adventure he had created several new characters, Kai the spirit warrior and his biological father Li Shan. He took great pride in his work, he had an action figure of almost every Kung Fu master and every great villain in all of China. 'I'll need to find a way to get rid of these things eventually, they're beginning to take up way to much space here...' he thought to himself. 'What if...'

Before he finished his train of thought, he heard the sound of the morning gong ring through the palace grounds, so he exited his room and waited to be greeted by the five as well as his former master. After he entered the hall, his friends did as well to greet their master. After the fight with Kai, the others had also received new clothing from the new tailor in the valley. Monkey had decided to wear a black training vest today along with his wrist bracers and gray training pants. Viper had worn pink lotus clips on her head but the ones she wore now were slightly larger than the ones she used to have, she also recently tattooed different Chinese characters onto the back of her scales which read 'Excellence of self'. Crane wore the same clothing as he always had, however he had recently modified his bamboo hat to have a thin blade engraved with Chinese characters encompassing the entire edge of the hat (think Kung lao from Mortal Kombat) making for a lethal weapon and a great fashion statement. And Tigress had worn a blue training vest that closely resembled her first red training vest only another color, as well as the same black training pants as always, Po still thought that her golden robe was her best attire but he definitely preferred her blue vest over the red one though that was only his opinion.

They were all met by master Shifu who wore his normal brown robe along with his green shawl. They bowed while speaking in unison as they greeted their wise master "Good morning Master Shifu." Po however did not refer to Shifu as 'master' anymore simply because he was not being formally taught by Shifu. He instead bowed and said "good morning Shifu." Shifu was not surprised by this, ever since Po had defeated Kai and become a master of Chi he realized that Po was an excellent teacher, and had even learned many new teachings from the panda himself. He had never imagined that Po could become as dedicated and as skilled as he was, when Po first arrived at the palace after being pronounced the Dragon Warrior by his former master Oogway he like Tigress, did not believe the Panda to be worthy of the title. However he soon began to realize that there was no one in all of China who deserved the title more than Po, he had the most pure heart of anyone he knew other than his former master. He then answered back "Good morning students, good morning Po." He then said "I expect each one of you to make improvements on the lessons that I taught you all yesterday." He then thought of something he wanted to ask Po, "Po, could you and I speak at the summit of the peach tree after you finish breakfast?" Everyone nodded at Shifu's orders while Po answered "very well, I also had something I wanted to speak about with you." Shifu nodded dismissed the others as they left to go to the dinning room for breakfast.

Every since Po had first come to the palace, he had often cooked meals for the five, Mantis and Monkey could hardly even go a day without his signature dish: the secret ingredient soup. Of course, there really wasn't any secret ingredient, but only he and his father Mr Ping knew that. Mr Ping's reason for hiding 'the secret' was to make people believe it was special, and he was right about this for nearly all the residents in the valley of peace who had tried the secret ingredient soup absolutely cherished the dish. Even Tigress had eventually tried the soup, though she preferred to have spices added to increase the flavor of the dish. Once Po served the dishes to each of them they thanked him and began eating.

Po, Mantis and Monkey were talking during breakfast about the new techniques that Shifu had taught the day before and also about how Po's new cape, tunic and training pants made him look much more dignified than his patched up shorts he had before. Everyone was engaging in the conversation except for Tigress, she unlike the rest was slightly distraught. She was wondering what it was that Master Shifu wanted to speak to Po about, but also she wondered what Po wanted to talk to him about. Not only this but she also wondered what kind of mission Po was talking about earlier when they spoke at the cave of the Dragon Grotto. Her train of thought was broken however as she heard Viper was quietly speaking to her, but she didn't quite catch everything her 'Sister' had said. Tigress said "sorry Viper, I was lost in thought for a moment, is something wrong?" Viper then said "I was saying did you follow him again?" Tigress was glad that Viper was saying what she was quietly since she didn't want someone like Mantis to have a way to annoy or blackmail her. She responded silently "Yes, but he caught onto me this time, I might have accidentally stepped on a twig to hard and he must have heard me, but somehow he knew it was me." Viper wanted so badly to laugh knowing that she was the reason Po knew it was Tigress following him, however she managed to keep her composure and say "so what happened when he caught you in the act?" Tigress responded "well he tried to make a joke, so I attempted to hit him with one of my most powerful attacks to catch him off guard but he blocked it almost effortlessly." She then continued "hes gotten really powerful Viper, its worrying me, he's never been this dedicated to his training." Viper then responded "I'm sure there's a true reason behind his change in behavior, but we shouldn't pester him, if Po wanted us to know his reason he would have told us." Tigress nodded and began eating her food again, but before she could finish, Viper spoke again while winking at Tigress "besides he looks much more handsome than he did before doesn't he?" Without thinking Tigress replied "Yes maybe a little...wait what!?" Viper couldn't help but giggle at this, ever since she had witnessed how close of friends Po and Tigress were, she always wanted to set them up in some way. She knew that Tigress never liked to share her emotions but she also knew that Tigress felt different towards Po. "That is not what I meant and you know it!" Tigress said while blushing slightly trying to defend herself. Viper laughed and sarcastically said "Whatever you say Juliet." Tigress annoyingly growled and went back to eating her soup when the boys asked "so what are you girls talking about?"

Viper answered "oh nothing in particular, say Po what was it that you wanted to speak to Master Shifu about after breakfast?" Tigress then looked at her and mouthed to her a 'thank you' and she nodded. Po didn't want to disclose the reason he wanted to speak to Shifu, in fact this reason was very personal to him. "I don't think you guys need to know, it's kind of personal." He said, everyone respected his privacy and Viper dropped the subject. Po then spoke again "speaking of Shifu, I'd like to go speak with him now since I've finished my soup, do any of you need anything before I go?" Everyone shook their heads as they were just about done their food themselves. Before he left he said "Oh and by the way, Tigress could you meet me at the Dragon Grotto at around 5:00?" Tigress just responded "Umm okay sure thing Po." Po then smiled and left the room clearing his dishes before he left.

Shifu was balancing on Oogway's old wooden staff at the summit of the Peach tree of Heavenly Wisdom when heard footsteps, he had recently been pondering what Po had said after his defeat of the spirit warrior Kai. Po had claimed to have met his former master Oogway in the spirit realm and Shifu wanted to know more about this interaction. Once the footsteps stopped just a few feet behind him he turned around on the staff and said "Thank you for honoring my request Po, I wanted to ask you a couple of things while you're up here." Po nodded and said "likewise Shifu, I also wanted to ask you about something." Shifu then answered back "alright, I suppose you can ask your question first since you are now the master." Po cut straight to the chase "I was going to ask you if it would be alright if I went on a mission with Tigress today." Shifu raised his eyebrow and replied "oh? What kind of mission?" Po then responded "well I was looking at my action figure collection today and I realized I have way too many of those things. So I was wondering if you would let Tigress and I go down to the Bao Gu Orphanage and donate some of my action figures to the children?" Shifu then nodded and said "I think that is a brilliant idea Po, of course you two can go." Po smiled and nodded and asked "now what was it that you wanted to ask me?" Shifu the said "ah yes… I was wondering about the time you spoke to Oogway in the spirit realm." Po responded "okay, what would you like to know?" Shifu responded "I was wondering how he seemed when you spoke him?" Po the replied back "he seemed very happy and at peace, almost as if he felt his life work had been completed." Shifu then sighed happily knowing that his former master was feeling content with how he had believed in the Panda how the Dragon Warrior had achieved his destiny. He then remembered that there was another question that he wanted to ask the Panda while he was still there.

"very good Po, and one more thing...do you think you could possibly take me to the spirit world to see Oogway again?" Po truthfully didn't know whether he could or could not do this, however if he was able to take Kai to the spirit world than it should be possible to take anyone there. He answered back optimistically "I'm not sure, but I can try..." Shifu then said "I'm not in any rush Po, so whenever you get the chance just let me know" Po then nodded as both Master's bowed to each other, then Po left the mountain summit to go train.

A/N: Finally done… I know it was a long one, I promise the next one will have more action than previous ones! As always remember to Review, Favorite or follow and stay tuned for the next one!