The morning gong sounded and not very surprisingly Tigress was the only one up on time to greet her master.

A few seconds later Bai stepped out of his room quickly and bowed deeply. "I am sorry for my tardiness Master. It will not happen again."

"I sure hope not." Said Shifu. "Since it is your first day I will be lenient, but don't let it happen again. Both of you go get some breakfast and meet me in the training hall in 20 minutes."

"Yes Master Shifu." Both Tigress and Bai said together. With that they walked off to the kitchen.

"So uh what do we get for breakfast?" Asked Bai.

"Tofu." Tigress blandly stated. Bai made a face at that. They both quickly ate the tofu and then made their way to the training hall.

"So what do you think we will be doing today?" asked Bai.

"Well I think Master Shifu is going to have you demonstrate your skills so he knows what you can and cannot do. Then he will go from there. I think for me I still might be working on balance."

"Tigress is correct, but before you start on the Jade Tortoise Tigress I want you and Bai to have a friendly spare to help demonstrate his skills." stated Shifu. Bai and Tigress looked at each other quickly then back to their master and bowed. They then walked to an open area and face each other. "Ok, this is just a simple spar. Nothing serious, just pin your opponent and the match is yours. Ready, begin!" exclaimed Shifu.

Tigress immediately went on the offence forcing Bai into defence. She swung her left fist towards Bai's chest only for him to push it away with his wing and counter with his other wing towards her face which she ducked under. As Tigress was close to the ground she tried to kick Bai, but was unsuccessful as he flew into the air. Tigress growled quietly thinking it was unfair that he could fly and that she now couldn't reach him. Bai decided to swoop down on the frustrated Tigress catching her by surprise. This caused Tigress to lose her balance as Bai used his wings to push her top part of her body to the floor where he pinned her by the chest,

"Match! Excellent work Bai. you were able to use your strength, flying, against your opponent. Tigress, you got frustrated thus losing focus and balance. We need to work on that." The two students bowed, Bai with a smile and Tigress with a small frown. "Tigress you will be spending the next hour on the jade tortoise and Bai you will be working on your speed. I want you to fly around the Jade Mountain ten times in less than a half an hour or you will do it again. You may both begin."

"Yes Master!" Both the student said and immediately got to work.

Turned out Bai had to go around the mountain an extra ten times since he missed the time limit by two minutes. Tigress managed to stay balance the entire hour but her legs were extremely shaky when she was done.

"Well done students. Go ahead and take a break for lunch, but i want you to meditate afterwards until dinner." Stated Master Shifu.

"Yes Master." Both students walked to the kitchen to prepare themselves some lovely tofu.

"Is this all you ever eat?" Asked Bai.

"Not always, sometimes Master Oogway will order something from the valley for us, but that is rare. master Shifu says tofu will help keep me strong for training." replied Tigress.

"Oh, well I wonder if Master Shifu would let me fly to the village to get some food sometimes."

"Hmm, possibly. I'm sure he even gets tired of tofu."

"Hey Tigress how long have you been here?"

"Oh umm since I was 5. Master Shifu has been training me ever since then."

"Wow! That's amazing. I only started doing kung fu about two years ago."

"Really? How is it you got invited to the Jade Palace? How did Master Oogway find you?"

"Well I was a student at the Lee Da Academy. Master Oogway just showed up one day and watched all the students train. For some reason he pulled me to the side and asked me if I wanted to train here at the Jade Palace. Of course I couldn't say no to an opportunity like that."

"So Master Oogway just picked you out of everyone else? He must have sensed something special about you." Tigress said with wonder.

Bai blushed, "Well I'm nothing special. I should ask Master Oogway why he picked me. I'm not ungrateful or anything, it's just I'm shocked that he would pick someone as wimpy as me."

"Bai you are not a whimp. You are a very good person who shows kindness and bravery. Maybe that is why Oogway picked you. A true warrior is kind at heart and does what is best for others and not themselves."

"Aww thanks Tigress. You yourself show traits of a true warrior." Tigress slightly smiled at the crane before she left the room to go meditate.

Meanwhile with Master shifu, "Inner peace. Inner peace." Master Shifu has been trying to gain inner peace through meditation for the past 20 years, but is even more difficult then when he was young due to certain events that happened

"Ahh Shifu. Inner peace will not come easy to you will my friend?" Asked Oogway as he walked up to Shifu.

Shifu opened his eyes, "Not really Master, but my meditation is helping."

"That is good to hear. I believe I have something in mind that might help you on the road to gaining inner peace."

"What is that Master?"

"Students of course."

"Tigress and Bai?"

"Well yes, but I believe we could get some more."

"And how is me teaching more students going to help Master?"

"I don't know. That is what you must learn yourself. I believe that these young children can bring many different qualities to the Jade Palace and show new talents in the way of Kung Fu."

"How many Master?"

"Hmm, five will be good for now, don't you think?"

"Five? How will you know who is worthy to train hear Master?"

"It is not worthiness that makes a warrior, it is their heart and determination Shifu."

"Does this mean you will be leaving for a while Master? To find the next three who shall train under me?"

"Yes, but I believe I should not be gone for too long. The universe will guide me. Ah speaking of students, I believe I am suppose to meet with Tigress today in which I am already late. Why don't you spend some time getting to know young Bai while I am with Tigress?"

"Alright Master." With that both Masters left to find the young students.

Bai was meditating, or trying to meditate, in the palace garden. "Huh, why is meditating so hard? What exactly am I supposed to think about?"

"It is not a matter of knowing as it is finding." stated Master Shifu as he walked in from of the surprised crane.

"Finding?" asked Bai.

"Meditation can be used to find inner turmoil and from there you find what is causing it to better yourself. Find a solution for something that is bothering you."

"Oh that makes sense I guess. Master if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?"

"Oh uh I came to get to know a little about you. I wanted to know how meditation was going and I can now see you were having troubles."

"Ya, I never really meditated before. Whenever I had free time I would paint to relax myself. I never had the need for meditation I guess."

"One will always benefit from meditation. While it helps one to relax the body it also helps ease the mind. An untroubled mind leads to a great warrior. Painting is also good, I like to play my flute on occasions to help relax instead of meditating, but never think you do not need to meditate because you have another way of relaxation."

Meanwhile with Tigress and Oogway.

"Master Oogway?"

"Yes Tigress?"

"Will I be able to go to the village with you tonight? I wish to buy Bai a gift for being my friend."

Oogway smiled at the young tiger. "Of course, you can also help me pick what to buy for dinner."

Tigress' eyes lit up and a smile made its way onto her face. "Thank you Master Oogway!"

Oogway chuckled with delight. "Well shall we get started down the stairs? I believe we can talk on the way down."

"Of course Master Oogway. Can I just grab some coins from my room?"

"Run along, I will meet you at the top of the stairs." Tigress quickly went to grab her money before meeting Oogway. "Shall we go then?" They began their trek down the mountain. While walking down the stairs Oogway started a conversation. "So Tigress I see that you and Bain are getting along nicely."

"Yes Master. Bai is a very kind person who I am glad to have the opportunity to have him as a friend."

"That is good to hear. How would you feel about having more comrades here at the palace?"

"There are more coming? Are they all the same age as me and Bai?"

"I don't know, but I would hope so." Oogway smiled at the confusion on the young tigers face.

"So there is a possibility that no more will be coming? Are you leaving Master Oogway?"

"I will not be gone for long, I have heard of a couple of young ones who I would like to give the opportunity to train at the palace."

"I thought you didn't know who you were going to bring?"

"I didn't say that. I have an idea, but the universe will lead me to them. After all it is not my choice, but destiny's." They finally made it to the village. "So what did you have in mind to buy for Bai?"

"Well he loves art, so I thought about looking at stuff for that."

"Excellent I know just the shop." They made their way down the road while some people stopped to bow to Oogway. After walking two blocks they came to a small store with paintings, brushes, scrolls, and stuff like that.

"Ah good evening Master Oogway. What do I owe this pleasure?" Asked the store owner, a rabbit, while bowing."

"Tigress here wants to buy a gift for a friend."

The rabbit looked to the small tiger standing next to Oogway and widened his eyes, "Oh of course. Uh what did you have in mind Ms. Tigress?"

"Well I was hoping to maybe get a set of paints and some scrolls to draw on."

"Oh I have the perfect set! It comes with five colors, blue, red, green, black, and yellow, five scrolls, and a brush."

"That sounds perfect! How much?"

"95 yuan."

"Ok I'll get it!" Oogway smiled at the happy tigress as they left the shop.

"That was very kind of you Tigress. I know that was most of your money."

"Yes, but it is worth it."

Oogway smile, "Now what shall we get for dinner?"

Tigress looked around before a wonderful smell came to her senses. "Wow. Something smells amazing!"

"Well lead the way." Oogway followed Tigress to a small shop about a block away. It was a noodle shop. "Ah excellent choice Tigress. I have eaten here before." The two entered the shop and walked up to the counter where a goose was busy cooking.

"Oh Po! Could you take these nice peoples order? I am busy with the soup."

"Yes Dad!" A young panda came up to the counter. "Hi! Welcome to Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop! What can I get for you?"

"How about four bowls of your Secret Ingredient soup to go?"

"Sounds awesome! Four bowls of soup coming up!" The panda walked back to the goose to help get the order ready.

Oogway turned to Tigress, "I sense that he will do great things in the future, just like you."

Tigress smiled, "He's going to be a great chef?" Oogway smiled at the tiger.

"Alright, four soups to go, that will be 30 yuan." Oogway handed the panda the money.

"Thank you." with that the two made their way back to the palace and into the kitchen where Bai and Shifu were waiting. "Ah good you are already here. Let's eat!"

"Wow! This soup tastes better than it smells!" exclaimed Tigress.

"It's amazing." Stated Bai

"I have to agree with both of you. " said Oogway. The four quickly finished eating before parting way for the night.

Bai and Tigress was walking next to each other in the hallway to the barracks. "Hey Bai, I got you something."

"Oh?" Tigress took out the package from her room where she put it before going to eat. and handed it to the crane. He carefully opened the package to see what was inside and his eyes became wide. He looked at Tigress. "Wow! This is amazing Tigress, just what I needed. But why would you spend your money on me?"

"You are my friend Bai and you deserved it for being so nice to me."

"Thank you. Nobody other than my family has ever gotten me something like thsi before." Said Bai as he hugged Tigress. "You are an amazing friend Tigress." Tigress smiled at Bai.

"Hope you enjoy it. Good night."

"Good night." The two went to bed to prepare for the next day.