A/N: Hi everyone! It's been quite a while since my last update, hasn't it? Oh well, I hope it's okay and that you'll like this chapter. I really tried to make it good. Anyways, I'll see ya' with the next update - enjoy! :D

Po almost couldn't believe it, if it wasn't because, he saw it himself. The palace before him was simply stunning! It was at least twice as impressive as Jade Palace, having golden tiles on the roof and a big golden phoenix on the enormous wooden door.

"Po, your mouth will be filled with dust if you do not close it," Shifu said, commenting the way that Po's mouth stood open in awe. Po closed it, licking his dry lips, but that was when he noticed that Tigress was doing the same, though not as much as him. Either way, it made him chuckle.

"Shifu… I can't believe I'm here," Po said, almost not able to breathe. "I can't breathe – will any of you catch me if I faint?"

"I certainly won't, Panda," Shifu said sternly. Po didn't really care if he actually fainted – as long as he got to get inside the palace somehow, he was happy. The journey from the Valley of Peace had taken a few days.

Actually Po and the Five had only had four days to train – the remaining three were spent traveling. They had all traveled by foot, much to Po's dismay, but they had all survived.

The hardest thing about the journey had been saying goodbye to Mr. Ping – at least for Po. The old goose had held a minor speech about how Po should watch out for mischievous and suspicious people in the capitol. Mr. Ping had even gone as far as to ask the Five to protect his son – which they had all promised that they would.

"Now, now, I believe we have spent enough time out here, let us go in," Shifu said and got Po out of his little stream of memories. The red panda walked up and knocked the enormous gate of the palace.

There was a moment where nothing happened, then soon the gate swung open with a very low, almost unnoticeable, creaking noise. Upon entering, Po, the Five and Shifu were greeted by a familiar face, as well as some unfamiliar ones.

The familiar one was Master Chao, the leader of the Sacred Onyx Council. The reptile wore the same outfit as the last time Po and his friends saw him… All around, he didn't seem to have changed a bit.

"Welcome," the reptile spoke. The three other people were most likely also members of the council, Po figured. "How was the journey?"

"Long," Shifu replied shortly and bowed for Chao, which was followed short by his students. "We are all honored to have been invited here."

A small smile formed on Chao's scaly lips. "It is an honor to have you all as well. Dear council members, I would like you all to meet Master Shifu and his students – the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five."

The other council members bowed for their guests and they bowed as well.

"Are you all well-prepared for the tournament?" one of the other council members, an otter, asked.

"Totally!" Po burst out, making Shifu shut his eyes closed and flatten his ears in annoyance. Just then did Po realize what he had done. "Oh, wait, I wasn't supposed to… Sorry, I'm just…"

"… Excited?" Chao asked with a smirk. "It is understandable. You are forgiven."

Po and his friends sighed with relief and Shifu let his ears rise back into their normal position.

"When will the tournament begin?" Shifu asked.

"The other participants have all arrived – you're the last ones, so now we can finally begin," the other replied calmly with a smile. "Tomorrow morning it will all begin."

"Wait, how many more teams are taking part?" Shifu asked.

"To be exact, only one other," Master Chao asked, greatly surprising the others.

"Only two teams?" Shifu asked surprised.

Master Chao nodded in a serious way. Suddenly his facial expression changed – it became more worried. "There is something about this that I will need to talk to you about, but it will have to wait till after tonight's dinner."

"If it is important, how come we cannot discuss it now?" Shifu asked, sounding somewhat suspicious. But Master Chao's facial expression quickly made Shifu not question him. "Very well then."

Chao looked somewhat nervously at Shifu's students, then back at Shifu. "Master Shifu, why don't you come with us and tell us a little about how it is at Jade Palace? I'm sure my fellow council members would like to hear about it."

"But what about my students?" Shifu asked.

"They will be shown around. Shui, if you would, please?" Chao turned towards one of the hallways as he called.

Soon a young otter appeared. He wore some blue robes with black trims and he seemed like he'd love to show Po and his friends around. "Of course, of course, Master Chao. Please follow me, Dragon Warrior and Furious Five!"

Before they left, Master Chao gently grabbed a hold of Shui's arm. Master Chao then whispered: "Please keep them away from 'the hall'."

"Hmm? If you say so, Master Chao," Shui replied, obviously a little surprised by Master Chao's sudden request.

"And this is the dining hall," Shui explained. The dining hall was enormous and beautiful. It was decorated with lanterns hanging from the ceiling and beautiful paintings on the walls. But it was still not quite finished yet – Po could see several otter palace workers, who were working on decorating.

"You will attend dinner here for the next few days," Shui explained. Meeting the eyes of one of his fellow palace workers, Shui said: "Well, maybe we should get going and leave these guys with their decorating."

Since no one seemed to disagree, the little group left the dining hall. Po couldn't help but wonder what other hall Master Chao had talked about. It certainly wasn't this one, since Shui had shown them it.

"So, how long have you been working here, Shui?" Crane asked. "Seems like you have for quite a while already."

"Yeah, I have worked here for… three years now," Shui replied with a smile. "But I'm still one of the newest workers."

"Really?" Po asked. "Are all the workers here, like, totally old?"

"No, it's just hard to get a job here," Shui explained. "You really need to know your stuff – besides, it's very prestigious to work here."

"I can imagine," Po agreed as the seven continued through the palace. Po noticed that Shui was leading them towards the palace's barracks – which they had already seen.

"Wait, you didn't show us everything," Po suddenly blurted out.

"W-what are you talking about?" Shui asked nervously. Obviously he wasn't the type to be lying. Suddenly Po realized it – it was a thing that the Jade Palace had as well.

"The Training Hall," he said. "This palace has one, right?"

"Yes, but…"

"Yeah, why haven't you showed us?" Mantis agreed, realizing the same.

Shui almost seemed to panic, suddenly making the biggest puppy-eyes any of them had ever seen. He looked like he could start crying any second. "Sorry! I'm so very sorry! But it was Master Chao – he told me not to!"

Everyone stopped and stared at the little otter. Everyone exchanged looks, very unsure of what to do – they just hoped that Shui wouldn't start crying. "Alright fine!"

"What's fine?" Monkey asked confused.

"I'll show you!" Shui cried.

"Eh… we didn't say that you had to…" Po started, but soon enough, the otter told them all to come with him. Confused everyone followed.

"Po…" Tigress said with a growling tone of warning as the seven walked across the Palace's outside area.

"What?" Po asked.

Tigress didn't reply – she was sure that Po had caused a mental breakdown inside Shui's head and now the otter would do something against his orders. This could get him thrown out!

The group made their way past the big phoenix statue in the center of the palace yard and finally came to a tall wooden building. There were golden phoenix statues on the roof as a pose to the golden dragons on the Jade Palace's roof.

"Here it is," Shui said in a whimper. "The Training Hall!"

The little otter was pointing towards a big wooden door. The familiar smell of blood and sweat escaped through the planks and the six warriors could clearly hear that someone was using it.

"That was all, alright?" Shui whimpered. "Please don't force me to show you around inside-…"

"No, Shui, it's alright – you don't have to let us inside," Po said. This seemed to baffle the little Otter completely… but Monkey understood as well.

"But…"

"If we enter by ourselves, it isn't actually your fault," Monkey smilingly interrupted Shui.

Shui stopped to think about it for a moment. A few seconds went by. Then Sui burst out: "Fine, but don't tell anyone about this!"

"Strange little guy," Tigress muttered with wide eyes as they all watched the young otter run off, announcing every rule of the palace staff out loud.

"Yeah, can't argue that," Viper said.

"Now, now, let's see what's…" Po was about to open the door, but Tigress' paw grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"Po, I'm sure there was a reason we weren't allowed to see it," Tigress said. "Maybe it has a relation to the tournament."

"Or maybe they just don't think we can handle whatever training gear they have," Po suggested, completely ignoring Tigress' comment. "But we are ready – we are the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five! Especially you, Tigress!"

"Me?" Tigress asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, you!" Po replied, making Tigress jump a little in surprise. "You're Master Tigress – the most hardcore of all! You can do anything!"

Tigress said nothing in response, so shaking her hand off, Po opened the door. Finally the sounds and smells from inside the Training Hall were unleashed and they hit the six like a cascade.

Po was the first to step inside. He was amazed to find that the training mechanisms in this training hall were seemingly the same as the ones back at Jade Palace. But it just seemed like there were more of them.

Suddenly Po noticed the people in the training hall. It must have been the other group that took part in the tournament! But before Po and his friends could do anything, the other group approached them.

"Well, well," the one that walked up front said – the fox. He seemed somewhat unique for a fox, Po thought, when he saw that his fur was silvery instead of red. He crossed his arms and took one step closer. "Who may we have the honor of greeting?"

"Hi, my name is Po, the Dragon Warrior!" Po quickly greeted the fox in an excited tone of voice. "And these are Tigress, Monkey, Viper, Crane and Mantis – they're the Furious Five!"

Po and his friends then bowed to show their respect to the others, but quickly saw that it wasn't returned for some reason – they didn't bow. At first Po was a little insulted, but then he thought that it was because, they wanted to introduce themselves first as well.

But this was soon proven to be wrong.

"Well?" Monkey asked after a few seconds of silence. "Who are you?"

"I'm glad you ask," the fox said and put his arms behind his back. "My name is Jinshu. And these are Cobra, Stag, Gorilla, Lynx and Eagle."

Po and his friends bowed again, but they were surprised to find that the others still didn't return their bow. Po and the others quickly realized that they didn't because they didn't return the respect.

There was a moment of silence. Finally Tigress asked: "Master Eagle?" There was a tone of disbelief to her tone of voice and finally Po realized why – he also knew about another Master Eagle!

"Actually that would be Master Eagle the Second," Eagle replied with a mixture of annoyance and pride. "Master Eagle the First is my grandpa… If you really want to go into detail that is..."

"You grandfather is-…!? Cool!" Po exclaimed, also hoping that it could possibly loosen the others up. But instead it seemed to have the opposite effect.

Jinshu smiled faintly. "You six do realize why we're here, don't you?"

"To honor Kung Fu?" Crane asked.

"Quite frankly, they do not," Gorilla said with a snicker. "It seems like you expected too much, Jinshu."

"So you're not?" Po asked skeptically. If they were training Kung Fu, then why wouldn't they come to a tournament to honor it?

"Of course we are," Jinshu replied. "But that is not our main goal, since we don't need to go to a tournament to honor Kung Fu."

"Then why are you here?" Viper asked.

"We're here to win," Jinshu said. He didn't sound cocky or anything – only confident and calm about it. "My grandfather has faith in us – I will not disappoint him."

"And who is your grandfather?" Crane asked. "Is he part of the Sacred Onyx Council?"

"That is for us to know and you to find out." Jinshu turned around and looked at his teammates. "Shall we continue our training…? That is, if those novices will leave us alone to do so."

"Hey, who do you call novices?!" Mantis asked, having already gotten annoyed by Jinshu.

"Gorilla," Jinshu said and looked at his primate teammate.

Gorilla crossed his arms and looked at Po and his friends, tilting his head a little to the left. "If I'm not wrong, Cobra or Stag should be able to take them down on their own."

"Hey!"

"But then again, maybe we should wait and see tomorrow," Jinshu said, having changed his mind. Snickering, he turned around and walked towards the Gauntlets of Wooden Warriors once again.

"Wow, they're not nice," Po said in a rather insulted and also somewhat sad tone of voice as he and his friends exited the Training Hall.

"Hmm… no, not quite," Monkey muttered.

"Guys," Viper said, trying to cheer the others up. "We shouldn't let this put us down, right? We should just do our best tomorrow!"

"You're right!" Po said, having suddenly changed to a more excited mood. "We're so going to show them! Let's do it!"