Early the following morning, the masters were in the kitchen long before Shifu and Mei-Ling. Shifu hadn't come into the barracks before the gong went off, which was odd, but Po personally didn't mind because it just delayed the announcement of training exercises that might spoil his morning breakfast. Po decided to make some dumplings stuffed with onions, rice, and cheese, and made everyone some tea along with it. They then patiently waited for their master to arrive and let them know what they would be doing for the day.

"Honestly, I'm kinda' glad he's not here yet," Po remarked, stuffing some of his dumplings into his mouth. "We could have skipped breakfast." 

Monkey laughed. "I won't lie," he admitted. "When you first came here and found out we didn't always eat in the morning, that was the best reaction I have ever witnessed in my life!"

"Well easy for you to say! You were used to it!" Po exclaimed. "Although honestly, I think that's one thing I haven't adjusted to after all these years." 

"Well, that and the stairs," Mantis added. 

"Right. Those too." 

Viper yawned a little and took a few more sips of tea. "Maybe he and Mei-Ling are discussing Po's teaching methods in more depth," she suggested. "Maybe they're trying to figure out how to help him improve."

Po winced, thinking about the bad report Mei-Ling had given Shifu. "Yeah...I'm not sure how they're gonna' help me. That seems a little impossible." 

"So were your kung fu skills when you first got here," Mantis told him. "You were totally incompetent!"

"Mantis!" Viper scolded.

"Hey, it's true. But now he can kick the behind of powerful warlords that even we can't handle, groupwork aside!" 

"That is true," Monkey agreed. He patted Po on the back. "You'll get there buddy," he reassured him. "Just give it time." 

Po sighed. "Yeah, okay," he said. "I guess it doesn't do much good to dwell on it every waking moment." 

The masters continued with eating their food with the sounds of clanking dishes being the only noises heard for a little bit.

 "Mmm, speaking of moment," Mantis suddenly interrupted. "When we break for lunch, I have to dash down to the main village. I promised Quan-Ying a lunch date and I am not cancelling again because of coincidentally scheduled all-day training." 

"Why don't you guys just have a lunch date up here?" Po suggested. "It's not like she's a total stranger. She even stayed in the back room when she was going through that chrysalis stuff."

Mantis rolled his eyes. "Which is exactly the reason why we're having a nice lunch date away from the noise of the main valley streets," he commented. "I swear, you guys do not know how to be quiet!"

"It's a kung fu temple!" Monkey exclaimed. "How are you expecting us to act? Like monks?!"

As they turned back to eating and carrying on in polite debate about who was the least noisy in the Jade Palace, the kitchen doors suddenly opened and startled everyone into nearly jumping out of their seats. 

"Oh, hi Master Shi-!" Po began, only to see it wasn't Shifu in the door. 

"Wrong master, Dragon Warrior," Tigress corrected. She then headed over to the table and sat down in her seat to begin eating breakfast. 

 "Where'd you go off to yesterday?" Crane asked. "You weren't at dinner."

"I was meditating on how to prepare for Po's next training session," Tigress answered flatly. 

Po turned a dark shade of red as a few of the masters snickered at yesterday's memory. "I tried!" he protested. "I just...need more work!"

"Mei-Ling read through all her notes yesterday about Po's session," Viper recounted to the master. "Shifu said the exercise was more focused on precision than timing." 

"I figured as much," Tigress agreed. "But Po was the teacher, so I wasn't allowed to say anything about it." 

Po groaned and just slumped down in his seat, taking the dumplings off the table and stuffing more of them into his mouth at a time. 

"You'll get better. Eventually," Tigress promised him.

"Thanks. Everyone's been saying that this morning." 

"Speaking of morning, you didn't happen to see Shifu at all, did you?" Crane asked Tigress. "We were supposed to get up for early morning training today, but we haven't seen him at all." 

"He took a late walk with Mei-Ling yesterday," Tigress told him immediately. "I saw them running towards the Jade Palace just as I was coming to eat, so they should be back in a little bit." 

Po quickly sat back up, not wanting to get a lecture for slouching. He then thought for a second before finally saying, "Knowing Shifu, he's probably going to come barreling in here when I least expect it to startle me, so probably in a few seconds after I eat and start joking around."

"Who said it had to be in that order?" Monkey asked with a laugh. "Sometimes he comes in here at the worst possible moment, like when you're distracted by something."

"Well that won't be hard," Mantis said. "Just have him sit next to Tigress."

Tigress shot him a death glare as Po's cheeks turned crimson. (Though whether it was more out of embarrassment or the thought of sitting next to someone he was in love with wasn't very obvious). Monkey snickered, only for Viper to scold him and Mantis, telling them to leave the two warriors alone. 

"You know, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for Quan-Ying to be up here," Crane added. "Then she can see how annoying you like to be to everyone." 

"Hey, you're all my friends," Mantis told them. "And I want all my friends to be happy-"

The kitchen doors suddenly opened again and the masters jumped as they turned towards the new noise. "I apologize for my tardiness," Shifu told them quickly. "Thank you all for taking the initiative to get up and eat." 

"I put your bowl and Mei-Ling's over there," Po told him, pointing over towards that side of the table. 

"Thank you, Dragon Warrior. Mei-Ling will be up in a few minutes. She didn't feel inclined to run up the stairs with me." 

"Where did you guys go? I would have thought you would have just taken a walk around the Jade Palace grounds." 

Shifu opened his mouth to reply, only to pause in his walking and slowly look back at Po. "How did you know we were our walking?" he asked. 

"Tigress said she saw you guys leave the Jade Palace on a walk earlier," Po answered, looking over at the master. 

Seeing Master Shifu eye her, Tigress explained, "The Peach Tree has a very nice vantage point, so I saw you running through the valley this morning with Mei-Ling." 

"Ah. I see." Shifu furrowed his brow in thought before he sat in his chair and quickly ate his breakfast. After swallowing a few dumplings, he told the students that as soon as he finished, they would be training in the Dragon Grotto, so it would be best for everyone to get a head-start by walking up there. The students nodded and finished their food and then headed to their training area after washing their dishes. They hadn't walked very far though, about as far as the peach tree five minutes away, when they heard the rapid sound of feet approaching from behind. Shifu then walked behind them until they eventually approached the Dragon Grotto. Stepping across the stones, the masters all made it safely in the middle of the cave and awaited their new training exercise. 

"This exercise will build up on your training from yesterday," the grandmaster explained. "Though on a much more strenuous scale."

"Is Po teaching class again?" Mantis questioned.

"Not until next week. I figured, considering how unpredictable the consequences of Po's bumbles can be, slow and steady should be the best option for now."

Po immediately began to think about all the mistakes he had made in the past and  began to slump his posture. As Viper asked how long Shifu believed Po's teacher training would take, Tigress reached over and gave the sorrowful panda a gentle squeeze on the shoulders and smiled when he looked over at her, almost as if to say, Don't worry about it. You'll get better. 

"Po won't be given a full week's worth of training until I see improvement over the course of a few weeks," Shifu explained to the group. "Once he's proven capable of being an effective teacher, say in two years time, I'll hand over-"

"TWO YEARS???!!!!!" Po suddenly shrieked from the back. The booming voice was so loud and sudden that it nearly knocked Shifu off his rock perch and into the water. "Are you being serious?!"

"I'm not joking even in the slightest," Shifu answered calmly, readjusting his position. "You're a very fast learner, Dragon Warrior, so that is the expectation I have. You'll take over the training of the Furious Five and any future masters coming through the Jade Palace. And then I'll get to retire and spend more time doing early morning walks."

"What if he takes it easy on Tigress?" Monkey asked jokingly. "I cannot see Po critiquing Tigress of all people." 

Mantis held back a snicker of agreement as Po turned a light shade of red and tried to avoid eye contact with them. Or Shifu. 

"In light of how yesterday's training went," Shifu recounted "I doubt that'll even be remotely possible."

"Thanks..." Po grumbled. 

Viper turned and gave him a gentle pat on the back. "You'll do great," she promised. "You do pick up training techniques faster than the rest of us, so I'm sure there'll be something new everyday."

"And when we all get old and wrinkly, there'll be new kids like you waiting to kick butt and they won't know anything!" Monkey added. "So you can be as hard and easy as you want." 

"I'm sure that sounds absolutely wonderful to all of you," Shifu interjected before the conversation went on any longer. "But let's allow Po the time to just get past the stage of training you all once a week." 

Everyone agreed and then quickly turned back towards Shifu to await the exercise for that day. They were then told that they would take the entire morning to climb down and back up the Dragon Grotto's waterfall. The master's faces immediately fell when they heard this, but Shifu told them that it was necessary to test their endurance, adaptability, and timing. The fastest master would get the afternoon off from training to rest their limbs while the slowest climber would spend the lunch break doing some extra exercises with Shifu. Po, not in the mood for double the training at Shifu's hands, was already anticipating a quick climb. (Though considering that he had climbed up a mountain before, he hoped the task wouldn't be as difficult).

"What if we fall?" Mantis asked quickly as Shifu gathered everyone around in a certain place by the mouth of the rushing waters. "This is a cliff with rushing water, and I'm clearly small enough to get swept down to the bottom." 

"I have guards on stand-by. You'll be fine," was Shifu's answer. He then ordered everyone to begin, prompting Po to immediately jump down a good couple of feet and grab onto a rock jutting out of the ledge. Not wanting to be outdone, Monkey leaped over the edge as well and caught onto a part of the cliff just below Po and started climbing down. 

"Seriously?!" Po exclaimed, holding on for dear life as he tried to look for another stone to hold onto. 

The rest of the masters chose to be more careful about their descent, especially Mantis who had to find rocks that weren't too slippery or too close to the gushing water. Though they started off slow, they were quick to pick up speed and make their way down towards the bottom of the falls. Po and Monkey were a bit ahead of them, but since they both landed on stones that weren't really near anything helpful on their descent, they took a second to find a rock to fall onto that wasn't a safety hazard on their journey. (Though at one point, Po did accidentally lose his grip and just managed to grab hold of another part of the cliff before he fell too far).  After a painstaking hour or so of climbing downwards, the masters finally reached solid ground where the rushing waters collected into a little pond and began to stream into the mountain. Po took a quick break in the water to get his strength back while the rest of the masters only took a few seconds to rest their muscles before going back up the mountain, avoiding the water gushing down from above. Tigress, having climbed up the waterfall once before (though not by choice), was ahead of her friends by several feet. Po soon recovered his strength and began his ascent, quickly catching up with his friends. From various moments of playing in water and clinging to dear life in the middle of a rushing waterfall, it was easy for him to maintain a grip to push himself upwards. 

As the masters climbed up the waterfall, getting closer and closer to the top where the water was more and more potent, they caught a brief glimpse of Crane through the water every so often. Since he had the ability to fly, Shifu had exempted him from the climbing exercise. Instead, he was to fly up and down the waterfall two hundred times, and if he finished before the rest of the masters he would get the afternoon off. The flight clearly made him tired since there would be moments where he wouldn't appear through the waterfall. But then he'd show up again a few times more. The masters continued to climb upwards, monitoring their movements more and more carefully with each couple of feet. After a few accidental scrapes, bumping, a near fall from Viper, Mantis, and Po, and an actual fall by Monkey who was caught by a guard, someone finally reached the top of the waterfall and was immediately escorted off to the sides by Shifu. 

"I think...I'll spend my afternoon...napping," Viper wheezed as she collapsed on the side of the falls and laid her body in the water. 

The next one up the falls was Tigress who immediately joined Viper to catch her breath. Crane soon followed the girls and was then accompanied by Po and then Mantis. 

"Man! And I had a head start!" Monkey complained when he realized he was the last person to make the climb. 

"Well...you...did...have...a tumble...in the...middle," Po huffed.

"Monkey, we'll head over to the training hall for some extra exercises. Once you're capable of walking again," Shifu told him sternly. "The rest of you break. I'll see most of you after lunch for the afternoon training session except for Viper." 

Viper smiled and began to take the lead in heading over to the kitchen. As Mantis began to argue with Crane about flying him down to the village for his date, Shifu pulled Tigress towards the back to talk to her for a second. 

"Before I get to my main topic, Tigress, I just wanted to let you know that you did very well today," the grandmaster told her. 

Tigress smiled for a brief second before her face fell back to it's usual expression. "Thank you, master," she responded. "Is something the matter?"

"Not quite. I just wanted to ask you how Dai was doing."

"Oh. Well...he definitely has a temper on him. And it doesn't help that all he can think about is giving Mr. Ren his just rewards."  Tigress eyed Master Shifu. "How many domino sets did you go through with me?" she asked. 

"Truthfully, Tigress? I actually lost count," Shifu chuckled. "You broke so many of them because you were so mad you couldn't get it right the first time. Or the second. Or the hundredth."  He gave the master a reassuring smile. "You'll get the hang of helping him," he promised. "Just remember to be patient. All children are different, and someone with a violent temperament isn't always easy to reason with."

"I understand sir. I'm going to do my best." 

"When exactly are you going there? That way I know which training exercises to keep in mind for the day."

"Well, I told Mrs. Ire I'd be back again in a few days, but we're going to decide on an official schedule when I go back. I've just been more focused on adjusting to Dai." 

"Understandable. Just be mindful of your time so that you don't miss your own training. I wouldn't want you to fall behind everyone."

"Yes, sir."